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 ...