PRRR's Introduction and Production Notes:
The art of "inventing" your own Railroad in V-Scale
The PRRR was created in late 2001 on a whim. For some reason I got it into my mind to create a wholly identifiable Railroad Livery let alone a company with a history. I used a "town" that actually exist in Northern Idaho named Priest River. I also made a route named Hoodoo Pass. Hoodoo Pass does exist, but not in any railroad capacity. It is indeed in Idaho; as is Priest River. The PRRR's Logo and Livery Symbol of a diamond with a P in the middle is 50% true. The diamond was taken from what I found many years ago of a scrapped logging car in Spokane Washington. The diamond is real, but what it meant as in a name is still a mystery. I have researched everything I could of the area in it's logging hay-day, but nothing was found. In real life The Northern Pacific Railroad ran through Priest River as did certain Great Northern trains. In 1970 Burlington Northern went through Priest River. Now, that particular sub has been "abandoned", and is today used by Stinson Lumber Company and Rail Link.
So...I took all the elements of information I could get and played with it for awhile until I came up with a "plan". It was a evolutionary beginnings. The colors scheme and logo were pretty much done except I changed the colors to certain ways to help simplify matters and cause less confusion for myself and others. After about a year I was able to set a standard for livery and color styles. See Color & Livery Schemes Page.
After all the scrambling of getting it "right", the Priest River Railroad (PRRR) was born. I uploaded a few files to Train-Sim with the new livery. Many thought it was real and I had to say they were fictional right away. Now my new "baby" needed a home to call it's own. So...after awhile I was dabbling in the Route Editor and got Michael Vone's Route Building Guide. I learned quickly enough to try to make a "starter" route. Which I did. This non-published route was the first step in creating Hoodoo Pass. I began to sketch out a route plan and everything I wanted to have in the route. Many aspects were needed to formulate a route and it's workings. Length, Industries, passenger service, elevation data, the works. At the very beginning the route was originally 80 miles long. Then 120, 160, 190 and finally 200 miles! Then I made a sub line that was 32 miles long. Now...I needed a premise of the route. What kind of theme should this route represent? I grew up around a lot of logging, but it was mining that took my interest. So, I "invented" mining operations. I didn't just make 1 mine I made 3. The funny thing was is that the mines and their operations made me invent yet another railroad. It's like a railroad within a railroad. The Mt. Cascade Mining Company was born. I then preceded to invent a Livery for that too. I decided to make it simpler and a little more "colorful". So it was a "blue" thing that I created and it seemed to fit well in the scheme of things. After 9 months of building Hoodoo Pass I released the route in the form of a beta. I distributed 300 copies worldwide (no-foolin'). Right after that I updated the route to 2.0, then 2.5. That was when I uploaded the route to Train-Sim where nearly 2000 users have downloaded it as so far.
To this day I still get questions about the PRRR. Is it real? Where is it really? Well...it's not real. It's fictional. It's like writing a book of a story that really didn't happen, but sounds real. This shouldn't be confused with Fantasy. There is a vast difference from Fiction to Fantasy. To me, Fantasy is not real and cannot be real...ever. Whereas Fictional isn't real per se, but could be and be possible at the same time. There are perhaps about a dozen fictional RR's out in the MSTS world. There is twice that many if not more concerning routes. Meanwhile, many prototypical routes of real-life RR's are still being made. Fictional (and fantasy) routes will always be around because they are testaments to peoples creativity and artistry. The same goes for those that make real-life routes. To make a facsimile of anything real is difficult to do, but not impossible. Cajon Pass, Tehachapi, Kicking Horse Pass and many other attest to that fact.
To make your own RR and livery...take your time. Look at all the real RR's out there. See what is "feasible". Don't be in a rush. Make it as real as possible. Be prepared for your creation to evolve; what may look good now may have to be changed later. If you can fool someone into thinking it is real...you've succeeded.