Sorry I've been mostly away from Trainz for over 2 years now. Not completely as I seem to drift in an out from time to time. I even managed to buy a seat on the TEG a year and a half ago but N3V was late getting started and due to personal commitments I couldn't stay involved past the discussion phase of the first few spec papers they handed out. A bit of a disappoint there but they still have tons of work to do and seem to want continued input and help from the now combined TEG and Pioneer Council groups in getting things set right.
TANE is still a wip so I would not be too concerned if everything doesn't port into it right now. If content worked properly in TS12 then it is supposed to work in TANE. There will be exceptions but currently they are investigating things that don't work as bugs in TANE. For me personally it is very hard to be patient when the only EBT steel hoppers available in Trainz look like they are in the process of exploding right before your eyes. But that's progress in Trainz.
I've had an EBT route on my PC since early 2003. I made a DEM version using MD/HOG and 30m DEMs (the 1st actually was with 90m dem data and I loved it). But none of them had ground textures, scenery or even EBT trains on the early ones. For a long time I ran some of Todd's D&RGW ng content.
So in 12 years the situation has changed a bit for the better. Now we have a couple of content creators occasionally making some EBT specific stuff. Quite a long time ago now, Ben Neal gave us Easty's No 17, one of the big new class mikes for 1918 era. Unfortunately it was/is textured in tourist service livery but beggars can't be choosers. I repainted it into no 16, 17 & 18 to represent their coal hauling days. There are a couple of other repaints of that loco out there someplace.
Little Millie, mike No 12 and her bigger sisters No 14 & 15 are still no shows as are No 11 the only 2-6-2 EBT owned and the tiny M3 motor car. Ben Neal once told me he wanted to do 12 sometime. I'd like to do mike No 14 and motor car M3 and to finish things out for the era(s) I model, No 11. Though I might be your age Peter, before I get around to all these projects. Currently I'm 68 and you guys are making me feel like the youngster in the group here.
Steve Lerro (think K&L paware here) did the station at Orbisonia (also for tourist era - post 1960 time frame) as one of his 1st creations for Trainz. Randall White gave us 2 versions of the steel hoppers. I even repainted his WP&Y old passenger car to look like EBT's Nos 8 thru 11. I just finished updating them to survive into a new era of Trainz - they were broken after a new update of the WPY car on the DLS so I had to do something.
Bendorsey in the last 2 years has produced a number of EBT specific items. The M1 gas-electric, most all of the shop complex buildings at Rockhill Furnace, several station buildings along the route and a couple of the company buildings at Robertsdale including a couple mine tipples. He's also done a number of girder bridges and the 2 big bridges over Aughwick Creek (sorry Ben I prefer my version of the concrete bridge but the steel trestle and girder bridge at Pogue is great).
My current EBT route is still mostly undecorated but I do have the 32 miles of main line from Mt Union to Alvin with every curve and siding and grade change as depicted on the EBT's 1919, made for the ICC, survey maps . I have all the branch lines used prior to the 1950's except the NARCO branch on Jack's Mt that replaced the inclined rr used up thur the late 1940's. These include: the Booher Iron Mine, Coles Valley, Rocky Ridge, Shade Gap, Shade Valley, Shirley Clay Spur, Neelyton Rock Spur, No 7 Coal Mine Spur and the graded but never used extension to the South Pennsylvania RR (that I've laid track on). The yard(s) and industrial track at Mt Union include all the ng, sg and 3 rail dual gauge track. The McKelvy Brothers Lumber Co Railroad is also being added. It extends the route south into the Fort Littleton PA area. I need 2 shays for it. No2 was a B36 class and No3 was a B50 class. Ben Neal's little B28 has been repainted as No 2 while it looks good it is a bit small. Slugsmasher had one about the right size for the B50 (an enclosed cab version bought new in 1922), but it was never released IIRC.
A side project I'm working on is to modify Mike Leefer's std gauge M&P 0-6-0 to resemble the EBT std gauge 0-6-0 switcher No 3 (this is the 3rd EBT loco No 3, the 2-8-0 on the DLS was the 2nd and there was an earlier one) and to handle both std gauge and ng cars just like the real one did at Mt Union. Some mods have been accomplished - the repaint looks a bit like EBT No 3 . On the operating side some trickery is necessary so I made separate invisible frames for the loco to work either as a normal std gauge or as a ng loco when on the ng side of the dualgauge track. The loco and bogeys are now attachments on the new frames.
I have a proof of concept version of No3 that works. The real challenge is yet to happen. It's in the scripting - to make the "correct" version of No3 to appear when operating on the dual gauge track. The ng version is the problem child - it has to be restricted to the dual gauge track only when handling ng cars and revert to the std gauge version when not handling them. Neither Trainz (thru TS12) nor TANE have collision detection for railcars on different tracks and my dual gauge track is actually 2 separate track splines. So for now it has to done in script or probably for the near future probably a combination of script and manual override by the user when on the dual gauge track.
Peter, I didn't intend to hijack the thread but to answer a previous poster's question: Yes US NG is alive and still growing in Trainz.
SR&RL has a lot going for it. I enjoyed working on it and love the locos. A lot of content is available thanks to Peter and others and a couple of routes on the DLS that are finished and in good running condition.
Bob Pearson
