Northeast US Route-Many pics

[NBandW]

Hi. I've been playing around with Trainz since the pre-SP3 days, but I figured it was about time that I join the community . Anyway-this is a route that I've been working on for the past several years. It is set in a Pennsylvania-New York-New Jersey area around where the real Southern Tier is. A lot of local railfanning landmarks (many from the CSX Boston Line) have been loosely included. So far the "main line" is about 40 miles long being built from the middle (BAD idea), with several other mainline stubs coming off it. I have tried to make the route a realistic as possible, but even though I get horrible FPS in towns the quality doesn't approach some of the other work I've seen. Anyway-on to some pics.

1. The small town of Ashford on the current northern end of the mainline.

2. Harrison's Crossing-between Ashford and Bradford.

3. A high trestle over the Bradford River just north of town.

4. The town of Bradford (a real FPS-eater) looking up toward the tracks.

5. A mill dam along the Bradford River valley

6. The town of Roxbury Depot

7. A Baretable train through the crossing at Roxbury Depot.

8. Highway 242 at dawn.

9. A junk train with good power rounds a sweeping curve near Clark's Corner.



More in next post

 

[NBandW]

Northeastern Route pics (continued)

10. A manifest freight struggles up the short but steep Hillsboro Grade on a dreary day.

11. A signal near the summit of the grade at Hillsboro.

12. A freight rolls south through a cut near the town of Brookville.

13. A work train drops downgrade south of Hale's Ferry.


Thats all for now-feel free to comment.

 

[nikos1]

looking very nice, all the years of practice pays off
for the FPS you might want to swap out the VMD track for some chunky mesh, ive found that really helps with FPS

 

[chrisracer8903]

http://img505.imageshack.us/my.php?image=242dawnep9.jpg

What sky is that and color settings? That's just what I need. It's a nice route! I agree with Nikos by switching to chunky-mesh track . -Chris

 

[CSX5220]

"A lot of local railfanning landmarks (many from the CSX Boston Line) have been loosely included."

were? I live next to that line all my life (in chatham NY). We need more pics from the berkshires-keep up the good work...

Happy Trainzin'
Mike S.

 

[StorkNest]

If you have FPS probelms in a town, look at the buildings you used to try to fix FPS.
You could only do detailed buildings near the line, anything far away can use low-poly items. There are several you could choose from, search DLS for "US House," "CA House," houses by Elevenor, those are the ones I know of, may be others. Cityscape buildings could be used for industries and improve FPS, haven't looked into the splines.
Also what type of foilage do you use? Some like the Perfect tree series use up FPS.

 

[NBandW]

Thanks for all the comments!

@nikos1- Thanks-will have to look for better track. BTW the CSX GP40s rock.

@chrisracer- The sky is the default "noclouds"
Here are the color settings that I used.
The ambient color for 6am:

The "middle of the sky" color for 6am:

And the midday sky color for those interested:


@CSX5220- Not too many of the pictures I posted show landmarks but the depot area of Bradford is modelled after Chester, MA, and parts of Hale's Ferry were loosely based on Huntington, MA:

There are some other places that might be recognizable- and I have plans for an area based on the west portal of State Line Tunnel and a viaduct based on the bridge over the Hudson.

@StorkNest- I have tried using more cityscape buildings-and almost all the houses I use are from the "US House" series-and they help some, but the hillside nature of many of the towns makes them spline-intensive-which I think is the real culprit. The trees are mostly dmdrake's "wide cover splines" along with some czech trees I found on the DLS.

Again-thanks for all the comments-more pictures soon.

 

[knifeswitch1]

I'm sure it probably is, but is this an 06 only route?

 

[NBandW]

Its TRS04, but it will probably be released for TRS 2013. I don't even own 06 because I couldn't get a good idea of the potential issues with some older content.

 

[StorkNest]

@StorkNest- I have tried using more cityscape buildings-and almost all the houses I use are from the "US House" series-and they help some, but the hillside nature of many of the towns makes them spline-intensive-which I think is the real culprit. The trees are mostly dmdrake's "wide cover splines" along with some czech trees I found on the DLS.

I haven't researched how tree placement affects routes but did try the same wide cover splines. Placing Oak-Hickory 160m and 320m killed FPS so I took a blank baseboard and placed each spline seperately, the 320 dropped FPS more than the 160. I changed to 160 only on a route and while FPS dropped by 10 it was nowhere near as bad as when I used the larger one. So if you're using 2 different sizes of wide-cover splines, try replacing the bigger one with the smaller one.

 

[gisa]

It looks great and I am all for using low poly objects but correct me if I am wrong: as far as I know the cityscape low polygon spines aren't allowed to be used in a route that would be released, no? Just don't want you to get in trouble...

 

[NBandW]

Hi again.

@StorkNest- Thanks for the tip-I'll have to try that

@gisa- As far as I know the cityscape series can be used in routes that would be released, maybe you're confusing them with the Low-Poly series from the Marias Pass payware route?

Anyway-a few more pictures:

1. A work extra continues downhill north of Hillsboro.


2. A freight crosses the river at Brookville.


3. Another shot of the Roxbury crossing.


4. A view of the valley just south of the end of double track. This scene is based off the area around MP 122-123 on the Boston Line for those familiar with the area.


That's all for now, more in a few days.

 

[gisa]

Cool thanks for the info! I didn't know that...

 

[NBandW]

Southbound Stack Train

...

Heading uphill at Oak Mountain





Roxbury Crossing



A field south of Roxbury



Cab View





Rural Grade Crossing



Hillsboro Falls





Cresting the Grade

 

[dnutter]

TIME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHOA WHOA WHOA! WHERE you have find the CW40-8W CSX!



And wow that great of pics here I live your pics on last bottom thread!:Y: :clap:

 

[NBandW]

continued...

Reverse Curve



Miller's Crossing







Along Highway 242



A farm scene I'm still working on

 

[NBandW]

About that engine...

I knew someone would ask that. It's a repaint that I did of SP_OR_BUST's NS C40-8W that still needs touching up and permission to be released. I'm working on a 4- or 6-pack of them that should be out by the end of the summer if I can get permission. I'll probably start a thread in freeware once I get permission and they are closer to done.

 

[nikos1]

i can ask Frank for ya if you need me to, and could help with the touch ups and mabye even a custom horn for it, logo looks a bit small but overall looking very nice. btw: route is looking great too

 

[NBandW]

thanks nikos, that would be great!:Y: So far I'm pretty satisfied with the YN2 ones except for some weathering and maybe the logo postion on the right side. However the YN3 units still need major work. I'll get back to you about touch ups, etc when those are closer to done. As far as the logo size goes, I was using the pic of 7317 on the CSX Photo Archives for reference, but I'll take another look at it. Thanks again!

 

[NBandW]

Wow. Page 15. Time for an update. Here's some progress over the summer-

Williamsport- this is about as far as I got before I got burned out and went back out to the mountains:



Scenery:



Otis Tunnel- based on State Line Tunnel on the B&A:



Farm scene is now done:



continued...