Comments on: Central Terminal 1992

By: Paul G

Paul G — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:52:37 +0000

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!

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:24:50 +0000

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 ?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/PICT0210.jpg

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:18:35 +0000

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

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:13:35 +0000

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.

By: Paul G

Paul G — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:31:08 +0000

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.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:07:35 +0000

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.

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:42:11 +0000

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.

By: Mike Puma

Mike Puma — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:35:32 +0000

Hmmm Nick, I’m going to say a chandelier for the Trolley Lobby?

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:08:03 +0000

woops:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/GS-B-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/GS-B-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/GS-B-3.jpg

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:07:20 +0000

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

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/GS-B-1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/GS-B-2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/GS-B-3.jpg[/IMG]

By: Dennis

Dennis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:42:49 +0000

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.

By: Paul G

Paul G — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:52:10 +0000

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?

By: Paul G

Paul G — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:15:30 +0000

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…..

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:38:42 +0000

Being curious I did some digging on the net and there is a company on Main street in Buffalo that does plating. They seem to have been in business for a long time:

http://www.keyfinishing.com/

Probably out of the reach of an all-volunteer org., but they have a place to request a quote that would give you a baseline price. Of course you could always build your own electroplating tank, as it seems likely to me that these lamps will be the first of many. Excellent!

By: Paul G

Paul G — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:42:07 +0000

Yeah, I worked with a Miller MaxStar 200 convertible stick/ tig welder and they are nice units. But any DC stick machine fitted with a tig adapter should work fine. With tig, the tip is negative so it don’t burn up in the arc, and has foot pedal control, preflow and postflow adjustments for the gas. And with tig you run pure argon as opposed to a 75/25 or 70/30 mix like with gas mig. All around you have better control over the whole process with tig, and the end result is a very neat weld. (And I like the idea of using RF to start the arc over trying to strike an arc with temperamental electrodes that stick to the metal! Of course, the auto ‘lift to start’ feature on the newer stick machines is nice too.) Powder coating would be nice, but painting is still probably the cheapest way to finish the end product.

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:58:08 +0000

Steel is the material of choice here. i have a mig welder but we dont have the juice at the terminal to run it. We have a 60A service there and my mig draws 25+. The brothers generator is also to small for running my mig (i think)

ill see if i have everything required to build a basic scratch start tig setup using the converter box i have. The converter is ment to be attached to a stick welder so we should be able to hook that up to the brothers welder / generator just fine, and then i can tig the entire assembly.

All the welds will be complete one way or another, probably bevel / filler rod on the exterior and then just wash the inside seam together w/o any filler. That way they never start bleeding rust stains no matter what happens.

i would love to see these get powder coated in the end, plating is probably to pricey as these are large items and cant just be tossed in a plating vat w/ 100 other paying jobs the plater would be doing at the same time. (100″ wide and 52″ tall)

By: Paul G

Paul G — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:29:51 +0000

And brass pieces of the same dimension as steel pieces are slightly heavier in weight, and the fusing process is more painstaking. Those would need to be silver soldered or brazed by someone with a very steady hand. With steel, tig welds would produce the neatest joints, with sufficient strength to hold it together. Of course, some of the joints would probably only need to be spot welded. The final finish could then be painted (or plated) on, if a plater big enough could be located that could do that economically. Or a powder coat finish could be applied electrostatically, then baked on. Unless, of course, stainless is used for some of the parts, but that’s expensive too. Maybe Marty can come up with some ideas too. (That’s right up his alley, working in a metal shop!)

By: BCTV_Nick

BCTV_Nick — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:25:49 +0000

The light fixtures for the terminal might never have been fully blueprinted originally. They could very well have been some scribbles on a napkin w/ a few critical measurements, and let the artist figure the rest out.

All the light fixtures will be broken down into their individual bars, which will be formed on a press brake to their proper angles, miter cut on each end, then welded to their neighbors. If we cut triangular pieces the welds would be down the long edges which would make quite a mess in the end.

I most likely will not be building much of a fixture for these either, just build it upside down on a large table and work my way around and up, then build a support structure on the inside for strength.

The chandeliers will be steel, as brass would be roughly 12 times the cost for materials alone

By: Paul G

Paul G — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:21:04 +0000

BTW a Howtek 4500 drum scanner is about 150 pounds and surplus it runs about $1500 on eBay. It is also SCSI interface and supports Windows 9x/NT and earlier MAC OS versions. So unless a local shop has something similar they use everyday and can offer their services to scan large negatives at a reasonable price, an Epson V500 or V600 might be an alternative, but negative size is limited to 6cm x 12cm for the V500 and 6cm x 22cm for the V600. I don’t know if that could be a problem. I’ll keep looking. I don’t know if The Buffalo News might have a drum scanner, or if they’ve gone all digital. Maybe someone could find out.

By: Paul G

Paul G — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:06:57 +0000

Well, after reading the PCMag review of the 8800F, the guy reviewing it recommends the Epson V500 for negative scanning. That one will scan medium size negatives at 6400 pixels per inch as opposed to the 8800F’s 4800 ppi, and supposedly the 8800F will not scan medium or large frame negatives at all. And the Epson comes with digital ICE for scratch removal feature. I’ll check the full review of the V500 and see whai I come up with.