It has been a very long time since I have gotten bit by the Trainz bug, but I have finally been bitten once again. After a three year absence from the game, I've gotten the urge to play again, and man do I wish I never left.
So, on to the topic of the thread. Back in 2012, I asked a favor of inprr to create a transdem of the Susquehanna River valley between Harrisburg and Sunbury, PA (I never truly thanked you for doing this, sorry about that, hopefully you're still a part of the community), along the Norfolk Southern Buffalo Line which runs from Harrisburg to Buffalo, NY. For a few months I slowly chipped away at small parts of the route but never really got anywhere and eventually quit. Fast forward three years and, by means of my new laptop which I use to run Google Earth with its fantastic ruler tool, I finally have a way to accurately and enjoyably model the route.
Anyway, here's some of the progress I've made over the past week, because let's face it, what would a screenshot thread be without some screenshots, right?
A loaded stack train headed by two ES40DCs and a C40-9W crawl out of the Harrisburg intermodal yard.
If you want a place to see some yard action, the bridge just off I-81 in Enola is a fantastic place to watch some switching.
A northbound mixed freight crossing the Rockville bridge turns onto the Buffalo Line.
The same train only looking from route 322 towards the river.
Since this a WIP thread, here are some pics of the route in broad daylight without the environmental effects (I used the fog to cover up some ugly baseboards; unfortunately they're everywhere).
I only have a small portion of the Harrisburg/Enola part of the route completed, but now that I have found the time to work on the route progress should become visible soon, especially since this is the most populated and complicated part of the route until Sunbury.
The newest part of the route which I have been working on over the past week, and the only work I have done since 2012, is the Harrisburg intermodal yard. It hasn't been quite as a nightmare to make as Enola but after making it, I never want to see another trailer again. It's hard to capture the sheer length of this in one picture so more from here at a later date.
The wye at the eastern end of the Rockville bridge.
The approach of the Enola yard. I have been having some difficulty finding the right assets to fill in the small tunnel that runs under one of the other tracks (visible by the dig holes in the picture). I would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me a suitable way to cover it up nicely.
Finally, some of the northern ladders of the Enola yard, and the one of the main reasons why I gave up on this.
Now I know that this line isn't one where railfans would flock to seen the mere ten or so trains a day that run the section I'm modeling or has any major historical prevalence, but since I'm a local of the area, I thought it would be nice to create the line that I grew up next to. However, because of this, I believe I am going overboard with the amount of detail I am putting into the route and don't know how to stop, especially around Harrisburg. At the rate I'm going, by the time I reach Sunbury the route probably won't even load. I could be wrong, but regardless, if any of you route-building experts out there have any tips to keep performance up while keeping things realistic and detailed, please, by all means, throw them at me.
Kyle
So, on to the topic of the thread. Back in 2012, I asked a favor of inprr to create a transdem of the Susquehanna River valley between Harrisburg and Sunbury, PA (I never truly thanked you for doing this, sorry about that, hopefully you're still a part of the community), along the Norfolk Southern Buffalo Line which runs from Harrisburg to Buffalo, NY. For a few months I slowly chipped away at small parts of the route but never really got anywhere and eventually quit. Fast forward three years and, by means of my new laptop which I use to run Google Earth with its fantastic ruler tool, I finally have a way to accurately and enjoyably model the route.
Anyway, here's some of the progress I've made over the past week, because let's face it, what would a screenshot thread be without some screenshots, right?
A loaded stack train headed by two ES40DCs and a C40-9W crawl out of the Harrisburg intermodal yard.
If you want a place to see some yard action, the bridge just off I-81 in Enola is a fantastic place to watch some switching.
A northbound mixed freight crossing the Rockville bridge turns onto the Buffalo Line.
The same train only looking from route 322 towards the river.
Since this a WIP thread, here are some pics of the route in broad daylight without the environmental effects (I used the fog to cover up some ugly baseboards; unfortunately they're everywhere).
I only have a small portion of the Harrisburg/Enola part of the route completed, but now that I have found the time to work on the route progress should become visible soon, especially since this is the most populated and complicated part of the route until Sunbury.
The newest part of the route which I have been working on over the past week, and the only work I have done since 2012, is the Harrisburg intermodal yard. It hasn't been quite as a nightmare to make as Enola but after making it, I never want to see another trailer again. It's hard to capture the sheer length of this in one picture so more from here at a later date.
The wye at the eastern end of the Rockville bridge.
The approach of the Enola yard. I have been having some difficulty finding the right assets to fill in the small tunnel that runs under one of the other tracks (visible by the dig holes in the picture). I would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me a suitable way to cover it up nicely.
Finally, some of the northern ladders of the Enola yard, and the one of the main reasons why I gave up on this.
Now I know that this line isn't one where railfans would flock to seen the mere ten or so trains a day that run the section I'm modeling or has any major historical prevalence, but since I'm a local of the area, I thought it would be nice to create the line that I grew up next to. However, because of this, I believe I am going overboard with the amount of detail I am putting into the route and don't know how to stop, especially around Harrisburg. At the rate I'm going, by the time I reach Sunbury the route probably won't even load. I could be wrong, but regardless, if any of you route-building experts out there have any tips to keep performance up while keeping things realistic and detailed, please, by all means, throw them at me.
Kyle