Train Canopy for the Future

In our studio we originally started designing a passenger depot (or train station) for College Station that would be attractive, efficient, sustainable and would exemplify the rich history that College Station was founded on. We began looking at Amtrak guidelines and construction costs to help us design our train station, but the project has gone from originally a whole train station to designing a canopy for the passengers waiting to board trains. We designed the canopy using the conceptual mass tool in Revit Architecture. From this we could make renderings and see what it would look like in real life and also we could make models using our Revit file. It is a lengthy but not difficult process to make a model from your Revit file. First, we had to create many section views that we could then export to AutoCAD. Once exported, we could open up the CAD file and edit our lines and convert all of them to polylines so that we could cut out the "ribs" using the CNC router at the Ranch. This is the most lengthy part of the project. It isn't hard to design the canopy in Revit but when editing the file in AutoCAD and cutting the sections out on the CNC is when you encounter problems. It seems like everyone used polylines in order to create the complex curves and forms that made up our canopies. If the polyline isn't too complicated, it can be converted to a polyline and will not be a problem. However, with more complicated splines, even when you convert the splines to polylines, it still comes out as a million small lines (which is what a spline is). It is still a spline, but goes by the name of polyline. When I encountered this problem, I traced over the splines as well as I could with arcs and lines. Even though they didn't perfectly overlap, it was too close to matter. This made the file less complex which helped the file run faster and helped the CNC read and cut the sections out more precise and faster than before. I purposefully cut voids in my sections to take away material from the top layer to make it more stable. Along with voids on the top, I cut out voids in the "stem" of my ribs in order to fit in pieces of aluminum that are also cut from the same file. Even though I am adding material back to the material I took away, it actually makes it more structural because the aluminum acts like metal beams and makes the stem stronger, allowing it to hold the roof in place. As with every project, I encountered problems. First, the files were very complex and I had to redo all the sections (17 files, 3 different times overall) until I finally got them ready for cutting. I cut out a first batch of ribs and laid them out to see what my for would look like. After setting all the pieces out to see what the structure looked like, I got stuck in figuring out a way to construct this complex structure that I had created in Revit. Even though I think it could have been done in real life at full scale, I don't think it was hardly possible at 1:30 scale and with only 3 weeks to work on it. I went back home and modified my creation, keeping its good aesthetic qualities but making it a tad easier to construct as a model. I went through the long process of exporting and editing my files again and cut them out on the CNC the next day. One of the pieces didn't cut out correctly so that one still has to be recut. I cut out the aluminum with no problems except for a drilling bit problem with the first cut attempt.

While the pieces were being cut, I started brainstorming about the color of my "beams" and how I would construct each part. I remembered seeing a great looking building on Archdaily.com. It was located in Sweden and had a complex two story structure. The layout of the rooms was great and the placement of windows that provided great views from the house, but what really caught my eye was the color of the facade. This building was in the middle of the forest it looked like and was surrounded by snow on the ground and snow in the air and trees. It was painted a vibrant red that made an amazing contrast with the white snow all around it. I found that color and panted one of my old ribs that I had cut out. After one coat, it looked good, but it was very grainy and once the shiny, smooth aluminum is put in the void, it didn't seem like it would work. I gave it two more heavy coats of paint until it was glossy and smooth, close to the same qualities as the aluminum. I put a cut piece of aluminum beside it and it seemed to work.

Once I had my pieces all cut, I started fitting the metal into the new wood to make sure all of them would fit. Luckily, most fit without much of a problem, but that wasn't the case for a few others. I had to go back and sand off some of the wood and grind off aluminum gunk that had melted onto the edge of the cut. After a couple of hours of fidgeting with that and making sure my pieces were ready, I took the aluminum out and started painting all of my wood pieces today. I am using a fire engine red color that will be vibrant in any weather setting and will also go great with the shiny chrome-like aluminum.

I am still brainstorming about ways to construct the roof, but I might get it to work with the idea I have now. Once I get my pieces painted and ready, I will set them out and fasten them with metal rods to get them to stay together and not move when I'm working with the roof. I have thought about getting sheets of clear plastic and melting them over the top of it to get it to form to the wood but I'm not sure this is applicable to full scale. I have also considered on getting a wire mesh or net and laying it on top of all the pieces and forming it over them. Once I get the form, I could take the mesh off and put paper mache or paper of some kind and make a surface from it. If I use paper mache then it will harden by itself, but if i use paper I am still not sure how I would stiffen it, but I'm sure there are ways. Once I do that to both sides and put enough on it to make it structural, then I could paint it and attach it to the wood pieces.

The floor will not be difficult because the wood almost maintains the same shape on the bottom throughout the whole design with a slight bend here and there. I'd like to put a clear floor so one can look through the floor and see the horizontal rods that are holding all of the pieces together (they can see the structure of the floor). I might be able to do this with plexiglass and heating it and melting it to form to the bottom of the wood.

This project has certainly been an experience and has been one of my favorite projects that I have done. Much of this has come from my obsession of trains as a child so it brings me back to my childhood. I owned 3 separate Lionel model trains, 2 at HO scale and 1 at O scale (medium and large scale). I loved going to the Lionel museum in Galveston and seeing their models and landscapes they created for their model trains. I used to want to build my own scaled landscape or town for my train to run through but I was too young and didn't have time, money or craftsmanship to do it. Now I am finally able to somewhat do that with this train canopy.