Scratch Built IRT Kiosk: Part 1

For those of you that visited my old site, you probably recall that I spent quite some time drawing out plans and researching the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) kiosks used as entry and exit points for the New York City subway system. Originally, my hope was to create an N scale kiosk kit, but after some setbacks on that front, I decided to simply scratch build one for myself.

I started scratch building that project right around the time that Chris Brimley and I started discussing the creation of the N Scale Limited site. That put the kiosk on hold for a while, but in an effort to clear off my shelf of partially completed projects, I decided to return to the kiosk and finish the build.

Although I’m not modeling a prototypical New York City, it’s details like this kiosk that add a level of realism you just don’t see on many layouts.

IRT Subway Kiosks

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was a privately run company that operated the New York City subway system from 1904 until 1940 when IRT was purchased by the city of New York. Today, the original IRT subway lines are known as New York’s “A Division” or to some, the “IRT Division”.

One of the most recognizable elements of the IRT subway is are the “kiosks” that were used to entrance and exit stairwells.  These 14′ tall glass and cast-iron structures stood in New York from the early 1900s to the mid to late 1950s.

Most vintage color photos of these kiosks seem to be an olive drab color — significantly darker and browner than the modern day replica kiosk that stands in New York today at Astor Place. A few reference Web sites I came across indicated that the kiosks were originally painted black, but I could not find any concrete material to support this. Note that the Astor Place replica is significantly wider and of a slightly modified style of the original IRT subway kiosks.

Astor Place replica kiosk. Photo by Flickr member, ".marn". Used under a Creative Commons license.

IRT kiosks were basically identical with some slight modifications made to fit each location. For example, the length, width or height might be modified if the standard plans would not fit the necessary placement. However, the kiosks were built with two different designs — one for entrances and one for exits. Entrance kiosks used a solid, domed roof while exit kiosks used mostly glass pyramidic roof.

It was common for both entrance and exit kiosks to be placed very near each other on New York City sideways and riders on the subway could quickly identify the proper stairwell based on the roof design regardless of location.

For the purposes of this series of articles, I will be building the domed roof entrance kiosk.  Eventually, I plan to build several of these as well as the matching exit versions.

Blue Prints

I spent some time working on 3D blue prints but ultimately, I wound up using the blueprints that are provided by www.nycsubway.org. You can access the blueprints on their kiosk page.

This page features four blue print images.  To use these in N scale, you’ll need to have your printer size the images so they’re correctly sized.  Normally, this is a printer setting called “Scale” or “Scaling”.

• Photo 1, Side Elevation – Scale to 18.4%
• Photo 2, Top Detail – Scale to 12.5%
• Photo 3, Rear Elevation – Scale to 13.7%
• Photo 4, Top Blueprint – Scale to 17.8%

These blueprint and elevation plans are detailed enough to follow for properly cutting pieces to size.

Materials Needed (For Part 1)

• .010″ x .020″ strip styrene
• .010″ x .040″ strip styrene
• .015″ x .040″ strip styrene
• .020″ x .020″ strip styrene
• .020″ x .100″ strip styrene
• .020″ x .156″ strip styrene
• .030″ x .030″ strip styrene
• .030″ x .125″ strip styrene
• .040″ x .040″ strip styrene

Construction

The kiosk is made primarily with strip styrene.  The styrene will be used for everything except the the domed roof, roof spire and scroll work.

Kiosk Base

First, I’ve build a base for the kiosk.  On the prototype, this is what looks to be a solid metal footing that supports the cast iron walls.

First layer of kiosk base

This is created using three pieces of .020″ x .100″ strip as shown.  These pieces are cut to match the appropriate lengths from the blueprints. The two long pieces are glued to the outside of the short piece.

The opening that is created once these pieces are assembled will be the opening for the descending staircase.

I added a second layer of .020″ x .100″ just like the first, but shortened the longer sides so that a piece of .020″ x .156″ could sit under the first layer, creating a shallow “step” and a forth “side” to the kiosk base.

Main Side Walls

The cast iron walls of the kiosk start off as a simple rectangle make of .040″ x .040″ styrene. Once again, these are cut to the length matching the blueprints. And again, the two long pieces are glued to the outside of the short pieces. This rectangular piece will become thick posts of the main kiosk housing that surround the entryway.

Rectangular main wall piece

The bottom half of the wall is built from .030″ x .125″ styrene. This sits on top of the bottom .040″ x .040″ horizontal piece.  The knee wall piece was added to the previous rectangle with everything laying flat on the work surface.  This allows you to keep this knee wall part flush with the backside of the rectangle framing.  Because of the size difference of the .030″ and .040″ material, this will create the appearance of the knee wall being recessed in from the corner posts.

To the top of the knee wall, a cap piece was added using .015″ x .040″ strip.  Again, keep the back of this piece flush with the back of overall wall so that the cap overhangs the knee wall but be raised from the front face and extend past the corner posts.

Another .040″ x .040″ strip was used for the cross beam above the window area. This should fit snugly between the vertical posts.

Main wall with vertical cross beam and mullions added

Between the cap piece and the top beam, .020″ x .020″ strips are added to create the mullions for the windows. These should line up with the blueprints.  You may find it easier to add mullions before adding the top beam above the windows.

An exact copy was made of this wall for the opposite side of the kiosk.

A copy of the first wall is built

Using the same method of .o40″ x .040″ styrene for vertical posts and top and bottom beams, .030″ x .125″ for knee wall and .015″ x .040″ for knee wall caps, I built the remainder of each main side wall.  This includes the middle section of the kiosk and the end section opposite the entrance.  To match sizes and angle, I matches up all of the strip pieces with the blueprints.

Starting full side wall of N scale kiosk

Again, this process was repeated for the opposite side. If you are building this project, be sure you create the opposite walls as mirror images so the recessed knee walls face the outside of the kiosk.

Once the main wall pieces are created, dimension is added by defining the recessed panels on the knee walls. The panels can be created by building the front face of the walls out a bit.  This approach doesn’t match the prototype exactly but is close enough to create the illusion of much more detail than really exists.

Main kiosk side wall

To add the panels and build out the wall, .010″ x .040″ strips were added over top of all of the .040″ x .040″ posts and beams.  Additional pieces were added to the kiosk sides following placement on the blueprints. This is basically two additional vertical strips per main wall segment.

Building out the walls in this way is similar to how Chris Brimley scratch builds structures with thick framing covered in thin facades.  Using this method also helps hide imperfections in the original wall segments since the.010″ x .040″ is easier to cut perfectly square and doesn’t have the same “angled cut” issue some of us have experienced if you’re using a Northwest Shoreline Chopper to cut your parts.

With the side walls built out, you’ll also need to build out the cap on top of the knee walls.  For this I added vertical .010″ x .020″ strip to bring out the face of the cap all along the walls.

Small square pieces of .010″ x .040″ were also added to the top faces of the short posts matching the small raised detail on the prototype.

Rear Wall and Connecting Beams

The rear wall of the kiosk — the wall that connects the two side walls is built identically to the side walls. That is, building the bottom beam, knee wall, wall cap or and .010″ x .040″ raised panel areas and built out posts.

To figure out the width of the rear wall, I lined up the two side walls with the styrene kiosk base I built. The walls should sit on the base so they’re aligned with the inner edges of the base and are centered on the base. The spacing around the outside of the base should be consistent all the way around the walls.

Once I figured out the size, I first cut the knee wall piece and glued it in place, being sure to square square everything up. The rear wall does not have a top horizontal piece 0r window mullions at this point. Once the three walls were dry, I glued them onto the base.

Once the basic assembly was done, four angled .040″ x .040″ beams are added to created the angled roof pitch over the rear portion. These photos are before I adjusted the right side for being a bit crooked. These roof angles one one of the most difficult things to build on the kiosk.

Rear wall and roof pitch

I added another three more .040″ x .040″ horizontal beams.  Two are added to the front of the kiosk to connect the front end. These beams should line up with the two side wall beams over the window area and at the top of the main walls. Another beam is added to the top of the kiosk forms a square for the roof to rest on.

Lastly, two .030″ x .030″ strips were added to the kiosk center-line to form a roof ridge.

To Be Continued

In Part 2 of this article series, we’ll continue with the roof mullions, domed roof and other miscellaneous details.

• Scratch Built IRT Kiosk: Part 4 (10)
• Scratch Built IRT Kiosk: Part 3 (7)
• Scratch Built IRT Kiosk: Part 2 (7)
• Scratch Building 101: Section House (11)
• Scratch Build a Pushcart Fruit Vendor (8)

About the Author

Frank Giacobbe — Co-founder of N Scale Limited, Frank has been building models since childhood and modeling in N scale since 2oo3. He is the former author of the blog, N Scale Modeling and a member of the Riverside Historic Society in Riverside, NJ. Frank has a passion for big city modeling, the 1940s and the Pennsylvania Railroad.