blueodessey
Well-known member
Beer Line connections in play / Red Light Signal issues discussed (resolved) Etc
Good Tuesday Evening all,
I have meetings tomorrow starting very early due our heavy traffic on Local Freeways, so I thought I would get this out tonight, rather than trying to do when I get home later tomorrow afternoon and probably not the clearest mind after fighting heavy traffic a good part of the day.
So on to the Beer Line and surrounding parts of Wilson Mills Merge group. So far, I have no further problems with my Route Copies.
One of the things I changed was my Backups to start when I am sleeping or away in Meetings, than to have Windows and Trainz compete for memory and Hard Drive Cycles. And it appears it was a wise decision, along with setting my NVIDIA Card at a lower power setting Graphics wise. Now my laptop doesn't overheat, only gets warm, not hot during heavy Graphics or Train Consist movements, all within normal Parameters,
Now for tonight, I show some of maps and things I have been working on:
In this Map Aqua circle is where the Beer Line merge is, and you can see there are a ton of Signal Lights, that's because Beer Line is pure Industrial and some City area. Lots and Lots of Spurs and mini yards for sorting the Boxcars etc, I read back in the day, they shunted 250-300 Cars of Beer and other items Daily....Compared to standards back then, that was a torrent of cars for I think what was 6 Mile Route area of the Beer Line operation.....
Yellow lines is where I have been working on Track Puzzles, 2-3 switch combined on Crossovers and access leads between 3 Mainlines in some spots. Helps keep congesting more organized.
Also re working a Diesel Refueling Plant in the area, took a lot of Clearing of Trees and whole host of other things to get what I think I wanted it too look like......Remember, I get a epiphany, an idea of sort, out of day dreaming, when I look at the Route as I modifying it etc.....The problem is, I never know what I'll need to do to complete said dream, and sometimes it takes 10 revamps, from original idea to get it right. That's just how it works out, I played with the Diesel area for about 3 days, tinkering here and there to get what I thought a better flow of Trains and cohesion with building placement etc, of course I ran into some signal issues, and today had to rip out 3 miles of mainlines and switches to find out why one one of my Signals wouldn't clear to Green.....I fixed it, but what I think happened is Track Buffer or some thing corrupted on that part of the line, a Track connection, after fiddling around changing to different signals, it had to be something else, or a Translucent object I couldn't see on the Tracks. Whatever it was, clearing and relaying small pieces of Track and signal testing fixed......Only wasted a few hours. But I can't have my signals not working right, that just won't wash with me...
All my other signals are working perfectly. And with this size merge and different types of Routes combined, I do have 4-5 different type Signal Assets in play, you just have to find which ones play nice and communicate with each other.....
Sorry I got off on a tangent here, I hate when things don't work correctly, so also in the map below, is the Large Lake I made to allow for break of area between Beer Town ( they have a flowing River, which is not made yet in this beer town.
I have to look at Wisconsin Map of the old area to try and make some river nearby the Beer Line) that's another day, not now.
Aw, my favorites, a set of Alco Black Widows, an boy do I like them a lot, I grew up around these fellows when Southern Pacific was alive and well in the 1950's
Where here testing the switches and lights, and this is where I ran into a red light that should not be in 3 Track Mainline, with switches set correctly, non opposing trains ahead....Grrrr. I changed my Clouds today to Fire in the sky...Fit my mood perfectly....LOL
I have been building lots of Mountains for view effects and there coming out OK, if I can stop going back and fiddling with them, I tend to look at them in 360 views, so I find how to change them for better looks at any angle of view.
Don't mine the Pine trees, I removed some for Rail alignment, I have go back and reposition them here, I know trees don't grow in straight line, nor do I want them too....LOL
Here we are doing run by,
I had planned to pick up this rake of cars, but the red light that wouldn't clear stopped this modest operation, and I got upset, after changing signals to no avail, I ripped out this track these engines where on for the next 3 miles, why so far you say, well, that was the point, where I actually found a green light and beyond all signals were good. So it meant the problem was only on this Track, other 2 out of Triple main, Signals were spot on......Couldn't find the culprit, so we Rip and relay and test mile at a time. Whatever it was, I got it fixed.....And this type problem, happens very infrequently, so I know what has to be done to fix, sometimes, I don't have to rip out this much track, but today, well, you do what you have to, to resolve it.......
We just cleared our Triple Crossovers here, and stopped by Dispatch Tower on Right to get our paperwork for today's Cars move into new Diesel Oil Plant up further from here.
Recall I say to use your measuring tape to line up things better, well I was eyeballing my Track on the Right side, and it look a little out of aligment, normal with me moving/adding switches and testing elevation etc, so I dropped a line here for few hundred feet, and voila, some of the track was in and out of alignment but just a few feet, I corrected it easily with the Ruler as straight edge, I love this Ruler, and it also helps me to set signal Spaces in open areas between Cities....
OK now I would like you to see something here, look in the middle here just by the invisible signal below white Track Spline, do you see how this triple switch Rails fan out evenly here and do you see the nice "X" pattern in the tracks, that is hard to get too, at least for me, but when I can get it right, the train looks really smooth when it transverses from one crossover to another, and you can follow it easier with your Eye too...At least for me. I used the Ruler a lot in here too get everything near level and lined up for double X Crossovers between 3 mainlines.....And it works really well for me.......
Sorry this one may be a little hard to see, but what I did was extend my mountain building over 2 connection lines from Wilson Mills to Beer Town line, I wanted a geographical break in the Terrain, between the 3 merged Routes here. So I incorporated both Water, large Lake are, extra spacer Tiles, and Mountains too simulate going out of flatland area into heavy mountainous terrain, then back out to open area of Beer Line Country for Wisconsin Line.....If you look at the tiles in the middle, 4 of them there is all mountains constructed in there now.......
Doing some switching here at top of Rail sorting yard, not very big, only 3-4 tracks, but there is another small yard a few miles down from here, so it'll work fine.
Working my new 3 puzzle crossovers here to check it and see it works and that Signal aspects are correct, I use 3 head signal masts for this baby, later today, I took one of the crossovers out and added a Double switch just behind us, and works out better, and simplifies this puzzle......It is easy to throw or not throw the right switches but I will throw in one of Red Boxes Junction controller later to clean this up and make it easier. By having one switch selected throwing the connecting switch in one shot with the Controller,, makes it so much easier.....Don't want to Pick a switch point or derail, the boss will give me days off.....
That's it for now, I have a ton of pictures to show you, I think you'll really enjoy them.....
Tomorrow, comes in 2 hrs, so it is time for Bed, and it is Hump Day, or middle of the week.....Take care all.
Good Tuesday Evening all,
I have meetings tomorrow starting very early due our heavy traffic on Local Freeways, so I thought I would get this out tonight, rather than trying to do when I get home later tomorrow afternoon and probably not the clearest mind after fighting heavy traffic a good part of the day.
So on to the Beer Line and surrounding parts of Wilson Mills Merge group. So far, I have no further problems with my Route Copies.
One of the things I changed was my Backups to start when I am sleeping or away in Meetings, than to have Windows and Trainz compete for memory and Hard Drive Cycles. And it appears it was a wise decision, along with setting my NVIDIA Card at a lower power setting Graphics wise. Now my laptop doesn't overheat, only gets warm, not hot during heavy Graphics or Train Consist movements, all within normal Parameters,
Now for tonight, I show some of maps and things I have been working on:
In this Map Aqua circle is where the Beer Line merge is, and you can see there are a ton of Signal Lights, that's because Beer Line is pure Industrial and some City area. Lots and Lots of Spurs and mini yards for sorting the Boxcars etc, I read back in the day, they shunted 250-300 Cars of Beer and other items Daily....Compared to standards back then, that was a torrent of cars for I think what was 6 Mile Route area of the Beer Line operation.....
Yellow lines is where I have been working on Track Puzzles, 2-3 switch combined on Crossovers and access leads between 3 Mainlines in some spots. Helps keep congesting more organized.
Also re working a Diesel Refueling Plant in the area, took a lot of Clearing of Trees and whole host of other things to get what I think I wanted it too look like......Remember, I get a epiphany, an idea of sort, out of day dreaming, when I look at the Route as I modifying it etc.....The problem is, I never know what I'll need to do to complete said dream, and sometimes it takes 10 revamps, from original idea to get it right. That's just how it works out, I played with the Diesel area for about 3 days, tinkering here and there to get what I thought a better flow of Trains and cohesion with building placement etc, of course I ran into some signal issues, and today had to rip out 3 miles of mainlines and switches to find out why one one of my Signals wouldn't clear to Green.....I fixed it, but what I think happened is Track Buffer or some thing corrupted on that part of the line, a Track connection, after fiddling around changing to different signals, it had to be something else, or a Translucent object I couldn't see on the Tracks. Whatever it was, clearing and relaying small pieces of Track and signal testing fixed......Only wasted a few hours. But I can't have my signals not working right, that just won't wash with me...
All my other signals are working perfectly. And with this size merge and different types of Routes combined, I do have 4-5 different type Signal Assets in play, you just have to find which ones play nice and communicate with each other.....
Sorry I got off on a tangent here, I hate when things don't work correctly, so also in the map below, is the Large Lake I made to allow for break of area between Beer Town ( they have a flowing River, which is not made yet in this beer town.
I have to look at Wisconsin Map of the old area to try and make some river nearby the Beer Line) that's another day, not now.
Aw, my favorites, a set of Alco Black Widows, an boy do I like them a lot, I grew up around these fellows when Southern Pacific was alive and well in the 1950's
Where here testing the switches and lights, and this is where I ran into a red light that should not be in 3 Track Mainline, with switches set correctly, non opposing trains ahead....Grrrr. I changed my Clouds today to Fire in the sky...Fit my mood perfectly....LOL
I have been building lots of Mountains for view effects and there coming out OK, if I can stop going back and fiddling with them, I tend to look at them in 360 views, so I find how to change them for better looks at any angle of view.
Don't mine the Pine trees, I removed some for Rail alignment, I have go back and reposition them here, I know trees don't grow in straight line, nor do I want them too....LOL
Here we are doing run by,
I had planned to pick up this rake of cars, but the red light that wouldn't clear stopped this modest operation, and I got upset, after changing signals to no avail, I ripped out this track these engines where on for the next 3 miles, why so far you say, well, that was the point, where I actually found a green light and beyond all signals were good. So it meant the problem was only on this Track, other 2 out of Triple main, Signals were spot on......Couldn't find the culprit, so we Rip and relay and test mile at a time. Whatever it was, I got it fixed.....And this type problem, happens very infrequently, so I know what has to be done to fix, sometimes, I don't have to rip out this much track, but today, well, you do what you have to, to resolve it.......
We just cleared our Triple Crossovers here, and stopped by Dispatch Tower on Right to get our paperwork for today's Cars move into new Diesel Oil Plant up further from here.
Recall I say to use your measuring tape to line up things better, well I was eyeballing my Track on the Right side, and it look a little out of aligment, normal with me moving/adding switches and testing elevation etc, so I dropped a line here for few hundred feet, and voila, some of the track was in and out of alignment but just a few feet, I corrected it easily with the Ruler as straight edge, I love this Ruler, and it also helps me to set signal Spaces in open areas between Cities....
OK now I would like you to see something here, look in the middle here just by the invisible signal below white Track Spline, do you see how this triple switch Rails fan out evenly here and do you see the nice "X" pattern in the tracks, that is hard to get too, at least for me, but when I can get it right, the train looks really smooth when it transverses from one crossover to another, and you can follow it easier with your Eye too...At least for me. I used the Ruler a lot in here too get everything near level and lined up for double X Crossovers between 3 mainlines.....And it works really well for me.......
Sorry this one may be a little hard to see, but what I did was extend my mountain building over 2 connection lines from Wilson Mills to Beer Town line, I wanted a geographical break in the Terrain, between the 3 merged Routes here. So I incorporated both Water, large Lake are, extra spacer Tiles, and Mountains too simulate going out of flatland area into heavy mountainous terrain, then back out to open area of Beer Line Country for Wisconsin Line.....If you look at the tiles in the middle, 4 of them there is all mountains constructed in there now.......
Doing some switching here at top of Rail sorting yard, not very big, only 3-4 tracks, but there is another small yard a few miles down from here, so it'll work fine.
Working my new 3 puzzle crossovers here to check it and see it works and that Signal aspects are correct, I use 3 head signal masts for this baby, later today, I took one of the crossovers out and added a Double switch just behind us, and works out better, and simplifies this puzzle......It is easy to throw or not throw the right switches but I will throw in one of Red Boxes Junction controller later to clean this up and make it easier. By having one switch selected throwing the connecting switch in one shot with the Controller,, makes it so much easier.....Don't want to Pick a switch point or derail, the boss will give me days off.....
That's it for now, I have a ton of pictures to show you, I think you'll really enjoy them.....
Tomorrow, comes in 2 hrs, so it is time for Bed, and it is Hump Day, or middle of the week.....Take care all.