Elsworth Avenue El Chronicles

Chapter 1 - Getting Started

Last Chapter Update: June 28, 1997

Getting Started

For some strange reason, I never seem to be satisfied with some simple hobby. For example, at one time I was out flying real airplanes while others stood safely on the ground with U control or R/C planes. Was I envious of them? No, I wasn't. Instead, I regret not having gotten into aerobatics. Same seems to hold true for model railroading. While others model in HO where models are easily available and quite inexpensive, I played with Marlin Z gauge where a single car cost more than some HO locomotives. Even Z gauge wasn't enough, I dreamed of modeling the New York City subway. I couldn't be satisfied with a handful of Pennsy locomotives in some nondescript Pennsylvania or New Jersey setting.

Well, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead. It wouldn't be fun without the challenge and there are plenty of challenges ahead. The New York City subway started in 1904 as independently run corporations and there were a number of construction projects as well after the New York City takeover. Each phase and line has a different look and feel with different construction techniques used for each line. Some construction techniques do not change and represent standardization by the city. All in all, there is a rich set of prototype features to model.

Layout

My layout will probably occupy a 20 x 30 foot area in my basement. Portions of it may extend out as shelves while others will feature terminals, yards and may have a station similar to the Jamaica LIRR station near a terminal. This gives the layout a "raison d'etre." Otherwise, those little HO people would pay the fare to ride the subway. Current plans are to model a line that runs from a terminal based on the Stillwell Avenue station and the LIRR terminal. There will be a variation at the Stillwell Avenue station in that the station will be a junction for the BMT/IND and the IRT. The BMT/IND portion forms a loop that is elevated on one end and transitions to a below the surface grade similar to the Brighton line. This loop starts on one set of tracks at Stillwell Avenue and terminates as another. The IRT line starts at Stillwell Avenue and runs along Elsworth Avenue until it goes underground. There, it proceeds as a shelf layout to meet up with the Warwick Street station of the LIRR.

When the plan is completed, it will be published here.

Rolling Stock

For now, only three R21 cars exist. Of those three, only one is built. I haven't painted it yet and the primary motivation behind building this one car was to use it in photographs as I attempt to make el and subway construction models. Some time in the future, I plan to scratch build IND cars, possibly R42 and R44 although I have a soft spot for R10. I rode the R10 every day when I was going to high school and during the first half of my freshman year of college.

I plan to post photographs of the R21 car here soon.

Elevated Structures

This is probably the most difficult to model. There are no suitable el kits available yet, so I'm on my own. I've taken an approach where I will try to use as much commercially available components as possible. My search led me to Micro Engineering, where a number of girders are available as well as bridge kits. I also looked at girder loads for flatcars by Atlas, but these did not seem to be suitable. Other parts from Plastruct are also being used as best as possible.

One interesting note is that Micro Engineering has a very nice looking city viaduct. There are a number of things wrong with it if you try to use it for an el. First, the girder spans lay on top of the trestle bent girders. There are no NYC prototypes that use this. Second, the girder spans are only 30' long, incorrect for what appears to be a 50' to 60' span on the prototype. The girder are also shorter than the 5' or 6' girders. The legs are an open lattice construction, again like none I've found. Finally, the spacing of the girders in NYC prototype appear to place them under the rails, where the Micro Engineering model is outside the rails by a foot or so and the bridge track has ties that are too short. With all this wrong, why am I pursuing this at all?

Well, there's not much out there that is suitable short of building your own. I plan to build my own but before I do, I am going to kit bash the viaduct kit. I'll keep you posted of the progress I make. I'll also be experimenting with resin castings. So far, I've made some nice patterns but creating rivet detail is difficult. I may go to a multistep process to create the patterns. I'll publish this information here also.

Trying out castings

Because I will need a considerable number of identical girders, I've decided to look into castings. The first such castings were built over the past couple weeks with a high degree of success. These castings consisted of scale webs pieces with rivet detail. These web pieces are portions of stringer girders that I built.

The patterns were built from styrene. No attempts were made at incorporating draft angles into the pattern because of the RTV molds used. The molds are flexible and releasing the casting from the mold is nothing more than flexing the mold and applying gentle pressure.

Casting material used is Alumilite. The material cures very rapidly and it duplicates even the most minute details. I was very successful from the start. I encountered no real problems with the exception of bubbles formed by moisture. Condensation formed on my measuring cups and contaminated the mixtures. The result was a foam like appearance of bubbles in some castings. This was solved simply by storing all mixing containers in sealed packets with silica gel to absorb the moisture. All castings are now very uniform.

The current plan is to create stringers as open castings with no detail on inside surfaces. I may attempt to create much more detailed parts later, but my current concern is mass production of structures so I will try to cut some corners as long as I don't sacrifice overall appearance.

Track and Third Rail

I haven't seen many el or subway flex track for sale, have you? It looks like I'll be hand laying the track. I have plans to look into the Images Replicas third rail kit when it comes out, but it may become too expensive so I will be investigating alternatives.

Still Interested?

There will be more as I progress. Watch these pages and note the chronicle dates. This will be your key for updates information as I go along. In the meantime, send me email if you have any ideas or just want to make suggestions on what you want to see here.