Help Need for Rathole Route in MSTS

[nsgelocos]

I know you guys on the Central Division can surely help me with this. 

I need to know what signal setup is at every C.P. from Burgin to E.G. Tower for my route (Preferably 1995-1996, before the new Darth Vader signals). Mostly just need to know what type of signals are there and the bridge or canti. Preferably all the older searchlight and colorlight stuff. My route will have NO Darth Vader colorlights on it. It'll be mid 90s.

I have finally made it to Danville. I'm going to continue the trackage to the Burgin intermediate signal. This means i'm going to include S.J. Tower.

Pictures to come soon

[E.M. Bell]

That would be a novel for me to type to say the least!

If you go looking though my stuff on Pbase for each year, you can answer a lot of your questions. I have probably shot just about every CP that you are looking for at one time or another...except for CW tower and North Oakdale.

Almost all of them had the same general setup, a signal bridge over the double track end, and a mast signal on the single track side. CP's that had double crossovers on double track almost always had bridges over both tracks each direction.

places like South Danville, Southbound and Junction city (#2 track)  ect would have had three signal heads

If you can list the ones you dont know, that might be a better starting point!

[nsgelocos]

I'll compile a list for you guys on what I need.

I will check out Pbase.

What's the purpose of the Green River Dip hold out signal?

[E.M. Bell]

The signal there at Green River dip (from what I know...which may be totally wrong) is used to give Southbound trains a good light to leave on if they need to hold out off the hill. A heavy Southbound would have a lot of trouble getting started on the hill up to Kings Mountain if they stop right at the CP at Southfork to wait on a Northbound coming off the mountain. A good dispatcher will hold a Southbound at Geneva if they have to wait, where they can get a good run for the mountain, and that hold out signal will give them a good block for they can get up to track speed BEFORE they reach the block at Southfork.

Its not uncommon to see the head end of a train go by Southfork at Track speed, and by the time the rear end gets to you, they are down to a walk.

With the time period you are doing on the route, make sure you include the track changes between Tateville and KD tower (which was still single track in the mid 90's) and also the signal changes at SJ Tower and North Wye. At the time you are doing, the CP at North wye did not exist (was still handthrow, no signals at all) and there was a set of double cross overs at SJ Tower. The Southbound crossover there was taken out when the new CP at North Wye went in.

I cant wait to see what you have done...I might have to buy a copy of Trainsim again!

[nsgelocos]

What I do with the program... I make markers in Google Earth and convert them to a MSTS format for route editor. I use this along with pictures and a 1995 Central Division track chart I have acquired. I have made it to north of S.J. Tower atm, but I guess I'll have to redo the crossovers to what you have described.

As you may know, I've had to make my own static scenery models for the route.


Here's the Beginnings of Danville Yard

[nsgelocos]

Ah... Here are some in production screens of the route so far. 

South Fork Bridge location. (yes I know I don't have the bridge model yet)

Kings Mountain cut


Burnside Bridge Location (No model yet)

Sloans Valley

Stearns Yard. I Did like in real life, move the yard tracks over a bit to accommodate the signal bridge.

New River Bridge Location (No Model)

Nemo (Had to make tunnel 24 portal)

Lastly, Oakdale Yard. I had a hard time finding switches that would contour to the curvature of the yard

[NSyorktown]

Excellent work . . . looking forward to seeing the finished project.

BTW, here are two views of the signal stand just south of the Kings Mountain cut.

The first one is from August 1999, which is the time period you are asking about.

The second pic is a close-up of the same scene, from August 2010, with what looks like the same stand on the west side of the line.

RDS