Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew of any Washington D.C. to Boston routes (NYPenn included) for MSTS. I’m a bit of a newb, so I don’t know too much. If no one knows anything, can anyone tell me a forum where I might be able to find out for sure?
There are no routes all the way to Boston. As close as you get is New York. Other than the default NE corridor route, there is the NEC 4 which adds some CSX tracks and trains.
There is a download on train-sim.com called What Runs Where (I think they are up to ver. 4 at this time). It lists almost all the free and payware routes currently available and describes, as it implies, what railroads run where. It is also a nice short download, so you can get it quick.
There are still routes under development and I have read from time to time about running the NEC all the way to Boston. The problem is that working with the Route Editor is troublesome and frustrating. It requires a lot of time and patience and saving every few minutes or so and making multiple backups. It’s a supreme headache, knowing you could loose all your work at any time, and working to prevent it.
I know there is an extension of the NEC north to New York under development, but I haven’t heard anything recently.
It would be nice to run some New Haven north out of New York! Of course I can see where building NYC and Boston in the sim would be a colossal task, even if you just stick with what is along the right of way. Building Hellgate itself would take some time. That’s another issue…A route builder needs several skills to build all the things he needs for a route, unless he’s lucky enough to get help from other modelers. Even with a team It can take just as long to build a virtual route as it does a real model railroad.
I downloaded What Runs Where as suggested. It’s a good reference, especially for those of us who are not aware od where some of these places are. It doesn’t show the PRR Middle Division, but it locates most every thing else.
I brought that up when the last issue came out. Evidently the Middle Division is no longer available (there was an update that added a couple of other routes). The developer apparently took it off the site after a few less helpful people were overly critical of it. I am really glad I got it before it disappeared. It is a nice run. I have been working on some more current activities for it too.
I have heard talk of the runs to Boston and would love to see it too.