I've finally had the opportunity of reviewing pictures, after doing the quick camera dump, I took during the 160th Anniversary Tour of old Peppersass. The celebration took place back on the last weekend in June 2016 on one very hot weekend with temps hovering in 30s C (90s F) most of the weekend. We were lucky and got an air-conditioned space which provided a welcomed respite from the heat for the park visitors.
The first stop on the tour was at the Gateway, Technology, and Heritage Park located in North Adams, MA. Given Steamboateng (Mike K.), and my relationship with the group, the park officials wanted us to demo the Hoosac Tunnel route in some fashion. The display setup for us was minimal so with a 33-inch LCD TV and my new Alienware Laptop in hand, Mike and I took a trip west which for us is about 2-1/2 hours away to the western-most corner of Massachusetts.
On the laptop I ran a looping set of the four Hoosac Tunnel videos which I've posted here before. In addition to the looping videos, which gave me a chance to take a walkabout, I also had a copy of T:ANE on the laptop. With the stream of visitors coming in and asking questions, I would stop the video and load up T:ANE and show them around the route as Mike had built it. The older people were amazed of course, but the best was when the children came along. The kids loved the program as I let them drive various sessions and play around in Surveyor. There was no harm done, and I'd simply close and restart everything again once they left. This fielded quite a few inquiries about T:ANE, including those familiar with the older Trainz versions.
This setup was helpful too for when the big guys visited us, By the big guys I mean the officials from the Boston and Maine Historical Society. Among them was the former VP of the society, Carl Byron who wrote the reference book we are using. His Pinprick of Light has been an invaluable reference for us. With Carl there, along with Rich Kelly, we were able to get some insight on signal placement as well as operations. The looks of amazement on their faces made me smile as this is something Mike has been trying to achieve all along. The fact that the B&M guys were impressed is the best part. We did get chided over the track though; neither the B&M nor the HT&W had track that looked so good. We also gained some great information on signal placement, types of outbuildings, grades, and all those nifty things which lead to stories about the various places along the line, as well as of course, lots of laughs too.
Overall it was a great weekend and quite successful, albeit, a hot one which sadly minimized the crowds.
In the following week after the show, Mike and I did some picture taking of various mills for textures so he can build models, some rail fanning of the few mainline trains that pass by, and of course the area around the Hoosac Tunnel where we investigated the old pump house on the west side - the West Portal area, and even saw the original Haupt's Cut, which is the original portal on the West Side which was abandoned in favor of the present day route. The last time I was out in that area, it was snowing, and outright too cold to visit the west side of the tunnel, besides, even my Jeep couldn't climb the 12+ percent grade up some of these roads when they're covered with snow given the access road to the west side is a rutted dirt path.
On the East Portal side, Mike and I walked the former yard area, now stripped down to 3 tracks - two mainline and a single center siding, which is actually cut from the mainline now on the far eastern end. We also investigated, in the weeds, trees, lots of poison ivy, and mosquitos, the former Hoot Toot and Whistle ROW (Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington). It's amazing how grown in that route is now after being abandoned only 42 years ago. In general it's amazing how much is truly gone from what used to be. It's as though a big hunk of history has been erased from the earth. At one point, in it's heyday, the tunnel hosted 98 trains per day! Today there are about 4 to 6 trains per day on a single track line, and the only sign of the HT&W is some concrete footings poking up out of cinders where the sand tower used to be.
On to the pics. I apologize if they're a bit on the big size.
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The first stop on the tour was at the Gateway, Technology, and Heritage Park located in North Adams, MA. Given Steamboateng (Mike K.), and my relationship with the group, the park officials wanted us to demo the Hoosac Tunnel route in some fashion. The display setup for us was minimal so with a 33-inch LCD TV and my new Alienware Laptop in hand, Mike and I took a trip west which for us is about 2-1/2 hours away to the western-most corner of Massachusetts.
On the laptop I ran a looping set of the four Hoosac Tunnel videos which I've posted here before. In addition to the looping videos, which gave me a chance to take a walkabout, I also had a copy of T:ANE on the laptop. With the stream of visitors coming in and asking questions, I would stop the video and load up T:ANE and show them around the route as Mike had built it. The older people were amazed of course, but the best was when the children came along. The kids loved the program as I let them drive various sessions and play around in Surveyor. There was no harm done, and I'd simply close and restart everything again once they left. This fielded quite a few inquiries about T:ANE, including those familiar with the older Trainz versions.
This setup was helpful too for when the big guys visited us, By the big guys I mean the officials from the Boston and Maine Historical Society. Among them was the former VP of the society, Carl Byron who wrote the reference book we are using. His Pinprick of Light has been an invaluable reference for us. With Carl there, along with Rich Kelly, we were able to get some insight on signal placement as well as operations. The looks of amazement on their faces made me smile as this is something Mike has been trying to achieve all along. The fact that the B&M guys were impressed is the best part. We did get chided over the track though; neither the B&M nor the HT&W had track that looked so good. We also gained some great information on signal placement, types of outbuildings, grades, and all those nifty things which lead to stories about the various places along the line, as well as of course, lots of laughs too.
Overall it was a great weekend and quite successful, albeit, a hot one which sadly minimized the crowds.
In the following week after the show, Mike and I did some picture taking of various mills for textures so he can build models, some rail fanning of the few mainline trains that pass by, and of course the area around the Hoosac Tunnel where we investigated the old pump house on the west side - the West Portal area, and even saw the original Haupt's Cut, which is the original portal on the West Side which was abandoned in favor of the present day route. The last time I was out in that area, it was snowing, and outright too cold to visit the west side of the tunnel, besides, even my Jeep couldn't climb the 12+ percent grade up some of these roads when they're covered with snow given the access road to the west side is a rutted dirt path.
On the East Portal side, Mike and I walked the former yard area, now stripped down to 3 tracks - two mainline and a single center siding, which is actually cut from the mainline now on the far eastern end. We also investigated, in the weeds, trees, lots of poison ivy, and mosquitos, the former Hoot Toot and Whistle ROW (Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington). It's amazing how grown in that route is now after being abandoned only 42 years ago. In general it's amazing how much is truly gone from what used to be. It's as though a big hunk of history has been erased from the earth. At one point, in it's heyday, the tunnel hosted 98 trains per day! Today there are about 4 to 6 trains per day on a single track line, and the only sign of the HT&W is some concrete footings poking up out of cinders where the sand tower used to be.
On to the pics. I apologize if they're a bit on the big size.
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