A little background info, I’m modeling the Cleveland lakefront on the lower level of the layout and Mingo junction on the upper level. In order to keep the train direction sincere to the prototype I was planning on a helix at the East end of the lower level which would be the north end of the upper level.
I was having a hard time figuring out how to hide the helix.
So yesterday I was sorting through photos to pick out which ones to use for my backdrop. I had one that I thought I could use behind the Whiskey Island ore dock. In the photo background was the old Cleveland municipal stadium. The photo was taken from Whiskey Island so I thought I had a good match.
Till I started to try to reconcile the photo with the location of where I thought the stadium was. The background of the photo was all wrong, no Cleveland skyline just a view out over the lake. Examination of the tracks in the picture showed that the camera was pointing ENE rather than south.
Um oops, apparently when I googled the location of Cleveland stadium I wasn’t specific enough about which stadium I wanted to locate. Some searching showed that the Municipal stadium was right on the lakefront east of the pennsy coal dock not south of the ore dock. Bummer.
Hey, wait a minute! The stadium is actually where the helix needs to be, the stadium is a giant round structure. A helix is a giant round structure! The prototype tracks went past the south side of the stadium, the model tracks will too. I can hide the helix in the stadium!
Ok maybe not the complete helix but enough to make things look right. Now I have to find the right pictures of the stadium.
IIRC, the new Browns stadium sits right over the exact site of the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which was torn down after the '96 season when the Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens. I remember seeing a track map of CUT and all the various RR (Pennsy, Erie, etc.) stations and yards around the Cleveland area from the early 30s. However, I can’t remember if it was online or in a book. I think it also included the track plans of NYC’s Collinwood (east) and Lindale (west) yards.
Tom, you’re correct, I think I was literally getting turned around since most picture seem to be taken from land placing the tracks in the foreground. Not to mention I’m not much of a sports fan. Either way I had an accident with a happy ending.
Re the map, if it’s the one I’m thinking of it was a map of the month in Trains magazine a few years ago. I have it saved and used it for design of the track plan. I don’t recall if it called out the stadium
It could have been pre-CUT (i.e. pre-1926) or very early CUT (1930). Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built the same year as Severance Hall (1931), which is home of the Cleveland Orchestra.
I’ll have to see if I can find that city map with those track plans. It could have been the one in that Trains Magazine you mentioned. Does it dictate a specific year?
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from an article by Mike Tylack many years ago in which he said one of the keys to good scenery is learning to keep the lucky accidents. That has come into play many times over the years. Often the effect achieved is even better than the one I intended.
I have a medium sized city on my layout and I wanted to have a downtown sports stadium. I quickly figured modeling it in 3-D wasn’t practical so I decided to make it a backdrop structure. It was hard finding a picture of a stadium with the right perspecive. Most pictues are taken too close to give the proper sight lines. Finally I came across a picture of the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium taken from across an empty parking lot behind center field. That was one of the largest stadiums in the country and too big for the mid sized city I was putting it in but it was easy to scale it down and it looks just right partially hidden behind the foreground structures, the shallow backdrop structures and building flats. It’s a great addition to my urban scene. I did the same with an old indoor arena.
Tom, iirc the Trains mag map was for 38 or so and simply tracks color coded for railroad. It didn’t call out many landmarks other than CUT and railroad related stuff. Not sure it even included highways. They looked a lot like Ed’s samples.
Ed, that postcard is a very good example of what I’m modeling, just a deeper view. I fully plan on having the Terminal Tower on the backdrop due to the family connection. The stadium is just an identifible landmark.
Using the stadium to hide the helix is more or less specific to what I’m modeling. Sure Three Rivers might work too if one is doing Pittsburgh. It works better than a mountain on the lake front…
Actually, the aerial picture seems to indicate that I might be able to fit the helix in the stadium…
