Trainz Forge: Routes, Reskins and Renders

The LE&E, CA&L, MNRR, and WVRR at least all exist in the same universe. The B&U, A&S, M&A, AG&A, and MIPA also all exist in their own universe at least. We've never formally reconciled the two, but I like to think that they do.

Some roads, like the L&A, T&E, and a few others at least (in my head) nominally exist in terms of interchange stock, but I'm not entirely sure where they would fit into the bigger picture.

Making our four roads work together has been the product of a lot of effort on all of our parts to create a cohesive, realistic (as much as possible) universe, so it's tough to say where the line is exactly drawn when it comes to the creations of other authors.
 
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Everyone else's history for their fictionals is a lot more fleshed out than mine, but I get by.

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Re: fictional roads, part of the joy of running a smaller road is that things can stand relatively on their own. So while other roads "cameo" on interchange service, it's easiest and most practical to build the lore mostly separate from other lines. Once you start thinking about the economic powerhouse represented by a road the size of the LE&E, it's difficult to predict the history of the WVRR because it's possible that reality doesn't look the same as it does without that road, so it's easier to handwave it and assume that the road doesn't exist right up to the point where it's convenient to use it, i. e. when I'm missing some 1920s Big Four rolling stock that would have regularly appeared on interchange service in Goldfield, NV:
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Credits to Rastis for taking an interest in the Goldfield area, by the way. He built the entirety of the Goldfield Consolidated Milling Company district between Columbia and Gemfield, which is dozens of hours of work I would never have done nearly this well. I need to check some things slightly, though, because the rake of boxcars actually started sliding on their handbrakes while I was taking the shot, and I had to take a break to pick them up once they passed over the switch.
 
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A CA&L manifest train slides through the Blue Ridge mountains on an overcast day in the mid 60s.
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Enormous thanks to Dan for the CA&L AS16s and FAs! I Finally have spicy freight diesels. lol

-Ben
 
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The excellent New Haven units alone are worth the price of admission...

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Many thanks for these beauties.

Best,
smyers
 
Another thing that's really fun about running a smaller fictional line is the use of practices that in real life are exhausting or outright unsafe to carry out as a brakeman today. To demonstrate, let's look at a bit more switching around the joint trackage near Columbia. We start near the station in town, where No. 34 Edwards has marshaled a string of cars from the ex-LV&T freight yard to the west. Exhausting operation #1: starting a transfer run from a 2.5% grade.
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The Columbia Street road crossing has been flagged by the station agents for this move, but nonetheless, the move is more than a little untidy, requiring the engine to shove the entire train over Diamondfield Road, one of the main regional throughfares. Luckily for the crew today, by the late 1920s, traffic was greatly decreased from the town's heyday. Exhausting switching move #2: riding point for a quarter mile along the mainline.
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Having dropped off the first several cars at one of the GCMC's supply warehouses, the crew reverses up a spur paralleling Diamondfield Road to drop cars at Goldfield's single largest mining operation. Exhausting operation #3: Signal relays, and working with more cars than will fit in the space provided.
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Finally, an operation that can no longer be seen on modern roads: No. 34 kicks half of its train into the siding before spotting its hoppers to load from the GCMC's substantial ore bins. Exhausting (and no longer legal) switching move #4: Bottling car air, moving over freight car rooftops, and controlling interchange cars solely with handbrakes.
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Even in these few moves, the yard starts to take on the chaotic appearance that most characterized the Goldfield switching districts.
 
After some complains I just had the fun of (re)moving 47 or so off-topic / "discussion" posts from this topic to our forum wastebasket. Not all posts were that bad, but since I was holding the broom in my hand anyway...

I would like to ask everyone in this topic to please stick to screenshots. When making comments (directly related to the screenshots of course) please do so within the limits as defined in the Code of Conduct. I am sure Trainz Forge has some support topic for their content somewhere (yet I am at 0:45am CET not interested to go find it) if you need other help with their stuff. But whatever you do, don't start any version related discussions in a screenshot topic.

Thank you, keep the screenshots coming and happy Trainzing!

/broom out
 
Trainboi,

Beautiful route you have been working on! Is it a fictional version of the T&G? I have always wanted to model the T&G/LV&T/B&G routes in Trainz. I even went as far as having all the DEM's made to do so. Alas, I never got around to it so I am pleased to see your work! How big is your route if I may ask? And from which point to point does it go if it does so? I'll have to pick up some of your wonderful ore cars you have on your site soon!

Best Regards
 
It's the whole region. I'm not entirely sure what size I want to go for - currently I have three sections, between Beatty and Tonopah Jct. (LV&T/BGRR/T&G/SPRR), between Ione and Parran, and between Parran and Gerlach (both WVRR). Ideally, I'd merge them all together in due time, along with a third section between Ione and Millers that has been made as a DEM but which I haven't received yet. However, there is some concern due to the fact that each of the individual WVRR sections are all large enough that they cannot be packed by a CDP file. There is a lot of terrain trimming to undertake...
 
Putting the final touches on the Minnesota and Northern's set of Baldwin DR-12-8-1500 Centipedes, nos. 6200 and 6201.

Both were acquired by the MNRR in late 1947 along with a set of DR-4-4-15 "babyface" diesels. 6200 and 6201 are actually ex-demonstrator units, originally ordered by the Union Pacific and never delivered. Baldwin, desperate for a buyer sold the units to the MNRR under contract, that if they were dissatisfied with them, they could be returned to Baldwin after a year had passed. The centipedes were adequate in service, and while the demonstrators did not suffer the electrical issues as other production units did, the Baldwin prime movers still caused maintenance headaches for shop crews and the centipedes spent more time off the road than on. The centipedes were returned to Baldwin in 1948, and MNRR later traded in their DR-4-4-15s with EMD, and received a set of one off F3s riding on AAR type B trucks as a result.

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It's the whole region. I'm not entirely sure what size I want to go for - currently I have three sections, between Beatty and Tonopah Jct. (LV&T/BGRR/T&G/SPRR), between Ione and Parran, and between Parran and Gerlach (both WVRR). Ideally, I'd merge them all together in due time, along with a third section between Ione and Millers that has been made as a DEM but which I haven't received yet. However, there is some concern due to the fact that each of the individual WVRR sections are all large enough that they cannot be packed by a CDP file. There is a lot of terrain trimming to undertake...

Wow trainboi1, sounds like quite the impressive route scenario! Either way it seems like the end product will be stellar! For the Beatt/Tonopah Junction section, are you making that historical or a mix of freelance?
 
G'day All,

Just wanted to post some pics of your great work. Thanks very much for all your hard work and for sharing the results with us.
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Apologies if the settings are too out of place. On my layout, the Washoe Valley Railway has taken up residence in the part which is Scratchy's updated version of the Highland Valley route (with further mods).
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Cheers,
Piere.
 
Wow trainboi1, sounds like quite the impressive route scenario! Either way it seems like the end product will be stellar! For the Beatt/Tonopah Junction section, are you making that historical or a mix of freelance?
It's a mix of the two. These are nominally ca. 1933, shortly after the T&G went into receivership and in fiction was purchased by the WVRR. So all the track that is listed as present circa 1926 when the BGRR closed is in place, plus any additions made necessary and possible in the space of less than a year of unified ownership. Some additions will be made (for example, I've added a 3-ton coal derrick, workshop and drop pit to the ex-BGRR/nee-LV&T yard at Goldfield, since the BGRR engine facilities burned in 1926) but for the most part this will be as the areas existed.
 
It's a mix of the two. These are nominally ca. 1933, shortly after the T&G went into receivership and in fiction was purchased by the WVRR. So all the track that is listed as present circa 1926 when the BGRR closed is in place, plus any additions made necessary and possible in the space of less than a year of unified ownership. Some additions will be made (for example, I've added a 3-ton coal derrick, workshop and drop pit to the ex-BGRR/nee-LV&T yard at Goldfield, since the BGRR engine facilities burned in 1926) but for the most part this will be as the areas existed.

Thank you again sounds like a great era to model. I look forward to seeing more progress photos of the Washoe Valley as time progresses! Great work on it thus far!
 
Trainboi1,
I'll second the comments by NevadaNorthernFan901. The route looks amazing. I really enjoyed your narrative for the switching run, and the screenshots are so nice. I'll look forward to more views of this really sharp route. :Y:

Heinrich505
 
For the number boards, I didn't move them up. I alpha'd out the old ones, and subbed in my own mesh. I also alpha'd out the headlight, funnel, and set up my own ARN for it as well. The pilot and trailing truck + booster was taken from the Frisco Mikado. I added other appliances to the locomotive, like a worthington feedwater heater and associated pump and plumbing, plus builders plates on the smokebox since those were absent on the original model. Also made some texture changes and removed most of the specular shine from the engine.


Another look compared to the basis, the UP Mk-Special:

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For the number boards, I didn't move them up. I alpha'd out the old ones, and subbed in my own mesh. I also alpha'd out the headlight, funnel, and set up my own ARN for it as well. The pilot and trailing truck + booster was taken from the Frisco Mikado. I added other appliances to the locomotive, like a worthington feedwater heater and associated pump and plumbing, plus builders plates on the smokebox since those were absent on the original model. Also made some texture changes and removed most of the specular shine from the engine.
Got it! Making a mesh is something I never do. But thank you.
 
How about Jacksonbarno’s LE&E 4-8-4? Will it be released to the public? Not asking when, but will. Or is that supposed to be a surprise?
 
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