ALL ABOARD! Retired Mariner Completes Train Station Model After 50 Yrs
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Alan Flood shows Dolores Barron-Rogers his completed model of Bay City's New York Central Train Station.
Station model is detailed down to trees, trains, trolley on First Street, and is scaled 1 inch to 40 feet.
Alan Flood surely had no idea as a high school student in 1963 that the model he was making of the main Bay City train station would become a half-century long project.
He certainly couldn't have imagined that half a century later he would be retired from several decades sailing freighters on the Great Lakes, living in a historic home and serving as a member of the Bay City Historic District Commission.
However, that early preparation and his lifelong interest in history fitted him for his hobby of collecting ship whistles, vessel nameplates, maps, books and other historical artifacts.
He is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY.
Mr. Flood's first interest in trains has persisted and has resulted in an amazing achievement: completion of a realistic scale model of the train station that saw such national figures as William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower campaign here from the platforms of rail cars.
After welcoming train riders for nearly three-quarters of a century, the Michigan Central Passenger Station at 801 First Street had burned and was condemned in 1963.
The picturesque Victorian era depot, with 100 foot high tower topped by a four dial illuminated clock, had been a Bay City landmark since 1890.
Called by Bay City Tribune newspaper writers the "handsome new depot," the two story building was constructed of Michigan red sandstone.
Architectural historian Dale Wolicki described it in his 1998 book, "The Historic Architecture of Bay City, Michigan," as Romanesque in design, noting the red tile roof and semi-circular drive for horse and buggy delivery of elegantly dressed passengers.
Estimated to cost $100,000 to build, the depot handled passengers and freight for the New York Central and Michigan Central rail lines.
During a major fire in 1948 Bay City Times photographers took a series of pictures showing the iconic Howard clock made in Roxbury, Massachusetts, never ceased to function.
As the nation shifted more to automobile travel and passenger numbers declined, the railroad closed the station June 16, 1958. All passenger schedules were transferred to the west side station near the old viaduct until discontinued in 1963.
Flood, showing remarkable prescience for a youngster, looked at the crumbling building and set out on his first historical preservation mission -- capture the building and grounds in miniature.
After classes each day, Flood walked a couple of miles from the Columbus Avenue school to the station, tape measure in hand and made notes.
He prowled the first floor ticket office, noting dimensions and features including large dining room at the east end, waiting rooms and second floor offices of the superintendent, train dispatcher, train master, freight offices and offices of roadmasters of the Bay City and Mackinaw divisions.
The building came down under the wrecker's ball in February 1964, but Flood had the model done on a scale of one inch to 40 feet.
Fast forward nearly half a century, with Flood carving out a career at a Great Lakes mariner of most of that time, and the model survived, although somewhat damaged, among Flood's extensive collection of historical artifacts.
In 2005 Mr. Flood had a new base box built by Ken Hite of "Visions in Wood," incorporating some of the original pinkish Marquette sandstone he had salvaged from the demolished building.
Bill Dore of Kawkawlin Stone Co. cut the stone and scribed it to give the appearance of the random laid blocks in the facades of the station.
Frank Eberhard of Eberhard & Father Signworks in Essexville fabricated a plexiglass cover to protect the model.
The layout and scene is based on the Rascher Insurance Company maps of the city that show the area and structures as they appeared between 1891 and 1906. "Wherever possible, photographs were used to supplement the map and give as much as possible the correct look to the adjacent buildings," he said.
He added: "The project sat for a number of years until December 2012 when Mr. Flood overcame his inertia and tackled the actual repairs to the old model, its transfer to the new base and the fabrication of the new structures opposite the station."
In January 2013 he transferred all of the components of the original model to the new base, which, he said, "more accurately reflects the actual relationship of the building and tracks to the surrounding area." Additional structures were added to complete the scene circa 1900 after First Street was paved in brick. ###
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