Once I began construction of the route I found out some very interesting things, apparently under the Kalamazoo Charter, every street must have a sidewalk. I spent hours putting them in.
The main customer on the south end is Pfizer, where they make COVID jabs, and the north end passes a site where marijuana is grown. We have a laugh about both of these when running trains.
This is version 0.99, it includes the GR&I "stub" as far as Upjohn Pond; the active portion of the GR&I towards Grand Rapids, a mile or so stretch for now; and part of the northern LSM&S to service Graphic Packaging, Cannamazoo (the hot houses in the 2 old warehouses), Lewis C Howard's Parchment Warehouse (there are 3 or 4 along the 8 miles of active track), and DLD: Drug & Laboratory Disposal. A fictional branch has been added the Expo/Fair Grounds to provide a place to operate the "Monon" F units, my Monon enthusiast friend remembers from ITM (83-A and 96).
Once I am happy with the scenery I will call it version 1, and if people would be interested in the route, I shall upload it on RWA for the enjoyment of everyone here.
My goal as we expand is to eventually create Version 2, with trackage over the GTW to the interchange near Sagamaw Lake, and then over some time (probably several years) to work with my railroad friend from Kalamazoo (he is a huge Monon fan) to construct the LSM&S 30+ miles to White Pigeon Junction, which will finally give the E units a chance to get up to speed.
For now here are some shots of the railway in operation. The railway today operates as a Watco company, and although we have utilised their track plan, operating schedule and numbers, and customers, we have written a shortline backstory as the "Kalamazoo Terminal Railway", an industrial terminal outfit founded post-war, that took over operation of other routes as Penn Central, Conrail, and NS abandoned them. We regularly run 20+ car unit coal trains to Pfizer and "jab trains", titled the "Hot Shot", as well as switching with the Kalamazoo Local. I do not usually post images on here, so I hope they work.
Here is the route map:
To complement the route I have reskinned a plethora of equipment, and must also say thank you to 2 RWA reskinners, "Buzz456" and "JTousign" who have provided Monon reskins for the Monon side of the route, and the CEO of the road's personal Monon collection.
The road's first diesel, ALCo S-2 No 1 (05/1948, SN 75673) still earns its keep in 2022:
Just outside of Kalamazoo's Michigan Central Station the South Haven Branch diverged, which ran to South Haven and the shores of Lake Michigan. Naturally the railway needed a passenger engine, and 1956 saw the Rutland selling their ALCo RS-1 No. 400 (10/1951, 79349), only 5 years old.
As the 1960s progressed the GTW (which switched a yard near the auto body plant, seen at the right-hand edge of the map) brought an ALCo S2 to town. Seeing as the GTW had ex-CV ALCo S2s and I adored RickKFoury's CV 8093, for the sake of KTR's history, KTR ultimately purchased one in 1967, and renumbered 4, ex-CV 8093, and was restored to that paint scheme during a rewire in the 2000s.
As the trackage expanded the road continued to acquire ALCos, namely S2s, including 1 from Chestnut Ridge Ry in 1985, No. 11 (10/1946, 73901). KTR kept that number, and runs it to date: (the actual Chestnut Ridge 11 was scrapped in the mid-1980s I believe after no one wanted to purchase it second hand). We joke this one is frequently out of service because "Kalamazoo Man" thrashes it hard enough the traction motors and generator are probably always suffering.
The most recent acquisition was an ex-D&H ALCo S4 from the Claremont & Concord, No. 102 (10/1950, SN 78409). KTR has kept the faded Rutland paint from the engines Green Mountain Days, but relettered it, in the style of KTR's 400, which was acquired from the Rutland. 102 and 400 frequently are used together in our KTR scenarios, or the 102 (with its M3R1 horn (or something like that) is a favourite of one of my friends to put in switching scenarios):
It seemed like we never had enough power, and Union Pacific had some S2s that had twin-note Wabco fog-horns, so I reskinned one of those into patched KTR paint, and the first auto-number that showed up was 1138, a unit UP traded to EMD in the 1970s, at which point for our purposes KTR acquired it. (Yes I have the twin-note Wabcos on it).
I hope you enjoy these images. The next chapter will cover the sleepy shortline's traffic growth between 2015 and 2022 and the roster expansion.
'PullmanCar'
