{"id":12115,"date":"2015-12-17T20:54:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T01:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/?p=12115"},"modified":"2015-12-18T11:14:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T16:14:12","slug":"downtown-model-train-display-restored-at-former-chase-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/2015\/12\/downtown-model-train-display-restored-at-former-chase-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Model Train Display Restored; PLUS a Peek at The Metropolitan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/a>
\nThe following story was submitted by Gallina Development Corp.<\/a>.
\nSubmit your story today<\/a>.<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n

Gallina Development \"external<\/a>, with the help of the Rochester Model Railroad Club \"external<\/a>, has restored a favorite old model railroad display for the holiday season. The model trains, which have sat in storage for a decade, will be in the lobby of The Metropolitan (formerly Chase Tower) at One Chase Square in Downtown Rochester through the holidays…<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nThe display features operating trains in four separate scenes, with many features that are familiar landmarks in the Rochester area. This display has a long tradition in downtown Rochester, and has been a popular attraction for students, shoppers and downtown workers over the years.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nThe layouts were originally constructed in 1975 by members of the \u2018Iron Horse Club\u2019 of Rochester for JP Morgan Chase. \u00a0 The club constructed and maintained the layouts until 1983.\u00a0 By then, the Iron Horse Club had lost enough members that they could no longer support the arrangement they had with Chase.\u00a0 Newsletters indicate that the layouts were in poor repair and were not running reliably during the previous two or three Christmas displays.\u00a0 Not long after this, the Iron Horse Club ceased to exist. The original four layouts depicted a winter scene, a desert scene (including a frontier town with cowboys and Indians), a freight yard scene and a city scene.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1984, The Rochester Model Railroad Club unanimously agreed to take over the maintenance of the layouts.\u00a0 And after the \u201984 season was over, the Club observed the layouts looked and ran better than they had in years.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nIn 1985, they began a four-year project to completely rebuild each of the layouts from the ground up, one per year, starting with the winter scene.\u00a0 The City scene was next, followed by the Freight Yard scene and concluding with the Desert scene. \u00a0The bank also invested in new locomotives, rolling stock and power supplies.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1986, the Strong Museum made arrangements with the bank to borrow the city layout for a transportation weekend they were putting together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nIn 1990, the bank called for a meeting to discuss the \u2018next generation of overhaul\u2019.\u00a0 For the 1990 season, lights were installed in various buildings in the winter scene.\u00a0 The November 24 edition of the Democrat and Chronicle had a photograph of one or more of the layouts, Channel 13 News had some coverage on the 6 and 11 O\u2019clock news and the November 29th Times Union also had some coverage of the layouts.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\nIn 1991, the Genesee Country Museum expressed interest in setting up several of the layouts for their Father\u2019s Day weekend program.\u00a0 This arrangement continued every summer through most of the 1990\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nAll of the handling and trucking of the layouts to and from the Bank and Genesee Country Museum was hard on the layouts, so in 1993 and 1994, several layouts were extensively rebuilt again.\u00a0 It was during this timeframe that the amusement park and new \u2018Rochester Downtown\u2019 scene including a semblance of Chase Tower were added to the layouts.\u00a0 In 1995, the winter layout was once again completely rebuilt with the Fright Yard layout being rebuilt in 1998.\u00a0 There was roughly a 10 year-cycle of completely rebuilding each of the layouts due to wear and tear.\u00a0 State-of-the-art scenery techniques and locomotives, rolling stock and structures were utilized with each rebuilding.
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe February 2001 newsletter reported that 216 man-hours were spent getting the layouts ready for the 2000 season and for the normal maintenance during the display period.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nThe Club did a lot of touch up on all four layouts for the 2005 season, including the addition of hundreds of state-of-the-art trees. A coalmine scene was removed on one of the layouts and replaced with a golf course. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
\nThe train display has been dormant for almost a decade.\u00a0 With a renewed interest by Gallina Development, in partnership with the Model Railroad Club, we look forward to sharing them with the general public once again.\u00a0 The Rochester Model Railroad Club is proud of its long-standing relationship with these layouts and is excited to be involved with bringing them back to life for the 2015 Holiday Season.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those interested, the train will be on display in The Metropolitan \"external<\/a> (formerly Chase Tower) lobby through New Year\u2019s Eve with the train running from 11am-1pm Monday \u2013 Friday and 10am \u2013 2pm on Saturday. All are welcome to view and enjoy this piece of Rochester history!<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/div>\n

Renovation In Progress:<\/h3>\n

\"Gallina<\/a>
\nGallina is in the middle of transforming the former Chase Tower into a mixed use retail\/commercial\/residential property known as “The Metropolitan.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nThe lobby is currently partitioned off while workers remove part of the original escalator system to create a much more open space.<\/p>\n

\"While<\/a>
\nWhile we were visiting the train display, we caught a peek at the work in progress.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
\nA new main entrance will be added to the building along Clinton Avenue which can be seen below.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
\nAdditional plans include a revitalized green space at Clinton Avenue and East Main Street. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
\nIf we were to take these renderings literally, it looks like a new giant Albert Paley sculpture may also be in the works for the corner of Main and Clinton. ??<\/p>\n

The building is<\/i> expected to be ready for residential tenants to move in this spring.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following story was submitted by Gallina Development Corp.. Submit your story today. Gallina Development , with the help of the Rochester Model Railroad Club , has restored a favorite old model railroad display for the holiday season. The model trains, which have sat in storage for a decade, will be in the lobby of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,242,15,788,114,311,79],"tags":[2005,70,118,3744,559,3742,372,313,251,3743,53,355,3745,151,3741,243,1963],"class_list":["post-12115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reader-submitted-stories","category-rochester-destinations","category-rochester_history","category-old-photos-of-rochester-ny","category-rochester_news","category-trainrailroad-stuff","category-urban_development","tag-chase-tower","tag-downtown","tag-downtown-rochester","tag-gallina-development","tag-holidays","tag-iron-horse-club-of-rochester","tag-miniature","tag-model-railroad","tag-model-trains","tag-one-chase-square","tag-rochester","tag-rochester-history","tag-rochester-model-railroad-club","tag-rochester-ny","tag-the-metropolitan","tag-trains","tag-urban-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12115"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12125,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115\/revisions\/12125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}