Well, this may be an effort in futility. I have searched everywhere to find an N Scale Kit of the Los Angeles Union Station. Does anyone know if such a kit is/was made?
I know of no such kit. Here is a nice photo. Where are the 10 tracks currently in operation? Underground?
To my knowledge the ten tracks are still there; however, it has been a long time since I have been there. I want to model the 40's & 50's era. I found a photo of a scale model of Los Angeles and the train station done in 1939. Of course I didn't bookmark it and cannot find it again. The layout was very large because it model all of downtown LA. But it was spectacular!
google earth with 3D turned on gives you a good 360 rendering of the station, the platforms are there, and you can follow the tracks out through the wye.
Bob, if you need to have a "signature" building you might need to scratchbuild it. Depending on where it is located on your layout it might be not very difficult. If the station is behind the tracks, i.e. more to the background, a "representational" model might do the trick. Try to capture the elements that first jump into your eye when you look at a picture. Looking at the aerial photo in Flash's link I would include the 3 big arches and the double-pillars supporting them plus maintain the 3-wing structure (main buidling wiith the arched entryway and the two lower side wings with square windows and tower-like end structures). Everything is based on box-shaped structure with a hip roof, so you can build 3 boxes out of wood or styrene, cut away the windows and add trim with wood and strip-styrene. The pillars could be build from wooden dowels, filed to a slight taper. I would not wait until a kit comes out (which might never be the case), but try to kitmingle (maybe you could use Waltheres Union Station for the side wings?) or scratchbuild it. Now, once you are complete a manufacturer will bring a kit, but this is the first law of scratchbuilding, so it can not be avoided... OK, I need to get back to scratchbuild my signature building, Tacoma Union Station: Does anybody has a good idea for the dome? Cheers Dirk
Union Pacific's Union Station in LA http://www.inetours.com/Los_Angeles/Images/El_Pueblo/Union_Station_7310.jpg
Here's a three inch hemisphere from Plastruct. Plastruct has most shapes you can think of; they are primarily for architects.
Thanks for all the input guys. Dirk, I think you are right about scratch building. I am going to google earth and see if I am capable of doing this project. I really want to do the station very much since everything I have are passenger trains that would work very well with it. And besides, it is such a beautiful station inside and out.
Bob, there are some very good artivles on scratchbuilding structures here on Trainboard. Try a "search" on "scratchbuild*" and see what turns up. Go for it, for me scratchbuilding unique structures is a very rewarding experience! Flash, thanks for the hint on the Plastruct domes: I have never seen them, but they look promising. So far I was planning on cutting up a plastic ball (thing "Baby Bouncer"), filling it with plaster to add rigidity. I need to measure the model dimensions to see if a plastruct dome will fit. Cheers Dirk
Hello again Dirk. Before I could even possibly think about scratch building this station, I must first know all the dimensions. The only thing I could find is the tower is 135 feet tall. Not quite enough information. Also, a very enterprising project for someone like me who has never done it before. I did have mechanical and architectural drawing classes in high school (50 years ago). I think I would give it a try if I knew all the proper dimensions.
Actually, it is Union Pacfic's, Southern Pacific's AND Santa Fe's. Thus the UNION Station. (Actually when built it was officiall known as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal and frequently referred to as LAUPT for short)
there is a plat map on this site, plus an interesting scene you could add to the station. D'oh!! http://harrymarnell.com/laupt.htm
I know we must compress but...dont ya love the size of the doors and windows that they use to use, Thats why I use a lot of HO buildings on my layout. When the station is so small that only 1 passenger car can stop in front of it then it only looks right on a small layout with a small town stop. So if you have the room think big in "N".
Our San Diego Depot dome was made by dipping a refrigerator light bulb in epoxy. You wait till the epoxy is dry, then break the light bulb. You will need a big bulb for that one!
Bob, it appears that you have all the ingredients to make your own plan. You have the layout included in River Eagles post, but they have no dimensions. But you know that the tower was 135 feet high. So if you could convert that information to know the lenght of a wall you could go from there and calculate all outside dimensions. So let's see: Have a look at Tony's picture showing the tower and the entrance. I just used a ruler on my PC screen (printing the picture will be more accurate...), and the tower on the screen measures 10.5 cm. The entrance hall is 6.5 cm wide (you can use inches to do the same math). So by dividing the 135 feet by 10.5 cm I get a "Feet per cm" number, multiplying this by 6.5 yields the result: The Entrance Wall is 83.5 feet wide. Now you have your first measure. Print the plan from River Eagles post, mark the entrance hall (I guess it is labeles as "vestibule", but comparing it with more photos can confirm this) at 83.5 feet and calculate all the other walls based on that. This will give you a correct dimensional plan that you can adjust to your available space. Now to the height of the building: It follows the same approach based on side view pictures. Based on Tonys picture the height of the entrance halls measures at 7 cm, which would yield a total height of 90 feet. Using more pictures you can establish a relative height for all building parts by printing them out and measuring directly on the print. Here is one more for starters. It shows that the main buidling has the same height as the ends of the entrance hall.... The more pictures and the less distortion on them the better your data will become. If you have a scale plan, print it out, glue it on heavy cardstock and buidl a mockup to check if the dimensions work together. Adjust if necessary, sometimes what is correct does not look right. I am not sure if all of this makes sense, but I have used this process to measure directly on photos quite often to go from established data (like the height of a car or people) to the full building: Here is an example: Real Photo, Car in the garage used for measurements: And here is my version (advertising signs and garage have been added since the picture was taken..) Let me know if I can provide more info. Tony, great idea with the light bulb, I will go and check the Home Depot (well, the German version) for bulbs intended for searchlights: They might have just the profile I need.... Cheers Dirk
Dirk, I am impressed! Your work is great and I will try what you suggested. Thanks again for sll your help.
Maybe this will help You don't have to kiss me for this. http://tinyurl.com/2vcoe8 Look at the bottom row
