Mattapan Ashmont progress

Had some free time over the long Presidents Day weekend so I was able to make a lot of progress on the Mattapan Ashmont trolley. I finally got the ramps south of Ashmont station done which were a bear because I didn't quite get the radiuses right on the ramps to fit the 30d Tram Curve I was planning to use and had to fall back to some dynamic track to get it all to fit.

Once I got past that I was off and running to Cedar Grove, etc. The track went smoothly, although I found I had not put down enough markers so had to go back to Google earth and lay down some more. Got all the track laid including Mattapan Yard. I had to make one compromise in the yard layout. In order to prevent an issue with creating activities I left a section out of the return loop, otherwise the line would loop forever. You can come out of the yard and go into service, run to Ashmont, loop and run back to Mattapan but then you have to terminate there as the inbound side does not connect to the yard. I think that still allows for some reasonable activities.

I also decided to start doing some scenery as I go rather than waiting until all track is done then doing it all at once, so I started adding sceenery around Cedar Grove, the cemetery and underpass for the NHRR branch, lots of trees, a few houses. I need to find or build some New England style houses e.g. triple deckers.

Onme setbak was that I had downloaded a package for building the overhead but it doesn't fit, seems to be designed for a single track line and the poles are too close together. Plus they are wood poles and the Mattapan line uses metal poles.

Stay the Course

For now I decided to not start over but to continue to work with the existing route. One reason is that there is too much work invested already to throw away. I also did some work to resolve some issues at Ashmont with the grades and I think I can solve the tunnel issue with strategically placed transition sections between the tunnel sections and stations.

One interesting thought would be to update the date to the mid 1970's adding the South Shore extension as far as Quincy Center. This would add the interesting "malfunction junction" and add more possibilities for activities. I don't know exactly when Cabot Yard was added, at that time Eliot yard and shops were still in use so I would not need to change that end of the line.

The line would mostly run with the 01400's but I could add the type 1 south shore cars (01500's and 01600's) and since a few type 4's stayed around in work service I would be justified in running an occasional "fantrip". The line still had signals back then at least on the original C-D line so that avoids the need to bury signals and all that to simulate the ATO system.

I did get as far as downloading DEM data and building a new set of tiles, whcih I set aside in case I change my mind.

I also built a new marker file from Google Earth with additional markers for doing the junction and started down the south shore extension as far as North Quincy.

So I am back on the original route so I started on the Ashmont area, after redoing the last bit of tunnel to fix the grades, I placed the Ashmont Station that I have built so far, not complete but enough doen so that I can locate the trolley loop.

Next step is to build the elevated trolley section and bus turnaround south of the terminal, then continue to work south toward Cedar Grove, adding the connection to Codman Yard.