From 11 Oct 2014 to 17 Oct 2014, Steamboateng and I took a road trip out to North Adams to visit with the folks at the state heritage park and the city historical society. Mike has been working on a project for these people which we started back in December 2013. I've since stepped aside and participate on smaller aspects, and or on an as needed basis. We found that two route builders tend to get in each other's way, and it's best to let one do the plunking of stuff while the other adds support. So Mike decided to work on the route, and I gladly stepped aside to do other things with the project. It was safer that way, and the best way to remain as friends rather than becoming foes!
Anyway, the folks at the societies of course had lots of questions and so did we. They thought we had disappeared, which I guess volunteers do all the time. We told them that the process has been slow, and with the upcoming program changes, summer travels, and what not, things tended to crawl along. There were many unknowns regarding the buildings in the Freight Yard complex. This was once a group of buildings associated with the Boston and Maine (B&M) operations in some fashion or another. There is still the old B&M freight house, which houses the state park/gateway museum on the cities technology history, and it's association with the building of the Hoosac Tunnel. There are many artifacts from the tunnels construction including insulators, old copper catenary, lots of old photos, and even some model railroad displays. This is where we come in as we will be putting together a video, for then to present on the tunnel rather than a Trainz route since they have no computer capable of running Trainz, nor a budget to purchase anything.
Back to the Freight Yard as it's called today. There are a bunch of building in this complex, which were owned by another company including a coal and grain dealer, hardware and lumber, the separate B&M freight house, and other buildings, mostly offices and warehouses. These are now listed buildings and today house some smaller businesses such as an awesome restaurant and bar, the Freight Yard Pub, the historical society, some other shops, and the heritage museum in the B&M freight house. The coal company and the B&M freight house are of the biggest interest to us at the moment since there were things we couldn't figure out from photographs. The coal company, for example, is a two-storied building. There was once a rail spur behind the building, however, today there isn't enough space. Apparently in the mid-1980s, the city and state shored up the slope and now the space is filled in. Also how did the coal get brought into the building? There isn't enough room for the track to slope or room for a drop chute or conveyor in the back even if the hill wasn't shored up with a concrete wall, nor are there any signs of one being there previously. It turns out they used an old bucket conveyor to manually take coal that was dumped on the ground. A simple solution to a rather simple (complex?) question. The B&M freight house also now has a funny angle on the west end. This wasn't due to tracks running on this end of the building which we thought. Instead it's due to urban renewal and the 1950s bridge across the yard and the river. A substantial hunk of the building was cut off it turns out. Finding the actual length is going to be a chore, I think, and we'll opt for a generic building, with proper skinning to depict this building. The B&M used lots of these buildings on their lines, and finding another one should (note the word, should) be a bit easier than we think.
There were also a lot more tracks in the freight yard complex as well back in the early days. These of course are long gone, but figuring out where they went has been a chore, and where they entered the yard. Using some older photos, we've been able to get a bit of a lay of the land and the location of the tracks. It's hard to believe that there were probably 3 or 4 tracks, plus the sidings along the B&M freight house, all jammed into this tiny space. Add to this the catenary on the mainline, and this must've been quite the scene back in the day.
In addition to speaking with the museum guys, we took some road trips to the East Portal, up to Hoosick Falls, and as far east as East Deerfield. It was interesting to see the grade and the hard work the railroad workers went through to build the line through the mountain valley, then through the tunnel, which was the longest tunnel in the world when it opened in 1877, and it stood as the record until the Canadian Pacific built it's tunnels through the Canadian Rockies. North Adams its self was a tiny north borough of Adams, Mass, and split off in 1878, after the tunnel opened, into a separate town then later a city. If it wasn't for the Hoosac Tunnel, this wouldn't have happened as this served as a gateway connection between the two biggest cities in the region, Albany NY to the west and Boston to the far east on Boston Harbor. With this the numerous textile, shoe, and other manufacturing companies opened up since they could receive their raw materials faster, and transport finished goods out and off to market in a shorter period of time.
Anyway, as the project progresses we will still have many questions not answered and will be journeying back again in the spring. I will be posting some pictures of our trip in another thread that Mike took at a later time.
John
Anyway, the folks at the societies of course had lots of questions and so did we. They thought we had disappeared, which I guess volunteers do all the time. We told them that the process has been slow, and with the upcoming program changes, summer travels, and what not, things tended to crawl along. There were many unknowns regarding the buildings in the Freight Yard complex. This was once a group of buildings associated with the Boston and Maine (B&M) operations in some fashion or another. There is still the old B&M freight house, which houses the state park/gateway museum on the cities technology history, and it's association with the building of the Hoosac Tunnel. There are many artifacts from the tunnels construction including insulators, old copper catenary, lots of old photos, and even some model railroad displays. This is where we come in as we will be putting together a video, for then to present on the tunnel rather than a Trainz route since they have no computer capable of running Trainz, nor a budget to purchase anything.
Back to the Freight Yard as it's called today. There are a bunch of building in this complex, which were owned by another company including a coal and grain dealer, hardware and lumber, the separate B&M freight house, and other buildings, mostly offices and warehouses. These are now listed buildings and today house some smaller businesses such as an awesome restaurant and bar, the Freight Yard Pub, the historical society, some other shops, and the heritage museum in the B&M freight house. The coal company and the B&M freight house are of the biggest interest to us at the moment since there were things we couldn't figure out from photographs. The coal company, for example, is a two-storied building. There was once a rail spur behind the building, however, today there isn't enough space. Apparently in the mid-1980s, the city and state shored up the slope and now the space is filled in. Also how did the coal get brought into the building? There isn't enough room for the track to slope or room for a drop chute or conveyor in the back even if the hill wasn't shored up with a concrete wall, nor are there any signs of one being there previously. It turns out they used an old bucket conveyor to manually take coal that was dumped on the ground. A simple solution to a rather simple (complex?) question. The B&M freight house also now has a funny angle on the west end. This wasn't due to tracks running on this end of the building which we thought. Instead it's due to urban renewal and the 1950s bridge across the yard and the river. A substantial hunk of the building was cut off it turns out. Finding the actual length is going to be a chore, I think, and we'll opt for a generic building, with proper skinning to depict this building. The B&M used lots of these buildings on their lines, and finding another one should (note the word, should) be a bit easier than we think.
There were also a lot more tracks in the freight yard complex as well back in the early days. These of course are long gone, but figuring out where they went has been a chore, and where they entered the yard. Using some older photos, we've been able to get a bit of a lay of the land and the location of the tracks. It's hard to believe that there were probably 3 or 4 tracks, plus the sidings along the B&M freight house, all jammed into this tiny space. Add to this the catenary on the mainline, and this must've been quite the scene back in the day.
In addition to speaking with the museum guys, we took some road trips to the East Portal, up to Hoosick Falls, and as far east as East Deerfield. It was interesting to see the grade and the hard work the railroad workers went through to build the line through the mountain valley, then through the tunnel, which was the longest tunnel in the world when it opened in 1877, and it stood as the record until the Canadian Pacific built it's tunnels through the Canadian Rockies. North Adams its self was a tiny north borough of Adams, Mass, and split off in 1878, after the tunnel opened, into a separate town then later a city. If it wasn't for the Hoosac Tunnel, this wouldn't have happened as this served as a gateway connection between the two biggest cities in the region, Albany NY to the west and Boston to the far east on Boston Harbor. With this the numerous textile, shoe, and other manufacturing companies opened up since they could receive their raw materials faster, and transport finished goods out and off to market in a shorter period of time.
Anyway, as the project progresses we will still have many questions not answered and will be journeying back again in the spring. I will be posting some pictures of our trip in another thread that Mike took at a later time.
John
