Hey Guys I am modeling a N Scale Subway, and I recently visited the DC Metro. I really like the design of the stations, and want to design one of my five stations after it. Have any ideas on how to build it? Thanks! Will:tb-biggrin:
Are you talking about doing one of the underground stations in the downtown area or one of the above ground stations in the suburbs? If you want to do an underground station I would think if you had a track running in a tunnel below the layouts ground level close to the edge of the layout you could make a cut away view of the station. That way the train would appear at the station and then disappear back into the tunnel like at a real station. The trick would be having access to the "underground" portion of the track to deal with any derailments. You wouldn't need the entire subway line undeground just a few feet to either side of your city. Once you're away from the downtown area you can run the track in a trench with simulated concrete retaining walls to bring it back up to ground level.
It would be underground. I will have 4-6 underground stations. It would be displayed like this: I have sufficient room and have already cut out all the spots. Now its a matter of how you make those concrete waffle things.
Latex rubber mold material on a cold waffle iron? Are you planning on modelling the out of service escalators as well? :mtongue:
If I remember correctly the panels look like a curved coffered ceiling. If you formed a sheet of styrene in the basic arc shape of the station you could then make a grid by gluing styrene strips in place. Use something like a 1/8 * 1/4 strip with a 1/8 * 1/8 strip on top.
Thanks dstuard and markwr! dstuard: Great idea with the cold waffle iron! My waffle iron is much too big, so I'll have to find one a little smaller. I'm guessing the tiles are equivalent to 1/4-1/2 inch in N Scale, so I'll have to find one of those irons similar to the ones they make Frozen Waffles with...or I could just take a frozen waffle and pour latex over it? :tb-tongue: markwr: Nice thinking, but a little too labor intensive for me! (; BTW, have you guys seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkjfh5klUzM
I've been to DC twice while I was in architecture school and have to agree the Metro stations are very nice (I think they're quite similar to some LA subway stations, if I remember right). I have to say, if I was going to make a model of this, what I'd so is cut out a series of arches out of wood to support the overall dome and place these every 6 inches maybe over the tracks. These wouldn't be seen at all and would be hidden by the concrete vault and the layout above. Next I'd glue some styrene to the underside of these arches, creating the top of the concrete vault. I'd use one sheet of styrene and arch it over the tracks from one side to the other, so the seams would go perpendicular to the tracks and line up with the arches previously mentioned for strength. Then, the hard part, the coffers (the waffle part). Now, how I would do it is try to use my school's laser cutter and basically cut many, many squares with holes in them out of thinner basswood so they're bendable, then stack them on top of each other and gluing them to the styrene vault. Now if I couldn't use a laser cutter...that might be a bit trickier...let me think on that and I'll get back to you...maybe with some quick 3D sketches if I can. Hmm, do you have a table saw? What you could do is basically make your own waffle iron out of wood. Make a series of shallow (1/8" deep maybe?) parallel cuts, say, 3/8" or 1/2" apart, then turn it 90 degrees and do the same in the other direction, so you get something like this: # You might have to use a hard wood and of course a sharp blade to keep the cuts smooth, but it might be an easy way to give you a custom waffle. Of course, I don't know how well latex works on wood forms, maybe others would know
About fifteen years ago the company I work for temporarily assigned me to work in DC. For about two month I road the Metro from Shady Grove to Farragut station. The video brought back some memories.
You could do a droop mold. If you took a chunk of fluorescent grid and heated it in a very low temperature (under 200°) in the oven over a curved form. You might get the effect you are looking for.
Those concrete shapes are not square so I don't think a waffle iron would work. (You can see some straight on in the background of the picture. BTW, the picture is L'Enfant Plaza which was my stop before I started riding VRE.) They are about 6' x 3' so they would be sized at whatever that scales out to be. Also, the upper sections have white sound deadening panels in them. Look closely at the picture and you can see them As for the arch, I was thinking a large piece of PVC pipe cut to fit. Are you planning to model the little lights along the track that flash when a train is coming? Andy Tetsu Uma
In 2009 I spent 10 days in DC as part of a build team for the Solar Decathlon, took the Metro from National airport to the hotel kinda near the National Mall, I'd walk to the Mall at the start of the day but after a 12 hour shift building I was pooped and would just walk to the Smithsonian station and hop the metro over to Federal Center SW. Here's a photo of the house: Funny story, I have to be the only person to have gone to DC and gotten lost (while walking) trying to find Pennsylvania Avenue. My first time there in 2001 I took the Metro in from the airport and got off at Foggy Bottom to walk to my hotel, which was on Penn Ave. Of course I was lugging my suitcase, trying to read the map, while it started raining, and there was a tree blocking the Penn Ave street sign. Got 2 blocks past it and had to ask at a business. Felt like a moron, but oh well, it was an adventure.
Oh, I just thought, he needs some sort of automated system so that a ladies voice says "Doors opening, step back to allow customers to exit." when the train arrives and "Step back, doors closing." when it departs. Plus I thought there was some sort of ding sound when the doors opened. Heh.
Thanks guys! If you have any more ideas, keep them coming! ThirdCoastRail: HaHa! I'm a kid in the Philadelphia Area, and the automated voices on the subway trains by us are my favorite part. I just edited a video of my trip, your automated voice impersonation is 100% correct. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObtRB8Qok9w BTW, Whats your involvement in Solar? TetsuUma: True, but I don't think N Scale has to be that precise. Yes, I am modeling those blinking lights! I'm going to cut a scaled down paper version of a granite block off google images into a platform edge strip, and then I'm going to cut tiny precise holes in the center. Then, I'm going to place some clear styrene below, and Red LED Lights. Then, I'm going to hook up a trigger resistor that senses a train approaching. Now only if I could model a changing reader board... BTW, why did you start riding VRE? ChigacoNW: What type of Grid? Markwr: Yea, some of my family lives in the DC Area. Quite a rapidly aging system, isn't it?
I think ChicagoNW was talking about something like this: .375"X2'X4' White Egg Crate But just quickly looking all I saw were square grids, and no idea if they'd be the right dimensions, or how easy they are to melt in the oven. And as far as the solar thing goes I simply signed up for that class my last semester in school because it sounded really interesting, and we actually got to build stuff. All we have here in Milwaukee are buses, so you have to wait outside in the snow and wind and freeze half the year. I think it's kinda dumb for a city that's freezing 6 months out of the year not to have an underground transportation system, but that's just me. I'm considering modeling Chicago's L...if someone would just come out with come decent subway cars that aren't too expensive and don't required building from scratch.
The grid is used in recessed fluorescent ceiling lights to direct the light downward. They are usually white or chrome plated you'll find them at Home Depot or Lowes in the lighting section. The cells are 1/2x1/2 and its about a 1/2 inch thick and 2x4 feet in size. Ask if they have a damaged one as you don't need the whole thing. It will be a lot cheaper. ITT will do custom sound chips for you. index Bakatronics sells a kit for a sixteen LED sequencer. Bakatronics - Model Railroad Electronics
If you are going to print the granite strips, why not print the background wall, too? When operating, you could have a bunch of people on the platform who just had to detrain due to the train being pulled from service. Make them look grumpy. Why did I start riding VRE? Well, now I get a seat everyday . . . and I moved from Rosslyn to the Masassas area so the nearest Metro station is now 15 miles rather than 3 blocks away from my home. My new home is 1.25 miles (according to the Garmin) from the VRE station. I actually found my neighborhood by putting the ZIP code of the VRE station into Realtor.com.
I would look through McMaster-Carr. They have tons of different sheet materials and all kinds of stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some kind of grid material designed for some sort of prototype use, but looks pretty close.
ThirdCoastRail: Yea, so your an architect? What type of architecture? I could always picture myself becoming an architect, but I'm not big on the engineering part. Yea, buses suck, and in my area, only people who don't own cars use them, rather then subways and trains, everyone uses them. How can you live in a place cold for six months put of the year? I'm moving to Florida when I get older, got my eye on Miami Trirail. If your modeling Chicago El, check out this site: Railway Collection Model Train Store I bought this subway car set: The Railway Collection Nagano Electric Railway Series 8500 (3-Car Set) (Model Train) Tomytec 224075 Railway Collection|Electric Car N Scale|1/150 ChigacoNW: Good Idea! Not sure if it would work without melting, but I could certainly try it. I know how to wire up resistors, so I can do the flashing lights for around $3 at RadioShack vs. $16. TetsuUma: Well, the Granite is not 3d, and the Concrete blocks are, so I'm going to print that and the tile floors. Nice idea with the people, I might try that. Maybe I should do a Track Maintenance sign too with angry people! :tb-tongue: With VRE being so close, it makes sense, but I always stand anyways (Its more fun!), and although it does far less damage then driving, I'm not the biggest fan of Diesel Locomotives. DaveD: I will check that site out. If you all have any more ideas, feel free to post them, I will be boring more tunnels soon, and In a month or two I will probably be starting this station. Of course I will post detailed pictures and descriptions every second of the process on this thread, and hopefully it will lead to more DC Metro modelers. Thanks!
I just got back from lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl on the Yellow & Green line. Those concrete rectangles are about 4'x8'. Also, the depth of the recess varies. The ones by platform level have almost no depth and they get progressively deeper as they go up and over. The ones on the ceiling are probably 18" deep but they have the white sound deadening panel in the recess. I wouldn't do track maintenance - that only occurs at night or they close the station. If the driver can't get all the doors to close, they have to remove the train from service and all the people have to get off. You want to see some ticked off people . . . .
