The Strasburg Railroad 1920
Freeware Route Add-On for Train Simualtor 2020 and later.
Created by Jimmy Lambert (Fleegle411 or Fleegle475 on forums and/or Steam)


OVERVIEW:
The Strasburg Railroad is a shortline railroad connecting the towns of Strasburg and Paradise, Pennsylvania. The railroad was organized in 1832 when the Pennsylvania legislature granted the company a right-of-way. Strasburg, Pennsylvania had been a major transportation hub and a key stop on the Conestoga Wagon Trail before the coming of the railroads. The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad did not see fit to serve Strasburg however, and bypassed the town when it was built. Strasburg lost traffic and income. The townsfolk knew a rail connection was neccesary, and petitioned the state legislature to create a railroad company. Construction of the four mile mainline took several years, but the railroad began operation in the 1840s. At first, the railroad used a horse to move freight and passengers between Strasburg and the interchange with the P&C. In 1851, the railroad acquired its first steam locomotive. This was a William Norris Locomotive Works 4-2-0 named "William Penn." The railroad ran regular passenger service until the Conestoga Traction Company built a trolley line to Strasburg in 1901 and established a direct passenger service to the nearby city of Lancaster. From 1901 until 1918, the railroad continued to operate freight service as it always had. In 1918 the railroad and the Mill it served were both purchased by state senator John G. Homsher. The railroad would remain in Homsher family ownership into the 1950s. The early 1920s saw the railroad continue on as it always had, lugging freight as needed between Strasburg and the interchange at Leaman Place using a former Pennsylvania Railroad D3 class 4-4-0. In 1926, the steam locomotive was deemed to be too expensive and a gas-mechanical locomotive was purchased from the Plymouth Locomotive Works. This little Plymouth served as the railroad's sole motive power from 1926 to 1960. Very little changed on the Strasburg Railroad until 1957, when falling freight revenues, deteriorating track condition, and severe damage from a tropical storm forced the railroad to shut down and embargo was placed on all future freight shipments. The Homsher family began the process of officially abandoning the railroad and put it up for sale. A group of railfans, led by a Mr. Henry Long, raised the moeny and purchased the railroad with the intention of operating it as a hobby. They revived the railroad and hauled a couple carloads of freight to the mill a week. An experiment with a Saturday evening passenger train ride showed that the railroad could become solvent by offering tourist train rides. In 1960, former Canadian National 0-6-0 #7312 arrived on the property. Steam operations returned to the railroad that Labor Day weekend, and thus began the tourist operations the Strasburg Railroad is known for today.

This route is an attempt to re-create the railroad as it was around 1920. Reference material was hard to find, and I do not claim that the route is completely accurate. I have gotten the route as close as I can, however I have used some artistic liscense in places. While there are models of 4-4-0 steam locmotives available for TS2020, I was not able to find one that met the needs for this route (functional front coupler, knuckle coupler equipped, etc) so I used the 0-6-0 from the Bessemer & Lake Erie route. While to my knowledge the Strasburg Railroad did not own an 0-6-0 until 1960, I have heard talk of old Pennsylvania Railroad A series 0-4-0s being used at one point in time. Information on exactly how the railroad ran in the 20s is almost non-existant, so I projected my best guesses at the railroad's operating procedures into the scenarios. The route includes 8 standard scenarions (some of which are 2-part) and Quick Drive scenarios.


REQUIRED ADD-ONS:

ROUTE:
Bessemer & Lake Erie (About 98% of the assets used in the route come from the B&LE.***)
Horseshoe Curve (Some buildings and scenery)
US Loco & Asset Pack (Some bridges and a couple buildings)

The scenarios require some stock beyond what is included above.

Scenarios:
PRR K4 Add-On
PRR Coaches; BA, OD, & PD (Freeware, from http://www.golden-age-rails.com/)*


INSTALLATION:

Install any add-ons you are missing from the list above

Unzip this .zip archive to any location you like on your computer.

Open Utilities.exe in your Railworks folder.** You may be asked if you want to allow Utilites to make changes to your computer, select "Yes."

Go to the "Package Manager" tab.

Press "Refresh"

Once that process completes, click "Install."

Navigate to the unzipped folder.

Select "Strasburg1920Route.rwp"

Utilities will then install the route.

Once it finishes, close Utilities. The route should now be ready to run!


CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Thanks to Rick Grout and the G-Trax crew, without whose assets this route would not exist.

Thanks also to the Penn Pilot Photo Center (http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/) and Historic Aerials (www.historicaerials.com), whose vintage aerial photographs and topographical maps were indispensible in the creation of the route and determing what buildings were and were not built in the model year.


DISCLAIMER:
This archive contains user-generated content for DTG's Train Simulator 2020. DTG is not obligated to support it. Provided as-is. Use at your own risk. I assume no liability for any loss of any kind that arises directly or indirectly from the use of this archive or the contents thereof.


NOTES:
*At the time of release, the PRR coaches could be found at this URL: http://www.golden-age-rails.com/packsrw/prrpax.html

**To access your Railworks folder:

Through Steam: Right-click on Train Simulator in your Library list, Click "Properties," Click the "Local Files" tab, and then click "Browse Local Files." A Windows Explorer window will open to the Railworks Folder.

Through Windows Explorer: Open Windows Explorer, Navigate to your steam folder (by default, it will be C:ProgramFiles(X86)/Steam). From there, The path to the Railworks folder will be Steam/steamapps/common/Railworks.

*** At the time of this release, the Bessemer & Lake Erie is unavailable due to copyright issues. It may be re-released under a different name, such as "Pennsylvania Steam." I will keep an eye on the situation and once it is sorted, I will look into whether or not any patch is needed or possible on my part to keep this route current.