Down By The Station, Post Passenger Station Photos

Wow, Randy, those are super to see and save for modeling. Thanks!

FrankM

Moonson posted:

Wow, Randy, those are super to see and save for modeling. Thanks!

FrankM

Frank:

Thank you. That was part of the purpose of this thread. The other is to see great models and station scenes that others have in their layouts.

My home town depot, circa 1952, and 2017.

Durand, Kansas on the MoPac. 1978:

It was in pretty sad shape.  The clerks working there told me that if it ever caught fire, they were instructed to walk to the nearest telephone and call the fire protection district.

Rusty

Old Town Manassas Train Station June 2015, awaiting the 611.

a few classics; 

Woodland scenics HO

Hallmark "Oceanside" in S

MTH Country Depot in O

 

2nd pic: a close up of a Lionel s gauge Polar Express and the Hallmark station (my favorite)

Keep 'em comin'.  I do like railroad stations, having misspent some of my youth hanging around a Southern one now long gone.  At least the tracks are still there, and trains go through.

Coalwood, Elizabeth & Howard Park on the Cuyahoga Valley RR...

Good lookin' as can be, Gandydancer !!!

FrankM

I haven't done much with stations on my layout, not during any of its iterations since the original layout in 1995. I'm not sure why. Here is a small rural station that has remained on the layout, though, for all these years...

FrankM

Here is a spectacular Bing O Gauge station from about 1920.

 

Lew

Add in some more...

Moonson posted:

FrankM

Frank,

Shouldn't Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, be travelling with a large retinue, even in Moon Township? 

Enjoyed the photos on this thread.  Here's my station.  A Cornerstone built up that I took apart, painted in Boston and Maine colors, and detailed.

As stated before my hometown was served by five class-1 roads in the day.  Here are some pics I found of the B&O station.  Did a round from here to DC and later to Chicago on the Columbian most of the time in the dome car (first dome east of the Mississippi) at night,

Track-side

Parking lot/Entrance side

It was turned into a restaurant. 

Ron

Here are the stations on my layout.

First, an overhead of my layout and where the stations are:

The first is my Chicago Union Station - I made the station myself and my daughter helped me pick the people to put on the platforms...

Here is my Chicago South Shore and South Bend station:

Lastly, here is my suburban station:

This is a great subject for a thread.

Shown below is Bridgeport Station on my 12'-by-8' layout built from an American Model Builders #490 Branchline Station laser kit.

MELGAR

Here are two from the WM Scenic Railroad. The public side in Cumberland & the Frostburg depot.

Charlie

C&O Allie posted:

Here are the stations on my layout.

First, an overhead of my layout and where the stations are:

The first is my Chicago Union Station - I made the station myself and my daughter helped me pick the people to put on the platforms...

Here is my Chicago South Shore and South Bend station:

Lastly, here is my suburban station:

Though all of your stations are great, your Chicago Union Station is second to none! Bravo!

Thanks Randy.  I made the station out of Foam Board.  I found a picture online and then scaled it to fit my space.  The columns on the platforms I printed at work and the covers are floor boards I put on bent 90 degree angles to match the angle of the column.  Here are some more pics of the station in various build stages (and me making it):

Allan:

Thanks for the How-To photos. Again, your work is superb!

Here's my local Lansdale Depot around the turn of the century (1900):

And today:

-Greg

I grew up here in Springfield, Mo, home of the FRISCO. We lived only 2 blocks away from the Train Station. My dad worked in the dining car department of the Frisco. We would walk down to the station and wait for his trains to come in. If I was good, the gals in the Harvey House would give me a small coke while we waited. Here is the model of that station that is on my layout.

Roger:

That is GREAT modeling! One question. Is the platform area that looks so much like old concrete made from Homasote? If not, what is it. It is a look I have been trying to achieve and have never succeeded.

Randy,

If you are trying to simulate concrete texture on a model, a product called taskboard is easy to cut and use, takes glue and acrylic paints well, and looks right to me. Can also be used for concrete or asphalt roads. It is available on line or from the N-Scale Architect.

MELGAR

Randy Harrison posted:

Roger:

That is GREAT modeling! One question. Is the platform area that looks so much like old concrete made from Homasote? If not, what is it. It is a look I have been trying to achieve and have never succeeded.

Thanks for you good words. Several years ago, Jim Barrett did an article about using thin plywood from National Balsa Wood products. I forget what I used for thickness but it worked pretty well. Al Zomorski posted way back in 2012 that he gets his concrete paint by the quart from Home Depot. This is what I use all around the layout for concrete....looks good and is very cheap. See photo below:

This is ONE GREAT model railroad forum, I get any and all of my ideas for my layout from you all.

Roger:

Thanks for the information.

Great thread Randy!!   I love seeing everyone's work and am learning so much from everyone! 

.

I love passenger stations, everyone has such a personal touch added to their own.

St. Louis Union Station...when I was in high school in the 60s I had the opportunity to play in a dance band and combo that performed at adult parties at this amazing station.

Also, the MTH station on my layout.

 

Moonson posted:

I haven't done much with stations on my layout, not during any of its iterations since the original layout in 1995. I'm not sure why. Here is a small rural station that has remained on the layout, though, for all these years...

FrankM

Frank, the minute detail that you display is incredible!

MELGAR posted:

Randy,

If you are trying to simulate concrete texture on a model, a product called taskboard is easy to cut and use, takes glue and acrylic paints well, and looks right to me. Can also be used for concrete or asphalt roads. It is available on line or from the N-Scale Architect.

MELGAR

Mel, Best price I found for Task board is Dick Blick, art supplies.  Nice variety of sheet size and very economical prices.  I use quite a bit of it for sub walls, roofs, etc.  I'll have to try it for roads/sidewalks... 

Thanks for the kind comments about the Bing station.  Here is another picture of it together with what I consider one of the greatest painted tin stations --the Kibri 52-3 from the late 1920s and early  30s. Lew

Hamm Village Depot: 

Last train on Sunday night, pulls in before high-balling return run to the big apple...

OKHIKER posted:

Old Town Manassas Train Station June 2015, awaiting the 611.

Ha!!  What are the chances!!??  That's me in the green PRR shirt crossing the tracks!

MELGAR posted:

Randy,

If you are trying to simulate concrete texture on a model, a product called taskboard is easy to cut and use, takes glue and acrylic paints well, and looks right to me. Can also be used for concrete or asphalt roads. It is available on line or from the N-Scale Architect.

MELGAR

Mel:

Thanks for the lead on Task Board. I will give it a try.

Pretty good snapshot (by a couple of visiting friends) taken 2 - 3 months ago, Beauregard Street, Mobile. This is the GM&O Gulf Terminal Building, 1906-1907. I worked in it for 15 years, 70's - 80's. 

It was originally built as Mobile Union Station, used by the (original) M&O and Southern Railway. It is now owned by the City of Mobile.

Altoona, PA :

Magnificent photos and modeling, Gentlemen!  Thank you all for sharing.

From my former home town area.  30th Street Station in Philadelphia.  I hope to have a custom model of this built for me someday.

The following pictures were all taken by me. (And it probably shows)

Oxford, Pa., where we moved from.  On the former PRR Octoraro Branch, owned by SEPTA and operated by the East Penn Railway.

The abandoned Elkton, Md. station on the Northeast Corridor.  A place I used to like sitting in my car with a chocolate milkshake and watch Amtrak trains whoosh by.

And from my new home area in Southern California.  An old Santa Fe station in Escondido, Ca.

The magnificent Santa Fe Station in downtown San Diego.

Look at that tile work!  It's the same inside the station too.

And a couple from our travels.  Kankakee, Il. waiting for the City of New Orleans.  Last time I was there, a model railroad club was building a layout inside the passenger car next to the station.

On our drive back home from watching the Philadelphia Flyers play the Las Vegas Knights in Vegas, we drove through Barstow, Ca. and saw the beautiful Barstow Amtrak station, that once was the home of a Harvey House restaurant.  They have a museum inside but it was closed when we were there.  Road Trip!!

And finally, the commuter / Amtrak station with some action in Oceanside, Ca.  The old Santa Fe line in Escondido connects with Oceanside.

 

Hollis, Long Island, where I spent MANY hours watching trains 1949-54.

One of my favorites:

         

Lew

Two more of my favorites. The first two pics are the UP station in West Yellowstone, Mt, Western gateway to Yellowstone National Park. It was a short walk through the Park gate.

      

That is the stone&log station. At 90 degrees rightward from the photographer is:

      

the Dining Hall. The Park Special always arrived in the early AM and did not carry a dining car. The Conductor went through the train and took breakfast orders and upon arrival you got off the train and walked into this Hall and sat down for breakfast. These pics were taken Summer 1960, the last year of service into West Yellowstone. In later years the Park Special tied up in Victor, Id, on the West side of the Tetons.

      

We would get off the train and drive a rental car over the pass into Jackson, the Southern gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs.

Lew

Excellent sharing of real-life stations, gentlemen! Real nice variety!

FrankM

Thank you all for participation in this thread. I really liked seeing the photos, both from a members layout as well as prototypical. Do you all think that this thread is wroth repeating periodically?

OKHIKER posted:

Old Town Manassas Train Station June 2015, awaiting the 611.

There is the old hobo Brian "Train-Diesel" crossing the tracks, acting like he owns the place,  in the green shirt. Keeps turning up, like a bad penny.

 My sincere Thanks to everybody who sent me "Likes" again, this time for those rural station shots I posted: MELGAR; Dennis Holler; Southern Mike; Strummer; PRRronbh; John H; Diverging Clear; Randy Harrison; Traindiesel; wb47; Quarter Gauger 48; gandydancer1950; trumptrain; Roger Wasson; briansilvermustang; BigTruckPete; Putnam Division.

Receiving the approval of my peers here who have chosen to laud what they have seen me model into place is, of course, totally enjoyable. Thank you!

And to Gandydancer, for your reply, Thank you. I'm real glad you like the details. I loved doing them, frankly.

Palallin, That's supposed to be a secret - she's on a covert mission, trying to be undercover (in a red suit, no less!)

FrankM

 

 

Danbury, CT. Station, served the NH, the Housatonic, Berkshire, and NYC.  Two RS-2s reading for departure to the NY, City, once consist and boarding is completed'....

 

Circa 1957'

Danbury, Connecticut taken 2017... Now home of the Danbury Railway Museum and last stop on the Metro-North Danbury line.

MELGAR

Stations.....1993-2003 layout 1st and current layout 2nd.....

Peter

 

Mel, the station is now a museum, and runs their steam loco in nice weather and on holidays.  They do a nice little business.  There is a train and book store as well.  There are excellent layouts in every scale operating.  Metro North, now uses a new satellite station just adjacent from the original.  The trackage at the original station is used only by the museum. If you get an opportunity to see the museum, I know you would enjoy it'..

  This is the steamer that patrons get a chance to ride in the cab, as goes to and from the round house and around the yard pulling an open car and caboose.

A couple of my favorites at the station/museum'

 

Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Mel, the station is now a museum, and runs their steam loco in nice weather and on holidays.  They do a nice little business.  There is a train and book store as well.  There are excellent layouts in every scale operating.  Metro North, now uses a new satellite station just adjacent from the original.  The trackage at the original station is used only by the museum. If you get an opportunity to see the museum, I know you would enjoy it'..

Thanks Ted. I visit the Danbury Museum frequently - riding there on Metro-North and walking from the new "station" to the historic site. Your pictures are great images of the New Haven Railroad. Post them on https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...c/any-new-haven-fans

MELGAR

Patsburg Union Station serving B&O, Western Maryland, Pennsylvania, N&W, and Reading Co. passenger trains.  

My "Home Town" station in the Bronx (growing up), Buhre Avenue EL station on the 6, Pelham Bay Line.....

Peter

Elizabeth, Illinois

Thomson, Illinois 

John in Lansing, ILL

Two MTH banks make a nice looking main station.  Russ

 

wbg pete posted:

All of your photos are fabulous, but, the station in the photos above really caught my eye. Is that scratch built or is/was it commercially available?

The EBT station at Orbisonia:

        

Pic taken 2010, the last year the East Broad Top ran.

Lew

Joe Hohmann posted:

Hollis, Long Island, where I spent MANY hours watching trains 1949-54.

Joe, I use to take my bike over to Hollis to watch trains but a little after you, probably around 1958 on.  The station was either closed or close to it by then.

W&W, Grand Central Terminal, complete with a modeling of Park Avenue making its way up at and around the terminal! Outstanding!. I love it, having driven and walked its boundaries in real life. You have a lot to be proud of there.

FrankM.

 

 

Just a picture of the small commuter station on my layout

I have a MTH Station on my layout, but I don't have any good pictures of it available and my layout is currently slated to be rebuilt at some point in the future. Their is a depot in my town that I think is currently being rebuilt into I think a restaurant or Ice Cream Shop. I had information on what railroad line it used to serve that went through town. 

Photos show the former station of the New Haven Railroad at Waterbury, Connecticut completed in 1909 and now occupied by a local newspaper.

MELGAR

Moonson posted:

W&W, Grand Central Terminal, complete with a modeling of Park Avenue making its way up at and around the terminal! Outstanding!. I love it, having driven and walked its boundaries in real life. You have a lot to be proud of there.

FrankM.

 

 

Thank you Frank for the nice comments.😄

The repainted and modified rico station currently on my layout. It's a work in progress and needs a platform in between the tracks among other things.

Joliet Union Station

In 2011, I visited the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad. Here's two photos I took.

Snoqualmie Depot - Built by Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad in 1890.

The former Southern Railway passenger depot in Salisbury, NC.

Track side.

Front road side.

Restored years ago but only open for events.  Some scenes from "Leather-Heads" was filmed here.

Note down at far end where cars are parked is a glassed in aluminum  framed waiting room fro NCDOT (Amtrak) passenger train service.

Ron

Great images and great builds as well! Thanks for posting.

                                                            NJ Hirailers- Station on the "Yellow Line."

This is a model of the station in Phillips, Maine that once served on the two-foot narrow-gauge Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. I built the model in 2014 from a kit by Banta Modelworks. The station still stands today on Depot Street in Phillips, although the railroad has been gone since the 1930s.

MELGAR

Very handsome station, MELGAR.

FrankM

Forgot I took these.

The Southern Railway Barber Junction Depot from Barber Junction NC.

The depot was moved to the grounds of the NCTM decades ago.

Being visited by the NS OCS.

Ron

I finally found an picture I took of the only station on my now slated to be redone layout. Not the best picture, but it will work. I am hoping to be able to work on my layout again soon, depending on how busy I am with school, and if I get around to working on it.

Mel was the Danbury Station built in 1903 or is that when it was placed on the National Historic Register?

Here is a terminal I made using one MTH bank.  No layout to put it on yet.

And here is the front of the bank posing as side entrance of the terminal.

That is a very nice looking station Joe'.. you did an excellent job'..

Great looking station Coach Joe!  Love the interior!!  

Thank you kindly gentlemen!

coach joe posted:

Mel was the Danbury Station built in 1903 or is that when it was placed on the National Historic Register?

Joe,

Built by the New Haven Railroad in 1903 and entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Danbury Railway Museum would be worth a day-trip from Long Island. Now that you have that nice station model, the layout is a must.

MELGAR

This is the Gladstone, NJ station, taken in 1970. I took this train to high school between 1956 and 1960. We also traveled to NYC, a 1 hour ride. This was the station used in the movie "The Miracle Worker".

East Broad Top Railroad, Orbisonia Station.  BTS kit.  Grade/masonite base, not part of the kit.  

Mike CT posted:

East Broad Top Railroad, Orbisonia Station.  BTS kit.  Grade/masonite base, not part of the kit.  

Mike CT,

A terrific construction job on this model.

MELGAR

Just found this great topic.  I love railroad stations, real and model or tinplate.  One of the few things I look for other than toy train items at swap meets are old station post cards.  Since we are traveling this week, I only have available what pictures I can access on my iPad.

In the first picture is a model of the Salem, Oregon station built in 1889 on our sectional Capitol Holidays Layout.  My friend and partner in this endeavor, Don Curtis, scratch built this model from pictures I borrowed from Ed Culp, author of the book, “Stations West.”  We set up the layout and run Gilbert American Flyer trains under the Christmas tree in the Oregon State Capitol Rotunda each year.  

The second picture is the waiting room and agent’s end of the old station which was torn down around around the time of the building of the present station which opened in 1918.  Only the freight house portion of the old station was left standing. The freight house and the “new” station are shown in the third picture.

The fourth picture is how the derelict freight house looked for many years under threat of condemnation and demolition, and the last two pictures are the present station and the restored and repurposed freight house as they look today.

Cheers!

Alan

Alan B, This whole panorama has a very nice look to it, in my opinion. Yes, sir, there is something really nice about this neighborhood, almost as though it were the modeling of a community that actually developed this way in real-life city-planning. It seems carefully and thoughtfully constructed,  possessed of charm and nostalgia, resulting in success.

The gazebo, set in its little park, complete with a swing-set and its worn scraping-of-the-feet swatches under where the swings would trace, and the fence separating recreation from the RR-tracks, would be a fine example of the care, cleverness and skill invested in this overall vignette of American life. Congratulations.

FrankM

CNJ Station Ashley, PA. 1913:

Centralia, WA:

Winner and Buladeen, TN on my layout:

There I am, busking at the train station:

What's the matter with you guys? Don't you know you're supposed to give me money when I'm busking?

LOL, Arnold

My stop on the Metra line out of Chicago in Western Springs, IL. This is a recreation of the original station. The original was torn down and replaced with a utilitarian brick and glass box. Thankfully, we got rid of that and built this in 2005. 

Visiting the temple....

Michigan Central Station

Detroit Union Station. (RIP,1974)

A few blocks away...

A few miles away, Dearborn...likely the most active around here.

Nearby, in Dearborn, Mi

A little further west...

Earlier depot

earlier

New

Next town west, Ann Arbor...

I lost the present photo... it looks good

Durand Mi !!

Niles Mich. (S.west)

Topinabee (Northern. lower pen. D&Mac) 

South...

North

You see whats missing eh?

 

 

Standish (northrn lower)

here are my passenger stations

 

...this used to be an AF station. The "grand entrance", doors, etc. are separate and can be moved to anywhere, changing the building layout to suit. ...

or removed it

here's the last passenger station i built...lionel inspired...but downsized for marx tinplate...mostly cardboard and paper...hardware cloth window mullions...approximately 19" wide...only commercial parts are the old platform lamps...

howard...

www.littleglitterhouses.com

A delightful replica “tinplate” station, Howard, and a perfect compliment to Marx 6” tin.

Of course, your creativity and skill with paper and card stock is legendary.  Adding the platform was the icing...er...under the cake.

Cheers!

Alan

 

Lee that is just spectacular!

JamesRx posted:

Lee that is just spectacular!

Thanks, James! The depot is a Grant Line plastic kit, and I put an interior in there long before I even pondered how to light the thing. That's a calendar on the interior wall for the summer o 1943, and a Vargas girl form the same month tacked underneath it. That said, it's likely inaccurate as southern women never would set foot in a structure with something like that tacked to a wall. That kind of thing wasn't nearly out in the open then, than it is now (which is why the 'nose art' on WW2 planes came as such a shock stateside when photos of them started making it across the pond. There were even hearings in the subject).

sawdust43 posted:

here's the last passenger station i built...lionel inspired...but downsized for marx tinplate...mostly cardboard and paper...hardware cloth window mullions...approximately 19" wide...only commercial parts are the old platform lamps...

howard...

www.littleglitterhouses.com

Hi Howard'

What is [hardware cloth window] ?  Looks like real tin plate'.. Very Nice job!

 

ATTENTION: QUARTER GAUGER 48...

hope the photos and notes answer your questions about the windows...if not...let me know...

Howard...

sawdust43 posted:

ATTENTION: QUARTER GAUGER 48...

hope the photos and notes answer your questions about the windows...if not...let me know...

Howard...

Howard:

Thanks for the follow-up post explaining materials. For further clarification, from where does one purchase 1/4" grid hardware cloth? Also, I am still unclear as to what are craft store, plastic canvas oven doors? Your golf Tee lamps with pearl globes are a stroke of genius. But there is more hardware of some kind holding the golf tees to the wall. What did you use for the lamp mounts? What is the grid work above the doors?

This is superb modeling! Bravo!

Howard:

I am sorry. After my last post with all of the detail questions, I now realize that you photo says "Plastic canvas OVER doors", not oven doors. So, do I go into a craft store and ask, "Where is your plastic canvas?" Give me a clue as to in what section of the store I would find plastic canvas. What is its common use before creative genius' like got hold of it?

Howard, I agree, pure creative genius'... using these items for scratch structure building'...  The golf tees'  and chicken screen... who knew' , now that is impressive ingenuity and imagination!    I have an idea, but not certain about the plastic canvas''..

I haven't found the post yet, lol, but harware cloth lands between screen and wire fence. Plastic canvass?? Windows... Gotta be a plastic tarp or plastic drop cloth for painting. (now to backtrack & see if I'm right )

Plastic canvas is a flexible gridwork that looks like large, square screen with think wires.  Usually white, it can come in other colors.  It is used for needlework projects.

Adriatic posted:

I haven't found the post yet, lol, but harware cloth lands between screen and wire fence. Plastic canvass?? Windows... Gotta be a plastic tarp or plastic drop cloth for painting. (now to backtrack & see if I'm right )

The post to which I refer is among the last 4 or 5 on page 3 of this thread.

Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Howard, I agree, pure creative genius'... using these items for scratch structure building'...  The golf tees'  and chicken screen... who knew' , now that is impressive ingenuity and imagination!    I have an idea, but not certain about the plastic canvas''..

OK...looks like other members have filled in the blanks...(thank you!)...the 1/4" grid hardware cloth"...it's somewhere between screen wire and fence wire...got mine at either ace hardware or one of the big box home retailers...the plastic canvas is a sewing craft item...got mine at hobby lobby...it does come in a sorta clear plastic and some basic colors...

about the rest of the lamp construction...in addition the the plastic pearl beads and sections of golf tees...the standoff supports are twisted wire with a card stock back plate...assembled with epoxy...primed and sprayed with gold paint...

my very best regards...

howard...

www.littleglitterhouses.com and www.cardboardchristmas.com

Forgot that I had these images.  In memory of Hank a fellow O-Gauge that succumbed to  cancer a decade or so ago.  He took these pics.

The station in Hamlet, NC think it was CSX.

Thanks Hank!

Ron