Hi guys and gals, Have you ever used “Live Search Maps” to obtain information to use on your layout? I think it is really neat. Just type in Live Search Maps, Type in area you want to search, hit search button. When area comes up, use the +or- to bring in closer. Try CSX Brunswick, Maryland. Keep Brunswick in center. When you get close enough click onto bird,s eye view. This is one very nice yard, mostly coal drags out of W.V. can be used for any location, just type it in and have fun.
Have done the same with Google Maps and Mapquest - just type in a location, pan in until the railroad appears on the street map, then switch from, “Street map,” to, “Aerial View.”
One interesting feature is that the crosshatched line, “Railroad,” is continuous, even when the railroad is in a tunnel and not visible on the aerial view. Another is that branch lines, even lines ten miles long that service major industries, may not appear on the street map. On the photo view they stand out like lighthouses!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I have used google also, but this one you recommended is even better in my opinion, it is closer or clearer, and I am able to see all of the spurs I otherwise couldn’t see on google. Thanks!
I discovered it after downloading the (Live Search) app onto my PDA-phone. Zoomed down and could count the tracks in the yard, and the cars on them.
If you have a data plan it’s a great way to pass the time in the airport, or do some overhead view research onsite while railfanning.
Routinuely used Live Local to zoom into various locations of Philadelphia & environs, took screen captures of the interesting views, and pasted them into Word Docs (which do get big after awhile, so I make a series of docs) for future reference…
Now if you can get it for views in 1905…
Dave H.
I used to visit Mapquest and trace down the route of the Mineral Point Branch of the MILW from Janesville to MP, which was the real life version of my Dream Model RR, the Mineral Point & Northern. (Except, in my model world, the old Mineral Point RR was reorganized and bought out the charters of the roads that the real life Chicago Milwaukee & St Paul took over in the 1870s, then was itself bought out by the Mineral Point Zinc Company, who built the Mineral Point & Northern in 1898-1904.) This was great fun, as was looking over my old home town of Pewaukee, WI, whose street names, other than my old neighborhood, I couldn’t remember.
However, my old Windows 98 machine died a horrible death in June of '07, and after I got my new Vista machine in October, I discovered Mapquest had changed its format and I could no longer find the old RR right-of-ways! I haven’t tried Google search maps yet, so maybe there’s hope. I wish, too, that it had a Time Machine feature so I could look at the 1912 layout! I’d still like to have some idea of location of the MILW’s yard in Janesville, to know how deep it was within the city. A Paul Larson article in RMC, back in the '60s, gave the distance from the Janesville engine terminal to the Mineral Point terminal as
I discovered Live Search within the past 6 months, & prefer it GREATLY over Google Earth. The resolution is much better in more places, & the Birds Eye view is outstanding. (not available in all areas as I found out, which includes 95% of the C&O line SE of Columbus Ohio which I plan on modeling-grrr)
But it does (the Birds Eye view) get a better view of freight cars in a yard, & examples of roof weathering & rust of various types of boxcars & covered hoppers, & even the inside of open hoppers.
& the other things I found with Birds Eye were my Dad walking the dog outside their house, my truck parked at work, a railfan I know parked at Sterling (Ohio) & the “For Sale” sign in the front yard of the house we now own.