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Capital District of New York - Megalomaniac

The year is 1850 and the Capital Region of New York is filled with opportunities to connect NYC, Boston, Buffalo, and points west! Be a part of westward expansion by building one of the first railroads in the United States - the 1926 Mohawk & Hudson - between Albany and Schenectady. Run the 1931 DeWitt Clinton (or something similar from the workshop) across the line at a whopping 27 mph with America’s first regular passenger service. Overcome mountainous terrain as you build out of the Hudson River Valley and along the ridges and cliffs of the Catskill Mountains.

Grow your transportation empire as you build key sections of major railroads, including the New York Central, the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, modern day Class 1s CSX, NS, and CP, and Amtrak’s Albany-Rensselaer station. Will you make use of the Great Western Turnpike and other major roads through New York’s State Capital? Will you connect local industries along the Erie Canal? Can you bridge the Hudson River? Will you run famous named trains like the 20th Century Limited and the Lake Shore Limited? Or will you consolidate your lines to efficiently move intermodal and unit trains through the Capital Region, bound for Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, New York City, and the world?

(must have experimental map sizes enabled),

• 40x40km (25x25mi) real world area that covers Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Selkirk, and Castleton-on-Hudson, New York (1:1.67 scale).
  
• Fully navigable Hudson River; fully painted Mohawk River.
  
• The Catskills and Taconic Mountains around the Capital Region.
  
• Real railroad right-of-ways are lightly marked for every railroad built after 1826 in the Capital Region. In real life many of the lines are abandoned (often due to redundancy/consolidation), so it’s up to you to choose which lines will serve your transportation empire.
  
• 69 real world cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, all accurately located.
  
• Historic villages, homes, manors, and building locations (approximate) of infamous New Yorkers and Americans, including the Schuyler family (associated with Alexander Hamilton), the Livingstons, Bleeckers, Lansings, and Van Rensselaers.
  
• Real world major roads as they would have existed between 1800 and 1920.
  
• 109 real world industry placements and edge-of-map connections (using Freestyle Industries). Industry placements reflect various historic and current important businesses.
  
• For you really hardcore railroad people: this map does NOT include Mechanicville (or Saratoga Springs), but does include lines that lead to Mechanicville.
  
• This is not a Save Game. Screenshots are illustrative.

Countryside Buildings - Use this mod if you want the houses and shops outside of the towns to be functional, and not just decorative.

Realistic Slopes - I recommend a slope value of 0.04 (or 0.035 if you’re daring) and an embankment value of 1. Using less than 0.035 for slope may result in certain rail corridors being unbuildable, and using less than 1 for embankments may hurt the existing terrain features, including pre-existing real world railroad embankments.

• This map can make a computer work hard. There’s a lot of trees! (A lot. It’s Upstate New York. It’s basically just trees with people.) I am not responsible for any impact to software or hardware.
  
• Freestyle Industries at the edges of the map can accept passengers!
  
• The original 1926-31 route of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad is marked with dirt; however, the ends of the original alignment had steep hills that required ropes and pulleys to move trains because the locomotives couldn’t make the grades. I have marked the original segments near the steep slopes with rocks. Using the realistic slopes mod, it isn’t even possible to build the ends of the original alignment into Albany and Schenectady. The steep slopes were a recognized impediment, resulting in the modern alignments being implemented between 1830 and 1844.
  
• When building between Albany and Schenectady, I recommend starting from the top of the hills and building down into the cities/valleys.
  
• GOAL: NO TUNNELS. Despite the steep slopes, no railroad tunnels were built in the Capital Region other than one utilized in Schenectady’s downtown between 1830 and 1840.

• I-90 and I-87 meet in the Capital District: Build them to compete with your railroads.
  
• Albany International Airport: Potentially fun to build, but it’d be hard to connect it to anywhere else realistically. There are a handful of tiny airstrips and county airports that exist within the map area in real life.
  
• Streetcars and Interurbans: Trams, streetcars, and interurbans crisscrossed the Capital District in the early 1900s, connecting towns and villages to Albany, Troy, and Schenectady. Operate a J.G. Brill “Bullet” Interurban out of Schenectady!
  
• Erie Canal: Build the Erie Canal from Albany to Cohoes to Schenectady if you really want a ridiculous challenge. Small portions of it are painted on the map, but the elevation changes require dozens of locks in real life. Railroads caused canal traffic to peak in 1850, though it is still operational and utilized today.
  
• Port of Albany, Rensselaer, and Troy: The Port of Albany-Rensselaer is still an important active port, serving various bulk and heavy goods movements. The Port of Troy was historically significant for moving goods, metal, and lumber.
  
• Historically, ports and ferries were important for crossing the Hudson River prior to the construction of railroad and then highway bridges.
  
• Intermodal container and autorack traffic: Selkirk and Mechanicville are both home to various automotive and intermodal facilities.
  
• New York Central: The map features the location of the West Albany Shops, and can be used to operate famous named trains like the 20th Century Limited, the Lake Shore Limited, and the Wolverine along the Water Level Route.
  
• Amtrak: Albany-Rensselaer is the 2nd busiest Amtrak station in New York, and the 9th busiest in the United States! Put the GE Genesis P32AC-DM to work hauling Empire Service trains, and operate the Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, Adirondack, Ethan Allen Express, and other Amtrak named trains.

• Mohawk and Hudson: Albany to Schenectady
  
• New York Central Water Level Route/CSX/Amtrak: Connect the Hudson Line (towards New York City) to the Mohawk Subdivision (towards Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago) with a 4-Track Mainline CSX River Subdivision/West Shore Railroad (towards North Jersey/NYC) to the Mohawk Subdivision (towards Buffalo and points west)
  
• Castleton Cut-off and the Alfred H Smith Memorial Bridge (New York Central/CSX)
  
• Delaware and Hudson/Norfolk Southern/Canadian Pacific (Scranton, PA to Montreal) through Schenectady (NS/CP/Amtrak), Albany (CP/CSX), and Troy (CSX/CP)
  
• Boston and Maine Railroad/Fitchburg Railroad/Canadian Pacific out of Troy towards Rutland, Burlington, and Boston, and a small portion of B&M/Pan Am Railways through Schenectady
  
• Boston and Albany Railroad out of Albany towards Boston (CSX/Amtrak - Post Road Line), and towards the New York Central Harlem Line to New York City