Freelance USA mountain railroad

[handlaidtrack]

Here's the new video I promised.
Follow a train uphill from Ridgeway towards the summit as it winds along the Roaring Fork River Canyon, gaining almost 400 feet in elevation.
Watch out for the subsidence at one of the bridges (which I've since fixed).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IJCAFuaFac

 

[handlaidtrack]

Finally, we reach summit (214m above Wyefield Junction).
This is the second attempt at creating a track layout I like. It may still change a bit, so I'm going to hold off on landscaping the area for a while.

81) Here is an overall view of Summit as it stands at the moment. Beyond the long tunnel in the distance, the route will end in a staging yard until I decide to start on phase III. The short loop just behind the water tower allows helper locomotives to run round the caboose (necessary if the railroad's operating rules require helpers to be ahead if it). The turntable exit track has plenty of room to stack up at least 4 helpers until there is a convenient path for them to return down the mountain. I'm assuming that this is a good place for passenger trains without dining cars to stop for meals, thus the extra trackage behind the passenger station. I'm not sure what else I might add here yet (suggestions will be welcome).

82) Here's a view looking down the hill from Summit, back towards Ridgeway (which is only a mile away as the crow flies, but much further by rail). I think I need an extra baseboard at top right where the edge is rather obvious.

83) Here's a minimap of the area, showing the route from Ridgeway (E) to Summit (S).

Just for interest, I measured the main line.
Milepost 0 is east end of the yard lead at Wyefield. Distances are approximate.
Wyefield yard limits: 1 1/2
South Wyefield widget works: 2 1/2
Helper Junction (depot): 7
Ridgeway (depot): 12
Summit (depot): 18
North portal of summit tunnel: 18 2/3

 

[sawyer811]

I must say, I love this layout so far! If you're going to have passenger runs lay over at the summit for lunch, it might be wise to add a small diner or something similar near the tracks...If i remember right Bendorsey did a YVRR dining hall that was at El Portal that might work nicely. My love of all things Colorado and Narrow Gauge says to tell you to put a wye and a snowshed up there (preferably covering the wye) but from the locale the route's been portraying, I don't think that would fit well.

Oh, one more thing, if this is the '50s, it might be wise to have a small section gang house or two with a tool shed up there. I don't think it would be appealing to putter all that way up the hill in a little speeder every day.

 

[handlaidtrack]

Good suggestions.
I'll look into that diner, although I had assumed that the dining facilities would be in the depot itself, thus giving the railroad a monopoly. Maybe the diner would have been opened up by a competitor at a later date for exactly that reason.
Section houses will definitely be erected (here and at Ridgesay) when I find a good one. Until then, I'll just assume that the section gang uses space within one of the sheds already there.
A turntable was planned right from the beginning as there was already a wye at the bottom of the hill. Besides, with the track clinging to a ledge on the side of the mountain, a wye would probably be awkward.
As for snowsheds, I'm not a fan of them. They hide the trains just like tunnels, and I figured that the elevation is way too low to need them. I don't particularly like snow scenes anyway because it just doesn't seem right to be switching in a snow-covered landscape and all the cars being picked up are snow free. Besides, I live in upper Michigan and I see more than enough snow from my living room window for half of the year.

 

[sawyer811]

If you want some good section houses, try Colorado71's site: http://colorado71.webs.com/ They're based on RGS prototypes, but I've found that they're generic enough to fit in just about anywhere. If my memory serves me correct they're under "structures" in the drop-down menu under "Downloads." Only problem is they aren't from the DLS officially. you might peruse Bendorsey's stuff...there's a couple buildings that could be re-purposed as a section-gang's bunkhouse.

PS, I think Ben's model is of a kitchen/cafeteria run my the YVRR itself. so there could still be a monopoly.

 

[Retro00064]

This route looks great. The hand-shaped terrain is VERY nice; no wonder people have asked you whether it was hand-made or a DEM. :Y: Keep up the great work!

Regards,

Zachary.

 

[handlaidtrack]

After another absence, I managed to get a few more acres of real-estate textured this evening.
It wasn't until after I'd taken the photos for another progress report, that I realized I'd forgotten the trees.
Oh well, another time...

Here are a few shots of a long (70+ car) mixed freight negotiating the horseshoe curve at the head of the Roaring Fork river gorge.
Hope you like them.
84)

85)

86)

87)

88)

89)

90) Just to be totally honest, here's another view showing how little of the area I actually textured before taking the above pictures (estimated at a little under a square mile).

 

[handlaidtrack]

Do over!
I added the trees before taking my son to school this morning.
Compare with yesterday's pictures

91)

92)

93)

 

[cascaderailroad]

WoW ... I'd like to run a 15,000 ton train down that grade !

You are an inspiration to us all !

 

[sawyer811]

WoW ... I'd like to run a 15,000 ton train down that grade !

You are an inspiration to us all !

"...The Guard he was waiting, to pin down the brakes, but the train it didn't slow down that day..." :hehe:

 

[handlaidtrack]

WoW ... I'd like to run a 15,000 ton train down that grade !

You are an inspiration to us all !

Thank-you for the vote of confidence. I really wasn't aware that I was in that category. There are a few other routes out there that inspire me to do better, but other than you and a small number of other contributors, all I have to go on is the rather biased votes of my wife and son. Actually, I entered this week's screenshot contest for the first time, so hopefully my results there will give me an idea of how well I'm doing.

As for you being able to run trains down that grade, I don't even have a release date in mind yet. It'll be done when it's done. Sorry I can't be more specific.

 

[stouthm]

Believe me when I tell you that a lot of people are following this thread. We just haven't said anything yet. I for one have been with this from the beginning and your work is truly appreciated. I'm not sure what trees you're using but I would suggest using Pofig's trees. Very realistic. Did I read somewhere that you're newly married? If so how do you find the time to work on this?

 

[Retro00064]

I personally like McGuireL's UltraTreez. I also use some of gawpo50's trees. I recommend downloading them all and deciding which one's trees you like best.

I note that you have some waterfalls on your route. You may want to check out Cyberstorm's animate waterfalls on the DLS. He also has some similar animated river components, but these don't work very well in TS2010 native mode due to the different way blended alpha channels are handled.

Anyway, keep up the great work! :Y:

Regards,

Zachary.

 

[ShadyCadence]

I agree with stouthm, there's a silent crowd watching you, patiently waiting for this to be completed. What I like the most about your route is it's one of the few that give you the feel that the terrain was there first, and the railroad built it's way through it, not the other way around.

Build on! When you finish something and it makes you go "That looks good.", imagine whistles and cheers from us. ('cause we are, you just can't hear it!):udrool:

 

[handlaidtrack]

... What I like the most about your route is it's one of the few that give you the feel that the terrain was there first, and the railroad built it's way through it, not the other way around.

Thank-you. That to me is the biggest vindication of my work possible. For about 40 years as a model railroader, my number one goal has always been to make the model look as though the landscape was there first and that the railroad was built through it following the most cost-effective route. To me, that makes more difference to the overall believability than any amount of detailing.

Also, thanks Retro00064 for the tree suggestion. As I'm nearly at the summit now, I think I'll continue with the trees I have for this section, and experiment with the new trees the other side of the ridge. I want the landscape on the next section to have a different feel anyway.

Here are a couple of wide views showing the progress over the last few days. Much of the Roaring Fork valley has now been textured.

94) Most of the Roaring Fork river canyon is visible in this view looking east

95) Looking west from Ridgeway

I tried to upload a couple more videos yesterday, but the one I really wanted failed twice. I'll try again today. Watch this space.

 

[handlaidtrack]

Finally, the second video uploaded successfully on the third attempt.

This one was taken Feb 25: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99nGmaLYJ6c
This one was taken Feb 29: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47UT450VVcQ

Hope you enjoy them.

 

[handlaidtrack]

Two more sections were added this evening.

96) Although the new sections are no where near the track, the elevation of the high line causes the viewer to look down on the hills around Ridgeway, so the baseboard edge is all too obvious.

97) Another view from a slightly different vantage point

98) Even from Ridgeway, there's still a problem if I follow a train from above

99) One extra board doesn't fully eliminate the problem

100) The edge is still a bit too close at the right of the picture. The main problem being that the deep river valley needs more width than I have available. With a whole extra board added to the east (top middle), I also took the oportunity to reroute the river. I think the extra bend looks better.

101) Two extra boards. This works much better (ignore the flat hill, it hasn't been shaped yet). No, I don't normally run bright yellow streamliners; it's my one-mile-long track measuring train that I forgot was there.

102) In the view from Ridgeway, the baseboard edge now completely disappears. I also had to shave down the right side of the far hill so that it drops behind the nearer one before showing the edge again. The alternative would have been to add yet another board in the corner.

 

[handlaidtrack]

103) Here's a view of one of new baseboards added yesterday, showing the new river bend (looking NW, the train is at Ridgeway siding).

104) The same area looking east. Compare with photo 98 taken only a day earlier.

105) This river didn't exist yesterday (looking north towards Ridgeway). Strange that; it looks to me as though it's been there for millions of years.

106) No matter how much landscape I shape and texture, there's always a lot more still to do. This view looks south from the hill shown top center in the previous photo. Ridgeway siding is just below the river. Summit is in the distance at the start of the flat area which will eventually be the continental divide.

 

[heyrey]

your inspiration to me and probably all the other followers on this page! Excellent job handlaidtrack!!!!

 

[handlaidtrack]

After a pretty good day's progress, I started running into trouble. Trainz crashed about 8 times this evening. I notice that there is an error light on at the main menu, but I don't know what it's for. Also, I have 1711 content updates, but when I open that menu tab, there's nothing. I'm hoping it's nothing serious. In the meantime, progress will probably stop until I can sort out the error.

107) Almost done in the mountain area. There's still a small area to sculpt just behind Summit station. Compare with the previous picture taken from a similar viewpoint yesterday.

108) Another shot taken a bit further south. The north portal of the summit tunnel is visible in the distance, looking insignificant against the mountain vista.