Wow, simply wow.
I believe that this is the most realistic model photo I have ever seen. The only “give away” is the gentleman in the car on the far left.
Ray
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Hello Ray
Thanks for the nice compliment also. I try not to use many people on my layout as I buy the half decent economy (volume packs) of seated and standing various figures. I don’t want to pay $5.00 or more for Preiser or whom ever brands of very finely painted and detailed O scale people – would have to rob a bank to afford hundreds of them, heh. I avoid close up shots with model people. Or remove them if they “uglify” a good photo scene to shoot.
At least the car driver is in the background – so the car is not seen operating on the avenue with “no one behind the wheel”…heh ! Regards - Joe F
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You should be grateful they responded to you at all. Most companies today would just throw the drawings in File 13 and you’d never hear a word back as it would acknowledge you sent the idea to them. That woud help them to avoid a lawsuit or having to pay you royalties years later if they ever came out with a subway car. That’s the reason almost all companies reject customer ideas (outside of company run contests or surveys where the terms and conditions are explicitly laid out and you give up the rights to your ideas when you enter) and make sure they document that any such imput doesn’t result in a product (like a memo saying “This kid has a pretty good idea, what do you think”) That way, Lionel, in suburban New Jersey and with a famous display layout in Manhattan could reasonably claim that they were inspired by the surrounding scene and your letter had nothing to do with it. Game companies are famous for getting customer game ideas and extensively legally documenting that they are immediately thrown in the trash with no one reading the idea. BTW, there was a movement afoot around 1990 by the prototype RR’s to make model manufacturers pay royalties for using their logos and rolling stock paint schemes. The justification was "if we don’t defend them, they will become public properrty and they represent ecomomically valuable corporate symbols wi
Hello Rob !
ummmmm " !!!" ---- ??? Regards - Joe F
Translates into “out of words” or “speechless” (regarding your modeling)
Ask Model Railroading magazine to do an article on you. It should make the cover too. -Rob
Hello Rob
Thanks – I understand now, heh.
Looks like you and Colorado Ray are the only ones here actuvely following or commenting on this thread presently… Thanks BOTH for your support ! Doesn’t look like it would likely get much play as a potential MR Magazine article either ! regards - Joe F
I disagree! Ask them! I don’t know the procedure but you could message Steven Otte right on this forum. I guess they will want photos to make a decision. If you send them the ones you’ve been posting, they will be blown away. -Rob
While heavy transit might not be a frequent topic in MR, this thread has gotten the second most views of the recent threads. I think MR likes to feature quality work in any rail format.
Definately worth an article. We need to start a petition.
Ray
Frank, I have been following you since I got back into model trains in 2000. Please do not assume lack of interest in your work based on replies. I for one have literally been rendered “speechless” when viewing your work. I bet most others as well.
IMHO, your layout is number one in the top ten ever!
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Hello Chipset35
Thanks for your comments and support. I recognize your name-handle from other train forums – maybe you were on my own NYC Transit Modelers Group forum – I got an email notifying today me that you made a new post here to me on THIS thread.. I have been having trouble signing in with my email and password.for some time to classic trains and MR - this time they sent me a code by email to sign in. I do most of my hobby and layout and transit historian work communications on Facebook forums – one of which I ADMIN-Own. A lot has changed in the hobby since this thread was started in 2011. And we lost a number of transit related hobby guys who passed away since then, Or are too old to continue actively.. My FLICKR page is still active and a lot of newer photos re: model modeling work (HO and O) are on its albums and pages. I am still modeling and buiuldings models ! LINK: NY City Model Transit System on FLICKR and ALBUMS page - PHOTO ALBUMS page for layout on FLICKR
Anyway, good to hear from you again – have you done any modeling work on your end - transit or other ?
Regards - Joe F
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It’s good to see this thread again. You’ve done amazing modeling work!
We have not heard from Brother Elias (Lion) for quite a while. He was at an abbey in North Dakota, but he grew up in NYC. He had a large subway layout at the abbey. The last word we had from him was that he was moved into a nursing home. The layout was probably going to be taken apart.
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Hi Joseph,
I do not use Facebook, X, etc., only email and forums as I am an ex. Cyber Security guy and Social Media is taboo for us LOL!
I have 2 layouts; the first is O Gauge, and I started work on it back in 2011. It was supposed to be the NYCHRR in New York City from 1879 to 1900, Grand Central to Croton Harmon. I had purchased two really nice protoypical MTH Premier NYC 4-4-0 locomotives as a start. It featured the Park Ave (4th Ave.) stone viaduct thru Harlem and especially the old Harlem cut before they covered it over and built the steel viaduct in the late 1880s. Both are stil in use today by Metro North and Amtrak.
Unfortunately, after wasting 10 years experimenting and constructing/dismantling several times at teh 75% completion mark, I finally settled on my current layout which features Chicago Union Station BN, Amtrak and Metra on one end, while on the other end is a very compressed Park Ave with Grand Central in the distance. No scratch building as I have no scratch building skills and am allergic to any type of CA/Super glue and its variants (puts me in Emergency Room) to glue plastic together. The layout also has Lionel Metro North and LIRR transit trains, which is the extent of my elevated transit. It is “ok”, nothing even close to your work.
In addition, I started a N Gauge layout this year after I became frustrated with O Gauge prices as well as my 20 year old MTH DCS system biting the dust, which eliminated the use of all my cool MTH trains. I have a Lionel Scale “Red Bird” subway set that is having issues suddenly also.
My N gauge layout is “based” on Fred Soop’s famous “Chicago Union Station” AMTRAK layout in HO. It is an operations layout, and focuses on operations more than scenery, but includes Chicago Union Station, Harriston Tower, the AMTRAK and METRA yards, and Napperville station so far.
Did you ever read the old Scientific American Article on the “4th Ave Improvement NYC” and/or the “Catskill Archive” articles. The former is harder to find; but its there thru Joseph Brennan and his Columbia Edu “Abandoned Stations” website. While Catskill archive is readily available online. You might find the railroad history of that route from Grand Central to the Harlem river very very interesting.
Vince.
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BroadwayLion was a member of the forum that modeled the NYC subway. I believe he wa a monk in minesota.
various images for broadway lion and Lion subway may be of interest
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That is, unfortunately, the case. I was, of all people, hired to help disassemble it. Still, some small parts of the layout are going to be saved!
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Mark, the Lion was a longtime poster to this site’s Jeffrey’s Trackside Diner. Would you be willing to post some your information about Lion’s layout and what you did on that thread? I know the readers of the Diner would be happy to hear it.
I was in North Dakota last year near the abbey in Richardton, and I wanted to stop to see Lion. Unfortunately, time didn’t allow the stop.
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Sure! I’ll head on over to the Diner right away!
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Hello York 1
Thanks for the posting – and for the nice comment on my work. I had read somewhere that Bro. Elias aka Broadway Lion had taken a bad fall sometime in or around Aug.2024 and broke an arm and shoulder. He had to have surgery and was put into a nursing home for rehab. I don’t know if he is back at the Abby - Monastery. I read also that he is now unable to climb (ladder, stairs ??) up to wherever the large HO layout is. I now see here that its going to be taken apart. That is very unfortunate ! I have seen his HO Subway layout and modeling work for what, 20 years, on the internet. We had some contact with each other at times on the SUB CHAT board and on one or two other forums. Well, the end of the layout is sad news !!
Regards - Joe F
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Hello Vince (Chipset35)
Thanks also for the detailed reply.. This is site here is quirky for me for the past year or so. .Again, I got an email to my email acct (that same acct I use to sign in here also) that you sent another message. I click VIEW MESSAGE on it – and I get taken over here to sign in. When I log in, I put my email in (its saved as an email line below the entry box to click and copy paste) into the the entry box. The email address is shown spelled perfectly correctly. When I do that, it now shows my password in dots in the password box below.. And when I use the “eye” icon to open password to check it, it is also the correct password. When I click on LOG IN – I get a popup notice stating either my user name or email address is incorrect !!! It then gives me the option to have a pass-code emailed to my email (the same email they state is incorrect ha ha !) . They send it, I open it in my email account, and use it (click it) to complete the log in. And I am THEN logged in ! A real P I T A
Any idea what is happening ??? That’s why I don’t come here much any more. – can’t seem to find, contact, a live person at the site here to effect a reason and a fix.
Anyway - I remember your New Haven NYCRR and Park Avenue modeling endeavors long ago - I forgot about them.
Re: the MTH Trains – if old circuit boards go bad, and are too old to be replaced with same, many guys I know “gut” the locos or power cars, of the circuit board and tecno crap, and wire the motors to the center roller and trucks in “conventional” or analog 3 rail mode. 1 wire (the "hot or + wire) from each can motor goes to the truck center roller, and he other negative ( - ) wire from each motor goes to the metal floor or to a screw on the truck itself.— for negative return thru both running rails. You can hook all lights up the same way after separating their wires from the circuit board. That can be done with Lionel also, K Line, and etc. At least you now have an OPERATING locomotive instead of a dead paperweight or door stop loco…!! THAT’S WHY 50 or more years older Lionel (and other) and American Flyer and HO trains still run in their direct conventional mode. - if the motor itself is still operable.
Yes, I did read the Catskill Archives and Scientific American articles – somewhere on my other computer I have the link to them if they even exist. Joe Brennan - I knew him well from his articles. I saved the articles on the Fourth Ave improvements.
Regards - Joe F
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Joseph, don’t copy/paste, instead type it in manually, all of it. In the past I experienced the same thing on many sites where copy/paste is causing issues. Also for security reasons always better to type in and not save, remember usernames. email addys and passwords.
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