Rail Lines Through Retail Areas

[Keith Canada]

Now that Prof. Klyzr has shown me how to attach map URL's, I though this area might be of interest to show how rail lines meander through residential, retail, and industrial areas in the region where I live:

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r79mq588pt70&lvl=18&dir=0&sty=b&form=LMLTCC

 

Look about half-way down the image and you can see the rail line coming out of a narrow alleyway between various shops and crossing King Street which is a major road (although you wouldn't believe it from the amount of traffic in the photo!) There are no "lights and bells" (grade-crossing warning signals) so the crossing has to be manually protected by a flagman.

 

The line then goes along the north edge of Waterloo Town Square, separating the shopping-centre from its parking lot. People normally just park and walk across the rail line....

 

From there it crosses Caroline Street and Erb Street (again, both normally busy roads) once more manually protected before proceeding along the edge of Waterloo Park which is a recreational area and mini-zoo, and again separating the parking lot from the Park!

 

Note that the line is not fenced off in any way so people just wander across the tracks at any time.

 

The line is served by the Goderich & Exeter railway which runs freight up to Elmira, north of Waterloo, as well as the Waterloo Central Railway which runs tourist trains from the station just visible near Erb Street north to a Farmer's Market and the village of St Jacobs.

[Pugsley]

Thanks for posting, very interesting. I've had a look around on Streetview as well - there's some real inspiration there - how about this for an end of scene view block:

 

http://maps.google.c...2,50.61,,0,4.09

[Jon Gwinnett]

hey Pugs, i reckon if you keep this up we'll have you over to the dark side in no time!

[Pugsley]

Been there, done that, but never say never!

[Keith Canada]

Thanks for posting, very interesting. I've had a look around on Streetview as well - there's some real inspiration there - how about this for an end of scene view block:

 

Yes indeed! It's a pretty incongruous sight to see a couple of Geeps pop their noses out from between the shops!

 

If you follow the line east from King Street you will also see the track meandering around the back gardens of houses just a few feet from the buildings. REAL inspiration for urban modelling.

 

OT a bit - I am a Conductor on the Waterloo Central tourist railway. A couple of weeks ago I had to stop traffic on Erb Street while we did a "run-around" of the train at the station referenced in my earlier e-mail.

 

The engineer backed the train across Erb and then stopped in the middle of the road while I threw the turn-out. I gave him the OK to proceed by radio but he just sat there - and sat there - and sat there. I called him again, thinking he had missed my call and got a plaintive: "I can't get air pressure back up..."

 

By then the traffic was REALLY backed up in both directions. I was having visions of calling the local police ("Good evening, officer. You're not going to believe this, but...") when he got partial pressure back and crawled slowly into the station.

 

Ah - the thrills of operating a real railway....

[Keith Canada]

We use a GE 70-tonner ex-Pacific Great Eastern with an ex-Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo caboose on the back. That provides somewhere to sit and grab a sandwich on the road because we don't normally get time for a true lunch break.

 

Since there is no run-around loop in St Jacobs (well, there IS but it's normally occupied by stored rolling-stock) the caboose is used by the Conductor on the shove back to Waterloo. I stand on the platform and give instructions to the Engineer by radio concerning whether the track ahead is clear (given in multiples of 50ft car lengths) as far as I can see to an obstruction such as a curve in the track or a grade crossing - for example: "Clear for 25 more."

 

Another responsibility is to advise the Engineer whether grade crossing lights and bells are working as we trigger the track circuits, and whether the traffic has stopped and the crossing is clear. There are small holes in the sides of the crossing lights so that I can see if they are flashing. The instructions to the Engineer then become, for example: "Five to the crossing - lights and bells - traffic has stopped - crossing is occupied - clear for ten more."

 

Each of these has to be repeated back by the Engineer at the back end of the train to confirm that he has heard me correctly. I have to do this for the whole journey and every crossing between St Jacobs and Waterloo as well as flag an unprotected crossing in St Jacobs plus ride in the loco cab on the northbound journey to watch each grade cossing and confirm that the lights and bells are working and there's no-one trying to beat the train!

 

It can be very tiring because we're on the go from 9.00am to around 4.00pm but it IS fun and I have learnt a lot - especially the correct way to get on and off a moving train!

 

By the way, do you have a TV action show "Nikita" in the UK? If so, watch for an episode supposedly set on a train in Turkey. In fact that was filmed on our railway, complete with Turkish railway logos on the loco, Turkish signs inside the passenger cars and at the station. I was Conductor for one of the days' shootings, but saw very little of the action because I was - guess where - on the back-end of the train!