Bethlehem Central (Story)

[bluebeetle]

I have never really payed with plastik's east coast engine/cars and so forth before and decided i would give it a try. let me tell you it is been a blast so far, especially with the electric b-1 prr stock. They are slow, they are weak, but they are a thing of beauty, and a blast to team them up to pull an coal train or passenger train.

i made this map but not to a realistic scale, pretty much bethlehem to philly. The map will be released in a few days, i am using this story to beta test it. Bethlehem was a focus point for many railroads like LV and reading railroads.

In this story, A small shortline railroad is started outside of bethlehem in 1926 to haul coal to the bethlehem steel mill.

roughly the main line is only 20 miles long and services to different mining companies. electric Prr B-1's are the only engines being used on the short line.

here we see an passenger train going east from bethlehem to one of the mining camps meeting a loaded coal at an dirt road railroad crossing.



here is the only yard and engine shop on the line. as you can tell it is an busy place:



one of two mining camps that is serviced by bethlehem central

[bluebeetle]

passenger train heading back to bethlehem, passing an empty coal train returning back to one of the coaling camps.



the other mining camp



loaded coal train heading to the mill

[bluebeetle]

what does the future hold for bethlehem central:

1. all coal camps around bethlehem have been serviced by the railroad, which means they must start building into mountain passes to reach other mining camps.

2. bethlehem current stock of b-1 engines are not strong enough to pull loaded train through a mountain pass, or any area that has a decent grade. does bethlehem buy steam oe stay with electric, though the railroad is fully equipment to handle more electric engines, but has no facalities to handle steam, and the railroad must build new building and etc. to make this happen.

3. exploring the possibility of securing other customers that are not related with coal or the mill.

[rdrdrdrd]

nice, very cool, it seams a litle funny to me that 4 or 5 engines are pulling a train and all look like one

[bluebeetle]

nice, very cool, it seams a litle funny to me that 4 or 5 engines are pulling a train and all look like one

lol and the total horsepower of those 5 together is only 3k, ouch lol

[bluebeetle]

a new pass has been built linking bethlehem to Harrisburg, opening up the harrisburg coal and ore mines to bethlehem central and possible future freight of oil. Passenger trains between harrisburg and bethlehem have also started. the board of directors has shot down the decision to bring steam on bethlehem central so for now it will stay electricified. the reason given the railroad does not have the extra money to spend to upgrade the whole system. so due to the boards rash decision not to up grade the railroads engines, and to push for the construction of the pass to harrisburg. the railroad is in a spot with no high horsepower engine to get them over the pass. using 5 - 6 b-1 engines to get one train over the pass is the norm now on the bethlehem central railroad.

here is an north bound load coal train exiting the pass;



the pass is not double tracked, but has three long sidings, not enough traffic as of yet to warrant double tracking the pass. Dirt roads and stone bridges have been used to make this time period more believable, it is after all pre-great depressin and war world 2 period. its the roaring 20's without the booze lol

[bluebeetle]

a meet in the pass: the pass isn't narrow, but the grade is some what steep and the floor is rough.

[bluebeetle]

as any shortline or class 1 railroad in this part fo north america passenger traffic is just as important as freight traffic, and passenger traffic is alive and well on the bethlehem central:

[rdrdrdrd]

looks good, when does the PA-5 (i think) come into play

[bluebeetle]

looks good, when does the PA-5 (i think) come into play

US P-5a Pennsylvania Railroad 1931, then if i remember correctly gg1's a few years after that.

[bluebeetle]

growth has been the name of the game for bethlehem central over the last few years. allentown has been linked up to the bethlehem central system, effectively splitting the whole system into three subdivisions. the harrisburg, bethlehem, and allentown subdivisions. The bethlehem subdivision is currently handling coal and goods, Allentown subdivision is handling oil and good and harrisburg is handling coal and oil. due to the great depression, passenger service is down 80% and for now passenger service is now cut until signs showing that passengers will come back.

the P-5a came into service for bethlehem central, 4 dozen were immediately ordered with more orders to follow. dozens of b-1 have been placed out of service and sent to scrap, a few will stick around for switching duties and if and when passenger service comes back, will help switch passenger trains.

the last moments of the b-1

a few months after the p-5's were delivered, many b-1 went under the cutting



b-1's lined up and turned off, ready to to be hauled away fro the scrappers torch



a pair of p-5's pulling a train of cold b-1'd heading to the scrapper, to some this is an funeral train.

[bluebeetle]

with the new allentown subdivision built, their refinery is now recieiving shipments of oil and producing goods that must be hauled away from by us:




the pass is not doubled tracked yet, traffic levels has not demanded it yet.

[rdrdrdrd]

Nice extra scenery, beta I presume
(i see you like the engine depot)

[bluebeetle]

our bethlehem yard is growing adding more tracks and shops.





random images:

[bluebeetle]

Nice extra scenery, beta I presume
(i see you like the engine depot)

yeah the engine depot looks really nice, i like it A LOT. only one item is beta, and i included it by mistake, since i decided not to add steam to the game. the rest are from many mods on the german page, that can be dropped as buildings before starting a new game. no new beta trains in this game though.

speaking of beta i need to start work on the techahapi map again, so i will have something for plastik when he gets back. its a complete re-draw. after this game, having fun playing with stuff i never played with before.

[bluebeetle]

well an unexpected end to the game;

access violation: 004a2650

error location: unknown

my very first one and i been playing for years, i am honored lol. i tried a bunch of different mods from the german site and one of them must be mad at me lol. because it doesn't happen when i build a track, train or station. it happens at an a specific time over and over again, which means probably a building is being introduced to the game and crashing it. i smell a clean install of loco being done today.

[Owen-Alexander]

Could you please post a copy of the network so far in the map part so we can get the scale of the network and any plans for future development

[alphanumeric]

did they really MU 4 of those tiny little electric locos like that?

[Plastikman]

did they really MU 4 of those tiny little electric locos like that?

uhh.. not like that...

The B1 (and B2/B3) were yard switchers.


they were used for congested terminal areas around New York and Philly shoving mail express and passenger cars around the passenger stations/yards.
the first units were originally 2 units permanently coupled back to back. The second devery of B1's (actually B2's), came as single units with MU abiltiy to run back to back. The first set were cut apart into single units and all versions reffered to as the B1.

they hardly ever left the passenger yards since they had a top speed of 25MPH (bumped to 35MPH for lomo for game play).

if he wants to run a string of 4 over his pass, mehh... it is a game after all... I'm guilty of it too due to lack of proper early electrics and the veh limit at this time.

untill i can make a DD1, FF1, L5 or O5 in MAX, it is all we have for PRR electrics untill the P5. The P5 is technically the first real PRR "workhorse" mainline electric for lomo for freight and passengers at this time.
hopefully one day we will get an FF1, the true first PRR heavy duty mainline electric.

these will all be an issue to make as they have animated side rods.

[bluebeetle]

yeah the b1 switchers have only low speed limit in real life, but like plastic said not much electric available early on. i just did it because it was something different, and they make nice screen shots. if i was being realistic it would be steam pulling those trains. but it was still fun to play with something different from plastiks packs.