PRR Fort Wayne Line: Crestline to Fort Wayne (1950s)

[RudiJaeger]

That's some impressive trackwork. Nicely done!

[gtrtroger]

What Rudi said......
I’ll be keeping an eye on this one for some Steam action....

[Antwerp]

That's some impressive trackwork. Nicely done!

What Rudi said......
I’ll be keeping an eye on this one for some Steam action....

It's nice to hear that I'm doing something impressive on this first attempt at a route build that isn't modifying another route.

Trackage is very near complete from Lima to Fort Wayne (Mostly in just Fort Wayne). All that remains in this section are:

- NKP West Wayne Yard (Completed late 2/9)
- GR&I industry tracks between Runnion and Park.
- NKP main through Fort Wayne (Could possibly leave out as it's not really relevant and not easily visible from the PRR)
- NKP+LE&FTW at Taylor Street south of Junction
- Wabash's yards near their station and the General Electric facility
- Industry leads and Freight Station in Lima
- B&O roundhouse facility north of NS.

Nothing east of Lima has been completed.

The hope is to have the route ready for a certain type of steam locomotive's completion (with no current completion time (it could possibly never be completed, who knows) and the route certainly doesn't have a completion date either). For now, K4s and first generation diesels will do.

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Here's an update of what's been done overnight.

Fort Wayne used to be where the PRR would build some steam locomotives, and was known as the PRR's 'Altoona of the West' for its vast facilities that stretched for about 4 miles. Some creative liberties were necessary for now due to game limitations on curves with the HSC track rule. If I can find a way to tighten the curves, I will. But for now, it works.

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The PRR and Wabash interchanged with one another between Winter St. and Gay St. in a small yard. The PRR used a former interurban's track as a method to route around the yard to this point.

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Looking east from the center of the yard toward the Westward and Eastward Receiving Yards.

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Looking west from present day Meyer Road (I believe it was called Linkers Rd. at one point, and the timetable places the signal at this location as Linker.) This is the beginning of Piqua Yard for westbound trains. The track curving east is the Fort Wayne Union Railway. I will go into greater detail about that next post.

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Looking east from Linker, a small section of the yard is on the eastward side. What this small section of yard was used for, I have not figured out at this time.

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[Bchristy07]

That's very exciting, excellent work so far! I'm playing around a large project right now.. Started as the Ashland RAilway from MAnsfield-Willard.. I'm planning trackwork on the CR Indy line from Galion-Wellington or possibly to Collinwood..We'll see.. Willard yard to east of greenwich. Pennsy from Bucyrus to just east of Mansfield.

[Antwerp]

That's very exciting, excellent work so far! I'm playing around a large project right now.. Started as the Ashland RAilway from MAnsfield-Willard.. I'm planning trackwork on the CR Indy line from Galion-Wellington or possibly to Collinwood..We'll see.. Willard yard to east of greenwich. Pennsy from Bucyrus to just east of Mansfield.

Cool.

I look forward to seeing what you produce.

[Antwerp]

As we conclude Phase 1a: Fort Wayne to Lima (NS) trackage, this post will be a two part post.

We've come a long way since January 8th. 99.9% of trackage is completed between Fort Wayne, IN and Lima, OH. Small bits may be put in during scenery placing, but we'll see.

Remember when I mentioned I'd explain the Fort Wayne Union? Well, it's not much of an operation in the grand scheme of things. The Nickel Plate, Wabash, and PRR had rights to serve the industries on the Fort Wayne Union in six month intervals. Because of this, Wabash and Nickel Plate repaints that are floating around will have a small home to operate in switching maneuvers.

I will also be noting what music I was listening during work between the posts. Believe me, it doesn't change much. Usually the same songs on repeat for hours. There will be some wacky things I listen to.
Look for this at the bottom of my updates from here on out. -> ♫ - [Song Name - Artist]

Now, on to the last couple photos of Phase 1a.
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At Leesburg Rd. in Fort Wayne, we have RUNNION interlocking looking South. This is the crossing of the Grand Rapids & Indiana (PRR) and Nickel Plate. Named for the nearby street of Runnion Ave. (You can explain to me how that worked out). In the distance to the East is more of RUNNION, and the diamond between the Fort Wayne & Jackson (NYC) and the Nickel Plate. Just past that is the Nickel Plate's West Wayne Yard. PARK and JUNCTION can be seen in the distance to the south. All interlocking in this photo are PRR controlled by JUNCTION. (Again, you can explain to me how the NKP/NYC diamond is PRR controlled.)

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Lima (NS) in a more completed state. There isn't much to say about this except the B&O engine facility was installed and so was the PRR's freight station situation.

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Check back later for Part 2! Where we go over some progress on Phase 1b Lima (NS) to Crestline trackage! As well as a very special announcement.
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♫ - CODE:016 - Asami Tachibana
♫ - Leo - Eve
♫ - Superstars (Live) - Styx
♫ - Pieces of Eight (Live) - Styx

[Antwerp]

PART 2:

We move along to Phase 1b Lima (NS) to Crestline trackage, and everything is going well so far. I have got as far as Bucyrus, OH. At this time, ~121 miles of track are complete of the Pennsylvania Railroad mainline. Bucyrus is still unfinished, otherwise, we're only 15 miles from Crestline!

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Sugar Street in Lima is where the PRR crosses the Detroit Toledo and Ironton Railroad (A PennRoad subsidiary that didn't really seem like it). It isn't much now, and won't be much when scenery is placed either. It is just a run of the mill crossing of two railroads.

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Dunkirk is another point where the PRR crosses the New York Central, this time being the Toledo & Ohio Central. It's another generic intelocking on the PRR.

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Upper Sandusky where the PRR crosses the Chesapeake & Ohio former Hocking Valley line. The C&O had an interesting setup for a siding south of the diamond.

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Now for some special announcements, one you might already be aware of.

Digital Railroading's DSGDDR is currently in production of a T1, a locomotive that will fit right at home on this route. As will their H10, S1, and to a lesser extent their E6.

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A unique piece of equipment, but pulled it's weight in Fort Wayne, as well as other classification yards in the PRR system. The Lima-Hamilton 'LT-2500' is under production for this route.
Yes, you read that right, it will be freeware.

Lima.jpg

Check out Digital Railroading and their forum for more frequent updates to their projects:
Website: https://digitalrailroadingco.powweb.com/dr/
Forum: https://digitalrailroadingco.powweb.com/forum/

I may update on progress of the LT-2500 here from time to time.
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Check back soon for more updates!
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♫ - Clock Tower - NexDart
♫ - As You Like It - Eve
♫ - Halo of Flies - Alice Cooper

[Antwerp]

Good news, the whole mainline is practically down and finished! All that remains is Crestline yard, some connection tracks, extend a few foreign railroads, and to adjust speed limits where necessary.

Without further delay, here's this week's update.
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Forest, the crossing of the PRR and the NYC (this time a Big Four line).

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A small 1000 foot siding just west of Bucyrus. Accroding to my records, this location was called Antrim. There's an Antrim township, but it's closer to Nevada than it is Bucyrus. But according to the chart, this siding was a mile west of Bucyrus. Not six miles further west at Nevada.

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Bucyrus! (not completed with crossing railroads) This is where the PRR crossed and connected with their Sandusky District (Former Sandusky & Columbus Short Line Railway) and also crossed the New York Central (Former Toledo & Ohio Central). The Sandusky District is still PRR at the time of this route. However, in the early 1960s, it was sold to the N&W so they could connect with the Nickel Plate.

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Crestline looking west at the tower. This is where the mainline of the PRR crosses the mainline of the New York Central (Former Big Four). The freight depot tracks are to the north of the PRR and the former engine facility tracks are to the south of the PRR across the diamond.

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Crestline looking northeast with much to be completed still.

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At this time, there isn't much left to complete in relation to track. I ought to have it done within the next week or two.

I have no current updates on the LT-2500, but I'll post an update when there is one.
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♫ - Clock Tower - NexDart
♫ - Unknown Mother Goose - Wowaka
♫ - Pieces of Eight - Styx

[Antwerp]

This Weekly Update is a potentially uncomfortable one. No photo updates.

Crestline Yard is very near complete. Just have to make the Westward Classification Yard connections to the main, and the hump run-around tracks.

Things are in motion for adjusting the route for proper gradients, if this doesn't work or something irreversibly breaks, let's hope my multiple backups in multiple places that reverts to before I started these adjustments works. Otherwise, I'm doomed to basically start over in Fort Wayne entirely.

Everything is running smoothly thus far, but the tracks are starting to do funky things like being at slightly different elevations. Certain pieces of track are joined and trains run smoothly over the joint (in cab there is no sudden jolt), but they're separated by elevation very slightly.
Example being one piece is .791 and is successfully connected to another piece at .794 with a 0.0% grade (it's done this in multiple places, and there's way too many tracks to check thoroughly without growing a beard). It's not causing any trouble for trains traveling over it... yet. So let's hope it stays that way.

Some tracks will need removed and replaced for proper grading anyway, but it's a tad unsettling in the yards where I don't expect to change much.

Wish me luck. This is getting interesting.

[Antwerp]

Not much new to report after two weeks. I lost a week of productivity because the family had a friend over that utilized the guest bedroom/computer room, and thus I lost the capabilities to work on the route for a week.

I am still putting in the grades (I'll explain a little quirk about that in a moment) over the route and have progressed from MP323 west of JUNCTION (Ft. Wayne) to MP275 just west of Delphos. Tomorrow or Thursday, I will likely finish the work to at least MP261 in Lima or MP 250 near Lafayette. Crestline Yard remains unfinished at this time and won't be finished until I get back to Crestline with the mainline's adjustment.
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Now for the little quirk and some explanations:

As a few of you have dutifully pointed out, the route isn't flat as a pancake, but it is pretty close. This is the last time I will address this.
This image is from US 224 looking West at roughly MP290 between ESTRY (MP288.4) and Richey (MP291.1)

MP290.jpg

U.S. 30 near Upper Sandusky (MP219)

UPSAN.jpg

No, those aren't distant mountains, those are tree lots, created from abandoned farms from the Great Depression.
The point is, I can get views like this all the way to Crestline. We're not dealing with mountain, prairie, or desert railroading here where there's anything substantive or noticeable for longer than a few miles. If you're looking for this kind of railroading, this ain't the place. It'll be predominantly flat and boring to look at like Northwest Ohio truly is.

Looking at this Conrail Track Chart from 1983 from MP280 to MP290 (Middle Point & Van Wert), the route's elevation in this ten miles changes from a Min. 773.2 to a Max. 791.1. Assuming that is in feet, that's a 18ft change in 10 miles. You'll also notice the grades are as follows in this 10 miles span:

MP280-284: +.04
MP284-286: +.02
MP286-289: -.07
MP289-290: +.04

(The line is exaggerated for scale on the charts)

TrackGrade.jpg

Now, ignoring right now that the track is floating until I adjust the terrain accordingly, I have put in the grade for this part of the main just west of ESTRY MP 288.4 heading westbound. According to the indicated chart, we are on a -.07% grade. But what's this? The game doesn't register on the viewer anything lower than +/-.1%. The grade is there, it's just so unnoticeable that the game can't even display it properly to the player.

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This is like this for a decent swath of the route, save for about 17 spots where it's above .1% for anywhere from a mile to ten. The rest isn't going to display properly on the HUD. Don't believe me? Send me a PM and I'll send you the charts and you can see for yourself.
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At this time, work will remain on putting in the grades as accurately as possible. There is one point in Fort Wayne that isn't prototypical in gradient but I believe I've addressed why that is.

Again, I have no current updates on the LT-2500, but I'll post an update when there is one.

[gtrtroger]

Driven that part of the country many times..... You are not wrong. Flatter than my daughters chest!

[Antwerp]

Driven that part of the country many times..... You are not wrong. Flatter than my daughters chest!

If I remember correctly, the township next to mine is one of, if not the flattest in the State of Ohio. Already flat from being part of the bed of an ancient lake (Great Black Swamp/Lake Maumee) and made even flatter by being the bed of the six mile reservoir (2000 acres (8 square kilometers (3 sq. miles)) during the canal years. It's nothing to see a grain elevator or windmill 10-15 miles in the distance around here. Only thing blocking the view is the trees and crops (seasonally) in some spots.

[BoostedFridge]

I appreciate your dedication to accuracy with the gradients, despite how slight they are.

[Antwerp]

I appreciate your dedication to accuracy with the gradients, despite how slight they are.

I'm trying to get everything as close to accurate as I can reasonably get it. I think I mentioned that there are only a couple areas where the grade will slightly differ from the charts for various reasons.

[Antwerp]

Not much new to report this week. With COVID-19 doing it's thing, my job has shut down until at the very least April 7th. The good news is I'm getting 100% pay despite not having to go to work, so I'm not in a bind. What this does mean is that I can put more time into the route than I normally wouldn't be capable of doing. If I could have my way, I would be starting scenery by this time next week. We'll see how that works out.
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I am still putting in the grades over the route and have progressed from MP275 west of Delphos to MP250 just east of Lafayette. I'm progressing county by county on this, as they are coming out to be roughly 25 mile intervals. Next up is work within Hardin County. As I said above, I can probably finish the work to at least MP229 near Forest or MP 210 tomorrow if I really crack at it.

Crestline Yard remains unfinished at this time and won't be finished until I get back to Crestline with the mainline's adjustment, which could be as soon as Monday.

Once everything is in place, I'll have to adjust the grades in places to make the transitions smoother. Luckily I have a handy piece of paper with all the grades and their duration, so that I can just jump from each mile that would likely need major adjustment.
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TL;DR
At this time, work will remain on putting in the grades as accurately as possible. Work will commence in Hardin County from MP250 to MP229 and beyond, tomorrow.

Again, I have no current updates on the LT-2500, but I'll post an update when there is one.