NEB&W Guide to Cohoes, NY

Last Update: 2008-12-18

Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

Overview

  • Panoramic views.

  • Normally most of the industries in a town are located along the track. However, because the major industries in Cohoes were water powered, they were distributed throughout the city, each was located between a pair of power canals. The station area was instead surrounded by five major churches. There was St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church and nearby parochial school to the north, St. John's Episcopal to the south, a Baptist Church and two other churches to the west.

    Faux Mill

    • In the real Cohoes, just north of Star Woolen, the terrain drops away and the tracks continue on a bridge across the Mohawk. On our layout, the mainline has to cross through a backdrop and we have to make the scene rise in an attempt to hide the backdrop hole. We are modeling a large (and thus tall) mill, as Star Woolen is only two stories tall. Our idea was to use the Walthers Front Street Warehouse, a simple kitbash (just leave off the odd features on the kit's roof). This model bothered Will Gill, as it had no tower, but did have too many loading doors. So we got a couple of more kits and tried again, splicing out the loading doors on the end and sides. We also tried to narrow the end a little, but it looked way too narrow, so we got some more kits and tried again. For the tower, we figured we'd try using some Vollmer kits. Two round-top windows each from their workshop were spliced to make a taller window. We kept studying the Corliss-Coon mill (see below), and finally decided to try and match the tall cornice (and flat roof)

    Star Woolen Mills

    • The original company here was a machine works, Cohoes Machine Shop & Iron Foundry.
      • [Engraving c. 1879 showing the complex in color.]
      • [Engraving c. 1879 of the view from trackside.]

    • Looking northeast from the corner of the Harmony Mills freight house, with Star Woolen Mills across and beyond. The company was established in 1905 in Cohoes, in the former machine works. They handled about 3,000 tons of rags, cotton, wool and rayon waste, garneted stocks, and reclaimed fibers. By the time of this photo, c. 1931, the tower had been removed from the mill. (This is a close-up of a section of a photo shown below.)
      • [Photo, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]

    • More views of Star Woolen.

  • The gate tower at Cortland Street c. 1919.

    Harmony Mills Freight House

    • Across from Star was the freight house or warehouse for Harmony Mills.
      • [Sanborn map, c. 1925 (but I think updated to 1940).]

    • A view of Oneida Street looking west, with the Harmony Mills freight house to the right. The square tower on the far right is part of the firehouse.

    • Looking south, we see the Hope Knitting Mills on the left, with the adjacent power canal. On the right is Leggett & Sons with the Harmony Mills freight house beyond.
      • [Photo c. 1931, from the NEB&W D&H Collection.]
      • [View looking the other way, 1914.]
      • [Model view, with Leggett & Sons being kitbashed from the Walthers sugar factory, Nov. 2004. (Note a close match, but a temporary space filler for now.)]
      • [Model view, Jan. '05.]
      • [Model view, Feb. '05. Russ Williams scratchbuilt the condensed model of the Harmony Mills building. It is missing the pipe legs for the platform.]
      • [Lower angle, Feb. '05. (Ignore that bright red plastic smokestack in the background.]

    Firehouse

    • Oneida Street looking east, with the firehouse on the left, and the Harmony Mills freight house and Hope Knitting Mill beyond. (The firehouse was retired c. 1967.)
    • A view of Oneida Street looking west. The square tower on the far right is part of the firehouse.

    • Close-up with a horse-drawn steamer.

    • We "suggested" the prototype with a kitbash of the Bachmann City Hall with the Walthers firehouse side and tower. (Cornice is made from Code 100 snap track ties.)
  • Looking east on Oneida from the edge of the Harmony Mills freight house gives a better view of the Hope Knitting Mill.

    Old Freight House

    • The old freight house was built in 1853. It was torn down after they built a new one in 1914.
      • [Prototype view c. 1914 looking north. From the NEB&W D&H Collection. A similar-looking building just beyond is the Harmony Mills warehouse. Star Woolen Mills (with a tower that has since been removed) is in the background on the right. (The tower on the left was part of the firehouse.)]
      • [Prototype view pre-1914 looking south. St. Bernard's is in the background with the earlier Academy building.]
      • [Sanborn map, c. 1925 (but I think updated to 1940).]

  • Sighting down the main looking north past St. Bernard's and Keveny Academy, with the Harmony Mills freight house in the distance. (The interesting buildings on the right side of the tracks - east side - we don't have room to model.)

  • One of the power canals ran along the east side of the tracks from Ontario Street to Courtland. This close-up view of the above photo shows the crossing shanty on Oneida also shows one of the city water mains rising above to clear the power canal. (We are looking east, and it looks like there was a gravestone loading facility on the other side of the track. This was the site of the original D&H freight house.)

    Grandilly Monument Works

    • In the site of the old freight house was a monument company, Grandilly's. They must have been established (or moved to the spot) after 1914. In '35, they were still advertising in the Troy City Directory. In the '40 Directory, they were listed but not advertised. They were gone by '51.
      • [Photo c. 1931, from the NEB&W D&H Collection.]
      • [Sanborn map, c. 1925 (but I think updated to 1940). Grandilly is the small building labeled "vacant".]

    • With but one photo to go by, we are attempting to model it with a kitbashed Woodland Scenics Tucker Bros. Machine Shop and an Alexander stiff leg derrick. (Alexander has been purchased by Tomar, who kindly donated a kit to us.)

  • The gate tower at Oneida Street c. 1919. (It must have been rebuilt by 1930.)

    Hope Knitting Mill

    • Most of the mills were located along the series of power canals, and thus not near the tracks. Hope Knitting Mill was next to the track, but that's because its power canal was there. Hope Knitting Mills was demolished about 1968.

  • The gate tower at Ontario Street c. 1919. It is next to the original St. Bernard's Academy.

    • Keveny Academy

    City Hall

    Silliman Church

    St. Bernard's Church

    Post Office

    Pine Street