Montour Railroad

[Rich_S]

Hello Group, The Monotur Railroad Beta 1 for Rail Works is now available in the file library. Here is some information on the route.

History of the Montour.
The Montour Railroad was originally built and owned by the Pittsburgh Coal Company until its merger with the Consolidated Coal Company in 1945. At that time the new Pittsburgh Consolidated Coal company decided to concentrate solely on the coal mining industry. On December 31, 1946 the Montour railroad was sold jointly to the Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroads.

Physical Layout of the Montour.
The Montour Railroad makes a large semi-circle to the South and West of Pittsburgh, PA. The road begins at Groveton, PA. This is the location of the Montour Railroads main shops and yard. From there the road runs east through small communities like Imperial, McDonald, Southview, Hills and McMurray with its mainline ending at Salida, PA. From that point the Montour continues east on trackage rights over the former P&WV’s Mifflin branch to Mifflin Jct and its connection with the Union Railroad owned by United States Steel. The Montour also has three branch lines that serve mines not located on the mainline. The three branches are: The Westland secondary track, the Muse secondary track and the Library secondary track.

Mines on the Montour.
During the time frame of the route, the Montour serves 4 deep mines and two strip mines. Montour #10 is located at Library, PA. Montour #4 is located at Hills Station, PA. Westland #1 and #2 are located at Westland, PA. On the Montour, the coal loaded at these mines is known as green coal, because it is not sized or washed. The green coal is transported to the Champion prep plant located railroad west of McDonald, PA. Once the coal has been sized and cleaned at the prep plant, it is then loaded in open hoppers and transported to CONSOL’s customers throughout the United States.

Interchanges on the Montour.
During the time frame of the route, the Montour maintains six active interchanges with foreign roads. These are: the Union Railroad at Mifflin Jct. The B&O Railroad at Snowden, PA. The Pennsy / Penn Central at Hills Station and McDonald, PA the N&W former P&WV railroad at Southview, PA and the P&LE railroad at Groveton, PA.

Railroad Operations on the Montour.
The Montour railroad operated using Time Table and Train orders. The Montour was not signaled and all switches were manually thrown. The coal at the mines was loaded by drifting cars under the mine tipple, when the hopper car was loaded; it was then drifted out into the loaded yard. The Montour railroad delivered the empties to the empty yard and picked up the loaded hoppers in the loaded yard. Since we cannot drift cars through the mine tipples in Rail Works, I added interactive objects at the various mines, so cars can be manually loaded.

The Montour’s Motive Power.
In the steam era the Montour first began operations with the 0-4-0, 2-4-0, 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 types but these engines were all retired and / or scrapped by 1928. During the remainder of the steam era the motive power on the Montour was the Mikado and Consolidation type steam locomotives. In the late 1940’s the Montour began searching for diesel locomotives to replace the aging steam fleet. The list was narrowed down to two types of diesel locomotives from EMD, the GP7 and SW9. The Montour management decided on the 1200 hp. SW9 verses the 1500 hp. GP7 as they were able to purchase more SW9’s, which meant more horsepower, for the same price as they would receive with fewer of the more expensive GP7 locomotives.

Notes on the Montour for Rail Works.
Track is now complete between Groveton, PA and Mifflin Jct, including the Westland, Muse and Library branches. Scenery is about 90% complete between Groveton and Hills Station, along the Westland and Muse secondary tracks and at Library. No Siding or station markers have been added yet. To the best of my knowledge there should not be any defects with the route.

Closing Notes
There is one free roam scenario included with the route that uses default locomotives and rolling stock. You start your day at the Groveton fuel rack. Pickup the empty hoppers from the empty yard at Groveton and head east to the mine of your choice. Most importantly, remember to have fun and enjoy running on the Mighty “M”.

Regards,
Rich S.

[JackD]

Rich,

An enthusiastic "Thank You" for the Montour route. It's beautifully done and runs smooth as butter!

Keep up the great work.

JackD

[jpetersjr]

Love the route, actually, it looks better then some payware routes I've seen. Perfect place to run the new Warbonnet F7, so far really enjoying the route. My opinion is that it's just as good as a lot of these payware routes, and it's free so that makes it even better. That's one reason I like Railworks, you can have more fun with Railworks realism, and with a great route it adds to the amusement.

[glenn68]

Rich,
You know my thoughts!

Glenn

[Chessie8638]

Been silently watching the progress on this. Can't wait to take trip down the Montour!

[jpetersjr]

You sir have just shown me why I love to build scenery assets and can't stop. For a while I was wondering if I do much good building things for the game.

Love the route, it's to me much better then Barstol To San Berdino and Castle Rock together,

[Rich_S]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Remember this is just the first beta, there is still more to come

Regards,
Rich S.


P.S. Please feel free to post screen shots of your favorite section of the Montour in the screen shot forum

[Rich_S]

Are you going to remove a lot of vegetation to improve performance in some areas?

Thanks for downloading the route. To answer your question, sorry, no. Doing so would take away from the look and feel of the Western Pennsylvania setting of the route. I did not modify any of the default object values. If you are having a problem running the route, you can always try adjusting your master detail level to a lower value or decreasing the scenery detail slider bar. Both items are found the options section of the sim.

Regards,
Rich S.

[ex-railwayman]

Hello Rich,

As a fan of all Railroad things American, I just wondered how many miles there are on your layout, roughly speaking, please??

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[Rich_S]

Hello Rich,

As a fan of all Railroad things American, I just wondered how many miles there are on your layout, roughly speaking, please??

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Hi ex-railwayman, The main line of the Montour railroad was approximately 41 Miles in length and ran from the main shops and yard complex in Groveton, PA to Salida, PA. The right of way still exists today as a hiking and biking trail. The Montour also had three branch lines, the longest of the branches was the Library Secondary track running from Library Jct to Snowden, PA. The next longest branch was the Westland Secondary running from Gilmore Jct to Westland, approx. 2 miles in length and the last branch line was the Muse Secondary running from Muse Jct to the small community of Muse, approx. 1 mile in length.



I have Modeled the complete Montour from Groveton, PA to Salida, plus the trackage rights portion of the line from Salida to West Mifflin, PA. I have also modeled the Westland, Muse and Library secondary tracks. During the time period modeled the Dickson mine, Marshall Mine and the Clinton Block spur and mine had been removed. The Moon Run railroad is also not part of the route, as it's Right Of Way is now part of the Interstate 79 highway. The Montour was a coal hauling railroad that hauled the coal from the mines to the Champion prep plant near McDonald, PA. From there the cleaned and sized coal was hauled to the various interchanges on the Montour system.

The Scenery is 90% complete between Groveton and Hills, PA. The track type used and track rules reflect the condition of the Montour Right Of Way during the time period modeled, which is the mid 1960s to the late 1970s. Also of note, Michael Stephan (Golden Age of Railroads) has some very nice Montour Railroad hoppers in his NYC 70t Rib-Side Hoppers Megapack. He also released a few of the Montour SW9 repaints (BritKit freeware model) that can be found in the file library here at Rail Works America. Without Michael's help, the Champion prep plant and various mines on the Montour would not have been possible, his contributions to the route are greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your inquiry on the Montour, this route is very much a work in progress and the version in the file library is the first public beta of the route. That being said, you may still find some floating object and missing bridges on the route. Once I get the scenery complete between Hills and Salida, I plan on uploading the second beta of the route, but at this time I do not have an ETA on the next beta. Any new updates will be uploaded to the file library here at RWA.

Regards,
Rich S.

[ex-railwayman]

Much obliged to you Rich, that info. is invaluable for me. I've also made a payment to Michael for his Montour rib siders and there are some PC, P&LE and NYC coal hoppers also, which I can utilise as well on the Horseshoe Curve, and Boston & Albany hoppers for Rich Garber's Fort Kent layout, so, you've made a good sale for him......
I'm downloading your route as I type and will obviously check it for missing bridges, tracks, etc, floating buildings and vegetation I can live with.....

Thanks a lot for your help.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.