New US Route

[Chessie8638]

RCS handing out "hints" on facebook.







Rolling Hills (Windows XP Bliss.jpg haha).
Beans. (Looks like Southwestern variety).
Cowboy (West and Southwestern).

[micaelcorleone]

Must be the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.

Rolling Hills ---> Great Plains/High Plains with rolling grass hills can be found in Wyoming
Beans ---> there are pinto beans in the picture; pinto beans are an important agricultural product of Wyoming
Cowboy ---> nickname of Wyoming: "Cowboy State"

Ladies and Gentlemen, that's it. I commit myself to the Powder River Basin.
There are both BNSF and UP operating gigantic coal unit trains on a tripple track mainline, hauling coal from the various mines: Coal Trains of the Powder River Basin

[XDriver]

Heck. I was going to call it the Plain Bean Cowboy Route.

[AdmiralLeviathan]

Hmm. . . plenty of rolling hills in Texas. They guy in the picture is wearing Texas Attire (People DID wear stuff like that where I used to live) and fits the stereotypical "Cowboy Tom" ideal.

The beans are odd. I found this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Bean,_Texas after looking up "Beans found in Texas". Tom Bean was a railroad town, according to the article.
It's a bit too far north to be served by TRE, but could it possibly be set in the 19th century? That'd be interesting. Of course, the commuter railroads being liked are probably done so to throw us off the trail, it could be modern (I'm pretty sure UP still serves there).

[AdmiralLeviathan]

You know what, I thought Texas too, Maybe they just mean Texas in general. What modern commuters run through Texas?

Trinity Railways Express does, which is not one of the pages that RSC liked, but they DID like Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART).

http://www.trinityrailwayexpress.org/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Railway_Express

It only serves the DFW area, though. So it can't go as far as Tom Bean.

[Chessie8638]

I think I got it. There's another route in Wyoming, that's more famous then the Powder River Basin.

Hints:

Has to do with Union Pacific.
Takes a name of a US General.
Was part of the Transcontinental Railroad.
The biggest Steam and Diesel locomotives ever built ran over it.

Give up?



Sherman Hill!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWnUgWl8QSk

It all adds up.

The green rolling hills (see video).
The beans like micaelcorleone said.
One of the states symbols is a Cowboy on a bucking horse. Also the guy pictured is C.J.Box who is a Wyoming author.

[AdmiralLeviathan]

Sherman Hill!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWnUgWl8QSk

Well, they did release a Bigboy, a Centennial and a Challenger a while back. . . it wouldn't surprise me. It would be nice if they made a gas turbine to go along with it.

[Chessie8638]

Big Boy, Challenger, DD40X, a Turbine would complete the [U]nlimited [P]ower.

[gleno747]

They did have that pole a few weeks back of what locomotive to produce next, and the Gas Turbine was in that pole and so was the SD75 I think.

[longbow]

It's Wyoming for sure, so Sherman Hill is a safe bet. Fire up those Big Boys!

[glenn68]

Probably the powder river basin.
Oh for Texas, There is not much green down here, I live in Central Texas.
Glenn

[railbard]

I don't like to disagree with Marc because I love the ScaleRail products, but Castle Rock is not "midwest" nor even "middle". It's West, albeit the easternmost extremity of the West.

So we don't actually have any midwestern routes, nor southern routes for that matter (though SMM's Atlanta Div is of "official" quality in my opinion).

I've toyed with the idea of doing ATSF from Streator to Galesburg, IL, with the famous Edelstein Hill (old stomping grounds). If set even as late as the 1960s it would have a nice selection of passenger service as well as freight. Unfortunately my route design skills are still rudimentary.

The old CBQ or BN from Aurora to Galesburg would also be a good choice, or Aurora to East Dubuque (with the CNW/UP crossing at Rochelle). Or Galesburg to West Quincy with the lines off to St Louis, KC, and southeast Iowa at the Quincy end and the lines to Burlington, Peoria, Quad Cities and Chicago, and the massive yard, at the Galesburg end.

For the truly insane, move up to the BNSF era and combine all those routes above!

And for commuter fans, how about the BN/CBQ triple-track from Union Station out to Aurora?

UP across Nebraska would also be good, though flat--it would be the frequency and tonnage of trains that would make that fun.

I'm a fount of ideas without any skills to make them happen.

[eyein12]

I don't like to disagree with Marc because I love the ScaleRail products, but Castle Rock is not "midwest" nor even "middle". It's West, albeit the easternmost extremity of the West.

So we don't actually have any midwestern routes, nor southern routes for that matter (though SMM's Atlanta Div is of "official" quality in my opinion).

I've toyed with the idea of doing ATSF from Streator to Galesburg, IL, with the famous Edelstein Hill (old stomping grounds). If set even as late as the 1960s it would have a nice selection of passenger service as well as freight. Unfortunately my route design skills are still rudimentary.

The old CBQ or BN from Aurora to Galesburg would also be a good choice, or Aurora to East Dubuque (with the CNW/UP crossing at Rochelle). Or Galesburg to West Quincy with the lines off to St Louis, KC, and southeast Iowa at the Quincy end and the lines to Burlington, Peoria, Quad Cities and Chicago, and the massive yard, at the Galesburg end.

For the truly insane, move up to the BNSF era and combine all those routes above!

And for commuter fans, how about the BN/CBQ triple-track from Union Station out to Aurora?

UP across Nebraska would also be good, though flat--it would be the frequency and tonnage of trains that would make that fun.

I'm a fount of ideas without any skills to make them happen.

we have a midwest route. the Soo Line i did is from davenport IA to Clinton IA. its modelled exactly prototypical for the region. and all assets are the real deal! cant get any more midwest than that.

[AdmiralLeviathan]

Oh for Texas, There is not much green down here, I live in Central Texas.
Glenn

When it's not too hot, the grass got pretty green in North Texas. The areas around TRE were mostly suburban though, with scattered industries so I'm starting to think it's something else as well. I'll definitely be happy if it's Sherman Hill, because our big steamers need a place to stretch their legs.

[Rich_S]

Maybe it's the C&NW's "Cowboy Line"?

http://youtu.be/i0ox7YRBNTc