Years ago the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association donated 3,000 + railroad valuation maps to the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut. These maps depict the rail line and features adjacent from 1915 – 1916 for the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York.
Since the maps were donated a stream of graduate students and staff, both at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and at MAGIC, have been scanning these maps, georeferencing them and creating a comprehensive index. The most notable of these graduate students at MAGIC was Dean Chauvin. Dean wrote a technical article describing the process which was the basis for all future work on this project. Dean, I know I speak for the graduate students that came after you when I say thank you for your foresight in documenting your efforts in such a clear way! Additionally, if your Python savy, there are some nifty scripts that automate large parts of this process included in the appendices of Dean’s article.
Below is a screen capture of the Google Map Preview (Figure 2). Clicking on the image will take you directly to the interactive map. You can search any place in Connecticut and by clicking on any bounding box the resulting balloon you will give the option to view the digital scan of the original map from the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
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| Figure 2 |
Currently only Connecticut is available through MAGIC in this specific format. I know the staff of MAGIC is working tirelessly at getting the remaining state indices online and once they become available we’ll let you know.
Cross- posted to Model Trains & Geography