Urban Modeler’s
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Urban Modeler’s
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UMSIG Yahoo Group 
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Last Update: 12/18/2008
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I model the railroad scene of northern New Jersey in a space 24x40.
Included are the operations Conrail; NJ Transit; Amtrak; and regional New
York, Susquehanna & Western (successor to shortline Rahway Valley).
Matt Snell |
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Westside Branch, Jersey City, NJ.
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Nick Kalis' Urban Details Review As my layout comes close to completion, some finishing touches are in order. With scratchbuilt structures and kit bashed/scratchbuilt combos, details are important when modeling urban areas. I just purchased and painted two neat items which I commend to our readers. Both items were purchased off the shelf at my local hobby shop -- Granddads of Virginia.
First, I heartily recommend the
one-piece HO scale loading dock sold by FOS Scale
Limited. I think we can look forward to a great many neat
products from this firm. FOS's Loading Dock #C34 is a one piece resin
casting that retailed at Granddads for $7.79. To see this product visit
www.foslimited.com or email them
at foslimited@aol.com. Their
street address is P.O. Box 6 Mamaroneck, NY 10543. Before painting, I
washed this item with water and liquid dish washing detergent to remove
any parting chemicals. The loading dock served well to detail and
otherwise plan scratchbuilt warehouse that is on my layout. I did not
glue the loading dock on in order to give myself the flexibility to move
it elsewhere.
Another great item I painted was a
one-piece chimney by
Sylvan Scale Models.
This is their HO scale HO-112 Victorian Smokestack. Sylvan is at 32229
Sylvan Road, R.R. #2 Parkhill, Ontario
N0M 2KO. Granddads retailed this item at $13.49. While the chimney is
labeled Victorian I thought it fine for this side of the pond and for
a building that was still standing in the 1960s. This chimney was easy
to build and served as a neat contrast to the round chimneys that mark
some of my other structures.
Both items required no assembly so
they are quick fixes to your need for interesting urban detail.
Nick Kalis
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Nick Kalis'
Carbona Products Co. I am using the Spectrum Cityscenes Variety Store Item #88004 to build an HO warehouse known as Carbona Products Co. at 30-50 Greenpoint Avenue, Long Island City. Carbona is a cleaning product. Carbona appears in a track map that pertains to the early 1960s, the era I model. The area that Carbona is in is more particularly known as Blissville. To fit my layout I needed to reduce each wall in size. I also bricked in many of the windows of the back of the structure. I noticed that bricking in window openings was common in industrial and warehouse districts in an effort to reduce crime.I used Tamiya's 180ml spray can of Fine Surface Primer to prime the structure. The brick work was finished with what I had left over of a 100 ml spray can of Tamiya Dark Earth (RAF) AS-22. To hide the commercial windows, I knocked out the frames and am covering the openings with what we called as kids cinder block. I modified by sanding a sheet of Sylvan rought cut blocks. I then painted the blocks with a 50/50 mixture of concrete and white paints. My original Carbona Products was warped when it came in too close contact with a spotlight. I hope visitors to my layout will have some positive comments regarding my new model. I should add that this kit includes sidewalks and a Microscale Decal Package. The kit also comes with thorough instructions. Nick Kalis 2004 |
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HALL OF FAME 1. Ron Parisi |
PROTO PHOTO |
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Robert Smaus'
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The Kingsbury branch was once the mainline of the Chicago and Pacific Railroad. Commuter trains even ran on the line between Chicago and Evanston before sevice was discontinued about 1917. The C&P was built in the 1870's and headed northwest from near downtown Chicago to a spot just north of North Ave before turning due west to Elgin. It became a branch line around 1973 when the bridge to Union Station was removed.
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Bill Denton's
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Mike Palmiter has created an HO scale model of the
railroads into downtown Chicago that is as close to exact scale as nearly
any HO layout. With 20 x 52-foot layout space, he has done the job without
having to reduce the length of the line or the height of the structures to
a noticeable degree. This is really only half of Mike’s layout, however.
The other half is downtown New York City, of course, and you’ll see it in
the November issue. There’s an index of all the prototype-based model
railroads and articles on modeling the city that have appeared in “The
Journal” on our website at
www.railmodeljournal.com "
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CHICAGO IN HO SCALE
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The Franklin and South
Manchester RR is located in the heart of the Fine Scale Miniatures factory
on the second floor of a building in downtown Peabody Square, Peabody
Massachusetts. The 23ft by 42ft HO scale layout began in April 1985 and is
the work of George Sellios. Photo: Frank Bernard
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The Franklin &
South Manchester Railroad |
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On August 10th, I joined a group of seven other modeler railroad operators
from Dallas-Fort Worth in a trip to Claremore, Oklahoma, to operate on Jim
Senese's great Kansas City Terminal Railroad. This railroad takes up the
second floor of a large 1920's-build farmhouse, and features five yards
and numerous industries. Each two-person crew assumes the identity and
personality of one of the railroads, and each crew switches cars and pulls
and spots industries, then tries to make it across the terminal dodging
the other transfer crews to deliver cars to the connecting railroads.
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Jim Senese's
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The Rensselaer Model Railroad Society is recreating historically accurate
scenes of upstate New York and Vermont, strung along the mainline of the fictitious New England Berkshire & Western. We feel that the layout has historical relevance to the non-modeling community, too. River Street, Troy, NY
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Rensselaer Model Railroad Society's Railroad Heritage Center
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The Severna Park Model Railroad Club has constructed a railroad named The
Chesapeake and Allegheny Railroad. It portrays Maryland in Miniature and
its logo states "C&A, FROM THE
MOUNTAINS TO THE BAY". The track
plan may be viewed as a folded dog-bone with a stub end terminal, a
division point and a mountain branch line.Our club building was
once the Severna Park railroad station (until the early 1960's). The old
railbed has been converted into the very popular B&A (Baltimore and
Annapolis) bike path. Copyright Model Railroader Magazine 1975 |
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An HO Scale Freelance Shortline - Brooklyn, New York 1955
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My name is Matt Gidley and I recently visited Chicago. While there
I ventured over to the Science and Industry museum to see the newly
constructed model train layout. I had heard that it was big -
and that it had many large structures, but I still wasn't prepared for the
mammoth scale of the downtown Chicago part of the layout.
While the layout is a far cry from a "craftsman" layout and lacks the
detail and interest of many smaller more detailed layouts, the buildings
were great in and of themselves. |
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 R21/22's at Ditmars Blvd A train of R21/R22's are platformed at the terminal
station in the east pocket. Note subway entrances at street level. HO
scale modelS by Frank Gatazka. |
Joseph Frank's |
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 It's
1944 and this Eastern urban short line is helping in the war effort.
Model Railroader - March 2000Also featured in Model Railroader - April 1991 Page 96-101 - "The Arvern Bay Terminal RR" an around-the-wall layout based on a fictitious short line owned by the CNJ that operated in the Jersey City area. There is a fine scratch built carfloat facility complete with carfloat and one of the New York City Harbor style 2 track carfloat bridges. Commentary: Bill Russell NMRA Bulletin April 1994, Volume 60, No. 8, Issue 639 on page 22 HO
scale Arvern Bay |
The HO scale Arvern Bay Terminal
RR |
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Urban scenery on the Lansing
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 NYCity Diorama |
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A RATHER UNIQUE WAY OF SCRATCH BUILDING
HYDROCAL STRUCTURES IN S SCALE "HAWKEN TIRES & RUBBER"
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Modeling the U.S. Army in
WWII
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Fabulous Pictures of Urban large city diorama modeling: www.baining.de |
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| Urban Modeler’s News Historical Archives | |
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Issue 1 June 1998
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This photo was taken while I was following an
"Acela Regional" (that is AEM-7 and Amfleet cars) out of Sunnyside Yard.
The location is the old "F" tower which you can see to the right of the
last car. "F" Tower's functions have been taken over by PSCC (Penn Station
Control Center). Both trains are sitting on Sub 2. My train has just come
under the Line 2 and Line 4 overhead bridge. We are waiting for PSCC to
give us the signal to enter Penn Station through Line 2 under the East
River. My train makes this move five days a week.
It looks like the cab you used is an F-40 or
SDP-40. Neither engine would make it through the tunnels due to the third
rail clearances. Steve Kay Engineer
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Books Design for Urban Layouts
Building City Scenery for your
Model Railroad
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Articles
May 2001 copyright Model Railroader Magazine
Railroad Model Craftsman, January 1989 Boston MTA Port of Los Angeles
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Nick Kalis'
Urban Writings 41 Hints for Urban Modeling Building City Scenery for your Model Railroad Adventures in Urban Model Railroading Product Review: Walther's Wooden Water Tanks Anyone
working on an urban scene in HO scale can make use of the N-Scale
Generator Load sold by Micro Trains Line Co. of 351 Rogue River
Parkway, Talent, Oregon 97540-1200.
www.micro-trains.com This item number 499 43 901 (see illustration
below) described as a electrical generator load comes one to a package.
Mine retailed at Granddad's for $3.98. Rather than use it as a load, I
used mine to represent a transformer box next to a building. I suppose it
might work well as a roof top detail. You might even be able to use
several of these on your layout. This plastic casting detail comes
unpainted.
Anyone
looking for a neat transformer box for an HO scale layout look no
further than the N scale Micro Trains Line Item # 499 43903
Generator Load (one to a package) which retails at Granddad's Hobby
Shop for $3.98. It might be easy to overlook this item because of its
similarity to Micro Trains Line Generator Load 499 43901. Buy
both to add a bit of subtle variety to your layout.
Nicholas
Kalis
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 City Sounds Ambient Sound Effects CD's |
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Structure Modeling and
Finishing: Modelling, Painting and Placing Urban Structures in Realistic Diorama Settings (Part 1) by Dan Capuano |
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 Photos: Karl Fasolino Surrey Custom Models www.surreycustommodels.com |
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More to Come........
12/18/2008
Urban
rail corridor 
