Cheap Railroad

[chevyman9195]

This is a route Ive been working on for about a month now off and on. Found out Im gonna be a dad so my N scale layout got put on hold for money reason. Hence the name Cheap Railroad. Anyway, Im no master like some of the threads Ive been looking at, actually kinda intimidating, so be easy on the criticism.

This is the very North end of the route. Main industries on this end are the coal mine and a lumber mill off to the right. There is also a siding leading to more smaller industries. Also, Im in the process of swapping the tracks out.



You can see the lumber mill, siding, and the industry track.



Still gotta design each industry, using M.I.N. The buildings are just marking where the industry track is.





The lumber mill.









More to come.

 

[trainman7616]

First off. Congradulations on becoming a father. The route actually looks really good for a "cheap" railroad lol. Will have to keep my eye on this thread. Good job and happy parenting.

 

[cascaderailroad]

I like your trackwork skills, other than the last shot with the 5 buildings (which goes: straight, curve, straight, curve, curve), usually a double "curve, curve" is unnecessary.

I have always slightly overlapped my double spline points, with a small football shape, slightly overlapping, "Figure 8", in the center of the two overlapping spline points (@ 1 tie width) ... but whatever works well for you ... your trackwork looks great

 

[chevyman9195]

Thank yall for the compliments. I kinda threw that last part together. I was going for an industrial spur track or something like that I reckon. Where I work at the mainline goes straight over the Tenn. river and a spur track splits off to the right serving several plants including the one I work at. Any tips or ideas on how to make it look and operate more realistic are defiantly welcome.

 

[H222]

Any tips or ideas on how to make it look and operate more realistic are defiantly welcome.

You answered your own question

Where I work at the mainline goes straight over the Tenn. river and a spur track splits off to the right serving several plants including the one I work at.

Emulate that as best you can, don't be afraid to go looking for better track and building assets either mate

Jamie

 

[judahGrice]

btw you can easily replace track (and almost anything else) in the replace assets window (main menu in surveyor -> replace assets, drag the assets you want to change and the replacement into the appropriate box, and you're set!). Very useful tool. Nice route! Can't wait to see it progress!!!!

 

[chevyman9195]

Heres the coal mine area. I didn't know I could replace all track at once, thanks for the tip.











Looking south just passed the coal mine and lumber mill.

 

[chevyman9195]

Looking further south past the bridge.



Would an overpass like this be prototypical?



Further south, looking back you can slightly see the overpass.



I don't know if I like this, just playing around with the idea. Original idea was no wye, the mainline went south, and the spur line curved north into the main.



Looking west toward the forestry and maybe another industry or town.

 

[chevyman9195]

Further south on the main. Need a better bridge, anyone got a suggestion.







Entrance to the yard









East end of the yard. That's about all I got for now.

 

[jordon412]

. . . Where I work at the mainline goes straight over the Tenn. river and a spur track splits off to the right serving several plants including the one I work at.

Are you talking about the branchline that splits off Norfolk Southern's mainline after crossing over the Tennbridge that loops around and terminates on the north side of the Tennessee River across the river from the Tennessee Aquarium and other attractions? Or are you talking about Norfolk Southern's Maryville Branch out of Knoxville?

 

[chevyman9195]

Its in Decatur Al, right before the BNSF main crosses the Tenn. river. There is a branchline that splits off and serves some mill factory, meow mix plant, Hyosung(where I work), and what use to be Wolverine.

 

[SharkNose]

... Im no master like some of the threads Ive been looking at, actually kinda intimidating, so be easy on the criticism...

Well, if you are sculpting the terrain yourself, you already have the gift of realistic terrain sculpting, not to mention river, bridge and tree landscaping!

Very nice work so far!!! :wave:

Andrew

 

[cascaderailroad]

You can get a real DEM of the particular area, using Transdem (a payware program) ... but then again, a DEM will control your whole life, and take the fun out of creating handmade baseboards

 

[chevyman9195]

I've never been much for dem. I enjoy the hand sculpting cause I'll think up scenes as I go and incorporate them in. And thank you for the kind words, my tree and shrub placement still looks toyish IMO. Feels like it's missing something.

 

[oknotsen]

Looks very promising. Wonder how it will look when you start texturing it.

 

[chevyman9195]

What should I look under on the DLS for some good southeast textures?

 

[Matt3985]

Looks great for a first start. Keep up the good work and it should look great in the end. I would suggest using some of the Freeware highly detail track from Simulator trains if you want to use better types of track. :wave:

 

[cascaderailroad]

Looks very promising. Wonder how it will look when you start texturing it.

I never texture anything until all the track and gradients are in ... as all that clutter just covers up the baseboard grid terrain, making sculpting terrain more difficult

 

[chevyman9195]

I never texture anything until all the track and gradients are in ... as all that clutter just covers up the baseboard grid terrain, making sculpting terrain more difficult

That's kinda how I think too, but some areas are done. I just don't like the textures that come with the game.

 

[cascaderailroad]

I use Forest1 and Forest_1, set at minimum scale, and large radius, and by holding down on either the [, or ] KB key, I smear the textures on distant hills, thus avoiding billions of Speed Twees (Mezzoprezzo the Great uses this distant texturing technique, to achive a purple blue haze, Great Smokey Mountains illusion effect, and he textures water also with great skill).