IntroductionAs many of you are familiar, Train Simulators Peninsula Corridor route is set in the current era of CalTrain and runs between San Francisco's 4th and King St. Station to San Jose Diridon and further south to Gilroy. While CalTrain runs many commute services and there's at least some variety of freight operations, truth be told the Peninsula Corridor is but a shadow of its former self. It is with this that I greatly suggest for Train Sim World's first foray into steam, The Peninsula Corridor in the 50's. The RouteThe Peninsula Corridor in the 50's route encompasses the SP main line from San Francisco's 3rd and Townsend St. Station to San Jose's Cahill Station. Along with the main line the yards and industrial trackage of San Francisco and San Jose are to be included as well. This includes, in San Francisco: King St. Yard and the interchange with the State Belt Railroad, Mission Bay and its car ferry slip, and the large Bayshore Yard and engine facility. In San Jose the route should encompass the full coach yard, around where CalTrain's CEMOF facility is located today along with Newhall Yard as it was during this time. Above: San Francisco's 3rd and Townsend St. Station. Below: San Jose Cahill Station. Below: SP's Mission Bay yard. Above: Bayshore Yard. Above: Newhall Yard in Santa Clara. Above: Track Diagram of the San Jose area. LocomotivesThe 1950's were the transition era on the SP. Steam was beginning to be replaced by diesel locomotives. However steam still made up the bulk of power on the Peninsula. The backbone of the operation were a fleet of 4-6-2 Pacific's, however it was not uncommon to also see 4-8-2 Mountain's and 4-8-4 GS class Northerns on commute services. The GS (Golden State) class 4-8-4 Northerns are one of the most recognizable steam locomotives of SP design along with the AC class Cab-Forwards. One of the most notable tasks the Northerns ever performed was the hauling of the Coast Daylight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. To work the yards, SP had an army of switcher's and on the Peninsula you could find mainly 2-8-0's and 0-6-0's handling switching tasks at the various yards and major stations along the line. Above: SP 4-6-2 Pacific. Below: SP 4-8-2 Mountain. Above: SP GS-4 4-8-4 Northern in Daylight paint scheme. Below: GS-4 in Warbaby. Above: An SP 2-8-0 Consolidation. Below: An SP 0-6-0. For Train Sim World primary power for commute and long distance passenger trains should consist of the 4-6-2 Pacific and GS-4 Northern in black "Warbaby" and Daylight liveries. Power for freight services should include the 4-8-2 Mountain and 2-8-0 Consolidation for local services and 0-6-0 for switching. Passenger StockDuring this era the bread and butter of the Peninsula Commute was a fleet of 1911 Pullman built Harriman style coaches. The coaches measured 60' in length and had arched roofs, reverse swing-over seats, and sat up to 68 passengers. The Peninsula Corridor also played host to several long distance trains, most notable of which include the Lark and the Coast Daylight. The Lark was an overnight train that ran the same route as the Daylight, between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and operated with mail service. The Daylight operated with a stunning consist of red, orange, and black painted cars and locomotives, some cars of which were articulated and semi-permanently coupled together. http://spdaylight.net/Consist.html Above: SP Harriman commuter coaches. Below: The full consist of the Coast Daylight. The observation car of the Lark. Passenger stock for Train Sim World should include the Harriman coaches as well as the full consist for the Lark and Coast Daylight as well as Baggage and RPO cars for mail trains. Freight StockTo properly get a feel for the era freight stock for the Peninsula Corridor in the 50;s route should include: an SP 40ft Boxcar, PFE Reefer, Tank Car, Flat Car with variable loads, Gondola, early TOFC flatcar, Stock Car, and C-30-1 caboose. ConclusionI feel this route would be a great addition to Train Sim World as it would be a great first foray into steam locomotives. Also I feel representing an already existing route in an earlier era gives a great sense of history and adds a new perspective to the Train Sim experience. The Peninsula Corridor during this time period is host to a myriad of operating potential from commuter services to fast long distance passenger trains to through and local freights and switching activities. In all, to put it bluntly, this will be a fantastic route.
Yes! This would be awesome in Train Sim World! Although I would like to see it go from San Francisco to Salinas regardless of the era in Train Sim World, a 1950s version of the Peninsula Corridor section of the Coast Line from just San Francisco to San Jose would be excellent! A lot of things were different on the route in the 1950s than they are today besides the presence of steam then and the lack of steam now. For example, San Francisco's 4th & King Street Station didn't exist yet, it was 3rd & Townsend Station. Also, San Francisco itself had a lot more railroad track mileage than it does now, which should also be included such as the branch line to Fisherman's Wharf. So if this route were to be made for Train Sim World, then I hope it has all of the trackage from San Francisco to San Jose (or, preferably, either to Gilroy or Salinas) that existed in the 1950s that was included in the San Francisco to Gilroy Peninsula Corridor route as well as the branch line to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. GS-4 Daylight 4-8-4 Northerns, P-10 Class 4-6-2 Pacifics, 0-6-0 tender engines and EMD E9s all in Southern Pacific liveries appropriate to the time should be included too, then we've got a great route!
Whilst it would be good to see Southern Pacific steam in the future, personally I think that DTG should create Union Pacific steam such as the FEF-3 or Challenger on a route such Evanston - Rock Springs before creating this route. Maybe a third party may make this route once the content creation tools are released.
The "branch" to Fisherman's Wharf was actually the separate entity, the State Belt Railroad. That would be pretty cool though with its ALCO switchers.
What about SP diesel action? This route definitely needs an ALCO RSD15 (in red/grey "Bloody Nose" livery), a Fairbanks-Morse H-24-66 Trainmaster (in both "Black Widow" and "Bloody Nose" liveries), a GP7 or GP9 (in both liveries), an SD7 or SD9 (in both liveries), and maybe an EMD NW2 or SW7 switcher (in "Bloody Nose" livery). We can't forget SP F7 or FP7 As & Bs (in "Black Widow," "Bloody Nose" or Daylight liveries), Daylight liveried E8 or E9 A & B units, or Daylight ALCO PA-1 A & B units. The rolling stock needed would be freight (plus cabooses and passenger cars, including the Coast Daylight. Maybe we could get both steam and diesel for this route. I would suggest a GS series 4-8-4 (Warbaby and Daylight liveries), an SP AC-9 Yellowstone 2-8-8-4, a Cab Forward (maybe), a 2-8-2 Consolidation, and other steam action.
These would all make for great DLC's, probably would work best in a "First Generation Diesel" pack, kind of what the BR Blue pack did for the Weardale network route. Take the era from the 50's to the late 60's early 70's. A lot of the route was still there in the 70's.
for now you got this https://store.steampowered.com/app/...Corridor_San_Francisco__San_Jose_Route_AddOn/
Well with the recent announcement regarding steam and TSW2, this suggestion seems a tad bit more viable.
Although, in the time between this suggestion being made and the announcement of steam trains, a modern day version of the route has been produced, which takes it off the table again.
How? They made multiple versions of the Riviera Line, I don't see why they couldn't do the same here.
Well I was surfing YouTube and I came across a video that made me think of this suggestion, so I thought I'd come share it. Also, call me nitpicky, but That's the World's Fair Daylight from 1984, and it had 4 former Coast Daylight cars, with some Shasta Daylight, SP&S, and Great Northern cars and a single Frisco car thrown in. Here's a link to a post on the Trainorders forum detailing each car and their individual numbers they had carried up to that point: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2348317 And this is a page that gives a little bit more detail into the cars. Sadly, a few of the Shasta Daylight cars that were in the consist have been scrapped after they got landlocked and then burned by vandals: http://espee.railfan.net/1984_lsfd.html Now, for an in depth look at an actual Coast Daylight consist, this page here, that's also linked to in the original post, is a VERY good resource: https://spdaylight.net/Consist.html Bit of a shameless plug here, but I also made posts on a suggestion thread about the cars of a Coast Daylight, and you can find that thread here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...t-route-late-1940s-los-angeles-ventura.13426/
Oh well I guess YouTube picked up on my liking of the film I shared in my above post, because it just recommended this little ol' gem to me:
I'd like to make a correction to that statement: I made quite a few, talk about an understatement, posts on that thread sharing videos of model operations as well as motion pictures of both late steam era and transition era operations all along the Coast Line from Third and Townsend to LAUPT, and photographs of those trains, namely Coast Daylight photos with some of the Lark thrown in.
I would also like to see the Sacramento Northern set in the 40s that was in TS. It was my favorite route in TS.
Say, um, is anyone else having issues with getting some of the photographs in this post to load, namely the ones of Newhall Yard, the Harriman coaches, and the Lark's observation car? I can get the ones of Newhall Yard and the Lark's observation car to load by right clicking and hitting "Open image in new tab", but I try that with the one of the Harrimans, and I get sent to some website that has nothing to do with them and that my adblocker doesn't like one lick and as a result, blocks from loading. For those wondering about what adblocker I use, it's uBlock Origin. Dunno if that helps out or anything, but there ya go.
40-footers had pretty much already disappeared by the 1950s; hadn't been built TMK since before the war. 50-ft boxcars ruled. "Between 1939 and 1953, all the twelve AC-9 engines were in service between Tucumcari, New Mexico, El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, where they mainly pulled freight trains and occasionally also passenger trains such as the Golden State Limited. Between May and August 1950, they were converted to burn oil instead of coal, and in spring 1953 eleven of them moved to Southern Pacific's Modoc line between Sparks, Nevada, and Alturas, California, where they worked in freight service from 1953 until retirement in early summer 1956." In other words, you wouldn't see any Yellowstones on the Peninsula.
If this was done, dtg would just add the steam train and not make the route look or feel like the 50s like how they did with the 70s gwe pack
Im pretty sure 40fts still lasted a decent amount into the 60s, with a few lasting into the 70s and beyond. Not to mention the Overnight train that SP ran between SF and LA, which after restarting after WW2 in the 1940s ran with Black 40ft boxcars later silver till I think around the late 50s to 1960 (Which I believe that TOFC took over the overnight run)
Even though I'm mainly interested in continental Europe, I've always liked American steam from the '30s - '50s, and I think this route would be great. The Northerns in the daylight paint scheme are true eyecatchers (though I also like them in black). I have just one question, what kind of speeds can we expect? I'd like to take a Northern up to at least 60mph/100kmh .
The GS-4s that ran the San Jose-San Francisco commuter service (ex-Coast Daylight locos) were repainted black and had their streamlining removed. Although the engine was capable of 110 mph, I doubt that max line speed on the PC was anywhere near that.
Yeah, I do know they were capable of going that fast, and I'm really hoping we can get at least somewhat near that speed. 60/70 mph would be really fun to start with, anything above that would be fantastic!
Well I was surfing the digital waves of YouTube and I came across these videos and they reminded me of this thread, or at least the first part of the first video did, so I thought I'd come share them. Edit: Added the second video and edited the wording of the post accordingly. Edit 2 Well it appears the first video was taken down by the uploader. Ah well. It is what it is.
This could be a really good American route for the 'spirit of steam' bundle (if it is a bundle, not much known yet).
Excellent idea and all of these steam locomotives will end up appearing on Southern Pacific current owner Union Pacific Sherman Hill as a Railtour service. This method will eventually pave the way for Hauptstrecke rhein ruhr getting its own steam rail tour service with Bochum Dahlhausen Steam Railway.
Actually, they won't. Union Pacific doesn't allow any foreign steam locomotives over their lines. So the only excursions one could get would be if the FEF-3's, 3900 series Challengers, and Big Boys get added, and that's a good ways off right now.
