A visit to Custom Model Railroads

[John]

[ski]

That St. Louis Union Station is absolutely incredible. I wonder how much that cost??????

[C855B]

Echo the STL station sentiment. Living near the 1:1... what possessed them to model that? It is an impressive façade no doubt, but there are others. LAUPT, for instance, which is currently very active. STL is moribund, RR-wise, just a nice tourist attraction.

[Roger Holmes]

The St. Louis Union Station model is truly amazing.  In it's heyday it hosted multiple railroads including PRR, GM&O and many others.  Today it is an entertainment desination and there is a large hotel under the trainshed.  20 years ago I stayed in a hotel room in the original headhouse.  The front (streetside) end opposite the tower had been a hotel.  Not sure if that is still operating today but the one under the trainshed is.

We were there twice this past summer to visit the acquarium under the trainshed with two different grandkids.  St. Loius is only 90 minutes away and we visit often.  My step-daughter and her husband had lunch today at Landry's which is in the former freighthouse at the edge of the trainshed.

I have just skimmed the video without sound so far and hope to have time to watch and listen to it all soon. I noticed that toward the end of the video they were showing the CMR Union Station building kit.  I used the N scale version of that as the basis of my Art Institute of Chicago build. After buying the kit just because I liked it, I then saw the potential of using it for the Art Institute.  I contacted them about purchasing several more wall sections.  CMR was very helpful and in the end it was cheaper to just purchase a second kit.  They cut me a break on shipping and the finished result is below.



This photo has a piece of posterboard behind the building to block out the workbench clutter but is makes it look like it has a slanted roof, which it doesn't.

[Mark5]

Echo the STL station sentiment. Living near the 1:1... what possessed them to model that? It is an impressive façade no doubt, but there are others.

I guess they like the architecture. 

Among other things, this station kit is clearly a scaled down version of Baltimore's Penn Station: https://www.cmrtrain.com/product/N-City-Station/125?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=3

https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/65

[up1950s]

Well that was a great video with loads of info . Funny I am awaiting 2 sheets of aged concrete from them for photo shoot setting in a 5 gal bucket project I started a few weeks ago .

[Jimbo]

Echo the STL station sentiment. Living near the 1:1... what possessed them to model that? It is an impressive façade no doubt, but there are others. LAUPT, for instance, which is currently very active. STL is moribund, RR-wise, just a nice tourist attraction.

Sounds like, from the video, that it was commissioned by a customer.  In the video, right as they show it, they mention that it’s “ready to deliver.”

STL may be moribund today compared with other stations, but the purchaser may be modeling an era when it was much more active.

This is a very spectacular model!

Jim