Rails of Highland Valley Episode 3: Life was Wonderful

30/12/19. A date that I will never abandon from my head. A day that haunts me to this very moment. If you're reading this, listen with great care. This is not a recount, or a story. It's a warning.

Rails of Highland Valley. Probably the most controversial "Trainz series" on YouTube; one half of opinions led to a huge fandom, while others cited it's originality of the characters and usage of Text-To-Speech voices .I've been watching ROHV since late 2017 and I'm honestly in the middle of all this mess of opinions; my thoughts were initially overwhelmingly negative (most likely as I was used to the creativity and writing of San Juan Branch Line), but eventually, I became one of the number one fans (albeit "of the recent episodes).

If you're a member of the fandom, or as many call them "ROHVers", you've most likely seen all of the episodes. Much like every other ROHVer, I viewed everything; the episodes, the short films, the "Revenge shorts", specials, Run to Revenge (their first full length motion picture).

But there was something else.

It was after Christmas Day of 2019 when I went on Discord to check updates. It was something do most of the time when I get on social media. After checking updates on several servers and chatting with friends, I made the decision to chat with the discord channel of the shows' creator, RichmondCityRailfan.

Asking several questions and making comments about topics like Rails of Highland Valley, Family Guy, Trainz Simulator, and whatnot, I decided to make a request that he and I could watch some of the older episodes live on Discord. Though I was prepared to accept a "no", he said sure and I found some of the episodes. Things seemed to go smoothly.

However, just before we could begin "Episode 1: Right of Way", a notification popped up joined by the usual Discord notification beep. After requesting to be excused for a bit, I found it was a bot, named ERIC6, and he had given me a link joined by a text saying "i heard CottonBeltSD40T lost an episode while uploading. But a friend of mine named Miami Railfan #54 (who got his channel terminated after violating community guidelines) found it in Gmail after CottenBeltSD40T sent his lines for a parody video. We presume he sent it by mistake believing that it was one of his lines for a TTTE redub Miami Railfan #54 made. He sent it to me via Gmail after explaining what it was and where he got it. Hearing that you're a die-hard fan of ROHV, I decided to send it to you. Merry Christmas". I asked "Why me? Of all the fandom, or even the entire production crew, me? Why?", but no response came up. After a minute of waiting, I decided to click the link and it led me to a mediafire download page.I looked at the title of the file and it read tRainzvideOHighlandValley.mp4. I felt the title didn't make any sense, but I looked deeper and found that the only capital letters were R, O, H, and V. Instantly realizing what this meant, I downloaded it and shared it to RichmondCityRailfan on Discord. His first reply was "Where did you find this?" and I explained that a bot gave it to me and whatnot. RichmondCityRailfan said "That's nice of Him. I was looking everywhere for this file. It was one of the first ROHV episodes in mind. It was going to be the Episode 3, but it got stolen before I could finish it. So I replaced it with Edwards vs. Amtrak”. I then asked if he knew who Miami Railfan #54 was. He replied with “I heard he wanted to join the cast of ROHV. It's a shame he lost his channel due to the strict YouTube guidelines". I replied by asking if it would be reuploaded and he said "Now that I found it, I think there should be a remake to fit the current version of the series". I then replied with "Maybe we should start with this episode seeing that it wasn't uploaded". He agreed and we got started.

After loading the file, we were greeted with the season one intro. Nothing too far out of the ordinary, but I had to point out that the opening titles weren't present. No credits of the cast visible, no "A Trainz 2010 Series" text, not even the series logo.

I asked RichmondCityRailfan if he forgot to add the texts and he said "I remember adding casting credits. So this is just weird. Maybe I accidentally deleted them, though I regularly double check before uploading".

It showed five seconds of black screen before a text reading "Episode 3: Life was Wonderful" popped up.

The opening scene started off with Nicholas pulling a train with Jordan trailing behind him. The route resembled something like the CSX Nahunta Sub. As expected, Jordan said “Thank god this crap is over” with Nicholas replying with “Agreed”. Jordan believes Nicholas was talking about the assignment they were given, even though Nicholas was obviously referring to Jordan. After Kerry passes them and says “Who would care about you when you don’t give a (the usual horn sound effect for censorship plays) about us?” and the camera just focused on Jordan for about 40 seconds. The camera moves further away before the fade transition occurs, signifying that the scene ended.

There was now what looked like stock footage from Episode 2: Special Visitor. It is at this point where the Trainz sound effects vanish. If you've played any version of Trainz Simulator, you'd recognize the sound effects. Instead, all that could be heard was dialogue and music that can only be audible if you turn up the speakers to full volume. We got to the scene where Lilim and Lily arrive at the summit of Highland Valley and meet Jacob. What I heard instead of the actual dialogue was talk about CSX and Dave’s evil plans. However, when the excursion came to a halt, the screen twitched and cut to another scene unexpectedly. By twitch, I mean it looked like it panned very close Lilim's cab for a split second. She clearly had a worried look on her face. We were obviously confused, but decided to keep going, believing it was just and editing error. I know I encounter those all the time.

The next scene showed Jordan at the same location from the closing of the preceding scene. This is where things seemed really weird. Jordan was just sitting there. The camera didn't move at all. It was perfectly still. After a few seconds, I noticed something in the background. Within the distance was the same excursion seen before, at the same location. But there was no sign of Lily, Lilim, or even Jacob. Here, the quality began to slowly decrease. I was already feeling that something wasn't right, being joined by RichmondCityRailfan. About 2 minutes later, something escaped the speakers. It sounded like dialogue. It resembled Jordan's voice, which was Text-To-Speech Eric, but we couldn't hear what he was saying. The only audible words were "life", "was", and "wonderful". My heart plummeted at the thought of what the words sounded like put into one sentence. It sounded as if Jordan was suffering depression. But how was he suffering and why?

It cut to the Industrial Wasteland, the home of the CSX engines, which were the main antagonists of the series back then. However, the route looked more dilapidated and polluted. Clouds covered the route and buildings looked like they were collapsed into the ground. The water was a mix of brown and grey and a lot of the trees appear lifeless as did the brownish grass and dirt.

Just after the camera zoomed towards Jordan, the scene cut to one of those MS Paint edited stills that are meant to help us connect with the characters. From my perspective, those are like subtitles; they're meant to help you invest in the story and characters. Jordan's face looked heavily depressed. I could faintly see some light blue at the bottom of his eyes. They looked like tears. In some way, I felt the way they were drawn wasn't right. RichmondCityRailfan once again agreed. After a few seconds of this still, the speakers exploded into high volume. I remember how I jumped at that sound blast.

Having removed my headphones, I heard the audio more clearly. It sounded like Jordan was screaming something while trying to hold back tears. It sounded like TTS Eric, but less robotic and as if his voice was performed by an actual voice actor. It resembled that monologue from earlier but more clear sounding despite the loud cracking voice. It sounded like "Life is never something to enjoy anymore. I was happy before Dave announced his plot to put everyone on Norfolk Southern in slavery for CSX. I don't want them to leave behind a wonderful life just like me". He then started to go into a sobbing fit. Again, it sounded nothing like TTS. RichmondCityRailfan explained that Jordan was never initially supposed to be voiced by an actual voice actor. We were starting to realize that something was definitely wrong with this file.

Jordan sobbed for half a minute before repeating that same monologue from earlier, but in a tone filled with hurt and hate while obviously trying to hold back tears. The still transitioned to a video at the same location as Jordan began to slowly move. He kept moving and picking up speed before he disappeared out of frame. The camera panned towards the quayside where two shapes can be viewed. Upon closer observation, they looked like Dave and Larry, the main antagonists of the series. The scene cut to a still of them with faces, both looking devious. Here, I felt something was a bit off. A distorted audio began to play. It sounded like they were saying something. RichmondCityRailfan said that Dave and Larry were never supposed to appear in this scene so something must be wrong. I shared the same thought.

As they spoke, the camera panned into them slightly. It was so subtle that I only noticed this at the end of this shot where it was much closer to the two then it should be. Suddenly, Dave’s words became audible. This happened right out of nowhere so I was caught off guard. His voice sounded the same, except it was being interrupted by a low buzzing. It was as if the speakers were faulty, but I rewound to a previous scene and heard the sound as if nothing was wrong. Still, I could now understand what he was saying. “You thought Mr. Dunn had power over me? Take a look”. I gasped, along with RichmondCityRailfan. There was something on Dave’s cowcatcher. It looked red. I knew that it was obvious MS paint editing, but I could still instantly tell what happened. Dave had apparently ran over Mr. Dunn. In the background, some CSX engines, who I presumed were Adam and Tannen, were hauling a locomotive that looked like Jacob, evidently to be scrapped. I thought “So that’s the point of the stock footage from Special Visitor”. RichmondCityRailfan, who was mortified, said “What the hell is this? I didn’t write this part in the script. This isn’t that episode”. I agreed, pausing the episode so we could exchange thoughts. With much reluctance, we continued. We hoped this was either a bootleg or just a sick joke.

Dave went on to say “Without a yardmaster, who can fight for them?”. Chills went through my body at the thought of what those words meant. The main characters didn’t stand a chance. The next scene showed Jordan, just like in the previous scene. This time however, the sky was night. Jordan was now sobbing. It was obviously stock audio, but it was still painful to hear nevertheless. He then stopped and said “We’re defenceless. We’re on our own”. He then backed into a shed. I could hear some sobbing sounds, but they were the same TTS sounds. Then it stopped, as did all sound. The camera just focused on the shed for half a minute. Then the screen went black, with some haunting text appearing. “They came”.

I was starting to realise that this was certainly nothing RichmondCityRailfan had created, to which he agreed. Just as we did that, a scene showed up. It was the last shot from the intro, except it looked morbid. Dead trees were everywhere and the tracks were either overgrown or torn up. The sky was at the sunset lighting. The engines were in the roundhouse, but there was no sign of Jordan outside. Some of them had saddening looks on their faces and Lilim looked like she was on the verge of tears. Kerry looked like he was trying to force a smile, though his eyes explain sadness. Then I heard a voice whisper “He came”, followed by what sounded like a TTS voice, presumably from Will, say “Norfolk Southern is dead. We have little time. I’m sorry we failed Mr. Edwards”. My jaw dropped at those words. Then the end credits rolled, although the only names I could recognise were the content creators and the backgrounds were real life photos of NS engines either wrecked or being scrapped. I know I’ve seen these before on Google Images, but I just felt the urge to cry. Seeing these photos just after watching a show with their ROHV counterparts was just too much for me to bear.

RichmondCityRailfan was of course furious and I started up a chat about possible answers. He said that the plot was supposed to be about Dave attempting to overthrow Mr. Dunn and that nothing shown was supposed to happen. The best explanation I could come up with was that Miami Railfan #54 tampered with the file before he sent it. I left the chat to ask Miam Railfan #54 some questions, but two hours after I asked, I saw a news story that a house in Miami caught fire and burned to the ground. I don’t know if it was either a cover-up or a coincidence, but one thing I do know is that I have no answers.

Afterwards, I took a two week break from ROHV  to get over the stress. Even though I made the stupid decision to delete the files in order to get those nightmares out of my head, I still have some screenshots saved. These are evidence of the file’s existence.