Erie Lackawanna West End route

I've taken up a huge interest in the section of the Erie Lackawanna that ran through Indiana over the past couple years. The EL was taken over by Conrail in 1976, but there was a lot of debate about who would run the line once EL was gone. Mergers happened, such as the Erie Western (which lasted from 1977-1979) and another merger was proposed, but never succeeded. The tracks were removed in the early 1980s across most of Indiana. The bed from the line is still very obvious in places, and many artifacts are left behind. One of the most significant features of the EL West End was its innovative grade separation; its two mainlines, a designated eastbound and westbound track, were sometimes 50 feet apart in height (THAT'S been a pain to recreate in TS12...). A farmer even managed to get the cleanup crews to leave a large signal tower standing out in his field.

Just this past October, I began work on TS12 to recreate a section of the route as realistically as possible. It's been tedious work, getting all the measurements accurate down to the foot, making sure houses and buildings are all true to their real locations, etc. The route is far from done, but I wanted to share some screenshots of my progress on it so far. HOWEVER, make note that this route is something I most likely won't be releasing for a long time, if I ever do. It contains quite a few files from others that I've cloned and modified specifically for the route, so until I get approval from all the creators, this route won't be going outside my own hard drive.

Screenshots will be posted in replies.
 
Very nice job and that is a lot of painful work. :)

Are you building the grade and landscape manually, or are you using DEMs? If you are doing this manually, I highly recommend TransDEM. http://www.rolandziegler.de/StreckeUndLandschaft/startseiteTransDEMEngl.htm
as it will save you a ton of frustration as you attempt the grade work.

This is indeed an interesting project and an intriguing one as well. I always felt the so-called other companies outside of the Penn Central core were dealt an awful and spiteful blow by the former PC management, which essentially became Conrail's management. The former PC, now Conrail, used this opportunity to wipe out its competition as the EL was in much better shape than they were with its straight and fast mainline across the upper eastern Midwest. If this route existed today, I'm sure it would have been favored over the former NKP and NYC shoreline routes in use today as this was fast and smooth running.

John
 
Dang, that's some pretty advanced stuff. I should look into that... as for now, I think all the major grade separation is finished. The area between Akron, IN and the RX Interlocking near Laketon, IN had the most dramatic elevation difference. Luckily I'm now working on downtown Akron.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion... that looks like it could be extremely helpful once you know what you're doing.
 
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