South Kaiser & Trent Mountain Route ver 3.0

The original route was a Steam Workshop route posted by CSX846 which was revised by Peter Z (pkz19) and posted in the RWA library in July 2019.

This is a quote from the 2019 version notes:

“This is a mountainous route that was originally set in the Appalachians, but it could work in many hilly areas such as the Rocky West or Canada.
It has two lines; one is a main line that runs mostly downhill from east to west, and the other is a hilly, curvy mountain line with grades as high as 4%; it has a small town at the top with some industries, a coal mine, and a sand quarry. Be advised, coming off of Trent Mountain, right after Kinnison Mine, there is a particularly tough grade that I tested several times. Two SD80MACs cannot pull 25 100-ton full coal hoppers up the grade without stalling out. Plan accordingly; it makes for fun power consists. I guess I could have added doubling sidings but I didn't.
The main line has a scenic horse shoe curve and some challenging grades; running northeast from Davidson to South Kaiser you will want good power on the head end, or helpers on the rear, or both.
There are a number of pertinent locations on this route. The big yard is Davidson, and that's where the Trent Mountain Line connects. Trent Mountain has the Osborne sand quarry, Kinnison Coal mine, and Trent Mountain Village, which is home to a wood products company, a seed/feed business, and a paint company.
In between Davidson and South Kaiser is the town of Conway, with a passenger station and a fuel products distribution company that takes in tankers of gasoline, home heating fuel, diesel, etc. and then ships them out in tanker trucks. Once you reach South Kaiser, you have a smaller yard which serves eastbound traffic. It also connects to Osborne sand quarry's retail operation and Bruder Building Supply, which takes in cars with building materials.”

The customers detailed above have been maintained and added to, some minor track additions made to accommodate them

The original author and pkz19 have stated that there were a number of issues with the route in regard to signalling and speed limits particularly.  
I have, hopefully, resolved most of those issues by completely resignalling, perhaps too much signalling for such a line in reality (it would probably have been operated by dispatcher) and by converting all but short pieces of track to one track rule (whereas there were many). The track rule used is one of those previously in use – Sherman Hill. Some grades have been “levelled” so that the maximum is now a very short section on the Trent Mountain sub (a few hundred yards) at 3.0-3.2% instead of a long stretch (in excess of a mile) at in excess of 4.2%. A pair of GP9s can make the grade with 12 loaded sand hoppers and caboose, a pair of SD40-2s (Kuju) can take 20 + loaded coal hoppers. An additional branch now leaves the Trent Mountain sub and climbs to a stone quarry and a sawmill complex adding additional traffic.
Davidson now has an Intermodal terminal and there are turntables at Davidson engine facility and South Kaiser engine facility.

The previous versions were set in the Appalachians however I chose to enable it to be more generic the PRR signals were restrictive. It is of course still mountainous but the signalling is generic and the southern part of the route has been extended into hilly ground south of Davidson (the main yard), with a large stone quarry adding a revenue source. The original/v2 route had a tunnel mouth at the end of the South Kaiser yard complex. This has been extended through to give start points for traffic and an end point for AI traffic.

In addition the grade crossings have been adjusted so that the interactive road traffic no longer commits suicide when trains pass.

I have not changed any road vehicles so they tend to be 1950s.

There are a number of Free roam scenarios so you can explore as you will plus 8 standard scenarios using mostly default stock please feel free to change, I suggest using TS Tools, to suit your choice of location and road.

If you have any problems or wish to comment you can contact me via the RWA

This is freeware and you can do with it what you wish except make money from it. Should you wish to publish your version please feel free to do so but I request that you please acknowledge those who have gone before.


Mindenjohn
RWA member
November 2023