When thinking about Ben's question about modeling cities, I started thinking about the areas that have inspired me when working on my own mega-route. Although not a complete list, but many of my towns have some kind of history similar to these great cities I have listed here.
In my area, what were once old shoe and textile mills, the old brick mills have given way to fancy condominiums. Some of the old mills were knocked down while others were converted to housing. Instead of rail sidings serving manufacturers, we have cut-off and abandoned sidings running into rows of fancy shrubbery. There are now NIMBYs complaining about trains making noise so the crossings no longer have whistle posts associated with them. The trains roll by (or sneak by if they could) lest they bother the ready-to-pounce NIMBYs who don't want the tracks there in the first place. In other places the old mills have become parking lots. They were wiped out decades ago by urban renewal which also wiped out so many downtown areas in the name of modernization.
http://binged.it/RjWb2G ----- Haverhill, MA just north of the station. The mills on the right once employed over 10,000 workers that made shoes and leather goods, but mostly shoes. Haverhill was known worldwide as the "Queen Heal City" because of the huge number of women's shoes manufactured in the city.
http://binged.it/PfPUJ2 ----- Just north of where the previous photo was taken. The old warehouses and smaller mills are now empty lots. To the left of the Downeaster, heading north towards Portland, next to the MBTA commuter train returning from the crossover up at Rosemont Avenue, is what was once a good sized rail yard. There is only a small siding up just a bit north of the old Stevens textile mill. (Geeze would I love to make or find a building like this one!). Old topo maps show there was an engine facility there in the better times. This is long gone now and is the site of the siding.
http://binged.it/RHwXgV ----- Lawrence, MA located about 10 miles south of the previous photos. Shown here is the largest worsting mill in the world. The old American Woolen Company Lawrence factory. This mill closed down in the late 1950s or early 1960s. There were once a lot more buildings here. Where the grass is along the street (Merrimack Street), was once a rail spur. This ran around to the back of the complex to the old bleachery and some other machine shop. When I was a kid, and up to about 1983, there was always some kind of rail activity here. I remember driving to a piano lesson in the early 1980s and seeing an Alco S-2 pushing a few cars along the road there. Today Sal's Pizza owns the complex and doctors now have their offices in there.The brickwork has been cleaned up and the floors all polished up. Sadly these mills no longer hire thousands of workers as they did in the past.
http://binged.it/RjY6UZ ----- Lawrence, MA - a zoomed out to show the extent of the city. The North Canal, as seen with the mills long it on Canal Street, had street running and canal-side tracks that served the different mills. If you follow Broadway (Route 28) over the Merrimack River, you'll see some rusty bridges. This shows the extent of some of the trackage that once served these mills. This area too was quite active up until the mid-1980s. By this time the textile operations were long gone, but there were a few other manufacturers still in operation. The made, paint, plastics, paper, and candy. The active tracks are long gone today. A courthouse sits along the canal at one place, parking lots take up where there were once mills. One day, just near the end of operations, was a switcher pulling a lone Frisco boxcar. I remember the boxcar quite well because it was in excellent shape considering the age of it. The white-colored concrete and brick mill along the canal had rail sidings that went into the mill's upper storey. The very, very sharp siding came off the canal-side track just before the skewed truss bridge. More recently many of the mills in Lawrence are slowly being refurbished into yuppy condos. The area is barely gentrified and still very dangerous. Unfortunately a lot of arson took out the buildings here in the 1960s and 1970s so what's left is only a shadow of what was once there in this city.
And finally a few shots of very gentrified Andover, MA. Andover does not have much industry anymore, except for some bigger companies out in West Andover and southern Ballardvale. The old mills in the center area are now condos, fancy office buildings, and elderly housing.
http://binged.it/PfRk6o ------ Andover, MA. The former Converse Rubber Company. This is now fancy apartments and elderly housing. When I was growing up, there were two rail sidings serving the company. One ran into the back of the mill for raw goods delivery and other served the power plant. In the early 1980s the mills became elderly housing. My grandmother moved into one of the apartments and lived there for about 10 years. Today they've mostly become very, very expensive (what isn't in Andover) apartments.
http://binged.it/PfSuie ------ Andover, MA. Just south of the Converse Rubber Company building, is Dundee Park. Dundee Park was once the Smith and Dove Company flax works. There was once a mill dam here that collapsed some time in the 1930s. Where the dam was located is now a big parking lot located to the left and back of the mill buildings. The mills date back to the 1870s and before. If you look at the buildings, in particular those located close to the mainline, you can see where the rail sidings once entered into the mill complex. One of the warehouse buildings is at a funny angle to the road and you can see where the rail siding once was. Up until the mid-1980s there were a few companies that still received goods by rail. One was some kind of abrasives company that received some white sandy stuff closer to the mainline. There was an offloader located there and material was trucked to the manufacturing plant in one of the buildings. The other company was that standalone warehouse right along the road entering the park. They used to have boxcars line up there all the time. I once saw an SW1200 hauling out the cars when I was a kid.
http://binged.it/PfRyKO ------ Andover, MA (Ballardvale). Where the condos exist today starting at $350,000, was once some mills and a small yard. These people live next to the tracks and complain about how loud the trains are and were a big squacking load of ... that pushed to get the horns stopped in the town! The old Marland Mills building, next to the mill pond, has a few small businesses in it. Today this mill complex is a lot smaller then it was in the past. Many of the mill buildings came down in lieu of parking lots some time in the 1970s and 1980s. There were also a number of rail sidings here as well.
There are many areas like this. I could go on and on with many more snapshots. This is to give you and others an idea for some modeling of cities and towns, and this area has played a lot in my route design at its current time. As my research and route building skills have improved, I've gone over my route many times, replacing buildings and making the areas look more like what I've been trying to emulate in the route.
John
In my area, what were once old shoe and textile mills, the old brick mills have given way to fancy condominiums. Some of the old mills were knocked down while others were converted to housing. Instead of rail sidings serving manufacturers, we have cut-off and abandoned sidings running into rows of fancy shrubbery. There are now NIMBYs complaining about trains making noise so the crossings no longer have whistle posts associated with them. The trains roll by (or sneak by if they could) lest they bother the ready-to-pounce NIMBYs who don't want the tracks there in the first place. In other places the old mills have become parking lots. They were wiped out decades ago by urban renewal which also wiped out so many downtown areas in the name of modernization.
http://binged.it/RjWb2G ----- Haverhill, MA just north of the station. The mills on the right once employed over 10,000 workers that made shoes and leather goods, but mostly shoes. Haverhill was known worldwide as the "Queen Heal City" because of the huge number of women's shoes manufactured in the city.
http://binged.it/PfPUJ2 ----- Just north of where the previous photo was taken. The old warehouses and smaller mills are now empty lots. To the left of the Downeaster, heading north towards Portland, next to the MBTA commuter train returning from the crossover up at Rosemont Avenue, is what was once a good sized rail yard. There is only a small siding up just a bit north of the old Stevens textile mill. (Geeze would I love to make or find a building like this one!). Old topo maps show there was an engine facility there in the better times. This is long gone now and is the site of the siding.
http://binged.it/RHwXgV ----- Lawrence, MA located about 10 miles south of the previous photos. Shown here is the largest worsting mill in the world. The old American Woolen Company Lawrence factory. This mill closed down in the late 1950s or early 1960s. There were once a lot more buildings here. Where the grass is along the street (Merrimack Street), was once a rail spur. This ran around to the back of the complex to the old bleachery and some other machine shop. When I was a kid, and up to about 1983, there was always some kind of rail activity here. I remember driving to a piano lesson in the early 1980s and seeing an Alco S-2 pushing a few cars along the road there. Today Sal's Pizza owns the complex and doctors now have their offices in there.The brickwork has been cleaned up and the floors all polished up. Sadly these mills no longer hire thousands of workers as they did in the past.
http://binged.it/RjY6UZ ----- Lawrence, MA - a zoomed out to show the extent of the city. The North Canal, as seen with the mills long it on Canal Street, had street running and canal-side tracks that served the different mills. If you follow Broadway (Route 28) over the Merrimack River, you'll see some rusty bridges. This shows the extent of some of the trackage that once served these mills. This area too was quite active up until the mid-1980s. By this time the textile operations were long gone, but there were a few other manufacturers still in operation. The made, paint, plastics, paper, and candy. The active tracks are long gone today. A courthouse sits along the canal at one place, parking lots take up where there were once mills. One day, just near the end of operations, was a switcher pulling a lone Frisco boxcar. I remember the boxcar quite well because it was in excellent shape considering the age of it. The white-colored concrete and brick mill along the canal had rail sidings that went into the mill's upper storey. The very, very sharp siding came off the canal-side track just before the skewed truss bridge. More recently many of the mills in Lawrence are slowly being refurbished into yuppy condos. The area is barely gentrified and still very dangerous. Unfortunately a lot of arson took out the buildings here in the 1960s and 1970s so what's left is only a shadow of what was once there in this city.
And finally a few shots of very gentrified Andover, MA. Andover does not have much industry anymore, except for some bigger companies out in West Andover and southern Ballardvale. The old mills in the center area are now condos, fancy office buildings, and elderly housing.
http://binged.it/PfRk6o ------ Andover, MA. The former Converse Rubber Company. This is now fancy apartments and elderly housing. When I was growing up, there were two rail sidings serving the company. One ran into the back of the mill for raw goods delivery and other served the power plant. In the early 1980s the mills became elderly housing. My grandmother moved into one of the apartments and lived there for about 10 years. Today they've mostly become very, very expensive (what isn't in Andover) apartments.
http://binged.it/PfSuie ------ Andover, MA. Just south of the Converse Rubber Company building, is Dundee Park. Dundee Park was once the Smith and Dove Company flax works. There was once a mill dam here that collapsed some time in the 1930s. Where the dam was located is now a big parking lot located to the left and back of the mill buildings. The mills date back to the 1870s and before. If you look at the buildings, in particular those located close to the mainline, you can see where the rail sidings once entered into the mill complex. One of the warehouse buildings is at a funny angle to the road and you can see where the rail siding once was. Up until the mid-1980s there were a few companies that still received goods by rail. One was some kind of abrasives company that received some white sandy stuff closer to the mainline. There was an offloader located there and material was trucked to the manufacturing plant in one of the buildings. The other company was that standalone warehouse right along the road entering the park. They used to have boxcars line up there all the time. I once saw an SW1200 hauling out the cars when I was a kid.
http://binged.it/PfRyKO ------ Andover, MA (Ballardvale). Where the condos exist today starting at $350,000, was once some mills and a small yard. These people live next to the tracks and complain about how loud the trains are and were a big squacking load of ... that pushed to get the horns stopped in the town! The old Marland Mills building, next to the mill pond, has a few small businesses in it. Today this mill complex is a lot smaller then it was in the past. Many of the mill buildings came down in lieu of parking lots some time in the 1970s and 1980s. There were also a number of rail sidings here as well.
There are many areas like this. I could go on and on with many more snapshots. This is to give you and others an idea for some modeling of cities and towns, and this area has played a lot in my route design at its current time. As my research and route building skills have improved, I've gone over my route many times, replacing buildings and making the areas look more like what I've been trying to emulate in the route.
John
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