American Powerstations and Powerlines

[minernut]

I'm building a fictional route that serves a power station, I have most of everything in place except the power lines. I have found and downloaded Powerline tower classic type, v type, and waist type along with Powerline 315kv and Powerline 735kv from the author martinvk. I like the towers but the Powerline splines are aggravating me. It seams that the Powerlines only like to follow a straight path and when i connect another spline at a different angle it doesn't connect properly leaving spaces and overlaps. I have a couple of other Powerlines but there are too small to be used as high voltage. I'm just looking for some good old fashion current American transmission lines, towers and utility poles. Any assistance or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.:udrool:


FYI: I have OCD bad and get irritated quickly when things don't look the way I want it to.

 

[JCitron]

Look for Powerline A, Powerline B, and Powerline US.

These will suit your needs.

John

 

[Falcus]

Laurel Line (Sp?) is a series of Telegraph and Power Lines that had some notably good Splines. Also some of Wedge_Antilles Various assets are excellent as well, however, Good Luck with that as he made thousands of assets and used his own unique Naming Nomenclature that even I don't understand. That said I do use a few of his assets that I've been lucky enough to stumble upon (At one time I had almost every asset between his three sets of Catenary Assets).

That said, Power stations can definitely be done:

Just a matter of finding the right assets.

-Falcus

 

[minernut]

Falcus, where did you get the transformers that I'm seeing in the picture?

 

[JCitron]

Yeah, who made those nice looking substations and transformers?

@minernut for power stations there's a built-in one called PowerHouse NS that you might like. It's industry interactive meaning it accepts coal cars filled with coal and produced black smoke as it generates power.

John

 

[Falcus]

I'll have to look it up later. T:ANE is in the middle of Post-Upgrade DB-rebuild. No idea how much longer. That pic is about a year old. The basics of what you see there are the same, but the area has been worked on alot. It was fun building a Transformer Farm, almost entirely because of the assets I was able to find for the purpose. It took some digging to find those as well. Theres another set from Wedge_Antilles that are a bit less American-Domestic, but very good as well that I have set aside for use elsewhere.

-Falcus

 

[JCitron]

I'll have to look it up later. T:ANE is in the middle of Post-Upgrade DB-rebuild. No idea how much longer. That pic is about a year old. The basics of what you see there are the same, but the area has been worked on alot. It was fun building a Transformer Farm, almost entirely because of the assets I was able to find for the purpose. It took some digging to find those as well. Theres another set from Wedge_Antilles that are a bit less American-Domestic, but very good as well that I have set aside for use elsewhere.

-Falcus

Thanks... The Wedge stuff - 100 of only about 20,000 others.

You just upgraded? My rebuild took 2 hours with 170,000-plus assets.

John

 

[Falcus]

You've been at this alot more recently then I have. I miss my 150K Asset Library from TS12 >.>. I only started rebuilding the week after christmas, and Im honestly worried about running out of Disk Space at this point, though I might have a solution for that in the offing, we'll see though.

Newer Pic:

Really wanted to nail as much of the Seattle City Light HQ Complex as I could. Got a fair whack of it I think.

The Power Transfer Bars are an asset from Witte46? Watte46? Something like that. They're on the DLS. RHB-Kraftwerk or something similar.

As for the rest, Theres ALOT of assets crammed into that tiny space. Best Advice I can give is to start plugging keywords into the DLS Search Features (Both Black pages and T:ANE CM notably) and see what you can come up with. You have to realize (Except John, he might remember this), I spent months upon months just trawling the DLS for various assets. I would Download routes and look through them to see what they had done, and at my peak I had over 150K Assets accumulated. And heres the kicker. Almost all of it gotten without an FCT...... The slower Download Speeds really helped me exercise time in getting to know what I was getting and what I had. Few people are willing to invest that kind of time.... And having essentially lost most of my library at this point, Im contemplating just getting an FCT to rebuild it, not there yet though. Too many other purchases I need first..... *sigh*. Life of a starving/working-College Student.

Good Luck,
-Falcus

 

[JCitron]

Here's the exact info. I had it already! It's one of those things that disappeared among the other downloaded stuff and forgotten.


<kuid2:130544:28007:2> RhB-kraftwerke by witte46

Yup I remember that - 150K without a ticket. That's a lot of slow bits!

Thanks.

John

 

[minernut]

Thank you both JCitron and Falcus. Falcus when you said to search on the DLS, I searched power and selected TS12. I had recently bought Trainz 2012 but have not installed it because the table that my two computers sit on is a small sewing table and there's barely any room for my supercomputer to open the disk because the table legs are in the way. I have found what I was looking for Laurel Line Powerline..... Apparently I need a new table and to install my new Trainz 2012 so I can continue working on my route. I currently have Trainz 2009 SP4. I bought Trainz 2012 off of Jointed rail's website because his content works in TS12. That makes three trainz simulators that I own. I just hope that the content doesn't upgrade to another newer simulator or I'm out of luck. I thank you both very much because I have finally found what I was looking for. It's the same thing with a smartphone or computer; which one do you buy? The answer: none, because if technology just keeps growing crazy, and if you purchase a smartphone, the next day it's obsolete. I just hope that Trainz will stop at a certain build (TANE) so I don't have to keep spending money to get the next new Trainz simulator because all the others become obsolete and so does the content. By the way, do any of you know how to install and transfer my downloaded and created content to Trainz 2012?

 

[Falcus]

You discuss alot of topics in your post. I'll do my best to address as much of it as I can, remember though this is just my opinion based on what you've told me.

Being very into having a comfortable workspace, and knowing the import and value as such, I HIGHLY recommend getting a new Table before you do anything else.....

After that, I would install TS12 and have a play around in it. I would however NOT just gung-ho sally off into Xferring Content just yet..... Transferring Content Libraries is not exactly an easy or exact science. As I recall TS12 was more forgiving then T:ANE has been to date, but I didn't have alot of pre-TS12 assets to bring over. I think most TS10 Assets carried over fine but there may have been a number of issues with TS9 and before, JCitron would know better then I would...... There are process' which are outside the recommended methods which might work better as well for instance (This applys to all "Carry-overs" between Trainz versions). John, would a Profile Folder Xfer work between '09 and '12?

After that, before you start beefing up your TS12 Install (Which I still suggest installing and registering for access to the TS12 Specific Content regardless of what you do), have a look at T:ANE. SP1 (Like TS12 before it), has made it a stable viable program. Its been a rough road but worth the money IMHO. And honestly, why start transferring content into TS12 if you have ANY Inkling of moving to T:ANE any time in the at all near future?

Finally Longevity. TPR.org? Is run by a group of fellows that still actively pursue and use and create content for TRS'04/'06. These programs are, and will continue to be, as useful as people allow them to be. That said, if you have the ability to buy a Lamborghini you're not likely to keep driving a Civic? Ok, the Lamborghini might have a temperamental engine, but if its on warranty and will be fixed, do you care as long as you can use it? If T:ANE is outside of your budget atm thats one thing. I just hate the thought of subjecting you to TWO Library Xfers instead of just one. I would wager T:ANE's longevity will be at least comparable to TS12's, ~3-5 Years give or take, and its just been released...... Thats not bad for a brand new game, considering alot of franchise's try to cycle at least once every .5-2 years.

Oh, as for Smart Phone Vs Computer? Desktop Hands down. Lasts longer, won't be dropped (Or someones losing body parts), can be incrementally upgraded as needed. Smart Phones are just the next Disposable Fad as far as Im concerned. Im using a 2 year old Hand me down I was lucky to get and before that I was on a 5 Year Old HTC I literally found on the street. Investment means "Value over Time". If you're going to replace it inside of a year, wheres the value again? The Experience? I'd rather save and go to Bermuda or Alaska or something, thanks....

Food for thought regardless,
-Falcus

 

[JCitron]

Getting stuff from TS2009 to TS12 is fairly easy since much of the same content is in both versions. There's a way of copying the built-in content files from TS2009 into the TS12 folder. You then run an extended database repair in TS12. When all that's done, you put in your TS2009 serial number into TS12, yes you can do that, and you'll have both.

Keep in mind that much of the content that is in TS2009 is already in TS12, and there is much of it now up on the download station which are updates and fixes only to complicate things more. It's up to you if you want to go about it this way, which is something I did many years ago when TS12 first came out. It's not without its drawbacks though.

That said you may want to just look at your routes in TS2009 you want to keep in Content Manager. View the Dependencies, and then export your routes, one at a time, to a CDP file and import them one at a time into TS12. Repeat the same process for your dependencies, except by selecting large bunches of assets, maybe a couple of hundred or few hundred at a time, and import into TS12.

I recommend skipping built-in assets and only go for the non-built-in assets. Being TS12, there's a good chance that much of what is in TS2009 is already there, or can be downloaded from the DLS already fixed, otherwise, you'll have to fiddle with the assets to get them to work, which will bring up a whole new subject.

So think about how to proceed, I highly recommend the latter method over the former because it can get complex, and you'll get only what you need and not stuff you'll never see again once it's installed. Many of us have been there over the years and it's just not worth downloading and installing everything.

John

 

[minernut]

As long as we are on the subject of American power lines, how would you connect the end of the spline of a power line to a transformer?

 

[JCitron]

As long as we are on the subject of American power lines, how would you connect the end of the spline of a power line to a transformer?

By moving spline wire assets in close approximation to the transformer insulators if they have them. Wedge_antilles makes some assets with a bunch of attachment points to accept the wires. I used them once and was completely confused trying to connect the wires to them so I fake it instead. The only way someone would know is if you made it a point to look carefully at the transformer farm.

John

 

[Falcus]

Something else to consider, is that if said Power "farm" is lineside, on say Mainline where Crews are unlikely to be idling, why have that kind of detail at all? Not my usual stance on things I must admit, but one of the prevailing attitudes amongst many route builders here is "If you don't really have to have that detail, why not just save the Processing Power for something else?". Im not overly fond of that attitude, however with something like Thin Black Wires, I would suggest that at the least you could get away with a "Flea Circus effect" if you have enough around it.....

-Falcus

 

[minernut]

Today, I woke up at 7AM and had gotten only two hours of sleep because I was too excited. I built my new table, which took a couple of hours and headed off to the World's Greatest Hobby Show at Schaumburg Convention Center. I was in train heaven:udrool: for three hours. After hanging out with my friend, I went home and placed my new table. Today was an absolute heavenly day for me. Right now I have everything plugged in and can open my disk in my super computer. Although I wont install Trainz 2012 because that takes a bit of time and I'm tired from today. Thank you JCitron and Falcus. I will install Trainz 2012 tomorrow and play around with it. Thanks.:wave:

 

[Falcus]

Good Luck, and if you ever get T:ANE or TS12 up and running look me up in iTrainz. Im in college so my schedule on Trainz is screwy as hell (Im on alot less during the quarter proper generally), but there ya go.

Also Id suggest letting things install/Update/DBRebuild over night when you can. PARTICULARLY TS12..... TS12 61388 was hands down the most stable of that SIM IMHO. And with 150K Assets it would take it up to 3.5-4 Hours to do a DBR (Data Base Rebuild). I actually about gave up working on my Seattle Route due to its limitations. I was exploring working within those limitations when T:ANE came down the pipline. Comparatively with only ~45K Assets? or so? T:ANE DBR is currently taking me about 2-4 Minutes..... 1/3 the assets, 1/60th the Time. T:ANE has a few draws, the biggest for me of which honestly is the load times, save times, and DBR Times. Its prettier to look at too, feel free to peruse the Screenshots Forum or the T:ANE Forum for that.

But to each their own. Ask what you will regardless of which sim you end up focusing on.

Again Good Luck, and welcome to Trainz,
-Falcus