Northwest Ohio [working name]

[Chessie8638]

When the "Railworks 3: TS2012" update/upgrade is released and if it's stable. I'm most likely going to be starting my own route. So let me introduce some elements of it:

The route is centered around the town of Fostoria, Ohio, which has 3 mainlines running though it and 4 small yards. It's just not limited to Fostoria as the Google Earth screenshot below shows.

Fostoria, Ohio History:
Fostoria, named for Charles Foster, was formed in 1854 when the villages of Rome and Risdon officially united. It was also the year the Fremont and Indiana Railroad began laying track for its line that originated in Fremont and passed through Fostoria and Findlay on its way to Indiana.

In 1872, the Chesapeake & Ohio completed the section of track that ran through Fostoria. The C & O ran between Columbus and Toledo and was principally a coal hauler, but by 1877 the C & O was running four passenger trains a day in both directions. On July 22, 1873, the Baltimore & Ohio line reached Fostoria on its way to Chicago from the eastern seaboard and, in the 1880’s, two more railroads came through Fostoria. The New York, Chicago & St. Louis, better known as the Nickel Plate was routed through Fostoria in spite of fierce lobbying by Norwalk. The last railroad to come to town was the New York Central, originally known as the Atlantic & Lake Erie Road.

In addition, Fostoria was served by three inter-urban lines between 1898 and 1932: the Tiffin, Fostoria & Eastern Electric Railway, the Toledo Fostoria & Findlay, and the Fostoria & Fremont.
These carried freight and mail as well as passengers. The TF&E and the TF&F also operated amusement parks near Bascom and Arcadia to induce ridership. Meadowbrook Park in Bascom
was originally owned by the TF&E.

Today only 3 lines survive, hosted by two railroads: CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Corp.

Now on to the Rail Lines: For clarity I will be addressing the 2 CSX lines as their original owners names.

CSX (B&O) Willard Subdivision. Running from the west end of Willard Yard in Willard, OH to Deshler, OH, this is the busiest of the 3 mainlines and see's 30-50 trains on average. Intermodal, Coal, Manifest, Grain, and Ethanol can all be seen on this line. Since this is CSX's main East-West route foreign power is plenty in the form of UP, BNSF, DME/ICE, CP, KCS, and many of leased locomotives.

CSX (C&O) Columbus, Fostoria, and Pemberville Subdivisions. This lines runs from Columbus to Toledo, OH and see's on avarage 20-30 trains. Mostly coal, auto, and grain. With 2-4 Manifest thrown in.

CSX runs locals on both of their lines and also interchanges with NS. These trains are unique since they still use cabooses. A few still in B&O and C&O paint. CSX also makes good use of the transfer tracks, connecting the B&O and C&O lines to direct trains to their destinations.

Norfolk Southern Fostoria District (ex. Nickel Plate): Runs from Bellevue Yard to Fort Wayne, IN, this lines see's around 15-20 trains a day. Manifests trains make up most of the traffic, but Ethanol, Coal, Intermodal, and Roadrailers can also been seen. NS also runs 3-5 locals in and around Fostoria using a roster of High Hood SD40-2's.

All these lines cross at grade forming a triangle which gave Fostoria the nickname of the "Iron Triangle" by railfans. CSX's F Tower controls all movements through Fostoria requiring trains to call the tower in order to proceed through town. Since CSX controls the tracks, NS if often the odd man out and will wait. This results in F Tower fleeting NS trains in both directions at once.

[Chessie8638]

Some Google Earth Screenshots:
Blue is the B&O, Yellow is the C&O (hard to read I know), and White is NS.

- Overview of Planned Trackwork:


- Yards in and around Fostoria:


- Trackwork around F Tower: Tracks running North-South are the C&O, tracks entering at lower right to upper left/center are the B&O and the upper set from upper right to upper left/center are NS.



Hopefully the TS2012 upgrade will be working properly and I can get started on this.

Here is a video I did, when I was in Fostoria last: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MADOLxfFQFg

ATCS/Distpatcher Display of Fostoria: http://i.imgur.com/7uryO.jpg

[PapaXpress]

That looks like fun. Is part of that route electrified?

[Chessie8638]

Nope. All lines use diesels. And the occasional Steam locomotive will pass through.

[imnew]

Yes ! the Iron Triangle, this will be a blast ! Never railfanned Fostoria, but its on my to visit list. Got plenty og dvds that has shots from the location/area. Best of luck in your project.

[Toripony]

To quote imnew, "it will be a blast"! (just what I was thinking, too!) What a great choice for an trainsim route. With all those lines and all the traffic possibilities, the scenery will be the trains themselves! What a great way to create lots of traffic without having to struggle with getting numerous trains to cooperate on one line.

[Chessie8638]

Thanks. Hopefully I can get this started. Think it will fit well into Railworks with something for everyone. Mainline running, local switching, and just sitting and watching AI run around.
Still need to get RWtools, RWdecal, and ReDem (even though Ohio is flat, there are still some grades, hehe). Should have them by September. That's another reason for getting started after the TS2012 release.