The Alabama & Southeastern RR WIP Thread (Large Screenies)

[Southern1581]

Currently working on updating yesterday's scene based on feedback courtesy of cascaderailroad. The cuts have been made much smaller and the trestles have been shortened to 41 and 63 feet tall respectively. Now I think I'm gonna try to finish the area through the lumber mill before I put up some screenshots tonight.

Update:
Unfortunately, getting the lumber mill back also requires me fixing about 20 textures, which wouldn't be that big a deal except that N3V decided it was a freaking brilliant idea to place basically everything important to me as the user in the appdata folder (which is invisible unless you search for it, then magically it's there), and everything that is not in the slightest bit important to me in the programfilesx86 folder where it should have gone in the first place. So in order for me to fix these textures, I have to find the appdata folder, done, copy everything I want to fix onto my desktop because pevsoft's img to tga program can't find the appdata folder, fix everything, which was already going to be time consuming enough, then copy everything back to the editing folders and submit it. If N3V had just done it the normal way like they have done with literally every other version of trainz, it would have been open it directly from the TANE folder, fix and submit. I honestly feel like N3V went out of their way to make things harder in TANE. The content manager to me is a huge step backwards from what we had in TS12, everything useful to the end user is tucked away in the appdata folder (it took me two days before I was able to post a screenshot from TANE simply because I couldn't figure out where TANE had sent my shots), there is no content creator plus anymore, so something simple like changing a horn sound I don't like which would take me roughly 2 seconds in CCP takes much longer manually editing the config file. CM as whole looks and feels really unpolished to me. I have a whole other list of complaints with TANE but these are the ones that piss me off most, especially right now.

How this pertains to the route is, right now the whole process has me highly pissed and it will probably be tomorrow before I finish even fixing them so I can work again. Sorry to those of you who actually wanted to see what the progress tonight was, unfortunately I don't think I'll have anything for you.

 

[Southern1581]

Been kinda quiet from me lately, just moved into college yesterday and ran a quick train for the fun of it.

Roommate: What is the end goal of trainz exactly?

Me: Try to actually finish one of your projects.

lol Anyway, here's northbound M297 through Oak Grove and Briarfield, with SD42-3 7173, SD42-3 7136, SD60 5982, and SD45-2 8011.



I still haven't finished all of the texture repairs that I need to finish for the route, might happen sometime in the next few days if I'm bored enough. And ONLY if I'm bored enough, because fixing those things give me VERY unpleasant thoughts. I'd show you what I named the folder I put the textures in so they could be fixed but that would probably get me perma-banned from the forums so I'd rather not.

Anyways, as usual comments and criticism welcome.

 

[blueodessey]

Evening Southern 1581,

I spent a part of today reading from end to the beginning of thread,

My Comments as follows:

Great Pics and Story's and you have been thru Trainz and Computer hell, but if nothing else, you've learned much experience. Glad you have the pleasure of learning Tane, I'm waiting another year before I upgrade.

I like your Thread, and hope you continue writing and sharing with us! I look forward to coming here to see what you do next.

Was wondering if I may, what color do you use for to make your Water that emerald green look,,that is my handicap at the moment is understanding what base textures yield what color of water? Any help would be appreciated.

Your Mountain Passes and Trestles, well they are magical, and riding a train thru the high peaks and Trestles that must be awe inspiring.

One other when you have a chance, up to you, it's your Route, but if you could, can you take an overhead shot of all the Tiles, I just curious how they are arranged?

Have a great week ahead, good luck in College.

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks for the kind words blue! Glad you've enjoyed the thread thus far.

Here's the settings I use to get the water color on the A&SE:

And here's an overview of the map to date. Where consist 2 is marked on the map is roughly where Autumnville is located, and where consist 6 is marks Verbena, quite a good ways south. The trestle scenes and stuff are the finished looking area a bit to the right of Autumnville. The blank baseboards beyond that will eventually be the mainline run northbound to Montevallo, the last major stop before Cheaha Pass. Here's the map:

If I can get the run from Autumnville to Verbena done, along with the NS interchange segment in Verbena, the CSX interchange segment in Autumnville, and the area up through the Maplesville Branch just north of Autumnville, I'll go ahead and release what I have of the route as the A&SE V6 beta. Good news is I have managed to keep 3rd party assets to a minimum on the A&SE, mainly just JR equipment. I may talk to them sometime or another about seeing if I can throw in a few of my locomotives as a pack for the route, but before I do I want to greatly improve upon the skins I do have, and redo a few of them completely as they've needed redoing for some time now (all of the SD50 rebuilds, all of the SD40-2's and their rebuilds, everything below the sill line on the SD60's, the list goes on). Some I might just keep to myself and not even bother asking about. Might do that for everything, who knows. Before I ask though those skins will have to look much better than they do now.

As far as the route goes, the release plan is as follows:

V6 (current version): Autumnville to Verbena, with the Maplesville branch.
V7: Verbena to Montevallo, with a handful of extra branches thrown in and a NS interchange at Montevallo.
V8: Verbena to Lincoln (basically this expansion put Cheaha Pass on the route)
V9: Verbena to Birmingham, with the biggest yard on the system, the Birmingham complex. Also has interchanges to CSX, BNSF, NS, and I believe one of the Canadian railroads runs that far south as well, I believe it is CN, and they'll also have an interchange.
V10: Mobile to Birmingham, expands the line south to its terminus at Mobile Yard.
V11: Mobile to Decatur, expands north to the last major stop within Alabama.
V12 (final version) Mobile to Chattanooga, contains the full length of the A&SE Alabama Division. At this point the route will be done and any updates will be minor upgrades to older parts of the route.

Yes, this plan will take a very long time to carry out unfortunately, and as the versions progress the route will become very large indeed, just got to take it one baseboard at a time until I'm done I suppose.

 

[blueodessey]

Thank you Southern 1581, and your welcome to visit and critique my site anytime,

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...ey-Distr-Ctr-(High-Resolution-950x532)-Approx

I feel like you, I don't know if and when I'll ever get finished with my Route, plus I got a lot of NG's Routes, like Himalaya to play around with, just too much fun for one person, and then there's TANE,

may the Train God's help me when I cross that Bridge of Excitement!!!!!

I'm sure it be fun trying to import, and afterwards fixing all the issues LOL, guess we won't ever get bored.

That's a cool route, thanks for the overhead, I'm a visual person, and the Chips (baseboards) I can see now make sense in my Pea size Brain.

 

[Southern1581]

Some quick shots from this morning. It was drizzling out and morning traffic through Autumnville was actually fairly minimal, so instead I went out to the Maplesville Branch to see what I could find, as one of the 5 daily trains usually runs fairly early in the morning. Sure enough, around 7:15 Westbound F243 rolled over the trestles of the Maplesville branch, and I snapped a few shots:

 

[blueodessey]

Great Shots there Sir, and the Mountains? :mop::mop: Well you know how I like them, hope you got them well connected so I can't run away with any! LOL

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks blue! We used those fancy extra strength paper mache mountains so that we wouldn't have any disappear. lol

 

[Southern1581]

I actually did a small amount of work on the route today. I went back to the Maplesville Branch and added grass over all the green areas in the twin trestle scene. I'll eventually go back and put in some darker patches of grass instead of having them all be one color, but for now I really think it enhances the look of the area, especially that mid area between trestles 2 and 3.

Here are some shots of today's progress. Local train L201, the last scheduled train for the day, makes its run down the twin trestles at dusk with A&SE SD39M 3865 and the HLCX SD40-2 ghost 6258 for power on the short train.

Shots:

 

[blueodessey]

Looking good Sir, I agree, it just takes a while to do those areas, hard to believe how much time you can spend in an area?

But the end is Pride in ownership and knowing when you look around, hey! That's looking better yet..

But your mountains and Texture look great to start with.

 

[Southern1581]

Finally some progress.

I've been hard at work with college and stuff, but I've finally found some time to get some work done on the route. I finally finished fixing the broken textures on the route (was a lot easier than I had made it out to be), which meant I was able to go back to work on the lumber mill along the branch line, which is now basically complete outside of a few topographical things that still need fixing and some texture touch ups, I'll give you guys some screenshots in a moment. I've also begun to start adding the scenery again along the route. I've crafted hills and topography for another 1/2 a mile or so of the line, and I have some rudimentary texture work on them so that they wouldn't look too horrible in today's shots. Among the new scenery is the line's second creek, Taelapok Creek. Feeding the creek into the scene is a second falls/rapids type area tucked between two hills. And of course, the presence of the creek means trestles, and it actually means 4 trestles in the case of Taelapok Creek, as it crosses under both the branch line track and the Lumber Mill lead, then hooks left, and follows the branch until it veers left further, crossing back under it, and then shortly thereafter crossing under it the final time. Taelapok also has a further road bridge which will be seen from the rails when the tracks get to Maplesville, but it does not cross under the rails again. Beyond the last bridge over Taelapok Creek there is only one further bridge on the line, which crosses over Benedict Avenue as it goes into Edinburrow, Al., the last town before Maplesville and the end of the line.

Now on to the subject of today's screenshots. I've been working really hard on the Yakataw Lake Lumber Mill and for the most part it is finished. There are still several things which will be tweaked and finished throughout the scene, but for now it is good enough for screenshots. Yakataw Lake Mill is the first industry on the line. The lead for it is about 1/4 mile down after trestle 4 over Taelapok Creek, and the mill itself is about 1/2 a mile from the branch track between trestles 3 and 4. It also sits above the mill's namesake, Yakataw Lake, which is a decent size lake and also feeds Copper Creek in an earlier scene.

So let's see what I've gotten done shall we? Today's train is L230, which is today's morning local. It is led by SD39M 3839 and SD42-3 7165 on this cool, overcast October morning. The trees are starting to gain some color as seen in the shots. The morning local came in around 9, which is about an hour behind the usual time the train runs through there. I told the engineer that Taco Bell last night was a mistake but did he listen? Of course not.

The screenshots at the end depict L230 depositing a high cube boxcar with a lone centerbeam flat car. The centerbeam sustained damage to its brake rigging and one of the bogies during a loading incident earlier in the week. The boxcar contains the necessary parts to patch it up well enough to be taken back to Autumnville for proper repairs.

Shots:

 

[Southern1581]

And before I let you guys go for today, some overview shots of the lumber mill as well, showing the general layout of it as well as how it's textured, and you can get a feel for what still needs to be fixed and finished as well.

Overview shots:


Hope you guys like it! Any questions or suggestions or comments feel free to ask/leave them below.

 

[Chadd04]

What are the sheds you are using, they look great in the lumber yard.

 

[Southern1581]

What are the sheds you are using, they look great in the lumber yard.

Lumber Mill storage 1-3, Kuid:303612:35-37. They come built in with TANE, not sure about TS12, might be on the DLS.

 

[Southern1581]

I was reading through this whole thread today, it's amazing how far it has come and how much we've been through to get here. Anyways, in one of the earlier pages I was supposed to compile a full roster for the A&SE, and then even though it's 40 odd pages later I never remembered to do it. I think it's time I fix that.

Official Alabama & Southeastern RR Locomotive roster
All locomotives owned by the railroad from its founding in 1981 to Present Day

Number(s).......Model..........Years in Service...........Notes

50-54...........44 Tonner...........1990-2002...............Upon retirement, 51 was attempted as a slug but failed, 50, 52-53 sold, 54 sold to Tennessee Pacific 10-2009
420-429.........B40-8W...........2008-Present............A/C Equipped, ex BNSF, nee ATSF
500-507.........SD39A..........1999-Present..............Rebuilt from ex SP SD39's, equipped to operate with 1200-series yard slugs
700-706.........SD38P............2016-Present............Ex BNSF nee BN, rebuilt EMD SD35's. Units were set up to be mated with slugs and released into service 12-2016.
800-802.........GP28-3............1989-Present............Served as ex IC GP28's until 2006, when they were rebuilt with -3 systems
1200-1220.....SLG-40-Y.........1998-Present............Yard slugs rebuilt from various GP40's
1271-1278......SLS-38-Y.........2013-Present............Yard slugs created on old SD38 frames.
1300-1330......SLF-7B............2002-2015...............Road slugs rebuilt from aging CF7 units. All retired in 2015 and sold or donated.
1335-1366........CF7...............2002-2015................Paired to SLF-7B slugs. 1352 retired and scrapped. All retired in 2015 and sold or donated.
1650-1656......SW1500...........1995-Present............Can be mated to yard slugs. 1654 stored/shopped for 4 years following 2007 engine failure. Back in service.
1800-1824.......U18B..............1991-2009................1812 retired and scrapped following the Summit Yard incident. All units retired Sept. 2011
1900-1901......SD31-2............1993-Present............1901 in old scheme with OLS, 1900 in maroon
2000-2047......GP38-2............1999-Present............Ex CR
2048-2109......GP38-2............2003-Present............Ex UP
2151-2170......GP15-1............2010-Present............Ex CSXT
2297..............SD38AC............1987-Present............Ex DMIR
2500-2514......SD29T-3...........1995-Present............Ex SP
2600-2604......GP29-3............1994-Present.............Ex B&O GP40's
2670-2699......SD29-3.............1993-Present............Former SD40's from many roads.
2737-2752........RS27................1987-2001
2900-2901........SD9.................1981-1999...............2900 Ex UP, 2901 Ex BN
3012................B30-7................1981-2000...............Lost in tragic accident on Autumnville crossover in collision with CSX Q422-16
3200-3208.......C32-8.............2001-Present.............Ex NS nee CR. Units 3206-3208 retired and sold to the Carrabassett Valley RR
3300-3334......SD33-3.............1998-Present.............3300 hp repower project on SD40's
3500-3502........GP7..................1981-1995
3600-3679......SD36X-3............2004-Present............Phase 2 SD36 units, units have 3200 hp and increased weight/traction control systems
3836-3869.......SD39M..............1994-Present............SD40's rebuilt for yard and local service, 2300 hp
4200-4299.......SD42-3 .............1999-Present...........Run 2 SD42-3's. All rebuilt from SD45's
4400-4444.......GP40-2..............2003-Present
4740-4741........GP30M.............2007-Present............Ex C&O GP30's rebuilt and repurposed for OCS use
4900-4914.......SD47-2..............2004-2015..............Ex CR SD50's rebuilt with 3270 hp. Sold to Pan-Am.
5100-5107........SD24.................1982-2002..............All high short hood, coal haulers when first bought, relegated to local use prior to retirement
5200-5248........GP38-2..............2004-Present..........Ex BNSF, nee ATSF, BN.
5250-5257........SD22E..............2005-Present............Stored SD24's 5100-5107 were overhauled and rebuilt with EMD standard cabs. Assigned to local use
5975-5999........SD60................2007-Present............Ex-Soo/CP SD60's
6240-6259.......SD46-3..............2002-Present...........SD50's rebuilt at 3600 hp with upgraded crank case and truck adhesion upgrades for coal service. Units received traction control systems in 2010 to further boost adhesion
6300-6329........C40-8...............2011-Present...........Ex-UP
6330-6349........C40-8...............2013-Present...........Ex-CSX, units feature unique scare striping on the nose. Used in ballast service.
6896-6900.......SD40-2..............2008-Present............Ex-FURX SD40-2's, patched but not repainted.
7000-7029........SD50X..............2007-Present............SD50 rebuilt with 20-645 prime mover from ex CSX SD45-2's. 7 built, non consecutive numbering. All units save 7013 and 7029 stored pending further rebuild or being sold.
7100-7199 .......SD42-3.............1991-Present............Run 1 SD42-3's, first rolled out in 1991. 7172 in special GSHL scheme. 7176 wearing old scheme
7200-7299........SD42-3.............2013-Present............Run 3 SD42-3's. All rebuilt from SD45's.
7300-7327.........SD42-3.............2016-Present...........Run 4 SD42-3's. Final batch of SD42-3's. Brings roster total up to 328 SD42-3's.
7700.................SD77I...............2005-Present............Ex BNSF SD75I rebuilt with shop-built 18 cylinder prime mover and improved electrical system. 4750 hp. Shop designated AV-18-694B prime mover.
7701-7709........SD77I................2016-Present............Ex BNSF SD75I's rebuilt with shop-built 18 cylinder prime movers and improved electrical systems. Prime mover design was refined from years of experience with 7700.
7710-7734..........SD77I.................2018-CS...................Ex BNSF SD75I's rebuilt with shop-built 18 cylinder prime mover and improved electrical systems. Phase 3 rebuilds.
7900-7945.........SD70................2000-Present............Ordered new from EMD, last standard cab SD70's built
8000-8019........SD45-2..............2000-Present............Ex CSX and other roads. 8000, 8004, 8008, 8011, and 8018 in old scheme. 8004 in OLS paint
8200-8214........SD38-2..............1997-Present.............Stored in A&SE Mobile pending rebuild or retirement
8400-8409........SD44-2..............2001-2012................Former SD50's with EMD 12-710 repower at 3400 hp. Units sold to G&W in 2012.
8500-8555........SD40-2..............1998-Present
8595.................SD41-2..............2004-Present............Former SD40-2 rebuilt as a continuation of the SD31 program. No further units were made. Wears special Saluting Our Troops scheme
8800-8829.......SD80ACe.............2016-Present
8900-8929.........SD49.................1984-Present............First new units ordered by the A&SE. 8915 and 8927 in old scheme. 14 units used in helper service on Cheaha Pass
8930-8979.........SD49.................2006-Present............Ex UP. 22 units used in helper service on Cheaha Pass. A&SE owned all SD49's for a while, until 2013 when units 8969-8979 were sold to the Carrabassett Valley RR
8980-8989.........SD49.................2008-Present............Ex ARR 2810-2819.
9000-9024........SD60M................2006-Present............Ex BNSF nee BN
9400-9404........SD40-2...............2008-Present ...........Units wear special bright green MOW variant of regular scheme
9696-9699........SD36X-3.............2002-Present............Initial batch of heavy DPU variants of SD40's. Rebuilt to phase 2 specs in 2014 save 9697, which is still as originally configured

And there you have it folks. That's the full roster of the A&SE from 1981 to now. I'll edit this as need-be if I forgot something (which I probably have).

 

[jordon412]

I might be interested in picking up 44-tonner #54 for use on one of the shortlines my shortline holding company Tennessee Pacific. If they're still available, I'd also be interested in SD9s #2900-2901, GP7's #3500-3502, and U18B's #1800-1824. Now that I think about it, I'd also be interested in those SD24's for coal service on the Appalachian Southern. It takes the dynamic brakes of four SD9's to keep the train under control on their downhill decent from the coal mines. Hopefully I can replace four SD9's with three SD24's for coal service. I've got two coal mines, so I'm planning on assigning three SD24's to hauling coal from one coal mine and another three SD24's to the other coal mine. Those two other SD24's will be used whenever there's a need for a fourth diesel on those trains or if one of the SD24's hauling coal breaks down.

 

[Southern1581]

The SD24's were rebuilt into the SD22E's which are still in use (and quite well liked as well despite their age). The SD9's and GP7's have long since been sold off, save 2900 which is on display in Birmingham. We can work out a deal for 54, it'll need some work as it hasn't been run in a while but you could probably get it back up fairly quickly. Plus it's stored in Chattanooga so we can probably keep shipping costs fairly low. Most of the U18B's were either sold off or scrapped, but I think a few might still be around in the dead lines. I know 1822 is hanging around Mobile, I'll have to check with the rest of the system to see if any others are lying around. In addition to that we also might be able to work out a deal for a few of our CF7's. They really don't do too terribly much for us these days and we're probably going to start slugging the rest of them fairly soon unless someone shows interest. Currently we have more slug mothers than slugs themselves, and the CF7's make for fairly handy little road slugs. I think the plan was to line up 10 for slugging this year unless someone wanted to buy/trade them off us.

 

[blueodessey]

:wave: Evening Southern 1581, thanks for coming over and visiting yesterday.....

I had a question about your Msg. #712, you have in the 3rd Picture a hill with very good looking Rocky Dirt on the side of it, what is name of that texture you use for that, it look's so darn realistic it's amazing?

Your Mountains look terrific like always.......Like the SD45-2's also, I have some too, and they run perfectly......I see your trees are changing color, must be fall coming in..........That's something I'll need to address on my Route at a later time.......

:mop:He I just noticed that Water fall you made, very cool too.......:mop:

Have a good Friday/Weekend....

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks Blue! That texture is built in, can't remember exactly which but if you type in TS09 or TS12 (or TS to get both), you'll pull up a few selections of some very high res textures, and that texture is among them. I think if you sat down for a bit with asset replacer and replaced some of your lower res textures with those, your route would benefit massively. I think your laptop should be able to handle it, I'm also on an Envy (granted mine has the i7 in it) and I have the same ram and dedicated graphics as you. Just something you could consider playing around with, even without the nice, high res textures it's still a great little route.

 

[jordon412]

I'd be interested in three CF7's and three SLF-7B's for my Pelican Bay and Hamilton River, which has gentle grades. However, I'd rebuild the SLF-7B's from yard slugs to road slugs. I'd also rename the SLF-7B's into 'RS-4RF7A' (RS = Road Slug, 4 = 4 powered axles, RF7A = Rebuilt F7A). RS-4RF7A's are designed for use only with CF7 mothers. The CF7's will be renumbered 1750 and 1751, the RS-4RF7A's will be renumbered 750 and 751. The other CF7 will be renumbered 2616 and the other RS-4RF7A's will be renumbered 2617, though cosmetically altered to look like a CF7. CF7 2616 and RS-4RF7A 2617 will be painted in Santa Fe Yellowbonnet colors; meanwhile CF7's 1750 and 1751, along with RS-4RF7A's 750 and 751 will be temporary have the 'Alabama & Southeastern' painted over with a black stripe, and 'TNPC' on the cabs, below the numbers and model designation. They will later receive a modified paint scheme of Atlantic Coast Line's freight scheme.