Planning Model Railroads With Google Earth
I like to plan potential model railroads out as realistically as possible. I enjoy researching "what if" scenarios where a defunct rail line survived longer than it actually did, or planning out a railroad that could have existed, but didn't. Sometimes, I combine a bit of both activities in one project.
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That's what I did with the St. Augustine Short Line Project, which can be viewed on Google Earth by clicking the ECR logo at the top left, or clicking here. I started with some employee timetables from 1971 through 1998, tracking the rise and demise of various industries on the East Palatka Branch, Now called the Wilbur Wright industrial Lead.
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I lived in St. Lucie County in the 2000s and was fascinated with he old potato packing
houses in Hastings, FL. I learned that Hastings shipped a huge amount of potatoes up i
into the 1980s. It was a busy piece of railroad back in the day. I wondered if it would be
possible to imagine that the potato traffic remained into the 1990s, and base a model
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One of my model railroad world building projects is developing my East Coast Rail story
line. In my modeling world, ECR is a short line operating company much like Gennesee & Wyoming Inc. has become. I'll model it in the 1996-1998 years.
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East Coast Rail mainly operates lines in Florida.As I try to pin down a theme for my home layout I keep casting about for the perfect location for my main ECR operation. This is how I hit upon documenting potential layouts on Google Earth.
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I mapped out where the line would run today using Google Maps and Google Earth. Maps allows for historic roadside views and Earth allows for historic satellite views. In addition, I looked at historic topographical maps and arial photos for industry placement. Finally, I looked at current industries and either reimagined them back in 1996, moved them around a bit, or in a couple cases, I created new customers using plausible logic of what "could have been."
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Take a look at what I did. Click on the place marks for details on modeling, photos and other useful information. If you have any questions, let me know!
