Modeling reigonals, class 2 ect. and their heritage.

justinroth

Active member
G'day all. I am working on a partially fictional route based on the Ohio river around Madison, Indiana. It also has significant portions based off of eastern Kentucky. Since it is mostly fictional I am having fun with "what if in an alternate universe" sort of situations because that's what appeals to me the most. I feel like this way you get to have the best of all worlds-old decrepit spurs and post-industrial blight steel mill river towns all the way to modern mainline operations and all in-between. Basically it is based around an ex-N&W line between Louisville and Cincinnati that follows the Ohio river, with an also ex N&W line headed south into the Kentucky hills, ran by NS of course. There is also an ex-B&O line and an ex-NYC line with many abandoned or torn up portions, the idea being that a shortline operates locals with track authority over NS to access industry and coal on these old tracks. I love old signals and being able to implement them into a modern route. I also love older transition-era diesels. I have little interest in making a time-period route as I also like modern signals and locomotives too. I figure this approach is the best way to be able to have all of these in one route. One disadvantage of going fictional is sometimes there aren't references or resources to implement what things would realistically be like. For example- The ex-NYC line is old, let's say it was abandoned by Conrail and didn't receive many updates. In current operating practice a shortline probably wouldn't have any CTC equipment-correct? What I am currently assuming would be the case is the signals are still there, but most of the switches are now hand-thrown, with the exception of those where there is access to CTC- controlled Norfolk Southern trackage.

Does this sound like it could happen or would the shortline be required to rip out the old signals?

Would a coal to barge transload facility be serviced by two seperate railroads?

Why would NS give the shortline track authority?
 
Highly variable situation. Some Short Lines did have and do maintain a signal system. Over time some of these were decommissioned.
 
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