For this post, I am just uploading a couple of maps that viewers can use as references when I mention various landmarks/areas within the City of Lowell. Once I get all the streets laid out, I plan on working on a fully-labeled street map of the entire city, as well as one for public transportation.

SECTIONS OF LOWELL

Lowell, when complete, will take up the entirety of a large city tile (save for the very small portion in the southeast corner, which is part of suburban Bedford Township, though I have currently built mostly industry in that location and will likely not zone any residential there.

The Merrimack River dissects the city in roughly a NW to SE direction, and smaller Cold Stream further divides Lowell into three swaths of land. 

This map roughly corresponds to the "downtown" section of the city wards map as posted above.

Kaufman Street Expressway leads into downtown from the Lowell Connector (named for its real-life Massachusetts counterpart), which will be New Bearin State Route 3. Kaufman Street Expressway (which is actually more of a bridge/freeway junction) carries SimNation routes 11 and 15 across the Merrimack, at which point they split off, forming Central Parkway to the West (which carries S.N. Route 20) and Kaufman Street (which carries S.N. Route 11). On the far right (east) of the map, S.N. 20 splits off from Route 11 and Kaufman Street and becomes Chelmsford Avenue (not labeled).

Merrimack Street carries State Route 12 from points south.

For SimNation's markers, I used real-life U.S. Route markers, and will also use Interstate markers later on in future maps, as the metropolitan area will have interstate highways traversing the area. For whatever reason, I have adopted New York state road markers as our make-believe New Bearin's route markers. I just picked a random state to model them after. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

I'm not sure yet. I have been working quite a bit on Lowell's north and northeast neighborhoods, so I might tell those stories in the next installment. I've also been putting the finishing touches on downtown and the UNB Lowell area, and I'm quite fond of how those have turned out as well. So I guess you'll just have to wait and see!

Thanks for visiting Lowell, the Heart of SimNation's Rust Belt! Come back soon!