[timmuir]

Paul (Precht),

Those are great screenshots! You've really captured the feel for this interurban, and kudos to Paul C. for making it happen. This is going to be a good'un.

[bobbie]

Paul P.

Really nice screen shots of the route! just as Tim says it gives a good impression.

@Paul C.

Your route looks great! I hope to ride on it when its ready :lol: .

[charland]

I posted a link to the shots on the Boston and Maine Yahoo group. Had a reply from Dwight Smith who was the General Manager of the Springfield Terminal from 1956 to 1959:

"Paul:

"Beautiful work. I felt like I was back there again....you caught the STRy as I remember it.

"Dwight Smith (GM of the real STRy 1956-1959)."

Must be doing something right!

Paul :-)

[philmoberg]

When I first ended up in this part of the world, back in the early-'70s, the second thing that I found striking was the way preservationists, historians and an older generation of fans, alike, would rhapsodise about the little side-of-the-road interurbans that used to be common in New England, indeed thoroughly crisscrossing the southern part of the region. You've done a grand job of capturing one of the last of them, Paul, and now I can see what all the fuss was about :lol: ... -Phil

[charland]

Hi Phil,

The Springfield Terminal is said to be the last interurban in New England, the C&C took down their wires in 1954 when Pinsley bought the line two years earlier. I haven't been to Vermont in close to 25 years, but while doing the STRy route it isn't taking much to remember why I kept going back.

I was thinking this would be my last route but I feel Fitchburg Yard at North Walpole coming on... just haven't decided what era!

Paul :-)

[pnrailway]

Here are more shots of this exquisite route that Paul C. is developing and as Tim said, it has the atmosphere of the type of interurban lines I love.




















Paul

[charland]

Nice shots Paul!

In the background of the first shot you can see corn, I have a shot that shows something there but wasn't sure what it was... it's over the height of the combine. I sent the shot to a friend and he ID'ed the crop as sumac. He asked if there were any tanneries in the area as the type of sumac can be ground down and produces an acid used to soften leather. No tanneries in the area but on Mineral Street where the STRy has their carbarn there is a shoddy mill... a bigg'un! My friend Googled shoddy mill and furned up a site that just went up, had 50+ photos of JT Slack, the same soddy mill that I'll be drawing in a couple of months when I get that far!

Can you guess what my wallpaper looks like!

http://www.slackshoddymill.com/

Paul :-)

[pnrailway]

Paul,

That was some interesting reading. That area of Springfield reminds me of the Jones Falls valley in Baltimore. Back early in the last century in an area called Mt. Washington it had a thriving textiles industry where there were cotton duck mills as well as rag factories that did much the same as the JT Slack Company that you mentioned. The Jones Falls was much the same as the river in the photos there at the JT Slack site. Years later one of those cotton mills became the home of London Fog, well know for years for their overcoats.

Paul

[charland]

Hi Paul,

It's aways amazed me the variety of things you learn when you're doing research for a route or layout. Now with the internet you can get the ind=formation that much easier, I think it just might catch on!

Paul :-)

[philmoberg]

charland, on Oct 24 2008, 06:36 AM, said:

... The Springfield Terminal is said to be the last interurban in New England, ...

I had a hunch that was the case, but I don't recall their ever getting around to that part of the story. They usually ended up on a variety of equally intriguing tangents, such as some of the "plant railway" operations that hung on a little longer. It's definitely a rich history, to be sure.

Oh and, yes, I definitely take your point about Vermont, and agree hearitly. It's been equally as long since I was up that way, though I have been in New Hampshire in recent years. -Phil