Subway Or No Subway

How about some images?

I would do everything I could to save the subway.  The reasons you mentioned, artistic work, former Lionel employee built plus once it's gone, it's gone.

I would save the subway no matter what. Your space seems large enough that even with fifty feet of subway you still have plenty of room to create the rest of your layout. The subway offers interesting possibilities.

MELGAR

Thanks guys for your help.........I think you have convinced me to keep the subways and I am looking forward to making them a part of my layout. Check out the photos..........Thanks again!

Oh, heavens, yes, keep that subway!  It's a lovely piece of work; dare I say it, masterpiece?   

Mitch

Yes!

Fast, load, noisy basement with LED’s & lights = exciting!

 Well it’s been 15 or so years now. I just upgraded the tunnel modules to a new stand-alone layout at another location. Modules were standing upright in the closet for years and I thought the little ones would enjoy them. Had to give up the EL and yard which are on the home layout, oh well. I set the layout on 6 Home Depot plastic saw horses so the view for the kids is only 4' high right now. Also a great view for Grand Pa using a nice office chair. The sets out there are local sounds powered with my old ZW, I chose to make it kid proof also keeping the DCS PS2 & 3 sets home. Didn't want them blowing up by 5 yr olds.

All these old photos were 6mp? I will be taking new 20mp photos in July along with overall pics. I also forgot about a built in camera flash (arc simulator) with push button for the grand kids to mess with.

 Here are a few oldies to view……………………

SIRT,

That is a masterpiece of a subway model!

I took the ferry to Staten Island last week. Thought you might be interested in this picture on Staten Island Rapid Transit...

MELGAR

Duane, was the person living in Flagstaff, AZ?  If so, I had the opportunity to visit him some years ago and agree.  His subway was a true work of art.  Fortunately, I have the photos I took during the visit.

I am so glad you were able to save it.  Please do incorporate it into your layout.

Thanks Mel, lots of modern day changes I see there. Good photo. 

Sirt,

How cool and incredible..........Thanks for inspiration.

PeterA

Steve Bales is the guy who constructed the layout and lived in Flagstaff. Steve worked for Lionel in the early 50s and was in charge of the showroom layout and then repairing. Steve lived in my neighborhood and I never knew he had this incredible layout until last year. Steve got sick and had to sell everything. He was throwing out an acrylic train case by the road and that's how I discovered his layout. A train broker from the east coast came and purchased all his trains. He had over 500 engines and 2000 rolling stock. The train broker came and purchased the trains before I knew what was going on. The family told me they figured Steve collection was valued close to a million dollars and the train broker gave them pennies on the dollar........Kind of made me sick! I never saw Steve's trains only stories on what he used to own.  I was left with Steve's incredible scratch built buildings and also a very rare Lionel paper collection. If you want to hear the whole story listen to the Notch 6 podcast episode #107 titled the Lionel Employee In The Neighborhood. Thanks guys for all your help!

500 engines at 200 each?  fair price these days?  2000 rolling stock at 30 each, thats 150,000 max.  Are we leaving our wife and kids a fortune or one big headache?  My plan is to sell to the dealer and call it good. 

I agree with you if we would have been talking $150,000 but the figure was $35,000....And from what I could gather Steve had a Hudson collection that was spectacular. He was able to buy postwar Lionel at a discount because he was an employee and from what I heard he bought everything. I understand train brokers need to make a living and that's the way I will most likely sell my trains........But I think this broker took advantage of the situation.

MELGAR posted:

SIRT,

That is a masterpiece of a subway model!

I took the ferry to Staten Island last week. Thought you might be interested in this picture on Staten Island Rapid Transit...

MELGAR

Mel/SIRT:  Wow!  There certainly have been some changes made in Stapleton since scenes from "Working Girl" were filmed there.  Not recognizing the clean "new" building in the background, I wandered up and down Bay and Front Streets, using Google Earth, and found it on the corner of Bay and Prospect.  I see that the Paramount is still there but still dead and also the attached row of shops where the railroad's authorized jeweler had his business.  He cleaned and adjusted my Hamilton Railway Special which was stolen years later on Memorial Day weekend while I was at The Shore.

The watch has been replaced, several times over, but the memories cannot be.  Thanks for the visit.

RTHolmes,

I'm impressed that you recognized it as Stapleton - which it is!!! Here are a few more pictures I took that day.

MELGAR

MELGAR posted:

RTHolmes,

I'm impressed that you recognized it as Stapleton - which it is!!! Here are a few more pictures I took that day.

MELGAR

Don't be too impressed with my powers of recognition.  I lived on The Island for 20 years and was employed by the railroad for 16 of them.  There is only one viaduct on the Perth Amboy Subdivision and only one station on the viaduct and that is Stapleton. I am prepping an upstairs room in my shop  to house the North Shore Subdivision including a four track representation of what I call the "Grand" St. George Terminal which burned in 1946.  The Grand's platforms were open air and the period I'm modeling, 1945, saw electric commuter service and both steam and diesel freight service.

There were lots of freight customers in 1945, now there are none save for the container port which operated by the New York Container Terminal (NYCT) and served by ConRail Shared Assets.  Rail access to Staten Island is made via the Arthur Kill (AK) Bridge, the longest railroad lift bridge in the world.

There have been 2.5 models offered in O Gauge, all of them by MTH.  First was the ALCo S-2, credit for which can be placed largely at the feet of our friend Steve "SIRT".  The dialog, alone, is worth the price of the locomotive(s), if they were available; second is a GP40 in NYCT colors; and .5 is the series of BMT "Standards" the frame and guts of which will fit in body shells made by Island Modelworks.

Steve's layout is incredible, I had to look three times to assure myself that it was O Gauge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26OZTqq1v_8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlGvt5tp5XI

The double slip switch is called "The Diamond" by the employees despite the fact that it is not.  The word "diamond" is a lot easier to say than "double slip switch".   I have operated it by hand, several times, in order to move trains when St. George Interlocking was down.  The customers aren't interested in railroad operating problems, they just want to get to work on time and go home fast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TsOiyDKlM0

RIDE THE RAPID!

P.S.  Staten Island Rapid Transit is no "subway", it is a railroad.  There is only one tunnel, St. George Tunnel, and it is only 505 feet long.  The railroad was first built from Vanderbilt's Landing (Clifton) to Tottenville in 1860.  If you'd like to know more about the railroad and its history, follow this link:

http://www.thethirdrail.net/0201/sirt1.html

DwayneB, I have photos of Bales' layout from my visit.  If you would like a copy, contact me offline from my profile.  I would also be interested in hearing about the plans for your layout and how you will be integrating Steve's layout into yours.

Rapid Transit Holmes posted:

I am prepping an upstairs room in my shop  to house the North Shore Subdivision including a four track representation of what I call the "Grand" St. George Terminal which burned in 1946.  The Grand's platforms were open air and the period I'm modeling, 1945, saw electric commuter service and both steam and diesel freight service.

I would be interested in seeing your posts on this project when you get started.

MELGAR

Dwayne B posted:

Thanks guys for your help.........I think you have convinced me to keep the subways and I am looking forward to making them a part of my layout. Check out the photos..........Thanks again!

 Fantastic - and being a subway fan i would do what i can to preserve that subway. Or at least include a nice section of it on your layout.

Sean

NICE SUBWAYS GUYS

Dwayne B posted:

" On one hand I feel like I should use it since I went to so much trouble to save it "

Here's the long answer:

Absolutely Incorporate it. It's an interesting prospective that I've never seen before. Not to mention the history of its beginning, and your efforts to salvage it. 

Thanks for your encouraging words I have decided to keep the subway......I am currently in the process of going through all the wiring of the subway and doing my best to get everything back in working order. It is a ton of wires to sort out but slowly and surely I am making head way. Once I get things back in working in order I'll post more photos.

I would be proud to have a subway line of that calibre in my layout.