An interurban route set in 1940s era California. Stretching from San Francisco's Transbay terminal, passing through the yard at 40th and Shafter, and continuing north through Walnut Creek to meet the rail ferry Ramon to cross the Suisun Bay to Sacramento - the Sacramento Northern offers both freight and interurban passenger services to play with across a roughly 45 mile stretch of electrified track. This is a route which has already appeared in Train Simulator Classic, and I would love to see it come to Train Sim World as well. Being set in the 1940s, the route offers passenger services with three companies - The Sacramento Northern, IER, and Key System, and freight services under the Sacramento Northern. There are 4 different trains to choose from: The Sacramento Northern 1003 class Interurban trains - Driving motors and trailer cars The Sacramento Northern GE 650 Steeplecab locos - prewar and postwar The IER 'Redcar' Interurbans - Driving motor and trailer cars The Key System Articulated Bridge Units. The route would have two distinct timetables - one being the pre-1941 timetable, the other being the post-1941 timetable. The pre-1941 timetable involves passenger operation and freight operation with the pre-war black steeple cabs, while the post-1941 timetable consists only of freight services with the post-war safety striped steeple cabs. One interesting fact about the Sacramento Northern is that it had differing methods of power pickup depending on where you are along the route. On the Key lines between San Francisco and Oakland the trains all ran with pantographs, but as the SN headed north on its own, power would instead be picked up via a trolley pole mounted to the top of the interurban cars. The one exception was the steeplecabs which only used pantographs even though they weren't permitted to operate on 40th Street on the Key System. The Sacramento Northern provides a unique glimpse at 1940s California and challenges the player across shared trackage, street running sections, tight curves, and intersections with other major railroads along the way.
This is an awesome suggestion, but what's the situation on documentation ? Track layout, signaling, timetables, etc ?
The Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction has an archive which contains photographic documentation and operational information pertaining the the Sacramento Northern and surrounding railways. There are also freely available online resources through WPLives and the East Bay Hills Project. These were the resources the team at G-Trax used to create the Sacramento Northern route for TSC and I'm sure the people at the museum would be more than happy to lend a hand for something like this again.
