My new Cape Ann route...

[JCitron]

Here's some screen shots of my new Cape Ann route I've been working on since early this year. This is based around a DEM of the Gloucester, MA area including Rockport and Magnolia. This route is fictional and includes the restoration of some earlier granite block quarries which in real life have been out of business for close to 100 years. The area today is mostly fancy shops and restaurants with fishing, lobster fishing, and tourists being the main business.

When building the route, I took into consideration the actual roads and preserved them as much as I could where possible. For the most part, the mainline has followed the side of Route 127 and Route 127a.

Here's the line as it heads to Annisquam (to the left) as it crosses Leonard Street.




The quarry operation up on the hill near Bay View. The tracks run down to the port area.



The port area... In real life the shed still exists, but the tracks are long gone. Today the ROW is a street with some fancy houses on it, and the quarry is a park.


A little bit around near Davis Point Granite quarry... In real life this is a bog, but the are looked too convincing for me to become a quarry operation. So out with the yuppie mansions and in with a small industry and stone operation.


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[JCitron]

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A view of Wingersheek. This is a big beach area which hosts lots of tourists. The line out here was recently reworked from a twisting shore-hugging route to one that goes straight across the salt marshes on fill and bridges.



A bit of Magnolia - one of the outer branches. This area is reached off of the West Gloucester main line and will cross through forests and marsh lands to reach the station. At one point the line went a bit farther out to the beach. This can be seen by the string of power lines which go to the old substation.



Here's where the abandoned section crosses the street near the station. This was once a trolley line which last saw service during the 1930s.



Another view of the quarry operations at Davis Point. This is all being worked on so there's still a lot of missing items (details) that need to be placed as I find them...


A couple of views of Annisquam...






The shopping center near Riverview. The branch running past the mall are part of a small branch to Riverview Landing. Riverview Landing has a single track station and a small branch to serve the mills still in operation there.


Riverview Landing area...



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[JCitron]

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Look up at the mills at Riverview Landing...


A view looking towards Annisquam with the Bridgewater Street bridge and the railroad bridge behind. This bridge is actually a Russian rail bridge which I placed a YARN road on top of. It works perfectly as a road bridge and I may use this technique in other places.


The mainline looking south towards Gloucester just shy of Bay View.



The Wingersheek Branch looking back towards the mainline. The bridge crosses the Annisquam river at this point.
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The mainline crossing over state highway Route 128. The junction in the distance is Wingersheek junction where the branch splits; behind us is Gloucester.


Just a view of the Thurston Point area...

 

[gremlin1812]

G'day John, very nice work hope to see more later.
Regards
Barrie

 

[jacksonbarno]

Looks really nice! You might want to think about smoothing out the curves a bit and using ATLS crossings. They allow you to customize the angles and types of crossings down the line, and they look better than the fixed ones.

 

[JCitron]

Looks really nice! You might want to think about smoothing out the curves a bit and using ATLS crossings. They allow you to customize the angles and types of crossings down the line, and they look better than the fixed ones.

Thank you!

It's been a lot of work, and the tracks will be straightened as necessary. I've been going through the area and tweaking after the scene is "in place". The area around Magnolia is just placed and needs more than tweaking. I haven't even put down any textures and the houses are just there where I want them. The same with the greater Wingersheek area which needs a lot of stuff.

Overall, there's still a lot of work to be done on the route. Like any project it seems to go in spurts. I'll probably lay off from it for a bit then dive back in and work like crazy. I do that with a lot of things that take creative efforts.

I've used a couple of ATLS crossings already in some locations, not shown here. The main line has the active crossings while those on the branch are simply tracks across a road with some crossing boards. The roads don't even have active traffic on them on these parts. I only use active roads where there's a lot of stuff to be seen. I customized the YARN roads so there is no traffic and some of them, and I've customized retaining walls and some houses to fit the scene. Having all white houses gets a bit boring so I reskinned a handful of Dave Snow's houses in some different colors to spruce things up a bit.

John

 

[UP5521]

amazing, I am absolutely blown away by the detail on this route, nice work John!

 

[amtrak2041864]

What an amazing route! I hope one day you release it, as it is awesome!! '

Show us more, please!!!