VIA Rail LRC set project

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gisa

Routelayer Ordinaire...
Hi All,


I've been wanting to download VIA rail's LRC set for a long time and you know the saying "if the mountain doesn't come to you...go to the mountain". So I downloaded and have just started to use gmax. The learning curve is extremely steep (I can't seem to complete any significant tutorials @@ ) and I think creating a realistic looking LRC locomotive is going to be beyond me. I might try making the passenger cars in due time but I was wondering if anyone would be interested in creating these cars/engine. I'd love to help and I know it'd be a lot of work but I think they are very unique and would be a fine addition to any North American/Canadian layout. As these cars are going into retirement, I think it's the least we owe them as they may end up with the same fate as the second picture...:(

I was also wondering if anyone would like to make/help make the blue/yellow/black car sets (I don't know the particular name of them). I found some pictures of them and will post them when I get permisson from the photographer...the others came from various websites such as

http://www.railfan.ca

http://www.michaeltaylor.ca

Here are some pics of the LRC engine/cars I was hoping for:









 
hey,

these trains in the pic are one of the best. They been around for some many peoples childhoods, it was one of the best ways to go to toronto on a Saturday. those coachs are not just for the that lrn engine. Most of the time they are pulled by the F40ph-2 ViA engine. I hope could do this gisa. If some else would make it or help out gisa it would be awesome.

Btw msts has those coaches could someone just convert them for trainz please that would be a help.

jennifer
 
Hey Jennifer,


Yeah, last December when I was back in Toronto, I took the train to Montreal and was on those lrc coaches (perhaps for the last time) so I would love to preserve the memory somewhere semi-permanently. ;) You are also correct wrt to the f40ph's pulling them (hehe I think of the amazing one made by magicland). They would look nice as a set...

Now, you said that the lrc cars have been made for msts? Do you think you could get a hold of them? If so, it might just be a matter of opening them up in gmax, setting up the necessary parameters and then importing them into trainz, but as I am just starting in gmax, I might be overly simplifying things. :/ Either way, I think I could get something close to the cars within a year or so, but for a more professional touch, that would be out of my league (as I'm working full-time with a sweet gf that demands attention :D ). I'm just working on making a simple mega station for the time being (which actually isn't that hard I figure since I'd just be importing a huge textured box).

The other problem is, I don't have microsoft paint shop pro or what not and from what I hear, I need a program such as that to get a good looking paint scheme.

Maybe you could give gmax a download and try too. :) If you need help, I can give you some links for it (it's freeware) as well as the best tutorials I've found wrt trainz. The learning curve is steep and I find the tutorials aren't so great for a noobie such as myself, but I have learned some things from them and I think I'm improving with that program. :) I'll try to run the gmax tutorials themselves in due time...

I will let everyone know about my progress from time to time, but yeah if anyone wants to take up these challenges or can help out, it'd be great. :)

p.s. I will post the pics of the blue/yellow car sets shortly as I've received no reply from the webmaster of those particular pics...those should be an even easier make (or perhaps reskin). I'll have to get a hold of magicland because I think his cn passenger cars are actually the same model with a different paint scheme. :D

Gisa ^^
 
hey,

these trains in the pic are one of the best. They been around for some many peoples childhoods, it was one of the best ways to go to toronto on a Saturday. those coachs are not just for the that lrn engine. Most of the time they are pulled by the F40ph-2 ViA engine. I hope could do this gisa. If some else would make it or help out gisa it would be awesome.

Btw msts has those coaches could someone just convert them for trainz please that would be a help.

jennifer

the catch to getting them convered is the converter would have to get the original source files for them and then 'realign' them to TRS standards.

peter
 
Blue and Yellow Cars

I received a fatal error when I tried to email the gentleman who took these pictures (so I guess his email doesn't work anymore) and as I'm sure he's as much of a railfan as I am, I think he wont mind if I borrow them and show them here for the express purpose that we could recreate them in the land of TRS. :D I'm also giving him due credit as it was he who took these pics and no one else (I was too young to do them myself @@ ).

Therefore, these 3 photos are the property of Brian Thompson.

It was extremely difficult to get a hold of these for some reason. I can't seem to get a good shot of them but they look fairly standard in some sense. Unfortunately, I don't think they match magiclands cn lightweight passenger coach so I wont be trying to do a reskin of those...

If anyone wants to make these coaches or would want to help make these coaches, please let me know Just send me a pm or post a reply here and I'll get in touch.

As for converting them from msts to trainz...I have absolutely no idea how to do that. :( Any takers?


Gisa ^^





 
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Those blue and yellow Coachs were a mix inbetween CP Streamline(Length) And the Body of the Cn Lightweight.
The Cn Lightweight are the 95% the same all they need really is painting.
 
Hmm...the thing is, I have no idea about how to texture properly in gmax at this point. I've decided to go through all the actual gmax tutorials themselves (which seem okay although I'm stuck one on but I think I know why it isn't working: will try it later). Maybe you or someone else could figure out how to do that, ask magicland (I think his name is jeffmorris) for permission to reskin that coach (for which we might be denied).

Hope to have a chance to work on something related to this soon...


Gisa ^^
 
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Ahhh the memories! I would also love to see the LRC cars in Trainz... either that or the yellow and blue cars. I remember coming home from Niagara Falls with my parents back when I was 9 or 10. I asked the conductor if they were new cars and he replied "These are the oldest cars we use":p I hope someone can make them :D
 
I spent a good chunk of time looking for those pics but as you can see, they aren't perpendicular shots...it would be great if someone could give me a link to some really good pictures of those engines and coaches and any techincal information there is. It would help immensely in terms of actually creating a car from scratch (I obviously want to size it properly).

So if anyone has free time, can they post some good pictures of these engines/cars with details? Maybe you googlepros would have better luck than I did...


Gisa ^^
 
I used my nifty :o google skills to come across virtually no results when I typed in
- Via Rail empires cars pictures -

But that's okay, because on railfan.net there are a lot of pictures of them. I'm trying to find a perpendicular shot (as most are angled) but at least now, I know how many windows I need to make, which actually isn't too hard based on what I know now. What I really need now though is the specs in terms of length, width, height...and keep in mind I wont be able to get it to look exactly like the car as I have no idea how to make bogies (those look nasty to make :D ) but I think I could get the just of the car provided I get some time...

As for the lrc cars, those will be more difficult, but I think a rough duplication wont be impossible. When I first make them, I think they might be good as static objects far far away! :D
 
Maybe consider contacting the friendly people at VIA Rail Canada or Bombardier?
Also might want to check out Wikipedia.
 
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I could try to contact the gents at via rail for some specs. I could texture the cars using the standard colours in trs2004 but they wouldn't look real of course, so I could use some help there when I get to that point. :) Thanks Skinngiggy! Any help whatsoever would be appreciated and I'm far too new in Gmax to do anything amazing at this point.

I looked at their site, but I'm just going to be focusing on an external view for now. I've a lot of prep work to do in terms of research, specs and permission from others who have made similar cars. ^^

As well I'm going to try to do a reskin of the cn rdc into a via colour scheme. I need to work on reskinning as well and I am hoping it would be much easier than doing a model from scratch. Can anyone tell me what tools I'd need to do a good looking reskin? :)
 
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This is my first post on the Auran forums, but I've been lurking around for a long while since I originally purchased TRS2004 several years back (it was black and grey around here then:) ).
Anyway, I've been following this thread with some interest and I thought I would add a few things...

First off, Magicland's cars were mentioned, and as far as I can tell, these are pretty much what you're looking for in terms of the ex-CN blue & yellow cars. I'm not sure if they are 100% prototypical, because I'm not sure he originally created them to be CN coaches, but they are about as close as is currently available and they're great quality. All they need is the blue and yellow VIA skin. I'm not sure what the license is, but I'm sure you could contact Magicland about it or look in the config.txt file. Heck, he may even do one up for you. He created a VIA F40 not long back!

Also, I'm not sure that I've ever heard of the blue & yellow cars referred to as "Empire cars". I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've never heard that name used before. I've heard them called blue & yellow, ex-CN, CC&F cars, and several others. Perhaps "empire" was a VIA promotional name for them. If so, it might not be the best way to search for them.

Anyway, I also plan on making them someday, but I have no idea when that will be. I use 3D Canvas Pro. I never got the hang of GMAX. I've managed to do pretty well with it and I've created a CN caboose, along with a CN GP38-2 that is in progress. Good luck with GMAX though. I don't want to deter you from making them yourself. I have no idea if I'll ever release mine, so the more the better!

Patrick
 
Hi Patrick,


The more the merrier indeed! Welcome to this thread! :D

I did some research and realized that the cn cars were and are virtually the same with a different paint scheme. Perhaps this picture might be proof. ;)



I messaged magicland today and am patiently waiting for his reply. I'm fairly sure he'll let us use the bogies and car and from there, it's pretty much a simple reskin (mind you, I have no idea to reskin and I'm sure it'll be difficult, so I'll have to look up some tutorials and what not). There is one problem for me though: his bogies show up white on my computer for some strange reason and even with his help, I've never been able to fix that. :( :confused: I substituted another bogie for the time being but yeah, I'll see what I can do and will keep everyone posted.

Of course, I'm sure magicland could do a much better job than me, but I don't want to pester him and I'm sure he has many projects on the go. If I were to ask him to make something, I'd ask him to go with the lrc engine as that would be the hardest thing to do no doubt...

I don't think they are called empire cars either, but yeah, no big loss...

By all means, feel free to make them! I'm sure they'll be better than mine. ;)

Keep us posted!

Gisa ^^
 
Haha! My *experimental* progress so far!

My gf took a nap this afternoon so I had a good few hours to concentrate...

I've basically been emulating YKawai's tutorial ( http://www.geocities.jp/yuuchankellyy/gmaxe.html )

So far here's what I came up with. Hahaha!





I know what you are thinking...why are the doors on different sides and what the heck is a Japanese destination icon doing on a VIA train? :confused: :D

I have no idea how it's going to turn out and I'm quite sure the sizes will be all wrong but for a first serious attempt, I'm not complaining (so far). :)

Just thought I'd add some humour to the project. ;)
 
So far here's what I came up with. Hahaha!

That's looking pretty darn good so far. You've gotten a heck of a lot farther with GMAX than I ever did. Keep it up! :) My experience is that it's simply a matter of trial and error when it comes to content creation. If you have any questions, I might be able to help...keeping in mind that we're using two different programs, of course.

Patrick
 
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