I was thinking about where to get maps of rail lines in the US. people have suggested Mapquest and yahoo maps. but they don't do details. then I remember something from a few years back. satallite imaging maps. Microsoft made it easy to use the NASA maps of the US. Here is a zoom'd inpic of the rail yard and shops at Croton Harmon, NY Croton Harmon Rail Yard Terraserver.microsoft.com Pher
Interesting shot. I try to make it to Croton Harmon every year for the Metro North Open House. Those are extremely interesting shops.
Terraserver is great and a couple other sites do the same thing. Mapquest, most of the time anyway, actually has a tab on the side of the map window that changes it to an aerial photo, which are in color and a generally a few years newer. Look up aerial mapping on a search engine and you could find some others too. A really neat one is www.keyhole.com The site sells a program that I believe caters to real estate agents, but they have beautiful and current aerial mapping of most major metropolitan areas in the US. Unless you want to shell out a few 100 bucks you can download a 7 day trial version for free.
ModernRailroading.com has just put their software series "Maps By Norm", D&H-CP Rail Edition online for free. Most detailed maps of CP's D&H Northeast Division you'll ever find. They also have a free e-timebook for the railroading professional that they give away. Great source for all railroads in country is DeLorme Topo USA...pricey but worth ever penny if your into detailed US Geo Topo... 3D, GPS, more. Hope that help
