New York Division-Bergen Line - Part Deux!

[minerman146]

MMSS1 - I am so freaking happy your drilling Carlton Hill. The research and the bashing to try and reproduce this was very involved. This is a place that has an exceptional amount of time in it. As usual, the artistic license, is the blend of old and new together. I don't have a shot of the Flintkote tower, but at the spit, I put in everything I could to the point where I would need to change the track configuration, so the track at the split is 1980s. If you look VERY carefully, I put in part of the track that went to the substation. The houses on the same side of the station are very close. The station though brick has the exact physical measurements, the platform is good, railing and safety fiend is good. You will also see a man with a cap on a concrete pad at Royce. He is a real person, who I refer to 10 pages back or so.

Before I forget, if you see Al ROYCE! ( I cant believe what a small world this is) I have a picture of a model Royce Chemical covered hopper (on this thread). Is that real? If so how many, I am DYING to paint it. As always, the part where you and your wife recognize parts of the route, I am SO glad I captured this for posterity, this is a big part of why I do this. Where you live is FULL of local history and totally worth telling to the rest of the world. So, any detail information you can get I will load it in. Also, I am trying to figure out the name of the track on the Bleachery side. I am presuming liquid chemicals . but what?

Last, While we now have unbroken scenery between the Dundee and Carlton HIll (Wallington), I pooped out doing Passaic. But what you can see is that it is pre-1970 (RT 21 is not there). I would need to be on some kind of super powered route building kick to get Passaic in as a back drop. But it is prepped to do just that. The rest of the deep scenery South (Rutherford) I had to go way deep as its flat, so that was very challenging, and I cheated where ever I could with fill-in buildings. (Hate doing that).
And that's it. I end this and keep looking at your images. I am very pleased your enjoying this and my hand crafted, with love, box cars!

[AmericanSteam]

I have been away from the route for a few weeks. I have installed a few others and massaging them to my liking. But I always come back to this gem. Thanks to yourself and the others for the new rolling stock. I have used it elsewhere to populate those routes. This stuff now makes it to the west coast via Feather River Canyon, Tehachapi and Barstow.

[minerman146]

American Steam - I wonder how many 'come back' to the Bergen and what draws them in to do so. Most of all, I like hearing that they DO come back!. The box cars are traveling the US now? Great! I always check peoples pictures out - I look forward to spotting them out and about on other routes. My eyes will be peeled! More work to come on the 40 footers be assured. Work continues up in Middletown. I currently am working the Wakefern Food distribution facility - It has 3 tracks, 2 of which run in side the warehouse. This is first of our 4 consignees. You saw the very rough scenery a few weeks ago. While some progress has been made, I haven't done any route work in the past 5 days, I have been attending to personal business on my off hours. Tonight is looking good for some route work!

For those interested, I have updated the google map of the route. This map shows the extent of finished scenery, stations, the consignees, branch names of all work completed as of today.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1gEQfMvlUaFK01kBJu2BTkII8_Os&ll=41.350751299999956%2C-74.11497120000001&z=8
Carry on!

[AmericanSteam]

minerman, I saw these beauties just East of Barstow.

[minerman146]

Ha! American Steam, if you keep putting up postcard of where my box cars wind up - I will be HIGHLY motivated to do more! Its great to see them!

I have a little tiny bit of news tonight, I had been bugging Spin at Ohio Valley System to put together a scenario integrating my 40 footers with the Harlem Station (there is a method to my madness!). And he done do it! So I have a little shot of me tooling around Harlem Station in Rudi's GE.

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I was laughing that I set a 10mph speed limit … I was lucky to hit 7mph max when I was driving around.

Do look forward to a scenario being published for Harlem Station!

[minerman146]

Yeah, a day late and a dollar short.
Here is this week's Wednesday Route Update Report. Let's first go to the Friday update status:

( ) Looking Strawng!
( X ) Not.Even.Close.

Even though I am way the heck behind, work IS happening, and I am feverishly planting trees as far as the virtual eye can see.
Lets go to tonight's screen shot for the evidence...

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Well, we got some fine equipment heading East (Ohaire Road is at the end of the train) So, we are technically in Middletown. I call this the Town of Walkill. Whatevah. The point is I'm moving West. And the point of this picture... is the trees. The trees in the back ground are on the foot hills of the Shawangunk Mountain Range. Beyond that, is the Neversink and Delaware River Valley and the holy grail of all you thorns in my side...Port Jervis. And yes, we take the TIME to make sure those trees draw for you so you don't have to see hills that are ... nekkid. (Though most of you prefer your, uh, mountains that way)

So darn close ... and yet so far. I was done at Campbell Hall and y'all knew it, Yet here I am..
Carry on!

[RudiJaeger]

That's a beautiful shot Minerman. I like the tree tops along the horizon, and the valley exposed, er uh.. nekkid, between the tree-lines. Makes it look like at least ten miles or so between the foreground and horizon.

Since you guys are busy route-building again; thought I'd pitch-in another pack of repaints to aid the cause; featuring all four HH660's that worked vicinity of Jersey City, sporting both Erie and EL logos. Still a few minor color-correction and weathering tweaks before proceeding with the remaining numbers...

Erie HH660 No302.jpg

Screenshot_New York Division - Bergen Line_41.11550--74.12228_09-23-25.jpg

Screenshot_New York Division - Bergen Line_41.12167--74.16023_09-06-04.jpg

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I could not be certain regarding the data stencils, but from on-line research photos; it appears that beneath the cab number is stenciled "HA 6 A" (no idea what that refers to); and on the nose-door, "FIRE EXTINGUISHER INSIDE". I could not find any close-ups of these areas to verify, so if anyone has an Erie history book or photograghs, perhaps we can get a confirmation just to satisfy curiosity. If not, it's no big deal, as by the time I scaled-down the font, it's barely readable anyway.

I should add that this repaint would never have happened without the generosity of G-TraX / Rick Grout releasing the Generic HH660 to the RWA Library; a big "Thank You" for sure.

Back to work; Cheers!

[minerman146]

Rudi - they, they … aw heck they are ALCO! and ERIE! to boot!. You are so busy and manage to squeeze in some lovin for the boys back East. Its very appreciated. I always talked about doing 1972 to grab the newer 2nd Gen and the U34CH. On the other had, I kinda got this 1965 bug when I was doing the box cars. I always grappled with am I an Erie-Lackawanna fan or and Erie fan? I admit to trying to play it both ways. But one thing is clear, were gonna need a 1968 version of Croxton one of these day. Perhaps the gents over at G-Trax, who clearly like their old school, might consider a team up on doing some 1960s, North East, gritty Erie Lackawanna stuff some day. Ya never know!

And of course thank you for noticing the trees - I know I just throw stuff out here in a quick post without explanation. I would like to think whats sets me apart is how I work the mid to distant scenery to create the affect of an expanse. To make you feel part of the world, I believe that going deep (wide) is what makes much of the Bergen 'pop'. It is a bit of work to keep the trees displaying in both East and West directions and to allow for you popping out of the cab and going skyward to look at the land. Its a PITA but when it works, it does create a sense of the what this area really looks like. And since I live here, take my word for it, its dern close!

[minerman146]

Well, here I am again and its been a slugfest. Let's proceed with the Friday Update Status.

( ) Boyaa!
( X ) I coulda been a contender.

Getting back in the groove has taken 6 weeks and here I am. Route building for me requires focus and thought. I have to be in a constant frame of mind where I am thinking about the route during my drives to and from work. I have a one hour rest period from 8 to 9pm and then I head to the office. If I don't do that, I either skip that night or start too late to get much done. Usually, typing long posts sucks all my creativity away. The one thing I learned is that I have a fixed amount of this creativity to use in a day. Sometimes, work takes it all, some times its my darling wife discussing her daily trials and what's left after that - the route gets. What builds this well of creativity are two things: hope and vision. When I feel the past, I have a connection to the railroad. When I am connected this way I become driven. When I have hope, I believe I can finish this thing. Tonight, I got a bit of both.

I'll let the picture do the talking.

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Not too shabby for a workshop route. And, heh, yeah, its all got scenery on it too.
Carry On!

[minerman146]

I had a very good 2.5 hour session last night. It appears I am at MP 67/68 vigorously foliating the country side. As always, not too much to see except trees. This run is a scenery and fps check.

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*If your trying to figure out where I am, in the last shot, NY Route 211 is on the right hand side and the train is facing West to Middletown.

For the budding route builder - for this session, I had the all the roads, track, embankments, and forests done. For 2.5 hours, I planted 3d trees, grass, brush and my tri-color terrain paint for a 1.25 miles section and about 200 meters on each side of the track. THIS is what takes route building so long. All I can tell you is to relax and focus on just what your doing. DO NOT think about how many more miles to go. DO think about the next curve, signal, overpass or lake to motivate you. Also, do embrace changes in elevation, water, and foliage density if you are working from real life. It really is the randomness in nature that makes a route visually interesting.

And for those of you waiting for the next update, well, we ARE moving West! At this moment its hard to judge pace. I can say that this 'section' will be roughly 5 miles and will include Middletown-Wallkill Station and the 4 consignees. Based on previous experience, it would take 5 weeks from now to complete, if I was aggressive. I am NOT aggressive at this stage.

Carry on!

[TheTeenageFoamer]

Regardless whether it is in the woods, or in the city, your work is always top notch! I often reference your route when thinking of ideas for my own.

[minerman146]

I am gearing up to head up the office and lay down more trees. In between tasks today, I got to reading part 1 of this thread. 4 years ago I posted here and let everyone know about my ' very serious project'. This thread is two years old, and by gosh, I post every week at least once. And I am STILL freaking building. Today, I am getting a little be nostalgic for all the interest that existed for the route then, and to this day, on Steam, not a week goes by without a shot of the Bergen some where and each month, just about, someone posts a YouTube of some run on the Bergen. Its completely remarkable.

When the last thread ended in April of 2017, I had just laid down the Moodna Viaduct and surrounding scenery. In 2 years we have gone 14 miles to the West, added 16 miles of branch line to Walden and Montgomery, added 2 miles of track to Kearny NJ, reworked Carlton Hill and added hell's half acre in the Bronx. I can safely call that 32 additional track-miles in two years. The scope of this work, when I look back, is astounding. I shudder at the thought of looking ahead to 70 miles of track from the perspective of the Saturday night 5 years ago, I asked the younger if he could lay track at Suffern. And so, here we are.

I like to joke and say, "when I finish this route, I will finally get to play Train Simulator". You guys have no idea how close that is to being true. The truth is, when I am done, I will be helping with scenarios or making my own and just driving my route. Will I drive an English route? Nope. How about one of them mountain routes out West - Nope again. Subway? - nope. I suppose this is like building your dream house. Once you build it, you don't go into the construction business, you live in your house!

The words above were intended to lead in me begging you to let me just stop this already. I know its my own decision.
So, here is to you guys and to that day, in the future, when we call it done.
Carry On ( your wayward son )

[BoostedFridge]

For the budding route builder - for this session, I had the all the roads, track, embankments, and forests done. For 2.5 hours, I planted 3d trees, grass, brush and my tri-color terrain paint for a 1.25 miles section and about 200 meters on each side of the track. THIS is what takes route building so long. All I can tell you is to relax and focus on just what your doing. DO NOT think about how many more miles to go. DO think about the next curve, signal, overpass or lake to motivate you. Also, do embrace changes in elevation, water, and foliage density if you are working from real life. It really is the randomness in nature that makes a route visually interesting.

Your dedication and steadfastness to this project is second to none. This is what it takes to see a route through to completion

[minerman146]

Thank you Boosted - we just keep on - keepin on! And you too Foamer, if my talking and my pictures help you out - well that is a great thing indeed!
Carry On!

[AmericanSteam]

I have an unusual problem that I just noticed. New York Division Bergan Bergan Line does not show up in any of the drive tabs. It used to be there. It shows on the workshop page and in the build tab. All scenarios are there in the build tab. Steps taken, unsubscribe, from my profile page, from the workshop page, deleted the route folder from the content folder. Cleared cache, reboot computer. Resubscribed to the item and no joy. I went to a back up copy of TS on another drive and I can see and play all scenarios. Any Ideas? I am sure that I have something that is corrupted but the original steps should have removed any corrupted files. At a loss. This is the only route I have issues with.
**UPDATE***
I copied the entire content folder from the working backup and all is well. I will need to reinstall a few routes that were not included in the backup. Backups are crucial.