Harry Heike - Cincinnati Union Terminal

This is a very exciting project.

Art

Very interested.

I have been wondering when the CUT would be replicated.    An Art Deco masterpiece, far exceeds Pen Station and/or Grand Central.

Especially since it for the most part still exist and it was served by many roads.

Not long ago the Cincinnati Railroad Club, Inc. published a hard bound book "Cincinnati Union Terminal."  One hundred and Seventy-Six pages of in-depth info, a must have.

Ron

Outstanding Idea. An incredibly beautiful building, this will make for an interesting project. Here's the CUT rendered in LEGO...

That is awesome, Jon.  I am amazed at some of the Lego creations that I have seen.  Some real craftsmen at work.

Art 

Note on the floor plan the little theater in the lower left. Back in the mid-80's I was lucky enough to view the classic film The Third Man there. Fantastic little deco style theater.

And the mosaic tile murals from Cincy Union Terminal rarely get mentioned. Most of them have been transplanted to the CVG airport.

All in all, some amazing WPA art deco design and construction.

A great subject for modeling.

The project as Harry and I discussed with not include the grand concourse on the backside of the building, as with it the building is 800' deep from the front edge of the auto drives to lunch counter at the back of the concourse. At 1:48 scale that would be 16.66' feet deep by about the same width,don't know about you fella's but I don't have a spare 16' X 16' area for this or any station.

We're going to shooting for more of a 36" deep by 48" ~ 60" width, by around 24" to 30" high, which means the loss of the grand concourse and most likely major revisions to the three drive through lanes on either side. The station should be on a rise to allow for trains to run under the main building rather, there are still a lot of details to be worked through, but I believe we're on the right track. Large enough to be meaningful and showcase this grand structure, but not requiring a barn to house it either.

Most other, large station models have had a similar scaling to get them to within reason.

Thanks for all the positive responses, in all seriousness if you're meaningfully interested in being a buyer of one of these, please reach out to Harry and let him know. A big part of the cost will come from how many are being produced, going this alone is a big nut for this squirrel.

Best,

Jason

This was the sole mural lost forever, it was along the far back wall of the concourse.

That will be one super nice station. I get down to the CUT about once a year. A couple very nice layouts in the station.

A beautifully executed model courtesy of the Cincinnati History Museum and Historical Society, designed by Clarke Dunham. Quite large at 1/64th scale.

This is very exciting news. The CUT is one of the finest passenger service facilities in the world. And it is more exciting that Harry will do this project.

I think the O-Gauge world has found a new supplier of quality station products.

Jason, you know this means a partial re-design for me to fit this into our layout, so we will blame you for all of the work ahead. 

On my annual ride west on the Amtrak Cardinal we stop in Cinnci. But it is in the middle of the night....and all you can see is a dark covered loading area......Are we at CUT??? Or some Amtrak shed?? thx 

Well.....this explains why I couldn't get through to Harry this morning as Jason and I had been exchanging email about this project.  Looks like the line was hotly burning between Jason and Harry!  I had planned on talking to Harry in detail about this project and how we could promote it since he is an advertiser and forum sponsor.

Anyway, this will be an exciting project and one that I will be working with Harry to market it to our forum members....

I have got to clear out an area on the layout...darned it...LOL!!

Alan

Alan:

This is exactly why it is so exciting working with Harry. Besides being a genuinely nice guy, Harry is an enormous talent AND IS AN OGR SPONSOR in every respect. He promotes the Forum and the OGR magazine at every opportunity and through his generosity and that of our other sponsors, he helps make all of this possible. He is not a "free ride" type guy.

Found these souvenir examples interesting with the idea of how one could edit the CUT to a reasonable size.

Thanks for your posts Jon, this is going to be a fantastic project. Jason has first hand knowledge of this beautiful terminal and together with Harrys' creative talents, this should be a stunner.

The first O scale model of Cincinnati Union terminal was scratch built by the late Frank Ellison in the early 1950's. It was very realistic looking but I must admit that the modeler who did the station on Clark Dunham's creation in the museum stole the show.  Pictures of the Ellison model can be seen in old issues of Lionel Model Builder Magazine. The model still exists in the hands of a private collector in Florida. I have pictures of it and will try to post here later.

Jason, congratulations on initiating what will be a terrific project executed by a master craftsman/artist.

This makes me wish I had a much bigger layout, to accommodate it. The CUT is one of the most spectacularly beautiful Deco buildings in existence. My hat is off to those who are doing this project. 

Had a great talk with Harry late this afternoon....he is looking into this project very seriously and I am sure will be updating us soon.  Of course I asked about cost and at this point it is too soon but he assured me that if he gets enough interest and potential orders, that will determine final price.  BUT...I got the impression that it would be a fair price for a spectacular model with a lot of detail....He assured me that OGR will be the place that he will be doing his marketing of these kind of products...!

Alan

There was an article in a 1950's era model train magazine I had. It had plans for a layout sized CUT model. I got mine about half done and stopped. May need to start again!!!

Jason is the driving force behind this special project. He has talked about having a CUT built for some time. I know he looked at other options that were very, very expensive. Harry was just the ticket for getting this done without a second or third mortgage.

It's great when a plan comes together.

Yeah...and now Jason is going to have to pay for mine...darned him!!..LOL!!

Alan

The framed blueprint of the CUT on my office wall might be a clue as to how much I've been looking forward to this as a major feature of the layout, a daily reminder of just how amazing this terminal is.

Looking forward to flooding Harry with information, drawings, and photos, he's about to feel like Santa in the courtroom from Miracle on 34th St.

An absolutely wonderful building. I'm kicking the idea around for some type of Union Station arch on the layout; compressed mightily of course, and the Cincinnati facade, even alone, is magnificent. I found a couple of pics by DSL Shops who did a custom build once. Anybody aware of this one?

http://www.dslshops.com/gallery.htm

There was an article in OGR about 10 years ago featuring a spectacular 2-rail layout called the Buckeye Road.  The builder did an inspiring job.  I recall that he had a wonderful model of CUT on his layout. Does anyone remember the article, the layout or the builder?

Joe

CUT is an absolutely magnificent building and integrated complex......just up the road was the CUT roundhouse and locomotive servicing facilities, plus a huge post office (from the era when mail went by rail). Alas, don't think I can find a spot for the model on my O Scale switching diorama. Your and Harry's next project - quarter inch model of Montana??!!!   Suspect that the reason CUT has survived is because it is owned by the City of Cincinnati, not a consortium of railroads. The railroads would have jettisoned the building long ago, as taxes and liability would have eaten them alive.   Another Cincinnati curiosity - the NS mainline south of the city - the old CNO&TP "RatHole Division" is also owned by the city of Cincinnati, and leased to the railroad.

This year the voters of Hamilton County approved a 170 million dollar tax levy to make much needed repairs to the Cincinnati Union Terminal, the building is an icon of the city and rally to save it and Music Hall was massive undertaking at both the grassroots level and by the social and political leaders of the community. It was hard fought, and for now only the CUT has been funded, but even in our very anti-tax environment the importance of the CUT was recognized. 

Like many other cities we've made choices as to what is important to us as community, to our sense of who we are, to our past and to our future. I am very proud to say that in Cincinnati, that choice was for keeping one of the grandest structures in the city, Cincinnati Union Terminal, not only alive, but thriving for the foreseeable future.

Wonderful news!  I lived in Cincinnati for 5 years in the '80's and it seemed like the city could always find money to build a new ball park on the river front. Glad good sense prevailed!

I love this station. Try to visit several times a year. This the the one I have been waiting for. Hope the price and size will be posted soon.

Never been to this part of Cincinnati or visited the station in person but have seen an amazing similarity just by watching Saturday morning cartoons in the 70s!!!! 

Amazing architecture!