All Aboard
We're glad you found us. Come on in and join a group that is determined to operate a VR as realisticly as possible within the limits of MSTS. Every effort has been made to include the best route, motive power and rolling stock available. Many of your favorite commercial vendors have contributed modified equipment for our enjoyment. Finally the staff of the Cascade & North Western places all of these fantastic toys on the most realistic route around and operates the equipment under real world conditions.

Still not convinced?
Take a look at these quotes from others who have joined the C&NW.

"MSTS truly has never looked, sounded, or performed as great as it is on this VR. It really is amazing. It's going to be tough for anything new from this point on to measure up."
by Harold C

"After almost forty virtual hours of running on this route I am totally amazed at the dedication, artistry of layout and the great looking/running equipment." by Bill P

"This route is truly breathtaking. The more one sees of it the more one realises the tremendous amount of work that has gone into it. Congratulations to those who so valiantly fought the RE to bring us this magnum opus." Unknown author

Editor's Note: The actual names of these engineers have been withheld to protect them from wives with long Honey Do lists and children who might be looking for an excuse to dislodge daddy from in front of the computer.

Radio Chatter
Oh yes, have you heard about the radio chatter on the C&NW? All our engines have added generic radio chatter. Your radio is now very active as it should be on a railroad as busy as the C&NW. There is generic chatter along with our route embedded chatter and then our SBW radio commands program. Everything sounds very real so beware.

So! What are you waiting for? The management and staff of the Cascade & North Western Railroad would like to extend you an invitation to come and join to our world.

[Sample Radio Chatter #1] [Sample Radio Chatter #2]

Concept
The concept for the C&NW came from the fertile mind of Bob Artim. In fact what you will see here was how he orginally envisioned NERR. On the C&NW we strive to operate a railroad in the fashion of a real world regional carrier. There are numerous businesses who serve both as a point of origin for coal, lumber products, recycled steel, sand and gravel. These businesses and many more also serve at the termination point for raw logs, chemicals and a wide variety of other manufacturing necessities. The C&NW has interchange and thru traffic with Class 1 railroads such as the BNSF, CP Rail, CN and the Union Pacific. In addition we serve several smaller local railroads. We operate on a scheduling system that places our engineers in a variety of real world work situations. Each engineer must follow the same career path.

Our World
As you may already know, our world is based on the ADFRR created by Robert Reedy. This is the only route that we utilize but it is a highly improved version. The C&NW contains significantly more trackage and industries than the original ADFRR. In addition many small details have been included for more realistic operations. Some of the new and exciting improvements that you will notice on the C&NW are speed limit signs that you can actually read from the cab of your locomotive as you pass them. Along with the speed limit signs you will find signs identifying the track that you are on. There are signs to denote the transition points between Districts and Divisions. Station signs actually denote the station name and the signs are of a consistant design just like in the real world. There are C&NW "No Trespassing" signs on bridge approaches and yard limit signs. All signs shown below are actual size as they were recorded from the sim.

In the rough and tumble real world of railroading engineers bid on jobs by seniority. We were unable to implement this concept here at the C&NW. This may not be a bed thing since engineers in the real world tend to have to do the same job over and over for a week and sometimes more. How boring.

Brian Element, our php guru, has developed an automated dispatching system that will assign work to each engineer based on the completion of the previous work order. New engineers will be assigned four familiarization work orders prior to being authorized to work on any portion of the system without supervision.

Upon completion of the familiarization period engineers are assigned a series of work orders out of the Ada Yard which is the western terminus of the C&NW. This series of work orders is designed to simulate a days work switching the yard and building an east bound train that is set to leave at 1:00 PM.

In the next series of work orders you will be assigned to take the east bound train out over the main to Castle Rock. There you will drop your helpers and continue on to Circus City. After arrival at Circus City you will be assigned to take over the westbound opposite number and return to Ada.

This is a sample of how you will eventually work your way from the western terminus, Ada, to the eastern terminus, Nuggett. In the process you will be assigned work at each yard and service all of the customers across our great route. There will also be some passenger runs in the mix as you move east. All of your work will be assigned and recorded automatically by LEADS.