New England Railroad Maps

[Robin Hillyard]

I'm working on a project to map all of the historical New England railroads.  The maps consist of Google Maps overlays.  I've completed probably about a third of the lines at this point.  I'm particularly interested in Maine and have marked somewhat approximately the WW&F railroad.  Last Monday, I was very excited to find the museum while I was researching the track.  That of course led me to this web site and forum.

So I was even more pleased to find Reuben Bailey's posting on the WW&F route.  I'm pleased to see that, in the areas that I'm reasonably confident of, we agree quite well.  I expect to update my tracks where appropriate in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in looking at my maps, you can find them here: http://www.rubecula.com/RRMaps/.  The particular map that includes my version of the WW&F is here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=100911359253400727549.00045550441497cf05def.

I would be thrilled if anyone would like to collaborate on these maps - or if you just have helpful comments.

    Robin

[John McNamara]

The Museum's Bill Reidy has produced a great booklet http://www.wwfry.org/giftshop/pics/Tours_of_the_NG.jpg that shows both present day aerial views and on-the-ground views of the entire WW&F including the aborted Burnham extension. If you come by the Museum again, drop by the gift shop to see it (or you can order it via instructions given on the website).

Congratulations on your project - I've always hoped someone would do this.

-John

p.s. If you ever need help with the Claremont & Concord, I can probably help on that one.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Hi Robin,

For work, I am the product manager for Terrain Navigator, which is often used in creating maps of all kinds. Our web site is also the official home of the Historical USGS Topographic Collection. You may want to try to get a hold of Christopher Marshall (who started that site.) He did a lot of work in mapping out a historical RR atlas for New England.

(PM me if you need Chris' contact info.)

[Nyle Buxton]

 John,

 Does the booklet that the giftshop has available include a more detailed ROW diagrams of the WW&F, including locations of sidings, passing tracks,yards, turntables, etc ? If not, are diagrams available anywhere?

 Nyle

[John McNamara]

  Does the booklet that the giftshop has available include a more detailed ROW diagrams of the WW&F, including locations of sidings, passing tracks,yards, turntables, etc ? If not, are diagrams available anywhere?

Nyle,

The target audience of Bill's book is someone in the present day touring the area by car, as it shows where the ROW ran, where the crossings were, how to get to those crossings, and what they look today. There are a few crude sketches (by Linwood Moody) of some station areas where there were sidings, but nothing detailed.

Chris McChesney, Jerry DeVos, and Gary Kohler have published a series of books called Narrow Gauge in the Sheepscot Valley that are a back-in-the-day photographic tour of the railroad. The books contain a number of diagrams, some plainly official, that are marked with numbered arrows to indicate the vantage points for the various photographs. Like Bill's book, these are available from/at the Museum's gift shop.

John

[Nyle Buxton]

John,

 Last night I watched the short video of Albion Day 2006 on the companion site railroadvideo.org.  In one scene the members are looking at drawings of the Albion station plan, is this one of the drawings that was produced by Moody? or was it and others done by club members? Would I find drawings like that in  the above mentioned book, Narrow Gauge in the Sheepscot Valley or would any of the other publications have them too?

 Thanks, NYLE

[John McNamara]

Nyle,

In response to your question, I reviewed the Albion 2006 video at www.railwayvideos.org. The "Albion Station Mile Post 43.3 Map 6 - Post 1913" map they are viewing is on page 49 of Narrow Gauge in the Sheepscot Valley, Vol III Palermo to Albion and the Winslow Branch. I couldn't see enough of the map underneath to see what that might have been. I believe that this map is unique to this book.

-John

[Mike Fox]

The larger map underneath might possibly be the property map of the Albion Historical Society. It shows the boundaries of their property with some rough estimates of where the track used to be.