NYC and the High Line

M

mlplap7902

New member
I looked at the pic of the train on the line going through the building and the cars most likely are RPO's. The high line served the post office in NYC and I would think that a good deal of RPO cars could have been seen on the line.
 
Hi there,

I'm starting to develop an interest in the railways of New York City. Obviously being an Englishman on the other side of the Atlantic, my knowledge is not great and information limited.

Are there any books that you would recomend?

My main interests at the moment are the areas around Penn Station and Grand Central. I'm looking for books that outline the history of railways in these area's. Ideally they should have plenty of photo's and maps......including track plans. But i appreciate that may be a lot to ask from one book.

I'm also searching for books specifically about the 'High Line'. Again, plenty of maps and photo's etc.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Chris
 
nyc train resources

Hi Chris,

I don't know what sort of resources are available way over there in Britain, but you could not have picked a more well publicly documented theme for an American layout.

Arcadia Publishing is producing a series of mini books, very picture heavy, and New York is very well represented. You can find their catalog here http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/index.html. Their material is available on Amazon at a discount.

A few years ago the National Geographic Channel did a superb one-hour program on Grand Central Terminal. I believe it is available on DVD. Your public library may be able to lend it to you, or you might find it on Amazon as well.

There are no end of books on or near the subject, and a few Amazon searches should provide as many as you can read in a lifetime. I also recall seeing schematics of Grand Central and Penn Station, but cannot remember where. A couple of hours spent with Google should get you started. You might also check RailfanDepot for materials like track charts.

Hope this helps.

Bernie
 
 
JCitron said:
Hi Chris,
http://www.oldnyc.com/highline/contents/highline.html
John
Click to expand...

I have GOT to build this line!

Thank you all for providing the information and links above. Some great stuff there and it's very much appreciated.

I did do a search on Google, which came up with very little.....that does always seem to be the case when I use AOHell though!

I'll search the net again and see if I can find a book or two about the High Line. I'll need as many period images as possible if I'm going to create the atmosphere I want.......and this line certainly ouzes atmosphere!

I may have a bit of a problem with the buildings the track passes through, but we'll find away round that I'm certain.

Thank you once again

Chris
 
Hi Chris
Here's some photos of the High Line you might be interested in
pictures%5C18299%5Chighline_1930s-b.jpg

pictures%5C18299%5Chighline_1930s.jpg

I don't think this is the High Line but it's at 11th Avenue
pictures%5C8261%5Cpc8410.jpg
 
Oh, American Railroad the Beautiful!

Ah, American railroading, isn't it beautiful? I recomend Googling Grand Central Station or Penn Station on the web. Also, come over to America for a visit sometime! Its not complete until you see it in person!'
Cheers, Woody.:)
 
Check out this site to see the restoration and conversion of the line into a park. A truly amazing project, not only is the elevated structure being saved, but rails are even being reinstalled in their original location! Its great to see rail heritage being preserved like this.
http://blog.thehighline.org/tag/construction/
 
Great photo's Michael, thank you for sharing them with us.

Do you know what year they were taken? Also, is that a passenger train in the first one?
 
illinoiscentral said:
Also, come over to America for a visit sometime! Its not complete until you see it in person!'
Cheers, Woody.:)
Click to expand...

Considering the second hobby that dominates my spare time (see sig below), my Mrs is amazed that I've not been to America.

I am in regular contact with a number of Assistant Coaches at various Unuiversity's so will hopefully be able to arrange a visit in the near future.
 
Lord-Claud-Hamilton,
One good place I found for reasearch was train forums.
http://american-rails-forums.com/index.php
http://www.railroad.net/forums/index.php
http://forums.railfan.net/
Find an appropriate subject area, you can use areas for railroads that used the terminals/route, ask away.
Also Yahoo Groups have interesting information. One example is NYC-RR2. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NYC-RR2/
Has some PDF files related to the High Line, conversation happens on NYC-RR.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NYC-RR/
You find the most interesting stuff this way. In the past week some put up photos on another Yahoog Group, NYC-Railroad, showing Union Pacific's City of Los Angeles and M-10000 heading to Grand Central Terminal. Back then, UP's headquarters was in New York City and GCT was a place to showcase trains. I believe there was mention of a Southern Pacific train and maybe a couple of others too. Pennsylvania Rairoad and New Haven are the ones I know used Penn Station but there might have been others.
 
I came across this, which is very helpful.....

http://www.railroad.net/articles/railfanning/westside/index.php

I've started doodling with a layout, with the help of Google Earth. It wont be an exact copy by any means, but I hope ti catch some of the atmosphere of the line in the 50's.

May need some and advice on the correct content to use for the period i want to model - 50's and 60's....assuming some steam was still in use at the time.

Also need to find more photo's of the area at that time if possible.

For a start, what was the correct spacing between tracks at the time please?

Chris
 
The high line

The high line and all of the trackage in New York City was and mostly still is 3rd rail DC. The High line was never a steam route since New York City banned steam in the early 1900's. This is the reason that Grand Central Terminal nd the high line were powered by 3rd rail DC and that Grand Central was able to be built underground. Most of the trackage isn't actually under the Terminal itself but under partk avenue and several of the buildings around it. Even the Waldorf Estoria is built over top of the rail yard beneath the streeets. Currentl;y though I haven't found any of the Box Cab electrics that NYC used on it's electrifed division in the City for Trainz, maybe I am not looking in the right place though. I am looking for more PRR electric locomotives other the the GG1. I love to be able to have P5's and even the ex Great Northern YY2's that PRR redignated as FF2's. There are also a lot of New Haven electric loco's that I also love to be able to find.
 
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