I couldn’t wait building my first structure for my new New York Central Westside Railroad project. By now I had gathered enough experience with scratch-building structures that gave me the confidence to dive into a bigger and more complex project. I planned to make the Terminal Warehouse a signature building on my layout so it was a good candidate. It is located on Eleventh Avenue between 27th and 28th Streets. It was opened in 1891 as a railroad freight facility and warehouse. Its unique characteristic is the tunnel leading from front to back with two railroad tracks. The tracks were served by the Eleventh Avenue Railroad through the front portal and by the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad on the back through their West 28th Street Freight Station. The structure extends along the full block between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenue and is between seven and nine stories high.
The warehouse is entirely built of bricks and has big round arched windows at the front and segmented arched windows on the side. But by far the most recognizable feature of the building is its fortress-like front with its huge portal for the freight line – big enough for the steam switchers of the early twentieth century – and the corbeled parapet. The building is currently (2022) wrapped in a mesh netting and under a scaffolding while a developer is remodeling the entire complex.
Adaptation to the Layout
For my purpose I had to make a few compromises. First, I had to move it to Tenth Avenue so it could be served by my street-level Westside Railroad. I then reduced its height to 6 stories from 7. Plus I had to cut its depth so it would fit between Tenth Avenue and the High Line. This turned out to be a bad idea as the building would have been too small. The only way out was to cut the high line through the building. I quickly got used to this idea since there are a number of buildings along the High Line through which the railroad cuts through.
With that limitation of the building’s depth gone, I could have used the entire length of the block for it. That’s not what I wanted, though. How interesting would a freight stub ending in a tunnel be for operations? So now, the Terminal Warehouse and with it the tunnel track ends after 13″. There’s some space left for an industry that I haven’t decided yet what it’ll be. And there may be some space left for switching, too.
Another constraint was the width of my module. The block between two streets and their sidewalk is only 11″ (28 cm), consequently I had to reduce the width of the warehouse accordingly. I could not find exact measures of the building and its components, so had to estimate many details. Using my laser meter on site turned out to be more difficult. It gave me some heights but the numbers varied and I felt they were not very reliable.
At least I had my own photos and Google street map to get the proportions correct. I also calculated window sizes by counting bricks and using typical brick dimensions (one of the segmented arched window on the backside of our building helped me to confirm the sizes). My Terminal Warehouse would be a much smaller copy of the prototype. But the overall size of 11″ by 13″ by 6.5″ would be still sizable for an N scale structure.
Design and Approach to Construction
I started by designing and building the building front. The parapet was the first test of my design skills. I had to use several layers of 1/16″ MDF and 1/32″ basswood to get the right three-dimensional impression. Painting was always the next step after cutting and involves multiple passes. I use diluted white enamel paint to fill the mortar lines. Next, I carefully apply a mix of burnt Siena, raw Siena and white with a sponge. Often I have to reapply the white enamel solution and again correct a too white wall with that brick color mix. I’d finally tone down the bricks with a light pass of Titanium White from my airbrush. This gives the brickwork a more even texture and more aged appearance.
I built the warehouse in two stages. First, the section between the High Line and Tenth Avenue and second, the one with the elevated tracks cutting through the building. That second structure has a similar front on Twelfth as the one on Eleventh Avenue, except that it is simpler and does not have these accentuated tower-like corner sections. Those corners also have a counterpart on the sides. They have identical windows as on the front except that every floor has the same number of windows in an identical configuration. For the part in between the two front sections I chose a five-window and a three-window unit. I kept the number of stories to six even though some of the prototype sections tower over the front with two additional floors.
Adding Windows, Doors and Wall Details
The size of the structure and its internal support make it impossible to access the exterior walls from inside once they have been assembled. That’s why adding windows comes in very early in the construction process. I use two layers of lazerboard for single hung windows. The windows of the Terminal Warehouse are all single hung windows, even the round arched ones. The window frame with the lower (inner) sashes is glued right onto the back of the exterior wall as one piece. The upper (outer) sashes have a thin frame and can be applied from the outside through the window openings.
I spray paint the windows after cutting and before glueing them onto the walls. The acrylic paint – even if it’s just a thin layer – makes the window material flexible and give the delicate pieces additional strength. When both layers are in place and the glue has cured, I add window glazing from inside. The mullions and muntins are less than 0.4 mm thin and can easily break. Very little glue secures them on the window glazing and makes them more robust. With the window frames I also had to add the window sills made of 1 mm scale lumber.
Historical photos of the Terminal Warehouse clearly show that what looks like arcades on both West 27th and 28th Street are freight doors. Some arches I was able to inspect more closely (under the scaffolding) reveal a proper loading dock with a floor about 30″ above ground. Fortunately, my own photographic material helped me designing the details even though many doors have changed over the last 50 or so years. I used the same lazerboard material and techniques to build the front and freight doors. Another detail I had to add were the wall anchor plates. Many units along West 27th and 28th Street still show the plates and I didn’t want to miss them on my model. I had to simplify the elaborately shaped plates, some of them in fresh black paint, for my purpose, however.
Building the Internal Support Structure
Once I had the exterior walls assembled, painted and windows and doors added I had to worry about bracing. The structure is so large that I had to carefully plan an abundance of floors and internal walls. Not only I needed them for a stable building but I also wanted to emulate the internal structure as far as I was aware of it. For instance, since I planned to lay track through the tunnel, I had to add walls and floors that would give me a closed tunnel with doors and windows – just like the real one.
The resulting three-dimensional system of interlocking floors, lateral and longitudinal walls ended up so complicated that I had to write down the sequence of how to assemble it. Nevertheless, complicated as it was, it would hold together the building without glue. Having proved that, I went ahead, airbrushed interior walls, floors and ceiling, and finally glued them before also gluing the exterior side walls to the structure.
Finishing the Facade
The model wouldn’t be a good replica of the prototype if it did not have the typical metal shutters. Many archive photos of the Terminal Warehouse show that the entire building had them. This makes sense when we recall that the warehouse was served as a cold storage for luxury items. Only staircases were exempt. I was lucky enough to find a few windows that still had the original shutters.
Again, I had to simplify the design but tried to retain the key characteristics. A two-layer design cut of 0.015″ lazerboard provided the typical appearance for both open and closed shutters. I also developed simple braces for a version where the two wings were half open. I only had to pass on the rivets and the well visible hinges of the prototype. A dark gray gives it a realistic appearance.
Check out my previous blog post in which I covered connecting the Terminal Warehouse to the street track in detail. To simplify the design I only decided to build a single track through the tunnel. The prototype has dual tracks. Building the High Line dual tracks through the building was definitely a simpler task. Since there is no such thing as a High Line in the real Terminal Warehouse, I had to be a little bit creative.
I chose a 3-window wide section similar to the one further to the front and I used the same tunnel portal-like opening as at the front. For my model, I designed the semicircular arch with 11 rows of bricks (“voussoirs”), carefully offset. I had to sacrifice the beautiful segmental arched windows of four stories for the portal. Only the bottom row of freight doors and the top row of windows could stay. I had to make sure that the tracks were elevated enough so they would not cut too much into the minimum clearance outline of the tunnel. The tunnel has no lining but I added walls. This would make sure that a passenger train with interior lighting would not leak light through the building’s windows.
I’ll cover the track work and bridges leading to and from the tunnel through the Terminal Warehouse in a separate blog post.
The last step involved gluing the front facade to the internal structure. Gluing the corners such that both walls are flush is always a challenge with my design. The Terminal Warehouse is built 100% with bricks, including corners. There are no quoins in the corners which can help hiding the edges. Also, my engraved brick walls do not have mortar lines on the cutting face and there is no easy way to add a texture. I cut 1/16″ wide stripes on 0.011″ lazerboard and engraved them with the same brick pattern as I used on the walls. Gluing them on the cutting face of the MDF wall covers the cut. It still doesn’t completely close the gaps and edges, though.
I still have to do more work later. The model has a very incomplete roof since I’m not closing the top before having added internal lighting. With the roof I’ll also have to add some details. The historical building had a pretty big rectangular smoke stack and several water towers. In addition, it has several small structures on the roof. For now at least, I call it a model, and it will be a great first signature structure on my Westside Railroad layout.