I can't believe it! It was about two maybe three years ago when I was last here and at that time Mr. Garber was telling all that he was through making routes! Well, I guess he didn't, did he?! No way the best route builder was going to quit...and I knew it.

Fantastic. Not only is he building routes but he is building them for Railworks! And to top that off, he is building a route that is very near and dear to my heart, an MM&A route, in my home area. A route that I know so very well from having driven to Ft. Kent many, many times, and thanks to three very good friends (brothers) who work for the MM&A, I have ridden in the engine of one of those MM&A trains twice.

I came back to train sims because I love trains. Health caused me to leave the last time. It hasn't improved much since then but here I am. I couldn't decide on which sim I was going to purchase. Actually, I still have MSTS! I thought about Railworks and even Trainz....but decided, once I came on this forum and found out Rich was building that northern Maine route, to get Railworks. I read many bad reviews about that sim so almost decided not to get it because of that. But, I finally got it and wow! Great sim. Now, granted I have not seen all that has been done with MSTS so I cannot really judge the two and won't. Not appropriate to do that. But I will say that I was very pleasantly surprised by Railworks and cannot wait to run this new route you are working on Rich. I know the quality of your work so I know I will get it and love it. Just from looking at the pictures you have up so far, I am amazed that you have captured the very beautiful route along the river. One has to see it from an engine to really appreciate the beauty of that route. Anyway, looks great so far, Rich. Don't know where you got your information for the route but it looks spot on to me thus far.

One last question, Rich. Are you going to have MM&A trains for this route? I sure hope so. I have some pictures somewhere of these engines and will have to see if I can find some if you need them.

Great to be back on this forum. Great to be alive and great to see my favorite route builder still at it. He's the best....In my humble opinion. You go Rich.

Thank you very much, I appreciate your saying those very nice things. I'm amazed somebody actually knows this route I'm doing. I'm only doing a very short segment of it between Fort Kent and Eagle Lake. I haven't found much about this route and I thought it was the Aristook & Bangor, it's not? Maybe if you don't mind you could email and fill me in on some of the details of this route.

By our usual and customary definition this is a prototypical route. Mostly I used GoogleEarth and with markers carefully laid out most roads and scenery to match the aerial views. So in most places if you look down you can match the views with GoogleEarth satellite images of the area and you should see a strong resemblence. I couldn't match building for building but we did build a few that are replicas of buildings in the area.

How I came across this route is a bit unusual for me. Normally I just do the "pin-the -tail on the donkey thing" and wherever my finger lands, I'll do that route. But this time around I wasn't too keen on doing anything until I came across this route. What appealed to me is that it follows the river and I thought if nothing else, it would be a pretty route to do. I've embellished it some as the real route today doesn't seem to offer much in the way of switching. However, there are signs of previous industries around that I thought might have been serviceable by rail so that was my criteria for adding extra industries.

I don't recall wanting to leave the route building business unless you mean when I was pursuing music. I still am doing that and I bought three horns this year and some extra software to boot. I try to get in some playing time about every other day but many times I do it every day.

But again, if you could use the private messaging system here I would like to ask you some questions about this route. As for rollingstock I don't have an engine builder so I release my routes with the default engines and rollingstock. You could ask Dick Cowen if he'd like to offer some engines for this route with repaints, he might do it.

Thanks again.

Rich

Tim,

Is that you my friend? If so, welcome back!! Nice short post!! There are some of us still around that have been here for years. Some like me that have stayed with MSTS, even though we also have Trainz and in my case RW's predecessor RailSim.

Yes Rich, you did say you were going to leave for awhile, both here and on the phone to me, but we all knew your creativity wouldn't allow you to stay away.

Paul

Rich
In the winter 2009 issue of Classic Trains magizine, There is a great article on the Bangor & Aroostook Railway, serving Ft. Kent and Eagle lake, in the fallen flags section. If your intrested in providing a some what prototype route, I think you might like the story. It should give you the information your lacking on industries and rolling stock, along with the history of the area.

Keep up the great work.

I still don't recall this 'leaving permantly' but I do recall where I took 8 months off to make my big band CD and get better at composition/arranging and the rendering/mixing/mastering in at attempt to change professions. I'm sure that sounds like splitting-hairs but it's not like me to not leave doors open in a change like that.

Nevertheless I don't talk much about the music I do but it encompasses a big part of my life. I started playing sax late but was quickly asked to join the more advanced ensembles in my high school years and went as far as in college to join a touring Christian group called Rejoice where we played on tv, very prestigious venues and even with one celebrity and I participated in Pittsburgh community bands and of course the college ensembles. In the military I was asked to join the Navy Bands (which would have been a nice feather in the cap) but I turned it down to pursue fixing medical equipment (what was I thinking!?). In the 90's I began my exploration of digital music and have spent thousands in the process. This year I had a hankering to combine live sax with my digital music so I purchased some pro-horns. But take a look at my music studio below and you can't see half of it (some of it is layered behind the piano keyboard). And that's a drum set you see there as well. I like doing route building but the music is a passion which all too often, like most of you do, gets pushed into the background for practical reasons.



It's a very time consuming process inspite of the advancements in the digital music world to compose, arrange, render, and then mix/master even just one song. It's a huge learning curve to understand audio and how to make what you hear the same as what I hear. This is not an ameteur undertaking quest I started years ago but something I've always wanted to do on a professional level.

Rich

Thanks for the tip! I'll be picking up a copy quickly.

Paul, I don't know how you figured out who I was, but good guess! Nice to see that you are still around. I recognize some of the people's names that are still here although I have probably forgotten their real names. Oh well! I had to pick a new name, etc because I could not remember my old one or the password. But, that's fine. As for the game. So far I like Railworks..Just wish there were more American routes and trains. Oh well.

Rich, nice to see that you are still into your music. I know you and I had talked on the phone about it. As for the Ft Kent route. You are the best at embellishing a route, so I am not concerned much about its total accuracy, but you are correct. It follows a very beautiful river and there are breathtaking views along that line. Yeah, the Bangor and Aroostook was bought out by the MMandA (Montreal, Maine and Atlantic in 2002 or thereabouts. Can't remember. Most of the cargo hauled by the line is wood! Finished wood and sometimes logs. They also haul some chemicals and potatoes. One of your buildings looks like a potato house and so it fits! Should have at least two, maybe three paper mills and lumber mills just so the route has more options. At one time there were that many industries on the route but even lumber now is getting supplied by Europeans!!!

Good to know that Dick is still around. Perhaps if he had some pictures he might do a few MM&A engines. I still haven't located my pictures yet but that article about the B&A might have something in it. Actually, MM&A still uses some of the older Bangor and Aroostook trains which have not been repainted yet. I will have to play with Railworks a bit longer before I try to tackle repainting.

You are going to have to tell my how to email from the board! Duh!! I have forgotten how. Sorry, Rich. Anyway, nice to hear from you again and best of luck with the new and beautiful route.

Tim

Hey Tim, I figured it was you cause you were the only one I could recall who was into Maine routes and your post was "almost long", which kinda added some doubt. Good seeing you again and I hope that situation you have is better. There's another guy on here who sure sounds like he has the same thing. He can't figure any rhyme or reason to it either.

Thanks for the info. Ed and I were guessing those were potato warehouses and in a couple of places it looked like timber was being cut so we got those industries covered in the route. And you say chemicals, that's great cause I was going to add my own brand of chemical making.

Okay do this, send me an email at rgarber @ vnet . net and I'm gonna let you beta the route so I can get some feedback for the route. Be patient, gonna be a bit as I'm relearning 3d Canvas and building a couple of buildings for the route. Got a new guy working with me as well, my brother Steve.

Dick is into his own entrepreneur stuff these days but he's still the same ole Dick (though the limo drivers that pick him up to and from work suggest otherwise). His website is here Be sure to visit his music page as he's doing some good stuff there too.

Oh, I looked up the Classic Trains Mag and I'm trying to get a copy. They do sell that individually right?

Rich

Geez Tim, nice of you to pop up again, I can't believe Paul caught this one, especially with such a short post

Kevin,

All it took was seeing that he was in Bristol and he mentioned having lived in Maine. That was enough to know it was our old Tim, that and menting music.

Paul