Cab ride on the Downtown Traction Company

[philskene]

At the invitation of the Manager of the Downtown Traction Company I joined Sydney and James outside the Company's small workshop for a cab ride.

Our locomotive was a small side-rod European 0-4-0 fitted with transition couplers to work with the standard North American buckeyes:

With a hiss of compressed air Syd raised the pantograph (press "End" on the Numeric Keypad) and we headed over to the Classification Yard as James read out the Dispatcher's instructions:

"Down in Classification pick up the rake that has the flats and boxcars.
The trailers are for the TOFC yard out yonder, Industry TOFC 2a, and the parts in the boxcars for the Farmall factory at Ceevue, Industry 9a.
When the trailers are unloaded, reload the flats with crates at the Tinkers factory, 7a, and unload them at Ceevue, 9a.
The Ceeview plant also needs steel coil. Load the flats at the Steel Works, Steel 2, and again unload at 9a.
Finally, load the flats with tractors, 9b, and return with the flats and boxcars to Classification. On the way back pick up the loaded flats at Shelbewrite, 4.
Contact me when done."

We coupled on and did a full brake test to make sure all the hoses were connected:

And then we were away in the early morning light:

Syd mentioned that there were several different ways of getting to the TOFC depot, but it was important to arrive so that the hitch on the trailers was facing the unloading ramp:

At TOFC we switched the boxcars into the spur and backed the flats up to the unloading ramp:

(CONTINUES)

 

[philskene]

(CONTINUED)

It didn't take long to unload the trailers. Then we head on to Tinkers where crates were loaded onto the flats:

It's a steepish 2% grade to the upper level:

The run round loop overlooks the Docks:

Syd backed into the Ceevue plant to first unload the boxcars:

And then the flats:

We left the boxcars at Ceevue and headed off with the flats to the Steel Mills. Syd ran round the flats before propelling them into the works:

(CONTINUES)

 

[philskene]

(CONTINUED)

Where the flats were loaded with steel coil:

Which was unloaded at Ceevue:

Some switching was required to spot the flats for loading with the tractors:

And then we propelled the consist back down the 2% grade:

Before heading, loco leading, through The Cut:

And along Easy Street:

(CONTINUES)

 

[philskene]

(CONTINUED)

To pick up the loaded flats at Shel-bewrite:

All that was now left was to head back:

to the Classification Yard where we left the freight cars and James contacted the Dispatcher for the next instructions:

Many thanks to the management of this fascinating little traction line for allowing me to join one of their crews for an interesting morning.
__________

I've uploaded this session to the Download Station as "DTC 1a Farmall".

Look for this thumbnail:

TRS2004, 06 and 09 users should make sure these two products are downloaded from the Download Station:
Tractor Farmall, kuid 68213:60008
Trailer Fruehauf 01, kuid 68213:60009

and also download this file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/266431725/DTC_TemII_V41_Locos_Euro_Electric_Modified.zip

TRS2004 users should also download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/269710013/Tankercars_NSWGR.cdp

All other assets are on the Download Station.

The session should take just over an hour to complete.

Phil

(ENDS)

 

[Tanvaras]

Excellent fun as always Phil.

Cheers

Trent

 

[whitepass]

Nice layout, I may move up making a steeplecab.

 

[Michael_Evans]

Great screenshots all. The route looks great Phil.

Whitepass, can you give me the kuid for that green boxcab, I've been looking for it but I can't find it.

 

[Nethog61]

I don't see the session file for the "Cab Ride" session illustrated in this thread. I downloaded the route "Downtown Traction Company" via the Trainz 2009 Content Manager. I also downloaded the 2 kuids and zip file of cdps listed in this thread, but when I fired up Driver - surprise: no session! So then I looked at the thread for the route: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=44252&highlight=downtown and downloaded the zip file DowntownTractionCo_1a_beta.zip which did include a session in one of the cdps, but when I start Driver all I have in the file is a CN locomotive and 3 flatcars: http://home.comcast.net/~pmm1/Nethog61_20090823_0000.jpg .
I don't see the engine in this thread or the boxcars. Is there an official session or sessions for this route stored somewhere?

 

[whitepass]

Got it from the DSL, kuid2:84227:19114:2 Auther jcorke. The boxcar will be out this week.

 

[maxwerks]

Terrific looking route, Phil! Can't wait to drive it.

 

[Michael_Evans]

Got it from the DSL, kuid2:84227:19114:2 Auther jcorke. The boxcar will be out this week.

Thank you :wave:

 

[Nethog61]

Looks like a good route but obviously not finished. I got the engine kuid2:84227:19114:2 but could not add it in Surveyor. I guess I will wait a few weeks for non-beta sessions with proper engines and rolling stock. I am very impressed with Phil's work. Back to PO&E for a while!

 

[Midland]

Hmmm...

There is something eerily familiar about your new layouts! :hehe:
Maybe the Civil Engineers like borrowing ideas from each other.

You really should rename it the Uptown Traction Co, because they are obviously making money hand-over-fist. How else could they afford to put catenary into every tiny little siding and nook and cranny! :hehe:

Delighted to see you're still churning out these imaginative gems. Well done.



Cheers

Nix

 

[tdstead]

Had a little trouble too

In 2006 with the box cars and flats ....

First complained about the High and Low and Color of number items for ARN. thought they should be in with the text varibles so moved them, atleast then they did commit.

Also get a error saying the items of type 0 is the incorrect type, found it was in the load sextion of the boxcars deleted it even though it was the same as the above entry.

The only problem now is I get a script error when I start the session, even though you can still drive the session.

Any better suggestions please posr

Tom

 

[philskene]

Nethog --

"Looks like a good route but obviously not finished. ... wait a few weeks for non-beta sessions with proper engines and rolling stock."

But it is finished.

A suggestion - first delete all earlier versions of the route and sessions.

Then download the route using CM2. Check to make sure you have all the dependencies.

Download the two products. Follow the RapidShare link, download and install the locomotives.

Finally use CM2 to download the session. Check for missing dependencies.

I have followed this procedure on a clean install of TRS2009. Providing you do the above it should work perfectly.

Tom --

Same suggestion for you. I think you might be missing the two products or, if you are using TRS2004 (from memory I think you do?), make sure you also have the NSWGR tankcars in the RapidShare file.

Nix --

"Maybe the Civil Engineers like borrowing ideas from each other."

Hey, now hold on there, old son.

What you see here is just before the heyday of Downtown Traction Company, which gives me room in the coming months to make a few extensions if I want to.

But then things change. The north side industries go into decline and ships increase in size making the port too small, so the harbor is relocated to the south. Downtown Traction closes, commerce and residential developments occur where once there were smokestacks, and out of the remnants of Downtown Traction the newly formed Harbor Master Railroad provides services to the new southern industries.

And hey, I only had some initial thoughts about doing a traction route a shade over three weeks ago, see this original post on August 2nd:

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=44146&highlight=traction

Searching for suitable overhead catenary and rolling stock, doing a few experiments, sketching out a design, and then getting the final version onto the Download Station in three weeks surely aint all that bad? Damn good actually, even if I say so myself. I really wanted to concentrate on the traction part and not spend time doing the mainline railroad section again.

Phil

 

[tdstead]

No phil now updated to 2006 Sp1

Also did download those 2 products.

Tom

 

[Nethog61]

Phil:
Thanks for clarifying that the route is actually finished. My problem was that I did not see the following comment in post #4: I've uploaded this session to the Download Station as "DTC 1a Farmall". So without knowing the session name when I searched CM for a session file I tried using "Downtown" and "Traction" and "Company" but of course found no sessions, hence the reason I used the old beta session. Next time I will search for "DTC". (Do you remember I had the same problem looking for the Port Ogden sessions? ha ha). Anyway, beautiful route and GREAT session!! Thanks!

 

[philskene]

Hi Tom --

Why didn't you go all the way and move on to TRS2009?

See if CMP identifies any missing dependencies. In CM2 I search using:
Location = Local
Built-in = False
Missing dependencies

Does CMP allow the same search filters?

Otherwise check that the gondola has the textures. Download Helper sometimes misses them and perhaps CMP is the same.

Nethog --

Thanks.

Yes, I do remember the PO&N issue. The problem with naming sessions is that "DowntownTractionCo 1a Farmall" exceeds what can be shown in the Surveyor/Driver menu. Hence the need for abbreviation.

Phil

 

[ish6]

Hi Phil,

Just rand this route --- awesome work -- kind of fell in love with since I am huge traction faction fan :hehe: :wave:

Beside the little engine in the screen shot, what other loco's do you recommend, sir??

Thanks
Ish

 

[ish6]

With Phil's blessings, night life coming to DTC!!, lol

:wave: