Hello everyone. Just recently I was in the Cuyahoga County area, and I thought about this route, and how perfect it would be if it were added to TSW2. This 26-mile railway has 7 stops between the Rockside and Akron Northside termini. The locomotives used on the route are 3 Alco FPA-4's, an RS-18U, a C-424, and a C-420 series, as well as a single Budd RDC-1 DMU, which I believe is also used as a pseudo-cab car. Hopefully we could at least see the FPA-4, the Budd RDC-1, and one of the other Alco (MSW) locomotives (which are somewhat similar to one another) included in one route package. That would only be 3 locos, on par with some of the other routes sold for $30/25 pounds. Route The 26 mile route would start (/end) at the northern terminus, Rockside, and would go through the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Northeast Ohio, with stops at Canal Exploration Center, Brecksville, Boston Mill, Peninsula Depot, Indigo Lake, Botzum, and Big Bend (literally just a bench), and finally stopping at the other terminus, Akron Northside (ironically, this is the southern terminus). The train is only guaranteed to stop at Peninsula Depot, where normal boarding will occur, otherwise it will only stop if passengers are there (technically you have to wave it down but this probably wouldn't be implemented). Most likely a randomizer would be used to spawn passengers at stations and randomly are assigned a stop they need to leave the train. Locomotives The locomotives are something I've largely explained, but I'll reiterate how they should be included (obviously I'm no marketing expert). I would definitely like to see the FPA-4 at launch, with the normal passenger cars. Normally, the FPA is double-ended with one of the other Alco locomotives, so that would also be a good thing to have at launch. I would like to see the RDC-1 DMU/Cab car as well, but since there's only one, it's not as common. A few things I would like with these locomotives are, for one, authentic sound. Nothing synthesized preferably. I would also like as much authenticity as possible; if something moves/clicks in real life, it should move/click in the game. Mostly I would like to access the engine room on the FPA's, since that would be really cool. Here are some pictures: FPA-4 #6771 passing under one of the bridges in the valley. RS-18U #1822 somewhere in the valley. (Don't know how to delete the failed image) Quick Note About Steam Before anyone asks, yes, I know about the steam trains which run through here. If DTG ever comes out with more information about their plans for steam trains, I will add more in this thread, but until then, I'm not going to really address it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what do you all think? I, for one, would love to see this route given some consideration (duh, I'm the one posting about it). If you have any input, don't be shy to discuss your thoughts here.
This is a very nice scenic route. I would love to have some Alcos in the game! Does this route haul freight? For some reason I feel like it does.
Thanks! It does not run freight, it's just a scenic railroad for sightseeing, though the service where you flag down the train, also known as the bike service since that's its primary use, could be considered more of a point a-point b passenger service. And I've heard some people have used it to get from Akron to Rockside and back. Another thing this route does is leases trains from other companies for excursions. Check out their website, cvsr.org, to find more information. I would be interested to see what people would make in the livery designer with the Alco's, especially the FPA's.
If the route were to be set between 2005 and 2013, trackage to Canton could be implemented. As a local person, I have thought about taking the train all the way to Rockside Road and catching a city bus to get to a friends place in Parma.
It USED to haul freight before business on the line declined due to competition and it was then subsequently turned into the fantastic little tourist line that is now.
Now that work is being done to add steam trains to the game, I think this route suggestion could be relevant again. The railroad, from what I've observed, seems to borrow steam trains from various museums, or maybe they have some nearby, and runs them on excursions throughout the year. Again, I think this route could be a very interesting one to look into, if you refer to my first post, you'll see why. Also, if anyone has any more information about steam on this route, sharing that on here would be appreciated.
Well here in the 21st century, the CVSR hosts their annual Steam In The Valley for a weekend or two of steam ops on the line. It's mostly been NKP 765 being the loco to take part, but there have been others. They had a saddle tank engine alongside the 765 one year and then in 2012, with 765 busy with Norfolk Southern related things, the Age Of Steam Roundhouse provided their own 1293 to take part in the festivities.
Thanks so much! I do recall 765 being a common one, so that would be my request if they were to make this route.
This feels like it could be NA‘s WSR. Is that about right? Seems like a lovely, scenic route. And more variety in NA locos is always appreciated.
Apologies for the time between posts, but my body decided sleeping was a good thing and I couldn't find much reason to argue with that. Anywho, back in the previous century, the Cuyahoga Line was a regular host to Grand Trunk 4070 and even had the Chessie Steam Special and Chessie Safety Express grace its rails, but I'm sadly unable to find any photographs or videos of those last two.
Hoping to reignite this discussion! I do agree this would be a cool route for TSW, and, a great opportunity to introduce an American steam loco in NKP 765 and its yearly Steam In The Valley excursions. It's a super scenic area with loads of vegetation, lots of people enjoying the towpath trail hiking and biking, canoe rides along the Cuyahoga River and the history of the Ohio & Erie Canal and the remnants of it. I am afraid the route could be done wrong, as it won't captivate all of those areas which makes it such a great place, but maybe an opportunity to have more AI pedestrian traffic, accurate road traffic, scenery, events, and landscape. The route needs to feel alive, and sadly, I feel a lot of TSW routes don't feel that way. Just look at route building episodes of Trainz and some good TS Classic route builders and how in-depth they get with details, and I feel you would need a 3rd party to recreate CVSR with better and custom models.
