I've been rolling around some ideas in my head about starting a new group or club of enthusiast that are interested in a particular place and time. The place is the northern anthracite region of Pennsylvania. The time is anywhere between the 1930's to 1950's. I feel that Railworks has basically left out those type of railsim fans that are interested in the historical and nostalgic side of building content and routes in a rail simulator. Here is what I'm proposing.
The anthracite regions of Pennsylvania played a very big part of American railroad history. There are only a few places in the US that had so many major railroads working in one localized area. They were all there to prosper on the shipping of anthracite coal. The northern anthracite region is basically a crescent shaped valley running southwest to northeast. The valley is separated by two names. The Wyoming Valley which was in the southern end of the valley and includes the city of Wilkes-Barre. The north end which is called the Lackawanna Valley which includes the well known city of Scranton. My proposal is not to start route but a area. Anything with in the confines of this valley can be modeled. Starting at some center point of the valley and working outwards. Adding small sections at a time. One could be working on a branch line while another person can be working on a small area around a coal breaker. Another person could be researching another section while yet another person is working on a period repaint or model. There are many different functions that one can do. This is not just for the model builders. I'm sure there are even some functions I probably haven't even realized yet. As new sections are added to the map, the map is updated and sent out to group members as well all that are interested. It will be an ongoing process. If one gets board and wants to work on something for themselves, they can take a break and when they are ready to rejoin the project they can as there will always be smaller project with in the main project. One only need to speak up when they feel that they can contribute something or have an idea or knowledge of a particular subject that is being work on or that is in the planning stages.
Here is a Google map of the proposed area. This map shows the different railroads with in the valley. Not shown on the map (for clarity reasons) are all the locations of last generation coal breakers, rail yards and roundhouses.
You can download this map here if you want a look.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vige7ghto8xetub/Northern%20Anthracite%20Project%202.0.kmz?dl=0
At this time I'm just seeing if there is any interest in creating this type of a group. There is no project name or no web page to go to. These things are best decided as a group.
Feel free to comment on this idea.
