I was discussing engine-cams with a vendor at a show this weekend, and realized that I’m close to the point where I’ll have to build my subway tunnels. I plan to use a camera (eventually), so I’ll have to provide “scenery” inside all the tunnels, about 20 linear feet worth. As stations will take up the straightaways, most of the tunnels will be on curves.
Does anyone have suggestions for modelling these? They aren’t going to be cut rock, like you’d see in a mountain tunnel.
I can’t remember where, but there’s a video out - a documentary that discusses those folks that live in the subway tunnels in NYC. Haven’t seen it, but would think there would be some good info there.
There are also some web sites that have pics of the subways being built which includes some interior views of the subway tunnels. i think the sites are listed on the thread I started concerning buying individual Proto subway units. If not, google always works.
I’ve a book called “Interborough Rapid Transit: The New York Subway, Its Construction And Equipment.” First printed in 1904 by the IRT. Lots of photos of the tunnels, etc.
I’ve seen this book digitized online, possibly at the Project Gutenburg site http://www.gutenberg.org though a quick search there turns up nothing.
You might be able to get this book through interlibrary loan or I could send a link to where you can buy a used copy online. If all else fails, you can borrow mine.
Wayne
YOu could use black corrogated drain pipe with a section cut out. The ribs would look like archways and make sure you can see the motion of the train, since the cam will see them whizzing by.
Dave H.
Id use liquid cement molded around an 6" pvc pipe although it’s gonna be heavy.
Looking out the windows of the T in Boston, the walls are plain flat walls that are pretty grimy black. in some places there are shallow archways set into the wall, where workcrew can duck in when a train passes. There’s posts down the middle between the tracks. Lots of pipes and conduits running down the length of the ceiling. A working signal system would be key to liven up the video with appropriate lights as the train is approaching each station. In addition to the Green, Yellow, and Red lights you would expect facing towards the train, there’s also a white light that faces ahead of the train towards the passenger platform, its mounted on the side wall. That light goes off a few seconds before a train approaches, presumably a warning for any workers to clear the tracks
Fun bits for the train cam would be abandoned stations with older style station signs, and a good place for squatters, and abandoned track that veers off into unused tunnels, or alligator dens [:)]
Cheers,
Mo
Oh, and don’t forget that there’s small billboard ads running between the tracks, just about the full length of the platform. These are hung on beams that run along the upright posts, facing across the track to the platform where everyone will stand and stare at them while looking for the train. There will be some ads spaced along the wall at the back side of the platform, as well as system maps of the subway, and maybe large scale street maps. Interchange stations for multiple lines may have news kiosks or coffee stands set into the wall too.
–Mo
Good ideas, thanks. I’ve been thinking of handing in my dime at the Scollay Square station and taking the digital camera to explore Boston’s T myself. I e-mailed their security types about whether photography is allowed, but they never got back to me.
I’ve been thinking of using thin styrofoam for the walls, or maybe even cardstock paper printed with some sort of grungy brick. The roof is going to be the base for the ground layer of scenery and track. It will be single-track most of the way.
If you explore around the T, just don’t become another Charlie.
[:D]
I’m dating myself. Well, not really, because that actually goes back BEFORE my time.
–Randy
I’ve wandered all about the back areas of Scollay Square Station (now Government Center) taking pictures. I don’t know if its allowed, but no one yelled at me [:I] A few workers saw me and didn’t yell. I even asked them if they knew where the old Scollay sign was (actually, I knew where it had been and had already spotted it was gone, but it was a good excuse to chat with them and establi***hat I had some sort of reason for being there; they didn’t know what I was talking about at all, but pointed off down one of the back hallways. So I thanked them and went trooping off down the hallway, taking that as close enough for permission, and giving me a good alibi in case of future encounters)
Someday I might make a micro layout of just the station. Since it includes a wye that was previously used for turning trolleys that aren’t continuing outbound, all you need is a cross-over just past the station on the inbound tunnel so cars can return, and it would be a full functioning layout.
There’s a stretch of abandoned platform along the wye that for years still had an old Scollay Square sign left over from the remodelling in '63 when it became Govt Ctr. You could see it out the window coming into the station. Alas that sign went away not too long ago. But that abandoned platform now leads to some short hallways, doors to storage rooms, and a stairway up to a grating in the brick pavement of City Hall Plaza!
If you poke around beyond the platforms to peak at the trackwork, those grimy black walls are indeed pretty grimy, so wear clothing you don’t mind getting grimed.
For pre-published photo references, Arcadia Publishing has a couple of books on Boston:
Cheers,
Mo
Did he ever return?
Wayne
No, he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned! (I remember this song from Boy Scout Camp - used to be a favorite!).
One distinctive feature of the walls of the subways I’ve been on (Toronto, Montreal, Washington DC, Atlanta, Prague, Berlin, Budapest) is that there are often cables on hangers along the walls, and these are often not straight, but hanging in gentle curves between the hangers -so that if you’re looking out the subway windows the cables seem to be going up and down as the train passes by. Against the plain, flat, concrete (usually) walls, this is quite dramatic. Some lines also had pipes running outside the tracks - I was told these were for carrying the water being pumped out of low spots.
Jim
At an elementary school function some years ago, the grandfather of one of my daughter’s classmates showed up and sang that song. He claimed to be the original author. I’ve got no way to either confirm or refute this. It was originally a campaign song for George O’Reilly, who was running against the fare increase. When I was a student in the Boston area many years ago, I was surprised to see that they still had the system of pay-as-you-enter AND pay-as-you-leave in place on some of the light-rail lines.
This is a pretty cool site which discusses the song.
he may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston! He’s the man who never returned!
The Kingston Trio had the hit record not too long after thier hit of Tom Dooley. The story making the rounds at the time said the MTA song had actually been a campaign song for a Boston politician. The last line on the hit version was “Fight the fare increase, vote for George O’Brian, get ol’ Charlie off the MTA.”
Since this subway thread has taken a turn on to the folk music track, a logical suggestion for modeling the the T would be to have tiny speakers playing music of the musicians who regularly perform there.
Peter Mulvey actually recorded his album “Ten Thousand Mornings” on a Boston subway platform. There is a CD of tunes by other Boston subway musicians whose title escapes me. An album of NY musicians is “Subplay: Subway Musicians of New York .”
When Mike Dukakis was governor of Mass. he rode the trains regularly and somehow got musicians from the Bostons Symphony to play on the platforms, so perhaps some chamber music might be heard over the sounds of your trains.
Wayne
Not to put a damper on the plans, but isn’t that tunnel going to be awefully dark. Most portable cams like that don’t do very well in low light situations.
This leaves you with two options:
Sorry, hate to be the negative Nelly on that one…But it does sound like a neat idea.
I’ve noticed that the “cut and cover” method of excavating subway tunnels results in flat ceilings and side walls braced with 45 deg. angle steel members from walls to ceiling (appx. 4 ft. below ceiling level). Then, tunnels that were bored with boring machines have a semi-circlular appearance (more common in Europe). As I recall, both Boston and N.Y.C. subways were the “cut and Cover” sort. There are many excellent suggestions for added details to make an otherwise lack luster environment more interesting. Would it be too far a “stretch” to have strings of scale incandescent light bulbs spaced at perhaps 20 scale feet intervals along the walls? I seem to recall this feature on the I.R.T. line “uptown.” These lamps were of a yellow hue and not the bright white light we expect today. In the stations, florescent tubes were commonly used for a very bright “white” illumination. I believe there are sound effect recordings of subway trains still available, maybe Google? Best of luck on this most unique challenge.
I wouldn’t give a hoot that you typically can’t read a book inside a subway tunnel. Put a string of lights in there on a dimmer and crank those babies up to daylight brightness when you run your camera train. We want to see video!
Wayne