I’m looking at the Walthers butterfly platform roofs and wondering where they would be used?
I’m also wondering what would happen if they were used where Bi-level cars were run… would people on the upper deck be able to see the top of the canopies?
Reason for my questions is that I’m beginning to look at (sub)urban passenger commute services and wondering what the station facilities would be in the inner city areas rather than the dormitory suburbs… which is where most pics seem to be taken… presumiably because there is more space there and it’s safer.
Which raises another question… do the bi-levels stop between the central terminal and the subuirbs… and, if so, how often / at what sort of station/platform?
Thanks in anticipation of the usual great help [8D]
A prime example of butterfly sheds is in the New Haven Union Station on the New Haven Railroad. They are still there, though the platforms have been raised to accomodate the new high entry trains like the Acela. They are of a very simple construction which I intend to replicate with plastic of similar structural materials. The upright post is an H beam, which supports an I beam cross piece perpendicular to the tracks. On top of those at the ends are run outer I beams, for the length of the platform shelter. There is another I beam bracketed flush to the top of the posts resting on angle brackets that runs between the posts. The roofing is supported by the I beams with a slope to the lower one in the center for drainage. There are downspouts between the webs of the H beams through the platform. Each post is mounted in a cylindrical concrete base about a foot hight. The eaves of the roofs extend to about 12 inches from the edge of the cars and about the height of the roof line. This provides clearance for even high liner type of equipment. You are right, those passengers upstairs are looking down on the roof. Near as I can tell from aerial photos the roof was either covered with tarpaper or the tar and sand method. I am planning to use the latter which can be done by gluing small grit wet or sand paper and giving it a spray of medium gray paint to weather it. If you make a jig on a plank, you can saw up a bunch of the parts needed and set them in the jig, glue them, and make em by the bushell. I am planning to have four or five jigs on the plank so that when I get to the end I can go back and start all over again. The last one I made I used wood shapes which I do not recommend. By the way, the posts appear to be on 10 foot centers.
Bi-level gallery coaches fit quite well in Chicago Union Station, where the station and approach tracks have been pretty well built over, and at La Salle St. Station, which now uses butterfly platform roofs. The platform roofs do not extend over the track.
City stations are not all that different from suburban stops except for the space constraints created by the fact that the tracks are on embankments in older parts of Chicago. In the Chicago area, ground-level platforms are the rule, except on the former IC electric lines, which have high-level platforms.