1936/2009
The same picture, taken 73 years apart.
The black and white image was found in the New York City archives, taken in 1936, the colour version I took last week. I must have been standing at the very spot the first image was taken as they line up quite nicely.
Its interesting to observe what has and hasn’t changed after all this time. The clock tower is still there, although the clock has long since stopped working, one of the hands has fallen off completely. Most of the old buildings are still there, with new occupants. Added in are the luxurious projects in the back ground. Missing is, well the CNJ Bronx Terminal, replaced with another warehouse of somewhat similar design.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing left of the original terminal at this site.
Note it is 6MB in size and will take a while to download.
-T.
New Tug Kits
Near us at the train show in Hartford was Frenchmen River Model Works who produce a great line of resin model kits of various boats (along with other items).
This year they had on display some great steam tug kits, which will be ideal for my Bronx Terminal layout. I took a few shots of the models he had on display in the booth, which are at the top of this page. When he wasn’t looking, I swiped one of the models and placed it on my layout for a few shots. (Ok, I didn’t really swipe it, he was nice enough to let me take it, but I was willing to attempt a swipe once I saw his display versions.)
Of course, I had to buy one, which I am really looking forward to building in the near future.
This is a company from Nebraska producing model boat kits, which might seem odd. Of course I am from Southern Ontario building a model of a terminal in New York, so I guess its a good match.
If you get a chance, read the “about us” page on his site.
-T.
Lotsa Pictures! Be patient until they all load.
Click on images for larger versions….
The first batch of pictures from Hartford are of some of the fine models on display in the contest room. This is the same room where I set up the Bronx Terminal on Monday and operated it during the week. While technically the contest room, it really is a room for people to come and browse all the items on display and socialize. I had the layout here until we moved it down to the Train Show on Thursday right after the awards presentations.
I’ll provide a bit of narrative for the models I know something about, the others are just images of some on display that caught my eye.
This fantastic HO scale model of a Howe Truss float bridge was built by Tom Griffiths. I received a set of drawings for this float bridge about a year ago and wondered who “T. Griffiths” was, as that was the name at the bottom of all 26 pages of hand drawn plans. This model was built by him. The drawings were made in the late 70’s early 80’s and according to Tom the model was started then. It sat for 35 30 years until he finished it up last year. I know, I had to do the math to to actually believe that the early 1980’s was 35 30 years ago. Geez.
Anyway, the model is exquisite, right down to the thousands of nut and bolts. It is a dead on match to the drawings. I tried to convince Tom that it would look good on my layout as it is the exact model I need….
I plan on building one of these in the next year, I hope I can get it to turn out as good as Tom’s. He took home a lot of awards for the model, 5 or 6 I believe. All deserved.
This building was built by Earl Smallshaw. A very good looking model of a brick firehouse. It was very well done although I am not sure how well it did in the contests. When the awards were being given out I was quite busy setting up for the Train Show.
I don’t know who built this model, but it was very well done, especially the detailed removable roof. Perfect colouring.
Update – This was built by Chuck Diljak and received an honourable mention in the structures scratch built class.
This roundhouse model won best in show. While I felt there were better models on display, it was very well done. I espeically liked how he finished the roof, it was very convincing. For some reason I didn’t photograph the whole model, only the roof.
A couple of well weathered pieces of equipment. The CSX car was especially well done.
This beautifully constructed sawmill was built by Carl Laskey and took first in the diorama kit class. It was a huge model and fully detailed.
This fish seller model was by far my favorite. I had this pegged for the best in show, but surprisingly it only got an honorable mention. Built by Sam Swanson I felt this was an extremely well built model. The quality of the colouring and level of detail was impressive, right down to the bemustachioed fish mongers. A detailed rack of drying fish can be seen off to one side. Keep in mind that this is in HO scale.
The rust effect on the oil drum is beautiful.
I am very curious why it didn’t place higher.
This sawmill model was built by Richard Newmiller and placed first in the diarrhea diorama (stupid spell checker) scratch built category. The detail on this was extensive and very well done. The roof was raided raised to reveal the fully detailed mill interior. A close look into the dormer on the roof shows someone sharpening a saw blade.
The HO scale pickup trucks were very well done and painted perfectly.
Richard Waltz got an honorable mention in the structures scratch built class for this coal dealer model. Another fine example of modeling. Great job on the fine details, the scattered trash under the main building is very convincing.
Standards and Conformance Department manager Di Voss offered to check the trackwork on my Bronx Terminal to see if it conformed to NMRA standards. It passed and I received some points toward my Civil Engineering certificate. Clark Kooning, the Canadian Director of the NMRA also checked it, it takes two executives to award points. Checked were a turnout, three way and a crossing.
That pretty much covers all the shots I took in the contest room. I have many, many more from the show to sort through and will get them posted shortly.
-T.
