There's only two each of the SD42-2's and SD43-2's. Also, their engines will be replaced when they come into the shops for routine maintenance, not all at the same time. This also applies to all other rebuilds. As for the new features of the locomotives, it's all about making sure that the crews are happy, otherwise the crews will be grumpy and could quit their job because they are unable to, like say, have fresh coffee.
The Alabama & Southeastern RR WIP Thread (Large Screenies)
- Thread starter Southern1581
- Start date
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
That's why our crews love the A&SE. Our crew rooms have industrial size coffee makers. Perfect for a winter morning at Summit Yard. In general it sounds like the A&SE's locomotives aren't as fancy, but in general that is due to us wanting to have the crews focusing on the rails and not on the brewing cup of coffee. We do keep at least a cooler in most engines though, sometimes a microwave depending on the engine. The SD77I's being rebuilt right now will have both, however most of the SD42-3's do not, cooler only. In actual A&SE news, not a lot going on, been busy with 1001 Chessie skins and playing with Scratchy's Highland Valley V 2.0. I'll try to get some more done before the day is over though, so stay tuned.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
No pictures of today's progress. I started out working on the A&SE Shades Mountain Branch, which is a 4 baseboard compact route similar to the Highland Valley route, but I started running into the same problems that were stopping me the last time I tried to work on it. So I saved what little I had gotten done and put it away, then I pulled up the Alabama Division. I've decided I'm sick of working on the Autumnville area at the moment, so I started spamming baseboards northward, until I found the spot where I want Montevallo to be. I raised it up in elevation as Montevallo is a good bit higher than Autumnville is, and then I started laying the Montevallo South Yard.
Montevallo is a yard complex similar to Autumnville, though not as big as Autumnville and certainly not as big as Birmingham, but still big enough to warrant multiple yards. The South Yard at Montevallo is the receiving yard, the West Yard is the class yard, and the North Yard is the departing yard. NS owns the interchange yard unlike the Autumnville interchange with CSX, so instead of being the Montevallo East Yard, it is simply the Norfolk Southern Montevallo Yard. Montevallo Yard has something that the older Autumnville Yard does not, and that is a bypass. The double track Montevallo bypass skirts around the Montevallo Yard Complex on the east side, allowing through traffic to not be interrupted if the yard crew is busy.
Beyond Montevallo to the south lies the long mainline run to Autumnville, and to the north, lies the looming grades of Cheaha Pass. Immediately upon hitting the end of the bypass, the grades go to 1%, and the train rapidly starts to gain some altitude. Eventually, the terrain turns mountainous, and the tracks go through a pair of tunnels in rapid succession. These are Cheaha 1 and Cheaha 2, and upon exiting Cheaha 2, the grade goes to 1.5% as the train starts to spiral through the mountains and tall cliffs. Upon exiting Cheaha 6, the grade goes even steeper, varying between 1.6 and 1.93%. This doesn't get any better until Cheaha 9, at which point the grade goes back to a steady 1%, and then down to .5% at Cheaha 10, which is the last tunnel before the 2 mile run to Summit Yard. At Summit Yard all levels out for a bit, all the way up to half a mile outside the yard on the north side. Then the treacherous downhill run begins. The first slope isn't bad, .5%, same as the other approach to the yard. Then it goes to 1.8% a bit outside Cheaha 12, and after Cheaha 13 it varies from 1.87 to 1.34% all the way to Cheaha 17, which is the last tunnel on the pass, unless you take the Blue Ridge Branch which branches off between Cheaha 15 and 16, and contains a further 6 tunnels on its way down into Anniston and surrounding towns. From Cheaha 17, the grade varies between 1.2% and .8% all the way down until the end of the Pass, some 11 miles past Cheaha 17. From there, it's about 4 miles to Lincoln, the next major stop on the line. Lincoln isn't much, it has two yards, a small class yard for local service (lots of industries around Lincoln), and a main yard for handling traffic coming in and out of the Pass. Like Montevallo, Lincoln also has a bypass. From Lincoln, it's a more or less straight eastbound shot to Birmingham.
And now that I've wasted the better part of 30 minutes typing that up about the Pass, here's the main reason I even posted at all with so little work done. The Alabama Division was supposed to be a team effort between me and conrailfan, with several other friends pitching in with small, fun branch lines to play with, each with their own personality. However, it seems that most of them have either quit trainz or gone dormant, particularly conrailfan, who has been gone the longest. At the very least, I need someone who is fairly scenically talented to help me out with this route. I would like to revive some of the old branch line projects too if anyone decides they are interested in that. Branch lines are one man projects but would be subject to a bit of criticism from me so I can kinda keep it somewhat in line with the rest of the projects. So if anyone wants to help me out with this project, by all means be my guest, just let me know if you would like to help and how you would like to help.
Thanks!
Montevallo is a yard complex similar to Autumnville, though not as big as Autumnville and certainly not as big as Birmingham, but still big enough to warrant multiple yards. The South Yard at Montevallo is the receiving yard, the West Yard is the class yard, and the North Yard is the departing yard. NS owns the interchange yard unlike the Autumnville interchange with CSX, so instead of being the Montevallo East Yard, it is simply the Norfolk Southern Montevallo Yard. Montevallo Yard has something that the older Autumnville Yard does not, and that is a bypass. The double track Montevallo bypass skirts around the Montevallo Yard Complex on the east side, allowing through traffic to not be interrupted if the yard crew is busy.
Beyond Montevallo to the south lies the long mainline run to Autumnville, and to the north, lies the looming grades of Cheaha Pass. Immediately upon hitting the end of the bypass, the grades go to 1%, and the train rapidly starts to gain some altitude. Eventually, the terrain turns mountainous, and the tracks go through a pair of tunnels in rapid succession. These are Cheaha 1 and Cheaha 2, and upon exiting Cheaha 2, the grade goes to 1.5% as the train starts to spiral through the mountains and tall cliffs. Upon exiting Cheaha 6, the grade goes even steeper, varying between 1.6 and 1.93%. This doesn't get any better until Cheaha 9, at which point the grade goes back to a steady 1%, and then down to .5% at Cheaha 10, which is the last tunnel before the 2 mile run to Summit Yard. At Summit Yard all levels out for a bit, all the way up to half a mile outside the yard on the north side. Then the treacherous downhill run begins. The first slope isn't bad, .5%, same as the other approach to the yard. Then it goes to 1.8% a bit outside Cheaha 12, and after Cheaha 13 it varies from 1.87 to 1.34% all the way to Cheaha 17, which is the last tunnel on the pass, unless you take the Blue Ridge Branch which branches off between Cheaha 15 and 16, and contains a further 6 tunnels on its way down into Anniston and surrounding towns. From Cheaha 17, the grade varies between 1.2% and .8% all the way down until the end of the Pass, some 11 miles past Cheaha 17. From there, it's about 4 miles to Lincoln, the next major stop on the line. Lincoln isn't much, it has two yards, a small class yard for local service (lots of industries around Lincoln), and a main yard for handling traffic coming in and out of the Pass. Like Montevallo, Lincoln also has a bypass. From Lincoln, it's a more or less straight eastbound shot to Birmingham.
And now that I've wasted the better part of 30 minutes typing that up about the Pass, here's the main reason I even posted at all with so little work done. The Alabama Division was supposed to be a team effort between me and conrailfan, with several other friends pitching in with small, fun branch lines to play with, each with their own personality. However, it seems that most of them have either quit trainz or gone dormant, particularly conrailfan, who has been gone the longest. At the very least, I need someone who is fairly scenically talented to help me out with this route. I would like to revive some of the old branch line projects too if anyone decides they are interested in that. Branch lines are one man projects but would be subject to a bit of criticism from me so I can kinda keep it somewhat in line with the rest of the projects. So if anyone wants to help me out with this project, by all means be my guest, just let me know if you would like to help and how you would like to help.
Thanks!
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Hello imaginary friends who give a crap and everyone else who...well, don't. Made some progress on Autumnville over the last few days, I should have the scenery in southern Autumnville finished in the next few days or so. Northern Autumnville is another matter entirely so we won't talk about that.
Most notable changes:
-I've added a two track station in Autumnville just past the Main Street crossing. The leads for this track have modified the main street crossing scene slightly, as there is now a fourth track passing through that crossing.
-Foliage. I have added a good bit of trees to the area to fill in some blank spots. Most of these are clam's billboards which I basically discovered I had by accident and realized they were awesome, so they fill in a lot of the more distant areas to the track, where they still look good but aren't as noticeably billboardy. I might go through some parts of the route and do the same thing there to try and improve the route's performance a little bit. The closer to the track areas, or generally more visible spots are Pofig speedtrees.
-The area next to the Autumnville East Yard was originally going to be a foresty kind of area. This was flattened a week or two ago and concreted out so I could turn it into an extension of the city. I started that yesterday and have a good bit of the background buildings installed, just need to build the scenes closer to the track and then that area will be good to go.
-I have started doing a bit of work towards northern Autumnville. I have started putting together what I believe is a milk-processing plant towards the Central Yard. The facility is nowhere close to done and I only have a small part of the building work and trackwork done so far, but it's in progress and certainly something to look forward to.
I don't really want to show off too much of South Autumnville until I'm confident I have finished the scenery there, but here are a few shots of the station, and a few sneak peaks at some of the new work.
Featured today are Amtrak train 28 and A&SE F-125, 28 being lead by Amtrak P42's 150 and 83, and F-125 being lead by A&SE SD39M 3864.
Enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Most notable changes:
-I've added a two track station in Autumnville just past the Main Street crossing. The leads for this track have modified the main street crossing scene slightly, as there is now a fourth track passing through that crossing.
-Foliage. I have added a good bit of trees to the area to fill in some blank spots. Most of these are clam's billboards which I basically discovered I had by accident and realized they were awesome, so they fill in a lot of the more distant areas to the track, where they still look good but aren't as noticeably billboardy. I might go through some parts of the route and do the same thing there to try and improve the route's performance a little bit. The closer to the track areas, or generally more visible spots are Pofig speedtrees.
-The area next to the Autumnville East Yard was originally going to be a foresty kind of area. This was flattened a week or two ago and concreted out so I could turn it into an extension of the city. I started that yesterday and have a good bit of the background buildings installed, just need to build the scenes closer to the track and then that area will be good to go.
-I have started doing a bit of work towards northern Autumnville. I have started putting together what I believe is a milk-processing plant towards the Central Yard. The facility is nowhere close to done and I only have a small part of the building work and trackwork done so far, but it's in progress and certainly something to look forward to.
I don't really want to show off too much of South Autumnville until I'm confident I have finished the scenery there, but here are a few shots of the station, and a few sneak peaks at some of the new work.
Featured today are Amtrak train 28 and A&SE F-125, 28 being lead by Amtrak P42's 150 and 83, and F-125 being lead by A&SE SD39M 3864.
Enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Afraid that all I have is bad news today. I can no longer open trainz, as it will not for whatever reason give itself write access to the userdata folder. About half of my other games have stopped working as well, and I can no longer download anything with my pc, so I'm pretty sure this computer is on its way out unless I can find a way to save it. This also bodes extremely badly for the A&SE. There is no backup for the vast majority of my custom content, which means that basically all of my A&SE skins are gonners (along with basically all of my other skins, so no leasers, NCNO equipment, Chessie SD50's, etc). The route itself will also be done for, as I have not bothered to make a cdp of it as there is no one to send it to. So unless I get a miracle, the A&SE and all its equipment will have to be remade from scratch, save the C40-8's (bless you Scott), the SW1500's, and the reeeallllyy old low res prjindigo skins that I have on the dls. Basically, if I don't get the computer fixed, I'll have to run trainz from a new pc or a laptop, at which point I'll probably just go ahead and upgrade to TANE, which will help the appearance of the A&SE...except I'll have to start over from scratch which I am not in the least bit excited about.
Just a quick update for anyone who still cares.
Just a quick update for anyone who still cares.
Well that sucks (Yes I do still check this thread and like to see what you do on it), Well it might be a set back but hopefully you can get the content off of your pc maybe out of the folder its self. Well seeing i have had this happen 3 times to me and had to start over more then once with trainz yeah its a pain in the butt.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Glad to see someone is still hanging around. Actually made my day seeing someone other than me post here. I checked to see if my old ts09 was still working, and miracle of all miracles it is. Remember waaayyyy back on page one when I posted some screenshots from a ts09 version of the A&SE? That is still there as well. It is from way back in olden times when the A&SE story was far less developed. The ts12 version of the Autumnville Yard has 5 yards in one massive complex. The 09 version has 1. However, the CSX branch leading to the interchange is a lot more developed on the 09 version, and it also has industries, which I forgot about long ago. Another thing I forgot about which the two actually have in common is the abandoned shop facility. Embarrassingly enough...I think it actually looks better in the 09 version. I might play around with that route some while I attempt to salvage the ts12 version and its content, and use the 09 game as a holding tank for anything of mine which I can save from my dying ts12.
Edit: Found my assets in file explorer. If I can get them to my email or google drive I can save them for another day. Getting them there with my pc as fracked as it is will be a challenge though so wish me luck.
Actually made my day seeing someone other than me post here. I checked to see if my old ts09 was still working, and miracle of all miracles it is. Remember waaayyyy back on page one when I posted some screenshots from a ts09 version of the A&SE? That is still there as well. It is from way back in olden times when the A&SE story was far less developed. The ts12 version of the Autumnville Yard has 5 yards in one massive complex. The 09 version has 1. However, the CSX branch leading to the interchange is a lot more developed on the 09 version, and it also has industries, which I forgot about long ago. Another thing I forgot about which the two actually have in common is the abandoned shop facility. Embarrassingly enough...I think it actually looks better in the 09 version. I might play around with that route some while I attempt to salvage the ts12 version and its content, and use the 09 game as a holding tank for anything of mine which I can save from my dying ts12.Edit: Found my assets in file explorer. If I can get them to my email or google drive I can save them for another day. Getting them there with my pc as fracked as it is will be a challenge though so wish me luck.
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Glad that you have found a way to save it. I have a multitude of flash drives so I occasionally save content as .cdp files and put it on a flash drive. If I'm putting a route on a flash drive I try to at least put the actual route and session on the drive, not the dependencies. I only do this as long as the dependencies are easy to find, such as they're on the Download Station. If they come from a third-party website I don't have as my favorites, I will also put it on the same flash drive. I keep all my flash drives in a Zip-Loc bag that I keep on my nightstand beside my bed.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Well, I'm still working on how to save it, as it is all in the N3V file on the C drive which is currently the source of just about every pc problem possible for me. Finding it was easy. Getting out all of those assets and their apparently 10,000 associated files is gonna be another matter altogether
conrail_3004
New member
I still use 09sp4, I never let hook up to the internet either, well good luck on search and rescue, I know it's a pain going from one computer to other, then getting it back they way u had it, what fun, 
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Thanks. The pc has decided to run some kind of automated repair on my C drive, maybe this will fix it.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Well, I have good news and bad news.
Good news is, whatever my pc just did has restored it back to full functionality, so my C drive is no longer corrupt and my pc is actually usable again.
Bad news is, it restored everything back to functionality except for trainz. Good news is I can now salvage my stuff out of the userdata folder, bad news is, I'm gonna have to do a clean install to fix my problems, and worse news is, I cannot find my disk for TS12 anywhere. I think it went to that mysterious realm that all the socks go to. So, I have salvaged all my stuff, but for now I can't use it. Either I find my TS12 disk, which I have already been looking high and low for for well over an hour now, or I buy myself a new version of trainz.
Good news is, whatever my pc just did has restored it back to full functionality, so my C drive is no longer corrupt and my pc is actually usable again.
Bad news is, it restored everything back to functionality except for trainz. Good news is I can now salvage my stuff out of the userdata folder, bad news is, I'm gonna have to do a clean install to fix my problems, and worse news is, I cannot find my disk for TS12 anywhere. I think it went to that mysterious realm that all the socks go to. So, I have salvaged all my stuff, but for now I can't use it. Either I find my TS12 disk, which I have already been looking high and low for for well over an hour now, or I buy myself a new version of trainz.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
I get the bottom TADDaemon thing first upon clicking on the TS12 launcher on my desktop. Hitting terminate just makes it pop up again after 2 seconds, hitting continue means that the icon will no longer respond to anything. Spamming the terminate button for the first 10 or so times the message pops up gives me the top message. I'm running TS12 build 49922. I would try and reinstall but I haven't seen my disk in years and I think it went to that mysterious place that all the missing socks go to. Is there any way I can fix this without having to buy an entirely new version of trainz?
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Well, I've given up on fixing TS12, so I have decided to go ahead and purchase TANE. And wouldn't you know it...the TANE installer doesn't want to work either. It did at least give me an error I was able to track down, so I'm running a repair on that now and hopefully that'll fix it. Just watch though, whatever I'm fixing now to get TANE installed will be the exact thing I needed to get TS12 working. 
Update: TANE is installing, so I will have trainz again soon and I'll be able to transfer my stuff to it. Haven't checked TS12 yet, gonna wait for TANE to finish installing.
Update pt 2: Thunderstorm gave me very large middle finger, made my power flicker as TANE was finishing installing. So now I get to do it all again! Yay!
Final Update: TANE installed. TS12 is still broken. Gonna play around in TANE for a bit then start transferring my stuff from my backup folder into TANE and start redownloading all of my 3rd party and DLS gear.
Update: TANE is installing, so I will have trainz again soon and I'll be able to transfer my stuff to it. Haven't checked TS12 yet, gonna wait for TANE to finish installing.
Update pt 2: Thunderstorm gave me very large middle finger, made my power flicker as TANE was finishing installing. So now I get to do it all again! Yay!
Final Update: TANE installed. TS12 is still broken. Gonna play around in TANE for a bit then start transferring my stuff from my backup folder into TANE and start redownloading all of my 3rd party and DLS gear.
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Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Been driving around TANE for about an hour and I'm having mixed feelings about it so far. On one hand, it is an exceptionally pretty game, far better looking than TS12. On the other hand, with half the draw distance I have set in TS12 it still has half the performance. And CM looks a lot less polished than it used to. Anyways that's besides the point, all of my gear is currently installing into TANE as we speak so once I'm done tracking down all the assets I used in my routes I will be good to go to resume work on the A&SE.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
I think it might just be down to the route, some routes perform better than others, the performance was substantially better on other routes. I'm running the latest version of tane, which is what I got when I bought it on the digital download.
In other news, hopefully I can get a few more assets in tonight because I have a few new skins that I'm really excited to show off. Prior to all the pc trouble, I had just finished a skin for some A&SE Evans covered hoppers, and I'm adding a news locomotive model to the A&SE roster so stay tuned.
In other news, hopefully I can get a few more assets in tonight because I have a few new skins that I'm really excited to show off. Prior to all the pc trouble, I had just finished a skin for some A&SE Evans covered hoppers, and I'm adding a news locomotive model to the A&SE roster so stay tuned.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Now I have another problem. I have the screenshots I want to post taken but...nowhere in the game file? Where is TANE sending my screenshots?
Nevermind, found them, apparently TANE likes to be difficult and use multiple folders in obscure places. Also the screenshot hotkey is just prt scr instead of ctrl prt scr like I'm used to, yay. Anyways, screenshots coming up shortly.
Nevermind, found them, apparently TANE likes to be difficult and use multiple folders in obscure places. Also the screenshot hotkey is just prt scr instead of ctrl prt scr like I'm used to, yay. Anyways, screenshots coming up shortly.
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Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
A&SE in TANE!
The only two shots that took properly and I liked! I took some A&SE power out on the Hinton route with the built in rolling stock. Also featuring brand new (old) engines, old scheme SD45-2's! The A&SE has 20 SD45-2's and 14 engines still wearing the old black paint. Of those 14, 5 are SD45-2's. 8004, 8008, 8011, 8015, and 8018 all still wear black, and 8004 is still sporting its OLS paint. I will do a standard maroon and grey SD45-2 later because they are my favorite engine ever, still need to finish the blank first though. Anyways, enough boring backstory, first A&SE TANE screenies:
First, a profile shot on 8011 and the back of 8004 showing off the rarely seen old scheme:
And second, a shot of the full consist at speed. Today's train, M465, was lead by SD45-2 8004, SD45-2 8011, SD44-2 8488, SD45-2 8008, and SD40-2 8534.
Enjoy! More to come soon once I have all of the assets for the Alabama Division installed in TANE.
The only two shots that took properly and I liked! I took some A&SE power out on the Hinton route with the built in rolling stock. Also featuring brand new (old) engines, old scheme SD45-2's! The A&SE has 20 SD45-2's and 14 engines still wearing the old black paint. Of those 14, 5 are SD45-2's. 8004, 8008, 8011, 8015, and 8018 all still wear black, and 8004 is still sporting its OLS paint. I will do a standard maroon and grey SD45-2 later because they are my favorite engine ever, still need to finish the blank first though. Anyways, enough boring backstory, first A&SE TANE screenies:
First, a profile shot on 8011 and the back of 8004 showing off the rarely seen old scheme:
And second, a shot of the full consist at speed. Today's train, M465, was lead by SD45-2 8004, SD45-2 8011, SD44-2 8488, SD45-2 8008, and SD40-2 8534.
Enjoy! More to come soon once I have all of the assets for the Alabama Division installed in TANE.
Southern1581
Pineapple approved!
Aaannnddd now all my stuff disappeared. Great. Just wonderful.