Last Update: 2009-11-18
Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents
- Overview
- Original or "Upper" Burden Plant
- The "Lower" Burden Works
- Burden Office Building
- Republic Steel Blast Furnace
- Coke Plant
- First & Polk
- Public Bathhouse
- Workers' Houses
- Gas Station
- Wynantskill Creek
- Ironworks Depot
- Menands Bridge
- South Troy, Not Modeled
Overview
- Topographic map of this area.
- [Topo c. 1950.]
- Aerial photo
looking north, showing how the Troy Union Railroad
headed diagonally from 6th Avenue in downtown to River Street
in south Troy.
- [Photo courtesy RCHS.]
- Aerial photo
by Dean Thomas Phelan c. 1970.
Original Burden Plant
- Topographic map of the area of the original or upper plant. (Note
the Wynantskill stream makes a semicircle just below the dam and Burden's
plant in this area was thus shaped like a horseshoe, besides
making horseshoes.)
- [Map.]
- [Postcard of the dam.]
- [The falls c. 1909.]
- [The famous Burden wheel, which remained after the rest of the plant was in ruins.]
- [Another postcard.]
- [The wheel c. 1900, in the middle of the field. Note the guy standing on the lower left, to give some sense of scale.]
The "Lower" Burden Works
- An engraving
c. 1880's shows the Burden facility with the long
horseshoe warehouse
building to the left. (This and some of the other buildings seen here are
still standing today.) Note the twin overhead conveyors in the back.
- [Engraving.]
- Other 19th century views.
- Views from across the river looking east.
- [Postcard.]
- [Photo. (I think the older anthracite furnaces are being replaced by a new one to use coke, as the furnace doesn't have any piping, etc. on top. So that would date this photo to 1925.)]
- Looking north along the mainline c. 1933, from up
on the hill. A portion of the coke works is on the
lower left. The horseshoe warehouse and other buildings
are just visible on the upper right. Photo courtesy Rensselaer
County Historical Society.
- [Photo c. 1933.]
- Other views of the
horseshoe warehouse. (Unfortunately,
I couldn't get up high to really show
this in its entirety.)
- [Photo 1 c. 2000.]
- [Photo 2 c. 2000.]
- [West side of the warehouse c. 1990's. This whole wall was blank. The framework of the conveyors was still standing.]
- A high level view of our layout,
looking south, with the coke works and
Menands bridge in the background, and
dominated by the long horseshoe warehouse.
(Our model
of this is condensed. If full size, it would be
8 feet and twice as wide.) The uprights
for the two overhead conveyors can be seen,
but we haven't model the conveyors themselves.
- [Model view.]
- [Another model view.]
Burden Office Building
- The ornate Burden Office Building was
actually built after Henry Burden's death,
but remained the headquarters for the
plant through the Republic Steel
acquisition c. 1940.
Today it is the headquarters of the
Mohawk Hudson Industrial Gateway.
- [Map of the whole complex c. 1880's showing the office building on the far lower right.]
- [Engraving c. 1886.]
- [Prototype view.]
- [Up close.]
Our model is about halfway done.- [Model view.]
Republic Steel Blast Furnace
- A D&H "camelback" switcher (so called because the cab sat astride the
boiler like a camel's hump) works the slag piles with the Republic Steel
blast furnace in the background.
- [Photo by Jim Shaughnessy, probably about 1952.]
- Richard Hutter sent us this c. '53 photo of the blast furnace, looking
due west from the tracks. In the foreground
on the right is an oil tank, and the concrete wall
visible is the containment dam surrounding it.
- [Photo.]
- [Unfinished model view with a Walthers N scale blast furnace in the background.]
- [Another model view.]
- Republic Steel used a Whitcomb diesel to switch the plant.
(Don't know if this engine dates back to c. 1950.)
- [Photo c. 1970's, I think by Paul Hubbs.]
Wynantskill Creek
- Wynantskill Creek, with horseshoe warehouse to the north
and Niagara-Hudson Coke Plant to the south.
- [Prototype view looking east, 1990's.]
- [Prototype view looking west, 1990's. (Wish I had taken this in color.)]
- [Prototype view in color, 2007.]
- [Another prototype view in color, 2007.]
- [Layout view.]
- [Bigger view.]
Ironworks Depot
- There was a small depot on the east side of the mainline
where the Wynantskill cut across. The depot was for
workers for both the iron company (hence the name) and
the coke works.
- [Photo looking north from the hill c. 1933. Photo courtesy Rensselaer County Historical Society.]
- The only photos we have are from a long distance.
I used an IHC depot kit as a stand-in until we know more about the
prototype. (In the above photo, the depot is pretty
plain and once we know more, won't be hard to scratchbuilt - but
this kitbash was fun.)
For my tastes, there wasn't enough overhang on the ends. I cut the two long walls shorter to make them sit under the roof, but you could also fabricate a new, slightly longer roof. I then painted the building in the Central's standard colors (as far as I can determine) of gray and olive green for the trim.- [Model photo.]
Menands Bridge
- The Menands bridge was built as a lift bridge in 1933. Since
steam days, it has been raised so the clearance underneath
is greater, made a fixed bridge, and the lift towers removed.
- [Postcard from up high looking west.]
- [Postcard from further south.]
- [Looking east, 1933. I believe this photo is courtesy Rensselaer County Historical Society.]
- [Postcard of about the same angle.]
- [Looking southwest c. 1980's.]
- [Looking underneath and west c. 1980's.]
- [Looking underneath and east c. 1980's.]
- [East end c. 1980's.]
- [On the layout.]
South Troy, Not Modeled
- Gerrit Bruins turned his camera south from the Menands
bridge.
- [Photo c '52.]
- [Circus train arriving, 1963.]
- [Circus train arriving, another photo, 1963.]
- The New York Central had an engine facility at the foot of Adams Street. (Note
the freight house extended all the way to Adams.)
- [Sanborn map c. 1901.]
- There was a monumental structure that looked like a castle (or brewery), but
it actually was Troy Waste.
- [Undated photo looking north.]
- [Undated photo looking south.]
- [Gerrit Bruins photo looking south c. 1960, with the circus train in town.]
- [Looking west c. 2000.]
- [Looking north c. 2000.]
- [Bigger.]
See our Layout Guide for South Troy.
Also see the Rensselaer Country Historical Society for other pictures and information about Troy, including south Troy.
NEB&W Guide to South Troy, NY