San Juan Pacific: nice name. Reminiscent of the Denver, South Park & Pacific, that never quite reached the Pacific. I have lived in Colorado the greater part of my life and the San Juan Mountains are where I have told my sister I'd like my ashes to be scattered when the time comes. Beautiful Mountain Range.
Covert operation? I live in a different Universe, one where things are done legally and appropriately, and with the consent and knowledge of governing authority where necessary. Have you bothered to check local ordinances and guidelines?Just some info you probably already know. Scattering ashes should be a covert operation carried out under the concealment of darkness.
I too have noticed the differences in trees and such in photos of old compared to recent. I would love to live in Colorado. I would probably spend all my time exploring the old mining sites. There is a young fella on Youtube named Dave Explores. Kinda irritating to listen to but has some decent video of mining sites all over the Idaho, Montanna, Utah areas.
Randall
Exactly, and not even the "tip of the iceberg".Good grief..........
I used to live on the front range, and spent a lot of time vacationing in the San Juan range or in the Gunnison area. Part of the reason I love trains was growing up with the Moffat Route about 2 blocks from my house. Not quite sure my parents loved the sounds on the other hand. My railroad thankfully does reach the Pacific; I'll start a thread about it in a few months when I have some more to share. A lot of it is standard gauge, but there's a large (50+ mile) narrow gauge section.
Gunnison is a beautiful region. On a related topic, have you read "Rio Grande Glory Days" by Gilbert Lathrop? Excellent book. I read it many years ago when it was published and then donated my copy to the local library after college when I moved to Denver for my career. Wish I had kept my favorite volumes but I needed to travel light due to a shoe-string budget as a recent graduate. I am focusing on narrow gauge, but your San Juan Pacific will be a welcome addition to the Trainz Community. All the best in your endeavors.
I have not, but I have a few other Rio-Grande themed books: "Rocky Mountain Railroads, Volume II" which covers all of the Rio Grande's Narrow Gauge, and my personal favorite, "Chasing Trains" by Bob Richardson, which is essentially his autobiography and covers all of his adventures around the US and the world. A truly incredible read. I also have a record of the AT&SF's entire steam-era engine roster (Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail, almost 300 pages with another 400 of diagrams for every class). There are also some more generic railroading and loco diagram books in there too.
Thank you for the kind words. I've been working on it little by little in my free time, and I managed to reskin a few more models today. The revamping is going to be the hard part (As is figuring out how on earth PBR textures work), but hopefully I can get some screenies of my new engines and their route out soon.
A few shots from my current version of the Alpine Tunnel route, part of which is set in Gunnison . The La Veta hotel with DRGW depot
You're welcome. Looking forward to future developments from you.
Don't know if they really wanted to reach Pacific (by narrow gauge). They were a subside of Union Pacific (please correct me if I'm wrong) and (from what I've seen in old photos) their passenger cars were already inscribed as such (not as DSP&P).
Any NG line running in a river valley is going to be changed by the spring flooding. The D&S follows the Animas River near the level of the river for much of the route only climbing up the canyon walls in areas where there is simply no room for the tracks by the river. I suspect that the tracks have been redone many times.
I'm not quite sure if the South Park Line ever wanted to, but the Grande at one point did want to try and reach Las Vegas and eventually southern California; they actually built quite a bit of grade through southern Utah, but the track was never laid.
Yes. Meanwhile I found out they really wanted to reach Pacific Ocean. Actually Union Pacific took they later.
There's no reason why you can't build that in Trainz using DEMs and topographic maps as guides. I'm sure the ROW is still visible on the maps. Where the ROW isn't visible, you can always use some artistic license and what ifs to complete the track. Given the scope of the geography and everything else out there, this would be a lifetime and then some type of project.
I'm sure I could, but I'd want to make some engines worth running on it first. The Grande had a slew of napkin drawings for some rather ridiculous locomotives. This one was made in photoshop obviously but think along these lines:
Interesting locomotive. The Photoshopped image looks a bit distorted. I'm sure the real deal would've had better proportions. I would think a bunch of Pacifics and Masons would do fine on the route. Back east here, the Masons were pretty popular and strong locomotives that were pressed into all kinds of service on narrow gauge railroads such as those in Maine and the Boston Rever Beach and Lynn, and even standard gauge elevated lines such as those in New York City.I'm sure I could, but I'd want to make some engines worth running on it first. The Grande had a slew of napkin drawings for some rather ridiculous locomotives. This one was made in photoshop obviously but think along these lines:
