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In the Works
The NEW Hartford & Springfield
Street Railway (Continued)
By Alfred Barten
First Steps
I began by blocking out the necessary squares (baseboards) on a large sheet of quadrille paper. Then I sketched in the route, following generally the plan in the Transportation Bulletin. From there it was just a matter of placing baseboards and using bits of track to mark the borders for later reference. When all essential baseboards were placed I marked the river centerline and borders with track. I then began placing mainlines in a general sort of way, not worrying about exact positioning.
Line through the center is river centerline. Tugboats remind me where the river is. Bits of straight track mark baseboard edges.
Playing in the Sandbox
I created a separate layout entitled AB-Sandbox where I could try things out and save the results. The first test was the canal construction � to see if I could do it - and the second was the section of street running (sort of) in East Hartford as a prototype. Notice in the screen shot that the station just serves one direction. The next stop serves the opposite direction. The idea was to put tracks in the center of the street without taking too much real estate with stations, yet still have stations. In the final version I used latticed track to avoid switches.
Sandbox version. Station replaces one lane of track, but serves only one direction.
Latticed version avoids switches.
Progress Report
As of this writing I have the NHRR mainline essentially in place and about three quarters of the trolley route in place. All are subject to tweaking and modification. I�ve also detailed some areas with buildings, roads, and foliage. In several places I�ve added scenery texture.
Downtown Hartford.
Windsor Locks.
Warehouse Point. Windsor Locks is across the river; NHRR tracks in the right corner.
When the weather gets warmer and the snow melts, I plan to drive the original route on both sides of the Connecticut River. That will help me determine some of the final rendering. The farthest point along the route is only about an hour-and-a-half�s drive from home.
Cheers till next time,
Al
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