The CSX River Subdivision is a 131 mile (210 km) long freight route operated by CSX from the yard in North Bergen NJ to the yard in Selkirk NY. The line is named for it's close proximity to the Hudson River and at many points the tracks run right along side the river through deep valleys making the line very scenic and popular with railfans. The line is mostly single track with long passing sidings every 4 to 10 miles. The line typically sees 20 to 30 trains a day of various cargo types including: Intermodals, Autoracks, Mixed Freight Manifests, Trash Trains, and Unit Tank Trains. The route also features 3 yards, a large yard at North Bergen, a small yard at Kingston, and a massive yard at Selkirk where the River Sub joins the Berkshire Sub and the Chicago Line. The line also features a short single track branch known as the Vails Gate Spur which branches off the mainline at Newburgh, climbs a steep grade up and over the mainline and serves several industries in the Newburgh area. There is also an interchange yard with the New York, Susquehanna, and Western (NYSW) railroad at Ridgefield Park NJ. The Mainline route has several different speed limits, in New Jersey the speed limit is 50 mph until the tracks start following the Hudson River in New York state, in the Hudson Valley the speed limit is 30 mph due to tight curves as the tracks hug the banks of the river. Between West Park and Kingston the tracks start to climb up and out of the valley, and Kingston to Selkirk the track speed returns to 50 mph. One thing I would like to note is this route if created now would be the longest in TSW. Since routes over 100 miles are unlikely to get made I would like to make a suggestion of only modeling the section of the line from North Bergen NJ to Kingston NY, a length of 87 miles or 140 km. This is the more scenic and more challenging portion of the route. The line south of Kingston features the grand scenery of the Hudson Valley, tight curves, changing grades, tunnels, a tall bridge, and a branch line. The line north of Kingston is mostly a straight line with little variation in scenery since it's mostly forest or farms. The challenge of this route is presented in the constant speed limit changes of the southern half, and the fact that it's mostly single track. High priority trains will often get green lights the entire journey, but low priority trains will often pushed into sidings and have to wait for traffic to clear. Running a manifest with opposing traffic being Intermodals, your trip will mostly be red lights as you try to get from siding to siding. Motive Power and Rolling Stock: This route sees a wide variety of power so here are some good suggestions of power that could either be created for the route, or exists currently in the Sand Patch Grade route and could be updated to TSW3 standards. Already exists in game: AC4400CW (great for road freights) C40-8W (great for road freights) SD40-2 (great for road freights, locals, and switching) GP38-2 (great for locals or switching) Could be created for this route: ES40DC (great for road freights) ET44AH (great for road freights) SD70MAC (great for road freights) SD40-3 (great for road freights, locals, and switching) GP40-2 (great for locals, and switching) I would also like to suggest adding a layer for the BNSF ES44C4 since many oil trains on the route feature run through power from BNSF. This would add some variety to the route. Rolling stock: Much of the rolling stock needed is already in the game from previous routes and would just need to be updated. Common types of cars on the route, boxcars, tankcars, covered hoppers, intermodal well cars, autoracks, trash container flat cars, gondolas, and coil cars. Thank you for taking the time to look over this suggestion, and let me know your thoughts!
Awesome suggestion! This is a very busy freight route that is very close to me. If anyone is traveling through the Hudson Valley region of New York, please please please stop by the Walkway Over The Hudson. It's a walking path that spans the Hudson between Poughkeepsie and Highland utilizing the former New Haven Railroad bridge that once carried the Maybrook Line. It is a beautiful viewing platform and offers great vantages of CSX, Amtrak, and Metro-North trains. I had the opportunity to ride Amtrak's Hudson Loop excursion a few years back that traversed this trackage and think it would be well suited to TSW. It's an awesome ride! I think for this to work, as you noted, you would realistically have to do half the route in order to meet the limitations of the simulator and peoples' attention spans. You'd either have to run from North Bergen to Kingston Yard (MP 88) (including the spur to Newburgh) or Kingston Yard to Selkirk (MP 132). North Bergen to Kingston would be the longer, more scenic run as it parallels the river more closely. This would be a faster-paced segment, especially with CSX's precision railroading model, requiring some time-keeping to perform meets at some of the various long passing sidings. You also pass some very cool landmarks like the now-closed Indian Point power plant, Bannerman Castle, and West Point. Kingston to Selkirk sees the line lead inland away from the river but you still run through some beautiful scenery through the foot of the Catskills, including some interesting industrial sites around Catskill and Saugerties. This would involve less mainline running and more operations around Selkirk, but could work. It would be especially nice if the section B&A over the Castleton bridge and the Troy branch could be included. Your power list is spot on, and if we had to limit it to two though I'd say an ES44 for road freights and an SD40-2 for locals would be most fitting. Another cool thought would be to have some of the Albany, Rensselaer, Troy, and Colonie area freight as a single route. Using Selkirk as the terminal, a map that includes trackage as far south to Hudson (including the street running and spur up to ADM) and as far north as Schenectady. This would give some very cool industrial operations, including the operations at the Port of Albany, the Canadian Pacific "Bull Run", and portions of the Mohawk, River, B&A, and Hudson lines. It wouldn't be a ton of high speed freight running, but it'd be a hell of a fun route to play, similar to the Oakville Sub.
Count me in. But I am really sitting here hoping for another Canadian route. Preferably out west with some varied scenic dynamics and terrain.
