This past weekend, I became "Surveyorized". No matter what I tried, I could not unlock the brain freeze that came over me. For the past few weeks I've been going gang-busters with my texturing and landscaping of my Enfield and Eastern. In the north, I added in a DEM from Fishlips. In the south, I added a few baseboards, and was actually coming close to finishing up the southern half (What can be considered finished is the subject of an altogether new thread.)
Anyway, Saturday the brain refused to work, and I could not for the life of me get the landscape to come out right. I then tried the usual tricks. I went for a ride in Driver on my own route. This didn't help the brain cramp, but it helped fix a few glitches I noted. Hmmm. I drove some downloaded routes. Nope - didn't work either. I looked at train books, nope, topo-maps, nope!
I then took to the Internet, and played around with Microsoft's Virtual Earth. I love the bird's eye views of different areas, and I've gotten lost in this nifty site before! Instead of looking at pretty farms and rolling landscapes, I went right for the big cities. The rest of Saturday, and all of Sunday, or until my hand nearly fell of my wrist, was spent following railroad lines in and out of New York City, Philadelphia, and greater parts of New Jersey.
The Long Island Railroad is interesting to follow, and would definitely be a good route (or parts of) to model some day. These are all mostly high-platform lines with 3rd rail, although the loco-hauled outer-island lines are pretty cool too. The new EL around Kennedy Airport is really cool. These are really small EL cars, or some LRVs (I couldn't tell), but they run on standard gauge track all the way up to Jamaica.
All the track and trains in and around New York City is really fascinating. I found the Sunny Side yards, the Hell's Gate Bridge, and followed the tracks everywhere. Sadly though it's hard to stomach how much has been abandoned in some cases foolishly. These lines in many cases could be converted or opened up again for other rail use such as light-rail transit. This is in fact happening on the New Jersey side, and I was happy to see the Hudson-Bergen Lightrail system being built. Remember the photos are at least 3 to 5 years old so they are a bit behind.
The rest of New Jersey was both happy and sad. There's lots of ripped up tracks. What I found interesting too is what showed up as an active line on the mini-map turned out to be a string of powerlines in reality. In other cases, there was no mention of rail lines anywhere, and only a string of powerlines. I follwed these too when the deep-down railroad-hunch told me that this used to be a rail line. Sure enough, an off-angled building, an open cut here, and an old bridge abutment there proved me right.
The same was true for greater Philadelphia. The huge amount of ripped up trackage around the city is sad though with lots of former street-running track all over the place, and routes shown as active, but nothing more than grassy grades with lots of trash around.
So now that I'm refreshed, and full of ideas I'm back in Surveyor to finish up the south end of my route. This is where the River line and the main lines diverge for the first time. At this point in the route, the yard in Acton will have the Enfield Mill branch, and a small yard, based on one I saw in New Jersey. The old mainline will pass next to Acton, and through North Enfield with a high-level commuter station. The final resting place for the commuter trains will be a portal "to Boston", but there will be a fair-sized terminal in Enfield to match the size of the city. This will be based on a station I saw around Philadelphia. Besides the yard and trackage ideas, I also came across some nifty industry ideas and a multitude of industrial park ideas.
The side trip to MS Virtual Earth proved fruitful and well worth the time spent.
http://maps.live.com/
John
Anyway, Saturday the brain refused to work, and I could not for the life of me get the landscape to come out right. I then tried the usual tricks. I went for a ride in Driver on my own route. This didn't help the brain cramp, but it helped fix a few glitches I noted. Hmmm. I drove some downloaded routes. Nope - didn't work either. I looked at train books, nope, topo-maps, nope!
I then took to the Internet, and played around with Microsoft's Virtual Earth. I love the bird's eye views of different areas, and I've gotten lost in this nifty site before! Instead of looking at pretty farms and rolling landscapes, I went right for the big cities. The rest of Saturday, and all of Sunday, or until my hand nearly fell of my wrist, was spent following railroad lines in and out of New York City, Philadelphia, and greater parts of New Jersey.
The Long Island Railroad is interesting to follow, and would definitely be a good route (or parts of) to model some day. These are all mostly high-platform lines with 3rd rail, although the loco-hauled outer-island lines are pretty cool too. The new EL around Kennedy Airport is really cool. These are really small EL cars, or some LRVs (I couldn't tell), but they run on standard gauge track all the way up to Jamaica.
All the track and trains in and around New York City is really fascinating. I found the Sunny Side yards, the Hell's Gate Bridge, and followed the tracks everywhere. Sadly though it's hard to stomach how much has been abandoned in some cases foolishly. These lines in many cases could be converted or opened up again for other rail use such as light-rail transit. This is in fact happening on the New Jersey side, and I was happy to see the Hudson-Bergen Lightrail system being built. Remember the photos are at least 3 to 5 years old so they are a bit behind.
The rest of New Jersey was both happy and sad. There's lots of ripped up tracks. What I found interesting too is what showed up as an active line on the mini-map turned out to be a string of powerlines in reality. In other cases, there was no mention of rail lines anywhere, and only a string of powerlines. I follwed these too when the deep-down railroad-hunch told me that this used to be a rail line. Sure enough, an off-angled building, an open cut here, and an old bridge abutment there proved me right.
The same was true for greater Philadelphia. The huge amount of ripped up trackage around the city is sad though with lots of former street-running track all over the place, and routes shown as active, but nothing more than grassy grades with lots of trash around.
So now that I'm refreshed, and full of ideas I'm back in Surveyor to finish up the south end of my route. This is where the River line and the main lines diverge for the first time. At this point in the route, the yard in Acton will have the Enfield Mill branch, and a small yard, based on one I saw in New Jersey. The old mainline will pass next to Acton, and through North Enfield with a high-level commuter station. The final resting place for the commuter trains will be a portal "to Boston", but there will be a fair-sized terminal in Enfield to match the size of the city. This will be based on a station I saw around Philadelphia. Besides the yard and trackage ideas, I also came across some nifty industry ideas and a multitude of industrial park ideas.
The side trip to MS Virtual Earth proved fruitful and well worth the time spent.
http://maps.live.com/
John