Thousand Islands Railway for TS2021

[Antwerp]

A possibly familiar MSTS route is coming to Train Simulator. At a paltry ~4.5 miles in length, this 1940s-1950s rendition of the Thousand Islands Railway takes the player north from Gananoque, Ontario, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, through forests and farms to the interchange at the Canadian National Railway's Montréal-Toronto mainline. Despite its small size, there is a lot to do in Gananoque. Running to and from the interchange, winding through city streets to serve mills and factories on the northern and southern ends of the city limits, these switching operations are sure to challenge any player.

UPDATED:
Unfortunately, the two locomotives used on the Thousand Islands Railway have not been created (or ported over from MSTS) for Train Simulator, so I have chosen to take an alternative direction for equipment. (Seeing as CN equipment for the era is also few and far between)

[THE CURRENT DIRECTION]

1.) Reskin the stations to have accurate names and treat the route as a small subsidiary of the RW&A.

[WILL SUPERSEDE CURRENT DIRECTION IF OPPURTUNITY COMES]

3.) Working towards modeling the two locomotives and combine or asking Paul Charland if the MSTS models could be ported over, reskinning the stations accordingly, and making this a strictly Thousand Islands Railway build.

If anybody would be interested in helping do the models, do get in touch.


Now for some WIP photos
Looking south on Mill Street in Gananoque.

20210721133056_1.jpg

What could this industry be?

20210721132230_1.jpg

Looking north from Victoria Street in Gananoque.

20210721132241_1.jpg

The Canadian National mainline just west of the original Gananoque Jct. station location.

20210715133753_1.jpg

The present location of Gananoque Jct. Station as seen from a farm.

20210714183124_1.jpg

[AmericanSteam]

The industry may be pickling company I know there are some pickle cars out there I think from the BLE.

[Fireexplorer249]

Very cool to see this route come to life in our side of the Train Sim spectrum! Looking forward to running it!

[buzz456]

The industry may be pickling company I know there are some pickle cars out there I think from the BLE.

And RWA I believe.

[Antwerp]

The industry may be pickling company I know there are some pickle cars out there I think from the BLE.

And RWA I believe.

I think it's a G-Trax RouteAsset, so it appears on just about anything they put together from the steam/early diesel era.

[AmericanSteam]

The industry may be pickling company I know there are some pickle cars out there I think from the BLE.

And RWA I believe.

I think it's a G-Trax RouteAsset, so it appears on just about anything they put together from the steam/early diesel era.

You may be right in Heinz sight.

[Antwerp]

The industry may be pickling company I know there are some pickle cars out there I think from the BLE.

And RWA I believe.

I think it's a G-Trax RouteAsset, so it appears on just about anything they put together from the steam/early diesel era.

You may be right in Heinz sight.

ce5fec0bf5768562381c77dc67600d93.jpg

[wopflyer]

I vote for option 3.

[Antwerp]

A small direction update a few days later.

After some consideration from a few DMs, PMs, and the like.

AT THIS MOMENT, for the time being, I am going to release the route under Option #1 due to a lack of prototype equipment and lack of ability to model them myself. (others I have consulted being too busy or uninterested)

Option #1: "Reskin the stations to have accurate names and treat the route as a small subsidiary of the RW&A."

HOWEVER, I am going ahead with Option #3 in the background.

Option #3: "Working towards modeling the two locomotives and combine or asking Paul Charland if the MSTS models could be ported over, reskinning the stations accordingly, and making this a strictly Thousand Islands Railway build."

UPDATE:
Mr. Charland has responded and conversions are green-lit! I will work on that post-haste.

Approval.jpg

I'll update y'all when I have an update, for now, have another picture.

20210722140218_1.jpg

[Antwerp]

So after a little less than 24 hours later, and with the great help of Paul Charland for providing the original meshes, and mikeadams2k for helping get them into Blender despite two of the models electing to be dumb and not play nice. TIR 500, CNR 77, and Combine #7206 are well on their way to being usable in Train Simulator.

CNR77.jpg

TIR500.jpg

Combine.jpg

[Antwerp]

The flag stop at the cemetery. Typically, passengers stopping here have the intent of returning home.

20210805212229_1.jpg

The pickle works has been replaced with a more historically accurate industry. A livestock loading pen.

20210805212040_1.jpg

St. Lawrence Oil & Supply

20210805212032_1.jpg

20210805212057_1.jpg

Steel Company of Canada from Water Street.

20210805212131_1.jpg

Equipment is still in the works. I've been vacationing and my current assistance getting them into the game has been a little busy with his own projects.

[CArailroader]

I’ve never played or heard of the original Thousand Islands railway until now. I can’t wait to run it in TS, I love me a good shortline operation.

[AmericanSteam]

Ah, pickled pigs feet. Good idea.

[Antwerp]

I’ve never played or heard of the original Thousand Islands railway until now. I can’t wait to run it in TS, I love me a good shortline operation.

Here's the At The Railyard review of Paul Charland's MSTS version. The two models for 500 and 77 are actually the same that will make it into TS (eventually when I figure it out)



It's a good enough introduction to the route.

Ah, pickled pigs feet. Good idea.

Sorry to quash any hope for the pickle works, that was a part of the route when I was still thinking of making it an RW&A spinoff route.

[Antwerp]

I guess an update is better way late than never.

I will preface this with the route is done! However, scenarios and locomotives are not.

When I started this route after my first semester in grad school, it began as a sandbox to practice scenery placement for my PRR Fort Wayne Line Route, so I did not lose any practice (shelved for the time, but I will hopefully return soon). Eventually, it morphed into what you see now—the Thousand Islands Railway. Unfortunately, the schoolwork has caught up with me in the six months. I have been working on no less than three museum exhibits; among them is one with the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, another is my capstone project. Another thing in the works has been a wholly original history book about an, until now, thoroughly unresearched history about some local history to my county.

I will see what I can do to get this released soon, but I can't make promises until maybe Mid-March at the soonest, Mid-April at the latest. By then, my capstone project will be done, the thing with Fort Wayne will be well underway, and my book will be in the process of being published.

Feel free to hold me to this, you guys. I don't mean to keep you hanging; I have lousy memory to issue updates.