To those that think I come to this thread to just talk, I am always plugging away on my project in Surveyor (a year and a half, and counting on this project), although I often have nothing to "show" for it, as it's all a work in progress. Mostly I am content to be inspired by the creations of others, which keeps me going back to my own project. Just when I thought I had something worthy of release, I junked most of it and started again - you see, I'm always learning and improving, and the last boards I made were light years ahead of the first boards on the layout. I'm too much of a perfectionist to release something that I know I can do better, so I took the best bit and started anew. I've finally got something to show for it!
Any similarities to any real region is co-incidental - I'm inspired by real life, so I use real-life trackplans and maps and just mould them to my own purpose. For example, the workshops available in Trainz look nothing like those used at the location on which this station is based, so the layout of the yard in the workshops precinct is completely different. The basic shape of the yard, location of things, etc is more or less accurate, from what I can tell. Although the era the layout is set means that the yard is not regularly used for shunting, it IS a lot of fun to shunt - in the examples pictured below, there is no direct access from the rail/sleeper loading siding to the mainline in the up direction - one must either propel back onto the single track mainline before departing in the up direction, or instead shunt into the workshops yard, before propelling back out towards the loop line, to depart in the up direction. A third option might be to drive in the down direction onto the mainline, propel into the loop line, and then run around, but that just blocks other traffic!
Anyway, 48103 is doing the honours of departing towards Sydney with a sleeper train. The train will depart the siding, roll into the workshops yard, propel back clear of the workshops, then depart via the up shunting yard.
I realise the scenery isn't really high quality, but this is a route meant to be driven, not just admired in screenshots - I feel I've got a good balance between detail and speed, so that the layout looks "real" from the drivers cab, and I'm not bogged down in fine details that drag progress to a slow grind!
Look at the loco.....the loco....the big black thing!! :hehe:
