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The NASA Railroad

Originally built in 1963, the NASA Railroad was designed to carry components for the massive Saturn V rocket to the Vehicle Assembly building at Kennedy Space Center. A railroad was preferred over trucking the parts, as the sheer size of many of the components would be too large for the trucks of the time. Over time the NASA RR's duties shifted to supporting the Space Shuttle program, as the large solid rocket boosters used on the shuttle had to be carried via flatcar in huge cylindrical segments. Unfortunately, the demise of the Shuttle program in 2011 also spelled the end for the operation, and the railroads engines were auctioned off. However, the railroad has seen some renewed use recently, as it is being used to carry the boosters for the SLS rocket.

This layout is not set during any particular era, though it leans somewhat towards the waning years of the shuttle program (2004 - 2011). As a result, none of the trackage is exactly prototypical, nor is the placement of buildings. The main landmarks featured on the layout are:

• The interchange with the Florida East Coast Railway, where incoming booster segments were transferred to the NASA RR.
  
• Jay-Jay bridge, the NASA RR's bridge over the Indian River to Cape Canaveral.
  
• The Rotation, Processing, and Surge Facility, where booster segments were offloaded and rotated upright for assembly.
  
• And the Vehicle Assembly Building, one of the largest enclosed structures on the planet used to assemble large rockets.

The layout also features two easter eggs, but I'll let you find those yourself :)

While the layout itself is built by me, massive thanks go to the modders whose assets and quickmods I used in this layout. A round of applause for:

Ixia Irisborne, for the quickmod of NASA's SRB flatcars.
• Dark Derby , for the THREE quickmods of each of the NASA RR's switchers.
  
• Space , for the MP15AC which served as the basis for those models.
  
• And Seraph , for their animated jellyfish model.

Huge thanks to all of these wonderful people. I've packaged these mods with the layout, but have also provided individual links to their mods in the sidebar as they deserve the recognition.