Smokebox: Promontory

[mrennie]

A few weeks ago I resumed work on the "Promontory" route.

It's just over 67 miles in length, mostly single track, and traverses the northern part of Utah, from Kelton (northwest of Great Salt Lake) to Corinne, northeast of Great Salt Lake. It passes through several depots along the way (Ten Mile, Monument, Lake, Rozel, Promontory Summit and Blue Creek). I've got enough information on them all to be able to model the route reasonably closely to represent how it looked in 1869, making good use of the assets I made for Cheyenne 1869. There will, of course, be plenty of new assets too. There are also some notable sights such as the "Big Fill" and the "Big Trestle", Monument Rock and the fringes of the Great Salt Lake, desert flats and some mountain ranges.

Here are some screenshots I took during a test run of the first 17 miles starting from just west of Kelton.

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I'm aiming to have it done in time for May 10th 2019 (the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike).

[JohnS]

WOW!!

[gtrtroger]

Excellent Stuff!!!!

[ozinoz]

That scenery is just

[RAILSOHIO]

I am thrilled you have decided to resume work on this route. Now comes the waiting.....

[mrennie]

Whirlwind at Promontory Summit.

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[ozinoz]

Just in time for the Promontory Golden Spike 150th celebrations...

Now, if UP can only get 4014 completed (of which I am VERY doubtful) it will be an eventful year in the US for rail activities.

[ZekTheKid]

Excellent work!

[mrennie]

DTG have published an article penned by Gary Dolzall.

https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/tra ... promontory

[gtrtroger]

Congrats on the announcement!

[mrennie]

There's another article from Gary, with more of his beautifully composed screenshots.

https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/tra ... 9GbQClWI6k

[mrennie]

Promontory Summit has arrived in the store!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/9672 ... 30bZv41Avk

Twin packs that combine the route with any one of the three 19th century locos (CPRR No. 60 "Jupiter", UPRR No. 119 or CPRR No. 82 "Buffalo"), with a very attractive overall saving, are also available:

https://store.dovetailgames.com/uk/prod ... jLlmZkJKgE

https://store.dovetailgames.com/uk/prod ... G8Pv26FO5w

https://store.dovetailgames.com/uk/prod ... _K4n9lQ8yo

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[FlyanDive]

I'm liking it so far! You did a really good job with the details, makes the vast expanse of the area come to life. So far I've finished the first scenario and I got halfway through the second before I had to call it for the night.

I sat my dad down at the computer a couple weeks ago (a retired railroader, Southern Pacific) on Dan's route and showed him the basics with the UP119. Once he got the hang of it he was quiet for a while concentrating. I later asked him what he thought and his response was, "This is f****** fantastic! Next time I want to try the 844!"

[mrennie]

I'm liking it so far! You did a really good job with the details, makes the vast expanse of the area come to life. So far I've finished the first scenario and I got halfway through the second before I had to call it for the night.

I sat my dad down at the computer a couple weeks ago (a retired railroader, Southern Pacific) on Dan's route and showed him the basics with the UP119. Once he got the hang of it he was quiet for a while concentrating. I later asked him what he thought and his response was, "This is f****** fantastic! Next time I want to try the 844!"

Thanks, I really appreciate the comments!

Can I ask you a favor? There are only three reviews so far on the route's Steam store page and one of those is negative ... somebody complaining that the scenery is "very boring" - I think they were expecting it to look like the Sierra Nevada, Weber Canyon or Echo Canyon, which are the "exciting" scenes prevalent in the A. J. Russell photos of the time, ignoring the beautiful and exciting (IMHO) scenes of the wetlands and marshes near Corinne, the track winding up the side of the eastern range of the Promontory mountains through cuts and across valleys, including the Big Trestle, the rocky dried up river beds, the magnificent vistas from the western ranges across Great Salt Lake, the vast expanses of the Salt Desert, etc. So, perhaps you could add a review to give more weight to the route's positive score :)

[buzz456]

Done. And I meant every word of it. This is a awesome work.