After a four year delay I am finally starting on construction on a non-compressed, HO scale model of the CNJ Bronx terminal that once existed in New York. If you are unfamiliar with this freight house and are a trackwork nut like myself you should have a look, it was quite an interesting place. Hard to believe that such a place could have been built, and maintained for over 60 years, on a single acre of land!
I have been fascinated with it for quite some time, but have not been in a position to start work on it, until recently. I have documented progress on it so far, if you are interested have a look.
That’s FABULOUS, Tim!!! [tup][tup] I can’t wait to see it when you are done. Please post often so that we can see your progress. I may have missed it but what software did you use to make the 3D rendering and template? Beautiful trackwork!
Having lived my ‘formative years’ in Da Bronx, your short title got my attention (as in, “First, obtain title to a REALLY BIG hangar…”)
OTOH, the CNJ Bronx Terminal is definitely do-able. Your trackwork sample is outstanding! The fun part will be arranging rail gaps - or are you planning to use radio control and on-board batteries?
I like the comment in the article on the Harlem Transfer (same basic layout and operating scheme, about a quarter mile west of your prototype) in Model Railroad Planning, 2007. The author suggested that a little “selective expansion” might be a good idea!
Then comes the fun of prototypical interchange. Car floats, and a tug, on a tea cart? Don’t forget the string of skeleton frames the CNJ used to keep #1000 off the bridge and float.
All in all, a really fun prototype and a tracklayer’s challenge.
Thanks for the feedback! Its all very encouraging. If I can find a suitable radio control system that offers sound and can fit batteries into a very small locomotive I will use it, however, I did work out a method to cut the numerous gaps needed for this section of trackwork.
I will cut a few to demonstrate the process, but likely wait until it is ready to install before doing the rest, just in case I can find a suitable alternative. Since this place was isolated from other railroads, I don’t have to worry about using another other motive power on it.
The fact that it was isolated is what adds to its mystique. It will be operated, as suggested, from car floats to generate offline traffic.
I understand an article about it has appeared recently, but I have yet to read it. I prefer the Bronx Terminal, as I am a bit of a track junkie.
A few years ago, I traveled through the Bronx to see a Yankees game, and was amazed at the way the threaded the highway system through such a congested area. It’s hard to believe there is/was a railroad in the area as well. My most vivid memory was getting in the wrong lane and accidently exiting the freeway. I got a late night tour of the south Bronx with convertible top down. Lots of fun. I ended up going past the police station that I think was nicknamed Fort Apache and was the subject of a Paul Newman movie.
Being from the Bronx and having passed this location 1000’s of times it is an amazing place. Let’s not forget that that area, close to the Terminal Market was the distribution hub for much of the produce entering New York from around the country and other countries as well. The Bronx Terminal Market is still the place where you can find every produce vendor worth his/her salt at 3:00 am every morning to get the “freshest” produce. Anyway, I digress, your work is amazing.
PS: This was also the proposed site of a new sports stadium for the Yankees.
Did this terminal receive traffic via car ferry from the New Jersey shore, an interchange with the NYC’s main line into New York or both. Was it located on the Hudson River.
I really don’t know much about the operation of this place other than what was written in a couple of magazine articles in the 50’s. Perhaps others will know more. My main interest is duplicating that cool trackwork and freight house…
I remember the Bronx Terminal Market did at one time have rail service, although by the time I took a look in the early 1990s the sidings were long out of use (I think the connection went North and West under the Deegan to the NYC yard on the Hudson across from Yankee Stadium - hmm, looking at the map, the Market sidings probably came off the former freight route which headed southeast from the Hudson Yard under the Grand Concourse (er, upon reflection, that’s also the MN Hudson line, which joins up with the Hudson and heads south into Grand Central Terminal), then north up the Harlem line to Morrisania and then back around south via an almost 180 curve and the tunnel under St. Mary’s Park to Port Morris…nowaday freight goes by the Oak Point connection and that funky routing is no long used.
Please do keep us posted as I love street running & complicated trackwork. One thing I did where the street was level with the tops of the rails is spike my rail straight to the plywood base & fill the center up with plaster. I used a truck with some cookie cuttermflanges on the wheelsets to make flangeways & carefully wiped the plaster off the railtops. I used styrene or cardstock of the right thickness to pave the areas on each side of the tracks. One piece set on top of the spikes & the next came out with the top of the railhead. I was already handlaying TOs so it saved me flex track to use else where. BTW, is that HO scale? Tweet.
There was no land connection with anything! Every car arrived from Jersey City by car float.
The CNJ Bronx Terminal, and the other three terminals nearby, were on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. The Hudson shoreline was the route of NYC’s four track mainline - and not suitable for this kind of facility, since the Hudson could, and did, generate some fair-size surf when the wind was right.
Chuck (native New Yorker - who left, never to return)
I have been getting asked quite often about how I will wire this mess so I thought I would make up a diagram of one of the more complex pieces showing how it will be done.
What we are looking at is the first section of trackwork I built for the terminal, the lapped turnout engine house/apron lead. I have marked where the rails will be cut with a red line. These are the exact location of the cuts, and in some places it will be necessary to cut through the PC board tie as well.
Each isolated frog is coloured in a different colour to help visualize how it is to separated electrically from the rest of the trackwork. Each frog will be powered independently from the rest of the trackwork via relays driven from the switch machine contacts (tortoises). When a route is selected (I will be using route selection on the panels to simplify operation) the switch machines will determine which polarity each frog will be for a given route through the trackwork.
Its fairly simple when broke down to the basics, but will result it what appears like a complex jumble of wires, which of course, it is!
Fantastic work. looking at your site and Steve Cox site is getting me to thinking about relaying my trackwork by hand on my N scale Ogden layout. This is the kind of information I wish I would see more of in Model Railroader…
It has been pointed out to me by a sharp eyed modeler on The Gauge that I added a few too many gaps on the drawing below…
I have made the corrections and it created the larger pink section below, allowing the removal of two isolated sections, this will cut down on some wiring…
Thanks David for the suggestion!
The design work for the next section of trackwork is complete, and I am hoping to build it in the next week or so. This is the final section of complex trackwork for the terminal, after this piece there are a couple simple turnouts, and a crossover.
