New York Division-Bergen Line - Part Deux!

[minerman146]

Hold on to you hats and please hold my beer...
Its time again for that famous and sometimes amusing Wednesday Route Update and Report!

Lets start up with some snarky commentary. Remember folks, the Bergen is always more that 29 miles long AND we did all the fixing BEFORE we upload it for the full, rich, out of control, CPU grinding, memory busting goodness that just oozes all over your screen with a vegetation so thick you have to run it in winter to see the other half of the scenery! This route is HUGE and just like the last sentence,it runs on, and on .. and on....

Ok lets Get IT ON!

Friday route update status:
( ) My wife, Morgan Fairchild, says lets do it! ( I love it when Morgan says that)
( X ) Denied!

As you may be aware, we are in Middletown, NY, well really, the Northern reaches of it, but its still Middletown. I am working on the first of the four consignees - Wakefern Distribution Center. Wakefern is huge, we have 2 interior tracks holding 10 cars and 2 sidings holding 4 cars each. The facility is for the Shoprite grocery store chain and that's a lot of food. Based on my personal experience with all the darn ShopRite trailers clogging traffic in this area, it was a big operation. This will be fun, to those inclined, to run your trick out of Campbell Hall and run to a pair siding tracks collectively called "Red Onion". I have yet to find out why this is called Red Onion. What I can tell you about Orange County is that there is an area in the Southern Part, around the small hamlet of Pine Island, called the "black dirt". This area was formerly a prehistoric lake that appeared after the last ice age, filled with lush vegetation that settled to the bottom of the lake. When the lake disappeared, it left a rich soil and its known today for its production of produce and ONIONS. Is there a connection? I dunno. Read about the Black Dirt here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dirt_Region.

Lets go to tonight's meager picture offering:

20190612091057_1.jpg

Scenery is still in progress. The good news is, I have my route building mojo back and I am getting decent production daily.

We continue to move West, which is great, and I am focused and thinking about the next industries I will working in the coming days and weeks.

That's it for now - you can hand me back my beer.

Carry on!

[BoostedFridge]

This route is HUGE and just like the last sentence! And it runs on, and on .. and on....

Looking great Miner!

[minerman146]

it appears I have just finished the Wakefern Distribution Center in Middletown, NY. The scene footprint is roughly 1000 feet by 2500 ft and took about 18 hours.

20190615131230_1.jpg

In keeping with our 2001 era, I sourced images from between 1994 and 2001 and matched up what I saw and created my impression of the site. It has some decent unloading possibilities for refrigerated and temperature stabilized cars. The maximum unloading capacity is 18 cars. This was a big surprise for me as I keep going on about there being nothing between Suffern and Port Jervis.

20190615152802_1.jpg

I have no idea what the two tanks are for in the foreground. This could be water or fuel oil. I am going oil because of the containment wall at the base. The building in the background, has a good deal of piping and conduits on the roof .. this could be a refrigerated building. To the left are 4 bay door and on the other side is about 20 docks for trailers. I am guessing this a transloading dock, to unload directly from box car to waiting trucks.

20190615152848_1.jpg

This is the Eastern Side of the facility and is just jammed with trailers. The whole site is covered with trailers.

20190614233711_1.jpg

This last shot - shows our glorious EL GP35 and custom EL caboose spotting some cars in the twin 5 car enclosed dock at the Eastern Side of the facility.

20190614233312_1.jpg

At last up, is a reprise of the shot from Wednesday. The difference now is we have the deep, rich scenery you have come to know and love.

Next up is Revere Smelting - and you bet they are under investigation by the Department of Environmental Conservation. As you know, with all my work in New Jersey, I have a soft spot for Superfund sites!
Carry On.

[OpenRailer90]

Keep it up! My main issue with the route now has to be the quick drive; so far it's temp-dumped on me with most of the QD points.

[minerman146]

Keep it up! My main issue with the route now has to be the quick drive; so far it's temp-dumped on me with most of the QD points.

Looks like its time to delete the route again and start afresh. I have changed the QDs at least 6 times completely since the beginning. We had a someone here last week with the same issue, they deleted the route from their computer and let Steam do the fresh copy. The system crashed stopped. They were at least 1 year out of date with the QDs!

This is the path to the route folder for the New York Division - Bergen Line:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Content\Routes\19b667f7-2759-49e0-93d8-4dadc470bceb

I'm my opinion - this is the most effective method to clear the route. Find the route folder, go inside, then Ctrl+A and then Cntrl+D annnnd restart Trainsim.
Lastly, I know you have been waiting a while to get to Middletown. I had been indulging my need for Erie history instead!
I have always appreciated your work!

[RudiJaeger]

Never ceases to amaze me when I see what you're doing with a minimal set of assets; Brilliant!

[minerman146]

Never ceases to amaze me when I see what you're doing with a minimal set of assets; Brilliant!

Amazes You? Lemme tell ya, I can't believe how I figure out how to do this stuff like this!

I wish - though this is very unreasonable on my part, that someone would analyze the fidelity of my route to the real thing, with the qualifier that I do it with "parts". Because, I really get blown away when I get to the end of some nightmare building and say to myself 'holy crap, I nailed it" Truth is, I do it because its there. All I want to do is finish my route and I get all this complex junk I have to put in. The route would have been done years ago, if I just did an impression of it like DTG does, or 'wink-wink' this is a 'fictional' route. (Side note, you have no idea how much I wanna do a bridge burning, 'drop the mic" thing here) Hint: the theme is "so, your were never going to do an Erie-Lackawanna route - eh?

Anyway, what brought my almost rant to mind, is the subject of the difficulty of attempting to be faithful to a visual subject while using crayons instead of oil. Truth be told, its simply the medium I have available to me, and I work it and do things with it that it was never intended to do. And then, you guys see it and for the most part are rendered speechless. Me, I am understated - this is wrong, that is way out of proportion, I couldn't find a good part for that - it looks ok - I guess, I just do the best I can. But, sometimes it hits me and I get weirded out - and it really does look close - I am like -Wow, this is beautiful! I do know that I am a wee bit artistic and that certainly helps, but its just this innate part of me that sees a four story building with a peaked roof in real life I then I start looking for parts to make the same on the route. That's all there is too it. Its takes a crazy amount of time to go, even 1000 feet down the line, because of the scenery. I see an obstacle, and I keep working it until is conquered and move on.

Which brings me back to Rudi's comment and how that relates to my current little project - a trivial battery recycling facility in Middletown, NY. Take a look at the is site survey image courtesy of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and yep, this palace of poison even has an EPA ID: EPA ID No. NYD030485288 / Site No. 336053. So, heck yeah were gonna put this on the route! But look at this picture and think about what Rudi said.

RevereSmelting.JPG

I figured out how to build this. As usual, its on a slope, and this is a boat load of piping that I have never done before. But I can do it, in the least, it will be a reasonable simile of the plant. At best, it will hold up when you spot cars here.

So my point is that, in regards to the Bergen, the time was taken to render everything in the line of sight in the most "believable" way, not most accurate, way possible. For me, I had NO idea how it would turn out, but what I can see myself, is that, when looking at the route, in total, it really does look natural and its very easy to suspend disbelief that is this just a digital model. I totally took a chance that this approach would work and for me, it does. I suppose it should go without saying, that this is time consuming. But considering I don't have a team of digital artists to whip up buildings for me and work on 3 sections of the route at the same time... well, I guess my stuff is not too shabby when I put it like that.
Carry on!

[AmericanSteam]

On this note, DTG may make a few good routes with a lot of recycling of products but you have taken those same assets and beat, molded and forged them into something extraordinary.

[minerman146]

On this note, DTG may make a few good routes with a lot of recycling of products but you have taken those same assets and beat, molded and forged them into something extraordinary.

This is what they get when they don't respond to my emails.
I used their own stuff and made a point.

Oh cripes, its so hard to be a ding-dong. I really love this line and its history. Nothing less than the best I can do is worthy.
and - Thank you kind sir!

[OpenRailer90]

Keep it up! My main issue with the route now has to be the quick drive; so far it's temp-dumped on me with most of the QD points.

Looks like its time to delete the route again and start afresh. I have changed the QDs at least 6 times completely since the beginning. We had a someone here last week with the same issue, they deleted the route from their computer and let Steam do the fresh copy. The system crashed stopped. They were at least 1 year out of date with the QDs!

This is the path to the route folder for the New York Division - Bergen Line:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Content\Routes\19b667f7-2759-49e0-93d8-4dadc470bceb

I'm my opinion - this is the most effective method to clear the route. Find the route folder, go inside, then Ctrl+A and then Cntrl+D annnnd restart Trainsim.
Lastly, I know you have been waiting a while to get to Middletown. I had been indulging my need for Erie history instead!
I have always appreciated your work!

Thank you! A Comet IV/V enhancement pack is currently in the works from me and will revamp the Comet coach sounds, add new Comet V trailer variants as well as 3 different horns for the cab car. Hope to see it be built to Port Jervis and MAYBE include some of the Southern Tier west of there.

[minerman146]

OpenRailer - you hit the sweet spot in your post when you mentioned the "Southern Tier". I do daydream from time to time about making it to Port Jervis and MP 89.2. But the true Southern Tier really doesn't start until you get West of Sparrowbush, NY and cross the river into Mill Rift, PA. I definitely think about No.2 Bridge and bragging rights to have traversed 3 different States. The idea of getting to Pennsylvania gets me very pumped to go the distance. The Southern Tier with, what, 50 miles of riverside running to Hancock, NY and another 40 to Binghamton, NY and that would be the Delaware Division. Imagine that! So, all you NJT/MNCRR guys out there so hot to go to PJ, its reachable. I just gotta get there. As an aside, and someone check me on this, I believe Hoboken to Port Jervis is the longest single seat commuter ride in the US ( no transfers). You would think some railroad simulator company would be interested in that. All you guys got is me unfortunately.

If someone was trying to get me to keep going - keep talking about the Southern Tier and the Delaware. Some of you might have to get your maps out to know what I am talking about. And at this point, as I have been treating you all like a friend who knows all these places, well, by this time, you should have gotten up to speed. Back to the Delaware and what it means to me. I have fished this river from Shohola to Matamoras. I've fished trout in Narrowsburg and Rio. I have caught Bass, Shad, Trout, Pickerel and Walleye Pike. I have swam across this river on a number of occasions, including at a landing a hundred feet to the south of old Number 2 bridge. I learned to shoot a rifle not 5 miles from that bridge and up North, on Holiday Lake in Sullivan county, ice fished for some big old Pickerel. I have driven up route 97 many times as far as Hancock, NY, and let me tell you this is some of the most gorgeous river valley in the country. And this all deep Erie Country.

So keep it up with your great coach sounds there Openrailer and keep talking about the Southern Tier, you never know what might happen.

[minerman146]

I had better get a move on, I am running out of Wednesday. So here it comes, the one, the only, the some what regular: Wednesday Route Update Report! But first lets talk railroad safety: Remember when picking up something on the ground, ALWAYS bend at the knees and in particular when an Erie man is behind you. That old saw reminds me of another one, a lady comes up to the station master and says " I need to get to Chicago in the worst way" The station master advised: " Well then, Miss, you need to take the Erie!"

So, lets get down to it.

Route Update Status for Friday.
( X ) no, but I am here all week, do try the veal and don't forget your waiter!
( ) Si su puede !

Another week has rolled on by. I have been busy and consistently working on the route. We left off a few posts ago, where I was talking about Revere Smelting in Middletown. So lets let you know what is going on. We are talking very custom stuff here. And we have been diligently folding, stapling and mutilating the building assets to create what will someday become a superfund site. But, as far as this here route is concerned this is one of a very few sites on the route that ships loaded cars. In battery recycling ( yes I do research this stuff) we get Polypropylene, Lead and sodium sulfate. I have a pretty good idea of what is going on with the site. The lead appears to get palletized and shipped by truck as satellite imagery only shows covered hoppers. This means we get plastic pellets and the sodium sulfate to ship out to Croxton. We even might be able to have some intra-route shipping action here too. (yes, I think about this stuff) This should be enough for me to justify all the darn detail work going on with the site. So lets go to some pictures and an explanation.

2001RevereSite.JPG

And the shot I took this morning - knowing I would be writing for 2 hours.

20190619081836_1.jpg

So if you compare this to the picture I posted a few days ago, you will see the North third of the site is now missing. Well, that's because the first picture is from 2016. As you may recall, I do have this weird what year is it thing going on and it do try to keep it 2001 as much as possible. (unless I need a consignee *See Montgomery, NY*) I thought describing this to you might be a bit interesting as RudiJaeger brought this up and got me yapping.
I am hoping that this shot will convey the multitude of parts that goes into a site like this and the hours and hours that goes into just one business. I always enjoy the end result, and even if your not a freight guy, it gives you something interesting to look at on your almost 2 hour journey to Hoboken!

Stay well and carry on!

[OpenRailer90]

OpenRailer - you hit the sweet spot in your post when you mentioned the "Southern Tier". I do daydream from time to time about making it to Port Jervis and MP 89.2. But the true Southern Tier really doesn't start until you get West of Sparrowbush, NY and cross the river into Mill Rift, PA. I definitely think about No.2 Bridge and bragging rights to have traversed 3 different States. The idea of getting to Pennsylvania gets me very pumped to go the distance. The Southern Tier with, what, 50 miles of riverside running to Hancock, NY and another 40 to Binghamton, NY and that would be the Delaware Division. Imagine that! So, all you NJT/MNCRR guys out there so hot to go to PJ, its reachable. I just gotta get there. As an aside, and someone check me on this, I believe Hoboken to Port Jervis is the longest single seat commuter ride in the US ( no transfers). You would think some railroad simulator company would be interested in that. All you guys got is me unfortunately.

So keep it up with your great coach sounds there Openrailer and keep talking about the Southern Tier, you never know what might happen.

Definitely one of the longest commuter rail lines, alongside the South Shore Line. MARC's Penn Line is pretty long as well. My Comet soundpack is a major WIP but nearing release as I'm improving the Quick Drive consists to include more variety in AI traffic, and some other new functions like user controllable HVAC plus more that'll be explained in the readme.

[Spin]

I haven't posted in awhile, but I have been enjoying the updates.

I've always wanted to visit the east end of the EL. Now I feel like have.

I don't know what else to say. The realism is like nothing I have seen. And to do it without custom anything...

[minerman146]

Spin, I miss you posting here. But you are very busy with OVSrails, so I totally understand. Do check out Harlem Station, I added some mid-range scenery detail for you. Would you also be so kind, as to explain to folks here on the Bergen thread, about what your doing with scenarios on the Bergen and what they need to do to sign up for Ovsrails? I always plug your site, but I can't remember the process. Let me tell you, its guys like you, that I was deeply obligated to build the most realistic Erie trackage and scenery out there. I though this was only going to happen once and I put in everything I got and then some.

I love this:

I don't know what else to say. The realism is like nothing I have seen. And to do it without custom anything...

Well, it would be cool if someone could do a narrated YouTube video of the entire Bergen line that compares what is there to the real thing, both past and present. Bonus points for identifying what year I put in, and extra points and free beer for life by explaining what I am trying to do. I am not kidding! It means ALOT for me personally, when you guys look at the route deeply and pick out what is there and why. Its also a hoot when people see stuff that was there 30, 40 or 50 years ago when they lived here or were just passing through.

For me, well, its really weird living here and riding down the roads I put in and knowing each curve, each building, each swamp or farm or gas station. I purposely go down Otter Kill road more than I ever did, to see the Moodna. And when I am going down the Thruway (I87) from Harriman to the Tappan Zee, Im always checking to see if I missed something.

Spin - Someday you might drive these same roads because you too are so inspired. Trust me, you will not be disappointed when you can find your way around Orange and Bergen Counties because of the virtual version.