Are there vendors that’s out there that make shelter’s similar to those in these photographs? If not, I guess that thin plywood or any thinly cut wood would be good for the canopys of the MetroPark train station. How can you make pixie glass like replicas? I want shelters like the one in MetroPark and Rahway train stations. How can I make or where can I buy these? Can wood pass as concrete high level platforms when painted?
ROAR
LIONS build high level platforms… Him has 45 platform edges.
LION has built them in many ways. It is important to not that the Proto 1000 IRT subway cars require taller platforms that regular railroad equipment. They are also narrower that other cars, and so clearances are also different.
LION started building his railroad before the subway cars were available, and so were built to regular railroad standards. Once the subway cars were available, I built them to subway standards, and full sized trains will not clear the platforms.
My first platforms used a 1/2" foam base, with a cardboard or hardboard platform deck. I have built them out of 2x4s cut and shaped on a table saw. All of my more recent platforms are made from 2" thick roofer’s fiberglass board. Again, this is shaped on the table saw.
Here is what the raw platform looks like, below is a decorated platform. Decorations are printed on a color laser printers.
Here is an elevated platform with a canopy. The platform was made from a 2x4, the canopy was made from wood.
The Parkside Avenue Station platform is constructed of fiberboard and cardboard, and the canopy is made of 1/8th inch foam.
The Dyckman street canopy is scratch built from basswood and plasticstruct parts.
I used Hydrocal castings for my subway platforms. I needed a lot of platforms, so I bought a single sheet of an Evergreen Plastics “tile” pattern, made a latex mold and then made a lot of castings from that. Hydrocal castings painted with spray primer look like concrete platforms.
Above ground, I scratch-built this shelter with styrene scraps and balsa wood.
Tichy Trains makes window frames in all shapes and sizes. For the glass barriers on the platforms, get a frame and use clear plastic for the glass. If it’s visible from both sides, sandwich the clear plastic between two frames.
Distorted glass can be easily made using a product called “Canopy Cement.” It’s a glue which dries clear, used for the canopies on aircraft models. Take a window frame with very small panes and fill the window spaces in with the Canopy Cement. When it hardens, it will be distorted, but light will shine through.
Mine are wood and Evergreen Plastics tile painted grey and weathered with very diluted black. The edges are painted yellow.
I thank you for your effort, input and the information you’ve provided. Can cork serve as a good concrete platform when painted?
The LION has moved away from painting platforms at the moment and into printing the platform deck and station back wall if any on a color printer (11x17 color Xerox) on card stock and then gluing it in place.
ROAR
I did that for the first two subway stations I built but I was not happy with them so I tore them back out.
Cork has a porous, textured surface that really doesn’t look much like concrete. Still, I would take a scrap of it and spray it with gray primer, to see how it comes out. It might be a reasonable substitute if you use the right paint. I’ve never tried it, but experimenting and finding a new technique is always a nice surprise.
If you’ve got a craft store like MIchaels or A.C. Moore nearby, pick up a sheet of 3/8 inch foamboard. If you use a very sharp knife, like a new utility knife blade or an X-acto knife, you can get sharp, clean corners. This is another material that can look very good if painted well.
Any hardware store, K-mart or Wal-Mart will have plastic “For Sale” signs for about a dollar. These are just sheets of styrene, and they’re cheaper than buying it from a hobby shop. Again, they’re easy to cut with a sharp utility knife.
Cork probably won’t make very convincing concrete, but a coat of lightened black (2 drops of white in a capful of black) might make convincing rolled asphalt. I have seen rolled asphalt platforms, but not in places where extreme high temperature can be expected.
Yellow chart tape would make a good representation of the platform edge safety strip.
Actually, thanks for an idea. I need to simulate rolled asphalt on my own raised station platforms.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with high platforms)
The LION had been using 1/4" yellow ribbon for his safety edge. On those platforms I painted the edge brown (to represent a wooden sacrificial edge) and the platform a shade of gray. The yellow ribbon was stretched across the edge, about 1/8" in to give a clean straight edge between the two colors.
Presently I am painting the platform edges yellow, and using the printouts that I showed you above which give a very clean edge. I can experiment with many different colors before I select one for printing on the final card stock. I can scale the texture to anything I like and even put designs on it as they might do in some of the fancier stations. LION uses a color laser printer, so the colors are far more stable than with an ink-jet, but even those can be sprayed with dull cote or something to fix the colors.
I will also have several stations wit similar station walls as if they were built at the same time by the same railroad company… Albeit that they are my own designs… What I would do if I ran the zoo.
ROAR
I appreciate the time and effort that everyone has shared with these wonderful resources.
Based on the pictures you might be able to use some of the walthers cornerstone platform kits. 2 out of the 3 different styles i was looking to modify to use as platforms for chicago myself.
Hi Alloboard
You can use wood paper (card) or plastic to represent concrete raised platfoms.
Often where a specific style of platform and shelter is required unless it is a very common style you have to resort to scratch building the kit makers tend only to make very common or generic styles of platform and shelter.
It looks like you want a very specific style, railroad and station so will probably have to make it.
regards John