North Central Colorado

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

.....I've got an appointment in that area tomorrow and will get there for sure!

Thanks Deane!

No probs.

Is there an 'address' for this location? If I could look it up on Google Earth, the overhead view would be quite useful as well. For the moment, I've 'guesstimated' the silos to be 18m tall x 6m diameter (~ 60ft x 20ft). Any refinement of those guesses would help to get the scale right, so don't forget to take your measuring tape!

 

[JimDep]

Hey Deane,

An address close to the silos is 2140 Midpoint Dr in Fort Collins. It is at the intersection of Prospect Ave and Midpoint Dr. ( That was a good idea!) Your dimensions sound about right, but the Google Earth images should put things in better perspective. If that doesn't work, let me know by tomorrow noon (mountain time) so I can get the mountain climbing gear and tape measure out of the shed.

Thanks again for doing this! :Y:






Ed,
BEST WISHES to your son running for student council president! Using your ACORN experience, is there anyway I can vote from out of state?

If I can make a suggestion, your son may want to pay more attention to Harry Reid as a role model to developing good relations with diverse ethnic groups as a public speaker. .........on the other hand......

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

The top-down pics on Google Earth are a bit fuzzy, but they suggest the silo diameter is 5.5m, so I wasn't that far out! You don't need to do any climbing Jim (think of that hernia!) but if you could get the height and horizontal dimension of, say, the control room, then I can really scale everything from that. If not, then I'll just go with what I have already, it seems close enough.

 

[JCitron]

John,

Thanks so much for your post. I'm pretty familiar with Haverhill.

When I started working on this route in '06 or so, I was working at Amesbury High School and living in Merrimac, MA at the time.
A co-worker went to CU back in the 1980's and we used to reminisce about the Colorado railroad lines.

( I never did understand why there is a Merrimack and a Merrimac)

Right behind where we lived on Church St, was an abandoned branch of the Boston & Maine that had been out of service since the 1970's. It's now a walking path that stops just short of HWY 110 in Merrimac. There used to be a rail yard there including a turntable, that is all now an overgrown field, rundown industrial buildings, piles of railroad ties and junked appliances.

(When going through Merrimac on HWY 110, go north on Winter St or Church St (they merge), continue north and take a right a Heriman Rd. This will take you under a bridge that is the old branch ) It's hard to believe there where tracks that go through woods that dense.

When I wanted inspiration, it was a 5 minute walk through the woods to where the clearing is that was once the old yard. For whatever reason, that one little area reminded me a lot of the GWR lines here in north Colorado and made me homesick.

Another spot that was great for exploring for me was the Newton Jct.
area and the abandoned sidings, just over the NH border. Another is a siding that goes into the old cement factory near Plastow. Before moving, I took the video camera and spent much time walking the rail lines and filming.
It's nice to be back in north CO, but I miss the Merrimack valley region too.

It's a small world, Jim. I grew up in Merrimac on Emery Street, which runs between Rt. 110 and Middle Road not too far from the Amesbury townline. When I was young, during the 1960s, I remember seeing very short freights on both the Merrimac branch and on the Amesbury branch. The largest freight I saw back then was probably two cars at the most with an old Alco or SW switcher in Minuteman paint pulling the cars along the single track. Both branches were pulled up in the late 1970s or early 1980s. All I can remember is going into Amesbury one day to drop something off for my brother's business, and seeing the tracks cut at Elm Street! That was quite a shock from what I remembered 20 plus years before.

The same type of consist ran into Merrimac, and Newton Jct. was a really wye junction with a couple of small sidings. It's, as you've noted, a lot different today. Sadly the people that live in the condos in Amesbury, and walk the on the railtrail there, never realized the important part these towns had in our history. They'd probably put up quite a fight if the tracks were still active today. Amesbury was home to the carriage making trade, and Henry Ford had looked at setting his first factory there. Imagine if Amesbury had become what Detroit did instead! I wonder what part Merrimac would've played in this too. Merrimac's factories were where the upholstered seats were made.

I'll have to travel up into Plaistow and look at the old cement factory area. I'm in the area often, how that I live in Haverhill, and probably drive by it all the time, but never pay much attention to it.

Some day I plan on doing a model, or something similar to what Amesbury should still be like. There was once an electric railway that served the mills and connected to the B&M branch and an interurban line. If you recall, driving along Rt. 110 from Merrimac to Amesbury, there was a string of powerlines. These were once part of the Haverhill to Amesbury electric street railway. They had a carbarn in Merrimac center where the firehouse is today. That big garage on the left, located in the old brick building, was the carbarn. Near Indian Head Park in Merrimac is the old powerhouse. Things disappear for a bit, but near the junction of Routes 150 and 110, the powerlines come in from the left. If you look closely, you'll see a raised grade. They continue behind the houses after they cross 150. You can still see the grade there. Where they connected to the B&M branch, I can't tell even from the topomaps or early street maps where this happened. They probably did some street running to get down to the mills. When I was young, we'd drive along the River Road and Main Street into Amesbury from Merrimacport. There used to be trolley tracks in the road that ran from the old hat company across the bridge into Newburyport.

The name Merrimac on the Merrimack, who knows. I could never figure that one out out myself!

Anyway, great job again on your route. I've gone back and looked at those pictures in amazement. I swear I can hear the crickets in the grass in those night shots! I can see some of the similarities. When I was young, Merrimac was a lot more rural than it is today. There were way fewer fancy houses and a lot more horse farms and corn fields.

John

 

[JimDep]

Small world indeed, John! You know the exact area !
Here's three pics from one of the many walks down the Merrimac branch:

1) Looking south toward downtown Merrimac and Rt 110 (Where Railroad Ave deadends)
This is where the single track opened up into a freight yard, where the turntable was straight ahead:



2) One of the old freight buildings at the end of Railroad Ave:



3) Looking north with the Church Street cemetery in the distance on the left and a pond on the right (not visible, but home of some impressive snapping turtles) A couple miles or so north through the thick woods, there is still much coal laying along the path.




The feeling of spirits (or "history" for people saner than myself) along this branch was equally noticeable as what I experience here, along the GW, defunct UP, and Colorado @ Southern lines.

Thanks for the historical info of that area. I wish I knew these details when I was still living there!

When I first got Trainz 2006, the first project in mind was the Mill Yard area in Amesbury as the hub, and connecting Amesbury with Merrimac along the same trolly route you mentioned. The River Rd area between the Chain Bridge and Merrimacport, as you know, is one of the most beautiful drives anywhere. A delightful lady named Norma Jean Fowler from the Alliance of Amesbury was giving me some historical leads, and the Merrimac Historical society had meetings at the old library.
If I remember right, the library also had a picture hanging of a freight engine, looked like an old GP, (not sure), heading southbound on the Merrimac branch going over Heriman Rd, dated 1976. This was surprising knowing how heavily wooded that area is.


One of meetings featured presentations from long-time residents showing a collection of very old photos in a slide show, some showing the trolley and rail systems you mentioned, including the trolley line that went over the Chain Bridge from Amesbury to W. Newbury. If you get a chance, attending one of their meetings might be pretty interesting to you. I bought two historical map sketches of the Merrimac, Amesbury region showing tracks and railroad structures.

I now realize that taking on that area with Trainz and doing it any justice would have been .........challenging to say the least.

You also brought up the hat factory. I loved that building, especially before it was remodeled and turned into condos. I used to think that the hat factory reminded me of the deteriorating sugar beet factories here in Colorado.

If I remember right, the powerlines that you mentioned are close to where Corona's restaurant is, or closer to Amesbury on 110 where the buffet Chinese restaurant is..?..with the cement factory/ rock quarry on the opposite side of the street, another area that looks like it may have had rail access.

You grew up on Emery Street! Small world indeed!! My son spent many overnighters and cub scout meetings at the Baga residence on Emery St!

Thanks for compliments on the route. Speaking of crickets, someone uploaded a sound file that has crickets that come on automatically when the sun goes down, so during the night scenarios, you can definitely hear crickets in tall grass Thanks again John for sparking these great memories and encouragement!

 

[JCitron]

You're welome, Jim.

I know Mrs. Fowler, having gone to grammar school with her kids. She lives, or lived on Champion Street, which was one street over from Emery. Her house is at the corner of Sunset Terrace and Champion Street. I had a friend two houses down from hers on the right. On Emery I lived at no. 56, which is on the right coming from Rt 110.

After looking at your winter/early spring pictures of the area, I can see the similarities between northern Colorado and this area. These are both glacial areas covered with sandy eskers and drumlins. Merrimack is even more unique being that most of the town is on a flat sandy, area. The hills and valleys are only there from the the erosion of the the gulleys into the valley. This is a lot different than the Merrimacport area along the river, or other cities in the region such as Haverhill and Bradford which are to the west up river.

After I posted the other day, I did a look at Bing and the other aerial shots of the Amesbury and Merrimac. The trolley line that I mentioned comes in from the left as you drive towards Salisbury on 110. There used to be, perhaps it's now another restaurant, an Applecrest Farm fruit stand right at the road crossing. Unfortunately a lot has been changed more so in the past 5 years than in many decades before. The intersection has been updated so a lot more land has been taken away. The aerial shots also show the ROW as it made a big loop from Merrimac. This is a lot different than I thought it ran, but it makes a lot more sense as the line avoids the big hill near 110. So in the photos, you can see the string of powerlines as it follows the the old ROW, with some running right next to route 495 southbound today, then swinging north again to head into Amesbury after crossing Route 110 near North Hunt Road. The sand and gravel company you mention sits right on the ROW and then the tracks proceeded east towards the 110/150 intersection I mention. The ROW is then between Wells Avenue and some houses, behind what used to be an A&P on 110, and then crosses the Powow River. In the photo, you can see what looks like a cement bridge abutment, but in the bird's eye view, this is hidden by trees.

Speaking of sand and gravel, from what I was told when I was very young, is that there was a quarry operation behind my house. There was a sandy gulley there with an obvious ROW going down into the sand pit. What is interesting is there used to be a rail line to connect it. From where it went I don't know, or can I tell. Perhaps it connected to the old trolley line where the interstate is today.

Anyway is is definitely going to be a someday modeling project for me, and I will contact Mrs. Fowler. It really is a smaller world than we think.

John

 

[illinoiscentral]

Ed,
BEST WISHES to your son running for student council president! Using your ACORN experience, is there anyway I can vote from out of state?

If I can make a suggestion, your son may want to pay more attention to Harry Reid as a role model to developing good relations with diverse ethnic groups as a public speaker. .........on the other hand......

Ed,
Please give the best of luck to him from me!
I am the Secretary on my school's student council, and the council is a wonderful position to have.
Good luck to him.


Cheers,
Woody:wave:

 

[yojimbo]

Just spent most of my watch waiting for the posts of this thread to download (128 kbs satelite based linkup is detrimental to your screenshot viewing fun) but enjoyed every moment of it.

At my university you could have presented the project as your batchelor paper - provided you were a history major. It holds enough research to fill volumes and you use TRS to present it to non-academic types in a way that keps them riveted and THAT rally takes a lot of talent. The underlying discourse also adds depth to the whole project, no spur is left unsurveyed and every new sideline brings forward new details tying the past and present together. That's not dry lecturing it's a living 3D history lesson.

I know it isn't Iowa or Wisconsin but I still can't help looking for Alvin Straight on his old John Deere 66 mower in many of your screens.

Kudos from the land of extremely happy people and public healthcare. Oprah said so, so it has to be true......

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Grain silos at Fort Collins

Jim

I've done the final tweaking following that beta I sent you. Fixed up some transparency issues and added the hydraulic hose manifold on the taller bucket elevator. I'll stick it on the DLS once I'm convinced the approvals process is really operational again. And I'll get to work on the office or scale house that sits next to the silo complex.

~ Deane

Meanwhile some screenshots of the silos magically transplanted to somewhere near Lake Erie..

 

[Euphod]

That's about a fine as model for Trainz as I have ever seen! What a talent you are Deane!

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Thanks Ed!! Would you like a pre-DLS copy? If so, send me an e-mail and I'll reply with the CDP.

My Hotmail address is in the configs of any of my creations.

 

[JimDep]

Hi Deane,

OUTSTANDING! It looks like the real McCoy!

To repeat what I emailed to you earlier today, the dimensions are also right on the money. I have started on the sub-structures of the scale house and fenced in power meters, etc.

More than OK if we both do them I'll send you my CDP, but you might beat me to it.

Thanks again Deane, and I'm sure many route builders will be thrilled to have your silos as a welcome addition! :Y:

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

...I have started on the sub-structures of the scale house and fenced in power meters, etc...

Jim

Thanks for the heads-up on that. I haven't started the scale house yet, so I will leave that to you. If I did it, it would be truly 'redundant'!:hehe: I've got requests from other people piling up daily, so I'd better get cracking on those. But don't be surprised if I come back after the backlog has cleared and ask for another commission!

Can't wait to see some screenshots of this in its 'real' Colorado setting!

~ D

 

[seeseeme]

I'll have to add to this thread now as well after seeing Deane's new silo and agree with Ed, it is some of the best work I have seen in Trainz for some time.

Congratulations Deane.

Craig

 

[motorbreath]

That's awesome, as usual for Deane's goodies.

 

[simulatortrain]

That's awesome, as usual for Deane's goodies.

I agree with that one.

 

[Euphod]

Would you like a pre-DLS copy?

Well that's a mighty generous offer Deane, and I hope it doesn't open the proverbial can'o'worms for you, but I'm actually working on a clean install of 2006 right now, and wouldn't even be able to use it until I'm finished this...uh...'thing' I'm working on.

I can wait along with the dozens of others that are following your work. Unless of course the DLS goes terminal, then I'll E Mail you!

Thanks again.

 

[bryinmich]

That's a fine-looking silo there Deane. Great job!

 

[JimDep]

A few shots of the silo house to go with the silos

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[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Spot on! That worked out super well. You even got the little tree. BTW, just what is that green thing by the side wall? It looks like a portable toilet, eeew!