Utica Division 1880's

JimDep

Well-known member
Utica Division

Utica, New York
Early days of wood burners and coal.

East Utica yard coming in
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More coming soon.
 
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Thank you oktonsen, much appreciated !

Snipe Street, looking south

 
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This route should be a great setting for some of my wooden PRR clerestory coaches and steam engines with big oil lamps.
 
it's a good match for your wooden PRR clerestory coaches and steam engines with big oil lamps. :)

Water Street, Utica and the old Potters Cemetery....which is now a junky parking lot ..


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Utica & Black River RR roundhouse, yard shack etc

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Engine house & shop ...






New York Central Branch ... southbound heading for canal bridge

 
:wave: Like your work a lot,

:udrool: One of my things I like on a Route is interesting Waterways, and yours fits the bill, it looks very interesting with the Retaining wall, and how it meanders around the city, adds a lot of detail to an already great looking Route..........

:) May I en-quire as to the name of the Track you are using here......Really cool looking for the period in time........
 
it's a good match for your wooden PRR clerestory coaches and steam engines with big oil lamps. :)

Water Street, Utica and the old Potters Cemetery....which is now a junky parking lot ..

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You mean you actually ran my clerestory coaches and big oil-lamped equipment on your route? I'd be honored. In regards to that, this is the exact route I'm looking for.
 
Your content works great ......thanks again !
Back to the days of men sporting 90 degree angled mustaches, top hats, a glass eye, peg legs and curly beards....woman with long floral pattern dresses, blue bonnets and large.....bustles. Straw hats were everywhere. Wood burners, Coal, steam and oil lamps....and REAL railroading :)

New York Central Station....Utica ( also shared by the Utica & Black River RR)










Under and around Genesse St ...and Bagg's Square.









Utica's Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Station

 
:wave: Like your work a lot,

:udrool: One of my things I like on a Route is interesting Waterways, and yours fits the bill, it looks very interesting with the Retaining wall, and how it meanders around the city, adds a lot of detail to an already great looking Route..........

:) May I en-quire as to the name of the Track you are using here......Really cool looking for the period in time........



Thanks, the two water ways shown are the old Erie canal, which originally ran through the Downtown, until the Barge Canal, a couple miles north of Utica replaced it in the early 1900's. What used to be the canal is now called Oriskany St.

The the river just to the north of the yard is the Mohawk, which has also been reverted away from the yard since. During the time period of this route, many trips went daily to a gravel pit, for the goal of filling in the swamp and that part of the river to enlarge the yard.

The track is called "Standard gauge sloppy track". If I could, I'd reskin it to more brown than red, but that content doesn't allow for it. What I like about it, is that there's no ballast and I can sink it in to the ground a little. There's no smooth transition from the other ballasted track and the "sloppy" track, unfortunately.
 
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I'll see what I can do to fill some more of the gaps resulting from the lack of decent 19th century content we have for eastern U.S. railroads in Trainz, not including the Civil War content that's been here for a couple of years now. Something more fitting for the late 19th century in the northeastern US would be a famous train from that time such as the NYC 999 Empire State Express or period correct clerestory wood-sided passenger equipment and vintage spark-arresting locomotives such as the B&O's William Mason.

I think that this route could hold up really well into the 1890's and 1900's.
 
Thanks, the two water ways shown are the old Erie canal, which originally ran through the Downtown, until the Barge Canal, a couple miles north of Utica replaced it in the early 1900's. What used to be the canal is now called Oriskany St.

The the river just to the north of the yard is the Mohawk, which has also been reverted away from the yard since. During the time period of this route, many trips went daily to a gravel pit, for the goal of filling in the swamp and that part of the river to enlarge the yard.

The track is called "Standard gauge sloppy track". If I could, I'd reskin it to more brown than red, but that content doesn't allow for it. What I like about it, is that there's no ballast and I can sink it in to the ground a little. There's no smooth transition from the other ballasted track and the "sloppy" track, unfortunately.
Excellent work,nice to see another US 19th century route.
 
Thanks, I didn't know there was another one. I'd like to see it.

Jumping ahead north, this is heading into the cut above Trenton Falls, NY and before the dreaded Remsen Hill....."where you have to fire like crazy" to make it.



A couple shots of the old Trenton Falls depot, along the Black River line.





 
I'll see what I can do to fill some more of the gaps resulting from the lack of decent 19th century content we have for eastern U.S. railroads in Trainz, not including the Civil War content that's been here for a couple of years now. Something more fitting for the late 19th century in the northeastern US would be a famous train from that time such as the NYC 999 Empire State Express or period correct clerestory wood-sided passenger equipment and vintage spark-arresting locomotives such as the B&O's William Mason.

I think that this route could hold up really well into the 1890's and 1900's.

It's hard for me to pinpoint when exactly electricity came into the cities up here and this, as you know was a huge transition period. The maps between1880 and 1906 show a big expansion for tracks and structures. Some old pics from the 1880's show elaborate electric poles and poles with several strands of telegraph lines following the tracks. There's also pics, supposedly from the same decade that show little, if any. Long story short, it should hold up through the early 1900's. Stage coaches were put out of business, but people were still riding horses out in the sticks.
 
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Thanks, I didn't know there was another one. I'd like to see it.
there used to be a civil war route based it think on the film" the general" and of course pencil is working on Virginia and Truckee. then there some very old ng routes , none prototypical.
i'd like to do one of the sections of the old south park when i complete the Uintah, whatever I do after is completed its going to be a nice short section...... not 80 miles long......
 
So in your descriptions so far you have mentioned the Utica and Black River Railroad and the New York Central Railroad. Are you going to include the West Shore Railroad which also seems to run through Utica during this period?

I see that you are struggling with finding signals for this era. I've had the same issue I'm not clear what signals were used in the US during this period and where they were used let alone finding any assets for these. You are probably aware of pencil42's no ballast tracks, perhaps they might help in some areas. Transitioning from no ballast tracks to ballasted tracks is difficult, the best I've managed is lowering the ballasted track and using textures to blend as best I can.
 
Yes, the West Shore line is included as it came into the east side of the yard, plus the DL&W had a major crossing with the West Shore on the south end of Utica and into New Hartford called.....appropriately....the "West Shore Crossing " ....so that's in there.
Another line north of Utica that runs from the Hinkley reservoir through Prospect and into Remsen was called the Mohawk & Malone RR, so the limestone Quarry in Prospect is there, serviced by the M&M. It meets up with the U&BR in Remsen, for the U&BR to take the limestone wagons back down to the Utica yard.

Regarding the signals, you're right.....what signals are tough but I do know they existed, at least with red and green lenses, placed at strategic locations such as yard entrances and station. I'm guessing they were like the early electrified ones, just used with oil lamps behind the lenses. Somewhat visible on a clear night, but not so much in a snow storm or fog. So what signals to use....

One term I'm not familiar are "green boards" meaning getting a green signal. Maybe it's the same thing, I'm not sure. I didn't know Pencil42 did a no ballast track. I'll look for it ..and I'll probably like ! ... although ripping up a lot of track at this point doesn't excite me too much.

Leaving northbound out of Holland Patent, NY.
 
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