Fictional Railroads: Do you rewrite history?

I'm using a healthy if not lethal amount of Imagineering building the Levi & Appalachian route. In short there is another gap in the Appalachian Mountains on the Kentucky/Virginia state line near the town of Jenkins, KY. The major class 1 roads use this for access to Louisville, Lexington, and points south and west. Cincinnati will become the next Chicago in size and importance and will be a bigger hub than it used to be in the past with a focus on machine tools, aircraft, vehicle, and meat production.

Coming through Boone's gap will be the N&W, B&O, C&O, PRR, and NYC. Seeing how Jenkins will be sitting there it will become a perfect transfer station between lines as the L&N and Southern will make their north/south runs through there also. With a large passenger station there the different trains coming and going should look spectacular!

The L&A was started just after the civil war in Levi, KY. and serviced a small coal and timber industry. As time when by upside down "mountains" of coal were found all through the Appalachians but by that time the L&A had reached both Jenkins and Cincinnati. The L&A was a perfect detour route to Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington if the railroads found their mainlines beyond capacity or fouled by wrecks or worse. It's not uncommon to see some of the iconic passenger trains rolling over the L&A's tracks from time to time.

The downside is it is 1939 and WWII is raging in Europe and the US is trying to supply it's allies with supply's and the countries railroads are pushed to their limit. To make matters worse oil is not as plentiful or cheap so 1st generation diesels aren't very popular and most of the oil is going to the war effort anyway. Steam locomotive builders like Baldwin, Lima, and Alco are working around the clock to supply the major lines with new power. Sadly the L&A is not one of the big companies so to survive their buyers went and bought any steam locomotive available in any condition. They are brought to the Levi heavy engine repair complex for repair and modernizing.

When you come to the L&A you will see N&W A and Y class locomotives along side the old Erie Triplexes. Also number of ex B&O, C&O, and PRR locomotives in the yards on on the main working. The reason is the L&A makes it's mainline an attractive option to other lines to use when needed. So you may see the 20th Century Limited, Broadway Express, Pocahontas, George Washington, or Cincinnatian blasting through along with the L&A's Moonshine Express and the Hustlin' Hillbilly.

Who knows with a number of Appalachian routes being built there may even be a few more the L&A could connect to?

So what's your routes story?


Dave

This is a great route description whether it's real or not (I don't know) .

I just wish I could come up with such a good history for my fictional route. I really enjoyed reading that history.

Dave

Dave,

I came up with a nice story about my fictional route.

The Enfield and Eastern Railroad

I don't have any good pictures yet, but my Enfield and Eastern, is located in the eastern portion of New England. What we have today is a far cry from what the original company was when it was originally formed in the early 1830s.

In 1640 the settlers founded the small village of North Amerhill, which is located on what is now known as the Enfield River. The great falls at this location supplied the Native Americans with fish and the settlers found the falls to be perfect site for their grist mills. The area was very prosperous, and during the 1750s, numerous grist mills were in operation. The river also became quite an important transportation route as the area was located quite a distance away from the more populous coastline.

In 1828, George Enfield built the first textile mill. He used the water as power for his mill, and his business became quite successful. By 1831 other mills had been built in the same area. The river supplied both power for the mills and transportation of the finished goods to the sea port at Eastport. As time went on, other business entrepreneurs built their own textile factories, and due to the increase in mills, there were now problems with the transportation of goods. The skiff operators had to battle constantly with low water during the summer months as the mills drew off the water to power their equipment. Eventually fights broke out amongst the mill owners and the shippers, and nothing was being transported anywhere. The local economy started to suffer as the mills ran out of raw materials, and anything that was transported, had to go on a very long and difficult overland journey.

Late in 1831 and early 1832, the discussion started about building a railroad from Enfield to the seaport of Eastport, which is located about 65 miles way. Work started immediately on the surveying for the route, and money was raised from the different towns, which became stock holders in the new railroad. The new rail company ran its first trains as far as Wrentham in mid-1834.

The Enfield Railroad, which it finally became known as, changed its name numerous times as it reached the different towns along the route, and even changed from Railway to finally Railroad at the end. By 1838 the new "railroad" finally reached Eastport, which was the final destination of this line. The original Enfield line followed the former tow path that ran along the river in the valley. The rail line bypassed the major cities along the way, but none the less did quite wells as it supplied services to the smaller towns such as Factoryville, Brimley, and Franklin Mills on its short branch that ran up that way.

In 1845 the Boston & Maine built its line to Eastport. They ran their line up on bluff above the river, and connected the major cities such as Pembroke, Wrentham, Acton, Bowman, and Eastport. The original Enfield Railroad never built a main passenger terminal like the B&M did, but shared the terminal with the B&M. During this time, the two companies coexisted nicely and interchanged traffic at different points along the way. The B&M even supplied passenger service to Factoryville and Brimley along the old River Line. A branch was also built to Willows Point. This line served the shoe mills at Devereaux, and the residents out on the point with commuter service to Eastport. The venerable B&M also had the advantage too of connecting the more genteel towns of Parkdale, Cottage Hill, and Radford. These towns had commuters that traveled to both Eastport and Boston. By 1885 the B&M had merged in the operations of the old Enfield RR as it swallowed up numerous other short lines in New England. The ERR became the River Line, which it is still known as today, while the original B&M became the Eastport Branch.

Eastport is located out on a cape just above Cape Ann between Plum Island and Seabrook, New Hampshire. The Merrimack River is on one side with the Enfield River on the more southern end. This cape forms a safe quiet harbor that is protected from the storms that hit the area during the winter months. The service along these lines was quite successful as the B&M transported commuters and goods to and from Eastport, Boston and other points west and north. They also built an interchange at Ipswich Junction where the line crossed the former Eastern Railroad, which by 1888 was now controlled 100% by the B&M.

The line was double-tracked over much of the route during the 1890s as the New Haven had gained control of the B&M. Like other parts of the New Haven, there were plans to electrify the system but this never came about. The panic of 1910 put the system into bankruptcy. JP Morgan had caused problems with his illegal stock manipulation schemes and this caused the panic. The bankruptcy lasted until just after WW1, and the boom times of the 1920s brought some prosperity back to the area once again. By 1925 the system was back on its feet after trimming a few shorter and less profitable lines in and around South Acton, Wrentham, and Acton.

Like other railroads in the country, the Great Depression took its toll on the service. There were some more branch trimmings around Acton and Wrentham this time, but the service boomed again during WWII as the mills were supplying textiles and shoes to the troops during the war. This uptick in manufacturing and shipping took its toll on the rail infrastructure, and sections were rebuilt and a few were single tracked. The system continued to operate quite successfully up through the 1950s, but as the mills closed one by one, when the original purpose of the rail lines ceased, the freight service was cut back to a less frequent basis. By this time, the lines handled more incoming than outgoing goods, and were mostly there to serve as commuter lines rather than freight lines.

In the 1970s, the lines still hosted a daily 5-days’ per week freights and daily commuter service. The passenger service was now handled by the MBTA, but run by the B&M. The passenger trains were now RDCs instead of locomotive hauled, but they served the purpose quite well. The old Willows Point branch was still successful as well, with a local based out there on the point with its 5-day freight operation as well.

In 1982 Guilford Transportation took over. This spelled the beginning of the end of New England rail operations as we know it. Immediately they caused a strike as they busted the unions, and changed the number of crew members on the trains. They also went through great lengths to discourage freight service on the branch lines. What was once a daily except for weekend service to Eastport and Willows Point became once a week if needed. The as needed freight became once a month single train that took all day and then some to travel to Willows Point due to the poor track conditions. The lines became so weeded over with small trees growing out of the sidings, and there were frequent derailments as rails collapsed under the weight of standing trains. The yards were mostly ripped up now since there was no use for any car storage. The only good track was that to Eastport because it was owned by the MBTA for commuter service.

By 1989 GTI wanted out, and threatened to cancel all freight service on the route. The residents, who had been fighting the declining service for years wanted to run the lines themselves. Over the years, GTI was brought to court, but nothing was done to improve service. In 1992 a stalemate was broken after a state judge ordered the company to give up and either operate the service, or let someone else take over. Surprisingly they let someone else take over.

In 1994, the Enfield and Eastern was born. This little company, which inherited a broken down system with lots of rusty tracks, and an amalgamation of different locomotives, started running trains again. Initially the service was as needed, just as GTI had left it, but as time has gone on, the freight service is coming back albeit slowly and steadily. It will never be at the pre-Guilford, or the pre-1950s levels, but there will be some service on the line.

In late 2005, the Enfield and Eastern became the designated operator of additional Guilford lines including former Plymouth and Bristol. These lines are part of the Maine Division, which runs up the coast from Newburyport along the former Eastern Railroad as far as Portland Maine, and consists of some smaller, but separated branches such as the Plymouth and Bristol and Bristol and Sandy Point.

Recently passenger service has been increasing almost to the point where it was prior to the Guilford takeover, and much credit can be given to GEPTA and GPTA (Greater Eastport Transit Authority and Greater Plymouth Transit Authority) as well as the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority) and of course Amtrak. There is through service from Enfield to Boston as well as trains from Bristol to Boston and Eastport.

As said before, the freight service has been a bit slower coming back, but it has been on a slow and, steady basis. The freight carried today, on the original line, is no longer textiles. Instead it includes, sand, gravel, coal, manufactured goods, plastic pellets, fish, poultry, livestock, and beer from a brewery that is on the line. On the Maine Division, an Enfield and Eastern subsidiary the South Bristol Industrial serves a large industrial park located just outside of Bristol. Located "in the woods", is a large number of plastics and other manufacturing companies as well as a recently relocated ethanol refinery.

The equipment used is an eclectic selection of diesels ranging from some older RS3s and other switchers to some Geeps and GEVOs purchased from Guilford, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Conrail. The passenger equipment is from the MBTA and Amtrak.

JC, what a very cool story, well done. I felt as though I was reading the story of a real railroad! I feel this is what gives a fictional railroad it's soul. I think your story contains a rich history and paints a picture of the railroads brightest and darkest days but still shows signs of a new life in the present day. It would be nice to see a timeline in pictures of the railroad but doing the same on my route would be a lot of work. Still it would be cool to see some early steamers working in the early days of the L&A.

In writing my route's history/story I can keep my route in focus so it can maintain it's proper feel. When you see my screen shots you will see a railroad struggling to stay alive and maintain its identity faced with the fact it has to get by on hand me down locomotives and rolling stock. Still the Levi shops are renowned for making a silk purse out of a sows ear out of any locomotive that shows up in the shops

I sincerely hope others write about they're routes, be it past or present. This is the beauty of our hobby; a chance to express our imagination to not only ourselves but to share it with others.

Dave

For my part, I don't necessarily re-write history, but I've created a history for every community on every route I built. Every railroad exists the way it exists for a reason, and when the reasons are defined, practices make sense. In my view, this extends town to naming of tracks. Nearly every siding and industry track has a name, often only informally. But devising names for these sidings and industry tracks lends character to the location, and helps define it's history.

For example, at one location I knew the team track was named the "boat track". The reason is that originally the town was a company town owned by a factory, whose owner had a sailboat that was stored on a flat car. The "boat track" was originally built to hold the flat car with the boat on it when the boat was not in the water. The factory was destroyed by fire 30 years before I learned of this, and closed 10 years before that, and the owner had not had the boat, or at least not had the boat on the flat car, for 20 years before that. But still the name persisted.

ns

Thai1On said:

JC, what a very cool story, well done. I felt as though I was reading the story of a real railroad! I feel this is what gives a fictional railroad it's soul. I think your story contains a rich history and paints a picture of the railroads brightest and darkest days but still shows signs of a new life in the present day. It would be nice to see a timeline in pictures of the railroad but doing the same on my route would be a lot of work. Still it would be cool to see some early steamers working in the early days of the L&A.

In writing my route's history/story I can keep my route in focus so it can maintain it's proper feel. When you see my screen shots you will see a railroad struggling to stay alive and maintain its identity faced with the fact it has to get by on hand me down locomotives and rolling stock. Still the Levi shops are renowned for making a silk purse out of a sows ear out of any locomotive that shows up in the shops

I sincerely hope others write about they're routes, be it past or present. This is the beauty of our hobby; a chance to express our imagination to not only ourselves but to share it with others.

Dave

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You're welcome, Dave!

I too find that a convincing story helps keep the focus on the railroad's purpose, and sets the tone of what it will look like. This I find is very important because it sets the difference between a model railroad and the real deal.

I tried to capture a real railroad here, and in some ways this is true history. In the Blackstone Valley, which runs in the Worcester - Providence region, the mill owners did go to battle with the Blackstone Canal operators during the early days. In fact it was because of this that the current Providence and Worcester RR was born. Later on they were a stepchild of the New Haven, but split just as the Penn Central came along, and have survived very nicely since then.

Guilford too is/was not such a nice company, and did cause a massive strike on the B&M, MEC, and the then recently included D&H during the mid-1980s. Sadly this forced many businesses away from rails, and the D&H ended up insolvent. The state of Maine brought Guilford to court many times, and recently the Maine Eastern has now taken over operations up through Augusta. The good news is they are running passenger service up there once Amtrak makes it to Brunswick, ME. The Maine Eastern is a former MEC branch line, and they have done a nice job hauling cement, lime, plastics, steel, and lumber. At some point, I hope to merge in the DEM I'm working on with my route. There will be an interchange setup with the ME, and this will be run as a separate railroad.

I've also made up sections of my route where there isn't quite a plausible connection, but it can exist by using a merged section like going from Wrentham to Bristol. This is the recently acquired Mountain Division. This was actually a merger of the L&N River Sub by Fireball. The route required quite a bit of reworking, replacing and updating, but the terrain fit perfectly with New England even though it took place 900-plus miles south. By replacing hardwoods with pines, I've turned Kentucky into New Hampshire. It wasn't quite as easy as that, but it does look pretty convincing. My dad saw the route the other day when I was driving and thought it was northwestern New Hampshire up near Whitefield and Colebrooke.

The town names are real, but come from various parts of New England whether they're in Vermont, New Hampshire, Mass., Maine, or even Connecticut. If I hear or see a name I like, I write it down for later. I've added quite a few this way just by looking at maps.

Your idea of backdating sounds great, but I agree that would be way too much work. Perhaps this could be done on one section just for photography purposes. I could picture some nicely framed black and white shots of some old steamers pulling the varnish into one of the stations.

I look forward to seeing your pictures. Your route sounds really cool.

John

Thai1on, it seems that you and TrainzDEM have hit it off just fine. That's a lot of railroad your building!. Keep us posted.
JCitron, that's quite a bit of 'Imagineering' and very well done.
I'm a history buff type, myself, so sticking closer to historic routes.
My Boston - Rockport route will be ready to import in a few days; still working on cleaning-up 'historic' usgs maps which will be loaded as UTM objects for the route.

steamboateng said:

Thai1on, it seems that you and TrainzDEM have hit it off just fine. That's a lot of railroad your building!. Keep us posted.
JCitron, that's quite a bit of 'Imagineering' and very well done.
I'm a history buff type, myself, so sticking closer to historic routes.
My Boston - Rockport route will be ready to import in a few days; still working on cleaning-up 'historic' usgs maps which will be loaded as UTM objects for the route.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a cool project too. The line up through Rockport is really beautiful and dotted with famous towns such as Magnolia and Manchester-by-the-sea, making it almost romantic!

On my route, I forgot to mention that the Sandy Point branch is totally non-existent in real life. I engineered the route along some real terrain, along the Penobscott River. What is a small part of Winterhaven, is actually Sandy Point. The real railroad is about 5 miles from where I ran my line, which I carefully worked to fit around the steeper hills. With everything in place now and tweaked pretty well, the trip from Sandy Point to Bristol is about 20 minutes by passenger train.

I have a whole history for that line too, which I have to post someday.

John

Proto-fictional routes/layouts are a popular concept in the model railway world. Many years ago, Railway Modeller here in the UK published a layout based on "what if", the Highland Railway had built a branch off the Far North line up to Durness in the North West. I'm almost certain at one point there were proposals to build a branch off the Kyle line from Garve to Ullapool.

Neither route if built would have made much money but would certainly have made for a spectacular and scenic journey!

I had one written up that took the path that the US Congress didn't. There actually at one time during the discussion about the formation of Conrail, the plan was to take all of the Bankrupt Railroads and split them into 2 railroads.......

Loven the idea's expressed here folk's so please keep them coming, I'm on the search for my own fictional RR so i'm getting heaps of idea's here.
Cheers Mick.:wave:

Mick, do what I did. Find the places you like/love then make a reason for the railroad to be there. For me Levi never had a railroad, well there was a short line sometime after the civil war but it has been lost to history but thanks to Google Earth you can still find some of the grades. I have used sites like http://libremap.org/ for old topo maps for towns and places for the railroad to go to and from. This will give your line a feel of something that really existed.

So I wrote a history for a reason for the L&A to exist. Just start small just like route building. You'll be surprised how the route will take on a life of its own. I started with a short line that would just run from Levi to Beatyville KY and connect to the L&N. Then found old track grades to extend the line so I decided the L&A deserved to be a small player in the class 1 railroad class.

Next decide what kind of equipment you want to run? For me, I'm a steam fanatic and especially for articulated locomotives. So I simply wrote history to favor the reason for steam locomotives to continue to be the main stay of railroad power. Plus learning the fine art of reskinning as been a bit of an addiction for me lately and slowed track work. Nothing better than seeing rolling stock going by with your roads name and logo on the side

One word of warning though. You can create a real monster I know I did :hehe:

Here's a little more imagineering... The Sandy Point Branch of my Enfield and Eastern.

PRNews Wire: (Eastport, Bristol, 12/24/2011) The Enfield and Eastern Announces a new addition to its stable of short lines.

The Enfield and Eastern, a successful operator of short line railroads and its own operations in the New England region, announces today that the company has officially been appointed designated freight operator of the former Maine Central branch from Sandy Point to Bristol. The company said it will operate the Sandy Point line as an integrated operation on an as needed basis with its own nearby South Bristol Industrial, and plans to attract businesses to the area.

About the Sandy Point Branch:
The Sandy Point branch is a new addition to the Enfield and Eastern. This line was initially built as the Sandy Point and Bristol and ran under wires as an interurban. The line flourished during the early 20th century primarily with its tourist trains out to the point. The Maine Central purchased the line in 1922, and the line was converted to steam operation then. There was some work done during this time to realign some of the route away from the water’s edge and to improve the grades, which were too steep for running steam, but fine for much lighter electric operation. As time went on, the branch soldiered on with less and less traffic, and passenger service was officially terminated in 1950 as the automobile took away the passenger service, and the LCL freight moved to trucks. The Maine Central still served this branch with a daily from Bristol freight, which in the latter years, consisted of perhaps no more than a car or two, sometimes more during the summer, when the fishing industry is at its highest peak. During the 1970s there was talk off and on of restarting passenger service to Bristol, but that never happened. The station rotted away and was torched during the early 1980s vandals. The hulk sat there boarded up and forgotten beside the tracks that were more grass than freight cars. When Guilford took over during the early 1980s, the company petitioned to abandon the line, however their petition was denied. They continued to operate the line with less and less maintenance until a washout occurred during a Nor’easter. The company then embargoed the operations and then petitioned again to abandon the line. This time the petition was granted, and the State of Maine purchased the ROW.

In more recent times, the area has seen a boom in tourist business with its beautiful location along the river, and its attractive Georgian brick buildings making up a bulk of the town. As the town reinvented its self from a fishing village to tourist maven, a group of locals formed a tourist railroad. This line initially ran to where the washout occurred, and returned. The power was that used by the nearly defunct Sandy Point Industrial along with some old rebuilt (actually just repainted) passenger cars). The service was quite successful, and saved the line from becoming a rail trail. With the successful tourist operation, the state provided funds to repair the washout so service could continue to Bristol. Today in conjunction with the Greater Plymouth Transit Authority (GPTA), Amtrak provides passenger cars and locomotives for passenger service between Sandy Point, Bristol, and Plymouth. The total trip time is about 50 minutes between Plymouth and Sandy Point. At this point there are no plans for passenger service further than Plymouth, although discussions have taken place off and on about extending service to Laurel Valley and to Enfield. This plan however would require rebuilding a long abandoned connecting branch from Sandy Point Junction to the Bristol-Lynnwood-Wrentham main line, also known as the “Mountain Division”.

Today the Sandy Point Branch exists primarily as a passenger connection to Bristol. There are still some seasonal freight operations in and around the seafront area, with the fishing and fish processing industry being the primary business on the line, and is handled by an interchange at Sandy Point with the Sandy Point Industrial. At this time, there are no other online industries on this branch, making Sandy Point the only freight destination however there are ongoing efforts to attract new freight business.

About the Enfield and Eastern:

The Enfield and Eastern runs numerous short line operations in addition to its own lines. These smaller companies are scattered throughout the region and are responsible for much of the smaller switching and terminal operations for the parent company. These short lines, like the Enfield and Eastern, operates various equipment from many manufacturers. The youngest locomotives are around 45 years old, and the oldest around 60. The E&E operates primarily EMD power with a smattering of ALCO here and there. Sadly the ALCOs are disappearing as they age and the parts are more difficult to get. The mainline locomotives consist of GP38s and GP40s purchased on the used market from Conrail and other operators in the northeast. Recently there has been an introduction of pooled power from CSX and Norfolk and Southern, which also operate run through coal trains to the various power plants along the line.

This regional rail service handles a variety of freight ranging from food products, plastics, and chemicals to gravel. In the greater Bristol area, the rail line handles warehousing and logistics services for regional trucking companies, scrap metal, plastics, biofuel, manufactured goods, gravel, and sand with service provided by its wholly-owned subsidiary, the South Bristol Industrial Railroad.

On Friday, just prior to this announcement, the E&E common stock closed at $22.80 per share with 20,000,000 shares still outstanding. A majority of shares are owned and controlled by company officers. The company recently reported pre-tax profit of $12 million (GAAP), and posted a dividend of $0.02 per share. This statement is presented under the Safe Harbors Act of 1938, and reflects current financial standings, and do not reflect future financial liability or stability of the operation. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

I suppose i'd best do mine.

Well seeing as though other people have done there stories, here's the story of County Bavorteinshire... :wave:

In 1980, the council of Bornheim (now called Reiderwald) decided to implement a tram line through the city to help ease the traffic flow through the city. This was a huge success and thus another line was implemented.

VGF then signed a deal with the council to implement a rapid tranist line to the main central hub of Frankfurt. The U4 was then built from the outskirts of the city towards frankfurt.

Due to the success of the building, Deutsche Bundes Bahn then signed a deal with the council to implement a suburban rail line which branched off to Sinkvahren. By 1985 this line was completed as was a huge success, carrying over 2 million passengers a month.

In September 1992, a tornado blew through the area, destroying the entire city of Bornheim and all surrounding areas. The railways were severally damaged and had to be destroyed.

January 1996 saw the rise of the new Reiderwald council, whose first priority was to start building the railway lines again. RMV, DB and VGF won the contracts and thus the lines were started again.

September 2000, the first S-bahn and U-bahn lines opened linking the city with Frankfurt once more. The line to Sinkvahren was deemed unsuitable due to the sheer cost of the line.

Spurred on by the success of the Lines, Frankfurt commissioned the companies used by Reiderwald to build 7 Underground lines and 6 suburban lines. This was deemed the Frankfurt U-Bahn and S-Bahn. The U-bahn operated by VGF and the S-bahn by Deutsche Bahn. RMV regulated the operations and managed the construction of the lines.

In June 2003, RMV made the decision to merge the lines together and form the Frankfurt central Hub. This brave decision resulted in the lines being linked to the original Reidwald lines, causing some lines to be over 50 miles long.

Part of the plan also implemented the stadt tunnel. The tunnel went from the HBF to the station of muhlberg and then into the Offenbach tunnel system.
The tunnel was completed in November 2009 and trains began using it on the 4th of January 2010.

Recent improvements have involved adding the station of Oberrad to the stadt tunnel and improving the punctionality of the trains. Ginheim on the U1 line has also had an S-bahn station added to it improving the links to the Fridberg and Bad Vibel.

That is the story of County Bavorteinshire.

V1 replicated the 1990 to 1985 era.
V1.2 replicated the 1992 to 2002 era.
V1.3 is the future of the line from 2010 onwards.

I hope you enjoyed the story

Regards

Johan

One word of warning though. You can create a real monster I know I did

Click to expand...

Thats what worrie's me Dave LOL, Hope we can see sum pics of the Towns/Area's or maps or what ever it is that inspired sum of these idea's for Fictional Route's, I have a heap of pic's in a special folder for my own Fictional RR. Mainly different loctaions other folk have posted or i've found on the net in Railway related site's and stuff.
Cheers Mick.:wave:

First post!

I'm brand spankin' new to the world of Trainz! First, a little background, if you'll indulge me--

I grew up a railfan, and made sporadic attempts to put together an HO model. A lack of time, space, money and talent always seemed to thwart my efforts, so over the years I turned more towards train chasing, often taking my kids with me. They're tremendous bait if you're fishing for being invited for a cab ride, BTW, or at least they were back in the day.

My now-grown son was killed in a car accident two months ago. While cleaning out his apartment, we came across the Trainz Ultimate Collection CD, still unopened. By the time he was in his twenties, he was not that much into trains anymore, so he had to have been doing a little early Christmas shopping. We wrapped it and put it under the tree. I opened it and was hunting for the forum to answer some questions when I came across this thread, so here's my fictional railroad story, the (believe it or not) short version--

Wisconsin was a brand-new state in the early 1850's, and every town and hamlet was clamoring for that newfangled railroad. Every community imagined that theirs was perfectly positioned to be the connection for every proposed rail line in the state. The village of Horicon was no different.

Back then, railroads were chartered through the state, so had to demonstrate some ostensible public need. The city fathers of Horicon proposed a road from Milwaukee, through Horicon, and to some point on the Fox River that the road's board of directors would be empowered to name. The Milwaukee and Horicon Rail Road Company was chartered on April 17, 1852. Being chartered and getting built were two different things, however. In the capital-poor frontier that was Wisconsin, there was not much money to be spread around by the dirt-poor homesteaders and farmers, who were poor mainly because they lacked a decent means of transportation to get their crops to market. The M&H had hoped to build to Portage, Wisconsin, so named because the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers were just two miles apart at that point, so the railroad hoped to build a little farther and be able to divert the logs floating down the Wisconsin from "up nort'" and run them to Milwaukee to be milled.

But before the M&H could lay a rail, a company with the backing of the (relatively) rich merchants in Milwaukee formed the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad, which planned to build Milwaukee through Horicon to Portage and on to some point on the Mississippi River, such as, say, La Crosse. M&H officials saw the writing on the wall and changed their Fox River terminus to Berlin, the farthest point upstream that a steamboat could navigate, anyway. They arranged for trackage rights with LC&M from Horicon to Milwaukee, and when the host road completed their line to Horicon in 1855, M&H began to lay track to the north, completing the line to Berlin by 1857.

M&H had been proposing for a couple of years to extend the line another fifty miles to Stevens Point, again intercepting all those pine logs that were coming down the Wisconsin River, and had sold much stock in the area. They also optimistically proposed that they would extend the line northwesterly, all the way up to Superior, Wisconsin. To further these aims, they followed a scheme that was first proposed by the Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail Road Company, wherein farmers would mortgage their land and exchange it for railroad stock. The railroad would then take the mortgages to banks back East and sell them for ninety cents on the dollar. That gave them the capital to build the railroad, which in turn would both pay dividends and make the farmers' farms more profitable. When the mortgage came due, there would be plenty of money to pay it off. This all went sour when the Panic of 1857 wiped out every railroad in the state. Eastern banks called in the mortgages early, sacrificing the interest that could be earned in order to get ready cash. Since the only thing of value the mortgagees had was their railroad stock, which was now being dumped on the market, the value of the stock plummeted. M&M was the largest purveyor of this investment scheme, LC&M was the second largest, M&H was the third.

Effectively being a captive branch line, M&H was never able to reorganize. They were eventually sold to LC&M and M&M successor Milwaukee and St. Paul, which later became the Milwaukee Road. The line from Horicon to Berlin became part of the Northern Division, spun off to the Wisconsin and Southern after the line from Ripon to Berlin was abandoned.

All of the preceding is true. Where I propose history skewed off into an alternate time line is M&H's decision to build their own line to Milwaukee, rather than being dependent on the LC&M. In 1856, it was noted that the latter road was even more heavily dependent of the house of cards financing than was the former, and when it was revealed that the LC&M was involved in a huge bribery scandal in order to win a land grant, that did it. M&H, by a narrow vote, decided to use the capital already raised for extending the line north of Berlin to building south, instead. A route was secured to and land acquired in the southern Menomonee River valley in Milwaukee, and a connection to the Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago Rail Road (later the Chicago & NorthWestern main line to Chicago). Getting out from the shadow of the LC&M attracted the outside investment necessary to replace the funds that had been earmarked to build toward the north. These measures didn't prevent the M&H from going bankrupt in 1857, but with a viable main line of their own, they were able to reorganize as the Milwaukee, Horicon and Northern, build to Stevens Point, and keep out of the clutches of the M&StP when they attempted to acquire the line in 1863.

By 1864, another land grant was being proposed. Historically, it was to build from one of four points (Portage, Fond du Lac, Berlin, or Menasha) to Stevens Point, then to Bayfield on the shore of Lake Superior, then on to Superior. It was actually awarded to two companies to build from Portage and Menasha to the Point and then jointly, but the two companies quickly merged to form the original Wisconsin Central Railway. In my history, however, MH&N was already in Stevens Point, having reached it from Berlin, so this portion did not have to be offered as part of the land grant. After some debate, the land grant was awarded to MH&N. When Lake Superior was reached in 1872, the name of the railroad was changed to the less provincial-sounding Milwaukee and Lake Superior Railway. Superior was reached in 1874, and a cutoff from Prentice to Superior was begun shortly afterward.

Other lines included one north from Stevens Point to Ontonagon, Michigan, which had historically been promised by the M&H promoters in 1857; a bridge from Superior to reach Duluth, Minnesota; and an extension up into the Missabe iron ore range town of Virginia (beating the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific to the punch). Other line acquistions included lines from Abbottsford, Wisconsin to Chippewa Falls and St. Paul. In 1909, the M&LS leased the Wisconsin Central, which had formed (albeit without the prospect of a land grant) and had built the lines from Portage and Menasha (later relocated to Neenah) to Stevens Point, and had built from Neenah south to Franklin Park, Illinois, where they gained trackage rights into downtown Chicago. During this time, WC locomotives and rolling stock were lettered in the M&LS style, but the locos were numbered in a different series and both locos and cars had a small WC identifier on them. In 1960, WC was formally merged into M&LS. (This precludes much of the original story of WC and SOO, which was actually the one to lease WC and later merge it into their system. I've tried to mirror what happened to WC, but through the eyes of M&LS instead of Soo Line. Soo's WC-owned locomotives were numbered in the 2000 series, for example.)

Acquisition of a logging line north of Virginia, Minnesota up to Ranier, Minnesota/Fort Frances, Ontario (what would otherwise become the northern half of the DW&P) enabled the M&LS to become an efficient and preferred bridge line to Chicago for Canadian National, as well as for Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Soo Line (who would lack an entrance into Chicago without the WC) from St. Paul. GN and NP would come to prefer M&LS even over their jointly-owned partner, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and GN would make the decision in 1926 to route the Empire Builder over M&LS rails. To participate in the joint service, several M&LS diesels would get painted in the orange-and-green Builder paint scheme. Unfortunately, GN and NP couldn't come to terms with M&LS for inclusion in 1970 for the proposed Milwaukee Northern, so they went ahead with merger plans including CB&Q instead, becoming Burlington Northern. Much of the bridge traffic was thus lost. When Soo Line inexplicably was able to purchase Milwaukee Road in 1985, the Soo's former Chicago traffic began to move over former MILW rails instead, as well.

(Wow, too much for one post. I'll finish it up in the next one.)

Second post!

(Continued from the last post)

In the late 1890's, Milwaukee and Lake Superior developed an interest in building a logging line in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Since this line would not connect with any M&LS trackage, it was decided to organize it as a subsidiary company, the Escanaba and Lake Superior. When Milwaukee Road sold off their lines north of Green Bay, it was E&LS that made the purchase, giving them a direct connection to their parent company in Ontonagon. Today, E&LS and M&LS cars are freely interchanged with each other, though each company's locomotives stay on their respective properties. As a subsidiary, E&LS followed many of the practices of the parent, including being a loyal customer of the Baldwin Locomotive Company through the period of dieselization. In 1980, a version of the old Empire Builder paint scheme was brought back. The older Baldwin diesels have held up well for both M&LS and E&LS, with used EMD units just starting to make their appearance in the present day, 1988. (The real-life E&LS owned only Baldwins until well into the 1980's, and began painting a few in a GN-like scheme-- the new owner grew up near the GN in Minnesota.) With the appearance on the scene of the new railroad, Wisconsin Central Ltd., with its handful of lines spun off from Soo/Milwaukee, it looks like interesting times ahead for M&LS.

I hope you enjoyed the story of the Milwaukee and Lake Superior! Now to start figuring out how to incorporate segments of real-life railroads and how to "build" the fictional segments, as well as "painting" some Baldwins in M&LS colors!

Welcome to the Trainz community. Sorry about the loss of your son.

ns

Doing some research only to find that the NYC (New York Central) never made it to Washington DC So to correct this error I will have the NYC make a run that leaves New York City and goes to Washington DC then south and west through Boone' Gap, Kentucky to turn north to Cincinnati and finally ending in Chicago.

My question to the forum is I need a name for this train? The train will be up scale like the 20th Century Limited and will service the nations political and industrial giants of a growing nation. The train will caterer to first class, business , and the political movers and shakers. The timeline for the train should be started around 1910 or so. So here is your chance to name a new iconic named passenger train in the USA. It may be fun to put this to a vote and I'll add this particular train to my route. Thanks and have fun with this :hehe:

Dave

Commodore Vanderbilt smiles opon you!