DKSSpeed - The one thing that gets me excited is any sort of interest in the route. So, I am happy to answer any and all questions. And this one is a good one:
I just need to know what RRs operate on the route, where, and how far.
let me preface by saying that if we ran the modern era (today) full on real, we would be running in the dark most of the time with freight. So, I mixed in eras to generate as much 'work" as possible in the case of scenarios. So on to your question. The first thing you need is The Operations Guide here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DCtR ... PrHlxbdm-A There are 3 sections: The first is basic rules lifted from a Time Table from 1974, the second is a list of every consignee and shipper on the line and includes, car type, cargo, frequency of delivery. origin and destination, the last is the Scenario Builders, section. This includes where to find the preloaded rolling stock for each DLC used in the route, how to use the way point markers for pathing, I reiterate the basic operating rules and then finish off with labeled maps of yards, branches and list the consignees. What I dont specifically tell you is what RR runs where!
Railroads not on your list: Erie, Erie Lackawanna ,Conrail. Railroads not on your list with under 5 miles of represented track: New Haven, New York Central, Penn Central, Lehigh and Hudson River, and the Lehigh and New England.
What runs where:
NYS&W - Mill Rift PA to Port Jervis to Hudson Junction (East of Campbell Hall), Passaic, NJ at Passaic Junction (runs N to S) In Hawthorne NJ running OVER the mainline and interchanging just South of Hawthorn. Diverted NYS&W trains ran from Mill Rift/Port Jervis to Passaic Junction.
M&NJ - Middletown to Campbell Hall, Campbell Hall to Hudson Junction, Campbell Hall to Maybrook and Campbell Hall to Walden
NYC - Walden to Montgomery
NYH&NH and Penn Central - Maybrook
LNE and LHR - South of Maybrook to Maybrook
Contrail - the Entire Line
It depends on what year you are doing, which I cover in the Guide.
Lastly, as far as dead on nailing the time and place and consists, I never envisioned the route to be locked into to real life. It is just a nice to have.
If you are making a workshop scenario - do reference the route and put the keyword "BERGEN" somewhere in the description. This will assist people finding your scenario. I do drive them all and write nice things about what I experienced with your work.
Carry on!
"In business, I prefer to keep company with honest men, so I ship on the Erie"
minerman146 wrote:DKSSpeed - The one thing that gets me excited is any sort of interest in the route. So, I am happy to answer any and all questions. And this one is a good one:
I just need to know what RRs operate on the route, where, and how far.
let me preface by saying that if we ran the modern era (today) full on real, we would be running in the dark most of the time with freight. So, I mixed in eras to generate as much 'work" as possible in the case of scenarios. So on to your question. The first thing you need is The Operations Guide here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DCtR ... PrHlxbdm-A There are 3 sections: The first is basic rules lifted from a Time Table from 1974, the second is a list of every consignee and shipper on the line and includes, car type, cargo, frequency of delivery. origin and destination, the last is the Scenario Builders, section. This includes where to find the preloaded rolling stock for each DLC used in the route, how to use the way point markers for pathing, I reiterate the basic operating rules and then finish off with labeled maps of yards, branches and list the consignees. What I dont specifically tell you is what RR runs where!
Railroads not on your list: Erie, Erie Lackawanna ,Conrail. Railroads not on your list with under 5 miles of represented track: New Haven, New York Central, Penn Central, Lehigh and Hudson River, and the Lehigh and New England.
What runs where:
NYS&W - Mill Rift PA to Port Jervis to Hudson Junction (East of Campbell Hall), Passaic, NJ at Passaic Junction (runs N to S) In Hawthorne NJ running OVER the mainline and interchanging just South of Hawthorn. Diverted NYS&W trains ran from Mill Rift/Port Jervis to Passaic Junction.
M&NJ - Middletown to Campbell Hall, Campbell Hall to Hudson Junction, Campbell Hall to Maybrook and Campbell Hall to Walden
NYC - Walden to Montgomery
NYH&NH and Penn Central - Maybrook
LNE and LHR - South of Maybrook to Maybrook
Contrail - the Entire Line
It depends on what year you are doing, which I cover in the Guide.
Lastly, as far as dead on nailing the time and place and consists, I never envisioned the route to be locked into to real life. It is just a nice to have.
If you are making a workshop scenario - do reference the route and put the keyword "BERGEN" somewhere in the description. This will assist people finding your scenario. I do drive them all and write nice things about what I experienced with your work.
Carry on!
Thank you so much! This helps a lot. I will mostly be using NS power since a lot of the listed RRs don't exist in Train Sim yet.
Thank you so much! This helps a lot. I will mostly be using NS power since a lot of the listed RRs don't exist in Train Sim yet.
That works. Minerman I'm sure will correct me if I'm wrong here, but NS continued to operate all of the Conrail jobs they picked up on the line for a while before they widdled away at them. That even includes the OIBU/BUOI for a brief period in the late 90s. So running full sized NS-led freights out of Croxton all the way to Port Jervis/Mill Rift or vice versa would indeed be 'canon'. You could run NS locals out of Suffern/Hillburn and Croxton, and run mid-size trains between Croxton and Campbell Hall if you wanna keep it modern.
You are correct CG. I have vague memories of through trains going down the "Southern Tier" from Binghamton to Croxton in the early 90s.. until that just about dried up except for the Suzy Q.
Let's say the frieght yards in Port Jervis got torn up by '99. After the CR sale ...heck yeah NS ran all the branches and spurs.
"In business, I prefer to keep company with honest men, so I ship on the Erie"
This is it. The one, the only and the legend that is the Wednesday Route Report and Update Status for this Friday, October 15th, 2021.
Update status? Dang skippy yer gettin another status. Let' bang it out
And our route update status which never gets old:
[ ] Henry the 8th [ ] Sure had trouble [ ] Short term wives [ ] Long term stubble [ X ] Burma Shave. (and the route is done)
Ya know, there was just something exciting about doing these posts while working on the route. Like anticipation, the kind where ya get the first button on a blouse undone. You know what I am talking about!
As you know, on this irreverent thread we like to talk about booze. Yes, while its true I like 7 ounce Martinis, you also know I am the resident Bourbon Drinker ( Bulliet). Try to wrap your brain around this concoction. For those of you familiar with a Mojito - a rum, mint leaves and lime juice. Swap out the rum for bourbon and ya got yourself something refreshing and bourbon(y). This can work. And it should for those of you familiar with mint julips. While I never recommend mixing anything with fine Bourbon, I invoke the "200" rule. After accounting for 200 neat bourbons, one has the right to have a mixer with Bourbon. So don't be shy and show what a wild guy you are to your spouse by 'mixing it up' from your usual with a mixed drink. Ask for a Bourbon Mojito - have one for the ole Minerman!
Speaking of drinking ... It's time to recognize the official beer of the Bergen Line: Pabst Blue Ribbon. So here is Dirty Dice out of Tucson, Arizona banging it out! (and hooters too)
And for a bonus video ( Not Suitable for Work! ) and a quick story. My old man likes Hieneken, his old man drank Pabst. As for me I do whatever David Lynch and Dennis Hopper tell me to like and thats PBR baby.
NSFW ! https://youtu.be/3Sm8JM-K1dc ( I wish, wish, wish I could see the expession on my Dad's face!) And Isabella Rosselini is hawt.
And another story. Finally, I have gotten my head together (Norfolk Southern - you still suck) to tell Bergen releated anectdotes. This one is about my last train ride. And it all ties in. Which is why I tell these stories. So, it's 1992 and I realize that everyone is getting old and time is short for me to get just one more cab ride in. There are two guys left I know, 1 is my second cousin, who is my Dad's age and the other I did some stone work for and his Dad ran the bad order shop in Sparrowbush up at yard C. I make a call and lo and behold, I get a line on a job with these 2 guys working the dead shift in Patterson, NJ. We meet up at the Suffern Yard office and take a 'Jitney', which was basically a big old Chevy van with with 3 bench seats. So, this is an 8 hour job in the middle of the night, I packed all kinds of crap. Sandwich, Coffee, peanuts and a banana. I got my boots on, a jacket and 3 packs of cigarettes and Im ready for anything. We get down in freaking Patterson. I think they still shot at trains then. Let's just say its a hot mess down there with the crime and we got a full yard and 30 cars to move around. All night long - up and down, up and down, bang, hook up another one and move it out. Switch here, switch there. And some point in the night they tell me to take it... and I am NOT an engineer. All I know is watching the old man, who they all know by the way. So, I am sitting there stone cold in a GP38-2, dangling a Marlboro outta my pie hole like a moron. Guy on on the radio says ...alright come on back. Im looking out the window in the freaking dark, pull the reverser and a way we go. I gotta hook up to a string a cars, and I DO NOT know what I am doing. We rolling and I can see the dark shadow of a car getting closer. The guy on the radio is like let get it set. I through it in .. ahhh neutral, ya know in between forward and reverse and then put on a nice "shooosssh" of air. I see the car I'm supposed to couple to. And I don't know where this came from ... I give the air another little shot ... just a kiss, right before impact. Then I hear just a click when we couple. The brakeman gets on the radio says ... Who is in the cab? My cousin says that's (minerman's dad) son. Brakeman is like - really? That was a perfect couple it looked like somebody who knows what they are doing and not any of you guys and that's why I asked.
You know, some people are just naturals like my old man "king of the air brake". I knew right then I could have been an engineer... Wife woulda killed me, so no. So that's my Patterson story. And yeah I wanted to put that in the route so bad, and pussed out because of the MASSIVE amount of buildings I would have needed to do.
This is just a great example of how personal doing this route was for me. I tried really hard to find a way to give that first had experience to you guys.
My Dad says, the route is nothing like the real thing - its too clean! So, true Dad, so true.
Let's call it a night. Carry on.
"In business, I prefer to keep company with honest men, so I ship on the Erie"
Welp..... After a long fight with the dern scenario editor and 4 bottles of alcohol (Need more for part 2) I finally was able to get a decent scenario published. I REALLY wish DTG made the editor a lot more simple and not too bug ridden and complex . Now I remember why I got so many unfinished scenarios
Back on topic..... here's a link for it. If this isn't the place for me please let me know.
DkSspeed this totally is the place to announce scenarios and talk about alcohol! Thank YOU, for putting the time in for this scenario! * Question: did you use the operations guide and if so was it useful?
"In business, I prefer to keep company with honest men, so I ship on the Erie"
minerman146 wrote:DkSspeed this totally is the place to announce scenarios and talk about alcohol! Thank YOU, for putting the time in for this scenario! * Question: did you use the operations guide and if so was it useful?
I actually did! It help to know how many cars go into each industry. I will be reading it more and learning it. I envisioned a lot of scenarios IF scenario editor want to actually work for once.
Are you ready for the Wednesday Route Report and Update Status for this Friday, October 22nd, 2021? I bet you are!
And update status that is still faster than it would take you to count all the container ships off the coast of Los Angeles:
[ ] Shelves are bare [ ] Gas is too high [ ] Let's go Brandon! [ X ] C'mon man, the science says this route is done!
This week I am pleased to report that I went up to the office and drove a darn train. The last couple of times I take the Croxton-Port Jervis QD with DieselWorkshop's ALCO RS-3 and build myself a train with all the stock that is down there and drive it to Suffern. I miss my route. And its still fun.
A few days ago, I was talking to the old man about things. He pointed out that I've been pretty quiet about the route. Remember, its been just about 4 months since I put the last tree in. If memory serves, it was telegraph poles that were the last thing I was working on. 100 miles of poles - I am a nut. So we were talking and he says " I hope you got everything out of this you wanted" Other than the weasely, weasles of weaseldom - I did. The old man goes on " they (DTG) don't know what they have here with your route. I don't think they could come close to what you did". I tell the old man all the effort was therapy for my mad-house job and it worked. We just start talking about the railroad, and the collapse of North East railroads, and business and how fast it all changed after he left in '78. He said the days you days where you could get a train close to your house was gone - with Conrail you had to report to Harrisburg or Albany and if you didn't like it, you could go looking for another job. He mentioned something else - they (engineers) were given a 'choice' of where they could work: NJ Transit or Contrail, passenger or freight. And then you would spend the remainder of your career doing just that. This may strike you as odd these days. Back in the EL days engineers drove it all. So, you had highly experienced engineers driving passenger, locals, long haul - wherever you fell in on the ready board.
Bear with me as it will take me months and months to get all the little stories out about my relationship with the route itself and how I visualized the route and made it what it is. When I started working out how to do the right of way, it was looking wrong. That wrong is that, the Erie had a 90 foot right of way. When I was riding with Dad, you would see all the cuts as the trees were cut back 30 foot on each side of the track. Working on the route, and looking at imagery the trees were up really close the track. I thought what the heck happened. Now it wasn't just 40 years of growth, well, it was, I figured out that real railroads maintain the track and the right of way. (if they're out of money not so much with the track) Today you get trees falling on the track. So, it was yet one of those time continuity issues with the route - do I cut back the growth, leave it close to the track or what? I matched what I could see with current imagery. In my historical areas and in particular Carlton Hill, I went to any pre 1976 photos and imagery and ran with that. Countless hours were spent comparing photographs to what I was working on. I was trying to get fidelity everywhere. I wasn't completely satisfied as I compromised by going modern and then dialing back where I thought I could pull it off. In the end, a full and accurate period route, would have added a lot of time to the project. For the record, there are still visible telegraph poles running along the track West of Suffern today. And NS and NJT do not maintain, at all, that right of way like the Erie did. They do splurge with the signals so there is that.
That's all I can bang out for this week. Until next time...
Carry on.
"In business, I prefer to keep company with honest men, so I ship on the Erie"
minerman146 wrote:Back in the EL days engineers drove it all. So, you had highly experienced engineers driving passenger, locals, long haul - wherever you fell in on the ready board.
It was like that on the Southern Pacific peninsula commutes (San Francisco to San Jose). My ex's dad worked the engineer pool back in the mid 70's. When he wasn't running commutes, he was working locals or one of the yard jobs. Whoever was next up got the job... whatever that job might have been.
Here we go! It's the Wednesday Route Report and Update Status for this Friday, October 29th, 2021
Another week another mile. Remember those days?
This week's status:
[ ] Dog ate my homework! [ ] Wife says it's her or the route! [ ] FBI took my computer, I was looking at a Lego set of the Capital on Amazon! [ X ] Ya got me, it's done!
I was trying to come up with something snarky this week in the guise of a theme song for DTG's very serious licensing meetings...
You know I like live cuts and I came up with Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph & Floyd Cramer playing Yakety Something on the Jimmy Dean Show.
Do check out Floyd Cramer for some early 1960's Country if you are so inclined. It's good Bourbon music.
On to this week's news. This week we got part 2 of DKSspeed's Out of Campbell Hall Scenario. Looking good sir! I always like to check up on what is goin on with route now that it is in all of your capable hands. Scenarios was always part of the grand plan and I love them all. And in other news the Bergen has 3,600 Current Subscribers - all men of excellent taste and well received by the ladies I'm sure. Was it worth it? Oh, yeah.
In my spare time, which I have a shiite ton of now, I spend my time reminiscing about the route. I listened to a great deal of music for inspiration, mediation and remembrance. Some songs just remind me of the tough slogs of mile after mile of just desperation to finish and the inspiration I got to keep going. Now here we are. It is just amazing all it. I don't want to forget doing this report each week for years and how this kept me on a schedule, a routine, to keep producing. So, far I haven't got back to the office to try my hand and a scenario, when the time is right for me, I'll go and do it.
I am focused on my new job and I am very happy there, which is what I wanted. More specifically I wanted to be in a place that made things. The story about this job starts way back in 2008 when I was an independent IT contractor. There was a place that made rail car interiors. They work with names you might know. And many of those cars are in the game too. I kept this company on as a side gig for my full time job. But when I became manager, I just ran out of time to do them and let it go. When I gave up the account, they always said to look them up If I needed a job. So back in May I reached out to them and in four hours had an offer letter. And on June 1, I started. It is a hoot to see all the blue prints and watch the components being put together. Next time you guys are in Manhattan on the subway, you are walking or leaning on some of our stuff.
So, I got my railroad job in a way. It's all good man.
Carry on.
"In business, I prefer to keep company with honest men, so I ship on the Erie"
Hey Minerman, It's been a while! I lost the name "goddrauG" so I resorted to this.
I wanted to wish you a hearty congratulations on the route. I reinstalled the sim about a month ago and played on your stuff, immediately remembering why I held your comments on things like the Thurmont and Branford in such high regards (and still do). Your work has been an inspiration and your dedication is more than anything I could even hope to have. Thanks for all you've done.
I've dipped into your progress over the years (I've been a slave to Railworks addiction for ten years now...) and your Bergen Line has been a continuing source of delight. You may have been mad to have started work on it - and barking mad to have stuck with it through the years - but the result of your magnificent mania is a truly wonderful creation. RESPECT!
Accept no cheap substitute! This is the renowned Wednesday Route Report and Update Status for this Friday, November 5th, 2021.
Let's check out the the update status for this week.
[ ] Waiting for EL logos [ ] Waiting for a feature on Workshop Wednesday [ ] Waiting for Godot [ X ] But you guys don't have to wait for the route to be done.
I generally do this post cold, on Wednesday with some prep on the way home thinking about what will be covered. With route building done, I don't have that to cover. Which is a shame, because, the building is where all my little memories come from. What I was thinking about was Croxton again. As I lurk everywhere looking for extemporaneous comments about the route. There was a few comments about Out of Memory errors in Croxton. Which is not a surprise. For example, each custom tractor trailer is 3 parts ( a water truck, a container and a pipe support) My kit bashed buildings might have 4 to 6 other buildings and other stuff added to it. I was very aware of the fps cost. To top it all off, I made it so you can see Manhattan from Croxton. Suffice to say there is a lot to load. My benchmark is to run in quick drives with a train and whatever rolling stock I had in the yard. Now, the Croxton QD is like 15 % loaded. I do get stutter running 3 SD-40s and 60 cars. But I am running Sherman Hill stock. What happens is some poor guy runs some awesome Searchlight stock and their diesels and that is going to hurt at some point. My point is I traded off jamming trains all over the place for the scenery. In my opinion, the route handles passenger AI pretty well, which I can see in scenarios I have run. Depending on how a scenario is constructed for Croxton, with static consists, stock everywhere or going a bit thin, you could increase your likelihood of an Out of Memory. Of note and I noted it myself, DTG itself has thin scenery to allow for better frame performance, which makes sense. I decided to push the darn envelope.
After years of testing, with the SAME machine I started, which I never even upgraded the operating system to maintain a performance benchmark, I predicted that most people would upgrade at least once when I finally finished the route. I was correct.
Now look at the specs I have had to endure while building.
Dell Optiplex 380 Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5800 @ 3.20GHz 8GB of DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (2GB) Windows 7 Pro
I was so paranoid that I would destroy FPS by building with a faster machine, I kept it exactly the same for 7 years. And let me tell you, I am SO SICK of 16 fps! Suffice to say, performance complaints about the route have dropped to zero for the past 4 years.
Lastly, I want to shout out goddrauG and wish him much success in his route building endeavors and for coming back after an absence. And one more to JohnM1945, yep I am nutz! And thank you sir.
Oop, one more thing. DTM is pushing out unbranded EL and CR SD45, I like that I can get this stuff into workshop, but no logo ... geez Louise it never ends.
And that reminds me to close out with this cut of Chris Farlowe doing Out Of Time for the pedantic weasels over at DTG who let me down.
You continue to amaze me. Not only have you made the best North American route ever, not only do you know good Whiskey. BUT you know who Chris Farlowe is. Cheers! and maximum respect!
. Now I remember why I got so many unfinished scenarios 
