New US Mainline Routes For Trainz 2019 and Higher?

I will start this thread so we can finally get some variety in the US Route building for this game. What are some of the most popular US Lines ( or even shortlines) that this game has not seen? It can be anywhere from 10 Miles to 50 Miles. I'm only 1 person so these things will take time, Leave your ideas and suggestions below! Remember : US Mainline Routes are what I am looking to do.
 
The Columbia Gorge from Portland, Oregon and Vancouver Washington to about Hood River, OR. would be about 62 Freeway miles. Extremely scenic, and it has the UP mainline on the south bank and the BNSF mainline on the North side. All the way to Umatilla, OR. would be great, but that is about 180 miles.
 
I've always thought that Trainz really lacks most well known or famous routes that we have in other Simulators and have had for century's.
Trainz has a plethora of fictional or proto inspired fictional routes but much of the proto routes have never been done or have yet to be done.

For Instance -

-Donner Pass (I know Jango has one but one that is for the modern era.)
-Full (Modern) Cajon Pass (I know modules exists out there, but I'm talking Barstow to San Bernardino)
-Marias Pass (I know there is one already, but again one that is up to TRS19 standards.)
-BNSF Racetrack - Aurora to Chicago
- CSX A-Line : Taft FL - Jessup/Waycross GA
- Water Level Route
- NS Chicago Line
- DRGW Soldier Summit
-DRGW Tennessee Pass
-Raton Pass
- Proto/Updated Clovis Sub
- Full Northeast Corridor
- Fostoria Ohio
- BNSF Stevens Pass
- Montana Rail Link (I know there is a DLS one but again one that is updated)
- More Updated/Proto Clinchfield RR
- Any Part of the UP Overland Route
- Any Wisconsin/ Minnesota routes
- Santa Fe Junction KC
- BNSF Chillicothe Sub
-CSX Indy Line
- L&N Coal Routes

I could go on for a bit but these are my suggestions
 
Would really love to see both the Tennessee Pass and soldier summit come to fruition one day for this game I've made some content for them both so far just small buildings and the like I actually just finished one of the Thistle Tunnel portals this morning.
Cheers Mick.:)
 
I've always thought that Trainz really lacks most well known or famous routes that we have in other Simulators and have had for century's.
Trainz has a plethora of fictional or proto inspired fictional routes but much of the proto routes have never been done or have yet to be done.

For Instance -

-Donner Pass (I know Jango has one but one that is for the modern era.)
-Full (Modern) Cajon Pass (I know modules exists out there, but I'm talking Barstow to San Bernardino)
-Marias Pass (I know there is one already, but again one that is up to TRS19 standards.)
-BNSF Racetrack - Aurora to Chicago
- CSX A-Line : Taft FL - Jessup/Waycross GA
- Water Level Route
- NS Chicago Line
- DRGW Soldier Summit
-DRGW Tennessee Pass
-Raton Pass
- Proto/Updated Clovis Sub
- Full Northeast Corridor
- Fostoria Ohio
- BNSF Stevens Pass
- Montana Rail Link (I know there is a DLS one but again one that is updated)
- More Updated/Proto Clinchfield RR
- Any Part of the UP Overland Route
- Any Wisconsin/ Minnesota routes
- Santa Fe Junction KC
- BNSF Chillicothe Sub
-CSX Indy Line
- L&N Coal Routes

I could go on for a bit but these are my suggestions


i think the problem is, these prototypical routes take YEARS to create, even making an 80 mile prototypical route thats not set in the modern era has taken me four years and i had two people doing the models for me, you need teams of people to do the work if you are going to make a large prototypical route, especially is its set pre world war one, as the items you need to create often don't exist, which i why its frustrating to see more and more modern cars, buildings ,people etc being made as many of these already exist whereas very little pre ww2 items ( or even early 1950s) are being generated.
 
flamerail --

I've just re-read your final sentence in your original post:

"US Mainline Routes are what I am looking to do."

Looking to do? Can I interpret this as routes that you yourself will be making? If so -- excellent and I look forward to the resulting routes. But I hope you know what you are committing yourself to. For the next decade or two your dog will have to do without his normal walks, you will become a stranger to your wife and kids, any friends you have will wonder what has happened to you, ... . As one who has made a few very small fictitious layouts I can assure you what you have committed yourself to is a major undertaking.

Phil
 
philskene... I guess the positive is... when a Pandemic hits you really don't notice it because you normally don't get out much anyway.
 
i think the problem is, these prototypical routes take YEARS to create, even making an 80 mile prototypical route thats not set in the modern era has taken me four years and i had two people doing the models for me, you need teams of people to do the work if you are going to make a large prototypical route, especially is its set pre world war one, as the items you need to create often don't exist, which i why its frustrating to see more and more modern cars, buildings ,people etc being made as many of these already exist whereas very little pre ww2 items ( or even early 1950s) are being generated.

I've noticed that. Years .......decades ! I'm focusing on breaking a large route from the 1880's down into smaller sections, using places the engineer would stop anyway to "wood up" ( unless it uses coal ) and get water as the terminus for that section and make the next section go to the next stopping point, be it fright, passenger or refueling. Even the fast freights and passenger trains had to stop along the way to refuel at some point.
 
The Columbia Gorge from Portland, Oregon and Vancouver Washington to about Hood River, OR. would be about 62 Freeway miles. Extremely scenic, and it has the UP mainline on the south bank and the BNSF mainline on the North side. All the way to Umatilla, OR. would be great, but that is about 180 miles.

Great idea. I live in Portland OR so I am familiar with this. I would have it run from Portland through the port area and the junction in Vancouver where the Amtrak station has one platform for N-S and one for E-W. On the East end, I would include the Mt Hood Railway which goes south for 22 miles from Hood River and is a heritage railway and does some freight.

For trains to be used the variety is very good: Amtrak (2 lines) Portland-Vancouver-Seattle and Portland-Vancouver-Spokane, BNSF freight on the north bank of the river, UP freight on the south bank, and whatever the Mt Hood Railroad uses (I'm not sure). The terrain would be tough to do manually but TrainzDem would give you raw terrain in less than an hour if you know how to use it. As background, include Mt Hood.

I am puzzled why no one has done this before.
 
Last edited:
AND, Lately I have seen more CPRail locos along with UP, and what looks like CPRail grain trains going along the south bank. So, a lot of chance for variety, and both north and east banks are main haul routes for both UP and BNSF. I hope I can learn TransDem now that I am retired, but I seem to be busier than ever. Even if I did, I don't think I could build it to the level of quality this idea deserves.
 
Great idea. ....

I am puzzled why no one has done this before.

I recently found out that fishlipsatwork created a Portland to the Dalles DEM back in the day, but it is not available. Some others are obtainable at his old site, but while that one is listed, the download link for it does not work.
 
Back
Top