Eighth Avenue El · 1918–40 · OO, 1:76.2

145th Street, seen from the west

A study of the 145th St hump station as a layout with its west side left open: the buildings on the west side of Eighth Avenue removed, the viewer standing where they were, and the east side's blockfronts as the backscene. Everything here is ElevateIT!'s own model of the layout, rendered as it would be built at 1:76.2.

6.80 mtrack, chainage 0–1700 ft

835 mmfront edge to back of the east buildings

428 mmfront edge to the east building line

80 mmrail above the street

+46 mmexpress raised on the hump (11 ft 7 in)

170 mmbent spacing (42 ft 6 in)

The whole layout

Plan above, elevation below, north to the left - as you see it standing on the west side. The red lines are the suggested baseboard joints J1–J4 (see below); the bars underneath are the five drawing sheets.

Plan and elevation of the whole 145th St layout, with four suggested baseboard joints and the extents of the five drawing sheets

Oblique view of the whole layout from the west — **The whole run from the west, looking down at 26°.** At 6.8 m the line is a long, thin model: the hump in the middle - the express rising 11 ft 7 in between the two local tracks - is what gives it its shape from end to end.

Views from the west

Perspective views from where you would stand or sit at the layout. The model stops 7 ft (28 mm) beyond the west building line - the west sidewalk and the ends of the west cross streets are kept as the front of the scene - and stands on a baseboard with a dark fascia. The west-side buildings are left out; the east side's are the city's measured buildings (brick) and stand-ins for those since replaced (paler).

The station at W 145th St from a standing viewer's height — **Standing at the layout.** Eye 600 mm in front of the front edge and 500 mm above the street, looking at the station across W 145th St: the two local platforms with their street stairs and station houses, the express platforms on the hump above.

Eye-level view along the layout from the front edge — **At eye level.** Eye 36 mm above the street (9 ft at 1:76.2), 160 mm in front of the board, looking north-east along the line towards the station. This is the view a low viewing height or a photograph gives.

From the south end looking north along the line — **From the south end.** Looking north along the avenue from W 142nd St, raised: the cross streets come off the front edge as short stubs, the express climbing the hump towards the station.

From the north end looking south along the line — **From the north end.** The same from W 148th St looking south. Either end makes a natural viewing corner.

From the west sidewalk under the station — **From the west sidewalk.** A camera's view from 5 ft 6 in on the west sidewalk at W 145th St, under the station: the cross-girders, the station house over the street and the stairs coming down to the curb.

Raised view of the station from the west — **From above the front edge.** The station square on, from 960 mm in front of the board and 640 mm up: the layout's centrepiece and the board it would most need to sit whole on.

Plan and elevation, sheet by sheet

Each sheet has the plan above and the elevation from the west below, orthographic and at one scale, so anything in one lies directly over the same point in the other. Each carries two linear scales - millimetres on the model at 1:76.2 and feet on the prototype - so it can be measured however it is printed or zoomed. North is to the left; the sheets run north to south, 1 to 5.

The band between the drawings marks what a baseboard joint has to work round: the cross streets (shaded through both drawings), the station's platforms, stairs and houses, the express hump, every bent (black ticks, also on the drawings' edges) and ElevateIT!'s 39 ft (156 mm) modules, the units its deck kits print in (green). The dashed red lines are the suggested joints.

platforms street stairs station houses express raised express rising / falling

Sheet 1 · W 148th St

1450–1760 ft · joint J4

Sheet 1: plan and elevation, chainage 1450 to 1760 ft

Sheet 2 · W 146th to W 147th St

1070–1460 ft · joint J4

Sheet 2: plan and elevation, chainage 1070 to 1460 ft

Sheet 3 · the station, W 145th St

620–1080 ft · joints J2, J3

Sheet 3: plan and elevation of the station, chainage 620 to 1080 ft

Sheet 4 · W 143rd to W 144th St

240–630 ft · joints J1, J2

Sheet 4: plan and elevation, chainage 240 to 630 ft

Sheet 5 · W 142nd St

−60–250 ft · joint J1

Sheet 5: plan and elevation, chainage -60 to 250 ft

Suggested baseboard joints

One way of dividing the 6.8 m, to start planning from. Each joint is on a module boundary, so no printed deck kit has to be cut across it; none is closer than 6 ft (24 mm) to a bent; none falls in a cross street; and the station, with its stairs and houses, sits whole on the middle board.

Joint	Chainage	From the south end	Nearest bent	Where it falls
J1	234 ft	936 mm	6 ft · 24 mm	Mid-block, W 142nd–143rd St, 55 ft south of W 143rd's curb; the express climbing
J2	624 ft	2 496 mm	14 ft · 54 mm	Mid-block, W 144th–145th St, 44 ft north of W 144th's curb and 112 ft short of the platforms; in the vertical curve where the express's climb eases onto the raised level
J3	1 053 ft	4 212 mm	18 ft · 70 mm	Mid-block, W 145th–146th St, 89 ft past the platforms and 56 ft short of W 146th's curb; in the vertical curve where the express starts down
J4	1 443 ft	5 772 mm	17 ft · 70 mm	Mid-block, W 147th–148th St, 45 ft north of W 147th's curb; in the vertical curve at the foot of the express's fall

Board	Chainage	Length	On it
South end	0–234 ft	936 mm	W 142nd St; the start of the hump's rise
2	234–624 ft	1 560 mm	W 143rd, W 144th St; the express climbing
Station	624–1053 ft	1 716 mm	W 145th St, the platforms, stairs and houses, the express platforms
4	1053–1443 ft	1 560 mm	W 146th, W 147th St; the express coming down
North end	1443–1700 ft	1 029 mm	W 148th St; the express back level with the locals by 1520 ft

Board depth is the same throughout: 835 mm from the front edge to the backs of the east buildings, or 428 mm to the east building line if the buildings are reduced to low-relief flats. The cross streets carry on 100 ft (400 mm) past the east building line on the drawings; a shallower board would stop them at its back.

What is in the model, and how sure

The railway is ElevateIT!'s 145th St layout from ASCE Transactions vol. 82 (1918): the hump, the platforms, Plate XIX's station houses and stairs, the Eighth Avenue lattice bents at 42 ft 6 in, the rail 20 ft above the street.
The east buildings are the city's measured footprints and roof heights where the building stood by 1940; the paler ones stand in for buildings since replaced, as tall as their neighbours, where the 1924 aerial photograph shows the blockfront built up.
The street has today's surveyed curbs (a 60 ft roadway on Eighth Avenue), 1902 practice for the crown (14¼ in on the avenue) and 6 in curbs; the street is drawn level, though W 145th in fact climbs to the west.
The renders are flat-shaded and schematic: they show form, size and position, not finish or colour. The chainage is the layout's; the buildings and street are placed on the ground and can differ from it by up to 6 ft at the far ends.