[Fleegle411]

After over 2 years and 3200 posts, it's time to start anew with the Tourist Railroads! thread. For those of you who may not be familiar with the subject, this thread is aimed at the historic or tourist railroads that operate today, be them fictional railroads or virtual recreations of actual tourist railroads. If you operate your own virtual steam railway or other such tourist railroad, feel free to profile it here and keep us posted on the going ons.

Moderators, Please DO NOT delete the original thread. Thank you.

Now, to kick off the new thread, a few words on the current status of my personal fictional tourist railroad, the Newark Northwestern.

For the past few weekends the railroad's former CN SW1200 has been handling the regular trains. The Newark Northwestern and the New Jersey Zinc Mining Museum (NJZMM) reached an agreement to combine the Sterling Hill and Mine Shuttle services into a single train, and so far the arrangement has worked well.



For Memorial Day weekend, Frank brought out 2-8-0 #26 to handle the trains. The 2-8-0 preformed admirably, even though several extra trains had to be run to accommodate the large number of visitors to the railroad and museum. After the first Sterling Hill run of the day (pictured below), an extra passenger car and a caboose were also added to the train. Over the course of the weekend, a few WW2 vets and their families took a ride on the NNW. Frank told the station crew that if they saw any WW2 vets, to offer them the opportunity to take a cab ride in the steam locomotive. Frank had rigged up a second seat on the engineer's side of 26's cab, and had several sets of disposable earplugs and plastic safety glasses handy. He also saw to it that and extra brakeman was on duty and in the cab to see to the "Guest of Honor's" (as Frank said) comfort and safety. Several Veterans took a cab ride, although Frank had to use a wheelchair lift to assist a couple of them into and out of the cab. When all was said and done though, Frank was quite happy with how things turned out.



At one point during the weekend, when the train was stopped in the Franklin station, Frank was walking the train checking on the bearings and journal boxes on the cars when he overheard several people sounding quite confused regarding the Canadian road names on the cars. He took it into consideration and has decided that the NNW passenger car fleet should at the very least have the same road name, and is working with several of the railroad's volunteers to come up with a good paint/letter scheme for the railroad's cars.

[Mipman25]

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, Jimmy!

[steampower2001]

Great to have a "fresh start" with the Tourist Railroads thread! That being said, I'm thinking of wiping the slate clean with my roads and start a brand new line. Looking at Jimmy's photos made me think of how much more I could do to my roads. I'm not sure if I'm going through with this plan or not, though... ;)

[Mipman25]

Well, I think you've already got a great start with the Saddle Gorge Scenic. You could ditch the Royal Railroad, but I really like how the Saddle Gorge Scenic has come along. It seems like a very believable line.

[steampower2001]

Yeah, the Royal Railroad wasn't great in my opinion. It was very unbelievable as it had too many railroad super-stars. I guess I'll keep the Saddle Gorge, but I still want to start a new road, as the creative ideas are staring to flow!

[Mipman25]

Exactly what I thought. It's passable for something you made in fourth grade, but it really wasn't the best idea and was just slightly more than a gimmick. Feel free to create something new.

[sawyer811]

Quote

...the creative ideas are starting to flow!

And y'all wonder why I have a new railroad like every week? ;) Seriously though, I have too many crazy plans and ideas and not enough routes to run them on. For instance right now the Trainz bug has bit again, and I'm working on a Midwestern themed tourist railroad that also does a bit of freight work on the side (think the Alberta Prarie or the Strasburg).

[Mipman25]

For so many crazy ideas, you need to learn how to paint. I know that K-29 would look great in its original paint scheme. If you want, I could give you a tutorial via PM.

[sawyer811]

Hey I'm learning! I just tried my first reskin where I attempt to put a railroad's herald on the tender of a Trainz loco...turned out horrible but it wasn't bad for a first try.

[Mipman25]

Well, take up a few tutorials. You've got a great mind, and even basic repainting skills can help your ideas come to life instead of using other creators' work.