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rfranzosa
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Joined: 21 Sep 2007
Posts: 1200
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 7:27 pm    Post subject: Imminent Release - and Thanks Reply with quote

At long last, the BLW/ZT Conn River Freight set will be released, most likely this week! I am finishing the fixes to problems reported by beta testers over the next day or so.

Chris, Max, Gaetan and I 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...
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, the B&M Historical Society in general and, of course, Paul Charland for creating the exquisite route for our set to live on.

Rick, Chris, Max and Gaetan

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Rick Franzosa - ZosaTrains
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rfranzosa
Site Admin


Joined: 21 Sep 2007
Posts: 1200
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

PostPosted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

UPDATE:

Chris Parker has not only provided the guidance and research so that we could include the correct cars for the 1956 Conn River route, he also has provided realistic consists for the following trains:

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

It won't be long now!

Rick, Chris, Max & Gaetan

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