Terminal fan Richard Gilbert contacted me a while ago about video footage he had of the building from the early 90s. Well he has started converting it to digital formats, and is sharing it with us and all of you through Vimeo. Check out the first installment below from September 1992. The concourse clock is already gone, but there is so much intact glass still, and notice how much ceiling is still left in the waiting room!!
Buffalo Central Terminal September 1992 pt 1 of 2 from Richard Gilbert on Vimeo.
I was toying with the idea of inventing an electrostatic metal vapor plating process where a chamber could be constructed around the large object to be plated, and a mist containing plating metal material would surround the item to be plated and electrostatically deposited to the surface. Once the process was finished, the chamber could be easily dismantled, and reassembled if another large piece needed to be plated. Portability would be the key element there. It would need to be easy to transport to and from the job, easy to set up and dismantle, and wouldn’t require large amounts of power to operate. And the tricky part: the process would have to be economical… and environmentally friendly…..
Or, as with the powder coat process, have guns in the chamber that would atomize the plating solution, and shoot it, using high voltage to accelerate the mist, with enough force to penetrate the pores of the electrically charged heated object to be plated. The object would be rotated within the chamber (on a turntable) for uniform coating of all targeted surfaces. The liquid carrier of the plating solution would be drawn out of the chamber once it makes contact with the heated object and evaporates, leaving the plating metal deposited on the object. The vapor residue could then be sent to a condensing unit, converted back to liquid for possible recharging and re-use. Sounds like a good idea, no?
My great-grandmother was a “car counter” up in the tower, ’til her retirement from the NY Central in ’49. Railroading is in my blood, in fact she and several others on that side of the family had relocated to Buffalo from PA as the transportation industry there boomed.
My only recollection of the terminal was as a 5 year old in ’79. My grandfather brought me, my mom, and my baby sister to there to jump on the train back to Rochester. We’d dropped off a car for him to drive, as he’d wrecked one of his own. At any rate, I remember the waiting room with the murals, sitting on the benches in there, and sitting on the train waiting for it to pull away from the terminal. The last passenger train left BCT a little over a month later.
Saddens me to see the vid. I’ve seen Chuck Maley’s pics from that time frame, too, and other pics taken since the early 90′s. Glad to see the terminal is sealed off and some wonderful people are committed to cleaning it up and starting the painstaking process of restoring parts of the complex.
And an off the cuff design, based on some of the other lights in the terminal but at the same time a unique design.
i know where i want to put them, but im not gonna tell just yet
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woops:
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Hmmm Nick, I’m going to say a chandelier for the Trolley Lobby?
The mini chandeliers in the trolley lobby and train concourse are both (if i remember correctly) 12 sided, and i also don’t intend to replace any of the “public area” lights of the terminal with anything that’s not accurate to history, so those 2 light fixtures will have to wait till the day we have pics to show what they looked like.
These will be going someplace else. wait and see is al i can suggest.
My guess would be the new restrooms. If so a good idea, a bit of art deco in what is otherwise a modern utilitarian space.
I guess that rules out the ceiling fixtures above the entrances to the main concourse from the base of the tower, the Van Dyke lobby, the baggage check , and the train concourse (or does it?). Nick, has anybody CAD’ded the 2 tier tulip concourse entrance lights with dimensions yet? I know there’s not much to them, and the base and frame would be the most difficult parts to construct. An interesting touch to them would be the use of color changing LED lamps! Rebuilding the pedestals they sat on is another thing. I think only one or two out of the eight are still in good enough shape to use. The rest need major work.
I did the 27″ sconces already, and the 7′ ones are the same general design, just stretched out a lot and a bit bigger around. Once i get the measurements for the 7 footers i should be able to draw those up no problem.
Cynthia Schwartz measured both the 27″ and 7′ units when she visited Hong Kong, which is also when the pictures in the gallery were taken.
Unfortunately a while back both my hard drives took a long walk off a short pier, so the CAD files for the 27″ units are most likely lost, but i know how i did them so im not to worried about it.
As for the pedestals for the 7 footers, im thinking that would be a good place for fiberglass replica’s. Make molds of the good pieces we have, Lay down a coat of clear jel coat thats LOADED with Botticino marble dust, back it up with white jel coat, then lay down fiberglass matting. all the detail of the starburst engravings, none of the expense.
Noone will ever know the difference, even if you tell them. And marble dust / fiberglass mixes are already commonly used for outdoor statues, so its a sound design concept. and Botticino dust is like $7 for 5 pounds or something of the sort.
and as for whats ruled out for this newest design:
all lights in the entry lobby area, exit lobby area, elevator lobby, main concourse, train concourse, baggage area, waiting room, Trolley lobby, new bathrooms and old bathrooms.
gotta keep you guys guessin for a bit
its a start !
form them, trim the ends properly, weld them together end to end in a fancy fashion, paint, install glass, hang, say “oh those look pretty”
easy right ?
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Well, nothing is ever as easy as it sounds, unless someone has done similar work and knows exactly what to do. Yeah, the fiberglass composition slabs for the torch pedestals sounds like it would work pretty good. I see on the fiberglass composition bathroom vanity sink tops the marble finish they use looks like the real thing. And that’s a lot easier to form than cutting real marble. That’d work great for the rounded ends on the kiosks too! (At least in the immediate future, until some kind soul wants to spring for the marble and shape it. Don’t see that happening anytime soon!) I think we have set a new record for comments posted for a message on this board! The last time this many came was when Speaking With The Dead was aired! Can’t wait for Richard to release Part II of the video!