About

Details about the Virtual New Haven Railroad

Welcome to the blog of the Virtual New Haven Railroad! The "VNHRR" is a new project for the RailWorks train simulation computer game. Our aim is to model the New Haven's Springfield line, from Springfield, MA, to New Haven, CT, as it appeared in the mid-20th century.

We are building the route, scenery objects and rolling stock with great attention to detail and historical authenticity, so it is taking us a while. This is the main reason why we have decided to build the route in stages, the first of which will include the NH trackage from Springfield, MA, to Windsor Locks, CT, and the branch lines to Suffield, CT, and to Bradley Field. There will also be plenty of prototypical rolling stock to run on the route, from engines to freight cars and passenger equipment. The 1950s were the last of the glory days for the New Haven, and we are trying our best to simulate the 'flavor' of that era in railroading history.

While the route's main focus is clearly on the New Haven Railroad, some trackage and rolling stock of the Boston & Albany (New York Central System) and Boston & Maine railroad will be included too, as these three roads met in Springfield. This place, with its magnificient Victorian Union Station (that had long been demolished in the 'real world' 1950s), will be the heart of version one of our route. There will be plenty of historic buildlings throughout the route, like downtown Springfield, Springfield's NHRR freight house, the Bigelow carpet factory at Thompsonville, Main Street of Windsor Locks, or the old Bradley Field airport buildings. The route will come complete with custom-built tracks, line-side objects like bridges, switch stands, signals, and a wealth or rolling stock to run.

Please take a look around on this blog. We will update it from time to time with new screenshots and background stories as work on the route progresses. The main page of the blog will be the place for most of the news items. If you look at the navigation bar below the title image, you will also find a few static pages (like this one) which will be updated less often.

We hope you will like these previews of the upcoming VNHRR Springfield route. We cannot give you any details about a release date or price, simply because we still have so much work to do on the route. So, for the time being, enjoy the pictures and stories, and 'stay tuned for more'!

Happy railroading!
The VNHRR Modelers,
Bob Jones & Michael Stephan