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Colorado Midland SG & C&S South Park Line NG with adjacent D&RG NG & SG

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    Colorado Midland SG & C&S South Park Line NG with adjacent D&RG NG & SG

    Colorado Midland SG & C&S South Park Line NG with adjacent D&RG NG & SG

    Three major routes in one.

    Route Display name: C&S NG and Colo. Midland SG. Directory name: C&S_NG-CM_SG.

    Version 1, released November 19, 2016. This route is a major expansion of my earlier C&S South Park Line route, but is provided as a totally separate route, with a new directory name and a new route display name. It adds the rest of the Colorado Midland and some other track, and makes some improvements to the original portion of the route. The former route will probably remain in the file library.

    Description:

    Colorado & Southern narrow gauge 266 miles: Denver to Gunnison 203 miles. Denver via Frisco to Leadville 151 miles. A few miles in Denver are dual gauge. A few miles in Colorado Springs are standard gauge.

    Colorado Midland standard gauge 342 miles: Colorado Springs to Grand Junction 309 miles. Via either Leadville or Leadville bypass. Via either the older Hagerman Tunnel and massive Hagerman trestle, or the newer Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel. From New Castle to Grand Junction it uses Rio Grande Junction trackage, jointly owned with the D&RG. Major branches are the Aspen Branch, Basalt to Aspen, 18 miles; and the Jerome Park Branch aka the Coal Branch, Cardiff to Jerome Park/Spring Gulch, 15 miles.

    Denver & Rio Grande where it impacts the C&S and/or CM, 162 miles: A little bit of dual gauge in Denver (should be standard gauge), and a few miles of standard gauge in the Colorado Springs area. Then 110 miles of narrow gauge: Nathrop to Dillon 79 miles, Nathrop to Tennessee Pass 54 miles, and Gunnison to Parlin 13 miles. Actually that should be dual gauge from Nathrop to Leadville, and standard gauge from Leadville to Tennessee Pass. Then more standard gauge: Mainline Glenwood Springs to New Castle 12 miles, and its Aspen Branch, Glenwood Springs to Aspen 40 miles.

    Installation Method: Just unzip the 3 traditional zip files and copy the route into the Routes folder. No installer to click on. No batch file. No default routes required.

    Size of Downloads: 3 zip files, about 429 MB all together.

    Size of Installed Route: Size on disk 955 MB after MSTS generates terrain buffers upon initial route loading.

    Reality: This is a prototype route.

    Freight or Passenger: Both, as well as mixed.

    Era or Genre: Around 1915.

    Location: Colorado USA.

    Length of Mainline and major branches: 770 miles.

    C&S Branches: 1. Morrison Branch, 10 miles, with Fort Logan sub-branch, and with mining sub-branches out of Morrison, from Sheridan Junction. 2. Silica Branch, 4 miles, from Platte Canon. 3. Nighthawk Branch, 5 miles, from South Platte. 4. King Coal Mines Branch, 3 miles, from the wye east of Como. 5. Alma and London Mines Branch through Fairplay, 21 miles, from Garo. 6. Leavick Mining Branch, 12 miles, from near Fairplay. 7. Buena Vista Spur, 4 miles, from Deadman's Curve. 8. Keystone Branch, 7 miles, from Dickey. 9. Leadville Mining District, perhaps 20 miles of mining trackage of 3 railroads.

    CM Branches: 1. Aspen Branch, Basalt to Aspen, 18 miles. 2. Jerome Park Branch aka the Coal Branch, Cardiff to Jerome Park/Spring Gulch, 15 miles.

    D&RG Branches: 1. Aspen Branch, Glenwood Springs to Aspen, 40 miles. 2. Dillon Branch, Leadville to Dillon, 36 miles.

    Number of Sidings/Passing Tracks: Many.

    Cities with Major Yards: Denver, Como, Leadville, Gunnison, Colorado Springs, Colorado City, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, and Grand Junction. Several smaller yards.

    Mixture of Double and Single Track: Mostly single track with many passing tracks.

    Level of Trackside Detail: Substantial. Track signals mostly buried, speed limits, mileposts, whistle posts, platforms all named, sidings mostly named, road signals invisible and silent, car spawn. Sounds of animals, rushing water, wheel squeal, saloon songs, and vehicles. Some working water towers and coaling towers. Many stations. Dozens of trackside signs on the C&S identifying features along the way.

    Amount of Scenery Completed: Substantial. Many buildings, roads, water, forests, deer, road crossings. Some people and horse powered wagons and buggies and very old motor vehicles. Substantial variety of terrain textures.

    FPS: Varies from 15 in large cities to 60 in open country, with 30 in heavily forested areas. That's with Pentium D 3.2 GHz dual core processor, 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz, and 256 MB GEForce 7800 video card. Default game settings.

    Activities Provided: Numerous extremely simple explore activities included in the route files. Numerous start points in Explore Route. Either one or eight add-ons required for activities; see the Readme.

    Add-In Track and Roads Required: Xtracks v3.19 or later, Global tsection.dat build 37 or later, and NEWROADS standard v3.2 or later.

    Distribution: Freeware from Trainsim.com only.

    Author: Donald W. Karch (Trainsim forums user name: dwkarch) (email: OldRollinsPass@aol.com)
    sigpic
    Don Karch Cripple Creek Railroads Route (CS&CCD, MT, F&CC)
    Rollins Pass/Moffat Tunnel Route V5 (Denver to Craig and Glenwood Springs)
    D&RGW Glenwood Spgs-Grand Jct Route and Colorado Joint Line, Denver-Pueblo
    C&S Narrow Gauge South Park Line/Colorado Midland SG/D&RG NG and SG

    #2
    Hi Donald,

    I've just now discovered your route and I'm having fun with it -- it is nicely laid out and thank you for creating all the different paths and activities!

    I have one question though -- I read your notes regarding the signals, that they are mostly hidden since most of the route back in the day had no signals on them, but I was wondering, if I wanted signals to show up along the route regardless, what needs to be changed?

    I was looking into the .tdb file, but not sure if that's even the right place, so wondering what edits are required to have signals show up in the entire route where they are indicated in the Track Monitor.

    Cheers,
    Glen

    Comment


      #3
      I am afraid you will not be getting an answer from Don as he died several years ago. I agree though that his routes, all of them, are very good and enjoyable.
      Paul

      Comment


        #4
        Don is deceased, so you won't hear a word out of him.

        Most often, route builders who wanted signal style control of meets in any pre-signal era would apply signals but then bury them below the terrain so they were out of sight and players relied upon the track monitor to tell them when to stop or go.

        Normally you would use the route editor to resurface any of them. Please don't mess with the TDB for issues unless you are very experienced.
        My Open Rails videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClc...1kBPO2A/videos

        Comment


          #5
          I am sorry to say that Don died several years ago and so he will not be able to give you an answer to your questions. Several of the more knowledgeable members in that department I am sure can give you a helping hand. Don's routes, all fo them are all very enjoyable.
          Paul

          Comment


            #6
            Do not under any circumstances eidit the .tdb file.

            If you want signals to show up in the route, you will have to place them in a route editor. Also, I would be a little worried if Don answered, since he passed away a year or two ago

            Comment


              #7
              While I didn't explore the whole route, the part that I did check, which ended at Parlin, CO has buried signals at the
              ends of sidings, laid out if recall it right, as if they were CTC signals. When I did the parts over Marshall Pass, Poncha
              Pass, and completed the Monarch Quarry line, I used the same procedure. Don Karch passed away late in 2017 and
              was buried at the Ft. Logan cemetery in early 2018. He was retired military & Federal law enforcement. He had
              lymphoma of one type or the other.

              J. H. Sullivan

              Comment


                #8
                Thank you for all the replies, gentlemen. Obviously, I had no idea that Don had passed away, so thanks for letting me know. Since Don wanted the route to be genuine from back in the day, I think I'll leave well enough alone and just use the Track Monitor.

                Cheers,
                Glen

                Comment


                  #9
                  Glen,

                  If you want the signals to show, I would suggest that you back up the route completely. I use flash drives when
                  I am creating a route. After than, all you need to do is go to wireframe mode by hitting the "W" key if you are
                  using the MSTS/RE. Then select the signal & hit the "H" key. This will pop the signal to the top of terrain and
                  then it might be necessary to move the signal to avoid conflict with the track. Under no circumstances should
                  you consider doing anything with the .tdb file. It is very large, very complex, and after 18 years of doing routes,
                  I don't touch it myself.

                  Comment

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