The Subway

Re-Creating The 49th Street Station

For the last ten years I have been arriving at 49th street station, Monday Through Friday, to start my workday. One of the most unique stations in New York, unmistakable to those who have ever frequented it and the perfect location for Pitfall to disappear, located right smack in the middle of Times Square.

First a little background on why I chose New York and why the challenge of re-creating a real world location. I have always respected my Father, a great deal, for many reasons but one that always stuck out was his creative and sometimes disturbing ways of thinking. I have vivid memories of my Father teaching me the New Yorker look. You see years back New York was not a nice place to live or visit at least as it is today, Pit Falls opening speech summed it up very well. I grew up in a New York where people were mugged regularly, hearing of someone being knifed in the street was not uncommon just as much as seeing some of the dirtiest diseased ridden hookers on nearly every street corner. That New Yorker look told people that you lived here and that any hand that touched you was yours to do with as you pleased.

As well as the New Yorker look he always taught if you want to disappear, New York is the place to do it, with a police force that is ranked with out of shape and often crooked cops and more people per square block then most American town entire populations. When writing Brothers Keeper, those memories came back full force and the idea of taking up the challenge of creating these sets that have real world locations right around the corn from my office, thrilled me.

Supplies

2 1x6 wooden boards (Available at any Home Depot)
2 2 1/2in x 6ft wooden boards (Available at any Home Depot)
1 2x6 wooden board (Available at any Home Depot)
One large model train track
A big handful of starbucks coffee stirrers (Sorry to anyone that works at Starbucks, I swear I usually don’t steal)
Wood Glue
Color printer
Double stick tape or glue brush
Grey, Yellow, Brown, Black paint
Small amount of Sand

At first I thought to find a brick pattern from one of the online resources, like www.joedios.com, However when I started to research the available material I found that none of them really looked quite right, on top of that I knew I also want the station signs and billboards that NY Subway stations are known for and so the decision was made to do it from scratch. Meaning that one-day on a very early morning I was out with a tripod and camera photographing the walls of 49th street station. Besides fearing Homeland security agents running me down for photographing the inside of a New York subway station, I also had to look out for oncoming trains since the camera needed to be a certain amount of feet away from the wall to catch the up to 7ft. tall perspective I was looking for.

Those shots were then put onto my computer and opened up in Photoshop where the signs and billboards were cut out and placed into secondary files. With nothing but the plain brick to work with, the file was then transferred into Illustrator where a section of the brick was selected and then placed into a repeat. The great thing about a repeat is that you can print up multiple copies of the same page and will always be able to locate the repeat so that you can seamlessly connect each page to the other. With the repeat completed, the file was then transferred back into Photoshop where the signs and billboards were placed on top of the brick repeat and the drop shadow tool was used to give them the three-dimensional look that they had. At this time you can either print the sheets up at home or at a neighborhood Kinko’s. Once printed trim the edges of the paper so that the edge start exactly where the brick pattern starts. * This was probably the hardest part of the entire Subway station project, but don not be afraid, I also had no idea what I was doing until it was done.

One 2x6 foot wooden board was placed on top of a sturdy surface, then two 2 ½ inch X 6ft wooden planks were placed, one at the very tip of the base and the other about 1/3 of the way toward the middle. (These materials are available at any lumber yard and not that expensive.), the two planks were glued using wood glue to the base. At this time the base and plank toward the center were painted black.


The actually platform of the subway station (1 1x6ft board) was painted gray and a small amount of sand was mixed into the paint to give it texture. Once dry, I used painters tape to cover all but one small 1/2 inch space of the gray surface close to one of the edges of this board and gave that uncovered space two coats of yellow paint. The gray is the floor, and the yellow is the hazard stripe at the tip of the subway platform.

I then covered one side of the other 1x6ft. board in double stick tape and carefully spaced the printed out brick repeat unto the double stick tape, being very careful to make sure that each end of the repeat met up with the next sheet being placed down on the board. This board is now the back wall of 49th street station.


Place the brick wall pattern, covered board, on top of the platform board that was painted and give it a few inches to secure them with a 90 degree bracket that can be screwed down to each board and hold them together. Now place this on top of the base and two planks that were constructed earlier. You have the choice to glue these two sections together but I choose not to since gravity can do it all for you.

Now for the tracks and probably the easiest part. Take two Starbucks coffee stirrers and glue them together, do this with about 30 stirrers. Then paint them black. Once dry, glue them to the base in the pattern of a subway track, giving about a 1/2 inch to an inch between each one, then take the disassembled railroad tracks and glue them down on top of the sticks. Presto, 49th street station!


Now granted this sounds like a lot when its typed out but it really went quick and was devised by me while riding a bus home one day and scribbling on the back of a piece of scratch paper. You never unless you try. I would describe this as moderately easy.

Click to view this Diorama in Chapter 4: Target Pitfall