New York Division-Bergen Line

[minerman146]

Bergen Still has undiscovered Easter Eggs - some are YEARS old. Croxton Ordinary has its, own, special Easter Egg.

[Ericmopar]

I take it "The Moodna" is Moodna Creek and Viaduct? I Googled that.

[minerman146]

Sunday Drive for 20 minutes.... I try to drive and enjoy then I start 'fixing stuff' .. So, back to the build in Mountainville, New York. I am now 2.5 miles East of the Cornwall - Salisbury Mills Station from where the trees stopped at the last update. Its 14 Miles to my proposed end of the route. I don't want it to end...

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Because I can pick up 2 Consignees at Maybrook by adding another 5 miles on track to the North which would end up looking like the Piermont.
I know you guys love those branch lines....

[NStrains]

[minerman146]

3 Days of Trees - to get them like this: Distance is 1.08 Miles The bridge starts to have its supports disappear at that point. The amount of time to draw these trees in with care so they line up with what is there is well worth it.

This truly is ... Big Scenery. I'm not doing it for giggles - the area calls for it. When you roll over the Moodna at 30mph - you will have something to see!

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[ex-railwayman]

So, back to the build in Mountainville, New York. I am now 2.5 miles East of the Cornwall - Salisbury Mills Station from where the trees stopped at the last update. Its 14 Miles to my proposed end of the route. I don't want it to end...

So, where is your proposed end, Young Sir. Looking at google street view, after crossing Moodna Viaduct the line heads west towards Campbell Hall, where there is a wye, would this be your final location, North, we would need to park our trains up somewhere of course, unless, you have designs to seek out a more interesting location to end the route?

Cheerz. ex-railwayman. (Steve).

[JohnM1945]

Ex-railwayman wrote...

unless you have designs to seek out a more interesting location to end the route?

You're just egging him on, aren't you? Mile by enticing mile...

If we're not careful, he may not stop this side of the Bering Straits...

KInd regards, and profound admiration!

John M

[minerman146]

So, back to the build in Mountainville, New York. I am now 2.5 miles East of the Cornwall - Salisbury Mills Station from where the trees stopped at the last update. Its 14 Miles to my proposed end of the route. I don't want it to end...

So, where is your proposed end, Young Sir. Looking at google street view, after crossing Moodna Viaduct the line heads west towards Campbell Hall, where there is a wye, would this be your final location, North, we would need to park our trains up somewhere of course, unless, you have designs to seek out a more interesting location to end the route?

Cheerz. ex-railwayman. (Steve).

Steve - It's great to hear from you as always. You ask the logical question - where to stop. Which has been a question of mine for the past 2 years. I like to say that the route was done at Hillburn - with no need to go West - you get decent local freight traffic and a 30 mile commuter run. But the route is called the New York Division. and In my mind that's a full 89 mile line from Jersey City, New Jersey to Port Jervis, New York. That's the dream.

The only place the route can stop is at Campbell Hall, New York - otherwise I have to go all the way. Here are the mile posts of where are and were going.

Hoboken - Jersey City is MP 0
Suffern is MP 30
NJ Tower in Harriman is MP 45
Cornwall - Salisbury Mills is MP 55.5
Campbell Hall is MP 65.5
Bart Bull Road, In Middletown, New York is MP 67.5
Port Jervis, New York is MP 89

Bart Bull Road is where I would stop to give Campbell Hall distant Scenery. So were talking 65/66 Mile runs. Campbell Hall is the effective end of Norfolk Southern Freight Service. They interchange with the Middletown and New Jersey, which handles traffic to Middletown, Maybrook and Walden. So here is the place to unload fulls and pickup empties and drag them back to Croxton. There is a Metro North Station at Cornwall - Salisbury Mills and Campbell Hall they get a nice long ride.

When I get to Campbell Hall, we can all have a discussion about what to do next. I have made a commitment to another player to discuss Port Jervis. This has similar weight to the commitment I made in 2015 to NYWhiskey to put his Moodna in. (Do note that NJWhiskey handed me a fine bottle of Jameson's Black at Loughran's Tavern in Salisbury Mills last year as a kind gesture) So, anyone else that wants to bring me more liquor - you know where to do it! They open at Noon every day.

Other outstanding commitments include an extended Dundee Spur with more track and consignees and a build up of the Carlton Hill Branch and drawbridge.

I realize that from a operations standpoint - I should have stopped at Harriman and did the Main Line from Ridgewood to Lyndhurst, New Jersey. But, I wanted to keep going "all the way" an option. I would love to build the whole division Steve. You read my WIP notes - you know the hours, days and years that have gone into this project. I wonder what it would be like to get back the 4 hours a day. I would go to sleep before 1 AM for sure. Oh, and I would drive on the Bergen for fun!

Question for all of you --- do you have enough of the Bergen? Have you had enough of the Bergen?

[BoostedFridge]

Had enough of the Bergen? Hell no! Where you want to end it is up to you. Being a workshop route, others can enjoy it while you build it.

[NStrains]

MM, just a quick question...
I was checking out Campbell Hall and notice just east that there is a line diverging Southward. I followed this line for SEVERAL miles to find out that it is NYSW trackage. Do they interchange in Campbell Hall at all?

In my opinion, I think it would be cool to include the Middletown & NJ. But, being able to understand the amount of work it has taken to get where you are now, I just don't think it's really worth the time an effort. At some point you have to be able to enjoy your own work. And it seems that Campbell Hall will be that final destination and logical end to the masterpiece you have created!



Ps. It's so cool "flying" over the area, seeing all the old roadbeds and where they go to/come from and their connections.

[minerman146]

JohnM1945 - ex-railwayman is egging me on a bit. He sees that map and knows I can only stop in Campbell Hall to end the route. I am sure by now, you know that I hit the branch lines and either grab a few miles if there are businesses or do the whole thing if short and interesting enough. (This leads in to NSTrains question)

NSTrains - The NYS&W does not interchange at Campbell Hall. It does interchange with our route at Hawthorne and at Passaic Junction. Its the same line your see at Campbell Hall. All the track West is NS that NYS&W/Metro North has track rights on. In my world, Campbell Hall is "MQ" and we have the EL, L&NE and Penn Central/New Haven here. In my Dad's / Granddad's world we would have the Erie, L&NE, NYNH&H annnnd the O&W all at this spot.

Please bear with me as I am just thinking about the Moodna and the Western edge of Beaverdam Lake at this time. If some one wants to poke around and see how many consignees there are from 3 (optimally) to 5 Miles away along any of these branches this will make a case for building it. I will build to reach businesses to have more opportunity for switching scenarios.

Boostedfridge - I hear ya !

[NStrains]

According to the map found here... http://www.mnjrr.com/images/mnj-map2.pdf

From Hudson Junction south to the NYSW interchange in Warwick, it appears that the MNJRR has 4-5 consignees and a transloading site.
From Campbell Hall to Montgomery there appears to be 5 consignees and a transloading site.
From Campbell Hall to Walden there appears to be 5 consignees and a transloading site.

Now this does include consignees that may not be active anymore, but still have sidings. So they were at least active recently enough to still have track laid.

[ex-railwayman]

Steve - It's great to hear from you as always. You ask the logical question - where to stop. Which has been a question of mine for the past 2 years. I like to say that the route was done at Hillburn - with no need to go West - you get decent local freight traffic and a 30 mile commuter run. But the route is called the New York Division. and In my mind that's a full 89 mile line from Jersey City, New Jersey to Port Jervis, New York. That's the dream.

Question for all of you Have you had enough of the Bergen?

How on earth can we possibly have had enough of this absolute Masterpiece, yet?
Anyway, you 'aint finished yet, Brother, if the internet says Port Jervis is the end of the line, then, that is where it should finish. We're all livin' your dream.....

Cheerz. Steve.

[minerman146]

Steve - to get to the end ... You sound like the fellow who is requesting it. I can sum up his long conversations in a few words; "Just do it!"
I'll give you the response I gave him. 'Look, this is a test route, and I have zero interest in modeling a dead railroad that is just a terminus for Metro North. This was supposed to be the Erie - Lackawanna! Frankly, I had no idea this thing would catch on and I'm tired ... real tired. And DTG will never pack this thing up for me so I can have thousands and thousands that will see my vision" (I've said this to him on many occasion)

My response for not doing it is... "Its too darn hard"

Problem A: You know how I do scenery. This is all visible from the train. I wont find out if the game can handle just the assets for Port Jervis, but that of the entire route until I get there. Just look at this picture:

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The track is parallel to and on the opposite side of the first ridge in the photo (Track goes from right to left ) The track turns sharply to the West, now going from Left to right on the opposite side of the round hill in the center of the photo.

This is massive, massive trees and scenery for just a town with 8300 people in it!

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You make out the turn table on the bottom right and the track that is the green open space running from left to right.
Huge asset issue here: many many brick buildings and old ones to boot, very tricky with my asset base.

My final photo - and evidence of my 'street cred" . Oh I know this place VERY WELL.

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See hill in the background, that's the hill I pointed out in the first picture.

IF I were to build it - It won't be 2017 in Port Jervis - its gonna be 1970!

[minerman146]

I tell a story .... and people run for the hills.
Were going to hold on the update for tomorrow, depending on what happens this weekend, I may go for an update on Monday morning. Which confidentially, is close to the date I started the route - April 4, 2014.

Someone call NYWhiskey to look at his bridge!

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The scenery is very basic at this stage. I have been focusing on getting the trees to render so that you get an impression on the expanse. We are rendering trees at 1.86 miles away. Its all trial and error to get this to work -but somehow it does.