Major Tri State Area Project

[malikrthr]

Time to post some screenshots of a project that I will be working on for the next couple of years. It will be most of the tri state area (NY, NJ, and CT). I will build most of the counties and suburbs that you would see in these states. This project will be broken down into stages. The first stage of the project will be the Metro North East of the Hudson service (Hudson, Harlem, New Haven line and it's branches) along with the Beacon and Maybrook railroads. There is alot more to the project so here is a summary of what will be included in this project. It will include the Metro North Railraod (EOH and WOH), Maybrook line, Beacon line, Amtrak, NEC, Amtrak empire connection, Acela, LIRR, NJT, CSX, NY&A, CP, Oak point line, CSX river line, New England Railroad (Naugatuck) Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, Sunnyside yard, Hellgate bridge, and alot more. I will also be doing the For now, this is being done on my laptop, but hopefully soon, once I get a desktop that can run trainz even better, I'll add alot more detail. I will also be making the elevated portions of the NYCTA subway, or EL, Once I get a dekstop, I'll try to build the underground tunnels and stations, which means, taking out some of the streets, and replacing them by adding a ceiling, then putting back those roads. My goal for this project is to include good detail that looks close to what you would see in real life, and get decent amount of fps so it will be mostly smooth instead of laggy. I am trying to keep the frames above 15. Here are some of the first pics of this project.

Metro North M6 on track 4 at Harlem 125th street station. Shoreliner consist sitting on track 2.

Metro North shoreliners, GE P32AC-DM, and M6's.

Sitting from a parking lot watching M6's at the Harlem 125th street station.

Metro North shoreliner III cab car with ditch lights flashing about to depart the station and make it's way for Grand Central Terminal.

Part of the Harlem River drive that I made. It soon turns into the FDR drive a bit south of 125th street. On top is the 3rd Avenue Bridge.

125th street around 3rd Avenue.

Viewing a trailer on 125th street. Here is the Harlem 125th street station.

Viewing all the apartments, and Park Avenue trestles from a parking lot.

Amtrak F40PH hauling 5 amfleet coaches along Park Avenue towards Harlem 125th street station.

More pics coming soon.

 

[Andres_Nunez]

:udrool: :udrool: :udrool: :mop: Very nice. how come you didn't use the original 4 Track stone viaduct used for the Park Ave viaduct in the Hudson line route? but overall it looks good even though its the beginning LOL!! Also will you release it as a one huge layout or release like the MNRR one part and the NEC anoter and so and so forth?

 

[malikrthr]

Thank you. I am going to use the 4 track stone viaduct, but I have not gotten that south of Park Avenue yet. So far the trestles have been laid down from 115th street-129th street. Once I finish with the scenery on the baseboards that I have done so far, I will continue the track work and the 4 tracks stone viaduct will begin around 112th street. The tunnel begins at 96th street and end at GCT. I will try to use the tunnels used on the moscow metro route but height may be an issue since the P32's are kind of tall for those tunnels. As for the route, it will be one huge layout containing all those railroads. My estimate for the finished route should be anywhere from 2013-2016.

 

[Andres_Nunez]

Thank you. I am going to use the 4 track stone viaduct, but I have not gotten that south of Park Avenue yet. So far the trestles have been laid down from 115th street-129th street. Once I finish with the scenery on the baseboards that I have done so far, I will continue the track work and the 4 tracks stone viaduct will begin around 112th street. The tunnel begins at 96th street and end at GCT. I will try to use the tunnels used on the moscow metro route but height may be an issue since the P32's are kind of tall for those tunnels. As for the route, it will be one huge layout containing all those railroads. My estimate for the finished route should be anywhere from 2013-2016.

Ok well good luck

 

[tbob]

That is a HUGE undertaking malikrthr, I'd suggest doing individual portions at a time, for example going north from 125th Street where you are now, up to Woodlawn Junction, the going on the New Haven Line, run up the Waterbury Branch and head north to Thomaston on the RMNE's trackage (although I wouldn't quite consider that the tri-state region as it's the 203 area code down there), do the New Canaan Branch, and do the Danbury Branch. From Danbury do the Beacon Line so you meet the Harlem Line at Towners and down to Fishkill, from there fill in the blanks on the Harlem and Hudson Lines (easier said than done, I know, haha) and finish the extensions north, (the Harlem to Wassaic, Danbury to Canaan or all the way to Pittsfield if you wanted, and Thomaston to Torrington), at that point you'd have most of the Metro-North territory covered along with the Housatonic Railroad and the Naugatuck Railroad. That's all just a suggestion from a local who knows the area, I'm not trying to tell you how to build your route. It does look good, can't wait to see the buildings grow around Harlem and look forward to your progress.

As a side note, did you make those Tomato-Cans? They're a welcome addition to Trainz if they make it into public hands. They're excellent models regardless!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

 

[aking4125]

Where did you get that M6 ? And where did you get those stations and tracks ?

BTW Awesome work there !

 

[Andres_Nunez]

Where did you get that M6 ? And where did you get those stations and tracks ?

BTW Awesome work there !

From what i know the M6 was made by Kurrasrailroads and is available here
http://kurrasrailroads.dyndns.org/trainz.html

The girder tracks come with the 2010 Hudson Line I think there called JJS Girder or Girder Single 5M

And the station if im not mistaken are platform splines that come built in to 09' there called "UK Modern Utility Platform"

BTW Malik how long did it take you to raise the 3rd rail splines to the perfect height?

 

[malikrthr]

Thanks everyone. I Appreciate all the comments .That sounds like a good idea but I think depending on how it handles on the laptop, depends on if it will be broken down or not. I think I have to keep in mind how much RAM I have, so it might be a good idea to break it down, but we'll see. I can't wait to get work done on the other railroads. The station is a kitbash. I got the UK modern utility platforms from a NJT route from TCR, and raised it on top of one of the built in platforms from TS2009. The 3rd rails took about 5-10 minutes. I used one of the tools in surveyor to make them all the same height. For creating this route, I am using 1km basemaps resized to 1024x1024. Since it is not that clear to notice the detail, I use google earth on the side. I just laid down some of the city streets buildings so all the scenery from 129th street-115th street is complete. Those city streets on the dls are great. I think in a couple of days, all the scenery and trackwork will get to 96th street.

 

[malikrthr]

That is a HUGE undertaking malikrthr, I'd suggest doing individual portions at a time, for example going north from 125th Street where you are now, up to Woodlawn Junction, the going on the New Haven Line, run up the Waterbury Branch and head north to Thomaston on the RMNE's trackage (although I wouldn't quite consider that the tri-state region as it's the 203 area code down there), do the New Canaan Branch, and do the Danbury Branch. From Danbury do the Beacon Line so you meet the Harlem Line at Towners and down to Fishkill, from there fill in the blanks on the Harlem and Hudson Lines (easier said than done, I know, haha) and finish the extensions north, (the Harlem to Wassaic, Danbury to Canaan or all the way to Pittsfield if you wanted, and Thomaston to Torrington), at that point you'd have most of the Metro-North territory covered along with the Housatonic Railroad and the Naugatuck Railroad. That's all just a suggestion from a local who knows the area, I'm not trying to tell you how to build your route. It does look good, can't wait to see the buildings grow around Harlem and look forward to your progress.

As a side note, did you make those Tomato-Cans? They're a welcome addition to Trainz if they make it into public hands. They're excellent models regardless!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

I was thinking about your idea, but can you please answer this question. If I did one huge layout, would that be bad since my laptop has integrated graphics and it shares some of the laptop's RAM? I may not do one huge layout but If I do just incase, would the whole layout depend on a huge chunk of RAM? Since I am going to the 11th grade next month, and college work will be coming soon I won't be building in trainz that much, but I'll be doing some other things around trainz such as creating a couple of models in Google Sketchup and learning about GMAX and more on the computer, I thought about your idea in a way but I was thinking about breaking it down in a different way. I was thinking about working in 3 portions or 3 little projects. Maybe one portion could be the New York area, then the Connecticut Area, and then the New Jersey area. Once that is all done, is it possible to merge these 3 routes into one big route? If it is possible to merge the routes, how could you do that.

 

[trainzpro]

WHAT...THE...?!?

Well I'll be darned! I know northeastern railroads are popular, but had I known that there would be so many people working on the same (or similar) projects within the tri-states, I would've just sat back and watched or worked on something else. But great job anyways, and I look forward to your version as well.

-trainzpro

 

[malikrthr]

Time for some new screens. Alot more work has been done. All track work and most of the signal work is complete from 129th street to 105th street, and alot more scenery is put in. The pics will speak for themselves

Stone masonry elevated tracks by 105th street and Park Avenue.

Track junctions and signals have been placed. I'll soon get the scenery done to the east of Park Avenue.

Metro North GP-35 towing a dead Bombardier M7 consist along Park Avenue. It is towing it to the newly rebuilt Croton Harmon Maintenance facility.

Amtrak Empire connection detour. Due to a problem in Penn Station, Amtrak empire consists operate into and out of Penn Station. Here, a New Haven P32ac-dm tows the Amtrak P42 in 40th anniversary paint scheme, along with the Amfleet coaches. Since the Amtrak genny's don't have an emergency escape door on their nose, they cannot operate into GCT without being towed. Now, the New Haven P32ac-dm will tow this Amtrak consist to Yonkers and then the Amtrak consist will continue it's journey up the Hudson while the New Haven genny goes back to tow more Amtrak consist's.

R46 subway car playing the role of a Metro North M3 making it's way to Harlem 125th street station on track 4. Metro North ACMU at idle on track 3 and Metro North M6 on track 1 making it's way for GCT.

More pics coming very soon..

 

[malikrthr]

Some new pics have been delivered to the forums.

Track work has is now completed all the way down to 92nd street in the park avenue tunnels.

New Haven Shoreliners moving towards the 97th street viaduct.

 

[malikrthr]

Some new pics have been delivered to the forums.

Track work has is now completed all the way down to 92nd street in the park avenue tunnels.

New Haven Shoreliners moving towards the 97th street viaduct.

Over head view of Spanish Harlem.

Metro North Genny racing a Metro North M7 out of the tunnels. Heading for Harlem 125th street station.

Metro North M8 in the Park avenue tunnels on track 4 heading for Harlem and 125th street station. Metro North m2 on track 1 racing for Grand Central Terminal.

Side view of Metro North diesel.

Cdot shoreliner II's heading for the 97th street viaduct.

Watching Cdot shoreliner II's entering the tunnels.

 

[Euphod]

Just a little humor folks:

Since you are creating the entire Tri-State area, I expect to see Dr. Doofenshmirtz's building on the skyline.

 

[malikrthr]

Ya never know. It can happen

 

[Steveo241]

Since you are creating the entire Tri-State area, I expect to see Dr. Doofenshmirtz's building on the skyline.

And a platypus running around under the bridges too...

 

[malikrthr]

Track work is now approaching Grand Central terminal. The tunnels have been replaced with something a bit better. I'll post the pics when I do some more work on GCT.

 

[Scottbe8]

You have no idea how hard I have been looking for the CDOT EMUs. And you just happen to have them here. I'm jealous.

Are your M2s and M6s passenger-enabled with fully-functional doors, cabs, and interiors?

Great scenery btw, looks almost exactly like the real thing would if I could see in the dark. I have yet to get a first-hand cab view of the tunnel.

Also, one more question: What track did you use for the viaduct? Is it possible to create a version of this track that has the MN Third Rail fixed on one side? (UGleisStrom and UGleisStromHell kinda already have this, but with a different third rail visual.) I'm thinking that would make track laying a lot easier.

 

[malikrthr]

Thanks. These are not my Metro North M2's. They are on a website called KurrasRailroads. I don't know if he will make another version of this but they don't have functional doors or interiors. It has a nice cab though. The stone viaduct 4 track, you can find on the dls. It was made by magandy. It does not come with the third rails. Once I laid down the viaduct, I added the third rails and made track junctions. Doing this project is not that difficult. For the tracks and tunnels, I used track maps, google earth and youtube videos as references.

More progress has been made. I have laid down a couple of tracks in Grand Central with 2 platforms to go. Need about 50 more tracks and 10-15 more platforms. And made a kitbash for the abandoned stations in the tunnels. Pics will be arriving soon.

 

[malikrthr]

Route is put on hold for now. I just ordered Transdem a couple of days ago to take my route building a step forward.