Granger Heartland: Kansas City – Topeka Route Add-On

Anchored on the great railroad town of Kansas City, Union Pacific’s Heartland Service Unit is perfectly named, stretching through America’s vibrant and busy granger heartland. And now, extraordinary Union Pacific granger-country main line railroading comes to Train Simulator with the Kansas City – Topeka route!

By tradition part of the First Subdivision of Union Pacific’s famous and historic Kansas Division, Union Pacific’s 67-mile Kansas City-Topeka line is today a key route amid UP’s sprawling system. UP’s Kansas City-Topeka line is bustling with traffic, as typically some 60 trains a day hustle across the route laden with tonnage including grain, coal, automobiles, aggregates, and manufactured products. Lawrence, Kansas, 40 miles west of Kansas City, is an important location along the route.

The Granger Heartland: Kansas City-Topeka route extends from Union Pacific’s 18th Street and Armourdale yards in Kansas City (Kansas) to Topeka, junction site with three important Union Pacific lines that stretch on westward. In addition to hosting expansive main line traffic, the route is home to multiple and diverse lineside customers including skyscraper-tall grain elevators, auto distribution facilities, and manufacturing companies.

For much of its distance between Kanas City and Topeka, the double-track railroad traces the north bank of the Kansas River, curling through rolling and scenic granger territory. Operating speeds on the line are typically in the 60-mph range. As expected on such a critical and active route, Union Pacific’s Kansas City-Topeka line witnesses a variety of modern motive power and the Train Simulator route includes Union Pacific’s powerful Electro-Motive SD70ACe and versatile GP40-2 along with a selection of eight types of Union Pacific freight rolling stock.

The origins of the Union Pacific’s Kansas City- Topeka route date to the 1855 formation of the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Railroad, but the line’s important grew in 1863 when it was designated the Union Pacific Eastern Division to serve as a southern branch of the transcontinental railroad. Tracklaying began that same year and reached Lawrence in 1866. Renamed the Kansas Pacific, the route reached all the way to Denver, Colorado by 1870.

Today, in the state of Kansas alone, the Union Pacific operates more than 2,000 route miles of railroad and arguably none are more important, vibrant, or captivating than the miles that stretch between Kansas City and Topeka! The experiences and challenges of modern and ever-bustling big-time railroading in America’s heartland await you in Train Simulator – with the Granger Heartland: Kansas City – Topeka route!

Key Features

• Union Pacific’s famed and historic double-track route extending 67 miles between Kansas City and Topeka, Kansas
• 18th Street and Armourdale yards in Kansas City, Kansas
• Diverse lineside facilities including skyscraper-tall grain elevators
• Union Pacific EMD SD70ACe diesel locomotive
• Union Pacific EMD GP40-2 diesel locomotive
• Selection of eight contemporary Union Pacific freight cars
• 7 realistic career scenarios and 2 railfan mode scenarios
• Quick drive compatible