Union Pacific La Grande Subdivision - Development Thread

[tarrant75]

This will be my thread to showcase an upcoming TrainSimulations route project I am working on: Union Pacific's La Grande Subdivision, running from Hinkle to La Grande, Oregon, set circa 1989. The route will also include UP's Pilot Rock branch. As of now, this project is still in very early development, so there is no estimated time yet for completion.

This route crosses the rugged Blue Mountains in northeast Oregon, with a 2.2% climb on the east side and a 2% climb on the west side. The railroad climbs almost 4,000' from the massive classification yard at Hinkle to the summit at Kamela. The route is on UP's primary mainline into the Pacific Northwest. The train types on this line in 1989 included manifests, unit soda ash and grain trains, intermodal trains, and Amtrak's Pioneer, with many of the heavier trains receiving manned helpers to conquer the steep grades.

We're pretty much 90% sure on locos and rollingstock, which will be revealed later on as the route gets closer to release, but it will represent the area well for the era modelled.

[trainmanaustin]

Sweet I can not wait!

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[ak3221]

This is awesome. I look forward to the updates on this project.

[derekmorton]

Very good, we need some more UP routes.

[BNrailfan]

This will be a definite purchase for me whenever it gets released. Great work!

[Curt C]

Great news - lot's going on over at TS!

[tarrant75]

The new computer arrived today, so I ran a quick intermodal over the summit at Kamela.

[trainmanaustin]

Oooooooooo Dash 8's!

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[MMCdude]

Looking good! I was fortunate to make a few trips over this route in a DOD caboose several years ago.

No ditch lights on the C40's in '89 though. :-)

[tarrant75]

No ditch lights on the C40's in '89 though. :-)

True, but the new one (or older one, depending on your point of view) is still being built

[geepster775]

Every once in awhile, the old Pentrex videos covering the Blue Mountains pops up on Youtube. Some of the mopes who post them add various intros and such to outsmart the algorithms.

But the series of 2 videos, one covering Hinkle-LaGrande and the other LaGrande-Huntington was taped right when the C40-8Ws were new, but still restricted to trailing-only because of a problem with the new GE desktop control stand. Back then, no ditch lights and only roof strobes. Also gives a great look at the freight cars of the day, including the still-segregated single shipper stack trans for K-Line, APL and Maersk. The U30Cs and straight SD40s era is in their final throws.

Only the eastern segment LaGrande to Huntingdon seems to be on YT right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdOwGhyC3Ck

[jonpd]

Often you can get those older Pentrex videos pretty cheap, $20 or less at places like Train Video Depot.
If you can sort through the 100 or so videos of Big Boy 4014 there are some gems there.

Jon

[tarrant75]

Every once in awhile, the old Pentrex videos covering the Blue Mountains pops up on Youtube. Some of the mopes who post them add various intros and such to outsmart the algorithms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdOwGhyC3Ck

I have the same DVD at home. The plan is, at this stage (prone to change at a possible whim) is to do new versions of the C40-8, tri-window SD60M, SD40-2, GP38-2 (for the Pilot Rock branch) and a C30-7.

[MsSheare]

could we get a really nice GP 35 Chris please?

[tarrant75]

There is a GP35 planned for a future release, but it won't be a UP one. They weren't really prevalent for the era and area we're doing