Dry Brook & Esopus Valley expansion

[rwk]

I got an idea to extend the route past the partially washed out bridge, apparently there was never going to be a part 2 to this route so I'm going to make one for myself. I will initially have it in an abandoned/unused state, then eventually I will rebuild the bridge and restore the abandoned track. I found a nice abandoned yard on a site, but the elevation is at zero like the eastern end of the DBEV, and the western end is at a higher elevation because the track climbs through the mountains. If I would use that on my route I would have to do a gentle slope downgrade. Or, I could just forget the yard and keep the western part of the route at the same elevation or copy and paste the yard onto the higher elevation boards that I create. This is the abandoned yard route which is freeware and the license is that you can do with it as you wish. https://mal39trainz.weebly.com/abandonedunfinished-routes.html#/ Of course, this expansion of the DBEV will be for my own use. The abandoned yard would fit right in since it's based on NYC, Penn Central, and Conrail probably in NY State. Then, I will add more miles of track beyond the yard initially as abandoned. The yard will probably be located several miles past where the DBEV route ends. I want to have a few more towns and stations with passing sidings for future tourist service expansion on my addition to the route. I don't like when rails are torn up for trails, so in my universe there won't be any trails replacing rails. NY State though seems to have these trail groups which can pressure for the removal of rails for trails like on the upper end of the Adirondack to Lake Placid or parts of the Ulster & Delaware that were unused by any of the tourist railroads. Once the rails are gone they aren't coming back. There is something by Wearsprada or something on that abandoned yard route which can't be found by kuid search and I don't have a title of the asset. In that case, the only way to find it is to ask around, or message JR. It's probably not that important.

 

[JCitron]

That's a nice idea. I can't remember what the elevation difference is on the abandoned end, but it's not that much compared to the rest of the route. I expanded past the bridge and connected the route to another one at one time and more recently put a portal on the end to allow some offline traffic to come in from that direction.

Back to your route...

You could place the yard some distance away to allow for a smooth approach as you said. The alternative, without looking at the route other than in the pictures, is to extend the DBEV over the throat of the yard on a bridge and then bring the yard in on the side as it's another branch line that interchanged with the DBEV

I recommend purchasing Joe's Hudson & Western. This is a module that connects to the DBEV where the track is abandoned at the current end of track that once crossed the Conrail mainline at grade and then runs behind the office buildings. Using a bit of track upgrades and brush clearing the line connects up perfectly. Parallel to this line is a trolley that runs around a loop at either end. The H&W ends at a nice yard with some riverside docks, industries and a passenger station.

 

[rwk]

I saw that somebody merged it with the Eagle River at the end where the bear is at the highest elevation, but the DBEV is set in NY state and Eagle River looks more like Oregon or Washington State. I also have the Muskanippee Valley route from the defunct Control Point Simulations as well as a Maine Central route through the White Mountains that part is Conway Scenic now. i want to merge the Muskanippee Valley with the one from the DLS, they are very different from each other, and I want to add on to the Maine Central route to make the complete Conway Scenic.

 

[JCitron]

I saw that somebody merged it with the Eagle River at the end where the bear is at the highest elevation, but the DBEV is set in NY state and Eagle River looks more like Oregon or Washington State. I also have the Muskanippee Valley route from the defunct Control Point Simulations as well as a Maine Central route through the White Mountains that part is Conway Scenic now. i want to merge the Muskanippee Valley with the one from the DLS, they are very different from each other, and I want to add on to the Maine Central route to make the complete Conway Scenic.

I saw that post and tried it but didn't like the look of the route afterwards. I agree the terrain is much different in the Pacific Northwest compared to New York State and New England, and even then, there are some big differences between the regions.

I have that White Mountains route. The author did a good job with it. I merged that in with the Stratton Falls route. It took a bit of fiddling and a tween board or two to line them up.

Approach Medium, aka Joe, made the Hudson and Western to merge into the DBEV.

 

[rwk]

I missed out on that Stratton Falls route and I think it was $10 bucks. Now the site is closed and no way to get it. At least I have the other vaporware routes like the Maine Central (Conway Scenic now) and the Muskanippee Valley.