Rolling Line

Rolling Line

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The Great Bear Island Trans-Island Railway Line
   
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Description
A collection of liveries I have created for my interpretation of The Long Dark's fictional Trans-Island Railway Line. My abridged history of this version of the railway is below.

Made for use with Rinston's amazing TLD Great Bear Island Railway layout!
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2618751444
(also included in this collection for convenience, but I take no credit for making it of course)

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First constructed in the 1930s to establish a link between the booming coal industries near the town of Milton and the deepwater Port MacKinley, the Trans-Island Line - though never a thriving enterprise due to the island's isolated nature - was nevertheless a valuable transportation lifeline from the coast to more remote inland regions of Canada's Great Bear Island.

Tracks were laid from Port MacKinley as far as the Raven Falls Ravine before being halted by locals who were strongly opposed to what they saw as "mainlander interest" in their land. To bypass this obstacle, the industrialists backing the railway's construction lobbied the government to establish Mystery Lake National Park to "protect the land and beauty of the region." The park was successfully established and the industrialists promptly received land rights to construct the railway right through the newly government-owned land.
Past Mystery Lake, the line continued northwest to Vale where a small depot was established for resupplying steam locomotives and handling freight to and from the Langston Coal Mine, where the line terminated at a yard.

The 1960s brought about two of the island's largest industries, namely the expansion of the Langston Mine into a massive open-pit uranium mining complex and the construction of the Carter Hydro Dam. This signaled an economic boom for the entire island, and rail traffic increased significantly. A branch line was constructed to the Last Resort Cannery in Bleak Inlet, transporting canned sardines to the rest of the island and the outside world. Most locals had finally accepted or even grown to appreciate the presence of the railway, and things were looking up for the entire island.

Alas, this golden age would not last forever. The Carter Hydro Dam project was shut down after only a few short years as coal and copper prices fell, while Hibernia Processing (a whaling station in Desolation Point) also shut down as industrial whaling across Canada came to an end. The railway carried on operations for another two decades, adopting diesel power in the mid-1970s to replace their rather tired steam locomotives. The mid-1980s brought about an attempt to modernize and restart the Carter Hydro Dam, which ultimately fell through due to increased seismic activity in the region, and the dam was permanently closed in the early 1990s.

The end of the '80s also brought about the government-ordered closure of the Langston Mine, which had become infamous for the "dead zone" surrounding it due to pollution and careless handling of toxic chemicals. After this event, the Trans-Island Railway became almost exclusively a logging operation, continuing operations until 2012 when the Collapse effectively doomed it.

The 2012 event known as the Collapse, a massive economic crash that wrecked both the Canadian and US currencies, cut off the already isolated Great Bear Island, leading to a massive reduction in population as people fled to the mainland's urban centers in an attempt to find greater economic stability. The remaining communities became almost entirely dependent on supplies from the mainland for their continued survival, for which mainlanders felt justified in taking whatever resources remained on Great Bear as a form of "payment" to maintain their own communities (including heavy equipment and machinery from the Trans-Island Line).

Later that same year, a series of seismic events struck Great Bear Island which destabilized parts of the railway, cutting off the line beyond Transfer Pass. More significantly, however, the long tunnel connecting the Coastal Highway to Port MacKinley was rendered entirely unusable, suffering extensive collapse. This was a crippling blow to the already-struggling railway, as Port MacKinley was the line's only direct connection to the outside world. Any traffic in or out of Great Bear Island now had to come by way of the Coastal Highway, a much longer route that also suffered significant damage.

Transportation of supplies from the mainland (as well as limited Breyerhouse timber exporting) continued between the Coastal Highway and Transfer Pass, the new end points for the now significantly shortened railway. A maintenance yard located just before the bridge to the Far Range Branch Line remained operational and was able to service the remaining locomotive, speeders, and rolling stock, and gradually the railway settled in to this new operating procedure. Trains were run only when necessary to conserve fuel and parts, while crew speeders and even railway trucks were pressed into service moving a few cars at a time.

The true end for the Trans-Island Line arrived approximately ten years after the Collapse, when the geomagnetic storm known as the First Flare struck. As all electronic equipment abruptly ceased to function, a series of intense seismic events rocked the island. Tunnels collapsed, tracks were buried beneath avalanches and landslides, and a westbound train led by the railway's sole remaining diesel locomotive was violently derailed near the maintenance yard. This cataclysmic event decisively and permanently ended all operations on the Trans-Island Line, presumably forever.
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Items (12)
Shay Class B Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
One of the oldest locomotives on the Trans-Island Line, this two-truck Shay began service running the full length of the railroad in the 1930s. As the railroad expanded throughout the mid-20th century, the Shay gradually became confined to the logging bran...
Steam Ka Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
The single heaviest locomotive ever to run on the Trans-Island Railway Line, this NZR Ka-class steam locomotive is at first glance an unusual choice for one of the most isolated railways in Canada. The locomotive was acquired by the railway as part of a go...
Steam Ka Tender Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
Tender for the Steam Ka operated by Great Bear Island's Trans-Island Railway Line, inspired by the 2017 survival game The Long Dark. Recommended to operate on Rinston's Great Bear Island Railway layout. Recommended to operate on Rinston's Great Bear Island...
Husky D27M-3 Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
A standard-gauge D27M-3 of Great Bear Island's Trans-Island Railway Line, one of three identical examples of this hardy diesel-mechanical shunter that operated along the line. The three-axle design, unusual for standard-gauge D27Ms, was well-suited for the...
Husky H4-265E Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
The most powerful and indeed largest diesel locomotive on the Trans-Island Line, this H4-265E (road number 17) served as the railway's primary mainline power between the late 1970s and 2013. The locomotive's larger cab made it a crew favorite as it was qui...
Breyerhouse Boxcar Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
A boxcar painted for the Breyerhouse timber company, which oversaw extensive logging operations on Great Bear Island (notably in the Mystery Lake National Park region). Breyerhouse, which became the primary customer of the Trans-Island Line following the p...
Carter Hydro Energy Boxcar Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
Originally constructed in the 1960s to power the town of Milton, the Carter Hydro Dam project was abandoned after only a few years of use as coal and copper prices fell at the end of the decade. The massive structure was closed for nearly twenty years befo...
Grizzly Air / Last Resort Sardines Containers Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
A flatcar with two of the most common cargo containers shipped along the Trans-Island Line. While in operation, the Last Resort Cannery frequently required shipments of supplies to keep producing tinned sardines, and containers such as the one on this flat...
Langston Mining Corporation Boxcar Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
The Langston Mine, originally constructed in the 1940s and expanded in the 1960s into a massive uranium ore mine, was one of the primary industries located along the Trans-Island Line. Ore gondolas transported the processed ore to Port MacKinley where it w...
Last Resort Sardines Boxcar Trans-Island Line
Created by HuskyDynamics
One of the Trans-Island Line's most consistently profitable industries from the 1960s until it went bankrupt in the early 21st century a few years before the Collapse, the Last Resort Cannery processed and produced tinned sardines to be sent in bulk shipme...
Alaska Railroad Boxcar
Created by HuskyDynamics
A vintage Alaska Railroad boxcar with a monochromatic variant of the McKinley National Park Route logo. Do not redistribute this livery without my express permission....
The Long Dark Great Bear Island Railway Canada V4
Created by Rinston
Now updated to V4 as of 22/09/24. NEW Additions: I have created the New line extension from "The Long Dark" - The CONTAMINATION ZONE - a continuation of the "Far Range Branch Line" I am pretty pleased with how this came out, especially the main building co...