North American mainlines: What hasn't been done?

[Orbita]

A few days late, but I wanted to add this to the list in addition to what I posted previously. There really isn't much interest in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is a surprise to me. There really are some fascinating aspects that would be cool to see in a train Simulator. It's got a little bit of everything. Freight, Passenger, Light Rail (DART), and even commuter rail (TRE). It's like the LA of the South.

[necrails]

Amtrak Northeast Corridor from Boston to DC plus the keystone service to Albany. I wonder if stripping down the PRR eastern division is a way to begin.

[1996fan]

The railroad capital is not represented on OR very well other than the CNW which Eric is building. The following would make awesome route with massive switching opportunities as well as Amtrak, freight and suburban commuter traffic.

The Elgin Joliet and Eastern referred to as Chicago's outer belt and presently owned by CN, The J touches every railroad that enters Chicagoland
The BNSF racetrack which could actually go from Chicago to Galesburg
The Panhandle line from Chicago east through Indiana
There are so many routes out of Chicago that head south
Finally the Kankakee Beaverville and Southern shortline which runs from just south of Chicago to Indiana and central Illinois, This route which is about 150 miles is owned by a personal friend of mine and I can have access to everything but sadly I have no route building skills! (any takers)

I think that Chicago to Galesburg via both the former ATSF and BN would be an interesting route. You could throw in the Illinois Railways lines from Montgomery to Streator and the line from Zearing to LaSalle. And if the route creator wanted too they could possibly even throw in the Barstow sub and part of the Brookfield and Ottumwa Subs. Making it more of a BNSF Illinois mega route.

[ossie]

A few days late, but I wanted to add this to the list in addition to what I posted previously. There really isn't much interest in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is a surprise to me. There really are some fascinating aspects that would be cool to see in a train Simulator. It's got a little bit of everything. Freight, Passenger, Light Rail (DART), and even commuter rail (TRE). It's like the LA of the South.

I agree Kyle. I've always been a bit surprised by how underrepresented Texas seems to be route wise. I google earthed my way down the line from Houston to Galveston a couple of years ago (and apart from the challenges big cities present to route builders) thought that would be an interesting route crossing the bay and coming down into the port area.

[eric]

There really isn't much interest in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is a surprise to me. There really are some fascinating aspects that would be cool to see in a train Simulator. It's got a little bit of everything. Freight, Passenger, Light Rail (DART), and even commuter rail (TRE).

I've got the start of the FWWR sitting in the deep freeze. TRE to Dallas gets pretty complicated but works as an endpoint vs the center.

One of these decades it might come out.

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

The railroad capital is not represented on OR very well other than the CNW which Eric is building. The following would make awesome route with massive switching opportunities as well as Amtrak, freight and suburban commuter traffic.

The Elgin Joliet and Eastern referred to as Chicago's outer belt and presently owned by CN, The J touches every railroad that enters Chicagoland
The BNSF racetrack which could actually go from Chicago to Galesburg
The Panhandle line from Chicago east through Indiana
There are so many routes out of Chicago that head south
Finally the Kankakee Beaverville and Southern shortline which runs from just south of Chicago to Indiana and central Illinois, This route which is about 150 miles is owned by a personal friend of mine and I can have access to everything but sadly I have no route building skills! (any takers)

Are you sure? ChicagoLand existed from last I checked.

[CSRX]

Speaking of big cities..
I honestly have wanted to do the Saint John, NB area with its current operations, but the amount of city life in that region is a bit too much..

The other thing is Albany, NY for the CP/D&H Canadian Main into Montreal, QC, but again, too heavy with city life..

[rdayt]

The Monon covers a lot of Chicago.
Chicago.jpg

Randy

[CNW 5099]

The Monon (and too the Buffalo Route) are bar none in the top five best routes in MSTS/OR. The fact that the Monon includes Indiana AND a good (and I think only) representation of Chicago is amazing and the route is premium payware quality.

As for the thread title, I don't think any Train Sim has covered the Gulf Coast/Chemical Coast region which is a shame.

[ZachBell4400]

Amtrak Northeast Corridor from Boston to DC plus the keystone service to Albany. I wonder if stripping down the PRR eastern division is a way to begin.

GusTheGator is working on the Washington, DC-New York Penn segment of the Northeast Corridor. He actually works on the route in real life, so he's got the idea. Haven't heard from him in a while.

[Orbita]

GusTheGator is working on the Washington, DC-New York Penn segment of the Northeast Corridor. He actually works on the route in real life, so he's got the idea. Haven't heard from him in a while.

I beelieve captain82 was working on that route as well. I remember a post he made years back about taking over modeling for that route. If my memory serves me that is.

[rt35ge]

New routes for D&RGW Moffat Line, Joint Line, and Glenwood Springs-Grand Junction from say an era from 1970 to the SP merger would be nice. I'm a Railworks guy now, but have thought from time to time learning TSRE and trying my had at the Moffat portion. That's the railroad I grew up with. I got all the KML markers from the Railworks route I'm currently desigining. Dealing with fixed track sections compared to the flexibility of Railworks I'll have to get used to again.

[BurlingtonNorthern11]

As someone who often visits the Moffat and Joint Lines, I would absolutely love for them to be renditioned for Open Rails. (Maybe an idea for Trainsimulations or some other talented route builder who can either retrofit or build an entire new route).

[landnrailroader]

With reference to that "largest railyard---", I remember way back around 2002 or so some guy wanted to do the entire (if I remember right) Proviso yard. I put together my version of the Nashville terminals a few years ago so I could use it in 3 routes, if at 86, I live long enough, and I included Radnor. Now Radnor has 50 some tracks in the classification bowl but I used 10. In the receiving & departure yards there at least 15 tracks each, but I used 6. For the Proviso guy, several of us mentioned the limitations in MSTS track. Among other things the spacing in multiple track was larger than prototype. M-tracks is closer but in both cases, if the yard is on a curve you don't have enough values of multiple track curves. Soon I will release the mostly complete Virginian and when Simon Van de Laak did the area around Mullins, he had no choice but to use as many parallel curve tracks as were availble and then use dynamic pieces, so it has a lot of those. Now the problem I have is creating decent test activities before releasing a route. Usually I can use an existing, maybe existiing for 15+ years, consist and go from there but it was a lot easier to do at least simple activities in MSTS.

Jerry Sullivan, P.E. (retired from CSX, Southern, and as docent on the C&TSRR)

[landnrailroader]

I think you will find the Moffat line in the library, and I know that the old line over Rollins Pass is there. One of our very best route builders did those several years ago as well as most of the narrow gauge in Colorado. Just before his death he sent his Mega route to me to complete and I did, and it is in the library. Don't know about the joint line.

Jerry Sullivan