Congested Urban Areas


paper-tiger

paper-tiger

Member
For anyone who lives in or near or is modeling a congested urban area... What sort of buildings tend to be right next to the tracks. Preferably the tallest ones you can think of. I have this small space with some unnatural height to it, and I would like to kind of kitbash two different scenes in to it, but there is a whole city block worth of space where I need some kind of actual, relatively solid building that is at LEAST 3 HO-scale stories tall, but would also make sense directly next to a track, with a switching yard very nearby. I was thinking about a really tall warehouse or generic factory for some of the space, but has anyone actually seen taller apartment buildings next to tracks? Where I live, there is residential space directly abutting tracks and even switching yards, but they tend to be 1-2 story houses. We don't actually have any buildings more than 3 stories around here, with the exception of one or two scattered hotels.
If you know of a good example, would you link me a picture? I'm trying to get some ideas for ways to "make it work".
Thanks for any help!

Also, what do you put in the extra space between tracks on your switching yard? Does it tend to be paved all over? Ballasted? I have seen one IRL switching yard that just had bare river sand/silt in between, and one that was kind of graveled. What do you model?

Thank you!
 
In Baltimore there are no tall buildings next to open track. Tracks run just outside the downtown area through smaller buildings (1 to 5 stories).

Where the tracks do run near buildings it tends to be warehouse type places. Or in one case its the Ravens football stadium. CSX freight lines run a block away.

There are lines that run right through the city but they are tunneled under everything so you cant see them.

As the lines run into the denser part of the city by houses and stuff the train lines are in a man made gully so that the tops of the freight cars end up being street level with the road surface next to it. There are lines here that run through residential neighborhoods that way. Google Baltimore CSX retaining wall collapse for an interesting story about that.

But aside from the Light Rail trolley there is no place in Baltimore where a train runs right next to a 40 story office building or something.
 
Skipjacks said:
In Baltimore there are no tall buildings next to open track. Tracks run just outside the downtown area through smaller buildings (1 to 5 stories).

Where the tracks do run near buildings it tends to be warehouse type places. Or in one case its the Ravens football stadium. CSX freight lines run a block away.

There are lines that run right through the city but they are tunneled under everything so you cant see them.

As the lines run into the denser part of the city by houses and stuff the train lines are in a man made gully so that the tops of the freight cars end up being street level with the road surface next to it. There are lines here that run through residential neighborhoods that way. Google Baltimore CSX retaining wall collapse for an interesting story about that.

But aside from the Light Rail trolley there is no place in Baltimore where a train runs right next to a 40 story office building or something.
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Thank you! I think it'd be cool to model a building that big, but it would be so, so expensive. The biggest building I've ever seen RIGHT next to a train track is actually a hospital, and they shaped the building around the curve of the track because it would be cheaper to build right up to it than pay the railroad to move the line.
17033127_BG1.jpg This is the Legacy Building of Gundersen Health Systems in LaCrosse, WI. Sorry for the tiny pic, I couldn't find any 'actual' photos from this angle. The long, curving 'sidewalk' is actually a track. I'll have to take a couple of photos when I go up there, again.



It is good to know that the tracks-in-a-gully thing that is happening on my layout is possible, though, because I definitely don't see it around here. Must be concrete sides. (Easier to model than fieldstone!)
 
Would a grain elevator work for your plan? They should be tall enough to work as a view block and are commonly right next to the tracks. One more thing..........it's your railroad and you can do whatever you want.:)
 
Usually you will find older buildings closest to the railroad because as railroads came to town, businesses and factories wanted to be close to the railroad. In some cases urban renewal may have demolished some of the older buildings for more modern facilities. These older buildings for the most part weren't very tall. Get on Google Earth and check out different areas.

Passenger stations would be a different story as the railroads did want to get their passengers close to the center of the cities they serves.
 
I've seen things like a brewery, in a four storey old brick building, with lots of fermentation tanks that backs onto the tracks. In old areas of New England, there are lots of three and four storey old mill complexes and warehouses that all backed onto the tracks.


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https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7454805,-97.3278651,326m/data=!3m1!1e3

in fort worth, where 35 and 30 come together they converted the old texas and pacific station into apartments. up runs the tracks right next to it, along with trinity railway express. it is right next to tower 55 where there are two north-south tracks that intersect two east-west tracks. amtrack also has a station right around the corner.

not sure how tall the building is, but easily more than three stories tall.
 
I think you will find that a lot of Track Side Buildings are whare houses or factories. Even if their not, you couldn't wrong going that route. One option you may have, instead of forking out money for kits to (if needed) kit bash, is to scratch build a building or two. Pretty much 2 or 3 rectangular shaped structures of different levels - one say 2 floors, another 3 and another 4. Building a rectangular structure isn't hard to do, especially when you can buy pre molded scale wood for that purpose.
 
Most, if not all of the Walthers background buildings are exactly what you're describing. A flour mill, apartments, furniture factory, freight and others. Otherwise a brewery or other industry would work nicely. La Crosse WI would be a good palce to reference. That, or Red Wing MN.
 
You're right, trailrider. Now, though Pabst, American Distilling and Hiram Walker, along with the stockyards, are gone. ADM operates what's left of Hiram Walker...........most of the old buildings are still there along with a lot of new construction that's been ongoing since ADM took over. Things have really changed a lot in Peoria since I was young.
 
Burlington Bob said:
You're right, trailrider. Now, though Pabst, American Distilling and Hiram Walker, along with the stockyards, are gone. ADM operates what's left of Hiram Walker...........most of the old buildings are still there along with a lot of new construction that's been ongoing since ADM took over. Things have really changed a lot in Peoria since I was young.
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You're right about that. Holy smoke! It'll be 50 years this coming June they handed me a rolled-up piece of parchment and sent me over to the ROTC building to get my gold bars! :) Haven't been back since. Not sure if I'll go for the reunion.
 
Peoria did have a reputation of the unsavory kind. NO! I never partook, but I used to get a kick out of hearing about a police raid. The news broadcast always gave the name of the "madam" and the address of the "house". They'd fine them, and they'd be back in business withing hours! One of the stations even interviewed one of the madams. She said business was down to nothing, especially from the college boys. She said, "Why should they pay for something they can get from their girlfriends free!" :rolleyes: I'm not sure what girls she was referring to, however. None of the girls I dated were giving anything free or not! The price the co-eds demanded came in the form of a diamond ring plus the other band to go with it! I wasn't ready for that sort of thing then.
 
CSX has some lines that run through beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida. If you follow them around, there are a lot of building all over the place.

Here

You can even find some in Brooklyn, New York that run through the streets, and in true New York fashion, disappear under the ground.

Here
 
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