Building the Wallace Branch - New Series

[derznovich]

Today's episode of Building the Wallace Branch looks at two quirky or venerable buildings that have long since disappeared from town, but represent its appearance during the heyday of mid-century and before. Also, this episode is a bit different, in that I go into more detail on how to weather some of the details of PBR bricks and metal signage.

This is the fourth episode of the 5-episode mini-series on asset creation for the Wallace downtown area. After the series wraps up, I'll be getting back into Trainz and tackling the rest of the route.

Please send me any feedback, as I always appreciate that.

 

[derznovich]

The Wallace Grand Hotel ... or is it the Grand Wallace Hotel? Who knows?

What I do know is it attracts a diverse crowd to its upscale rooms, even after the name change from the Pacific Hotel. It preserves the railroad rail-shaped sign out front, and both "Pacifics" (the NP and the UP) continue to book crews in here during the daylight hours when it's cheap.

And I also know it's available on the DLS, along with the Signal Gasoline station.

 

[derznovich]

Playing around with Saltese.

 

[derznovich]

Arriving at the Union Pacific depot in Wallace, you look right down the street at a string of movie theaters: the Grand, the Liberty, and the Wilma. Late on a summer afternoon, shadows are growing long, and movie goers are already lining up for the early showing. Star Trek the Motion Picture at the Liberty, Apocalypse Now at the Grand, and the Deer Hunter at the Wilma. The engine crew on UP 1283, a hard-working Alco RS2 long assigned to the Wallace Branch, won't make it, not even for the cartoons.

 

[derznovich]

Today's episode is the final one in the five-part series on building Wallace assets. The Wilma was one of my biggest learning experiences, something I ended up redoing 3 times or more. The Grand was easier and more fun. Both of these would be great as nighttime assets, if someday Trainz had good lighting. For now, I haven't added that, but it's a possibility for the future.

For the rest of the series, we'll be in Trainz. Though there will be occasional brief excursions into asset creation, nothing like the intensity of the just-completed series, and definitely no episodes just on Blender.

The next episode will begin Part II of the Building of the Wallace Branch, and there is a lot left to do! Looking at the map, we have mostly finished Wallace, Mullan, Saltese, Silverton, and Osburn. So we have left De Borgia and Haugan in the East, the Burke Branch at the center, and Kellogg, Smelterville, Pinehurst, and Cataldo in the West. So, we are about halfway to the completion of the route.

 

[ricomon35]

@derznovich - Enjoying your videos immensely.

I have a very good procedure for equalizing your textures, to share.

I've been using it for several years now, in Photoshop CC 2019, on all of my DLS models.
You will need to play with the Radius control in the High Pass filter to get the best equalization.
There are some textures that won't respond well to this technique. Hard to tell what will/won't until you run the filter on it.

Tutorial: How to Equalize Textures in Photoshop


Rico

 

[derznovich]

@derznovich - Enjoying your videos immensely.

I have a very good procedure for equalizing your textures, to share.

I've been using it for several years now, in Photoshop CC 2019, on all of my DLS models.
You will need to play with the Radius control in the High Pass filter to get the best equalization.
There are some textures that won't respond well to this technique. Hard to tell what will/won't until you run the filter on it.

Tutorial: How to Equalize Textures in Photoshop


Rico

Thanks, this looks really useful, I’ll give it a try!

 

[derznovich]

The route takes a giant leap forward as we finish off the entire downtown in Trainz!

Merry Christmas!

 

[derznovich]

One small part of the Wallace area from the latest episode.

 

[derznovich]

Just over the holiday I went though some old boxes and papers in my long term storage locker, and found an old track profile of the Wallace Branch in 1980, which was about the end of operations on the branch. It is slightly easier to read than the online one I found earlier, and so this time I can actually see the bridges, curves, grades and speed restrictions. It will help improve accuracy here and there, especially for adding or moving bridges.

The Trainz Wallace Branch route has some admittedly invented industries to serve, and doesn’t necessarily represent only the 1980 track profile, so I won’t be following it absolutely. The S-Curve Bridge — surely a highlight of any modeled version of the route —was removed in the mid-1960s. Several major mines closed in the 1940s and 1950s. But it is still a helpful reference.

 

[blueodessey]

Just over the holiday I went though some old boxes and papers in my long term storage locker, and found an old track profile of the Wallace Branch in 1980, which was about the end of operations on the branch. It is slightly easier to read than the online one I found earlier, and so this time I can actually see the bridges, curves, grades and speed restrictions. It will help improve accuracy here and there, especially for adding or moving bridges.

The Trainz Wallace Branch route has some admittedly invented industries to serve, and doesn’t necessarily represent only the 1980 track profile, so I won’t be following it absolutely. The S-Curve Bridge — surely a highlight of any modeled version of the route —was removed in the mid-1960s. Several major mines closed in the 1940s and 1950s. But it is still a helpful reference.

WOW what a good find for you, another Tool to use, everything is Computerized, so for me, I still enjoy the hard paper copy, Electronically speaking, if you lose the File, good luck finding another copy, with paper, it can out live us if it is preserved in proper environment, Heat,, Humidity, Sunlight protection.

Looks like your copy other than a bit of discoloration, has done well, kudos to you Sir.

You made my day, as I sit here in easy chair with hot cup of joe, reading the Forums daily News.

 

[derznovich]

Haugan and De Borgia are two tiny towns in Montana, not far from the Idaho border, and at the beginning of the Wallace Branch on its eastern side. Both were served by the Milwaukee and the NP/Burlington Northern. Today's episode covers the track layout, towns, and industries.

At the end of the episode, I show some more of my experimentation with the branch new JR Multi Industry II track, which I implemented for a lumber mill at De Borgia. As you can see, it doesn't work out perfectly.

This episode marks the very first bone fide operating session on the route, albeit partly in time-lapse mode. I am building an industry spreadsheet which I will use to manage the route's operations. Instead of having industries that consume X and produce Y, most industry demands will be handled by a spreadsheet. This means that instead of the user managing the industries (trying to ensure they have enough inputs to produce outputs, and building an economic supply chain off of that), the route will consist mainly of responding to industry calls for empties and loads, as determined by a spreadsheet.

This is almost the opposite of TLR, where things become more automated and in theory the route could run itself. Instead, the challenge is to meet the ever changing needs of the customers along the route. And since the majority of customers are shipping goods primarily off the route, or receiving inputs from off the route, there is only a limited internal economy. Still, there is ample room for complex operations, especially given the shared track rights, multiple railroads, and constantly changing demands.

 

[derznovich]

Taking a closer look at the lumber mill, log load assets, and woodchip loader created for De Borgia.

 

[derznovich]

Coming up on the Wallace Branch: adding one little industry and one little airport!

 

[derznovich]

The latest episode of Building the Wallace Branch just went live!

It's a bite-sized episode, just looking at one industry, and the county aiport. And we get in another operating session -- Sort of!!

Welcome any comments or suggestions! This is my first route, and it's making steady progress!

 

[derznovich]

The latest episode of Building the Wallace Branch looks into adding another industry chain into the route, featuring the Industry Link asset so we can make this paper mill work with two active tracks instead of just one.