NEB&W Guide to Green Island, NY

Last Update: 2009-11-18

Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

Overview

The Industries

Gilbert Car Works

Central Markets

Sweet & Doyle

Yard Office

Eagle Foundry

  • At the south end of Eagle Foundry was a small freight platform. (Note the series of crosswise strips on the ramp section.)

  • The original line of the Rensselaer & Saratoga came off the bridge and immediately swung right, or north, but later a line headed directly west toward the main that came up from Albany. A track was added between the two to form a "wye", and a number of smaller industries clustered inside the wye, including Gordinier's warehouse. (They also had a retail outlet in downtown Troy.)
    The prototype photo c. 1919 looking southwest, shows the track scale in the foreground and the derrick of the Bridge & Building Department to the right.
    • [Prototype view.]
    • [Sanborn map c. 1901.]
    • [Plans of the D&H's scale house in Mohawk yard, drawn by Bill Mischler. Melanie Sembrat followed these plans for the Green Island scale house.]
    • [Model view c. 2004 of Gordinier's.]
    • [Progress view c. Feb. '05 of this section. The platform is from an AM Models kit, with the canopy and posts from a Revell freight house. The first two sheds are from a Revell kit, with the next one, the garage from the Revell farmhouse.]
    • [More progress. Melanie scratchbuilt the scale house.]

    Bridge & Building Dept.

    • Sanborn map c. 1901.
      • [Map.]
      • [Map orientated 180 degrees from how it is on the layout so you can read it.]

    • Prototype Valuation photos c. 1919. (The derrick, for some reason, is still standing in the weeds, and is also visible from I-787.)
      • [V9a-31, used for iron storage. It was retired in 1948, although it still showed on the 1951 Sanborn, so it must have still been standing.]
      • [V9a-32, the shop building. Part of it burned in 1937, leaving only about half still standing.]
      • [Model view, scene under construction.]
      • [V9a-33, another storehouse. It doesn't show on the Sanborn of 1903, and was retired in 1948. It sat between the shop building (above) and the track, and we might not have room to model it.]
      • [V9a-34. This was a storehouse retired in 1948 along with the above store house (V9a-33) and the iron storage building (V9a-31). Even this, I don't think we can squeeze in.]
      • [V9a-35, a store house.]
      • [V9a-37, the mason's supply warehouse. (In 1903, this building was the signal shop, which later grew into its own complex, as seen below.) In the background is no. 34, I think.]
      • [V9a-38, the template shop.]
      • [Our model, under construction. (The roof is warped to fit up tight against the backdrop]
      • [V9a-37 and -38 combined.]
      • [Our scratchbuilt models, March 2005.]
      • [V9a-39, the fire hydrant building. (Did it have a fire hydrant enclosed inside?)]
      • [Model view, of a Bachmann 34 foot box car being kitbashed for the MOW car seen in the above view.]

    • The derrick is a lonely survivor of all this railroad heritage. (Anyone want to model this?)

    • More of the B&B Dept., a little further north, all Valuation photos c. 1919.
      • [V9a-41. One of these, I think the closest, was labeled storehouse, and the other was the shop for the car inspector. ]
      • [V9a-42, seen in the background of the above photo. This was an oil house which in 1936 was moved to Whitehall to serve as a watchman's cabin (probably for the newly relocated main). We will be including it in our model of this grouping, despite that it wasn't there in 1950.]
      • [Our model, Dec. 2004. (The coach is sitting there to see if we should place some MOW cars behind these structures.) The first building was kitbashed from a Revell shanty and the next one, the Atlas shed, with a new door and windows cut in. The third is the Walthers crossing shanty, with a new window and door cut into the blank side.]
      • [V9a-43, seen in the background of the above two photos. This was a tool shed which lasted until 1957.]
      • [Our model of this building, being kitbashed from an IHC toolhouse, no. 705, Feb. '05. (The door is from a Revell chicken coop.)]

    • In several of the above photos, an old coach is seen.
      • [V9a-39.]
      • [V9a-41.]
      • [Our model, kitbashed from two AHM/Con-Cor coaches. (Stock model is in the foreground.) One not so obvious change was the letterboard was extended out under the overhang at the ends.]

    Signal Dept.

    • The Railroad's Signal Department was a cluster of small buildings just east of the wye and across the tracks from the B&B Department.

    • These prototype photos were taken c. 1919.
      • [V9a-26 or building "B", on the Sanborn, looking south southwest. This was apparently the office building - note the dwelling behind it on the left and the roadmaster's office on the right. In 1903, this office was a private dwelling.]

    • A view of building "A" with the office building on the left.

    • The machine shop ("C") was at 90 degrees to the office building.

    • The north end of the complex had a long single-story building, "D" on the Sanborn.

    • We don't have any good photos of building E, except in the long distance aerial view, it appears to have a lean-to or shed-type roof. We are kitbashing it from an AM Model toolhouse (two walls used for the backwall) and the IHC toolshed, no. 705.

    • There is a carriage house in downtown Troy that it planned to be copied for a similar shed, just outside this complex. It is a two-story shed with a door on the top floor strongly suggests a carriage house. It is fascinating, what with the additions on the side facing the row house. Note how the novelty siding is popping off the studding, in its characteristic two-board fashion.