Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia

Transcription

1 Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia 1 INTRODUCTION A HISTORY ROLLING STOCK EMD AEM-7 Electric Locomotive Amtrak Amfleet Coaches SCENARIOS Go Newark New Jersey Trenton Spirit or Transportation The Big Apple Early Clocker Evening Clocker Northeast Regional The Keystone USING THE NEC TRAINS IN CUSTOM SCENARIOS...8 RailSimulator.com

2 1 Introduction The Northeast Corridor (NEC), the only premier high speed line in America, links Boston to Washington DC passing through New Haven, New York, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore a total of 363 miles. The section represented is the 90 mile section between New York Pennsylvania Station and Philadelphia 30 th Street Station. RailSimulator.com

3 2 A History Started during the 1830s, the NEC was not 'formed' until 1893 when the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) acquired the Old Colony Railroad, which included the Washington to New York section. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H) owned the lines linking New York to Boston. These lines were then known as the Philadelphia to Washington Main Line, the Philadelphia to New York Main Line and the Shore Line. In 1905 the PRR built New York Pennsylvania Station to serve the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). This station opened to PRR with third rail powered locomotives in However due to the intervention of World War 1, the line from Philadelphia to Trenton was not electrified until mid Electric services between New York and New Brunswick began late in 1932 with the remaining section between New Brunswick and Trenton being completed early in 1933, facilitating a fully electrified intercity line between New York, Philadelphia and beyond to Wilmington. In 1968 the PRR and New York Central Railroad merged to form Penn Central Transportation. In 1969 the NYNH&H was amalgamated, bringing the Washington to Boston corridor under the control of one company. By 1971 all New York to Boston trains were rerouted from New York Grand Central through New York Pennsylvania Station. On May 1, 1971 Amtrak took over the running of Intercity services and in 1973 the Regional Rail Reorganization Act allowed Amtrak to purchase the Northeast Corridor. Penn Central Transportation declared bankruptcy in 1976, being taken over by Conrail who were granted full trackage rights for the entire line. When broken up in 1999, these rights were passed over to Norfolk Southern Railway in the south and CSX Transportation in the north. Also in 1976, the US Congress authorised the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project allowing a full overhaul of the track and signalling infrastructure between Washington and Boston. The introduction of Centralised Electrification and Traffic Control (CETC) was facilitated at Philadelphia, New York and Boston. These improvements allowed more trains to run faster and closer together and set the travel time goals of 2 and a half hours between Washington and New York and 3 hours between New York and Boston. To facilitate this, the successful AEM-7 electric locomotive was introduced. In the late 1990s the Northeast High Speed Rail Improvement Program (NHRIP) was implemented in preparation for the high speed Acela Express service. As a result of this, Amtrak rebuilt a number of bridges, eliminated grade crossings and rebuilt some of the route curves while replacing wooden track ties with concrete ties and continuous welded rail. The Acela Express service commenced December 11, 2000, finally achieving the proposed travel time goals. RailSimulator.com

4 RailWorks Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia 3 Rolling Stock The following items of rolling stock are provided with the NEC route. 3.1 EMD AEM-7 Electric Locomotive The EMD AEM-7 electric locomotives were produced by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors between 1978 and In the mid-1970s Amtrak ordered 26 General Electrics E60 units as a replacement for their famous GG1 electric fleet. The E60s proved unable to safely attain speeds over 90mph and so existing European designs were looked at as alternatives. In 1977 a French CC numbered X996 and a Swedish Rc4 numbered X995 were trialled. The Swedish design won the day, resulting in 30 AEM-7 units being ordered by Amtrak. The bodies were produced in the US with all other items coming from ASEA in Sweden. Numbered 900, the first unit was delivered and in service in Between 1980 an 1982, units 901 through 946 went into service. The remaining 7 units were ordered in 1987, entering service the following year. Page 4

5 RailWorks Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia 3.2 Amtrak Amfleet Coaches The Amcoach is the mainstay of the Amtrak passenger fleet along the line For the long distances traversed by trains on the NEC, passengers can purchase refreshments from the Amcafe unit. Page 5

6 RailWorks Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia 4 Scenarios 4.1 Go Newark Date October 2011 Start Location Newark Penn 4.2 New Jersey Trenton Date September 2011 Start Location Trenton 4.3 Spirit or Transportation Date April 2011 Start Location Philadelphia 4.4 The Big Apple Date July 2011 Start Location New York Page 6

7 4.5 Early Clocker Date June 1999 Rating Hard Duration 45mins Start Location Philadelphia RailWorks Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia Amtrak Clocker stopping service from Philadelphia to New York. Based on the 1999 timetable. 4.6 Evening Clocker Date July 2000 Rating Medium Duration 100mins Start Location New York Amtrak Clocker Service from New York to Philadelphia. 4.7 Northeast Regional Date October 2000 Rating Medium Duration 140mins Season Autumn Start Location Philadelphia Late Friday night Northeast-Direct service from Philadelphia to New York. Todays date is the 13th! Will it be unlucky for you? 4.8 The Keystone Date July 2000 Rating Easy Duration 50mins Start Location New York A simple Express Passenger service between New York and Philadelphia 30th Street, stopping at Newark. Page 7

8 RailWorks Northeast Corridor New York to Philadelphia 5 Using the NEC Trains in Custom Scenarios Before you are able to use the AEM-7 or any other assets supplied in this addon in your own scenarios you must enable it in the object set filters. When you make your own scenarios, only the default object sets are enabled for that route (for example the Kuju/Railsimulator assets for European routes and Kuju/RailsimulatorUS for North American routes). To enable additional object sets (which could be for any downloaded or freeware content) ready for use they must be checked in the object set filter list in the editors. When editing the scenario you wish to add the NEC assets to, click the small blue square on the middle left panel. This opens a new panel on the right hand side of the screen (you may need to move your mose over to the right hand side for the panel to fly out. You can pin it open if you wish). This new panel has a drop down list off providers (usually the company name which produced the add-on) and a list off all products by that provider. The NEC assets are produced by RSC so RSC needs to be selected as the provider. The rest of the panel is then populated by all other products made by RSC. To enable the content of the pack for use in this scenario, check the box next to NorthEastCorridor. Now the NEC assets will be available in the asset browser list for placement in the scenario. If you want the NEC assets to appear in the browser list for EVERY scenario on a route you must follow the same procedure but be in the World Editor and you can now check the first box. The slight disadvantage of having content enabled for all scenarios on a route, even when that content may not be used, is increased loading times. Page 8