In the northeast corner of Mocha is an unassuming little trolly stop, with no other indication as to its use...


...but if you wait long enough*, something much like a pre-WWII interurban rail car will come bumping along over the border from Olive, and you can ride it across four full sims, and parts of two more, to the region called Purple.


It makes three stops between its termini -- the first one (eastbound from Mocha) is in Olive, right in front of FlipperPA and Jennyfur Peregrine's store.


Just east of that is a switch onto a spur that loops through Jopsy Pendragon's cavern in Slate, but the regular run doesn't go there. After crossing this arched stone bridge...


...the next stop is Slate Station; an odd little build, odd because it is little. Note the avatar standing there -- he's a little shorter than average height, which makes the station itself is about 3/4-size.


The left-hand wing in that view is the freight office, with a few crates waiting for delivery; the right-hand wing is the ticket and stationmaster's office:


Leaving Slate, the tracks cut across the very southeast corner of Magenta before arcing out over the water, by way of a stone viaduct, through the entire region of Maroon:


The next station is Periwinkle -- which is worth getting out and walking around the grounds, and catching the next train east:


The rails then run through a densely wooded valley, and over this drawbridge


And then out onto the open plains of Purple:


Halfway across that region, the rails turn north to arrive at their other terminus:


...where you can transfer to a ferry that will take you first to ANWR, and then to the region of Cecropia on the continent of Heterocera (and which will soon be another topic of this blog).


Obviously, one can fly from Mocha to Purple in much less time than the train takes, and teleporting is nearly instantaneous... but you miss the scenery. More important: you miss the scale of the space you're in. Virtual or not, it's still a world, folks.


~ Historical notes ~

Mocha: Station (September 2004) by Athos Murphy (resident since July 2003).

Olive: Station (October 2006) by Olivia Delvecchio (resident since July 2004).

Slate: Bridge and station by Athos Murphy (July, 2003); open book in the office (May 2003) by Taessa Weaver, Charter Member (January 2003); closed book (July 2003) by Topher Taylor, Charter Member (June 2003).

Periwinkle: Station (February 2004) by Lordfly Digeridoo (resident since July 2003); Infohub area (January 2007) by Alexin Bismark (resident since May 2004); drawbridge (March 2004) by Athos Murphy.

Purple: Station (September 2004) and lighthouse (December 2007) by Athos Murphy.

The right-of-way is protected land held in the name of "Governor" Linden, acquired on various dates between July 2003 (Slate) and March 2006 (Olive). The railway is maintained by the Virtual Railway Consortium, who have a webpage about the GSLR, among others. Sim crossings, by the way are relatively effortless.


* By coincidence, the train stopped running (and disappeared from the right-of-way) during my second photo expedition, a week ago. I went back there this morning to check, and it's still gone. However, there appears to be restoration work underway on portions of the track, so perhaps the train car is temporarily missing for safety reasons.

.