SW Pennsylvania Mon River Line

S

slabay

Baseline Content Creator
On & off again, I have been working on the Conrail (now NS) Mon Line. My grandfather worked for Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel in the Allenport Plant and I spent a lot of time up there as a child, so when I started with Trainz, I knew I wanted to build this route. Right now, the part I am on is from above Donora to below Brownsville and will center around the Monessen to Allenport slab train run by P&LE.

Here are a couple of screenies to get started with.... I'm open to opinions and suggestions.


slabay201105100001.jpg

CR8275 pulls a load of coal past the ballfield at Stockdale while coil cars wait on the siding to be loaded at Allenport.

slabay201107110005.jpg

SD60Ms pull a load of coal into Stockdale past the Allenport Mill.

slabay201107110001.jpg

An SD40-2 pulls a load of slabs between Coal Center and Elco on the west bank of the Monongahela.

This is a work in progress, I work full time and go to school at night, so this route may very well take forever to complete......
 
Nice work! You could use the new track and signals by jointedrail, though if it's TRS2006/04, then it probably won't work.
 
Well, let's hope it doesn't! And, if you do plan to release it, feel free to release it in stages as you work on it. I am very partial to big blue!

Looks great!
 
I'm using 09SP4, so the JR track will work. I've been using MP Wood and MP Rusty from the beginning, but I'll have to swap assets and see how it looks. I've heard it is great and has variable level of detail so it isn't too processor intensive, which is pretty important, since I don't have a hardcore gaming machine- I'm using a MacBook laptop.;)
 
From living in Pittsburgh and growing up in the area, It looks very good, however grass in this area usually isnt green, down near Donora, there almost is no green anyway. The trackwork is very good as well, may I ask how far the line goes?

Great Start so far

Josh
 
South East Pennsylvania?:eek: Don't you mean South West Pennsylvania?:hehe:

Anyway good luck on the route.:wave:
 
Last edited:
One of my favs....

:cool: The Monongahela X-Tra Reliable Series B23-7Rebuilds that were rebuilt from used U23B's were always a catcher of my eyes...!
 
stmsoccer said:
From living in Pittsburgh and growing up in the area, It looks very good, however grass in this area usually isnt green, down near Donora, there almost is no green anyway. The trackwork is very good as well, may I ask how far the line goes?

Great Start so far

Josh
Click to expand...

So what about the grass.... a lighter shade of greens with some lighter browns mixed in? I do remember my grandfather having a beautiful Zoysia lawn, but it about killed him reseeding, growing, and maintaining it, so that was more the exception than the rule, I'm sure.

I've got work and school this week so the Mac is running OS X right now and I can't look at my DEM, but I lost my original route I was working on and decided to go a little farther this time around. I know it goes above Donora- I'm pretty sure the NS yard at Elrama is on it. I thought about building the DEM all the way through Conway, but I'm not that ambitious. It includes Brownsville at the south end (because that's where the slabs cross the river). Cross-wise, it is wide enough to handle the Mon's meanderings, but I know at Speers I have a section of the W&LE that might make it all the way through to Union Twp. and I think it goes across to about PA51. I'm going to end up trimming quite a few unnecessary boards out of it, but especially with my time constraints, I've bitten off quite a large area.......
 
PC2279 coming off of the Brownsville bridge hauling the empties back to Monessen.
slabay201107140000.jpg


Crossing Redstone Creek.
slabay201107140001.jpg


Better grass texture? I went with one with a little more brown..... Let me know if I need more brown.
 
Street running in Brownsville.....
slabay201107180001.jpg

pd17-35.jpg


(BTW, any chance a Mod can change the SE to SW in the thread title??)
 
Cool shots man, but I can suggest 'Strabgleis 1 oF' by RW1HH as an alternative for the street-running track, it is a tramway track with no overhead wires.

And you can change your thread title, by editing the title in your first post

Jamie
 
JJDella said:
Cool shots man, but I can suggest 'Strabgleis 1 oF' by RW1HH as an alternative for the street-running track, it is a tramway track with no overhead wires.

And you can change your thread title, by editing the title in your first post

Jamie
Click to expand...

Cool! I'll give it a try. For now, it is just the trusty old MP Wood with the street spline raised up a little bit so that just the rails are showing....:)

I didn't like any of the "rail only" track that I have. To quote CascadeRilroad, it is just "too kinky", which is a bad thing, at least as far as track is concerned.:hehe:
 
On vacation, so I figured I could do a little more route work.....

Ex-PC SD45's pull empty Pennsylvania Power hoppers through Wayne Tunnel and across Ten Mile Creek on the way to load at Emerald Mine in Waynesburg.

slabay201108050000.jpg


O.K., so I'm a glutton for punishment. I wanted a coal mine, so I had to add another 25 miles of track south from Brownsville and west along the former Monongahela RR's Ten Mile Creek Branch to reach Waynesburg. I wanted Bailey Mine too, but I think it is off of my DEM.

As if I ever stood a chance of really finishing before.....;)
 
Getting a little more work done

NW pulls empty hoppers in the hills above Monessen:
slabay201108110000.jpg


A CSX local pulls loaded gons of scrap out of Assad Iron & Scrap outside of Brownsville:


slabay201108110002.jpg


slabay201108110001.jpg
 
Been a productive week

A Couple of shots from Coal Center, PA:

The P&LE slab train drags another load to Allenport through Coal Center.
slabay201108140002.jpg


SD45s head out to the coal mines of Greene County.
slabay201108140005.jpg



Bringing up the rear......
slabay201108140007.jpg
 
NOT done with this area yet

I'm not too crazy about posting unfinished areas, but I sort of owe Ben Dorsey some "installed" pictures. This area couldn't be done without Ben's AMAZING bridgework.

N&W leads empties out of Speers onto the high line bridge across the Monongahela.
slabay201108150009.jpg


A longer shot of the massive N&W high line K-truss bridge next I-70 on the Belle Vernon highway bridge.
slabay201108150010.jpg


Posing a shot you would NEVER have the opportunity to catch: A N&W switch job crossing The Mon on the high line, a P&LE coal load heads towards Pittsburgh on the ground level, while N&W drops down from Belle Vernon to the coke furnace in Monessen.
slabay201108150013.jpg
 
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