New York Central Boston-Springfield Route from GTrax

[goddrauG]

They added some screen shots to the slideshow that caught my interest. Don't know when.

If I'm not mistaken the locomotive on the left of the first image is without a doubt an ALCo PA.

Landmarks for those curious: First image is Union Station in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Second image is South Station in Boston

[goddrauG]

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this one out, but it’ll probably help give an idea of what the scope of the route looks like.

We’ve seen an image of Worcester, a pretty large city on the B&A and what I thought would have been the terminus for such a route. However, I was looking at the pictures and this one caught my eye.

3DC5E0B7-A975-4A73-8F37-B76F23FAB770.jpeg

(I’m pretty sure) That’s Union Station in Palmer, Massachusetts, which was an intersection of (at the time) the New York Central and the Central Vermont. Now the intersection of CSX, New England Central, and Massachusetts Central. This also probably means this route’ll head all the way to Springfield since this is west of Worcester. Needless to say, I’m very excited for some more genuine New England content!

[Railfan722]

No need to guess, image 8 is taken right at Springfield.

Looks like passenger cars are going to be the G-Trax lightweight coaches based on this one as well. Brings the current stock list to the Dogmouse S-2, DTM FA-1 and PA-1, the Diesel Workshop RS-3, GreatNortherner heavyweights, and the G-Trax lightweight coaches, plus whatever the usual G-Trax freight stuff is. One thing that still slightly concerns me is the era; the cars, people, and even stuff light stop lights are all very modern for something that's supposed to be 1960s or earlier.

edit - and of course, the instant I say this some new images are uploaded.

[pkz19]

Can someone get Diesel Workshop to re-release the NYC RS-3? I didn't have a chance to buy it before he pulled it because of the sound issues, and while I reached out and asked him to re-release it, I haven't gotten a response.

[goddrauG]

edit - and of course, the instant I say this some new images are uploaded.

Man, I feel like Rick is watching us and uploading more pictures of the route to tease us at this rate

More landmarks;

First new pic is Newtonville, just west of Boston. Slightly east of here is an exit off of I-90 that is one of the most horrendous pieces of pavement I’ve ever had the misery of driving on. You’re immediately met with a busy three lane road on your left and no lights. Nasty.

Second image is South Station in Boston again. The building in the distance with the clock is the Customs House Tower, a recognizable landmark that can be seen from many places neat the waterfront. Not from South Station anymore, though: the skyline has changed quite a bit.

[Railfan722]

If you'd like to read about the route - https://www.gtraxsims.com/BnA_intro.htm

[Railfan722]

And a double feature of other new images:


I know what the description said about it being sort of a loose era, but the last screenshot in particular is a bit odd. That one shows a tunnel that was part of the Big Dig project - not conducted until the 1990s into the 2000s for the complete removal of the former elevated highway structure.

[buzz456]

Is that a PA I spy? Tunnels schumells.

[GreatNortherner]

Is that a PA I spy?

Indeed it is.

tunnel that was part of the Big Dig project

Not sure if that's what you were referring to, but the tracks on that screenshot don't go into a tunnel. It's just a road overpass casting a shadow. The B&A and NH run through a walled cut to Back Bay, where we then get to the only bit of "underground running" on our route to duck under the Pru.

*cross fingers* Maybe they can work with VHRR and have a merged New Haven to Boston via Springfield? But, this is just a dream...

Btw, would it make any sense at all merging these two routes? AFAIK the Springfield Station was (is?) a major interlocking point, but was there any through traffic?

The B&A has the same root coordinates as Springfield, so a merge should be theoretically possible if somebody is brave enough. Springfield received a fairly major overhaul for the B&A route, now representing the period after they bulldozed half of downtown and most of the NH facilities to build the highway. Moving trains from the B&A main onto the NH Springfield Line starts becoming a thing under Penn Central.

[PullmanCar]

No need to guess, image 8 is taken right at Springfield.

Looks like passenger cars are going to be the G-Trax lightweight coaches based on this one as well. Brings the current stock list to the Dogmouse S-2, DTM FA-1 and PA-1, the Diesel Workshop RS-3, GreatNortherner heavyweights, and the G-Trax lightweight coaches, plus whatever the usual G-Trax freight stuff is. One thing that still slightly concerns me is the era; the cars, people, and even stuff light stop lights are all very modern for something that's supposed to be 1960s or earlier.

edit - and of course, the instant I say this some new images are uploaded.

Some lovely period shots. I cannot feel that with the ubiquitous heavyweight coaches, it would be nice to see a heavyweight Pullman, since TS has long been without one since the withdrawal of the BLLW 6-3. Maybe a nice 6-6 POPLAR and a 4025 CLUB 8Sec-Rest/Buffet-Lng/Obs. For a Northeast setting those cars seem as though they would have been around at the time. The 12-1s, 10-1-Xs, and 28 seat parlours of the 1920s-1940s, in my opinion no longer would have been operating en masse in this region post-1955.

Everything else looks splendid, from buildings, to that PA, I just wish we could get some more fleshed out passenger consists. I would gladly commission coaches if there was someone out there to do such similar in quality to DieselWorks Locos or Machine Rail steam, and could supply info to aid in modelling as well.

I look forward to this,
“PullmanCar”

[Ertwander]

One thing that still slightly concerns me is the era; the cars, people, and even stuff light stop lights are all very modern for something that's supposed to be 1960s or earlier.

Slideshow09.jpg

Ok, the modern sedans really don´t belong here. But the 70´s vehicles are ok with me... there are no typical 60´s vehicles in the TS that i know of, like a third-gen Impala, a Ford Galaxie, a Dodge Polara or Volkswagen Beetles.
What i think it´s noteworthy: all pictured locos are first-gen diesels. In the latter half of the sixties there´d be quiete an amount of 2nd-gen diesels like EMD GP/SD40, GP/SD35, Alco Centuries and GE U-boats.

Edit: read the introduction at the G-Trax website - should´ve done that before posting this. "1960 +/- 5 years" ...ok, so no 2nd-gen diesels.

[harryadkins]

Looks awesome...

[dr1980]

Every set of screenshots makes me more excited for this route.

[Railfan722]

Not sure if that's what you were referring to, but the tracks on that screenshot don't go into a tunnel. It's just a road overpass casting a shadow. The B&A and NH run through a walled cut to Back Bay, where we then get to the only bit of "underground running" on our route to duck under the Pru.

I was referring to the expressway tunnel in the extreme background of the shot. My apologies, I unaware that during the time of the Central Artery the road was indeed in a cut-and-cover tunnel under Dewey Sq.

central artery.jpg

Red is at-grade or elevated, blue is the surface street/underground alignment. There's so much green space along the street there now that I had always assumed the highway plowed straight through, which I suppose in a manner of speaking it did; just as a six-lane surface street instead of a six-lane highway.

[GreatNortherner]

Ah, now I understand, this wasn't railroad related. Thanks for the pictures.

I'm convinced you can find many other inconsistencies in the background scenery if you were to go look for them, and I'm sure you'd find them on any other route, too. In part because that's not where the main focus of attention is when researching and building the route (which IMO should always be on what's happening along the tracks), and in part because we have to make do with using repeting generic assets because accurately modeling a real world city is utterly impossible -- and not just that, I also don't think it's needed in a game like a train sim. Though folks who are very familiar with the corresponding real world areas may have to squint a bit sometimes.

Cheers,
Michael