D&RG Canon City to Salida Colorado

[Maddox61]

Finaly!!

Thanks to the help from many of you here, I have finaly got the elevation set up on my layout. And with plenty room to model the cliffs. This will be done in Blender, in sections.

So I would like to post some of the images, to show what sooo many of you have helped me accomplish.

I know it ain't much for you Trainz Vetrans out there, but it is a big step for me. Now I can finaly start laying some track.

 

[Maddox61]

Royal Gorge

Here is a shot of the mini map, looking over the begining of the route in Canon City, Colorado.

 

[Maddox61]

Royal Gorge

This is Part 2 of the mini map.

 

[Maddox61]

Royal Gorge

Part 3 of the mini map.

 

[Maddox61]

Royal Gorge

Part 4 of the mini map lookong over the city of Salida, Colorado.

 

[Maddox61]

Royal Gorge

Total is 1,025 boards.:udrool: :udrool:

 

[Maddox61]

Royal Gorge

Here is a pic of where the Suspention Bridge will cross the gorge.

Black line is the Suspention Bridge.
Blue line is the location for the Inclined Railway.
Green and yellow lines are the location for the Hanging Train Bridge.

 

[Maddox61]

Here is a pic of the location of the Hanging Train Bridge from inside the Gorge facing East.

 

[Maddox61]

This pic is looking NW, down inside the Gorge, at the location of the Suspention Bridge.

 

[Maddox61]

This shot is facing SW from the North end of Canon City, Colorado.
The blue water line in the distance, is where the D&RG line enters the West end of the Gorge.

This is my favorite pic of the terrain. There is no way that this could have been done by hand. And thanks to all of you and the DEMs, this is the foundation for my layout.

And like they say, "Anything worth building, requires first a solid foundation!"

 

[cascaderailroad]

Looks fantastic !

Save a copy of the original un graded DEM, in case you need to revert back to a fresh unblemished DEM.

Or have two different routes named slightly diffrently, that way you can experiment on the one, and make permanent gradient cuttings on the final route.

Surely there will be alot of manual tugging and pulling on cliff/cut terrain.

Always lay track from looking straight down, and do not press the "Smooth Spline" tool button until lastly nearing completion. Use the wireframe mode extensively, switching back and forth to normal view frequently.

 

[Euphod]

It's going to be tough working in Surveyor down at the bottom of that canyon, I think.

 

[Maddox61]

Looks fantastic !

Save a copy of the original un graded DEM, in case you need to revert back to a fresh unblemished DEM.

Or have two different routes named slightly diffrently, that way you can experiment on the one, and make permanent gradient cuttings on the final route.

Surely there will be alot of manual tugging and pulling on cliff/cut terrain.

Always lay track from looking straight down, and do not press the "Smooth Spline" tool button until lastly nearing completion. Use the wireframe mode extensively, switching back and forth to normal view frequently.

Already Have the layout saved as Gorge 1,2 and 3.

I also saved the mapfile.gnd to a jump drive just in case.

As for the cliffs. I am going to model most them in Blender and add them to the areas that require an overhang and some of the other locations that are almost set at 90 degree angles.

The good thing is that there are very fiew structures. So I can add more detail to the terrain without effecting the game play.

Thanks for the good advise with laying the track. I have the actual grade charts for the D&RG going up through the gorge. so I hope to get them pretty close.

Thanks,

Merrill

 

[Maddox61]

It's going to be tough working in Surveyor down at the bottom of that canyon, I think.

Your right, it is a bit tight. I have about 70-80m to work with. So most of the work must be done viewing almost straight down. But as long as I have room to zoom in just long enough to get the grade right, I should be ok, or I hope so anyway.:hehe:


Merrill

 

[socalwb909]

-I wish you luck on this. You might have major problems with textures on those very steep hillsides... texture stretching. Good luck!

-Joe

 

[scratchy]

This route will be amazing if done well I wish u luck. I have the DEM from salida, over the pass to Minturn, but the summit is a few hundred meters more then trainz can handle, (its limit is 3000) so until i can either get the map lowered somehow, or get it remade, progress is at a standstill. looking forward to more pics, and Btw, wouldnt this thread be best in screenshots?

 

[Maddox61]

-I wish you luck on this. You might have major problems with textures on those very steep hillsides... texture stretching. Good luck!

-Joe

Thanks Joe.

As I mentioned earlier, there are little to no buildings and roads that would require much of the systems resources, so I am going to be modeling a lot of the cliffs in Blender that require much detail and adding them to the layout.

One cliff should have a poly count of no more than around 200 along with the texure. And most of the detail would be down close to the tracks.


Merrill

 

[Maddox61]

This route will be amazing if done well I wish u luck. I have the DEM from salida, over the pass to Minturn, but the summit is a few hundred meters more then trainz can handle, (its limit is 3000) so until i can either get the map lowered somehow, or get it remade, progress is at a standstill. looking forward to more pics, and Btw, wouldnt this thread be best in screenshots?

Did not know there was an area for screen shots

I'm the new guy:hehe:

I was basicaly letting all the folks that helped me so much, see what became of there efforts.

This thread would be good for simply discusion on the D&RG routes.

As for the Route from Salida to Minturn. I was thinking about that and don't know if you could fudge the elevations by dropping the sea level by 1,000m. I believe that it is the Tennessee Pass between Salida and Minturn that has an elevation of 10,240ft. But then the scale would not be true.
This would also effect anyone trying to merge there route to yours.

I'm sure there must be a way though. It only is less than 125m short.

Maybe one day we will find a way.

Also, I will post the pics in thye section for screen shots, Now that I know it's there.

Thanks,



Merrill

 

[nfitzsimmons]

I was working on this in MSTS and live in Denver, so I have a bunch of photos of the area, if you need them.

 

[Shortline2]

I have the DEM from salida, over the pass to Minturn, but the summit is a few hundred meters more then trainz can handle, (its limit is 3000) so until i can either get the map lowered somehow, or get it remade, progress is at a standstill.

It can be lowered by TransDEM, had to do it my self with the Cripple Creek Region and also the Pikes Peak part, and it went well in Trainz.

In my case I just need to remake the ground due to other reasons such as retrofitting an old 1906 map and fix problems with DEM and topomap not fitting inside the Cripple Creek District...

If you don't have TransDEM, someone might be able to help, I could possible also.

Back to the thread, love the views, as others say, it will be a amazing thing to see in Trainz!

Linda