Talk:Mass Central Rail Trail

Would it be logical to split "Clinton through Weston" and "Waltham to Boston" into 3 sections?

I'd propose "Clinton through Berlin", "Berlin through Waltham", and "Belmont to Boston".

This is because Clinton through part of Berlin is under varied ownership.

Part of Berlin through Waltham is controlled by the MBTA since 1976 since the purchase of the Boston and Maine Railroad, and is otherwise known as the "Mass Central Rail Trail Wayside". Work to convert Wayside to a trail began in 2011. https://www.mass.gov/service-details/mass-central-rail-trail-wayside

Belmont through Boston moves back to varied ownership. Rocketwidget (talk) 21:00, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

I implemented this change, with additional info. Hopefully this makes sense. Rocketwidget (talk) 21:32, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

In the last few days, I put in far more information about Mass Central Rail Trail Wayside, and tables with far more detail than before.

I would withdraw my question, since it no longer makes any sense to revert. Rocketwidget (talk) 14:21, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

Also I've renamed this section "Mass Central Rail Trail - Wayside" to clarify the official State Park name. Rocketwidget (talk) 13:47, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

Note I've superseded this question in a much more broad way.

It seems to me the logical breakdown of the MCRT section descriptions is 6 parts:

1. Northampton and Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail (1300 feet into Belchertown)
2. Most of Belchertown and everything the East Quabbin Land Trust (Palmer to New Braintree) is working (among others)
3. Everything Wachusset Greenways (Barre to Sterling) is working (among others).
4. Clinton and West Berlin.
5. Mass Central Rail Trail - Wayside (East Berlin to Central Waltham)
6. The individual trails from East Waltham to Boston that form the MCRT.

However, I'm open to further discussion (should Belchertown be it's own section? Should Clinton be it's own section?) Etc. Thanks! Rocketwidget (talk) 14:10, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Well, I've revisited this again. I think the grouping that makes sense is the following 8:

Northampton and Norwottuck Branch of the Mass Central Rail Trail, Belchertown Greenway, Quabbin Valley and East Quabbin Land Trust, Wachusett Greenways, Wachusett Dam and Clinton Greenway, Berlin Rail Trail, Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside, and Greater Boston Paths and Parks

I think this can be closed (at least until future trail groups become active). Rocketwidget (talk) 16:53, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Revise article when Wachusett Greenways revises maps

Wachusett Greenways has unpublished it's MCRT maps, which added to my challenge of writing this article.

https://www.wachusettgreenways.org/wordpress/maps-and-trail-sites/

When WG publishes the new maps, myself or someone else should revise the article with them as appropriate. Rocketwidget (talk) 21:43, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Please help me get the KML Map I built on Google Earth to display

I uploaded a draft .kml from Google Earth to Template:Attached KML/Mass Central Rail Trail but I'm inexperienced with mapping on Wikipedia.

I can't seem to get this map to display using the guidel on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_U.S._Roads/Maps_task_force/Tutorial#Creating_a_KML_file or replacing the Central Mass Railroad map used in the InfoBox. Please help me, thank you. Rocketwidget (talk) 14:51, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

I guess I had the attached KML file working after all. Still, I can't figure out how to make the map work in the infobox, as I could make it work for the Central Mass Railroad map, example:

| map =

| map_caption = Historic Central Massachusetts Railroad map, before MCRT. Fitchburg Railroad to North Station not shown.

If someone could help me put the map in the infobox, it would be much appreciated! Rocketwidget (talk) 19:30, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

I think really the problem is, I need someone to help me convert the .KML file at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Attached_KML/Mass_Central_Rail_Trail&action=raw into a geojson file at something like https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:MassCentralRailTrail.map so that I can use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Maplink in the Mass Central Rail Trail page. Rocketwidget (talk) 21:22, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

I've created that GeoJSON using User:Evad37/kmlToJson and added it to the article. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 22:50, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Great, thank you! Rocketwidget (talk) 23:41, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi Pi.1415926535 , thanks so much for your help on this! Would you be able to help me with a follow up map problem?

Based on your help, I created a sub-map for the MCRT-Wayside section https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Data:MassCentralRailTrail%E2%80%94Wayside.map and I added status colors.

However I can't figure out how to have the colors using the maplink template, it always comes out Red, example : Do you know how to preserve the colors so they are shown in the article?

Rocketwidget (talk) 21:06, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

Never-mind, the colors suddenly started working as intended. I wonder if this is because I reorganized the segments west-east instead of randomly? Not sure if that caused some sort of error. Rocketwidget (talk) 18:53, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

The issue seems to be a caching issue, see Module talk:Mapframe/Archive 2#Can’t get Route shown reliabily for discussion beyond my understanding. Rocketwidget (talk) 14:04, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

Community thoughts on moving Wayside section to it's current Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside redirect?

I was wondering what other editors think about moving the Wayside section to it's current redirect Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside. At this point, for sure, it has enough info to be its own article, just like the MCRT segments Somerville Community Path and the Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail.

But unlike those example trails, which are simply complete now, and can therefore be quickly summarized in the main MCRT article, the status of the Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside is very complicated (12 different builds, only ~36% complete today). So if the Wayside has it's own article, I feel like much of what is said would need to be pretty much repeated in the MCRT article if readers want to understand the status of the entire MCRT, as the MCRT article correctly does.

So my thought is, leave the Wayside section in the MCRT for now, but as it gets closer to completion (in 2027 when ~78% is done?) move into it's own article and summarize in the MCRT.

Thoughts? Rocketwidget (talk) 15:12, 2 November 2024 (UTC)