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NEC Wilmington - AM Rush

This map covers the section of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC) between Philadelphia 30th Street Station and Elkton MD. This simulation is strictly based on the Fall 2019 Amtrak and Septa timetables with very small changes made to adapt it to Rail Route.

Amtrak
Train symbols are prefixed with an "A" and should generally be considered the highest priority, especially the A2000 series Acela Express trains. All trains stop at Wilmington with the exception of the super express A2401. Amtrak should be routed on the middle tracks north of Wilmington and the upper two tracks south of Wilmington in order to maintain speeds for an on-time schedule.

Septa
Septa makes up the majority of trains on this map and are represented by their normal 3-4 digit symbol. Trains prefixed with a "D" are deadheads. All trains either enter or exit at University City station which leads to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station Upper Level. Three Septa routes are featured on this map: 1) Media / Elwyn Line via Angora, 2) Airport Line via Airport, and 3) Wilmington / Newark Line via the NEC. Dispatching trains to the first two lines should be simple, but the Wilmington / Newark Line trains will be more tricky. Southbound trains will relay back north at either Marcus Hook, Wilmington or Newark. Keep an eye on inbound trains to Newark since they will take different tracks at Wilmington and Churchmans Crossing depending on their schedule. One southbound Septa should be routed on the bypass line from Claymont to Wilmington so it doesn't interfere with a southbound Amtrak train.

Norfolk Southern / Conrail Shared Assets Freight Trains
Believe it or not, this is the first of the NEC maps to be released with freight trains! On this particular day, several NS trains are running later than usual which means they may interfere with the early morning commuter trains. They will show up at Elkton (track 3), Delmarva Secondary, Edgemoor Yard (track 2) and the Arsenal Connecting Track. They shouldn't be too tricky to figure out. Later in the morning we have a northbound freight show up to traverse the Chester Secondary.

The scenario starts off slow which will give the player time to figure out which auto signals need to be made perpetual. The freight trains will need to enter the map ASAP in order to avoid late penalties. Dispatching is relatively simple but the Amtrak and Septa schedules are very tight along the NEC and do not allow for any major delays.

For the most part, I found myself playing at 5x speed and slowing down only when trains arrived from new areas. Higher speeds were commonly used during some of the lulls in traffic.

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