The General, a US Civil war locomotive

[bdaneal]

What EXACTLY IS "Russian Iron"???

Tried to look it up, no luck. I know each monitor will show differently, (Oh to be in a perfect world!), but is it like gunmetal, or after a rifle has been "blued"?

I just finished, (Ha HA!!) the mesh for the interior of the General. After I get the levers and gauges to work, I'm going to re-release this version.

Then I'll start on the Civil War version. I'm not so sure about the MSTS "General" color scheme. (I'l put a picture of it upon request). I don't really want the majority of my Civil War work to be changing the textures!

Any good color chips, (R,G,B would be BETTER) for this era? I know I'm asking a lot.

Terry

There used to be a nice website that had a paper on russian iron, but I believe it is gone now. Gun bluing has about the right look. Here's a photo of an engine that still has its original jacket (IIRC):
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=158239
There is only a hint of blue, but when sunlight hits it, the blue becomes more visible. In old B&W photographs, russian iron usually showed up as a light grey because of the sunlight and also how polished the engineers kept the jackets. Because of that, many modellers used a light blue to represent it.

I question the MSTS civil war version also. I doubt there would have been two shades of green. Personally, I'd change the lighter green to the darker green used elsewhere. I'm not sure about the red wheels, either.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[tbryson2]

The Civil War and post-CW versions will likely be a "dark" blue, (gun bluing "blue"). I think I can represent this fairly accuratly with Trainz and PSP.

I didn't care for the "light blue" on the MSTS General either. The greens are not to my liking either.

A gentleman by the name of Joe sent me something this a.m. It stated, (after research):
"W & A locomotives featured black smokebox and stack. Russia Iron (gunmetetal), boiler jackets and steam dome barrels and bases, and appear to have had red or black wheels/drivers and (usually) red pilots. Name plates were polished brass with red background. Each locomotive had its own accent color applied to pilot beam, headlight, outside pilot truck frame (if any), sand box or dome, cab, tender and tender truck side frames. In the case of the General, the trim color was bronze green. Lettering was gold, striping was gold, vermillion and black."

So, if I can figure out WHERE the trim, striping, and accent colors were applied, I might have a fighting chance here! I'll probably make the drivers & Cab dark red. I have other documentation that talks about green being on the engine. Not sure exactly what to do here. But it will get figured out. When I get to doing the engine, I'll ask for help / advice. Such as, boiler straps. "They" always depict them as shiny brass. Was this reality?

I'll scan an image I have and post it here soon. May model the colors after the painting by Wilbur G. Kurtz.

Terry

 

[tbryson2]

Can't scan the image I wanted yet, (still reeling from the lightning attack 2 weeks ago!), but will upload it soon.

For now, here is an image of the Civil War version I got. Sadly, it's black and white, (or 256 shades of grey )


Anyone out there want to take a stab at what the colors SHOULD be? Might make for an interesting "contest".

Terry

 

[tbryson2]

And the MSTS version. I'm really looking forward to re-producing this one! Nothing against the original author, (My hats off to you!!! :wave: ), but my coloring scheme will be a bit different I think.

Terry

 

[tbryson2]

Oh yea, one more thing.

I noticed that the pistons are on an angle on the Civil War version. I have checked this with the "Museum" version and they are horizontal on the Museum engine, so my pistons are correct for the current release.

BUT when I try to animate the pistons at an angle, (necessary for the CW General, Texas, Yona), I can't seem to get the dynamics of the animation to go at an angle. I'm sure there is a trick to it, and if anyone has a clue, please help!

I'll post this on the "Gmax" thread also.

Thanks!

Terry

 

[spiffy101]

Wow! That civil war version looks amazing. I can't wait to see how yours turns out

 

[tbryson2]

Wow! That civil war version looks amazing. I can't wait to see how yours turns out

ME TOO!!!

 

[tbryson2]

CAB VIEW NEED HELP

ARGGGHHH!!!

I'VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT!!!

I've completed the textures and the mesh for the interior and I'm attempting to get the levers to work properly, BUT THEY WONT! I can get cab mode to work with a different interior, (PB15), but not mine. DCC works fine.

1. I can get the "throttle" (Regulator) lever to move back and forth, (albeit the mouse is backwards), and it does move in / out when I use DCC mode and go forward / backwards. BUT I get no movement when in cab mode. Brakes are off, and "Cutoff" is at 75. (Pulling back should make the train GO correct? Or pushing foward makes it go? I know this isn't my problem, just curious)

2. I cannot get the "cutoff" to do ANYTHING! The cutoff lever moves back and forth, but the information box always says "75%". This lever does NOT move when I use DCC. (it does on the PB15). Is there a special "a.???" name I should use? I tried using a.reverser, but didn't work. I'm assuming, (you can dog me on that later, right now I'm not in the mood!), that the "a.???" names are "linked" to the Trainz software and that is how Trainz knows what to do with each "a.??" point?

3. I do NOT have brake levers yet, but I can release the brakes using the "Q" key. Do I need the actual levers to make her go? I wouldn't think so.

4. Do I need to write some kind of script for this?

5. Do I need to take the enginespec file into consideration for any of this?

6. I cannot find any clues in the "book" to help steer me in the right direction.

Any help will do. She's looking GOOD on the inside too!

Terry

 

[tbryson2]

Add to the list above that the brake levers are the same. Move "backwards" to the mouse and have NO effect on anything!

Terry

 

[spiffy101]

Can you post a picture of the current interior? Also, I found a whistle around the generals time period.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CO4UoU3DE

As for the 119 by bdaneal, the whistle is correct, they sound very alike. The version I posted above sounds similair to the model version if the general I own, so I believe the one above might be correct.

 

[tbryson2]

General, Cab views

Here ya go!

At this time, the gauges are not finished and the levers do not "work". But I am working on it!

Also, the water is not animated nor is the firebox. These will probably be reserved for a much later date.

Terry

 

[spiffy101]

Wow! Take your time. That is amazing! Are you going to finish up the cab before you start the civil war version? Will it have the animated fireman like the PB15 possesses?

 

[tbryson2]

I do not have any plans at the moment to put the fireman in the cab.

Yes, my intentions are to finish a WORKING cab view and then start the Civil War version of the General, Texas, and probably Yonah. Since all 3 locomotives were similar, it shouldn't be too hard to do. Most of the work will have already been done!

AFTER I finish all of the above, then I'll probably revisit the cab view(s) and put a fireman in, animate the water and the firebox.

BUT those are future projects. I've already neglected too many things and if I can just get the cab view working I may take a small break.

Terry

 

[RPearson]

Terry, the attachment point names in the config and in the mesh have to match but otherwise I don't think are critical. You need a script for the cab interior - simply inheriting from the defaultsteamcabin script and disabling the coalman animation in your init() method is enough to get it to work if you don't have any special controls. You have to have a firedoor plates control or it will throw an exception though - long standing bug or whatever but never fixed.

The names of the controls you use in the config must match exactly the ones used in the cab script.

Bob Pearson

 

[spiffy101]

I do not have any plans at the moment to put the fireman in the cab.

Yes, my intentions are to finish a WORKING cab view and then start the Civil War version of the General, Texas, and probably Yonah. Since all 3 locomotives were similar, it shouldn't be too hard to do. Most of the work will have already been done!

AFTER I finish all of the above, then I'll probably revisit the cab view(s) and put a fireman in, animate the water and the firebox.

BUT those are future projects. I've already neglected too many things and if I can just get the cab view working I may take a small break.

Terry

Well, take you time. I'll probably wait until the final version to download them.

 

[tbryson2]

You need a script for the cab interior - simply inheriting from the defaultsteamcabin script and disabling the coalman animation in your init() method is enough to get it to work if you don't have any special controls. You have to have a firedoor plates control or it will throw an exception though - long standing bug or whatever but never fixed.

The names of the controls you use in the config must match exactly the ones used in the cab script.

Bob Pearson

Where do I find this "defaultsteamcabin" script? Should I just copy the PB15 script and modify it to my needs? Not really sure what you mean by the firedoor plates control. I'll try to find other locomotives with a cab view and learn from them.

Terry

 

[RPearson]

Terry just make a text file with the notepad editor that comes with Windows. Type or copy/paste the following code into it. Name it: wa3_interior.gs
Put a copy in the directory with the cab interior config.txt file.

include "DefaultSteamCabin.gs"
 
class wa3_interior isclass DefaultSteamCabin
{
    public void Init(void)
    {
        inherited();
        hasAnimatedFireman = false;
    }
};

Add these 2 lines to the interior config. Placement isn't critical except they can't come within the { } of a container type tag. I usually put them near the top of the config.

script "wa3_interior"
class "wa3_interior"

Script name and class name can be changed to suit your preferences - they don't have to be the same either. The config entries just have to match the names you use. There are restrictions on what is a valid class name identifier however. Script tag value is always the filename without the .gs extension.

Follow the naming conventions of the PB15 cab and you'll be ok. I think they didn't use a control for the independent brake lever if you need one check the ccg.

The control to open/close the door on the firebox is called "fire_plates" in the script. The ccg goes to great length discribing how they set up one for the PB15 cab. Normally the script checks to see if a given control object exists before it uses a reference to it to avoid throwing a null reference error which aborts the script. Unfortunately the fireplates control is not checked before being called in one place and you'll get a null reference error if the interior config doesn't have a control for them. Just needs to be a named control doesn't have to function for test purposes or the script can be corrected by overriding the original update() method in the script you provide.

If you have to customize it for the cab you're making you can do it with the script you provide.

Bob Pearson

 

[tbryson2]

Ok, thanks for the help. It works, sort of. I have a LOT of tweaking to do to get it right. Not sure why things are the way they are, but if I cannot figure them out I'll call for help again.

Thanks again, It's been a long day. Hard to get into this at this time.

Terry

 

[Thomas_The_Tank100]

Yes, my intentions are to finish a WORKING cab view and then start the Civil War version of the General, Texas, and probably Yonah. Since all 3 locomotives were similar, it shouldn't be too hard to do. Most of the work will have already been done!

Not unless you count the Disney version. The Yonah in that movie was portrayed by the Lafyette, a 4-2-0.
Anyway, I intend to download them as soon as they come out!
~TTT100~

 

[tbryson2]

The Yonah. Suppose to be historically accurate. This is what I'll use to re-create it. NOT the Disney version.

Dig those crazy tender bogeys! :hehe: