You can read about it on the website (link in the signature), but I thought some of you might be interested some additional background information. First, about those slideshow screenshots...────
The façade of South Station is shown from the vantage point of Dewey Square which is on the north side of the building. The station, which opened in 1899, was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson's successor firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, who, along with Richardson himself, designed many of the stations along the B&A main line. Most of the original building still stands, though the rail yard on the "inner," south side of the station was reconfigured in the 1990s with far fewer tracks. A large bus terminal (1995) now straddles the ladder tracks, and a 51-story commercial building is currently being constructed above the station platforms.
The Custom House Tower, the one with the clock, was completed in 1915 and is now a Marriott hotel. At 496 feet tall, it was Boston's tallest building for many years until being surpassed by the Prudential tower in 1964.
The automobile tunnel depicted in one of the other Boston shots is the Dewey Square tunnel, aka the South Station tunnel, which was built in the 1950s. The tunnel was only about 1/2 mile long, re-emerging just north of the station and continuing northward as an elevated highway known as the Central Artery. The "Big Dig" project, which replaced the ever-congested Central Artery, took place in the late 1990s-early 2000s. The Dewey Square tunnel still exists as part of that project, but it contains only the southbound lanes of what is now an extension of Interstate 93. A new tunnel just to the east carries the northbound traffic.
One of the screenshots seems as though it had been taken from the Prudential tower. The view is of the Copley Square area and the shot was in fact inspired by an actual photo with a similar view. Lots to see here. Rising prominently in the center of the shot is the original John Hancock building (1947). That building is just a few feet shorter than the Custom House Tower which can be seen in the distance just to the left of it. The building with the red awnings is the luxurious Copley Plaza hotel (1912), now a Fairmont property. Farther to left and dominating the square itself is Trinity Church (1877), which was designed by our talented and versatile friend, Henry Richardson. Moving leftward we see the Boston Public Library, the third largest in the US in terms of total content. Peeking up behind the leftmost corner of the library is the Old South Church (1873). A footbridge connects Copley Square to the New Haven's Back Bay Station, as seen on the right side of the screenshot crossing over the Massachusetts Turnpike. Notice how the B&A tracks, and B&A's own platform at Back Bay, were rerouted around the Mass Pike's Copley Square off ramp.
The building with the diamond crossing in the foreground is indeed Palmer Union Station, so named because it served the B&A and the Central Vermont Railway, as well as the Ware River Railroad which was later absorbed into the B&A/NYC. I made this screenshot before I installed the station signs just to mystify you.
In addition to South Station, several of the original 19th century "Richardson Romanesque" stations still exist, though some have been repurposed. These include station buildings at Allston, Framingham, and Palmer (restaurants), as well as at Westboro and Ashland (offices). The stations at Wellesley Hills and Wellesley Farms are reportedly undergoing restoration by the MBTA.
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The route concept was originally Michael's idea but I quickly bought into it. Although I grew up in the New York City suburbs, both sides of my family come from Worcester, and we would frequently travel up there to visit our relatives. Also, I later attended and graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and subsequently worked in downtown Boston for five years. In other words this was familiar territory for me. We assembled a team of the usual suspects, guys who over the years have worked with us, or we with them. When the route is published, you can read the credits in the user manual, but here's a more detailed description of who did what.
─ Michael Stephan ("GreatNortherner") installed all of the trackwork and signal systems. In addition to his many legacy assets, he provided the small wooden stations, as well as an assortment of freight cars and the heavyweight passenger cars. Michael also installed most of the scenery in the suburbs west of Boston from Allston to Natick, in the Springfield area, and in much of Worcester.
─ Rick Grout ("ricksan") provided most of the scenery in Boston proper. Much of the Boston cityscape was procedurally generated from OpenStreetMap data, augmented with custom-built iconic buildings along B&A/Mass Pike corridor. He also created Springfield Union Station (1926) with its adjacent "baggage building" with its integral control tower (now replaced by a bus terminal), as well as a variety of freight houses including the Dutch-influenced one at Framingham. Rick also installed the general scenery between West Natick and Westboro and he contributed a new ALCo PA in NYC livery and the B&A ALCo HH600
─ Gary Dolzall ("ElphabaWS") installed the mostly rural, quintessentially New England scenery from the outskirts of Springfield to Webster Junction, just west of Worcester.
─ Wayne Campbell ("wacampbell") contributed his procedural TreeGen© terrain and vegetation systems for a perfect representation of the dense, deciduous forests of the northeast, as well as the iconic stations at Framingham, Palmer and Worcester, and also Worcester City Hall with its Italianate campanile tower.
─ Jim Friedland ("Friedy") wrote all of the intricate Career scenarios, which feature all four of our locomotives and rolling stock operating along most parts of the route. Jim also installed the scenery along the Athol and Millbury Branch lines, as well as in the eastern and western outskirts of Worcester.
─ Mike Rennie ("mrennie") of Smokebox provided advanced brake system scripts for all of the locomotives except the RS-3. We wanted to include the RS-3 but for technical reasons that turned out not to be feasible.
─ Cesar Pach (“Lord Mannu”) of Digital Train Model provided the ALCo FA freight hauler and the lightweight passenger cars, all in NYC livery.
─ Fernando Martins of Diesel Workshop provided his NYC ALCo RS-3, including the RS-3's recently upgraded audio files.
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So there you have it. As long as the planets and stars align properly, the route should be published some time in February.
And yes, i know we have the Hudson Line, but as a modern route it lacks the feeling of a "real" NYC route.
