a simple request

[BN1970]

This is probably the first request I have made to anyone out here, as I am usually the kind that just goes ahead and attempts to do the job anyway :hehe:

What I was really interested in was doing a route that I worked on as a young man just hired out to the railroad; however I cannot justify buying Transdem just for 1 route. If someone with Transdem could find it in their heart to do a Dem route with tiger lines of the railway lines and roads, I would be eternally in their debt. I was a reskinner by trade over at MSTS, and would be more than happy to lend my talents here in trade, if necessary.

What I am needing is the USA route from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Saint Joseph, Missouri. This was mostly dark territory, midwestern grain country and would afford many switching possibilities. It would just be nice to have a Trainz version of my old stomping grounds for me to retire with. Remember, I only need the baseboards Dem'd and the tiger lines: the rest would be up to me.

Please remember, this is just a request; I don't want to come across as a 'gimme pig'. I just can't justify buying a program to do only one route.

Thanks again for letting me ask this of you all and have a sparkling day!!:wave:

Charley

 

[Dermmy]

Have you considered using HOG which is freeware and will give a DEM terrain with Tiger data overlayed? See Wewain's tutorial here.

I occassionally knock out a HOG route on request if it is not too big - roughly how long is your proposed route in miles?

Andy

 

[BN1970]

Hi Andy

And thanks for replying back. According to GoogleEarth, it is about 131 miles long.

And I will check into HOG, and see if I can make sense of it

 

[mjolnir]

Charley

This is probably the first request I have made to anyone out here, as I am usually the kind that just goes ahead and attempts to do the job anyway :hehe:

What I was really interested in was doing a route that I worked on as a young man just hired out to the railroad; however I cannot justify buying Transdem just for 1 route. ...<snippage>...

What I am needing is the USA route from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Saint Joseph, Missouri. This was mostly dark territory, midwestern grain country and would afford many switching possibilities. It would just be nice to have a Trainz version of my old stomping grounds for me to retire with. Remember, I only need the baseboards Dem'd and the tiger lines: the rest would be up to me.

Please remember, this is just a request; I don't want to come across as a 'gimme pig'. I just can't justify buying a program to do only one route.

Charley, since the line you worked when you first hired on is all in the bottoms of the Missouri Valley, have you considered doing the route without TRANSDEM? Get the information on alignment by using an on line map source, like Mapquest, or Google maps, supplement it with data from Topozone (or buy a subscription to Topozone) and start building. According to my favorite map site, it's 131 highway miles from Council Bluffs to St. Joe, so it would be approximately the same by rail. To do this length of route would take about 2-1/2 boards per mile, or about 350. I'm sure there are grades on the line, but once you get into building the right of way, and track, I suspect you'll remember where they were. The principal datum of Council Bluffs is 1039 feet, Pacific Junction is 955 ft, Hamburg is 919, Rock Port, MO is 939, and St. Joseph is 885 ft. And I don't know where the principal datum is in Council Bluffs, but I suspect that the elevation at the rail facilities is less than the 1039 feet listed, so the grade is probably not more than a foot or two per mile,


ns

 

[clam1952]

This is probably the first request I have made to anyone out here, as I am usually the kind that just goes ahead and attempts to do the job anyway :hehe:

What I was really interested in was doing a route that I worked on as a young man just hired out to the railroad; however I cannot justify buying Transdem just for 1 route. If someone with Transdem could find it in their heart to do a Dem route with tiger lines of the railway lines and roads, I would be eternally in their debt. I was a reskinner by trade over at MSTS, and would be more than happy to lend my talents here in trade, if necessary.

What I am needing is the USA route from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Saint Joseph, Missouri. This was mostly dark territory, midwestern grain country and would afford many switching possibilities. It would just be nice to have a Trainz version of my old stomping grounds for me to retire with. Remember, I only need the baseboards Dem'd and the tiger lines: the rest would be up to me.

Please remember, this is just a request; I don't want to come across as a 'gimme pig'. I just can't justify buying a program to do only one route.

Thanks again for letting me ask this of you all and have a sparkling day!!:wave:

Charley

I used Microdem (Free) and Hog quite successfully from the tutorial linked in Dermmy's post and after a few bizzare looking landscapes (see comment on feet and metres below!) I eventually got the hang of it. :hehe:

Note the version of Microdem available is newer.
Important is that now you don't do the feet to metres conversion as the elevations are now shown in metres, a point I failed initially to notice!!
You can actually get all the elevation info from info from the info button at the top as well as the longer method described and some of the dialogues are slightly different, the method is the same though.
Also it now saves to tga - use the dropdown file list when saving, so you can skip the use irfanview or PSP to convert the bmp part and go straight to Hog which is the really easy bit.

Probably needs a slightly updated tutorial really but if I could work it out at my first attempt it should be within anyone's capabilities

The US Dem data is a bit better than the stuff for the UK so you should be able to produce a good route.

 

[BN1970]

Have you considered using HOG which is freeware and will give a DEM terrain with Tiger data overlayed? See Wewain's tutorial here.

I occassionally knock out a HOG route on request if it is not too big - roughly how long is your proposed route in miles?

Andy

Just haven't been able to decipher HOG yet, and Roland is on holiday, so I guess Transdem is my only hope for now unless I can jumpstart the ol' brain here :'(

 

[Vern]

As a Transdem customer I can thoroughly recommend the programme, it's pretty much essential for setting up real world routes. No offence to HOG, but my only experience was when you had to greyscale paint contour maps then create a series of boards. (And download from a site which at the time ISTR seemed less than secure).

By purchasing the programme you are supporting its continued development and I'm pretty certain in the past the author has taken a less than favourable view of registered owners soliciting to create routes for third parties, or vv.

It really is a very, very useful utility.

 

[geoffwilliams]

As Vern says, Transdem is excellent and once you have followed the tutorials it is easy to use. Well worth the cash.
Geoff

 

[wreeder]

Check here and see if what you want is listed.

http://www.gaurc.us/?page_id=160

I don't know anything about Iowa other than ghosts play baseball there.

William