Yard Charts / High Detail Maps?

T

treblesum81

New member
Hi All,

I've been running into a problem in working with overlay textures and basemaps when trying to build railyards using TranzDEM. The problem is that even 1:24k maps don't portray railyards (or any stretch of track with more than two rails running parallel for that matter) very well, usually devolving from a distinct line into a sort of horizontal hatching filled blob where you can't even tell where the original line is... I've tried using Google Earth images for detailing the yards, but tracks just don't show up with any level of definition there, and many smaller sidings are simply invisible. I've spent the last two days looking for more detailed rail and yard diagrams for ATSF, but I've only come up with one site that had a series of limited, hand drawn junction diagrams, and nothing about anything other than the top 2-3 largest yards...

Now, I'm sure this has been dealt with before, but after some searching, I've just decided its time to ask... Are there any resources out there where I can find some of these maps / charts? Or better yet, are there any map products similar to TIGER, only more accurate / higher resolution (this would be best for putting overlay routes down for me)? Barring either of these options, are there better ways to use the 1:24k maps to build up these more detailed areas? Or are there better terms to use when looking for these resources online?

Thanks,
Greg
 
Topo's

What particular map area are you looking for (exact location of) ? I'm pretty good at editing topo's in "Paint" with new dark black lines, and re-tracing routes on Google Earth images.
 
cascaderailroad said:
What particular map area are you looking for (exact location of) ? I'm pretty good at editing topo's in "Paint" with new dark black lines, and re-tracing routes on Google Earth images.
Click to expand...

I can't tell you how much I would appreciate that, but I don't think it would be very fair of me to ask you to do this... At the moment I already need Lamar, La Junta, and Trinidad, CO, as well as Raton and Springer, NM, along with all of the little sidings that exist between all of those... already a relatively tall order, but then when you add that to the fact that I'll be needing everything from LA to Chicago on the Super Chief route (still trying to determine if this is even possible...), I think the better course of action would be to find a better way to view track layouts on my own rather than ask you to pour many hours of your time into my project (been thinking about making the whole thing open edit, allowing people to better my work wherever possible to allow for spreading the load a little, and to tap into others quality work... what does everyone think about this?).

leader2302 said:
Greg,

These two websites have track diagrams for sale and free:

www.railfandepot.com

www.railsandtrails.com/diagrams.htm

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

I appreciate the direction here, though unfortunately, I don't think either of these are going to work for me. The first has everything I need, but by the time I got enough data even to do the section of the route that I'm working on now, it would cost more than $100 and, truth be told, I'm not willing to pay anything more than the $60 I've already spent on TRS2009 + TranzDEM to produce a freeware route... That being said, I've started searching local libraries on the chance that they might have some of the material... To be honest though, I really would like to find some sort of repository of public information regarding the railroads that can be accessed online in the same way that the USGS seamless server exists... fat chance of that ever happening though...
 
Sanborn maps

If you or anyone you know is in the education field, you can access the Sanborn Fire Insurance map collection online. As far as I know, the cost is pretty steep for individuals. They are usually available at the local library, if it has a history department. They will generally let you copy or photograph them. I see that you are in Denver. You could start there.
They may have the collection for the whole state.
I see the immediate problem is... you would have to travel the rest of your route and visit each library.

The Sanborns are unbeatable for detail and historical data. They date back to the 1800's and were usually updated every 10 years or so. They were usually drawn by field agents so, there are excellent details for buildings and all sorts of stuff including railyards and sidings.
 
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