and Thank You again, N3V, the community and content creators.

[JCitron]

Over the past few weeks, I've downloaded, modified, and run a small route created by George Fisher. His Gloucester Terminal Railway has gone from a steam-road to diesel and electric, meaning I put up trolley wires, double tracked the mainline, and put in some trolley (tram) stations at various points along the route along with some repair facilities at the loops. Overall I kept the same look and feel I wanted of the area, which i know pretty well since I live not too far away.

Anyway, last night, after a bit of tweaking, and getting the routine down on session editing, I went for a ride. It was quite a pleasure riding a streetcar over the "mainline' with AI traffic coming the other way. Later on I did some driving myself when I took a local freight out to picked-up and deliver goods to the various industries. It was also quite a blast just plopping myself along the tracks and watching the streetcars make their journey along. I could almost feel the breeze off the water and the hazy sunshine on my shoulders as I sat there.

TS12 worked and didn't even get glitchy. I think I've been in the program every day for hours at a time, and more than a few hours each day on the weekends! Nope, nada, not even a blip. The program did its thing as advertised.

The program has its own faults, but even with its warts and all, this was the most fun I've had in a very long time! And without the Content Creators, the support, and of course N3V, this wouldn't be possible.

John

 

[gfisher]

They had trolleys in Rockport and Gloucester at one time, so that would be a fun change.

 

[JCitron]

They had trolleys in Rockport and Gloucester at one time, so that would be a fun change.

You've got me thinking about this...

From what I was told and from what I read, the whole area was covered with trolley lines.

I remember my grandmother talking about taking the streetcar to various destinations along the North Shore in particular to Marblehead. She would take the "Narrow Gauge" from East Boston to Lynn then hop a streetcar to Marblehead. If not she took the train from North Station then walked up the hill to the house from the depot. She also mentioned taking the street car from Essex out to Gloucester and along the shore there. Route 22 I think, used to be ROW for the trolley line.

When I was growing up, there were still trolley tracks embedded along Main Street in Amesbury. We would come in from River Road from Merrimac, and from the old Merrimac Hat Company all the way to then new Route 95 overpass were the old tracks still in the tar.

These tracks were from the old Amesbury Electric, which also ran electric freights as well to the mills on the Powwow River in the downtown. I saw a picture of one of their old steeple cab switchers somewhere, but I can't recall.

On your route, which I'll have to grab some screen snaps of, the old steeple cabs are still operational, but for how long. (There's gotta be a purpose and a story behind everything, right!) The old Gloucester Terminal Railway is running ancient BLW Traction motors, compliments of Sniper. They did a job hauling freight although they're getting old, and have now been delegated to repair work for the trolley lines.

Like the old traction motors, old Brill and PCC trolleys have disappeared, and have been replaced by modern LRVs. In a way this is a good thing because this preserves the trolley line, but it shows the end of the old times where the freights were also hauled by electric as well. The GTR has replaced the motors with rebuilt GE 44-tonners, and has ripped up the wires to many industries along the way, so the only line that still has the "power" is the mainline from North Bay to Gloucester Station.

Nothing like a good story, but anyway, I'm going to look into building some of the old Eastern Mass. Street Railway. This looks to be one of those longtime projects that will keep me busy.

John

 

[sniper297]

The entire world was covered with railroad tracks when I was a kid. Well, maybe not the whole world, but my part of it.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=188381&l=87fa838bd1&id=100001028687859

My Dad drove a "streetcar" (that's what Chicagoans call trolleys) until they phased them out in 1956.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=86618&l=2330994b70&id=100001028687859

Under the L tracks on my block, Dad probably snapped that from the Cicero & Lake L footbridge because they were scheduled to pave over the tracks. You could go practically anywhere by train in the 50s, and we often did. Interurbans ran from Chicago to other cities, commuters from city to suburbs, and of course streetcars, elevated and subway rapid transit in the city. North Shore was the best, started on the CTA L tracks, ran down to the ground and changed from outside 3rd rail to overhead wire, ran all the way to Milwaukee on their own right of way, then mingled with the Milwaukee streetcars on the streets of Milwaukee before making the return trip.

Interstate Highway system and 25 cent per gallon gas killed all that, more convenient to go by car.

 

[H222]

They had trolleys in Rockport and Gloucester at one time, so that would be a fun change.

George, is there a chance you could let John release this, if he wants to, that is

Jamie

 

[gfisher]

Of course I would let him release it. I would like to see it myself.