Boy, I've been busy!

[rickf77]

Howdy guys; jeez I had no idea how big my little province was! I got tired of working in town, so I went to the end of the line and started work out in the bush. So far I must have put in 50 bridges, a couple of little towns, farms, a saw mill, etc. I'm guessing I have about a little over 1/4 of the route's scenery and track work done. That's about 25 miles. I wish I knew how many trees, bushes, grass, etc. that I planted. The trees look great! The mighty eastern pines, the great Canadian maples, the white birch ......oh,oh. Ooooh, I'm a lumberjack and that's OK........ Dang, it's back again!

Anyway, has anyone made a ball field? The kind you might see in a good old little hick town. I found a scoreboard, but that's it, so far. I imagine with all the gear in the DLS, I could put something together.

Yesterday was not fun, however today's work went a lot better. I'm beat, I did about 12 hours today.

Good night and cheers.......Rick

 

[rjhowie]

And Rick you will find you will continue to be busy! My first rail sim discovery was MS then by chance came a cross Trainz a few years ago and never looked back.It can become very addictive especially when a non-techy like me found I could build routes. My first was a complete tramway (streetcars to you!) covering 250 boards and virtually a whole city based on real life not fiction. Now I am into a complete rail system existing in an area of Britain much overlooked and have already done over 200 miles, stations, towns, villages, etc. It is an enjoyable hobby and sometimes you can't let go for longer than you maybe planned. All harmless escapism but basically great fun!

Bobby,
Glasgow

 

[rweber95]

Davidsnow made this ballfield: Softball Field DES,<kuid:101046:100547>

Bob Weber

 

[rickf77]

Morning guys; Hey, Bobby, I think I'm addicted! When I wake up in the morning, I warm up the pc, make some coffee and get to work. Building this route was my main goal, so I got TransDem and went at it. I've always had the idea of building a model railroad. Trainz is even better, and who could afford to build a model railroad these days. It is great that a pc moron like myself can do this. Good thing I'm retired, This has become my job now!

Thanks, Bob, I'm going to have a look at that. My basic skills (like searching for things) are poor. I think I looked for every kind of "ball" except softball. I was making a little town (maybe 500 people back in the 50's) and thought they needed something to do on their odd days off from working the farms.

Thanks guys, I'm off to check out the ball field and get back to work, or play, or whatever you call it!

Cheers.....Rick

 

[SharkNose]

Rick,

Search for "baseball diamond" (I think). I saw it in content manager last night. It's a generic baseball field with no grass so you can use your own grass texture with it.

Andrew

 

[rickf77]

Thanks, Andrew; I put in the above field. I thought I saw lights when I looked at the thumb nail, but there weren't any. That's good because back then we could not afford such luxuries. Anyway, after a little "make up" it looks like it's always been there. I also stuck in a soccer field, behind a school. That's about the only place you'd find one in the good old days. Time for some fresh air. I've put in about 36 hours on Middle Musquidoboit (that's close to how you spell it!), I'm leaving the farmland and heading back into the bush. I need some peace and quite, tired of hearing cows, chickens, dogs. Somehow, I even hear the odd crow and woodpecker in the bush. Maybe I need a break!

Cheers......Rick

 

[JCitron]

Rick,

I'm glad you are enjoying this wonderfully addicting hobby. It's a great way to bring things back to life and be able to experience them first hand. This is very much unlike the physical model where we can only build a small portion of a town and a few sidings. You did the smart thing and started on another area. It's very easy to get bogged down while poking in one section on a route. I do suggest taking a drive though from the cab. This will give you a chance to visualize what you're doing, and to check the track for little bumps and hitches. By visualizing, I mean get ideas about what scenery items can be added such as clumps of trees, houses, farms, and whatever else to make the scene come to life. The riding along helps find the hollows and bumps that shouldn't be there, and to help determine passing sidings and signalling if there are any, as well as track speed.

John

 

[rickf77]

Morning John; I see you've been very busy, also. In the past I've walked or took my mountain bike and rode over maybe half of this route. I even mostly walked, couldn't ride,the tracks are still there, over the section that leads into Dartmouth from Windsor Junction. I would think a fella with lots of time on his hands would have to include that section. That is where you would either head for Halifax or Dartmouth. Going in the other direction, CP would mostly head south to the Annapolis Valley, and the CNR would go north, mostly to the coal mining areas. The last time I was up there, many moons ago, the station was still standing, but looked to be not in use. There was a wye for turning where the tracks headed north and south. On my walk to Windsor Junction, A train came flying by at what seemed to be an amazing speed, maybe 35 miles an hour! I know, that's not fast, but it was the fastest I've seen a train move in these parts!

Anyway, I have never seen a train signal light in my life. I have not even seen a passing siding, although back in the day, they must of had a need for them. There were 14 trains a day back in the 30's. Even in the early 60's there was enough trains running that 2 managed to run into each other. I think at least one person died. I remember seeing one diesel on top of the other. They were the CN green and gold colors. This happened a few miles from the Dartmouth yard heading towards Windsor Junction. Like I said 35 mph was very fast, I cannot imagine either train could have been going faster than 20 mph in that area. As kids, we could grab onto a ladder and go for a few minutes ride and hop off again.

I've had to "make up" a lot of stuff along the route. I've put in a "passing siding" and may include another. I did this where there was a "busy" area at a small community. I included a ng lumber operation, although I don't know if one existed. It's mostly a scenery item. This part of the line brought lumber, limestone, farm products, gravel from the beaches, etc., to town, along with a few passengers. I've never seen the area I'm working in now, but I think I made it look about right. Small settlements of about 20 houses a school, church, general store/ gas station all situated at a crossroad. I can imagine kids walking that "Why, when I was a kid I had to walk 10 miles each way to get to school, in a blinding snowstorm".

I've placed the bush scenery fairly close to the tracks. I've made the road bed look wider, with grass, then "alder" bushes and then trees. I've tried to stay true to the map. I cannot believe how many small bridges they would have had to build. It's a valley up there, and the line and the road mostly follow the river. Most of the bridges seem to be over smaller streams feeding into the main river. There are elevated areas and areas that seem to cut into the bed rock deep enough that you cannot see over the top.

I am finding lumps and bumps here and there. If your map is off by even 10 feet, you may have to make adjustments. That part is kind of tough for me. I can't stand having any "floating" track. I have not figured out how to use all the tools yet. What I've been doing is start about a mile either side of a bad spot and check the height. Then make adjustments. Sometimes this takes forever, but I've managed to get rid of those areas that almost looked like a roller coaster. When I get sick of towns or woods, I will go down the line for about 10 miles and check out the track and "dig" out streams and lakes. I've kind of cheated on the streams and some of the river. I put a curve in the stream, hide it behind some trees and it disappears into the woods. So, when you cross the bridges you will see the water leading off and winding it's way through the woods. Looking down on the map,you will only see a small "blue" line that the tracks cross. When the line is very close to the main river, I put in some water. I don't think you can go much more than 30 seconds without getting a peak at the water through the trees.

This is almost as bad as drugs! I'm not going to do anything today (well, that's easy to say!). I have been neglecting my exercise, smoking too much, and not even saying my prayers! Maybe I'll just take a look at what I've got done so far........no, no, turn the dang machine off!

Cheers......Rick.......Oh yeah, I do take a ride in the cab and sometimes about 50 ft (?) above, to check things out. Everything looks pretty good from that level. Now, if you flew over my route, well, you'd see someone has been cutting corners!

 

[JCitron]

Rick,

This is definitely the fun part of Trainz. Those little details tat will make the scenes come to life. As you go along, adding in things that may or not have existed, you'll find that they can be plausible too. I'm doing that myself on a new route extension. See my post on being busy route building lately. In the Newburyport, MA area I've added in a trolley line out to Plum Island. At one point there was one there that ran along the Plum Island Turnpike. The road near the Plum Island Airport (airstrip where they have biplane rides, makes a sharp jog. This is where the line crossed the road. The drawbridge is long gone, or perhaps the line most likely shared the road bridge. I don't know because it was LONG before I came along, and long before before that the line disappeared. So, I've put in my own line on its own drawbridge over the Parker River.

You'll find with Trainz that you may need to put in a passing siding here and there anyway, or perhaps some invisbile sidings, to make the signals work properly. The reason for this is due to how the AI works with an unsignalled line. With no signals, they will default to 40mph. Set speed signs, and some invisible sigins and signals along the way will keep them at the correct speed. Ask about this in another thread, and you'll get plenty of answers.

I too hate floating tracks and roads! Argh!!! There's no reason for them (although technically there is and it makes sense), but they are annoying. To fix them, you need to use the height adjustment tools, as you probably know, that are found in the advanced pull-out. Where the track is floating, use the terrain get height in the topology. Don't use the level terrain, on the track tool, because that will lower the terrain even more. Instead use the track get height, and change the height to that of the terrain. You can then subract a few tenths of a meter off the track height to sink the track down low enough to keep it from floating.

The route sounds really awesome, and when you have some areas done to your liking, post some pictures. I'm sure many people would love to see this. I know I surely would.

John

 

[rickf77]

Hey bud, that's basically what I have been doing with the track, sometimes about 10 feet at a time. I'm at the point now, where I'm afraid to make any big changes. When I get to a little hick town that has a siding or two, I level the area about 100 ft before and after the switch I put in, so the mini yard and mainline are all level. It's worked well so far, and if there was a height difference between the main line and the yard, you can still see it at either end of the yard area. I don't want to end up with a flat world! I think I've been to the highest point of the route at about 80 some meters. Funny, the Dartmouth yard says it's at 1.00 meter, but I can see from looking in from the harbour that it's about 15 feet about the water, as it should be. I'm still looking for a small 3 stall old wood roundhouse and turntable that is big enough to handle a light Mikado.

Well, I haven't even flashed up surveyor today. I got all my other duties done, sooo....maybe I'll just put in an hour or two.......or three or four......

Cheers......Rick.....I see from your post that a couple of others are suffering from an overdose of trainz.......poor devils!

 

[JCitron]

There's no other way to do it without destroying the overall height, this makes for a more tedious but worthwhile route. Let me explain....

Those little bumps we see on the DEM are the result in the anomalies of the satellite reading the ground below plus the resolution of the in-game terrain being at 10mx10m grid. There is going to be a rounding issues because of this, and the fact that not everything in the real world is based on 10m increments. Objects such as close by buildings and trees are going to make the ground higher, and sometimes lower as the satellite picks up tree tops, ground in between, roof tops, and waterways. A good example of this happening is right in my area. In downtown Haverhill the B&M's mainline crosses the Merrimack River from Bradford, crosses over Washington Street, and then continues north (west by timetable) through New Hampshire to Portland, ME. When crossing over the river, the road is at the same height as the railroad, and there is no raised grade, which would be about 12 or 15 meters above the road level. In fact all the close by mill buildings have become raised bumps that are at the same height as the railroad! The reason for this is simple. When the satellite interpreted the ground height, it also picked up the buildings as well along with the trees and everything else. This caused the ground to average out at a lowest point, or 10 or 20 meters in my case. This means I'll have extra work to do here to smooth out the terrain and ensure that the grade difference between Washington Street and the railroad is recreated.

In other places, such as the out in the boonies hick towns, this height difference isn't as obvious but the trees, and what not, cause those little bumps and divets that need some smoothing out. Without doing this, you'll have the bumpiest railroad around as it rolls over each and every bump along the way.

The best way around this is to use a higher-resolution 1/9 Arc-sec DEM with a 5m grid. This sounds great, but the higher resolution means bigger files, and more work for the computer and game to handle the higher resolution landscape.

A bit off topic... My ex-girl friend's grandparents came from Annapolis Valley along with her dad, They were the Blackedar, Barteau, and Padmore families. Down here they intermixed with the big Kimball family which still owns acres and acres of farms.

John

 

[rickf77]

Morning John; Thanks for that lesson. Jeez, it seems like years ago since I made the map, but I had to do it a little bit different than the usual way. Most of the route is part of a trail system, I believe it's part of the Trans Canada Trail. The trail section only showed up on a certain map (can't remember which one, or how I did it). Looking at downtown Dartmouth the basic lay of the land looks right. I can see that the hills etc. are pretty much bang on. Even in the Dartmouth yard though, I had to find the average height, and smooth it out a little. What you've said explains a lot of what I'm seeing. I've had to do a little landscaping, and still have more to do, but all in all I'm happy with it.

My wife is from the Annapolis Valley. Most young people can't wait to get out of the place. There's not much work down that way, and no body wants to work on the farms for low wages. Half the time we visit are for funerals. I love that area, except for the wood ticks. The creepy bugggars have slowly made their way up into this area. Climate change? Something is going on, I have not had to pick up a snow shovel yet this year. I have to go into town if i want to see any snow.... and I don't!

Cheers......Rick