How to model Cleveland Union Terminal in HO Scale?

A little history first.

Cleveland Union Terminal was quite a large passenger station. Construction was started in 1926 and the terminal was officially opened in 1930. The tower, today known as Terminal Tower, is 771' to the tip of the spire. The passenger and traction platforms were built below street level, under W. Huron Rd and W. Prospect Av.

There are some excellent online resources about the history of the Cleveland Union Terminal. Cleveland State University's Michael Schwartz Library has an online collection called the Cleveland Memory Project. Part of the Cleveland Memory Project is a large collection of photos from the construction of the Cleveland Union Terminal from the late 1920's and early 30's. You can find it here: Cleveland Memory Project

One of the unique features of Cleveland Union Terminal was that it was completely electrified by overhead catenary. This was because the City of Cleveland wanted to restrict passenger steam locomotives from operating under the terminal. Cleveland Union Terminal operated its own fleet of New York Central P-1a electric locomotives to run the passenger trains in and out of the terminal, with the steam-to-electric swap occurring at Collinwood Yard east of the terminal, and Linndale Yard to the west. Once railroads started swapping out steam locomotives for diesels beginning in the late 1930's for their best passenger trains, the diesel powered trains were able to make the run into the station under their own power. Some crack steam trains were still allowed to run into CUT, such as NYC's Mercury pictured below.

The Cleveland Mercury (Cleveland to Detroit) westbound out of Cleveland Union Terminal in 1936

Layout of the Cleveland Union Terminal.

In the diagram you can see that there are 28 tracks total at the terminal, and 26 of the 28 tracks were through tracks. In addition there were a few stub tracks in the coach yard service area, and stubs at the ends of some of the platforms. Presumably these are for spotting sleeper cars for early occupation the evening before next morning departure.

The above diagram doesn't really do justice to the size of the terminal. The distance from the intersection of Huron & Superior to Huron & Ontario is around 2300'. That's 26' in HO scale! It's also about 700' from the northernmost platform to Canal Road at the bottom, which is about 8 & 1/2' in HO scale.

The question now becomes, how the heck do I model this thing in HO scale and still make it look like a large city passenger terminal? There is no need to model 26' of passenger platform in HO scale. The longest passenger train I will probably operate will be about 10' long. To model all 28 tracks would require 8'6" of benchwork depth which would require hidden access to the back 2/3rds of the tracks.

Another unique feature of CUT is the fact that there was a large coach yard with service facilities, and mail & express service all within the terminal area. I need to model all of those pieces as well to have realistic passenger operations.

So how big or small does my version of Cleveland Union Terminal become?

East approach to CUT taken from Terminal Tower facing east. Catenaries, CT Tower (just below the freight yard) and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (the collection of smokestacks to the left of the freight yard) are all visible. The freight yard belongs to Baltimore & Ohio RR.

West approach to CUT facing west. The building in the foreground is the Huron St. entrance to the passenger station concourse. The US Post Office will relocate its main Cleveland location to a building that will be built over the gap just above the concourse building. Detroit-Superior viaduct in upper left of photo. Terminal Tower just off right side of photo.

Some more planning considerations:

• 30" minimum radius on visible passenger tracks
• #8 minimum turnout size on visible passenger tracks
• 8' minimum length for any siding intended for holding an entire passenger train
• 2" minimum centerline parallel track spacing
• 24" minimum radius on visible freight tracks & hidden staging
• #6 minimum turnout size on visible freight tracks & hidden staging
• 30" maximum benchwork reach to wall/dividers
• 24" minimum aisle space

Here is a drawing (AnyRail 5) of my train room with 30" benchwork (in yellow) around the walls (red border lines). No peninsulas or islands drawn yet at this stage. This half of the basement is actually 13' x 46' but I'm only going to use 30' of the long dimension along the south wall (for now...) because the stairway is against the west wall in this half of the basement. The remaining 16' to the west wall & stairs from the edge of the benchwork I plan on finishing as a small lounge area. The doorway on the north wall leads to another 13' x 60' part of the basement which I have no plans on using for trains (for now...) and is the only access to that part of the basement. The furnace, laundry area, well pump, water heater, and storage areas are all in the north half of the basement. The east wall is the common wall to both halves of the basement and the north wall is the dividing wall.

Here's one track arrangement with the station in a corner, everything fits within the constraints above. Note that 2 double slips are used to save space in each approaching throat. I'm not sure if I like it to be all on a curve though, I may have to increase track spacing a little in that case. I also don't think there would be much room for anything else in the corner. It could work though. The shortest track is under 8' but it is the inside track which would be a coach yard track and doesn't have to hold a whole train. The shortest terminal track is the outside at 112" which is good.

I can see already before even putting any track down that my idea of putting the passenger terminal in a corner is probably not going to be ideal and stay within my constraints above. Of course, the only thing set in concrete here are the physical dimensions of the basement. 

Now is where the creativity begins...

Welcome to my blog, Crooked River rails.

This blog is about my HO scale model railroad based on the area around the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland Ohio, circa late 1940's to early 1950's.

Right now the model railroad is in the conceptual stage. The main reason for this is because I have yet to move into the house where it will be built. That will change very soon, however.

I will have roughly a 14' x 30' area to work with to build my layout. I say roughly because there is potentially more room available, but the 14' is at least the primary locked dimension due to the basement walls. If I break through a dividing concrete block wall or extend the long dimension some, I can make it bigger. For starters though, 14' x 30' will be plenty.

I do not even have a full list of my givens & druthers yet. I am pretty sure that I want to include the following at least:

• Part of the Cleveland Union Terminal station. I won't be able to model Cleveland Union Terminal to scale because it is 771' to the top of the antenna spire which is almost 9' tall in HO scale. Trust me though - if I had the ceiling for it, I would probably attempt to build an HO scale model of the tower.
• Hand in hand with the first bullet, I want to model passenger operations at the terminal during the late 1940's to early 1950's. At least to some degree. The terminal platforms had 6 traction tracks, 12 railroad tracks, and a 9 track coach yard. I will most likely downsize this a bit. I also have no plans currently to model the traction piece at all, but who knows what may happen.

• Multiple railroad operations for both passenger and freight. The main players in the downtown Cleveland area during this time frame were New York Central, Nickel Plate, Baltimore & Ohio, Big Four, Erie, Wheeling & Lake Erie, and Pennsylvania. Cleveland Union Terminal (C.U.T.) also had its own electrified line, more on that later though.

• Riverfront operations. There were several locations on the riverfront where commodities such as ore, coal, grain, aggregate, and concrete were loaded and unloaded. At one time, the Whiskey Island ore dock with its four enormous Hulett unloaders was the largest ship-to-shore ore unloading operation in the world. 

Well, that's it for an introduction. Much more to come!