Ravenna Arsenal Route

[jgvaughan]

RavennaArsenalSchematic.jpg

The above is a black and white schematic of my first route. The Ravenna Arsenal was located between Ravenna and Newton Falls, Ohio. The mobilization efforts for World War I had presented extremely difficult logistical problems for American industry. After the war, the government vowed never to find itself in a similar situation, and in 1920 the National Defense Act was passed. One aspect of that act was that the War Department could coordinate all arms production so that the military branches would not have to compete.

By the late 1930s, it was becoming increasingly clear that the United States was going to become involved in European affairs at some level even if it were just with its manufacturing capabilities. Recognizing this, the Ordnance Department had been working on a plan since the mid-30s

Still, by 1940 the nation felt ill-prepared for the new war. The government responded by establishing facilities to supply ordnance for the armed services and the 43 allied nations. Eventually, 77 of these facilities would be built to produce tanks, guns, explosives, and chemicals. All were built between August 1940 and November 1942.

In northeast Ohio, 250 Portage County farm families were “bought out” by the government in July and August of 1940, told to sell everything they couldn’t take, and given 30 days to leave.

Within a couple of months, 16,000 workers would be working around the clock in an area the size of Youngstown building a city from the ground up.

The Ravenna Arsenal was constructed primarily to load medium- and major caliber artillery ammunition, bombs, mines, fuses, boosters, primers and percussion elements, and to store finished ammunition and ammunition components. It was one of the largest, if not the largest, of the facilities built for World War II. The first artillery shells began coming off the production line in August 1941, barely 10 months after the fields of wheat, corn, and hay were abandoned.

I will be working from schematics and sketches from the original plans as well as Google Map overlays of how the area is today. It is my intent to develop it as it was when it was in use during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Due to my current position with the State of Ohio, I have access to the entire site which will allow me to verify many of the structures from its early history. Many of these buildings are still standing, to include the munition bunkers, about 50% of the rail line (to include the primary classification yard), and several of the original administrative structures. Most of the production facilities have been demolished but I have fairly good pictures of them to work from in placing similar structures. In some cases, I figure I will have to develop some of those assets as well.

With most of my research completed, I was able to get all of the DEM data uploaded this weekend. If all goes well I will start work on the main classification yard as well as the two branch lines (B&O and Erie) that it connected to.

[RAILSOHIO]

As an Ohioan,I applaud your project.I am not as familiar with North Eastern Ohio railroads and history,so this is new to me. I do support the idea of doing localized routes. I have considered doing the Old Lima Locomotive works,as an example. And there are many railroad "towns",that would make a good model. They do not all need to be mega-routes. Best wishes on you project!

[artimrj]

Sounds like your ready for some fun Jim. Give me a holler if you run into problems or have any questions.

[hobo1960]

As another native Buckeye...thank you!

I look forward to seeing how this comes along.

KevinB

[jgvaughan]

As an Ohioan,I applaud your project.I am not as familiar with North Eastern Ohio railroads and history,so this is new to me. I do support the idea of doing localized routes. I have considered doing the Old Lima Locomotive works,as an example. And there are many railroad "towns",that would make a good model. They do not all need to be mega-routes. Best wishes on you project!

Another location that I have had the pleasure of visiting many times. You are right, it would be another interesting railroad town in Ohio to develop. You could tie it into Fostoria as I'm sure the mainline would run between the two towns.

[jgvaughan]

Sounds like your ready for some fun Jim. Give me a holler if you run into problems or have any questions.

As my first run at developing a route, I'm sure there will be several hollers before I'm done.

[jgvaughan]

As another native Buckeye...thank you!

I look forward to seeing how this comes along.

KevinB

Laying track doesn't appear difficult since the terrain hasn't overgrown where about half the trackage was removed. Being able to drive the site also makes it easier to actually verify locations since I have a GPS system that makes it easier to find any places I am not sure about. Of all the trackage the only location I haven't been able to get to is the small classification yard that is located on the westernmost part of the post. I've had the pleasure of walking the main classification yard and all of the various ammo and explosive storage areas. While a lot of the buildings that had hazmat materials in the construction have either been demolished or abandoned, their location to the rails can actually be measured since in most cases the slab or foundation is still available.

On top of that, there is a lot of personal history tied to this post. My father lived in Youngstown for several years and I remember going past the post when I was a little kid. While I was on active duty, there were multiple trips to the post even during the reclamation process. Now if I can just put those mental images into the project.

[jgvaughan]

***Update***

I've successfully mapped out the entire rail network on Ravenna Arsenal. I've decided to limit the time frame to 1940 to 1953. While I didn't find any facilities specifically for Steam locomotives, I think I'm going to add them just to give the Steam-era fans the opportunity to use some of the equipment available.

My biggest task facing me at this point is tracking down pictures of the various production facilities. Storage Buildings, Bunkers, etc. are still available to photograph. The fuze, ammonium nitrate, and powder plants have footprints but no real pics.

The General Administrative buildings can be replaced with generic buildings of that period.

I've successfully placed the track for the two main entrances into the facilities as well as about 5 miles of mainline track east to west from their entries. I've also completed the lead tracks into the Main Classification Yard as well as one of the High Explosive Storage areas. Next, I plan to finish the West Classification Yard then begin to work my way back on each of the different areas. Figured I'd place all the connecting track last since its exact placement isn't that significant. They are the most overgrown parts of the facility and likewise the most difficult to drive.

Specifications so far:

Main Classification Yard: 2 Main Line leads, 16 Storage track (900+ cars). Roughly 2000 yards long. (Building the yard ladders was a real task for a beginner).
High Explosive Storage Area - East: 8 Single Line sides roughly 500 yards each.

These can be seen in concept in the initial map I posted.

Research of the facility indicates the entire facility was manually switched to include the switches for entering the facility.

[jgvaughan]

2018-11-04.jpg

This is a 2d map of the work so far. There are a few spurs that still need to be completed as well as a couple of road crossings requiring bridges. Next step will be the roads and trails after which I will complete the rest of the terrain.

From what I've read so far, the signaling will probably be what kicks my butt as this was all manual switches once you came off the two main lines. Luckily about 50% of the trackage is one way or at least intended to be one way.

The other image attached will be one of the first areas that I complete the terrain around. Most of the terrain surrounding this area is wooded, actually, to be fair, most of this site was wooded except in the area of the actual operations, i.e. the Ammonium Nitrate Plant, the Fuze & Booster Operations, etc. Most of the main roadway was a mix of portland cement and macadam with dirt and gravel thrown in in outlying areas.

Another interesting feature that my research has disclosed is an aircraft crash landing facility located pretty much in the center of the site. Running west to east it was where they tested cargo aircraft for effects when they crash landed.

[gwgardner]

This is one of the most interesting route projects I've seen. Must be loads of switching possibilities forthcoming.

Why are the turnouts a different color in the trackrule you're using?

[jgvaughan]

This is one of the most interesting route projects I've seen. Must be loads of switching possibilities forthcoming.

Why are the turnouts a different color in the trackrule you're using?

Not sure, what color are you thinking they should be?

The switching possibilities in this should be pretty good. There are at least three more 'storage areas' that existed on the west side of the arsenal that I'm not sure if I am going to include. They were mainly serviced by trucks. What was stored there was mainly rifle ammunition from what I've been able to research. I'd like to find the daily production rates for each type of munition that they produced but haven't come across it yet in my research.

[gwgardner]

What will the payware dependencies be?

[jgvaughan]

What will the payware dependencies be?

Right now, what you see has been done with Default assets and 3DTrains ScaleRail. I have a friend helping me with some of the 3d assets for some of the buildings. Where I can I will be using as much freeware assets when it comes to structures, etc. I want to make it as available as possible since it will be freeware.

[gwgardner]

What will the payware dependencies be?

Right now, what you see has been done with Default assets and 3DTrains ScaleRail. I have a friend helping me with some of the 3d assets for some of the buildings. Where I can I will be using as much freeware assets when it comes to structures, etc. I want to make it as available as possible since it will be freeware.

That's exciting. Thanks for the info.

[jgvaughan]

Okay, because of gwgardner's question above, I guess I should probably ask this question:

What would be considered the DEFAULT assets in Train Simulator 20xx? I plan to use RCAP which I understand is acceptable if this isn't payware. What about the other routes, like the 'Donationware' routes available here, i.e. RW&A Lakeside, the new Cascade route, should I use their assets? Also, since I've run all of the scenarios on the NERR routes that Bob created, I've seen several assets that would work well on this route. So I'm considering using some of them if it's okay.

I guess what I'm curious about is how everyone feels about freeware routes that require assets other than those that are Default within TS 20xx or don't require an expenditure in order to run the route.

Your input is definitely appreciated.