Railworks America

The T&B's extension to the extension is just about wrapped up. While I poke and prod at that, I began another project of sorts.

Though I'm a New Hampshirite at heart, from time to time I look into railroads from our northern, maple-syrup drinking cousins up in Canada. I was led to look at the Newfoundland Railway and its narrow gauge operations, and was tempted to model it.

I then learned there's no diesel narrow gauge locos for train sim. Sad! Still, the idea for a railroad off the coast of Canada stuck. I have no working name for anything (not even the island the railroad is on!) but I'm sure I'll come up with something eventually, past some scenery work and track building.





While we're at it, anyone know why Diesel Workshop isn't getting my payment for the EMD G12? I wanna use it for the route since it was something used on the Newfie line (admittedly in NG configuration) but it keeps giving me an error whenever I try to purchase.

Disregard, got it to work.

Here she is, trundling along the branch to the town of Lumiere Bay






Strange looking beast, but I think it looks fitting

This is a really nice looking start to a route. I posted a photo of one the real CN G12s last year, re-trucked from standard to narrow gauge for use in Newfoundland, though they had really short careers and were mainly used for parts for other units. I haven't played with the shape file with the G12 in RWTools however you should be able to edit the wheel base to convert this to a narrow gauge unit if you really wanted to do a narrow gauge route. Newfoundland's railway actually had a small standard gauge terminal at the ferry dock where they received standard gauge cars from the mainland that were re-trucked for the island, meaning you could do the same thing with the standard gauge cars in RW Tools like the locomotives. Editing shapes 101 if you are interested, there is a section in each shape file called "SourceLToPTransform" and another section slightly lower called "TransformName" which reference which each line in the SourceLToPTransform is supposed to represent. Below is an example of that section in a tank car. With this particular car (if not all, they are setup the same) can be changed to a narrow gauge unit simply by editing the lines noted Bo01 to Bo02wh04 which are the bogies and wheel sets. This tutorial tells you had to edit the SourceLToPTransform section if you are interested. https://railworksamerica.com/index.php/ ... t-position A modern narrow gauge route is completely doable in this sim as you can do the same with the track as well, editing the original shapes (making copies first of course) which can allow you to represent lighter and narrow gauge track as well such as 60lb to 100lb, it just takes a basic understanding of these files and some practice. If you do clone and make your own narrow gauge track you can use RWTools to replace the track you have laid thus far in a matter a few clicks saving any work you have done to date. If you wanted to do the modern isolated equivalent not far from Newfoundland which only has a 7 mile mainline and transports some 4,500 cars a year carried by a CN railar ferry, take a look at this video done by the railroad itself. https://youtu.be/-gs7cZqu-1s The website of the real railroad https://sopor.ca/en/ which was only built in 1976 and most don't know exists even in the railfan world. It is a modern contradiction and railway marvel in it's own, built at a time when most similar lines were being abandoned and very successful from what you will see. Food for thought.

<TransformName>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">bo01</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">bo01wh01</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">bo01wh02</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">bo02</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">bo02wh03</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">bo02wh04</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">tank</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">jacl</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">evth</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">ladders</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">saddlesides</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">sidepole</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">detail1</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">detail2</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">detail3large</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">gradingtop</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">topbuckle</e>
<e d:type="cDeltaString">primarydigits_6</e>
</TransformName>

Thanks for the sources! I might give it a go, but I make no promises since I'm not very good at following through with learning new skills in this game I'll definitely think about it. I had read here and there online that the Newfoundland Railway may have been able to hold on longer if it was standard gauge, so the mainline may remain standard. Still, I may make a smaller narrow gauge tourist or industrial operation. Who knows? That's why I love doing fictional routes!

The SOPOR link is fantastic: I had no clue there was an isolated railway up in the Quebec province. Always had a soft spot for these types of isolated railways.

The footage also reminds me: I'm trying to locate a modern, large rail barge. The BLE one is a bit dated and the barge from CVP is a bit small for crossing rough seas. Something akin to the one in the video would be pretty spectacular.

I feel if I'm writing all this I should probably also update on what I have so far. I've been building up the capital of the island, the city of St. Etienne, where our railroad has its main facilities and connection with the rest of the North American rail network.


Still trying to work out the name of the island...