Norfolk Southern Murphy Branch (Large Pics)

[NCkilla333]

A few months ago, well, about a year and a half really, I started work on a model of the CSX Blue Ridge Subdivision. Many months and headaches into it, my harddrive bit the dust and I had no back-ups. Now that I have Trainz 12 I wanted to get back into route building but I it wasn't in me to start over on the Blue Ridge. I am currently a student at Western Carolina University which is about five miles from the end of Norfolk Southern trackage in Sylva, NC so recreating the Murphy Branch only seemed fit.
The former Southern Railway's Murphy Branch runs from Asheville, NC about 100 miles roughly southwest to Murphy, NC. The first 50 miles to Sylva is now owned by Norfolk Southern, the line from Sylva to Andrews, NC is owned by the Great Smokey Mountains Railroad which is primarily an excursion railroad, and the line on to Murphy is owned by the NCDOT and is no longer in use. Industries along the route include a quarry in Enka, a large paper mill in Canton, several industries in and around Waynesville, and several in Sylva including another paper mill and the LPG distributor shown in the screens below. There is also a feed mill in Andrews which is the GSMR's only freight customer. Hoppers are interchanged between GSMR and NS at Jackson Paper in Sylva.
This thread is to show off my work so that if i goes again at least I can prove I did it.

P59 heads across Skyland Drive, heading for Sylva.​

Switching tanks at Blossman in Addie.​

Up the grade and through the valley back towards Asheville.​

Back over Skyland​

... and under through the cut.​

There is still a lot of work to do even in these areas. The area around the Skyland trestle and the cut are the only places that are in anyway "done"

 

[PereMarquette1225fan]

Looks good! I must say, this route looks nice thus far and it will continue to look great. Certainly better than some of my personal routes. :hehe: And trust me, no one would want to see them. :hehe:

 

[Bob5446]

And remember to back it up!!!!

Looking good - keep at it.

 

[NCkilla333]

Cement Plant

Just outside of Sylva lies a small cement plant. The operations there amaze me although I haven't ever had the opportunity to see them in person. I threw this together as kind of a demonstration... and because I love this area. NOTE* Please ignore a few things in the screens. The hoppers are incorrect and are hauling coal... not sand. The surrounding area is completely raw, like I said I just threw this together. And finally, the cement plant itself is not true-to-life and quite frankly, I hate it, it's just the best I can find as of now. So enjoy as best you can...

P59 has just arrived loaded with sand (or in this case coal) and waits in front of what will be a few businesses and public facilities while the brakeman switches the line onto the cement spur and lowers the derail.​

Leaving its loads behind the power heads up the spur and hooks up to the empties.​

The brakeman then switches back to the main and releases the handbrake on the empties, allowing them to roll freely down the line past the spur.​

The geeps then pull the empties off the spur and reunite them with their loaded cousins.​

The loads are then shoved up the spur and the empties are taken back to Jackson Paper in Sylva where a train will be assembled to head back to Canton and then onto Asheville.​

I hope to spend a while working on this area and downtown Sylva. I will then proceed east towards Canton and possibly start on the mill there. I will continue to update this as I get good screens.
​

 

[Euphod]

Please regularly back up your route to a CDP or other saved file. I can't tell you how many promising routes have been lost by those who did not!

 

[NCkilla333]

Update to cement plant

Whipped up a few buildings in Google Sketch-up.. they'll do for now. Added trees and textures. I personally think it looks a lot better now.

 

[NorfolkSouthernfan]

Wow so Far its nice where did you get the GP38-2s & when will the route be finished? I would like to try it out

 

[njmetsfan]

So you're a student at WCU? Cool, I'm over at High Point University which is 3 miles from the High Point Yard

 

[CPman117]

Wow so Far its nice where did you get the GP38-2s & when will the route be finished? I would like to try it out

i can probably tell ya that those are from jointed rail Payware

 

[NCkilla333]

Time and Place

Wow so Far its nice where did you get the GP38-2s & when will the route be finished? I would like to try it out

Hmmmm... I have no clue. Your just looking at Sylva which is about fifty miles down the line, it'll be a while. And CP is right, the high hood geeps are from JR, $7, I had to have them for the route, and the SD40 is a freeware from RRMODS. I've never seen a SD on the Murphy but it's the only other NS I have for Trainz 12 atm.

So you're a student at WCU? Cool, I'm over at High Point University which is 3 miles from the High Point Yard

Yeah I'm a Junior down there. I try to get pics in and around Sylva as often as I can and I live up near Spruce Pine which is right on the CSX Blue Ridge Sub so I try to get out as much as possible.

 

[njmetsfan]

Yeah I'm a Junior down there. I try to get pics in and around Sylva as often as I can and I live up near Spruce Pine which is right on the CSX Blue Ridge Sub so I try to get out as much as possible.

Yeah, I live up in Jersey close to the Conrail Shared Assets Mt. Holly Industrial Track

 

[NCkilla333]

Progress and pics

Although I haven't made a post recently, I have been working. I have a particular professor who likes to make my life a living hell. Last Thursday I managed to escape the world of homework for a full day of railfanning. By a full day, I mean a five hour train chase across the thirty miles from Sylva to Waynesville. Below are so some of my favorite pics and links to more as well as a video also there are a few updates to the route.

Sitting in the LPG field grabbing the first 3 of 5 tanks.​

Backing back aross Skyland Dr. to grab the other two tank cars.​

This pic is a little blurry and crooked, but I like it. It really shows the atmosphere of the day as P59 crosses a small field behind a storage facility. It is on it's way to Jackson Paper. They did not pick up any boxcars, they just turned the train around.​

Coming through the cut and under Skyland Dr.​

The first link below is to flickr to view the rest of the pictures for the day and any others I have floating around on the site. The next two are videos from the day, the first being P59 crossing Skyland Dr. in Sylva and the second being the same train almost 4 hours later crossing Hendrix and Main Streets in Wanynesville.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70196499@N06/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gukaLA6M_4g&list=PLAD4766C9F8131039&index=1&feature=plpp_video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAWyNdFzoGg&feature=bf_next&list=PLAD4766C9F8131039&lf=plpp_video

The 'getting there' portion of the small town of Balsam, NC.

A wider shot of the same crossing showing the multiple lights and arms installed in late 2010 that replaced the old crossbuck only protection.

P59 comes down the first part of the nearly 5% balsam grade. This is one of the more finished portions of the grade.

P59 heads across Dark Ridge road on the 2nd of 5 large trestles between Balsam and Sylva.

I really wanted to wait until this area was completely done to show it off, but I like it too much and just had to post it ahead of time. A Dash-9 leads an array older EMDs and several loads of woodchips across the the large bridge over Sandy Ln. between Candler and Canton. On average these trains (P31) will have around 30 woodchip cars and several tanks and boxes, most of which are for the mill at Canton.
​

 

[NCkilla333]

Work has continued on the Murphy Branch, I have just had too much school work to really get down to Trainz business. I have also been out railfanning the real branch quite a bit.

F
Skyland Dr./Willets Rd. prior to 2/14/12

And as seen from the Great Smokey Mountains Expressway.

And after 2/14/12, hopes that the Murphy Branch hasn't reached the end of it's line. I passed by this crossing on the 13th and said, as I have said before, "I don't know why they haven't replaced the crossbucks here", it's a fairly busy road.

Okay, I lied a little. THIS is what the scene looked like on the 14th. As of today, 2/19, the gates are still not online.

A few more shots from Willits-Ochre Hill

Crossing Dark Ridge Rd. I just moved to a new computer and haven't migrated everything yet so my rolling stock is limited. Today P59 just has a few hoppers for interchange with GSMR. There will be some houses here eventually.

Overview of Skyland Dr. crossing

Crossing Melbourne Rd.

Running beside Melbourne.

A little more work has been done here if you can even see the differences.

​

And finally, the last time I posted was right before the sever outage so I'm going to post some links again. Plus, they have been updated with pictures and videos from 2/14.
Pictures @ Railroad Picture Archives - http://tmckinney.rrpicturearchives.net/
Videos @ YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAD4766C9F8131039&feature=mh_lolz


I would like to thank all who take their time to look at this post and even more so to those who leave comments and advice.

 

[colhad]

Please regularly back up your route to a CDP or other saved file. I can't tell you how many promising routes have been lost by those who did not!

Been there, done that.

 

[backyard]

Golly, you should win an award for your perseverance to get those videos!

When the sun hits the ground at the tree line, there will be underbrush growth...

Fine job so far, take your time.

 

[NCkilla333]

Been there, done that.

It really is disappointing when you lose months, even years of work to not backing up. Now that I have a new computer, I have two to back up on as well as my Dropbox account. Loosing the branch would be a real tragedy.

Golly, you should win an award for your perseverance to get those videos!

When the sun hits the ground at the tree line, there will be underbrush growth...

Fine job so far, take your time.

The videos are really fun to do, especially when the weather gets rough and the day gets long. I hope to have my own camera back soon adn can shoot in 1080p. I will defiantly be out a lot more after that. Thanks for the views.

 

[NCkilla333]

Weedwork

I thought about that tree line see above, and decided the route as a whole needed more foliage. I HATE to use foliage splines but this underbrush shine actually looks good and I think it should be OK to use. Also seen is lots of JVC freeware.

 

[backyard]

Looks great to me.

It follows that anywhere the sun shines produces growth especially on unmaintained property (mostly indigineous grasses).

Around the big trees at the tree line would be smaller trees of the same species.

I know you want to keep it so-called "low-poly" however like me your modeling a location well known for heavy vegetation growth.

On way we use to counter the high poly content is to run the draw-distance slider all the way to the left. Add some clear weather fog and you will be able to use tracking cameras to view the train.

Staying in cab and using tracking don't cache assets like flyover view.

These methods work well on EK3, another heavy underbrush route...

 

[Retro00064]

Man, this is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Keep up the awesome work! :Y:

So those trees you are using are by Jankvis?

 

[NCkilla333]

The trees are UltraTreez by Mcguirel and thank you backyard, your tips are very helpful and are being taken into deep consideration.