A trio of SD45s muscle Pacific Southwestern hotshot M-214, headed to Aurora from the coast, past Santiago Union Terminal.

Traffic rose slightly in Q2 2018 over the joint line across Iron Mountain Pass between Santiago and Springfield, reported Great Northern Railway yesterday.

GN, which originally built the joint line and now owns a majority share, said that recent capacity improvements along the line’s length have been instrumental in expediting longer and more frequent freight movements. The Great Northern report also suggested that the new inland port in Aurora had been the primary driving factor in adding 5 intermodal trains per day to the GN schedule. Great Northern sends approximately 65 trains over the line every day, while minority co-owners Pacific Southwestern and the Yawassic Road average 15-20 each per day.

Photographer Maria Pierce has more photos for us from Berellia, showing off new construction work that has been done on the 2nd District. She followed a coal train behind four ex-Blackrock and Western SD40-2s up the hill from Berellia to Singleton.

The 2nd District wye, in downtown Berellia.

The main boulevard in Berellia. Where the locomotives are now is the future site of a major grade crossing.

All green signals for our coal train as it leaves the urbanity of the capitol and heads toward Singleton.

The train approaches a completed grade crossing with horn blaring.

The train crosses the Berellia river, which flows into the huge lake in the foreground.

Hitting the east end of the siding and charging up the grade.

The tail end of the train enters single-track territory.

Here we see the train roaring through a notable cutting just past the manufacturing town from last time.

After a grueling climb, the coal train finally claws its way into Singleton, passing the depot.

Here the train rolls underneath two new bridges carrying a divided highway over the tracks. In the distance, the still incomplete yard can be seen.

A closer shot of the mainline refueling station. Our train will not stop.

An aerial shot of the locomotive shops and maintenance tracks.

The coal train plods through the refueling station at a stately 21 miles per hour. The limit here changes to 60, allowing trains to stretch their legs on the long eastbound run to the border.

We say goodbye to the coal train here in Singleton. A passenger train will be along shortly, and I will take it back down the grade.

Map of Berellian Railways’s 5th district, which mainly handles aggregates, potash, and grain trains.

Tensions between Dertinia and Sondia have once again escalated into a minor war, and all railway construction in Sondia has been temporarily halted. Meanwhile, over on the Kasversas, rail construction contractors have been hard at work.

Berellia is a rather small country, on North Kasversa. Its recently nationalized railway system carries mostly heavy bulk loads, like coal, iron ore and potash. Photographer Maria Pierce traveled to Berellia to document ongoing revitalization of the nation’s trunk lines.

A rather famous cutting on the 5th district, looking northwest.

The last bridge over the Persephone river before intersecting the 1st division and hitting Blackrock, the second-largest city in Berellia.

Berellia, the capitol of Berellia. These tracks are those of BER’s 2nd district, which parallel the city’s old business district. The skyscrapers of downtown can be seen in the distance, along with the 1st division mainline.

A wye which connects the 1st district with the 2nd passes under the 1st division. BER divides their trackage into two groups; districts, which are lower-traffic, older, usually single-track lines, and divisions, which link Berellia (the capitol) with other large cities and the surrounding countries.

The 1st district passing through the old industrial sector of Berellia (capitol).

The bridge over Hoover’s Creek.

At this point, the 1st division once again becomes single track for the climb up to Singleton.

A small manufacturing and industrial town abuts the 1st district here.

Singleton’s refueling area. The Singleton depot can be seen in the distance.

San Martin Passenger Ferry Terminal.

A refinery springing up near the yard.

In the last week in northern Sondia, the Los Palacios Highway has been extended, and San Martin now has citywide power. Also, construction on Union Station has started.

Photographer Markus Hamilton brought us pictures from the southern mountains of Sondia, near the Odessian border. He caught several trains, including this manifest loaded with Odessian freight.

Yesterday, officials with Sondia’s Federal Consolidated Railways (Ferrocarriles Consolidados de la Republica) stated in a press conference that the Sondian rail system has reached approximately 110% capacity, and that upgrades to existing equipment had reached fever pitch, with new orders being placed almost every other day. One of Sondia’s smaller northeastern cities, San Martin, has received a lot of attention recently, as the local government implemented several tax hikes to pay for upgrading the existing local network. Pictures from the city’s rail corridors were released at the press conference mentioned above.

An intermodal train heads southeast on the non-electrified western line.

An oil train rolls along the electrified Los Palacios corridor, which stretches between San Martin in the south and Los Palacios in the north, near the Dertinian border.

A view of the high-speed intercity line connecting Los Palacios and San Martin, with the oil train and intermodal train in the background.

A mail train behind a demonstrator locomotive from Robinson Global Enterprises overtakes the intermodal train. This shot shows off FCR’s strange policy of painting individual batches of locomotive orders in often radically different liveries.

The pair of C-CM62-B1 electric locomotives powering the oil train roll underneath the north bridge, which carries the Boca Del Mar line over both the Los Palacios corridor and the western trunk line.

A commuter train powered by a new Tenya Electric locomotive waits patiently at a suburban commuter station, with part of the San Martin skyline in the background.

A westbound express charges north along the western trunk line as a local passenger train takes the Boca Del Mar line to the west.

A closer view of the RGE locomotive providing the motive power for the express.

An example of FCR’s most common single locomotive type, the H-CF30 or Class 28, throttles up in anticipation of the run-up to the north bridge.

An intercity trainset glides over the San Martin river. The bridge that carries the intercity line over the river is one of the first things that San Martin’s government has stated they will replace.

The McLane warehouse in the San Martin industrial park. An FCR will shortly pick these boxcars up and take them to San Martin yard to be sorted into a train.

The grain port of San Martin.

San Martin has a very large lumber port, and it is seen here.

The entrance to San Martin yard. This yard sorts goods from the docks and from other industries around the city, and puts them into trains which then go to FCR’s northeast classification yard to be resorted and sent to their final destination.

An electric-powered express whisks by the commuter train we saw earlier.

The mail train and the western express meet. The intermodal train will soon follow.

Another shot of the meet.

The intermodal train follows the mail train south.

The southbound oil train rolls by on the corridor as the three trains meet on the trunk line.

The northbound express blasts by the oil train.

Both the mail train and the westbound express have now cleared the trunk line, and the oil train clears the center track of the corridor.

The power car of the express passes the camera. FCR has only recently started ordering locomotives with head-end power, and power cars are now only used on the most prestigious of trains.

The intercity trainset now roars past the camera.

The intermodal train rolls smoothly into town, passing the still stopped commuter train.

The engineer of the intermodal train plays catch-up with the tail of the mail train as they approach the San Martin river.

The northbound express blasts through another suburban commuter station.

The southbound oil train crosses the San Martin.

The eastbound passenger local now crosses the corridor as the commuter train accelerates.

The tail of the eastbound crosses the bridge as the commuter train rolls by the camera.

A final shot of the commuter train.

Officials declined to comment on when upgrade programs might be completed.

Last night massive construction cranes removed Minos Bay’s famous skyscrapers and replaced them in different locations, giving the city a more open and spread-out skyline. City officials have said that they much prefer this look.

Construction also began yesterday on Minos Bay’s Metro system. The new system will connect downtown Minos Bay with the surrounding suburbs, supplementing the two commuter rail lines already in place.

The intermodal port of Minos Bay has opened for business. Traffic on the Empire City Sub is expected to at least double due to the new port, say Southwest Lines officials.

Groundbreaking on Minos Bay Union Terminal began today, though officials have stated that the terminal building(s) might be replaced sometime in the near future. Plans are being drawn for another large station to the south.

The Port of Minos Bay has lain empty and dormant since it first came into the mind of Minos Bay’s construction minister. However, shocking news was received by the citizens of Minos Bay this afternoon as work on the port finally began. First to be constructed was the petroleum products area, which is still unfinished. Work on the drydocks and ship repair facilities then commenced, and all buildings are now in place. 

Minos Bay’s downtown area has also been moved south so as not to interfere with port construction. The port interchange on the Gold Coast highway has also been completed.

In addition to this monumental news, SWL has completed their safety systems for the Ogygia Beach station crossing. Automobiles will now stop for trains rocketing through, as the rail speed limit through the station is 70 miles per hour.

Also, on the high-speed line, new temporary catenary has replaced the experimental hovering catenary that was present previously. The line has also been extended slightly.

These next pictures show the expansion of Northrop Yard, an interchange point between SWL’s Empire City and Southwestern Subdivisions and Minos Bay & Eastern’s 1st Subdivision.

Finally, an overview of Minos Bay as it now stands, with the petroleum dock in the foreground.

Q-STJPFC1-12 heads off HLR trackage at Bryce and joins the Cascade Northeastern line to the north as a CNER manifest waits in the foreground.

Hy-Line Rail, Gardaka’s largest rail/rail holdings corporation, has recently purchased 400 new SD70ACe locomotives from Zamboin Rail Industries. Two units were spotted on train Q-STJPFC1-12 today, along with a Robinson Global Enterprises CW44ACX. Photographer Markus Hamilton brings us the following pictures.

The chunky units have several innovative features, not the least of which is technology which allows for each axle to have an individual AC inverter. Trainz Today predicts that these units will be used mainly on intermodal trains in Vidalia, and heavy-haul freight on the Roman continent.