Backdrop time?

Stevens Institute corner. Sybil's Cave at right (at the power outlet) and the castle at left edge of the panel.

Could it be time to do the backdrop???

Fresh paint and new LEDs.

The wall has been freshly painted behind the whole layout. Color: Sherwin-Williams 7025 Backdrop. I chose this color to help with a gloomy New York Harbor mood. 

Lighting has also been relamped with 6000K LED strips to provide a cold, harsh, gritty realism with winter light that will help to set a gloomy mood. Life in the 50s was hard in Hoboken - especially along the docks. The film On the Waterfront (1954) about rough longshoremen was set and filmed along the Hoboken Shore Railroad with the locomotive in the background in a couple of scenes. 

Mockup Update

End of turnback aisle with Maxwell House Coffee (left) and BethShip (right) both in white. Tan and gray buildings beyond are rowhouses.

Today I finished the last buildings mockup on the layout. These are found in the BethShip (Bethlehem Shipyard) and represent the main office, work areas, storage buildings and boiler house. 

I use white foam core and Elmer's glue with T pins to hold while the glue dries. These are just quick massing models to get a feel for, you guessed it, massing which means an abstract model for checking size, proportions, positioning, and relationship to other things. 

I begin the process by using my overall layout plan and reference materials to locate and size structures in 2 dimensions. Then I mark the footprints directly on the benchwork in pencil, erase, and redraw as needed until I am satisfied with the location and size. 

The intersection of 11th and River Road is another very important signature scene for me. This is where the historic marker for the first recorded professional baseball game sites (upper center). Beautiful cars and Rock Island boxcar by Rick De Candido.

Then I go to the foam core models as a first draft in 3 dimensions. They go together in 30-60 minutes a piece depending on the size and complexity. Here are the latest in situ: 

One of the many times steelworkers and shipbuilders went on strike. Notice the street trackage bottom left to top right along Hudson Street. Today the Hoboken Historical Museum resides in the long gable roofed building.

A signature scene that suffers a little from a lot of compression.
This is where the strikers picket line will be. (see below)

Buildings on the piers at BethShip

Close quarters is the feeling all throughout the HBS as here on the piers of BethShip

View from the BethShip piers

BethShip boiler house with smokestack

Foreground left to right are the BethShip supply building, workshop, and boiler house and shorty smokestack (right). Behind is the larger Maxwell House Coffee plant and American Can buildings.

Open side to a utility building so facilitate operating cars inside just like my dock buildings.

I have a long list for my summer 2022 workplan. Scenery on the Harlem Terminal and backdrop and fascia on the HBS are the top priorities. More on my backdrop musings upcoming. 

HBS Sweeper Car

HBS track sweeper car with unknown number (in collection of author)

HBS track sweeper car with unknown number on June 13, 1933 (in collection of author)

The HBS tracks ran mostly in the cobblestone and later asphalt streets of Hoboken. In order to keep the rails clear of debris and snow, track cleaner and sweeper cars were employed to keep the railroad running. The two photos above show one of the sweeper cars with no known number and a faded HOBOKEN lettering on the car side. The bottom photo is from a large format negative I just acquired and appears in Benjamin L. Bernhart's Hoboken Shore Railroad book.

The sweeper is fashioned from a trolley car body with two large brushes suspended under the front and rear and sandwiching a lone truck. Outboard blades extend the clearing width of the car. I have not researched what trolley line nor manufacturer this came from.

In Berhart's book, there are two other track cleaners/sweepers shown. One is HBS 350 sweeper built from a rehabilitated interurban trolley, and the other HBS 1 newly constructed using parts from the 350 in 1955-56. The HBS also used a truck with plow attachment after 350 was decommissioned and before HBS 1 was built. For images of those, see Berhart's book pages 12-17.

On my layout, these will provide excellent battery cars for my locomotives. At the moment, I use boxcars that trail my 44 tonner locomotives, but I guess these will have to precede the locomotives. This should assuage the battery haters amongst my friends who don't like operating on my layout with trailing cars!

More Mock Up Buildings and Some Track Realignment

Part of my overall track laying strategy was to temporarily lay track then revise after operating and fitting in buildings. This process continues on the stretch of track at the docks on the 6th and 7th Street piers.

I moved the switch back at 7th St to be able to get the two tracks into the pier headhouse. Of course, there are conflicting accounts in different maps about the exact arrangement - but I'm over that, and I am comfortable taking my best shot at the most prototypical and operationally optimal arrangement. 

Original configuration:

And here's the track with switch moved back and the warehouse with four 40' car capacity.

I also mocked up Campbell Stores at the adjacent 6th St pier to the left and the East Asiatic Import/Export Company (long warehouse) to the right. Some issues with viewing cars and such, of course, so some trial operating will need to be done. The East Asiatic warehouse is especially a problem, so some sort of cut away representation may be in order.

At Campbell Stores, dock doors provide a target spot for operators from the inside. An interesting view point as well as an opportunity to model the interior of the building. Not sure how to handle the section cut yet. 

Along River Road and Hudson Streets, there are several multistory rowhouses that will essentially provide a view block. Because of compression of space, these particular ones will probably represent different buildings on each side. 

More Maxwell House

Buildings 1 and 5 mocked up. Building no. 1 is the tall roasting building with building no. 5 stretching across the tracks housing the American Can Company. Building at right is #2 which is the storage building on the river. Barges would unload there. There are eight total buildings in the complex, but I'll only be able to model 5-6 of them at about 3/4 ish size.

Maxwell House Coffee plant mock up

I mocked up more buildings today and I laid out the grounds for Maxwell House Coffee. There are several building in the complex, and I have to cut a couple of the them due to space.

I'm also having a bit of a think on whether to extend the layout to get in the coffee barges on the river. They are essential to the scene and understanding of how the plant functioned, but I don't want to pinch down my aisle too much. I just need to find the proper balance.

Happy 2020!

I'm alive, the railroad is alive, and there may be more posts this year?! :)

A few operating sessions per year since the last post, but not much on the layout itself is new. 14th Street switching tracks have been reshuffled to allow for a track to get to the engine house (see below) and US Testing.

New non-operable track to the engine house. Perhaps a curved crossing could be scratch built to make it a working piece of track. The 14th street trackage is actually supposed to be behind the engine house, but that is out of reach. Compromise is the uncomfortable, but necessary at times.

Reconfigured 14th street track. from top right to left, the engine house, Kelly Springfield Tire/Xzit/National Cleanser, then finally Continental Baking (Hostess Twinkies) All buildings are very close to actual prototype size gotten from historical maps and Google maps measurements.

US Testing is almost in the correct orientation. It should be perpendicular to the yard, but there isn't enough room to curve the track properly. More compromise *sigh*, but, it's very, very close...

Recent activity is turning towards sketch buildings to ensure the track alignments are good. These will also provide good templates for final models.

Engine house with brakemen waiting for assignments. The shack is the scale house.

Engine house (left) and (right) Xzit/Kelly Springfield Tire/National Cleanser

Xzit/

Kelly Springfield Tire/National Cleanser (left) and Continental Baking (Hostess Twinkies) (right)

HBS 500 Post card

Post card photo of HBS boxcab No.500.

Op session no.7

We had a great visiting crew last weekend for the largest operating session, yet. Nine operators put the railroad through their expert paces. Some minor hiccups, but nothing catastrophic, so I will count that as a success.

Most (all?!) played the Brakeman! game with the newly created action figures:

The Brakeman! game is about modeling the actions of the train crew. If there is an action like throwing a switch, uncoupling or coupling a car, unlocking a gate, etc., there must be one of the crew on the ground within an uncoupling tool's length in order to perform that action. In conjunction with momentum and braking in effect on the locomotive, this slows operations down a lot.

Following are some candid shots from the session:

Keith Jordan and Lance Mindheim debate the merits of something. I think we decided the world would survive.

Tom Pearson repairs several cars in place while Denny Taylor and Larry Sternberg switch the Docks Job. Jim Diaz and Kirk Baer work the Float job. 

Chuck Hitchcock and Tom Lawler figure out the HBS yard - the hardest job on the layout...?

Maneuvering the slip switch ladder in the middle of the HBS Yard. 

Kirk eyes the next move while Jim drops float cars in the float yard.

At Maxwell House Coffee Plant: "I'm pretty sure that car goes here." "Are you really sure?" "My brakeman doesn't want to walk all the way over there unless you are sure."

Denny guides Larry to the American Export docks.

"Maxwell House has too many outbound cars for this little 44-tonner." 

Paul Dolkos weighs in on the serious discussion. 

Later that same day... the yard crew at Tommy Holt's was Kirk, Keith and Paul. The GGM, AP, EXP trick in the schedule went really smoothly. No switching on Diner Siding (Tommy was looking), but eastbound trains did depart through there to keep the B Lead clear. It was a really smooth session and everyone left with all of their fingers and toes.