Introducing Train Simulator 2015: Epic Journeys Edition starring Soldier Summit. To celebrate the release of the highly-anticipated Soldier Summit, not only will you enjoy an epic journey through Utah but we’ve added two complimentary routes to take you on epic journeys through the heart of German and English countryside. So Soldier Summit won't be a stand-alone route, instead it will only be available in Train Simulator 2015: Epic Journeys Edition. However, this exclusive edition will be the same price as a single stand-alone route.
Soldier Summit
Standing tall along the western rim of the Rocky Mountains is the Wasatch Range, stretching some 150+ miles north-south from Utah to Idaho. Rugged, magnificent, and daunting, the Wasatch claims peaks as tall as 11,900 feet (Mount Nebo) and is famous for winter skiing and the good life at places named Sundance and Park City. And, in railroad terms, the Wasatch Range is famous for Soldier Summit, the mountain pass through which the Rio Grande pushed its steel rails west in 1882. Soldier Summit is the fifth highest mountain crossing on a U. S. western transcontinental railroad route.
The Soldier Summit route stretches approximately 70 route miles from Helper to Provo, Utah, and captures all the operating character, challenges, and diversity of this legendary D&RGW route. In railroad terms, Soldier Summit begins at Helper, Utah, so named for its role as the place where Rio Grande added helper locomotives (in both the steam and diesel eras) for the hard westbound climb over Soldier Summit’s east slope. Two miles west of Helper on the Soldier Summit line is Utah Railway Junction, where the Utah Railway, a renowned short-line hauler of coal mined from the Wasatch, connected with the D&RGW. The Utah Railway played (and plays) an important role on Soldier Summit in that its heavy coal trains operate westward from Utah Railway Junction over Soldier Summit via joint trackage, and, in fact, Utah Railway was technically owner of portions of the double-track mainline over Soldier Summit. The Utah Railway’s yards and shops at Martin, near Utah Railway Junction, will be included in the Train Simulator route.
From Helper, which stands at an elevation of 5,830 feet, Rio Grande’s Soldier Summit route begins an arduous 2.4 percent gradient east slope climb through famed locations such as Castle Gate and Kyune toward the line’s summit at 7,440 feet, then drops down the long west slope (with grades of up to 2 percent), reaching Provo (standing at 4,517 feet elevation). West of the summit, the line passed through Thistle, Utah, at which in 1983 a huge mudslide dammed the Spanish Fork River and closed the D&RGW’s line, requiring a six-mile track relocation and construction of a new tunnel. Train Simulator’s new route will recreate the railroad during D&RGW operations of the mid-1980s.
No small part of Soldier Summit’s fame over the decades has been due to the hard and unforgiving task that the Rio Grande (and Utah Railway) faced in lifting coal mined in the Wasatch westbound over the Wasatch east slope. But the Soldier Summit route was always bustling with a variety of diverse rail activity. As part of D&RGW’s main traffic artery for east-west transcontinental traffic, Soldier Summit was host to priority merchandise freights, intermodal traffic, and, of course, one of America’s most famous passenger trains, the California Zephyr. The magnificent streamlined, dome-equipped “CZ” made its debut in 1949, operating between Chicago and San Francisco’s Bay Area until 1970, when Western Pacific was allowed to discontinue the train’s western route segment. Rio Grande chose not to join Amtrak in 1971, and instead operated its own Rio Grande Zephyr (using equipment from the CZ) until 1983. Following the discontinuance of the Rio Grande Zephyr, Amtrak’s Superliner-equipped version of the California Zephyr began operating over the D&RGW and Soldier Summit, and continues to do so today. Now part of the Union Pacific system, Soldier Summit remains an active line, hosting UP tonnage, Utah Railway coal trains, Amtrak’s California Zephyr, and BNSF trackage rights freight movements.
Soldier Summit will include D&RGW’s dominant heavy freight locomotive of the 1980s, the six-axle (C-C), 3,000-horsepower Electro-Motive SD40T-2 (Rio Grande owned 73 such units), along with a selection of era-appropriate freight rolling stock, including a D&RGW caboose. Also included with the route will be an Amtrak California Zephyr train set (EMD F40PH locomotive and Superliner stock). Plans for additional DLC ideally suited to this new route are in the works, so watch for future announcements here at Engine Driver on that.
Soldier Summit, faithfully recreated in the Rio Grande era, will bring to Train Simulator the diverse and challenging experiences of operating on one of America’s most remarkable and famed mountain main lines, as well as all the compelling and iconic appeal of the legendary Denver & Rio Grande Western! - Gary Dolzall (Original Article)
The Rhine Railway: Mannheim to Karlsruhe
Over the eastern plains of the mighty River Rhine is the Rhine Railway, eighty-kilometres of high speed and suburban railway between the key cities of Mannheim and Karlsruhe. The heart of West German countryside comes to life with some spectacular views and one of the key high speed corridors for ICE trains. Most famed for the raceway at Hockenheim, the line is renowned for being almost entirely straight allowing trains to achieve some 320km/h.
Kent High Speed: London to Faversham
One the fastest railways in the UK carving its way from the Channel Tunnel to England's capital through the heart of Kent. Drive one of the most advanced trains on the rails in the Class 395 'Javelin' with its state-of-the-art driving cab. Reach breath-taking speeds as you watch town and country fly by at up to 180mph.
