JFK Airtrain

The JFK airtrain is a fully automated, driverless people mover. No driver means passengers can watch out the front window and film the track with their crappy cell phone cameras. This seems to be a fairly popular thing to do given how many variants of this can be found on Youtube. My version is below.



I used Youtube's video editor to compile the video from 5 segments, added transitions and a soundtrack.

Model train stores in Manhattan

When traveling I like to visit hobby shops that carry Maerklin simply because there are no decent such shops around where I live. Yes, the sticker prices tend to be a bit higher than for the same item on the Internet, but nothing beats looking at the actual thing before buying it.

Case in point: The Red Caboose and Gotham Model Trains. The stores are located between Rockefeller Center and Penn Station, so easy to stop by while playing tourist.

The Red Caboose is a New York institution, and quite an experience. The store is located in a basement. The shelves and display cabinets are stuffed to the brim with material. Locomotives, cars, landscaping, accessories, track, books, ... At first glance there doesn't appear to be any logic in how items are organized, but after spending a little time it becomes apparent that "like" items are located near each other. E.g. all Maerklin inventory (and there's quite a selection), is within a 5 feet section of shelves, and displays. I use the term "Display" loosely here, since some of the shelves hold models stacked on top of models -- no boxes! Some fell down from a higher level in the display, and stayed where they landed.

Did I mention dusty and cramped? The fascination of this store comes from the fact that this is a collectors dream. Lots of old (sometimes very old) items, very narrow aisles (in some areas I wasn't able to turn around with a backpack on my back), lots of stuff to sift through, ... but boy, this store is dusty and messy. There was dust on boxes, wood shavings on shelves (probably from installing additional shelves), landscaping material stacked on the floor, boxes hanging from hooks in drywall, or wood frames. Obviously, this is not about presenting model trains, but to have a *huge* inventory of vaguely hobby-related stuff.

I did find a model of BR212 (a locomotive I coveted for a while now, since it nicely fits in with the theme of my layout). It's a good looking model, though unfortunately, it was from Maerklin's Hobby series, analog, and had the old style 3 rotor LCF motor. That kind of motor already gave me lots of trouble when digitizing other locomotives. The amount of dust on the box indicated that this locomotive had been in the store for a while. There was no price on the box, so I low-balled an offer (given the amount of trouble I will need to go through to make this run on my layout). The otherwise very nice owner, was almost offended, and after looking up the dealer price in a price list from 2002 (!), suggested that this model wouldn't be right for me. Actually, he was right.

In contrast, Gotham Model Trains is a very nice, small, and clean store on the 13th floor of an office building. There's a small operating layout in the store, display cases, that show the models. Shelves with neatly stacked boxes of cars, organized by manufacturer, car type, system type, and scale. While they didn't keep nearly as much inventory, most of it consisted of recent models at a fair price, where I knew they hadn't been sitting on a shelf somewhere for 10+ years. They don't seem to have a lot of foot business (no wonder, given the lack of advertisements on the side-walk), so the store was mostly empty when I visited. Had I not googled for [model trains] on maps.google.com I would have missed it.

The staff and the owner were super-friendly, and when I left, my backpack was full. I got a set of 6 tank cars, that looks very good behind my BR50, as well as 2 "Schuerzenwagen" passenger cars. No BR212, but I'll keep looking...

Update 2015/12/01:

Looks like The Red Caboose is still around, but Gotham Model Trains is no more. 

Return from Top of the Rock

Looking up into the elevator shaft while returning from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

Top of the Rock

Today I walked the streets some more, and ended up at Times Square. NBC/Universal has studios with large windows to the side walk there, and I wanted to watch how they film stuff. Turns out that they pulled the curtains. Oh, well. And here I was again next Rockefeller Center. I bit the bullet, and paid my $21 to get to the observation deck. The view is truly impressive. The pictures don't do it justice.

Looking south over Manhattan, and New York harbor . I really like the commanding presence of the Empire State Building in the sky line.

Me and Central Park. ... Sorry, I'm in the way ...

Yeah, that's better.

The lower level of the Observation deck. Notice the interesting variations in roof architecture with the buildings below.

6th Avenue was closed for traffic today, in favor of a long street fair with arts & crafts, and pretty good food.

More exploring at night

After dinner we walked the streets some more, and ended up at the Rockefeller Center. There was nothing going on at Radio City Music Hall, but the neon lights are always a nice in the darkness.

The Rockefeller Center main tower with the "Top of the Rock" Observation Deck on the roof top.

Another fun example of neon light effects. This is an office building lobby... 

Grand Central Station Main Hall. A very nice hall. Fits the name of the station well.

However, going through a door to the station platforms, you basically enter the basement. Yes, station platforms tend to be somewhat ugly, but here the difference is so sudden and rough, that it hurts.

Hoooonk!

What is it with New York drivers? My room is on the 8th floor, with windows to 7th Avenue. All night long, and day, too, there is some idiot down there on the street blaring their horn. Wherever you go in this city, the sound of honking horns is with you. It's a constant background noise, sometimes pushing itself into the foreground because some bonehead is particularly impatient about the driver in front of him, a truck making a turn, a construction worker holding up a stop sign, or they are standing just at a red light.

It's a mystery to me why people would honk at a red light. Seems to happen all the time here.

Exploring New York

Thanks to our tour guide Tristan, we got to see a few unusual sights.

These big wheels where powered by a steam engine in the basement of a house near Broome & Mulberry Streets and drove printing presses. It must have been quite an experience when they were still in operation.

These three guys are at home in Rockefeller Park on the Hudson River. The monkey is easy to spot in the park. However, the cricket and worm are actually a mere 2 inches tall.

View from Rockefeller Park across the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey.

Apparently I'm not the only one admiring the sunset. This is the best photo I have of the Statue of Liberty. While we did take the Staten Island Ferry over to ... you guessed it ... Staten Island, the movement of the boat, and fading light made taking pictures from  the ferry quite pointless.

I do love this picture of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal after our return to Manhattan, though.

High Line Park

The Manhattan Highline is a former rail line that ran along the west side of Manhattan. It's a typical switching and delivery line, with the distinction that it ran three stories up from street level.

Today, sections of the High Line are becoming a city park. The bridges have been restored, and planted. There's a trail that runs along the former right of way.

What looks like nature taking over, is actually carefully arranged plantings. The Northern Spur bridge is a good example of a spur that leads directly into the 3rd level of a warehouse. Railroad cars used to be spotted inside the building through doors in the wall at the end of the bridge.

Tracks and trains often ran through buildings. The main High Line tracks lead through the red brick building on the right. The Northern Spur is set somewhat lower to the left, but going through the same building and then across the street.

During restauration, all tracks where removed. Later, they re-used the old rails, but installed new ties.

I like the radiant green of this grass here. The colors in the photo match the actual grass very closely.

Manhattan

Wednesday greeted us with blue skies and sunshine that stuck around for most of the day. Above is the view from the 8th floor of the office towards the North.

Every time I'm here it's a bit surprising how many residential buildings exist in downtown Manhattan. There are even fairly pretty tree lined residential streets, like this one just off 7th Avenue.

I'm not quite sure what's up with garbage collection in Manhattan, but it seems there are always garbage bags on the side walks, next to overflowing garbage bins. They do seem to get taken away over night, though.

Oh look, there's the Apple Store

9th Ave & 14th St

New York

After my flight landed, flight tracking claimed we were in the middle of Queens.

Nevertheless, I did leave the plane at JFK, and made it to Manhattan via Lightrail and Long Island Railroad to Penn Station. Definitely beats getting a cab in terms of money spent, and fun along the way. The signage at the Airtrain is impressively bad: Track 1 and Track 2 with no indication where a train is going. There are only 3 different lines to choose from...

It rained for most of the first half of the week, so I didn't take many photos, but one evening we did go to Times Square.