New York Division-Bergen Line - Part Deux!

[NStrains]

Ill be checking this out here very shortly. Excited to see the update!

[minerman146]

Ill be checking this out here very shortly. Excited to see the update!

NS - I don't know if will be spectacular - but I have to say, I am getting better doing the "cuts". Were are still roughly the same distance away from CH, just with more scenery items and track. I am looking forward to getting back to working the route on Sunday. West of East Rutherford on the 40mph curve should now look different. This is the precursor to the work at Carlton Hill. It is very raw down there!

Best,
MM

[minerman146]

Route Progress Report

Were moving, but really slow. My job has finally caught up to my free time and its taking its toll. The lesson here is that if you have a full time job, a wife and family to take care of and you are on a personal mission to breathe life into a pixelated representation of your memories - eventually something has to give. Its the pixelated representation that is going to take the hit (its the right thing to do). For those of you lurkers who actually read my daily work reports on Steam ... you can see the impact. Production time is way down! Its breaking my heart that I have to dial back on the route. I knew this was going to happen, it was just when it was going to happen that I didn't know. I am fully committed to this project and if I get 15 minutes in ... I will do it and log it. But, I will not stop until I can and in a way that will make sense. But this time is now at hand.

With that said, I want to cover some territory and ask you folks a few questions. Look, I am not a 'simmer' and I have a life outside of route building, just like you guys do. We play with our trains to relax and stimulate some parts of our brain we don't get to do every day... and yeah we like it. I am telling a story with this work and I am going to make sure that it gets told. My problem is I cant make you read it, or understand, because first you must realize one is being told and then be receptive to it. I know that some of you get it. And I cant expect everyone to type out that they get it in a way this is clear in under 500 words. I think that is the truth.

From my last report, I told you I am about 2 miles from Campbell Hall, NY. I am slowly grinding my way to my target. But there is this farm on Shea Road it has cows and what looks like sheep or goats, I gotta put that in. Yep, you can see it from the train and it has been there for ages. I bet in early Winter my Grandfather could have seen those animals as he hauled a drag past there in the 1940's. Think about what I just said. Know this, when I am laying rail out for as far and for as long as I have, I am covering the same rail, the very same rail, that people I love and loved so much rode on. What an amazing connection to this route that I am so blessed to have. It is an honor to recreate it and present that to all of you. I owe you all a debt of gratitude not just for reading my expositions but for patiently waiting to see where this will end. This concludes the territory I wanted to cover, so on to the questions.

Before I started on the route, as an observant person, I read a bit about what people had to say about what there were looking for in a route. I latched on to the negatives: Too much DLC!, Not enough detail! It doesn't look like the place! Where is the Aussie Route? Lag! But there were some positives I saw too: Switching! Prototype! Long Runs! and so on. My vision for the Bergen for you was this: you would be able to recreate point to point traffic in an immersive setting so you could experience rail road operations. And you could run tricks just like they did, well, just like my Dad did. This is why I must get to another terminus and this is why I have chased down every consignee I can on this line.

I have heard, rather read, many many lines of text about guys like you running scenarios and free roaming switching runs on Workshop routes. You love them! Now I know you guys like it on 15 mile routes, but how about a 65 mile long route? When I am done, there will be over 65 customers on 65 miles of main line running. I had hoped I would have seen the switching scenarios being developed for the Croxton Ordinary, but only one is out there and that one was included with the "EMD GP35 "Pennsy" pack Add-On" by Travel By Train. I have only seen point to point freight and passenger runs developed for the Croxton Ordinary. This I don't understand. There are 49 consignees on the Ordinary and not one switching scenario. I put together an operations manual to give some guidance and I it doesn't appear to have been used yet. Don't think I am deterred, I will complete what I set out to do. The question is: Is there any interest in replicating/simulating operations on the New York Division? And if so, what do you need from me to make that happen?

I built this awesome thing to be used!

Thanks for your attention.

Regards,
MM

[NStrains]

I can only speak for myself, but as soon as the route is finalized for good and no more updates are to be done, I will finally setup my own personal free roam switching scenarios. It's hard to do that with the updates since a lot of times the route has to be deleted and reinstalled to get a clean update.

The stories, I'm sure, are enjoyed by all of us who are more than just sim fans but are also railroad and history fans as well. I think anyone who has every been apart of this section of steel and wood from past to present, would be excited, honored, and amazed at the job you have done!

[Overshoe]

I don't post a lot and I know I haven't said 'Thank You' enough for this route. I have read every word in this and the previous thread and I have enjoyed your stories of the line as much as I have enjoyed driving on the best US route in existence. I don't make scenarios, in fact I seldom actually run scenarios. I'm a quick drive junky who occasionally dabbles in Free Roam. As NStrains hinted, the Free Roams usually have a short lifespan but they let me look at the nooks and crannies of the route. When you announce that you are finished, I'll probably do some custom quick drives and free roams and just lose myself on the branches and in the yards. Meanwhile, whatever you have given us and whatever you give us in the future is a magnificent gift of history and railroading. Thank you.

One more thing... This isn't prototype railroading but since I live alone and answer to nobody, I bring my dinner to the computer desk and do a low speed mainline QD run from the external view just to enjoy all those trees (and those beautiful wetlands) while I'm eating.

[imphantum]

Minerman,

I cannot thank you enough for this route, and it is one of the only routes that I open my train simulator to play anymore. One thing I can tell you is that I used to drive into suffern on I-87 as a kid, and look off to the right at the yard on the side of the road and wonder about what line I was looking at. Then as the railroad parallels the highway off to the left, I'd watch it as my parents drove and hoped for a train to come by. Now when I pass it, I know most of the stations and many of the nooks and crannies along the route!

I can also say that I'm waiting for the next "scenario builders" release of the Bergen to make any more scenarios, since I don't want them to become obsolete once the final version of the Bergen is out.

[buzz456]

I have had so much enjoyment just running around in QD or free roam that I never even gave it a thought about scenarios.

[minerman146]

NSTrains, imphantum, overshoe and buzz: Your responses cover how the route is used. So, its 50% free roam, 25% QD and 25% scenarios. I will get a poll going, which is simple enough. Anecdotally, I can say that having the Croxton Ordinary picked up users because the route was final. That alone appeared to be a major factor. Looking at the scenario subscriptions, it looks to be about 25% of the users end up on scenarios. I agree with Overshoe the quick drive junky. Frankly, I am a QD junky too! QDs are really an time inexpensive way for me to get people to cruise the route. I can enhance the QDs with instructions as I have done before to promote freight movement. I can do that easily pre-finalization. I picked up on this already, which is why there are so many QDs in the first place.

Regarding scenarios and the story: Here is an example of a preface for a scenario I have been working on:

Scenario Name: NY-74 16JUL1977 (MM001)

Conrail Train NY-74 is a merchandise run from Chicago to Croxton, a hold over from the Erie Lackawanna days. You are completing the last half of your run that started in Port Jervis, New York. You have been advised by Hoboken that HB3 heading west will have priority as it leaves Hillburn Yard. It is a hot and hazy July afternoon as you make your way East. Your ETA for Croxton is 1715HRS Eastern.

I based the scenario off of a photograph I saw of these two trains meeting near Hillburn. So from that, I got an idea what the consists looked like, then researched the weather, and then checked for passenger traffic from my time table. In the scenario, I have the fireman talking to you about the route, giving instructions, and I also replicate, in text, some of the radio traffic. I found it engaging, while you the player, may know very little about the route, I happen to know enough to add very plausible dialogue and traffic for you to experience. I may be able to tell some of my stories this way, by showing them to you. Those are my thoughts on the subject.

I hope to hear more of your thoughts as we move forward to the conclusion of this build.

*Route Update Report*
I checked and I clocked in about 4.5 hours this week. (sigh) As I am continuing the fill in the areas that have trees with track side detail, there simply is not enough done to warrant a release. Here is the farm I have been talking about. (no farm animals yet)

20170628000253_1.jpg

I am running out of time - I have to go to work....

This last shot I wanted to put a series of images up for the 3 year anniversary. This image is of Suffern I took before I even put the route on workshop, this is from April 9, 2014.

2014-04-09_00013.jpg

Have a great weekend fellas! Happy 4th!

[NStrains]

Even though I'm mostly a free roam and QD guy, I'm excited for the scenarios that you will be putting out for this! The fact that you have so much personal experience and history with this route should make for some very fun, exciting, and realistic scenarios! No one can say that they put in more time and effort on a route than you can, and I think that even goes for our 3rd party people and DTG themselves!!!

With that being said, Minerman you deserve some R&R and I hope you let yourself take a break and enjoy the 4th of July holiday coming up.

[ET44C4]

Even though I'm mostly a free roam and QD guy, I'm excited for the scenarios that you will be putting out for this! The fact that you have so much personal experience and history with this route should make for some very fun, exciting, and realistic scenarios! No one can say that they put in more time and effort on a route than you can, and I think that even goes for our 3rd party people and DTG themselves!!!

With that being said, Minerman you deserve some R&R and I hope you let yourself take a break and enjoy the 4th of July holiday coming up.

+1

[minerman146]

Finally got my farm done....

20170630232840_1.jpg

[cheepskate24]

Phoebe Snow, on her way to Buffalo.

[NStrains]

Awesome shots!!! #2 is my favorite.

[cheepskate24]

Awesome shots!!! #2 is my favorite.

[minerman146]

Great Shots Cheapskate - hasn't been a run like that since ...well, 1968!
And ya got ALCo too