Railworks America

Hi all, welcome to my first major project, my fictional railroad based on a real company I want to start when I'm old enough. The story:
HSM Co Transportation (Reporting marks HSMX) is a small shortline based out of North Carolina, but with branches in a few states. (Think Rail America or G&O) This region represents out in the Northeast, PA/upstate NY kinda feel. The railroad operates on a large portion of ex Conrail (Nee PC, PRR) trackage, including an abandoned steel mill and once high speed mainline that is now reduced to slow, short freights and 30 mph track speeds. This route will have an operating challenge, you must know the route like any good shortline engineer. DO NOT think you can blast through crossings at track speed, the few crossings with lights and gates (one being near the modern HSM Co Martin Shops) are hooked up so trains switching nearby will not trip the circuit, therefore you must inch up to the crossing, wait for the gates to drop, and then proceed at slow speed blowing the horn the whole way. The switches are mostly manual, some are old automatic ones left from when the PRR ran fast passenger trains on this trackage. There will be plenty of fun scenarios, including one which I'm working on now called "From Big Blue to you" in which you must pass into the 10 mph deteiorating yard of the abandoned steel mill (lots of weeds!) and switch the cars in the deadline to reach a Conrail car which is to be carefully delivered at slow speeds due to the bad condition of the car to the HSM Co shops where the CRHS is to pick it up. (More on all this later, that's the surprise!) (And take it easy, I'm only 13 so I'm not an expert at all this route building )

Wait... darn, lost my screens I was gonna show ya'll. In the meantime, enjoy a photo of me on a ex Conrail SW1500 (Future railroad owner material right there. :P)

We begin inside the Martin Shops where HSMX 210, the line's ex WP GP9 is departing. The grade crossing is not gated or with lights as it is on company property, instead 2 e-bells signal the arrival of a train up until it is occupying the crossing, they then shut off.

Here we are. Road name still not final, but for now its Hillcrest Road.
The smoke is exhaust from 210, note the crossing signals have not activated yet.

HSMX 210 pulls into view and stops over the gate circuit:

The Martin Shops entrance off Hillcrest Road is well marked, like most railroad facilities:

The abandoned steel mill with lots of old Conrail freight cars as well as an old locomotive or two in permanent storage in the old steel mill yard:

Can I get rid of the smoke from the stacks somehow, its supposed to be abandoned. A mix of old and new buildings like Betlehem Steel.

Looking good! Aaaah to be 13 again. Try to get your route finished before you're old enough to have kids. Trust me on this.

Looking good, When I was your age I didn't even have a Playstation or Playstation 2, all I had was a old Nintendo Gameboy, and it was boring, as well, no computer back then either.


Of course, now I'm 21, almost going to be 22 soon and even I find route building hard and not exactly one of my favorite things to do. That's why I actually just stick to plain old scenery modeling.

Nice work, Harrison! Sounds like a fun route.

Now... when I was 13.... we didn't have VCRs... or game consoles, or computers... that was 1973.... well actually by that time we might have purchased our "Magnavox Odyssey" game system.... it was amazing. Google that (and VCRs).

Don.

Well done young man, you've done a wonderful job of your little route and those screenshots show it off very well indeed. Good luck with your project and a big pat on the back for showing the oldies how it's done......

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Csxgp38-2 wrote:And take it easy, I'm only 13 so I'm not an expert at all this route building

From what I can see, you're not only 13, you're all of 13.

Thanks all, I hope to get a lot more progress in the next 2 weeks as I'm out from school, so look forward to much more! I actually remember as a young boy watching videos on a VCR... I'm not that young!

When I was 13 TV was still in black and white.

No good shortline should be without a few old end cab switchers in odd paint schemes!

Perhaps this will later spruce up your route some. Once I'm able to finish this and release it it will be a freeware locomotive, the Alco MRS-1.

Very interesting looking locomotive! I think it would look good as the shop switcher. :)

Here's what the real Alco MRS-1 looked like.

Progress.
You know, I'm going for more of a southern US feel suddenly, so let's just change the route name a bit. Makes it easier to model the area you live in.
The local something plant. Elevator of some sort.

Trailer park, lots of these in the south:

May become a scenario or not, but I was bored, flooded the route, then used 2 gondolas to rescue some cars out of the shop buildings.

This is the only progress pic I have after the pic of the elevator, ignore the water, but as you can see we are starting to get closer to a town, thus more buildings.

Lookin' good! Love that trailer park. You got that one just right!