NEB&W Guide to Troy, NY - North Leg of the Wye (River Street to Jacob Street & Sixth Avenue)

Last Update: 2009-08-03

Troy Table of Contents
Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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• Aerial view c. '48, looking north, with Fifth Avenue running up through the center of the photo.
  • [Prototype photo, courtesy Rensselaer County Historical Society.]
  • [Close-up of the area between River and Fifth.]

• Sanborn map for the section between River and Fifth. (Two stores on Laundry facing the tracks had been torn down only a year or two earlier.)
  • [Map c. 1951.]
  • [Close-up.]

• Looking northwest c. 1917 shows the two stores just west of Laundry Place.
  • [Valuation photo.]

• Our track is slightly skewed from the prototype and still very much under construction.
  • [Model view looking east.]

Tower No. 3

• Tower No. 3 was on Fifth Avenue, in the fork of the tracks of the wye branching north and south.
  • [Looking east c. 1928. The two buildings on the left are the only ones still standing.]
  • [Looking south on Fifth c. 1917.]
  • [Looking south on Fifth c. '28.]
  • [Looking north c. 1917.]
  • [Looking north c. '28. Some of the rowhouses just to the north are still standing. Note the slate and herringbone brick sidewalk, and the manual crossing gates that completely block the street.]
  • [Photo c. '50 by Jim Wright.]
  • [Looking east with D&H no. 35, the northbound Laurentian rounding the curve. Jim Shaughnessy photo.]
  • [Color photo by Jack Waite, c. early '60's, looking north.]
  • [Signal diagram c. 1914. (Note the trolley tracks.)]

• On our layout, got tired of looking at the cardboard mockup so we threw in a Walthers interlocking tower which was already assembled. (Yes, is buff and green, not two-toned green, is frame, not masonry and frame, and based on a Santa Fe prototype from the semi-arid southwest, has a very shallow hip roof.)
  • [Crude model photo.]

• Looking west from Tower No. 3.
  • [Prototype photo c. 1928.]
  • [Prototype photoc. 1928, same angle but across the tracks.]

Rowhouse, No. 15 Laundry Place

• There was a freestanding two-story rowhouse on the east side of Laundry (no. 15), facing the tracks. (This building still stands today, 2004.)
  • [Photo c. 1972 by Tony Steele.]
  • [Photo of the rear, c. 1972, also by Tony Steele.]
  • [Sanborn map c. 1951.]

West Side of Fifth Avenue, North of Tower 3

• The rowhouses to the north of Tower No. 3, nos. 2129-2135 Fifth Avenue. (Three of the four buildings are still standing, 2004.)
  • [Photo c. 1960's by Jack Waite.]
  • [Composite photo c. 1972. Note the lift bridge in the background.]
  • [Photo c. 2003.]
  • [Rear view c. 1980.]
  • [Rear view from the other direction c. 1990's.]
  • [Sanborn map c. 1951.]

• Close-up of the 1948 aerial photo above, showing the area between Fifth and 6th.
  • [Photo courtesy RCHS.]
  • [Labeled photo courtesy RCHS.]
  • [Sanborn map.]

Fifth Avenue, Within The Wye

• Angular building on the south side of the tracks at Fifth Ave., typical "Norman" style of brick building common to Troy. (The funky bay-windows/turrets are more Queen Anne so maybe I'm wrong as to style.)
  • [Sanborn map. The building in question is 2122.]
  • [Prototype photo c. '72. Paul Hubbs holds up the club's scaling stick, marked in one foot increments in red and white. I think the building was painted yellow, and not made of yellow bricks. But check out the cornice.]
  • [Side by side views of the prototype c. 1972 and our model.]
  • [Bigger model view. (We have yet to add the two bay windows to the model.)]

• Continuing around the wye was another triangular shaped building.
  • [Sanborn map. The building in question is 2124.]
  • [Prototype c. 1973 looking west.]
  • [Prototype photo by Chuck Porter.]
  • [Prototype photo c. '73.]
  • [Model.]

East Side of Fifth Avenue, North of Tower 3

• Across from these buildings on the north side were other wedge-shaped houses and La Porte garage. (These buildings still stand today - 2004.)
  • [From the base of the tower looking northeast. Jim Wright prototype photo.]
  • [Today c. 2004.]
  • [Front c. 1973. Photo by Tony Steele.]
  • [Front (composite photo) c. 2003.]
  • [Aerial view (poor photocopy of a newspaper photo c. 1974.]
  • [Sanborn map. No. 2134 is the building in question.]
  • [Prototype c. 1972 by Tony Steele of the side.]
  • [Prototype c. 2004 of the side.]
  • [Prototype c. 2004 further back.]
  • [Prototype c. 1972.]
  • [Prototype c. 1972.]
  • [Prototype c. 2004.]

Bloomfield Building Wreckers

• Bloomfield Building Wreckers at the north end of the wye.
  • [Bloomfield wasn't there in 1912. Sixth Ave. looking north.]
  • [Sanborn map c. 1951.]
  • [Prototype view, c. 1972 of the south end of the complex.]
  • [Another view, c. 1972 of the south end.]
  • [Another view, c. 1972, but of exactly what, I don't know.]
  • [End view, c. 1980 of the office after the two sheds on the south end had been torn down.]
  • [Prototype view, c. 1972.]
  • [Looking into the complex, c. 1972.]
  • [Prototype view, c. 1972 of the north end.]
  • [Model view looking east.]

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