As I mentioned last night was RR club so no progress on the sim. I belong to the Worcester Model Railroaders. Last year we moved from out quarters in a damp basement of a wire mill in Worcester to a spacious above ground (i.e. dry!) portion of a new building in Dudley MA that houses the Stevens Linen Co. We are well along on our new layout which is a free-lanced Boston and Albany line between Boston and Springfield MA. Information on our layout may be viewed here:
http://www.wmrr.org/
I am responsible for the electrical system which uses Digitrax DCC. Last night I ended up trying to fire up our new computer which will be used to run JMRI Decoder Pro for programming locomotives among other things and was stymied by a missing mouse driver of all things. Typical computer session you think it will be routine and Just Work but ...
Well back to MSTS (where you know to expect the worst). I think I am far enough along on Park St. to put that aside to come back later to detail it. Tonight I think I'll fire up GIMP and try to do some parts for the Longfellow Bridge. Known as the "Salt and Pepper" bridge due to the unique towers at the center section that look like giant salt and pepper shakers, this is a landmark item and therefor a must have for the sim.
What I am thinking is to keep poly count down, to do the arches as a texture, hopefully one for the center section which is longer, then another for the 10 side sections. According to rough measurements I did from Google maps it looks like each section is slightly different in length but to maintain sanity I think I will do each one the same size and an even multiple of meters so that the track joints and bridge sections align, which helps with dealing with the fact that track and bridge slope up to the center then down. I figure if I use 50m sections for each with 55m for the center section the overall length is 1820 feet whereas actual is 1768 feet, hopefully close enough.
Deck width is 105 feet with 27 for the median where the track goes, and 39 for each roadway plus sidewalk. Unfortunately the roadway and sidewalk sizes are different for each side of the bridge, that may be tough to deal with using standard road sections so I may have to compromise there and make them the same. Upstream is 6' sidewalk + 33' road, downstream 10' sidewalk, 29' road. I'll have to see what sizes are available in Newroads - I haven' t done any roads yet as per the dire warning to leave that until all track is done, other than some dumb roads to help locate things and visualize what it will look like.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Project Status
Made some progress on the Park St. "Under" station. A note on the "under". The Boston El and MTA had this thing about different names for different lines at the same station. In some places such as Washington (now known as Downtown Crossing) they used Winter St. for the mainline elevated southbound station, and Summer St. for the northbound (as they were offset somewhat) and Washington for both sides of the CDL subway. I guess they could have named Park St. on the CDL as Tremont St but that might have caused confusion so they used the "Park St. Under" designation, providing a different name but tying it in to the important trolley subway station above.
Interestingly there is also "South Station Under" which is not named that because of the RR station of the same name above it but the one-time Altantic Ave El stop above the street that was torn down in the 1930's!
All of this is charming but probably confusing for visitors, so the MBTA has sensibly adopted common names for locations where lines intersect so now Park St. is the name for both Red and Green lines with tracks 1-4 the Green and 5 and 6 the Red line platforms.
Well enough of that digression, back to Park St Under. This is a slightly more complex station as it has 3 platforms (center island as well as 2 side platforms) and a roof line that is flat on the east end (due to the Tremont St. subway's Park St. station directly above) and a double arched roof on the west end. Finally figured out how to make an arched roof with Sketchup - draw an arc then a line across the endpoints to cause a surface to be generated, push that surface across the entire length of the roof to make a partial cylinder, then delete the extra surfaces created to leave just the roof.
I still need to play around with images and see if I can create a mosaic station name to place on the wall. Tonight is RR club so that will have to wait for tomorrow.
Interestingly there is also "South Station Under" which is not named that because of the RR station of the same name above it but the one-time Altantic Ave El stop above the street that was torn down in the 1930's!
All of this is charming but probably confusing for visitors, so the MBTA has sensibly adopted common names for locations where lines intersect so now Park St. is the name for both Red and Green lines with tracks 1-4 the Green and 5 and 6 the Red line platforms.
Well enough of that digression, back to Park St Under. This is a slightly more complex station as it has 3 platforms (center island as well as 2 side platforms) and a roof line that is flat on the east end (due to the Tremont St. subway's Park St. station directly above) and a double arched roof on the west end. Finally figured out how to make an arched roof with Sketchup - draw an arc then a line across the endpoints to cause a surface to be generated, push that surface across the entire length of the roof to make a partial cylinder, then delete the extra surfaces created to leave just the roof.
I still need to play around with images and see if I can create a mosaic station name to place on the wall. Tonight is RR club so that will have to wait for tomorrow.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Historic vs. Contemporary
A big question early on was whether to implement the line as the historic Cambridge Dorchester line of the 1960's or today's line complete with the various extensions. Initially I even made provisions such as allowing for 6 car length stations but then abandoned that as too much of a compromise - I should either do one or the other.
Reasons for doing the contemporary version:
What would be needed to modify the current version into the contemporary version. Basically everything the T had to do over the last 40 years:
I am still thinking this is something I might do once the existing project is completed, except that I will be sick of it and have to do something else in between.
Reasons for doing the contemporary version:
- probably of more interest to others if/when I post the route to one or more of the Train Sim libraries.
- Easier to get information, photos, excuse for field trips :)
- Activities would be more interesting as there are multiple destinations - Ashmont/Braintree/Alewife/Cabot Yard
- More interesting to me
- In a small way preserves a piece of history
- Easier to do (no Braintree extension or "malfunction Junction")
- Get to run the cool old equipment
- Implications of doing the comtemporary version make it likely to have to include Old Colony commuter line, expands scope of project - see below
What would be needed to modify the current version into the contemporary version. Basically everything the T had to do over the last 40 years:
- Add the Braintree extension between the Andrew portal and South Braintree. This involves reducing the former NH Old Colony to 1 track.
- Add "Malfunction Junction" as the 4 way junction just south of the Andrew portal was known to the T employees - this is a fairly complex junction with flyover tracks allowing movement from either the tunnel or Cabot Yard to either Ashmont or Braintree branches, with all the grades and turnouts it would be challenging (but cool to do).
- Extend all platforms to handle 6 car trains
- Modernize the stations i.e. cover up the cool mosaics and tile with tacky plastic looking stuff that cracks and falls apart after 10 years (yes I'm biased here)
- Redo Harvard so that the track now heads north-northeast from Harvard Square rather than west under Brattle St. Abandon the Bennett / Eliot comples and build the Kennedy School of Government over it (well actually you coudl remove all scenery in this area as the line stays in a tunnel all the way to Alewife.
- Add the Alewife extension including new stations at Porter and Davis.
I am still thinking this is something I might do once the existing project is completed, except that I will be sick of it and have to do something else in between.
Odds and Ends - December 2008
Here is the current status of the project:
All track for the subway from Harvard to Ashmont has been completed, although I tinker with bits of it as I add stations (e.g. substituting tunnels for open sections). I am not totally happy with the yards especially Bennett/Eliot near Harvard as I had to make compromises to fit it in to the available space. In particular the underground relay tracks are shorter than they should be and I had to leave out the double slips going into the yard. I think they must have used some kind of traction sized slips; the mainline RR sized ones in Xtracks just take up too much room. At least I have the tram switches otherwise the yard would run clear across the Charles into Allston!
I also plan to include the Mattapan trolley, and have started the loop at Ashmont. The rest remains to be added.
Very little scenery. I roughed in the water for Dorchester bay near Savin Hill and also the Charles river for the Longfellow Bridge crossing. I added the NH Old Colony line between south Boston and Harrison Square including the spur that used to run into an industrial area just north of Fields Corner, and the Boston Globe spur. I added some random factory buildings near the fields corner spur, plus the Globe and a brick building to represent the Skinner Organ building just south of Columbia station. And a few bridges, all of this from the stock buildings out of the 6 routes.
I have made a few stations using Google Sketchup and added them, mostly subway stations, some of the above ground stations have the ever popular "JP1Ikazamists" platform for now until I get around to building the real things. I still am on the learning curve; I haven't quite figured out how to work textures yet. For example I made a "mosaic tile" station name for Harvard and was proud of myself for actually adding a transparent background using an Alpha Channel, however when I added it onto the station wall it made the entire wall transparent - not what I was intending!
Today I will have a go at Park St "Under" as it was called in those days. I know I am putting off the dreaded Longfellow Bridge, that will have to be tackled eventually ...
All track for the subway from Harvard to Ashmont has been completed, although I tinker with bits of it as I add stations (e.g. substituting tunnels for open sections). I am not totally happy with the yards especially Bennett/Eliot near Harvard as I had to make compromises to fit it in to the available space. In particular the underground relay tracks are shorter than they should be and I had to leave out the double slips going into the yard. I think they must have used some kind of traction sized slips; the mainline RR sized ones in Xtracks just take up too much room. At least I have the tram switches otherwise the yard would run clear across the Charles into Allston!
I also plan to include the Mattapan trolley, and have started the loop at Ashmont. The rest remains to be added.
Very little scenery. I roughed in the water for Dorchester bay near Savin Hill and also the Charles river for the Longfellow Bridge crossing. I added the NH Old Colony line between south Boston and Harrison Square including the spur that used to run into an industrial area just north of Fields Corner, and the Boston Globe spur. I added some random factory buildings near the fields corner spur, plus the Globe and a brick building to represent the Skinner Organ building just south of Columbia station. And a few bridges, all of this from the stock buildings out of the 6 routes.
I have made a few stations using Google Sketchup and added them, mostly subway stations, some of the above ground stations have the ever popular "JP1Ikazamists" platform for now until I get around to building the real things. I still am on the learning curve; I haven't quite figured out how to work textures yet. For example I made a "mosaic tile" station name for Harvard and was proud of myself for actually adding a transparent background using an Alpha Channel, however when I added it onto the station wall it made the entire wall transparent - not what I was intending!
Today I will have a go at Park St "Under" as it was called in those days. I know I am putting off the dreaded Longfellow Bridge, that will have to be tackled eventually ...
What is the MTA Trainsim project
MTA Trainsim is a project to build a route for Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS) that models the Boston MTA's Cambridge Dorchester subway as it existed in the 1960's, just before the MTA gave way to the MBTA and the Cambridge Dorchester line (CDL) became the Red Line. This is my first attempt at building an MSTS route. I had mucked around with another route and had built some activities but until now had been put off by the reputation of the legendary route editor. Bit being a software developer by trade I thought "how bad can it be? I have dealt with crappy unstable software all of my professional life" mostly written by me :)
Why the CDL? In 1960 my family moved from Northern Ontario Canada to Boston first living in Brighton, where I discovered the streetcars on Commonwealth Ave and the Watertown line. We used to walk into Back Bay and along the Charles esplanade where I saw a bridge with some dirty dark green/brown subway cars crossing it. Later we moved to Jamaica Plain then Dorchester where I ended up riding those dirty dark green/brown subway cars every day to school in West Roxbury. The next year shiny new blue white and gold trains started showing up making test runs - these were the 01400 "bluebirds" which eventually replaced the older cars which I later found where the type 1 - type 4 cars, some of which dated to the original subway opening in 1912. While the new cars were bright and comfortable I missed the sounds of the old cars and especially the view out the front as the 01400's had the full width cab, the bane of the subway fan.
The experience of those old cars were unforgettable. The train would pull into the station, the doors, operated by guards standing precariously on the platforms between the cars, opened ponderously. You entered in to this grubby green colored interior with bare light bulbs and slatted wooden seats. Under the floor the air compressor would start up with a "chunka- chunka" sound. Then the doors would close, the motorman got his buzzer signal from the guard, and the train would lurch forward and a growling sound that got louder and higher in pitch would come from the motors. Usually my place would be at the front door to look out over the track and watch the signals change from the train ahead if it were rush hour and we were on a close headway. In summer the door would be open and just a chicken wire screen separated you from the tunnel ahead.
Going back to the sim, I also considered the Main Line elevated with its 01100 cars built in the 1950's, probably the most reliable cars the MTA ever owned. I did once get to ride on a train of 0900's from the 1920's somewhat like the CDL type 1- type 4 except painted in an orange and blue scheme and with a strange fold away cab that the motorman was having trouble keeping closed. The El would be cool but I shudder to think of all that urban scenery, and the huge elevated yard at Sullivan Square. At least the CDL is mostly in a tunnel except for the yards at both ends, the Charles River crossing, and the section from south of Andrew to Fields Corner. That much I figured I could deal with, although building the Longfellow Bridge looks challenging.
Maybe the El might be a second project, although I suspect I will be sick of subways by then and might do a commuter rail line such as the Fitchburg that runs not far from my home in Hubbardston MA. Another possibility is the Bangor and Aroostook in Maine, an idea that came after a trip to Fort Kent to see a school my son is thinking of attending. Basically 300 miles of trees and moose with the occasional paper mill, no urban scenery to worry about. Well, I have to finish this one first!
I am hoping that in a small way this sim is a way of preserving something that no longer exists, the original CDL with its tiled stations and interesting rolling stock. I thought of doing this as a more modern day route which might appeal to more people. Besides the historical factor, the more modern approach would add some more work, some of it challenging. I plan to post that discussion in a future blog.
Why the CDL? In 1960 my family moved from Northern Ontario Canada to Boston first living in Brighton, where I discovered the streetcars on Commonwealth Ave and the Watertown line. We used to walk into Back Bay and along the Charles esplanade where I saw a bridge with some dirty dark green/brown subway cars crossing it. Later we moved to Jamaica Plain then Dorchester where I ended up riding those dirty dark green/brown subway cars every day to school in West Roxbury. The next year shiny new blue white and gold trains started showing up making test runs - these were the 01400 "bluebirds" which eventually replaced the older cars which I later found where the type 1 - type 4 cars, some of which dated to the original subway opening in 1912. While the new cars were bright and comfortable I missed the sounds of the old cars and especially the view out the front as the 01400's had the full width cab, the bane of the subway fan.
The experience of those old cars were unforgettable. The train would pull into the station, the doors, operated by guards standing precariously on the platforms between the cars, opened ponderously. You entered in to this grubby green colored interior with bare light bulbs and slatted wooden seats. Under the floor the air compressor would start up with a "chunka- chunka" sound. Then the doors would close, the motorman got his buzzer signal from the guard, and the train would lurch forward and a growling sound that got louder and higher in pitch would come from the motors. Usually my place would be at the front door to look out over the track and watch the signals change from the train ahead if it were rush hour and we were on a close headway. In summer the door would be open and just a chicken wire screen separated you from the tunnel ahead.
Going back to the sim, I also considered the Main Line elevated with its 01100 cars built in the 1950's, probably the most reliable cars the MTA ever owned. I did once get to ride on a train of 0900's from the 1920's somewhat like the CDL type 1- type 4 except painted in an orange and blue scheme and with a strange fold away cab that the motorman was having trouble keeping closed. The El would be cool but I shudder to think of all that urban scenery, and the huge elevated yard at Sullivan Square. At least the CDL is mostly in a tunnel except for the yards at both ends, the Charles River crossing, and the section from south of Andrew to Fields Corner. That much I figured I could deal with, although building the Longfellow Bridge looks challenging.
Maybe the El might be a second project, although I suspect I will be sick of subways by then and might do a commuter rail line such as the Fitchburg that runs not far from my home in Hubbardston MA. Another possibility is the Bangor and Aroostook in Maine, an idea that came after a trip to Fort Kent to see a school my son is thinking of attending. Basically 300 miles of trees and moose with the occasional paper mill, no urban scenery to worry about. Well, I have to finish this one first!
I am hoping that in a small way this sim is a way of preserving something that no longer exists, the original CDL with its tiled stations and interesting rolling stock. I thought of doing this as a more modern day route which might appeal to more people. Besides the historical factor, the more modern approach would add some more work, some of it challenging. I plan to post that discussion in a future blog.
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