Maine Railroads

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PapaCharlie62

Active member
Hello everyone, this is my first blog ever and hope that I entertain you with my endeavors. Putting small routes together is easy, large routes more difficult, but re-creating the Maine Central, Portland Terminal Co., and portions the Boston and Maine, Canadian National, Belfast and Moosehead Lake, Bangor and Aroostock, and Canadian Pacific Railroads is one that I have yet to see on the Download Station.
I've been using Basemapz for tracing the tracks, and the starting point is about a half mile west (railroad direction) of Pine Point Road in Scarborough to McAdam, N.B., Canada. At this point in Waterville re-building the yard to March 1975 track maps (drafting room copy). Most of the route will be made Trainz friendly i.e., drive-thru customers.
I have done some test runs from Rigby yard to Danville Jct and very similar to the real thing. I used to work for Springfield Terminal Railway as a Locomotive Engineer, so this is a trip down memory lane for me (don't want to get technical here). Anyway, when I get the current Basemapz traced, 1,354 renderings, I will attempt to upload the beginnings of my Monster Creation.
 
I put most of the Basemapz together and discovered that all the buildings are angled. Oh well it's only a game. So I started over and changed the dimensions of the resolution from 1920 X 1080 (1080 HD) to 3840 X 2160 (4k UHD). I also decided to increase the viewing area of the route from 1 Basemap to 3 Basemapz of the surrounding area.
 
PapaCharlie62 said:
I have abandoned this route and the process of building my routes as well.
Click to expand...
MSGSAPPER has a Maine Coastal Route on the Download Station. It covers a lot of the coast and inland. I prefer to adapt existing routes from people who can successfully battle the confusing systems and jargon of the product.
 
I just couldn't stay away from the route. The process was scrapped, but started a new route that is more user friendly (run thru businesses). Not a gluten for punishment, but a former locomotive engineer that would like to see it all back but modernized. And found new ways to try.
 
PapaCharlie62 said:
Hello everyone, this is my first blog ever and hope that I entertain you with my endeavors. Putting small routes together is easy, large routes more difficult, but re-creating the Maine Central, Portland Terminal Co., and portions the Boston and Maine, Canadian National, Belfast and Moosehead Lake, Bangor and Aroostock, and Canadian Pacific Railroads is one that I have yet to see on the Download Station.
I've been using Basemapz for tracing the tracks, and the starting point is about a half mile west (railroad direction) of Pine Point Road in Scarborough to McAdam, N.B., Canada. At this point in Waterville re-building the yard to March 1975 track maps (drafting room copy). Most of the route will be made Trainz friendly i.e., drive-thru customer. An LLC (Limited Liability Company) in Pennsylvania is a popular business structure that offers several benefits to entrepreneurs. Forming an llc in pennsylvania provides personal liability protection, separating the individual's personal assets from the company's liabilities. This means that owners are not personally responsible for the company's debts or legal obligations. Additionally, an LLC offers flexibility in terms of management and taxation options. It allows for pass-through taxation, where the profits and losses are reported on the individual owners' tax returns. Setting up an LLC in Pennsylvania involves filing the necessary paperwork and paying the required fees. It is advisable to consult with a legal or business professional to ensure compliance with all state regulations and to make informed decisions regarding the formation and operation of an LLC. have done some test runs from Rigby yard to Danville Jct and very similar to the real thing. I used to work for Springfield Terminal Railway as a Locomotive Engineer, so this is a trip down memory lane for me (don't want to get technical here). Anyway, when I get the current Basemapz traced, 1,354 renderings, I will attempt to upload the beginnings of my Monster Creation.
Click to expand...
Using Basemapz for tracing the tracks is a smart move, and it seems like you've already made significant progress. Your background as a Locomotive Engineer adds an extra layer of authenticity and expertise to your project, which I'm sure fellow train enthusiasts will appreciate.

Keep us updated on your progress, and don't hesitate to share more technical details or interesting anecdotes from your journey. Best of luck with your Monster Creation, and I look forward to reading more about your endeavors in the future!
 
This is quite the route project. I remember the Portland Terminal and other operations along the Portland waterfront. They were still going at it in the1970s then suddenly stopped when Guilford took over and ruined everything in the early 1980s.
 
When the property changed hands a lot of employees said it was just a land grab. And as a former employee that is my opinion as well. Back to Trainz. This time around I started the route at the end (Dover, New Hampshire, United States). A lot more businesses and I plan to reroute the Maine Turnpike (perhaps a custom bridge over the turnpike).
The first section from Dover to Rigby Yard (former horse racing track, according to the ol' boys) is going well. The area I am at is OOB (short for Old Orchard Beach), and it's an amusement park (a small one, but a fun one). I have fun designing this route and running around testing it. It is a game, so have fun with it.

I hope Mr. Citron doesn't mind me adding on and changing around some things in his version of the Portland Division.
 
I agree on the land grab....

Anyway, have fun. We need as much business as we can get in New England. My own route has parts of Bangor to Bucksport in it. I put the old papermill back in business in Bucksport. :)
 
Why is that part of the US known as New England? Because that was the first settled area of the US when people from England sailed over to start a new country apart from Britain?
 
rwk said:
Why is that part of the US known as New England? Because that was the first settled area of the US when people from England sailed over to start a new country apart from Britain?
Click to expand...
Pretty muchly. A certain Captain John Smith from England started referring to the area by that name while sailing there and exploring in the early 1600s.
My brother was born when we lived in Rhode Isalnd.
Here's a bit about the Captain, https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/life-of-john-smith.htm
Mentions his connection to settlement/colony in Jamestown, Virginia.
We lived in Virginia in 1970s and again in 1980s. I've been to places both there and in New England which are mentioned in National Park Service article.
The whole East Coast of the US is full of historical connections to Europe.
The US mid-Atlantic and New England regions were where railways first got going here.

Oh, there was also a 1600s Dutch settlement in what is now the New York City area and it was named, astonishingly enough, New Amsterdam.
 
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True and done for a group of London merchants. It has always been about the money. Merchants provided the cash that was needed to establish the colonies and govern them. Money rules, sometimes more than power.
 
At the beginning of this current build, I thought that keeping the route flat would be ok, wrong answer. So, I went back to Medford, N.H. (approximate) on the route and started to slowly add height to the route. It's a long process as Dover's scenery is all done. The waterways took the longest amount of time to raise-there is a dam on the Crooked River, so the water has different heights (just like the real thing). Same thing with the Saco River, except the dams are not installed yet.
 
This route has been in my system for years. I have been adapting it to the graphical standards of the day. It is not politically up-to-date but who cares. I believe that it is a great route for spending time just "trainzing"

Thanks for many years of 75mb of wonderful activity.
 
Lots of people model the area, but most of routes are different from each other. Different strokes for different folks. I worked for 2 railroads in the New England area and live in Maine. Thats why I model this area. And really strange-I'm an Alaskan Native (Aleut).
 
Back to the route. Trying to compress Rigby yard has never worked out for me. I have done the original (it's online) and stub end tracks in both yards didn't work that well for me. This one does have fewer tracks and similar in appearance. There used to be piggyback ramps many years ago, and perhaps I shall place a small intermodal facility where they used to be.

This was going to be just Maine railroads, but I decided to include New Hampshire as well. It makes sense to me for interchanges between several railroads, including ones that no longer exist. For example, the Boston & Albany. Ay-uh. Biddeford has an interchange yard between them and the Boston and Maine, with services for diesel and steam, turntable, and five stall round house set up. The middle stall has an engine shop pushed into it, so the exterior appears to part of the building.
 
The old Eastern Railroad that ran straight up the coast from Boston through Portsmouth, with a branch to York and Cape Neddick, paralleled the B&M most of the way. At Saco, the two routes were combined at one point under B&M control. McGuinness abandoned the Eastern Railroad above Saco Maine in the early 1950s. At Rigby Yard, the Eastern continued straight to where the oil piers are located and across the river there to the waterfront where it interchanged with the Grand Trunk. I saw this on topographic maps from the 1920s and 30s.

To view the topo maps, you need to put in Portland, ME in the search box then choose the date. They have topo maps dating way back. I chose 1926.

Historic Aerials: Viewer

www.historicaerials.com www.historicaerials.com
 
Thank you for the additional website. I used Google and several local historical societies webpages for this presentation. It's not correct in any fashion whatsoever. Think of this as an alternate reality I've created. What it all boils to down to is that I'm a former railroader trying to have some fun in my senior years.

Another item in that area is the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk. I've been there and received more information from tour guides than I could from most internet searches. They have an interesting narrative about the railroad companies in the area 100 years ago. And we (my wife and I) walked around reading the signs and talking with employees in the area. Nice learning experience.

Railroads are usually in a state of change. Never stay the same for long. Makes me wonder how much longer will they be around?

So far, I really like this route more than the other routes that I have made for myself.
 
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