[railguy]

Blackfoot 3 remains one of my favorite routes. While the route is more faithful to its prototype than many routes, Blackfoot could easily be a surrogate for numerous places on the Great Plains of the U.S. or Canada. As my home is on the Great Plains, I just have an affinity for routes like Blackfoot, just as I have a affinity for mountain routes and railroads, as I also have lived in mountain areas. Farming, ranching, and petroleum/natural gas production are big industries in the region where I live, just as they are on Blackfoot. Blackfoot also is a "dark" railroad, operated under Track Warrant control, where things are bit more bucolic than on busy mainlines. So, I've tried to capture that in these screenshots.


Today's Lloydminster local has been working on all morning switching grain elevators and oil loading facilities between Lloydminster and Lashburn. It has 6-exle power today (including a scruffy borrowed CP AC4400), as its train was nearly 50 cars long leaving Lloydminster earlier; it will be picking up a similar number of cars on its return trip to Lloydminster. The RTC has put them in the siding at Lashburn to meet a westbound manifest coming out of North Battleford. The RTC told the crew that they would be there for a couple of hours, so the crew has tied down their locomotives on the siding and walked across the highway to a gas station/convenience store to get some snacks and refreshments on this hot August day.


The westbound that the local is waiting for has its distributed power loco photographed as it travels across the prairies. There can be long trains on Blackfoot, especially during grain movement season. Two locomotives are usually sufficient, one on the head end and one mid-train DP, on Blackfoot's relatively gentle grades. There is a paucity of sidings on Blackfoot long enough for these lengthy trains, so shorter locals and freights usually have to clear for the long trains.


Here the DP at mid-train is seen again, with both the train and the prairie and skies stretching toward the horizon.

I hope that you enjoyed these screenshots. Screenies were unretouched renderings from OpenRails, using Reshade.

[Railroad Librarian]

Stunning! Thank you for sharing.

Is Blackfoot version 3 available somewhere to download?

While searching, I did find: ORTS Route--CN Blackfoot Summer Edition v1. Is that the one?

Thank you

KevinB

[railguy]

^Yes, that is what is often referred to as "Blackfoot 3." It is a shortened version of the original Blackfoot Route, but is much more accurate to the prototype, with much better scenery objects. Rory Rice built many custom building etc. that actually model real structures along the route. Some of the refinery and petroleum facilities are just amazing, too. Here are a few screenies showing that, plus one just showing the scenery detail out in farm/ranch country on the route.






One final note about my screenshot of the SD75i in the first post of screenshots. That model was done by Grant Culbert way back in 2004. It is, yet today, one of the most exquisite models ever made for MSTS. The particular one my screenshot is a personal renumber of Grant's model that renumbered several years ago. Back in those early days of MSTS, I could only run one of these models per activity or it would crash my computer. Now, it runs happily with whatever in OpenRails.

[Weter]

Especially like one, with a road and hay rolls on it.
But at first post you've mentioned ac4400...
Thanks for continuation, scenery and stock look really great!

[railguy]

^I was referring to the "scruffy" Canadian Pacific AC4400 (CP 9505) trailing the SD75i in the first post. It's an SLI repaint available on TrainSim. Here is a screenie showing it.

[ErickC]

I'm a fan of this route. I was testing my replacement model for Jeff's FMC 4700 on it earlier:

[bennycdn]

Wish we had an easier Activity Editor like the MSTS version, this new TSRE is a joke. I think that's all that is holding Open rails back.
You see very few activities any more, my opinion,that's why I evolved to RUN8.

[Unoriginal]

I didn't even think TSRE even had an activity editor. If anything was made I'd hope it would be along the lines of the train simulator classic scenario editor (I've never used the msts one).

Also great screenshots eric.

[railguy]

The TSRE Activity Editor has some clunky parts and has some bugs, but I use it in conjunction with the OR Trackviewer to create my activities. I have not used MSTS for anything since about 2013. I will also use ConText to do some editing of the various activity files (.trf, .act, .srv ) at times.

[railguy]

Herewith is some more Blackfoot. As often happens on secondary lines, older power--sometimes borrowed or leased--is used on low priority or local trains. So, in such fashion, here are some screenies with borrowed or leased power--with some of them being personal re-numbers or my fictional "WWHX" lease locomotives.

Here is the local at Lashburn once again, this time with some borrowed NS power.


An eastbound local with a GMTX lease unit, and ex-CSX GECX unit, and a borrowed NS unit approaches the west end of Lloydminster


A moment later, it passes the ADM Lloydminster plant, with the ADMX switcher patiently waiting.


On a cooler, cloudier late August day, another train with borrowed/leased power heads westbound over Blackfoot, this train with GMTX, borrowed BNSF, and WWHX power.



Finally, an eastbound ballast train is shown with a now very rare WWHX ex-CSX AC6000 and an equally rare ex-CNW WWHX SD40-2 retrieved, at least temporarily from the scrap heap.