Snow High Valley Distr Ctr (High Resolution 950x532) Approx

[Southern1581]

Some nice shots there blue, good work! Here's a basic summary of how I've spent the latter parts of my weekend:

Outside of the train museum, most of my time has been devoted to finishing off this logo for Downeaster's fictional railroad, and currently I've started on the first of two trial skins for him featuring this logo. Next you will probably see of it will be over on his thread when the first units are delivered, so stay tuned. Have a good night!

 

[blueodessey]

:wave: Copy that, time goes fast I know,

Today, went to Church, then had a all afternoon meeting with Fraternal group I joined,,which for today, I had to do studying all week for pertinent material we were to be tested on, egads the whole week, and my weekend blew by me. And here comes Monday!

Like your Logo, looks really nice, that's cool you have great graphics ability, should look great on Downeaster's fictional railroad.

:wave: Get some rest and talk at you later on!

 

[blueodessey]

New Loads & Changing the Paint Colors for Amtrak MOW

Good Day all,

Ok, Remember I found a lot of Depressed and Hi-Cap Cars, and some Cool Amtrak MOW stuff. With that in mind, with I took an old Passenger Car, and made it an MOW Car in Color from Grey and Blue.

As for Flatcar below, I found some special loads to fit, Cat below with blade on separate Flatcar, perfect for my needs. Thank you Railhead001 for your great in site.

Here is a view of mostly empty yard, it is going to get filled with lots of new loads and varied commodities. This yard will serve me will for what I want to do, it's not too large, nor is it too small., it's perfect by the one who designed, not me, I just made a few small changes after I merged this with 19 other pieces.

This picture shows Loaded MOW Ballast Cars and some BNSF loads in the back half of the yard.

More Hi Cap cars that wonderfully designed by Ben Dorsey and others, I have many different Loads to play with. So Cool, gives some new looks to my consists! Thank you to the Creators that design for us. The load on this Red Car is Gas Piping for Natural Gas or even water Plants. Heavy Street Roller for tamping down the Ground for Paving projects.

Below is super large car, that has a dense medal Load going for Space and Air Craft construction Plants. And of course heavy large bulky Water Cat Trucks, Closer yet, Steel and heavy Pipe Loads. Lots of interesting loads.

And finally we have heavy capacity car in Blue and Red, I believe it carries Metal or anything else bulky and large commodities attached at the end is Terminal Caboose that will carry any other special Tie Downs or Tools for the car ahead if we need something, or Lord forbid have broken chains or load shift on the Ride out, we have to remember things do shift and break just like the Rails we ride on. All these things come into play as we transit from Point "A" to point "B", and in the final end of all, we need to make money for the Railroad, that's kind of important too? Think about the Fuel cost and maintenance issues found in the Railroad world, sure we can defer maintenance, but at what cost, and when the Track condition comes down, so too is the speed authorized, that means travel time increases, and we might lose market share. I have seen this in Businesses! When you look at it, definitely a special balance has to be maintained.

And if you look under the protected loading area here, you can see the heavy blue Plastic Pipe for Agriculture and City Plumbing needs.

With the AID of another Trainzer, I was able to find this very heavy and bulky Transformer load, which will drop off this week, abit we are held to 15MPH because of safety concerns, we do not want to derail with this baby. I also have Alumina Igots on the car across from it, and heavy Water or Fuel Flanged Pipe on a TTX Car going to water Plant. In the back against the building, a very heavy irrigation and Storm Water Pipe,,will be carring quite a few of these to a construction area far from here, Rail is the better on this move since we don't have good roads all the way so it is not shipped a long distance with heavy Truck Transfer.

Oh and one of my favorite Ugly ducklings, but has excellent Power, UP U50B unit #5017, he is in testing phase for our Road here, I want to see how he pulls on heavy grades etc.

The last load I wanted to show you, is the Red Car with Granite Marble piece of Rock, that will go to Cabinet or whatever manufacture who will slice and cut for Kitchen Counter, Church Alters of unusual shapes and anything else, very heavy load, but with the right car and proper tracks we can make the move safely and reliably.

That's about it for today, hope you enjoyed the tour of unusual loads.

Thanks for coming by Folks.

 

[Southern1581]

Very nice shots Blue!

I've been very busy of late, but you can get a glimpse at what I've been up to on Downeaster's latest stream from just earlier today.
Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZFQHybApo

 

[blueodessey]

Very nice shots Blue!

I've been very busy of late, but you can get a glimpse at what I've been up to on Downeaster's latest stream from just earlier today.
Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZFQHybApo

Copy that, I just got my Taxes finished and turned in :'( , it has been a very busy week with Meetings and such too.

Thanks for the link on Downeaster's Route, I meant to look that up the other day, I think that is going to be one cool Route as he progresses.

I got a hold of bunch of interesting Cranes yesterday, another Flatcar that is different than anything I have in my Route now.

:wave:Thanks for dropping in and have a good week, today's hump day. Man did it fly fast from last Sat!

 

[blueodessey]

Underpass Constructrion Machines & more Hi Cap Flatcar Loads

Good Day all,

I was out Bicycling today, and checked in on one of my Favorite Construction Projects, I put the link for huge project that covers Southern California, and has made a huge difference at these Rail Crossings.

http://www.theaceproject.org


here they are doing an underpass, so I decided to snap a few photos of the machines they are using for Earth removal, and Cement Rocks breakdown to Gravel Base for this project. They used to haul Debris like this to a local landfill, now they re purpose it for Base material, if any of you know material costs, it cost plenty to bring in source building material or to haul stuff away, AKA , multi million or Billion $ projects. This is a much better way of doing things, and less junk going to our reduced Landfill places (hint, no one wants a landfill in their City or County!)

In the picture below, this Excavator is reducing the rubble by feeding a machine below, that brakes the large rocks into a Gravel base for the huge underpass to the right, which will require 12-18" of base material, plus cement to make the highway, we have lots of Trucks (heavy) using the highway. So this underpass has to meet the State requirements.

The steel soldier pilings are to protect the 2 mainlines of UP Railroad Tracks behind them.

The underpass will go passed the temporary steel pilings later on, but first they have to build 2 sets of bridges here, one for the rest of the Hwy, and the other for the 2 main lines of the Railroad, this is a 3-4yr project. I try and find a link for this project and post it here for you to read.

This is the other side of the Highway, the walls are in but the underpass will not be completely dug out till all 3 Overpass bridges our made.


And this little Driller is finished and will going home after the 50' Concrete Piller bases for Overpass have been drilled, pored and set now for the new underpasses. I haven't seen one of these created that I know of? Very cool piece of equipment for Bridge or Hill Support foundation prepping.

And here is the Malcolm Photos of this and many other construction Machines, Transport Vehicles they use for projects.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mal...VFKWMKHRR6AJsQ7AkIQA&biw=1280&bih=592&dpr=1.5

Now to the Route, I now have a military Rocket, and Steel Flang Pipe and Alumina Igots load for my Train consists.

Better view of the Rocket and Pipe loads. And to the right of the Photo, lots of other types of Pipe loads now.

Shifting over to MOW and new Rail Stick Loads, this consist is headed out to the Alps Route, we are going to do huge realignment and replacement of existing track work over there, plus mountain building and shaping.

Amtrak Crane seen here with Crane straddle Flat Car and Gondola with additional Block and Tackle and Steel fittings for our Alps project.

Just another view of the many varied loads we have obtained.

Large view of the our Shunting in process here as we move several trains out into the Alps area for reconstruction process.

I had a great week finding all the new type loads and fixing some of the Faulty assets with replacement Texture, Bogey issues and missing Commodities, which thru time I was able to cure.

Thank you for visiting this week and I hope you find these pictures of interest.

I bid you all a Good Friday tomorrow.

 

[blueodessey]

Lots of new Loads types added

Good Evening all,

Since this is a mother's day weekend, I wanted to post some photo's now, since I will be busy with Family the whole weekend.

So I did a whole lot more searching and downloading Flats, Bulkheads, and special purpose Cranes etc.

Below are several of the new cars that have been added and tested for the different loads they can carry.

The Blue Crane below is one of the largest portable Rail Cranes I have ever seen, I have a car hooked to it to handle extra equipment will need for the heavy construction jobs we have coming up. The white long reachable Terex Crane is animated and extended out loading some steel beams for the Railroad, shown on right side of this picture.

Another picture of the Terex Crane on the far right. A small Green and Yellow Hydraulic Shunter will be headed to one of Brick Yard Factories once it is built in the yellow, is MOW specialized Crane Attachments for Steel Lifting and Bridge repairs, or Downed Tree removals.

The odd shaped White Car is a heavy refrigerated unit for Frozen or Refrigerated needed items.

The better overhead view of the huge Blue Rail Car Crane, this is one speck-tackler piece of equipment.

The Terex Crane is ready to drive off to the next job, the railroad uses these from time to time to lift items over Tracks and hard to reach places that can't be done without disturbing the Rails, or Sub Base.

The loads below are Auto Frames, Postal Trucks, and heavy duty Red portable Crane, 2 Foot Pipe Alumina Ingots, Another Yellow Portable Crane on Flatcar. Next is Concrete Prefab Loads on Flat.

So I have got plenty of different Loading Cars now.

It's off to the Alps, with some Cranes to re track a derailed train of ours, that is hauling a Military Load, apparently the Ice from melting Snow got under the Tracks and out them out of alignment, causing a slow 5 MPH derailment.

I also had to Grade Modifications on the new main line that goes up to the Alps from City Country USA Route, I was off by 1% in some spots so I wanted to moderate the swings in % drops.

Between here and there we have a new Quarry and Granite Factory across the hill from a Steel Mill. I found out I needed to extend some of the tracks due to clearance and height problems. Also needed to connect to the main line with another Switch point added to the Main Line for better access to the heavy loaded Flatcars coming out of the Mine.

As for the Alps, I have pictures, plenty of them, and there is quite a few issues to deal with, Curves are too sharp, buildings to close to the Tracks, and I plan on Removing the Electrification for now, and just using Diesel since there is going to lots of Earth movement, and Tracks getting ripped up.

Whole railyards are going to moved to other parts of the Mountain for better dwell time. Things are just to crammed for me and that's my preference.,lots of homes and factory's will be relocated too.

Once it is done, our main lines will flow much better.

Enjoy the time with your family this weekend and thanks for coming by.

 

[blueodessey]

Happy Mother's Day to the Lady Trainzer's in our Group

Happy Mother's day to those special Ladies,

Hope your all having a great day!

I'll post more later on for the Pictures, I need to get back to Party.

Update: Another picture of Terex Crane with al old but still good running local Goods Truck and a very old style manual 1 Ton capacity winched Crane.....

And we have a Shorty Tank car (aqua blue) for unusual Fluids that don't need higher capacity loads.....These are used for special loads of expensive fluids that meet specific needs of our manufacturing base.

I was able to get some of the newly done Re Skins on some older UP Cabooses sitting next to my DDX40 UP Loco...

And I was able to get these unusual Naval SW1200 Switchers to move a myriad of Navy and Army Loaded Boxcars and Tankers, it's going to be a very long Trip to where these loads are going to there new home, on a yet to be constructed Military Base. Our next area we driving thru will be Country City USA then on up to the Alps Route, very high mountain country.......

We some very interesting designs here from the Military, even a special forces Boxcar on the right. Black Tanker for Rocket Propellant. These cars are empty for the move here, but once the new military base is built, they be pressed back into to service.

Chemical Car shown here and Portable Crane. I'm happy I was able to find this many cars.

This a good picture here showing the turnaround loop back activities that I made for securing Train direction. It was quick easy, and the Curve was spot on for routing this special Consist towards the Alps Route out of this area. I have a small Engine Facility to handle my extra powered needs on this end of the Aussie Land Route.

Now that we are almost oriented in the Direction I want, we are headed out to the Bypass switch, to South Main Line, once we get pulled clear of the next switch point, will reverse to to Front power (Navy SW1200's) and make our North West. We do have NYC Passenger excursion Train that needs to clear the tracks 2 switches further up the line before we have a clear main for our final movements.

And the meet is succesful here, Passenger has taken the main into the City, and we are headed out into open farmland and such, headed to East End of our Route, far, Far away from here.

A larger picture showing our Train Movement out from here, so far all switches and Track movements are working as intended, no broken Rails.

But I due hear we are having lots of problems with Snow Slides and broken rails from Ice damage in the Alps area, we have repair crews working, but there are some serious problems with the Alps Route, but will conquer with our Re build crews, it nothing new to the Railroad, just takes time money, lots of Men and equipment.

Lots of antiquated bridges and low passover points to expand.

Will make it happen.

That's it for today Folks, Will see you in a couple of days with some new pics to show.

 

[blueodessey]

Military Train continues on long Route to new home/More Faulty Assets/Alps Rte update

Good Tuesday Day all,

Well our Military Train continues on,,we move about 25mph as we check our Track for any issues. We are still in Aussie Outback here, but not for long.

Below is our Push Loco helping move the consist, as we will have some Grades close to 3.5% coming up as we head to the Alps.

I downloaded several different types of assets and as to be expected a 25% of them needed parts changed out since I couldn't find some of the original files. A couple of them were so damaged it was beyond my skills, so they had to be sent to cyber heaven. Bottom line I getting used to working with T:ANE issues with older Assets. The high side, is I continue to try and learn how to repair, exchange needed parts to allow the Asset to work in the T:ANE environment.

Going across the expanse here we are headed to the City Country Rte ahead. You see our NYC excursion Train on it's way to the City to pick up passengers.

Looking out from our Navy Emblemed SW1200, this is the Tunnel that divides Aussie and City Country part of the Route.,

An as we clear the Tunnel we have a short stop coming up to clear a Red Signal with Dispatch here, it is more arid here just a few Stout Pine Trees to view, I will probably add some more sparingly.

Because we had to turn the Train, will have our Red Indiana Pusher take the lead now going thru a Steel Mill area, the line we are on, takes straight thru the industry with connection points to drop off Steel Ore, and pick up loads as the Mill produces etc.v
Oh & BTW these little SW1200's work great as Switchers.

As we round the curve here, all is quite for now.

Please excuse me for a while.

I have some errands to do, I post the rest later here about Faulty issues with Assets, and Alps update.......Have a great day and thanks for visiting folks.

UPDATE: Thank you for allowing me time to clear up the errands.

Ok,,,,,So we have been doing heavy construction, earth moving, between the merge points below to the right corners of this picture. There was a 6 Stub ladder yard for freight and some Engine Storage Lockers, one of the reasons this was removed, is this part of the Route was cut off to the Tile on the Right where it meets with Country City USA, so that meant the Yard was going to be hobbled my new Mountains. And that's OK, because there are several wide open areas to the Left and North East corners of the Route allow for some large Yards to be added to, or put in once I get the other areas renovated.

Now all these houses have moved around 3-4 times, some deleted, and I redid all the roads in the area, removed some Pine Trees, and added some in the middle section of this picture, it took about 3 nights to get this where it is now, if you look in the back, I extended the Mountains into this area, and I will need to redo the Trees going up the Slope on left of Center Slopes. I will need to go back to the mountains several more times to get the look I want.

I need some bushes on the Road going up the hill on the Right, I find some that look ok in the Snow. And the brown spot of earth is too much for the Snow area, I'll also need to change the Direction of the Tree Spline

Here is a view across the Valley here, it is a truly beautiful Route to look at, but I need lots of Detail work for the changes I have made and just personal taste.

I knew I forgot something, all the Electric Lines have been removed for now, it's strictly Diesel and Steam operation, no Electrics for now.

 

[blueodessey]

Military Train continues on long Route to new home/Assets/Alps Rte update II

Good Day all,

This week is a flying by, and I have been extremely busy redoing my Alps Route, upgrading tracks, Bridges, changing waterways, and whole cities up there,, some texture changes,,reorienting the direction of Pine tree Splines, because of the Mountain redraw I did, and Track directional changes. Ripped out most of the highways,, and redid them.

Fixed a bunch more assets missing Lights, Bogeys, Corona's Etc. Took a while, one of them called the Bloody Nose SP F-7's all that needed to be done with and VE-70 error was to delete this "-" in the corona description, took me about hour to figure it out after reading several help files on this error in our Forum Messages, because the message says it's not a valid Kuid Number, so I'm looking for a messed up Kuid, which is not the problem! Hello!!!!! It's description issue, who knew, I sure didn't maybe these guys have been talking to Microsoft on how to make a Cryptic Message's that doesn't mean what it says......LOL All I can do is laugh now.

Went thru about 14 Asset Fixes, now my loco's and MOW MPX Special Flatcar's work.

The main thing is I getting more experience under my belt as I go along on the T:ANE world.

Ok, below our Military Train is headed thru the new Quarry Mine area, which is still under construction, I have a Pump house that feeds this Water Tower that gives the Mine and nearby Residences the Steel Plant over the Mountain etc reliable Water supply for operations.

I think where the Green Earth Grader is on the mountain hill top to left, will put in a Large Antenna for Radio reception for out Trains, it will be spotty if I don't as this line goes into a deep Canyon before it hits the Alps on the other side. Will also need more Radio Towers in the Alps too for reception to this side.

You'll see some heavy DRGW Switchers here, I think they 1600 Rated? And they work great.

The heavy logs here go into the active mine as they carve out Tunnels in the Hills to the Right. For Granite and and other items. I don't know what all the loads coming and going in this area are going to be as Construction is still in progress here. W.I.P. I made couple of large spurs so we take out completed loads out of the Mine and set them out on either right or left side of the Main for lineup keeping this main line free for pass thru Trains. And this line could be double track main later on, I don't know yet?

We have the switcher's powering up to move these Tankers out and the Heavy I Beams for another area we are working on. Our Military continues thru at 15MPH as we will approach a 2.5% transitioning to 3.5% downgrade into the canyons ahead. Engineer has to know what's he's doing or he'll have a runaway or worse nasty derailment into a deep Canyon.

This part is a 2.7% Grade headed down, and we don't want to lose anything off this Military load, could cost us a lot of money for replacement costs on these unique built cars for Ordinance and other Weapons items. Indiana Lease Pull power is in the lead here with Navy SW1200 for added braking in the back, with low gears perfect for this Canyon work. I know what I forgot to mention, later on, this Stub Team track gets extended and hooks up to main ahead of where the Indiana Unit is shown here. Works much better for our Shunting of Heavy Tanker and Granite Rock coming out of the Mine in the Back side of Water Tower.
As you can see I need to plant some Shrubs in here, that will come later, I want to get the Tracks in right here first. I did download some Texture that has Desert Shrub Brush in it, but has to be used for Hills only, Author says it doesn't look good for level Ground, I need to test some spots, it would save me planting Desert Plants

OK this is where we slow down to 10 MPH as this is close to 4% downgrade in some spots, I try to vary it between 3.5 to 3.8% and it is working great, just need to control our speed and have 5-10Lbs of Brake Pressure on. We don't have Dynamics here to work with like other trains, but our Train is not that long either so it works.

This is an older Tunnel here and later I might dual line a new Tunnel thru here, but that is the future, not today, what is important we have good clearance all the way around, I really like the height clearance here.

You can see this is a very well built tunnel, some water but due to Grade going up, it drains fine, and there is now Snow or Ice Problems that I am aware of. We do have some Sump Pumps with Drainage Pipes just in case.

Ok the weather is much different here, the Air is quite cool, lots of hidden Ice, as our Altitude has changed and we are in Valley surrounded by high mountains, but it is so pristine.

So this area below will not look as it does today, I remove all the yard Tracks and reoriented all these house, the Locomotive Shed Houses on Right have been taken out too, I might bring one back in, it is still in planning stages, and the Mountains in the back corner where you can see out, will be filled in, you wont see those mountains way out in the distance either. I want this area isolated to White Snow covered Alps only in this corner of the route.

Looking out the Valley here, the mainlines split in 2 directions going left and right, we don't cross the mountains ahead we go around them, you'll be able to see this better as I post more pictures of my progress later. I am also introducing some different pines in this area interlacing with these below, there is too much of the same 3-4 Trees so we need more variety (my opinion) to vary the look up. Same thing with the Bridges, there are too many of the same type, so I need to change a few of them a different look. Also many of the Bridges and Highway Overpasses where set way to low, so I had to adjust the Ground levels up for proper Double Stack and special load clearances in here, just little things I notice.

I think that wraps it up for today, all of you have a nice weekend and thanks for coming by.

 

[Southern1581]

Nice work Blue!

 

[blueodessey]

Evening Southern1581,

I like your new paint Scheme on W.I.P. Carrabassett Valley R.R., some day I hope to learn how to due weathering for some of my units.

Well I have just had a tear up time in the Alps, the last few days, Today I worked on another section of the Route on the North East Corner, had to tear out the whole city, redo the waterways, install a small dam to handle heavy Snow Melts and Flooding down stream, it wouldn't be pretty after the Spring melt in the Alps.

There was 3 Passenger Stations in a Small Town, plus 12 position Turntable with one lead Track squeezed into corner between trans versing Main Lines. Recipe for disaster. Egads, houses stacked into one another, hanging out over Snow Clifts, Scary, :'( I don't think we are in Kansas anymore Southern1581. LOL

So I pushed everything out of the way, did some re leveling of lower ground. Relocated Whole High Rise Buildings across the Lake, where there is adequate room for these high nice building's to be viewed from the City. And the rather cramped 5 short Stubbed yard is being relocated across the Mountain in an open valley that will give some added room for better expansion.

As for the 2 other passenger stations, they will be distributed out to better location.

:hehe: I guess you could say I just can't stay out of Monkey, Trainzer biz to save my soul.

At the end of the day, well maybe a couple more weeks, I think I have this part of the Merged Route Ship Shape.

:wave:Have a good day and thanks for dropping in.

 

[blueodessey]

Alps re construction update.

Good evening Folks,

Tomorrow I'm headed to Arizona for business, so I wanted to make sure I posted some pics for you all ahead of time.

So this is the area I redid, reoriented pretty much everything from the ground up, extended the back of the high Alps Mountains to fill in the back corner, so you can't see Aussie out-land out the left corner, I also added different Pines and some other types of trees to mix it up a bit. I removed the yard tracks in middle right corner, and put in single spur branch into 2 short stubs for Freight service. Deepened the Creek Water on the left for more defination. Signals are in, so will see how the aspects work?

In this picture you can see taller Pine Trees and I think it looks better now.

Over here we look out as the Main lines Branch North and South different parts as we look over the Valley. New stronger Branches have been installed. If you look at the water way headed to the Right, I changed that it to left so that it connects to Alps Lake over in the other Valley further to the Right.

This is where the Water heads into and connects in this shot. The Brick Ramp and Snow Sheds had to be ripped out temporary for deleting the Electric Poles off Railroad, for Diesel conversion. And I needed to make the waterway deeper for heavy Snow melts in this area, we do get avalanches but the Snow Sheds allow it to fall in the creek below and no mishaps on train service. Bless these Snow Sheds worth their weight in Gold.

With the Ground realignment in place, we run a good test train thru here at reduced speed.

We are in the North East section of Alps Canyon, you see how crowded everything is to the right, these yard tracks never belong here,and way to many houses for my taste. All of this will be, and has been changed.

The yard has been moved to the right across the lake. As well several houses and Apt Houses etc.

What can I say, it is Spring cleaning here. Lots to do, and many thoughts on how I will arrange things.

Some really good news, I for the first time in Months, have no Faulty assets awaiting me for repair, I am one happy camper.

So that is it, wishing you all a great weekend ahead, very warm here for us, in the 90's.

Thanks for dropping by folks.

 

[blueodessey]

Military Train continues on long Route to new home/Assets/Alps Rte update III

Good Sun Eve all from Southern Arizona this week,

Blue skies and temperatures perfect for this time of year, I have limited internet, so I'll post these latest pics.

This whole valley is on the Change and improve mode here. The Military train is below as it crosses an older bridge set for replacement.

If you look to the upper right, you'll see the Alps Lake, around the right and upper top, this is where I'll put the new rail yards.

A view as we go into the Southeast Canyon areas.

The next bridge is going to be removed and the Water re oriented to the right for connection to the Lake, so this Bridge will be removed and more spure's added for this shipping container industry etc., In the back we have a nice balloon ride that gives great views of this pristine valley.

Another picture showing the 2 bridges, one will be removed.

As we move to Southeast these early will need to be completely redone

This is called Samaden, I need to look up to see if this is a real City? We are passing thru about 20MPH as we test the trackage for potential bottlenecks. I also need to see what our Grade %'s are for the leveling and/or raising the track profiles in each area. My aim is to streamline the tracks for more trains in this corridor, and reorient the crowded buildings etc.

I have a lot more pictures to show the changes I have made in the 5 canyon areas.

That's it for now.

:wave: Night all, thanks for dropping in....

 

[blueodessey]

Alps Rte update IV

Good Evening all,

I just realized it was time to post some more pics, so I have been very busy in Arizona taken care of family matters I needed to attend too.

Below is several pictures with annotations as to what I see and what I need to change. Below is one of the many areas I am working on in the Alps. Besides the crowded houses, is the rail yard with way short crossovers and a round table that has one approach to turn your engine around?

The problem I face in the Route was bridges placed to close or in this case right into water way.....

I put a brand new Rail Bridge Trestle type to span a very deep chasm below. I also re aligned it into a smoother S Curve not so tight as the original.

3 Train Stations removed and 2 different ones will be installed.

We will have a horseshoe Cure in the back area behind the Lake.

Here is a map overhead that shows the new yard on the left with Round house an Engine house buildings, our main line on Bottom right black Arrow, goes to a tunnel which connects to Country USA Route, in the Blue Sky Mining Co area.

I have lots more pictures to show the progress and changes I've made in Alps Route. I't going to flow really nice one I have instituted the changes I want made for a variety of reasons.

Tomorrow morning comes early, so I bid you a good evening.

Thanks for visiting.

 

[Southern1581]

That's some really good work there blue, excellent job!

 

[blueodessey]

Hello all,


@Southern1581 Thanks for the kind comments,,I am learning so much from this Alps Route whomever built it did a great job, there are some interesting features in it as well, some of the Assets, TANE does not like so I am replacing them with T:ANE compatible ones.

This week has gone by so fast in another 2 days I'll be heading back to Sunny CA, abit cooler than here. yesterday we had 100"s and very windy as we Bicycled about the city in our spare time, but it was exhilarating.

Below is the new Horse Shoe Alps Yard I made, finally got the curves the way I want them, may need to add some more switches later for other access. It should work out nicely, and I have a nice and Expandable Roundhouse for our Power. I need to work trains in this later to see what needs to be altered and check for Bottlenecks.

Larger overview of the new Yard and surrounding area. Planted a lot of Pine Trees.

I'm using some CN power up here and dropped in some cars for visual effect.

One of the things I did here was allow space for my Tracks to work in and/or make changes. There is a lone CN unit at the Engine Maintenance facility that sits just front of the Roundhouse facility, this Roundhouse is modular, so I can add or delete my Engine bays as needed depending on how much Power I bring up here. I thing it holds 20Bays at capacity?

A different view showing the Valley and Lake Area. The mountains to the Left were resculpted and move to back corner of this end Tile to allow for more room for Trackage and Roundhouse etc.

Current overhead Tile Map showing the Track Layout and Red Dots are my Signals, which I probabaly will need to add some more depending on Aspects needed for Train movement.

Moving much further up the Route in the High Alps area, about 15 miles away, I have some serious Grade Issues I ran into, as high as 9.5% in some spots so I need to do 10 miles of Track Realignment for the Trains, Tunnels need to be changed too it is amazing how this route was made. But I need to make the changes if I am going to run long Trains for the Climb.

That's it for now, have a great day all.........

 

[blueodessey]

Good Evening all,

It is nearing the end of good week, accomplished all but one of the Tasks I wanted to complete, so that means a planned return Trip to Arizona.

Now for the Route, I have been wheeling and a dealing with all the mass changes in store, it just amazing how long it takes for each area to complete what I would like to see in Details and running Trackage etc.

The last two nights, I have been building River Front facilities for Lake Ports, Ore and Cargo Ships coming up to drop and pick up supplies. (You see pictures later after get thru others I have to show you. Our River area is just wide enough for the smaller Container Ships, no Ocean size ships, we aren't deep enough either to allow larger ships in here.

Below is one of little problems I need to address, the lights don't flash which all about makes this crossing protection useless, I do have a set I will need to change too.

Unfortunately this looks like a TANE issue of compatibility, all the Patrons are out position, over the tracks and too high in the air, so I can't use this AJS Train Station, Sad because it is one nice looking station.

Another issue, lots of the buildings are set way to close for Clearance with the Train.

Map of Alps route below, I have gotten thru all the Snow area, but Green area to the right will be a big Challenge because their is Grade % issues, some 9% so lots of rejiggering the Tunnel Heights and connections to Canadian Route to the Far diagonal Right out of this picture view.

This inset view, the Red Lines is area I actively redoing now, and the Yellow part is for next 2 weeks.

Our test Junk Train is going thru the Tracks to check Grade Clearances etc, Grade Percents.

We are head to East end of the Canyon here to next City,, I'm checking Snow Shed Clearances, and these Sheds need to be expanded as I don't think they afford long enough protection for the area slides they see in this area.

On this side you can see the mountain to the Right is very steep, and even though we have a good swath of Trees, if the Snow depth is deep enough, and the right conditions exist, the Trees could get knocked out of the way for a bad avalanche......We will be adding a lot more Snow Sheds and other types of protection.

We are in very nice area here, and do have to watch for Snow buildup.

Over head view here, in particular the Logging Plant, to our amazement, the Tracks are broken from Ice movement, in the next post will see what happens to our Train......

Also look at the Mountains here, for some reason, I guess they didn't finish Texturing the rest of the Mountain, works for me, as I have to build and combine several mountains on the left, that is where my Canadian Route merges parallel to this one.

Tomorrow Folks, I driving home, so I wanted to post some extra pictures now.

Next time I post will be home in Sunny California.

Thanks for visiting here.........

 

[blueodessey]

Derailement in the Alps / New-Old Hydraulic Switcher for Granite Loads out of Quarry

Good Sunday and Blessed day to all,

The Traffic Gods were good to me coming home from Arizona, 550 Mile trip, and few spoiled children driving home at Warp Speed, but I just stayed out of there way and made courteous moves for our Semi Drivers to change lanes as they make those long hauls across the lower 48.

I have been busy at my new Lake Port I created in the Alps, and today I found a nice well weathered Cement Plant to put in next to the Port, only problem is it's big, and I had to rearrange some Trackage and some other smaller industries, once all is rotated and refitted I think it will work out really nice since we do use a lot of cement for foundations and such, plus we also can export our extra cement via Barges that come and Dock.

I also busy rearranging Roads and Spline Pine Trees in the Mountain areas, I found several were laid out in an up to down pattern on the high mountains, and they don't look right to me, so I am changing lots of them from Vertical directions to Horizontal or slightly Diagonal perspectives on the up sloping Mountains. You'll get to see the pictures later on and it will probably make more sense when I show it to you.

Ok so recall we are running a test train thru the Alps to see what works and what doesn't, well as luck has it's way sometimes, and this could be from the Merges I made, or it could be these tracks were never lined up or connected? I don't know. What I do know we are in heavy Snow here, and we are derailed, ON THE GROUND, fowled off the Tracks, Engine and probably 2 Box cars behind, rest of Train is OK. Apparent;ly this industry cut in was never connected to the Main Line..........OOPS

Our Logger here is just busy Chopping Wood, and knows our Train isn't pushing thru for a couple of Days, so he will continue his daily work, probably having a good laugh at our expense........As he saw our Train Derail in the heavy Snow from an earlier Avalanche.

:'( As you can see here, I have garnered that nice little revolving derailment "X" so will need to clear it out and readjust the Logging operation off to a Spur instead of a pass thru connection here. As far as the Derailment, I think will just need to re rail and have another Loco come into the rear to drag us clear of Derail Point, we were only moving 5 MPH I think our Damage is not all that bad, due to the Ice and Snow acted as cushion for us?

Over here at our Granite Quarry and Mining operation, I added a small but powerful Hydraulic Switcher, But in my haste to put this little guy in, I didn't realize he doesn't have the right Couplers for this railroad, alas I'll have to change him out for different Switcher to use.....Dummy me for not paying attention. LOL!:hehe:

Anyway, these cars are dragged from the Factory Spur across the Main to the right side and stacked up here where one of our passing Trains will drop more Empty Center depressed cars and pick up the loads for transport to several areas on the Layout.

Here is one of our Denver Rio Grand Switchers doing some consist moves for us. With the Quarry running 24 hrs, we need a lot of daily and nightly Shunting for different items coming (supplies) & out going Mine commodities etc. These Switchers work great and they are plenty strong HP wise for the heavy Loads going out of Quarry.

I really like the Paint Scheme and warning notices for Loco Engineer and Brakeman. Nicley Detailed work here.

Below we are moving some heavy Steel Rigging loads for the Mining Co, pulling out some Granite Loads to shunt across the main and put in the Team Spur for next pickup. In the back you can see we have lots of drilling and earth moving going on the For mining Co as they build additional Capacity for Mine and Employee Housing etc. Not a large area, but we have a lot going on here to keep the interest up.

That's it for today, I have a lot of Errands to do after being away for 11 days, like they say, Time waits for no one, least of which is ME, so I need to make some Hay while the sun is shining.

:wave:Thanks for visiting and have a Blessed Sunday.

 

[blueodessey]

Murchison Install to TS-12.......Alps Progress update

Good Tuesday all,

I hope everyone had a good Memorial day, I thought about friends I have lost over the years and the price paid for freedom. Never forget them!

So I have been busy with Michael Sutton from Sirgibby's Murchison Route! http://trainzone.co.nz/index.htm

He is a prince of gentleman and gave me the ideas for what type of installations are available on the Murchison, since it is not T:ANE compatible for now.

Thank you Micheal for your guidance and patience.

I started out with a standalone, but decided I wanted to go with install to TS-12, since it allows me Content Mgr, where Standalone does not.

The only bummer, to do with TS-12, not Murchison, is the 1000's of updates I had to re download from DSL, thank goodness I have FCT Ticket to speed the downloads.........After about 2-3hrs, I got all the required downloads in, and Murchison went in like a dream.

I am learning Murchison now, and started NG Rail Car Session below, (there are many sessions in Murchison and the Route is Stunning in design.......

So below I am doing my first customer pickup from the Engine Storage I just came out from around the corner, passengers where there waiting in the Rain and they loaded quickly onto my Train, and off we go! I think that is a Shay in the Coal Mine area with Coal Cars. Will let them be and take care of our Transit Session here.

Here is a view from the Coal Tracks looking across, and you can see out customers inside a warm and dry Train set here, ready to continue their journey. Just in the few minutes on this Route I can see why many folks rave about the Murchison as a top notch Route.........Thank you Sir Gibby and Michael Sutton for such a well done effort..........

Leaving Murchison and coming back over the City Country Route, the little Hydraulic Green Switcher below next to the Granite loads, well, I really like him, and there is a way to change couplers I will later, but not today, so he will go back to the long term Loco Storage Tracks till I can have a look later.

We are dropping Transformer Loads here, as we need to make a Electrical Substation for the Mine and Water Pumping needs etc.

I put a nifty looking DRGW Caboose here onto the Consist.

I think I need to redo my Weed Grass here, I not that good at it, and it just doesn't look quite right to me.......

Been working like crazy on the Alps Route to bring about the changes I want, so stay tuned for those pictures, they are in Que to be shown.

:wave: Wish you a good week for what's left of it, thanks for coming by folks............