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.
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.
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| 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?
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
Good luck on your project! I've been working on my version since the 60's - I've moved too many times to really get started. I do have one of the distinctive dwarf signals next to my driveway in Northern California, and the sign that says, "End Auto Stop TK 1". The station master let me have them in the early 1970's before they all went to the foundry.
ReplyDeleteThe one stub track at the east end and the two stub tracks at the west end were for the "depot motors" - the electric engines that stayed at the terminal for switching. There was one for each end of the coach yard, and the long stub on the east end held two of them. The two stubs on the west end held one each, but they were also used for mail cars, and I think they may have run the RDC "Beeliners" from them in the late 60's. They were long enough to have two dwarf signals to cover visibility through the curve. The sleeping cars were spotted on platform tracks with the switch levers locked until it was time to move them.
Those HO P1a engines are expensive no matter who made them - are you going to have all 22? And that's a lot of double slip switches. I have a blueprint of the track and signal arrangement if you are interested. I also know how the signal system and the rather unusual dwarf signals operated. I have a number of B&W photos from the area as the tracks were being removed, but before the parking lot was completely installed.
Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you have those artifacts from the terminal, I would say you have the only ones left.
Not sure how much you've browsed my blog but if you follow it you can see a transition I had to make due to the fact that I just couldn't make any passenger oriented layout fit in my basement and still retain my list of "must haves". Some day maybe I'll have enough room to do it, but not in this house.
I'm okay with that though because there are plenty of other things that interest me for layout projects.
My current interest is switching operations in the Oxbow Bend area which included DK Yard and the old Big 4 mainline on the east side and some of the industrial areas to the west of that, including the old Upson Nut & Bolt plant (a mini steel mill), the Fairchild Milling Company flour plant, and the Huron Portland Cement plant. If you have any photos of those areas, I'd be very interested in some scans. That being said, I'd be interested in checking out anything you have!
Again, thanks for stopping in!
Jeff
Hi,my name is Brian. I've been following your blog. Thought these map might interest you. Here is the linkhttp://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nkp/nkp.html. Go to other photos towards the bottom of the page. And click on Cleveland 1937-along cuyahoga river and w&le roundhouse. Their is a track diagram for the nut and bolt factory site. And other flat areas.
ReplyDeleteBrian, thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteYep, I've seen that map before. In fact, that map and other maps from the same collection are my primary reference guides for the prototype track plans of the area. You can actually find the original scans here:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/699130/Plate+010/Cleveland+1937+Revised+1941+Vol+2/Ohio/
There are also other editions of the same Hopkins map collection as well as others on that website. It's a great resource for prototype maps!
This particular map was originally drawn in 1937 which is 2 years after the blast furnace was torn down, although some remnants of it such as the stoves, pump house, and engine house are still depicted on the map. The 1922 version still shows the blast furnace.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteAny ideas on who might have a CUT dwarf signal for sale?
Regards,
Fred Klein