Florian, A new Train Station

[LA_RR_Architect]

Hello All,

Here's another historic railroad station, this time located in Florin PA on the Pennsylvania RailRoad (PRR).

The original no longer exists, so I had a handful of very basic drawings and one old grainy black and white on-line photo to work from. I think I came close, but a lot of guesswork was involved.

Florin is a quite rural town, but even so, it looks even more rural than it is in my images.

The Train is a string of empty coal hoppers pulled by a PRR I1 (2-10-0) steamer.

Hope you enjoy, and as always comments are welcome

Jim

[Bryan K]

Uh, where's the model?

Just kidding. Excellent renders and model! (those are renders and models, right?)

[LA_RR_Architect]

Hi Bryan, thanks for the complement... I think. Honest, it started with a SketchUp model. The following are a few of the fun facts about the model(s):

Florin Station is a modest combination passenger / freight station serving a small town. It's wood frame construction on a masonry knee wall and features a waiting room (on the left), a ticket office, and a freight room.

The station was served by a pair of tracks (east and west bound) with a safety fence between that I modeled from the grainy image I found. I've assumed there must have been some sort of shelter on the far side of the track so I've included a standard PRR passenger shelter, but its existence and appearance are a guess.

In order to achieve the long views common with rail road images I constructed the following site. It's 2 miles (3218 M) across. The model track shown in the images is 3,520 feet (1072 M) long and still, in some images you can clearly see the end.

Typically, with these models I add (and reuse) items to give scale and color. With this project some of the elements added include: A new style telegraph pole, a penny scale (you weight for a penny), a baggage scale and a light standard for the platforms. You'll see them again.

So it really was a sketch up model... honest.

Jim

[tadema]

Great modelling of a lovely little building. They were built with a little passion then

John

[chedda]

Super, i like the B&W image.

[Daniel]

Nice job, Jim. Every once in a while I'll run across a train depot such as that in East Tennessee that has been saved and repurposed. They are a rather iconic structure. It's a shame they are disappearing.

[pbacot]

Great looking model!

[LA_RR_Architect]

Thanks a lot for the nice comments folks!

I've always thought the old stations made for interesting regional architecture. If I understand correctly the railroads often used them to reinforce the promotion of tourism, selling tickets as they went.

I've also admired some of the great old B&W photos of these old machines and structures.

Anyhow, on a bit of a nostalgic theme I have a couple more images.

From a short series I'm calling "The Beginning of the End"

This scene features a steamer dragging a string of empties through the quiet town of Florin while overhead... a shiny new DC3 flies. Plane looks pretty good from a couple thousand feet away.

I bashed up the DC3 over the last couple days (my first SU airplane) strictly as background material. It's pretty lumpy if you get close.

So enjoy.

[pbacot]

Neat job on the plane! We had some nice Depots in our area, mostly gone (along with all passenger service and all but tiny freight line which is seeing some revival). Saw some old pictures. Not sure of the style but sort a "stick" style with large overhangs, brackets at the eaves, shingle siding mixed with brick or lap siding--in many ways like this one. And then we had some Spanish revival, some fairly fanciful. One of those has survived for re-use in Petaluma for the new commuter train, and we've had some new depots built that refer to the old styles (in massing and scale anyway). This area was, in part, the summer get-a-way and people would take the train up here and stay in hotels and camps.

[Bryan K]

Absolutely a compliment! Well done models and renders.

[Mike Amos]

The Dakota comes out nice in render, very well done Sir.

[LA_RR_Architect]

The attached image is not exactly from Sketchup but rather is my SU model with some 3dMax tricks applied...

To me the value of embellishing the model with elements like the airplane and smoke is that they add life and implied motion to an image that otherwise appears fairly static.

Enjoy

Jim

[Bryan K]

Excellent!