NEB&W Guide to North Troy/Lansingburgh, NY

Last Update: 2009-05-30

Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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• Overview
  
• Near Hoosick Street
  
• 101st Street
  
• 114th Street
  
• On The Layout
  
• Lansingburgh Not Modeled

Overview

• Lansingburgh was originally a separate city, but later (c. 1900) annexed by Troy. It was founded about 30 before years before Troy (around 1760), by Abraham Jacob Lansing. It is often called North Troy, although residents refer to it as the "Burgh".

• We are modeling three distinct (and widely spaced) prototypes in North Troy. The first was just north of Hoosic Street, by Jay Street, a cluster of three industries, Troy Feed & Seed, Armour, and Wilson Grocery. The second is the 101st Street covered bridge leading up to Oakwood Cemetery. The third was the Lansingburgh B&M depot and coal dealer at 114th Street (12 blocks north of 101st Street.)
  What might be confusing to others (we've learn to accept it years ago) is that opposite side of the three industries near Hoosic St., we are modeling the northern end of the Rutland, VT yard.

• The B&M abandoned this line in 1971.

Near Hoosick Street

• The three industries just north of Hoosic.
  • [Valuation map.]
  • [Sanborn map.]

Troy Feed & Supply

• Troy Feed & Supply, c. 1972. (This facility has since been torn down and is now an on-ramp for the Collar City Bridge.)
  • [Prototype view looking north. (The brick building behind is the Armour plant.)]
  • [Prototype view looking east.]
  • [Prototype view looking north, between the main building and the brick warehouse.]
  (For years and years, I've been calling this "Troy Feed & Seed", despite having even modeled the sign on the building which proudly proclaims it was "Supply". Am I an idiot or what?)
  According to the D&H's 1951 Traffic Report, TF&S got 24 carloads in and shipped out none for the entire year - on average two cars a month. The B&M and even perhaps the NYC possibly shipped additional cars in.
  Our model:
  • [Our unfinished model.]
  • [From the other side.]
  • [Weathered model, May '09. (I feel I overweathered this, if you compare it to the prototype photos.)]

Armour Meat Packing

• Next to the feed store was an Armour meat packing plant. From what I've been able to track in the City Directories, the facility wasn't there in 1914, but was in 1915. (No evidence the plant was built earlier as a different company and taken over by Armour, it was apparently Armour from the get-go.) In 1965, they were listed as a wholesale operation, with no mention of any retail business. They were still there in '66, gone by '67.
  This building is still standing, greatly modified.
  • [The street side c. 1972.]
  • [The street side c. 1980's.]
  • [Street side from the north end c. 1980's.]
  • [From the south end c. 1980's.]
  • [Street side, broadside, c. 2009. By this time, the paint has worn off enough to read additional lettering "Dressed Beef, Lamb & Provisions".]
  • [End view c. 1980's.]
  • [Broadside end view c. 1980's.]
  • [Track side, c. 1972. (Wilson in the foreground, Armour attached but in the rear.)]
  • [Trackside view c. 1980's.]
  • [Trackside view c. 2009.]
  • [Track side, oblique angle, c. 1972, as seen from Troy Feed & Seed.]
  According to the D&H's 1951 Traffic Report, Armour got 142 carloads in and shipped out none for the entire year - on average not quite one car every two days. The B&M and even perhaps the NYC possibly shipped additional cars in.
  When I started modeling this facility, the question became how did they load up trucks? The front looks like a storefront and hardly conducive to having workings hauling slabs of meat out to the concrete dock. The south side was close to Troy Feed & Supply, there was room for an alley at most, not a driveway to allow trucks to turn and back up to any door. (The door in the end photo was clearly cut in by the time of the photo in the 1980's.)
  Tom Amrine had suggested the front was modified for retail operation, apparently a plumbing supply place and a small store front added in place of loading doors. But what I've been able to find, the 1972 photos show the building pretty much as it was as the Armour plant (except for the windows having been boarded up). There was nothing in there since it closed in '67 and thus no reason to have been modified, and the weathering and paint doesn't show as new enough for any post-Armour modifications.
  So it looks like it did have a sort of storefront. (Whatever I fit into the opening on the model will be lightly glued in case we ever get better info.)

• On the layout.
  • [Armour and Wilson cardboard mockups.]
  • [Model as of Feb. '09. (I am clamping the front to make sure it is all in a straight line.)]
  • [Model as of Feb. '09, track side.]
  • [Model as of March '09, front side. The N Scale Architects brick material is just a bit slippery so I airbrushed the entire building as a sort of primer coat.]
  • [Model as of March '09, front side, from the other end. (I am just taking snapshots for this in-progress photos.)]
  • [Model as of March '09, track side.]
  • [Model as of March '09, track side, from the other end.]
  • [Model as of May '09, track side. Still needs a bit more weathering.]

Wilson Wholesale Groceries

• The third building in this trio from north Troy was Wilson Wholesale Groceries. It, too, is still standing, although not a grocery wholesaler anymore.
  • [Street side, c. 1980's. (The Armour plant is attached, on the right.)]
  • [Another view, c. 1980's.]
  • [Track side, c. 1972.]
  • [Trackside view c. 1980's.]
  • [Trackside view c. 2009.]
  • [Armour and Wilson cardboard mockups.]
  • [Model under construction, Oct. 2004.]
  • [Model under construction, Nov. '04.]
  • [Model under construction, Jan. '06.]
  • [Another view.]
  • [Progress as of Oct. '08.]
  According to the D&H's 1951 Traffic Report, Wilson got 6 carloads in and shipped out none for the entire year - on average one car every other month. The B&M and even perhaps the NYC possibly shipped additional cars in.

On The Layout

• Progress on the layout.
  • [Armour and Wilson cardboard mockups.]
  • [Redoing the track, Nov. 2000.]
  • [Photo, Oct. 2004. (The roof on the depot is a kit part that convenient fits, but needs to have slate shingles, not European tile. And the coal dealer is being mocked up by a partially built structure we had on hand, so don't judge by what you see.)]
  • [Another photo, Oct. 2004.]
  • [Model view with the kitbashed Life-Like kits in position, Oct. 2004.]
  • [Model view with the terrain cut down to make more space for the coal bins, Oct. '04.]
  • [Model view with one bin cut lower, given a roof with a shallower slope, and extra 4x4 styrene strips for bracing, Nov. 2004.]
  • [Another view.]
  • [One bin re-kitbashed and repainted.]
  • [Imagineering the hoist tower, etc. (Lousy photo but it give the idea of what we are trying to do.]

• Redoing the layout to add the long retaining wall just south of the covered bridge.
  • [Model photo, Nov. 5, 2008. (The paper is there to do a pencil rubbing of the area to cut out a piece of styrofoam.)]
  • [Model photo, Nov. 5, 2008, looking the other way.]
  • [Beginning to shape the styrofoam, Nov. 5, 2008.]

• Progress as of Nov. 15th, '08, as cleaned up for the operating session.
  • [Photo.]

• Even more progress.
  • [As of Jan. 3, '09. Most of this end has been given the final grass treatment, but still missing the tall trees.]

See our Layout Guide for North Troy

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