ORTS Switching Activity for the BCL Route Circa 1950

[MMSS]

For anyone interested, I did upload a new activity for Steve Durham's Blue Comet Lines route this evening. I am posting this here because the Activity Section is under the MSTS banner on the forum here and this was made and only tested in OR.

The activity is based on a CNJ's freight drill on the Barnegat Branch around 1950. In that era, the "Barney Line" was still a pretty busy branchline for them with a about 20 customers with private sidings or using team tracks. The biggest customer by far was Toms River Chemical (Later Ciba-Geigy) until 1990 now just a giant Superfund Site. There was even commuter service to Jersey City until 1954 still using camelbacks.

So here are a few screenshots of the act. If you care to download it, it does use 2 payware sets from BLW/ZT (The CNJ Freight Pack & The 1970's Northeast Freight Car Pack). Plus the CNJ Freight Car Upgrade by Chris Parker for the CNJ Pack available at Valleypass Forum (You need to have purchased the CNJ Pack for the upgrade's password). The rest of the downloads are from the library here on T-S.

Takes about 2 hours to complete. Only tested multi-times in ORTS (X4202) but might work in MSTS (I don't really care if it doesn't because strictly running ORTS for over 5 years now). So if it you are interest, it is uploaded to the library this evening.

Picking up at Lakehurst

Running south through Toms River


Drilling out in Waretown @ Catts Mfg & Waretown Mfg


Picking up & setting out @ NJ Pulverizing in Pinewald (Bayville)


Running back north on the Southern Division @ Lakehurst


Set & done at Lakewood Yard Track 2... MILLER TIME !!!!!


Enjoy !

[R. Steele]

Thanks, Mark. Activities always welcome, appreciate your time and effort. The Blue Comet is one of my favs.

[MMSS]

Thanks, Mark. Activities always welcome, appreciate your time and effort. The Blue Comet is one of my favs.

Thank you Gerry, As it is one of mine too. A great route for a mixture of different activities. From mid distance passenger trains, commuters, local freights, military trains, mega petroleum, chemical & Silica sand drilling it has it all. And for people who might not have a powerful machine, very graphic friendly & nicely detailed. (And OK, I lived along one of it's former lines in the early 1980's so I am bias ).

[phlyerxx]

Thank you for a most interesting activity for one of my favorite routes.
Ran flawlessly in MSTS by the way. Frame rates in the 20's for the most part. A bit less with OR probably due to my ancient XP system.
Looking forward to more of the same!

Phil

[MMSS]

Thank you for a most interesting activity for one of my favorite routes.
Ran flawlessly in MSTS by the way. Frame rates in the 20's for the most part. A bit less with OR probably due to my ancient XP system.
Looking forward to more of the same!

Phil

Great Phil ! Glad to hear you enjoyed it & that it ran good for you in MSTS also. I keep one ancient machine around too for that purpose at times. It's a old Gateway PIII Duo-Core 1.5G with 2GB RAM & a GT680 video card. My son told me it played on it too around 33FPS. The reason I think it played OK was there was no AI traffic on it.

And the reason why there was no traffic on it was the Barnegat Branch in that period had early morning commuter traffic, then it do its freight drilling by 4PM, then after 6PM the southbound commuter traffic. But from wartime (1945 back) it was a very busy branch.

There are a few more activities for the route coming up soon. Next freight one takes a bit of time because of the distances between set-offs. It goes from the Bayonne Navy Yard & delivers at NAS Lakehurst on the Southern Division & at NWS Earle pier in Leonardo on the Seashore Branch. These "secret" moves on the CNJ to the US Navy bases were always done at night for security reason & ran into the late 1960's. There is minimal AI traffic on it mostly between Bayonne & Red Bank in the first half of it.

And there are more so just keep an eye out for them & thanks again for the kudos .

[phlyerxx]

Definitely looking forward to your next one!
I see you have freight activities that were published previously for the Blue Comet. Will be trying those as well.
Thanks again!

Phil

[conductorchris]

Thank you Mark.

You have also motivated me to get back to work on the 1970's CNJ Southern Division set.

Christopher

[MMSS]

Thank you Mark.

You have also motivated me to get back to work on the 1970's CNJ Southern Division set.

Christopher

Thanks Chris, I am on a roll again, feeling a bit better but a lot of non-sleep because nights are the worse. So I killed the time by finishing all these activities I have in limbo.

The activity I mentioned to Phil is actually being finished thanks to you and the CNJ upgrade pack you made ! The 65' CNJ GB with the Grumman crate is the center of the run.

A friend of my dad was a US Navy Liaison in the 1960's out of the Bayonne Navy Yard. He once told me he did more travel by train in NJ than most commuters. Back during the Vietnam War. The LIRR use to carfloat a lot of parts & avionics from Grumman in Long Island for the Navy, mostly for NAS Lakehurst & the FAA Tech Center (The former NAS Atlantic City, the Navy moved out in 1958 but left a few techs to work with the FAA into the 1970's). Some parts were shipped out at NWS Earle in Leonardo on their huge 2.9 mile pier (That's right, it is 2.9 miles long !) they have. He said they use to ship out Grumman avionics & jet parts from the pier to where needed. And at NAS Lakehurst they got parts for the F9 Cougars for developing different versions like the F9F-8, F9F-8P, etc. So he spent a lot of time in a Navy Caboose with the security details assign to them. So Steve Durham's Blue Comet Line route has the sidings for Bayonne Navy Yard, NAS Lakehurst & the NWS Earle Pier into Raritan Bay, so I figured with the Grumman filled CNJ gondolas from the upgrade, why not ? A nice long run, trips on the CNJ main, Elizabeth & Perth Amboy, NY&LB, Southern Division & Seashore Branch makes it a nice long run.

And I love that you are thinking of working on that 1970's CNJ Southern Div. set again. Just throw in a PRSL cabin in there for interchanging at Winslow Jct. . It will go great with the AS16 Baldwin Pete Willard has in the D/L library here because they used some of them right up to Conrail with the GP38's with duel cab controls.

[derekmorton]

I will be running the activity as well.

cheers
Derek