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FROM BLW/ZT ... BLW/ZT Conn River Pack !

Introducing, the BLW/ZT Conn River Freight Pack
Chris, Max, Gaetan and Rick have worked to produce a set that accurately depicts
the freight traffic on the Conn River as it would have appeared in 1956.
The freight cars in the Connecticut River set represent an appropriately
balanced fleet for 1956.
Chris made a list every freight car seen in photos, videos, waybills, switch lists
and observations on the line from the era, totaling more than 500 cars.
That's a large enough scientific sample size from which a statistically
accurate fleet can be generated, both car types and road names.
The cars chosen for this set to represent this fleet are all drawn from photos of cars found on the Conn River line.
In 1956 the national fleet was distributed in roughly the same balance across the country except for home road cars
(and to a lesser extent cars of immediate connections), which means the cars in this set
are suitable for many period routes. The Conn River fleet differed from the average in having
notably less hopper cars (which were 1/3 of the national fleet at that time), quite a bit more
Canadian cars (reflecting the line's role as a Canadian connection) and of course the
home road cars wouldn't usually be from B&M.
Boxcars in this set are a mix of steel (predominantly) and wood (thanks to the inclusion of some fine models from Tim Muir),
reflecting the era. Variation was considerable in 1956, and the set reflects that, including different roof heights,
rebuilt boxcars, different roof and end styles and a large representation of the Canadian fleet.
Refrigerator cars for both meat and produce are also a mix of steel and wood.
Hopper cars, also with a variation of types, represent both anthracite and bituminous coal traffic.
Boston & Maine home-road cars include include appropriate car types representing their signature
XM-1 wood outside braced boxcar (very frequently used for Less than carload shipments to freight houses),
steel 40' boxcars, hoppers, gondolas and a flatcar.
The set also includes several varieties of unique cabooses (vans) from B&M, CV, CP and Rutland
Motive power includes appropriate EMD and Alco power from railroads that traversed the Conn River
B&M - EMD FT, F2, F7, GP7, BL2, Alco RS2, RS3, S1, S4
CN - EMD F3*
CP - Alco FA1, FPA2
CV - Alco S2**
Rutland - RS3
* CN also ran FM C-Liners on the Conn River, Bill Alder has and excellent model
over at trainsim.com - cnrclnrs.zip
** CV was still running 2-10-4's on the Conn River, route builder
Paul Charland has an excellent OR model on trainsim.com - cv_2-10-4_t3a.zip

In total, this set contains 39 locomotives, 16 cabooses and 111 freight car shapes. With loaded/unloaded variations, 270 freight car wag files...
over 1.7 gigs of stuffs

This set includes realistic consists for every freight train that ran on the Connecticut River route.
Consists for daytime freights based on photos.
B&M Bellows Falls Switcher
B&M EJ-1: Lv East Deerfield, MA (6:45PM) drops at Bellows Falls, arr WRJ (10:00PM)
                   connects with CP 901 & CN 429 - Newport & Woodsville blocks
B&M JE-2: Lv WRJ 11pm from CP. Pick up at Bellows Falls. Connects at East Deerfield for trains to west
B&M SJ-1: Drop in Brattleboro (10:30am), Bellows Falls (11:50am). Ar WRJ 1:45pm. Connects with
                   CV trn 491, CP trn 915. Blocks for Woodsville & Newport
B&M JS-2: Lv WRJ 4:30 am. Drop Claremont jct. Drop & pickup in Bellows Falls. Drop in Brattleboro
B&M JS-4: lv WRJ 3:10 pm from CP train 902 including perishables. Pick up at Claremont Jc,
                   Springfield Jc, Bellows Falls, Brattleboro
B&M SU-1: Brattleboro pickup 9:30pm. Drop in Bellows Falls (10:30pm), Claremont Jc (11:45pm).
                    Ar WRJ 3:15 am. runs through to CP. Woodsville & Newport blocks
B&M Woodsville/Blackmont local from WRJ 7:00 am
B&M White River Junction Switcher
B&M X-1: Local Bellows Falls (7:00 am) to Claremont-Windsor (M-Sa)
B&M X-1: Local to Putney & Return from Bellows Falls Tu,Th,Sa only
B&M X-1: Local to Windsor
CP UJ-2: CP Train 904 Due WRJ 5:00 pm
CV #490: WRJ (3:50PM) to Brattleboro (7:00 PM)
CV White River Junction Switcher
Rutland JX-2: ar Bellows Falls 11:45am
Rutland RX-2: Ar Bellows Falls 9:45pm

We hope you enjoy this set, and apologize for the time it has taken to produce it!
Special thanks to our testing crew, Stephane Benoit (a.k.a. Bennycdn), David P Carleton, Uli Ehlers, and Tim Spencer.
Also thanks to www.railfonts.com for fonts used in this set.
Extra special thanks to Scott Whitney and David Hutchinson
who provided significant help with specific historical information,
Tim Muir for the use of his X29 shapes, the B&M Historical Society
in general and, of course, Paul Charland for creating the exquisite route for our set to live on.

Rick Franzosa
BLW/ZosaTrains (C) 2017
BLW (Bélanger Locomotive Works) (C) 2017