How good are the highly detailed routes available in the File Library?

[Guest]

I have the below ORTS routes made by Train Simulations Net as of now-

BNSF Scenic
BNSF Seligman
CN Ruel
Mullan Pass
SP Shasta
DRGW Green River (archived)
ATSF Seligman (archived)
CP Mactier (archived)

I will admit that at least till date, I have never seen such gorgeous and well designed routes made for Open Rails.

Since I do not wish to steal anyone's thunder, I would like to know that of the North American routes available in the File Library, for free or for purchase, which of them could be considered nearly equal in comparision to any of the above given routes in terms of overall design. I have heard much praise of TSN and was wondering if anybody has been able to put up some good competition.

[yellowdog]

Try Kenny Eaton's versions of the Pokey and the KD Sub

[dcarleton]

Try the Monon, the Conn River, and the Dominion Atlantic.

[SD40-2]

If you're looking for something fictional, Full Bucket Line v4 by Russ Henson is a superb rebuild of the classic route.

[ossie]

The TS.com store now hosts the 3D Trains Feather River route. It's one of the best of all time in my opinion.

[frliss]

I strongly recommend the MONON route. It's been a favorite of mine for years.

Fred

[Orbita]

Surfliner 2.3 and Cima are quite good. Let's not forget the incredible Pocahontas route upgrade from earlier this year. That rivals the Monon for dense scenery.

[derekmorton]

>3D Trains Feather River route

That one is the top of my list.

[landnrailroader]

Of the freeware routes, Kenny Eaton has done a fabulous job with the Pokey and the KD Sub. I will be releasing a upgraded KD in a few more weeks. It will be incomplete and I hope Kenny, or someone of his calibre grabs it and details it. I only lack a few bridges on the Cow Creek branch (constructed 1904, some parts abandoned 1970ish. The Mines up on Windrock Mtn. were active until the early 1990s but when the L&N raised their freight rates in 1954, the Duke Power folks abandoned shipments from there and started getting their coal elsewhere. The line was inactive for 16 years and then coal started flowing again, this time to the TVA Kingston Plant but it went by truck as the distance was only 20 miles or so. The section from Oliver Springs to Windrock was then abandoned by 1972 or so. The line from Dossett to Oliver Springs still exists but when you go to an earth view of GE, those rails look awful rusty. L&N trains used to use the line to Oliver Springs and then continue to Harriman by way of trackage rights over the Southern, granted around 1950 or so, when a TVA dam raised the water level over the L&N track. This was so coal from L&N served mines in eastern Kentucky could get to the Kingston Plant. And of course, a detailer can get real creative when they tackle the branch & spurs that lead into the Atomic plant areas of Oak Ridge.
There are a lot of warehouses and bare foundations in that area now, and a local historic group keeps their railroad equipment there.

Jerry Sullivan

[Rockeiro]

I'm a fan of anything Paul Charland makes. One of the top digital train artists around. My personal favourite is the Dominion Atlantic Railway V3. Paul spent about 10 years on that route extending it every version until it went from end to end (Bedford to Yarmouth). He has replicated accurately nearly every building on the route but especially the stations. Hit 8 to take a tour and take a look at the Kentville townsite, the Greenwood Air Force base, the Cornwallis training base or the Yarmouth town just to name a few or the larger and totally impressive locations that he detailed. Take a close look at his DAR steam engines, DAR passenger cars, gypsum hoppers, the Hantsport gypsum loading facility and the S3 and SW1200 CPR diesels as well the the CNR diesels coming in from Bridgewater on the H&SW line. Detail is superb I'm sure you will agree. The whole line is also documented with tons of photos to compare to the route at http://dardpi.ca/wiki

[wwhall]

My favorite freeware route is Blackfoot 3 ( ORTS Route--CN Blackfoot Summer Edition V1 ). The route has outstanding detail, with many scenery objects that are actually modeled after buildings, etc. in the prototype. It has all kinds of potential for interesting activities, etc. The route's only "drawback" is that, like the prototype route, it is not signaled. As previously mentioned, Surfliner 2.3 is another outstanding route. One could literally run that route for months and not fully explore all of it. Though it is a fairly short route, LaSalle Rockford & Central with the scenery upgrade is another very well-detailed route. Cima is also a very good route. Though an older route, Horseshoe Curve is still a nice route. Finally, though it too is older, the Northwest Route V6 is still an enjoyable route with a lot of detail.

.

[geepster775]

I would like to congratulate the OP for approaching the situation in the best possible way. This is how other users should approach things. Start with acquiring actual Open Rails-grade routes first, set that high bar, and then expand into the made-for-MSTS grade route landscape slowly and carefully AFTER receiving sage advice from the forum.

Contrast this with the unfortunate approach of so many other users frequently going for the MSTS-grade stuff first 'because its free'. These users never see the high bar or get any baseline with which to compare when they start off eating the low hanging fruit.

It was unfortunate that both 3DT's Sherman Hill and MLT's Bala 2 (the only MLT route ever built with Mosaic) were both released in that MSTS-to-OR transition period where both vendors could have pivoted more into the OR realm but really failed to do so. Both routes contain too many MSTS holdover features like zero-degree nodes or MSTS signal scripting or MSTS rolling stock physics that are unnecessary today in OR. At least both routes have enough of the high bar stuff built in from the start to warrant the time needed to render them 'fixable' by the purchaser.

[wwhall]

^It is truly unfortunate that 3DTS Sherman for MSTS/OR was never finished. I used to live in SE Wyoming, and the fidelity of what was completed to the prototype circa 2001-2007 was pretty amazing. I purchased the partly completed route and installed updates as they became available. Unfortunately, the route was never completed to the point of being enjoyable for me to run. In sincerely wish that the route could either be released as freeware for an enterprising modeler to complete, or released to TrainSimulations for them to complete into a full OR route to their current route building standards.

[eric]

I'll echo what's been said about the Feather River and the Pokey. Routes usually fall into what I enjoy operating or what I enjoy experiencing.

Few fall into both categories, and those two do, as do the TSN/SLI routes previously mentioned.

I've encouraged Melanie to do "something" with Sherman Hill, and as that has personal meaning to her, can totally understand why releasing it in a less than perfect form is a struggle.