Snow High Valley Distr Ctr (High Resolution 950x532) Approx

Shunting Moves on the Grocer Branch

Good Weds evening all,

I forgot on the last Post to mention, but you can see a large Tower on the left of the Diamond, that is Microwave Relay for the whole Route this is new from last week, now the Engineers and other Crafts can communicate across vast distances now with extended Relay setup, better for everyone to be able and advise delays, projects slow movements etc.

Our Junk Train for Grocer Branch has moved over 4 tracks now will cross the Diamonds and head for the new Switch.

You can see us in the back crossing the Diamonds as our Steam Special heads North on the curved connection from East Side Main.

Got thru the Signal Gantry as we head East on Main #1.

Now we are mile out from the Diamonds, and we are lined up to the new Switch just passed the Gantry. Will do a reverse move for bout 2 miles into the Forest on their new Grocer Branch Line.

Medium Clear Signal as we have 2 Dedicated Switchers in the end of the Branch working the Grocery, Box Crate Co and Local Trans Load set outs further back towards end of this long Spur.

I threw in a Gantry so we can see farther back as we backing into the Spur Line here. The second track is used for Exit and Runaround operations.

We got Diverging Route Aspect will continue back into the Box Factory and then around the Corner.

Now with the Overview, you can see how the Tracks are laid out and to the left we have Duel Diesel Fueling Pumps to handle the 2 dedicated Switchers and our Train Power too. So no one runs out of Fuel around here. The Spurs on Right are to be extended to the Tree line straight back, as me need more Storage as Loads and Trans Load Ops are done.

Back to Texturing here specifically Water, the whole board was covered in Water, and need to be cleaned up so only Water is used where it's shown.

On the right side here is the last excess Water left over, that needs to be cleared.

Now in the next item I am working on is where is the Coal Mining Facility I think I had, that I don't have, now why would that be I ask you, Could it be that the Mining operation I thought was Coal, is not, and is a Gravel and Sand Operation!

Yup you guessed it, I never had a Coal Mine Operation, funny thing that started all of this Chaos?

It seems I have a Light and Power Plant that Burns Coal, so where Pray Tell, other than Creating a Fake Coal Train on the Fly, do I get Coal for our Power Plant. The Rest of the Story will appear on our next Post here.

Thanks for Dropping in.

Harbor Rail Yard Operations

Good Saturday Evening,

Been busy texturing, Planting Weeds and Trees in different areas of the Layout.

Below is Cab View from CN Q Trains really nice looking Cab layout here.

We cross over a new Bridge I put in here I opened up the area to accommodate the changes. Originally this was a very narrow opening with a finger point of land at or near Zero Elevation, so what I did was raise the Road Bed 7-10 feet, I don't remember exactly as I did several new bridges around the layout.

Put in a Trestle Bridge here because I like Trestles when I can use them. The crossing was far enough away from any switches so negligible height adjustments to the Bridge height difference made it an easy change. Now the other thing I did, which will cause a lot of work, I had to lower the water by 5 feet to make this look proper which means I need to go out in several areas and Dredge the land out lower because I have barren areas where the water level changed globally due to lowering the water here.

I also made sure I put in some nice Bridge abutments too. I think this turned out the way I envisioned it. Grade change is about 1.5 to 2.0% max, and doesn't impact our speed of operations so far.

Now that I got all the Rails situated here, we are working the yard Trains to see how the signaling and Switches work together.

Recall I talked about the little Diesel Shunter on the right side of this picture, (see junction 1228296 here) these are the small service yard tracks I put in for the Industrial Warehouse Freight Transfer, and Blue Farming Equipment Building back Right, and our 2 Small Silos that get Feed Stock from the Wharf Building on Left, which has to do with Commercial Boat Operations at the Harbor, they process Raw Bulk Materials, Like Wood and other things, so will get Saw Dust and other items in Silo, then it air drop by High pressure pipe here coming across the Tracks into a waiting Gondola cars, 3-4 Max Daily from the Silo Storage Tanks, more business for the Railroad. We ship it out to Particle Board manufactures and other Companies Etc.

Because this Connects to main Staging Yard, we just interchange the cars with Ultra Small Diesel Shunter into a consist out bound. Yo can see the merge Tracks in the back. We have one to two small storage yards dedicated for our Loads.

Our Staging Yard may be small here, but it is highly efficient as way and thru point operation for Freight. In addition we have no passenger traffic allowed thru here, if they come over this way, we would navigate them thru the Return loops for Scenic Views and it would have no impact on our Yard Operations. That's how I see it for now.

Our Q Train is out on the move thru the country here, only problem I ran into, I had 15 MPH setting that I had to locate, which when I did I found some issues with the location of different speed control points, so now what I am doing is clearing most of them and start slowly by placing just what I need to get good speed on the Main, but maintain safe speed restrictions only where they are needed for proper Shunting practices.

We are running Junk Q Train here checking Grade %'s etc. We are also checking out the new Reverse Loops I put in for proper Signal Spacing and Aspects.

In the long Loop from yard to central valley connection, I found out my Signal spacing was too close for that area and cut half the signals out. This meant Signals normally spaced 1 mile apart now spread to 2 or 2.5 miles apart.

Passing thru the Harbor Lake area, really nice colors, but I need to add a little more Foliage in this area, some Grass too. Not heavy just a little to spruce it up.

Another view of the area from way a way..........Now you see the Trees that were out of view, so I only need to have a few in sparse area's. Also, if u look carefully, there are some small Hilly areas I made from the flatland's. I wanted to just have a few small Hills as a backdrop, like about 20-50 feet high, and I think this fits the bill nicely. Majority of the land around here is flat with Foliage.

Our Train is coming across two more new bridges installed for the Return Loop Line.

Coming into the Gravel Sand and Gravel mine area, we have new Signal Gantry's installed and they are working well. I added more Team and Loading Tracks to the Gravel Pit Mining location, they are not seen yet, I will post them later on.

Other side looking back, we see how the aspects shows as our train nears the Block.

In the meantime I'm working on Coal Supply situation for my Power Plant, and some additional Power and Substation improvements.

That's all for tonight.

Thank you for dropping by.

Good Weds Eve from Arizona, beautiful Sunsets for sure,

A little sketchy on internet here, so I'll try and get this posted before my connection Drops.

Below is the Sand and Grave Mine I thought was a coal operation, were not stopping here. Actually I was testing the long return loop from the Harbor Staging Yard, and it is all signalized and working perfectly.

Guess we have Crossing activiation problem here, the Gates didn't drop, so we go thru at walking speed carefully. Have to call out MOW and get it fixed.I also see we have an unfinished hwy too, so this is a blank Crossing with no auto traffic....LOL.....Actually there are several spots on this route where the highways need to be extended and joined up with other highways, my work is never done and I love it, keeps the brain engaged and not boring.

A lone black widow with SP Police Caboose heads to the small harbor Port Transfer Facility to pickup some loads.

And here we crossing the Harbor Mainline to pick up some loads from small Port facility and we will be on our way out.

From sea side you can see our Power picking up the loads just delivered by small commercial Sea Vessels to our markets. We also have some special lumber that came in so will bring in some empties for drop off here.

Harbor Yard Tracks a little empty, but will be filling them up soon.

This is a new Warehouse operation next to Harbor Yard, we just put in Spur track with new Loads coming in with customer supplies. This Track crosses the other small spur line we showed with SP Black Widow picking up on the Remote Dock setup.

One other thing, check out my Trigger Radius, see how small I made it, so it doesn't sense a train on the nearby Spur Track, that's intentional for AI operations etc.

Some Locomotives I downloaded recently. These are fictional models.

Below is the new Coal Mine operations (3 separate Coal Companies here) Green arrows with support tracks. Red Arrow is Local Portal Operations. It took four added Tiles to give enough land to cover the amount I needed.

This is the Coal Operation view from quit a distance, and you can see the mountains I tried to build for a good background look.

I'll show you some more pictures to see better how I did the layout.

Thanks for dropping in to visit.

Good Friday Eve all,

So recall I had a Power Plant and no Coal to feed off my Route, except a Sand and Gravel Operation, great for construction and such, ain't going to keep the Lights lit at night. So I put out the word I had some land that had Coal Deposits, and up comes 4 companies to mine different commodities including our much needed Coal for the power plant. Our Coal Plant has 4 load lines and a great turn around loop for parts and mining supplies.
I kitbashed the Coal Plant with some extra conveyors and Buildings located on the Mountain in the back here.

Around the corner we have other Mines and loading operations going on to produce different commidities.

So we have 3 mines going on in this spot and they are rail Served for Mining and the necessary equipment delivered as needed.

Over at the Power Plant we have leased power picking up a slew of empties here headed to our new Coal Mine Plant.

We pull the empties out both ways on same main, and then hook then together as one long Train headed north to the Mine.

Loco 9001 is got a good head of steam as he pulls out with empty Gons.

In this picture we have a dedicated Crossing Buck with Yellow Light warning for TRain in Street, can't say I have ever seen a Lit Crossing Buck Dwarf ever, but I like it.

Over to Canadian Route from Roy's Trainz, amazing scenery here with huge Boulders as we drag cars up the Mountain Cyn. to different industries. Route Grade is 1-2.25% but the track is laid to perfection.

Heading across fast moving River Stream rapids here as we pass by..........

I decided to play some sessions on this Route and get some more ideas on how Scenery is done. Amazing Colors and Graphic design here.

That's about it for now, I'm in the process going thru the many Routes I've accumulated, it's time to wean them out and keep only the great ones to play with.

Have a good weekend all and thank you for visiting.

Ride on Canadiian Rocky Mtns Columbia Riv Basin

Good Monday Eve all,

Just got back form Arizona so now I can play a little more with Trainz,

Here we have a Shunting Session on Canadian Rocky Mountains-Columbia River Basin, this is a stunning Route, Kudos to Roy's...

I took several pictures to show you how this Route looks, and I only covered a small area of it. In this Shunt Session we have 3 small Freight hooked together as one Train with DPU's. As we head north up the River Canyon, each of our Trains will peel off the Main and take a long Branch Spur to make their delivery, this is an interesting way to do things, but time wise and Signal Block wise it works very well on this long Single Main Line with Passing sidings. With 3 Trains into one, you tie up less space on capacity splitting off as needed for delivery's.

Here we are heading thru spectacular mountain Valleys.

We hit one of destinations and will effect reverse move to drop these Hoppers off to the Customer.

Our last part of the train with Engineer Alan will cut loose and take his Oil tankers to the Oil Farm.

In this picture you can see our whole 3 part train with Box Cars, Oil Cans and Grain Hoppers. Look at the River and many small Tree Islands really laid out nicely, so natural looking here.

We head into 2 track main here as we have a fast hot Grain Train headed south to Market. Lots of activity on this line that's for sure.

And looking at the Grain Hopper, looks like we have 2 Trains bunched together, empty Ore Cars? Along for the ride. I'm new to this Route, so I don't know where they are headed.

Here we pass by a huge Logging and Mill Plant on our way thru the valley. Tracks are well laid our for capacity moves with generous Spur hookups.

Better overall picture shows a large Logging operation with some other adjoining operations tied in here.

We are heading up a very Rocky Canyon, again kudos to Roy's for some terrific scenery here, I love it. Really pristine views as we head up a 1%+ grade. I good get lost up here, and I bet the Salmon fishing is great too.

I having fun playing on my routes I have downloaded, both free and payware. Needed some diversion from Route Building, you know the story, your never really finished building or improving your route, there is always something that can be changed or improved as you play on it.

Thanks for coming by, I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I did sharing them with you.

Good Wed Day to all,

Still in the Canadian Mountains here, we climb up a 2% grade as we push on further to our destination point. I'm running one his Freight Sessions, if you look to middle of the picture and slightly up, you'll see the Green distance arrow symbol showing how far to go for Nav point indicator. I made 800 Stars so far with this Session Score. There is 4-5 Sessions on this Route.

Crossing the River at 23MPH on 25MPH limit, and further up, will hit 15MPH because of close clearances and possible Rock Slide area in the Canyon! Look at these huge Boulders all over the place.

We hit a short tunnel thru the mountain here. And if you look at my Loco Menu on Right, 15 MPH is coming up as we exit the Tunnel.......

Just another picture of the Bridge we crossed over some rapids below, you do not want to derail anywhere in this canyon, or it could be your last derail and not be found as you get washed down the Rapids below.

Yup.... I have lots of respect for this river, and some have lost their lives from foolishness in the past. Ole Man River has the reigns, disrespect him and find out what can happen. I chose the respect and common sense path in this canyon.

Shear Rock Walls of Granite here, what they must have done to get these Rails in was something, wasn't done in a Day, nor a year. But you know it was a huge undertaking for sure.

Lots of curves as we make our way up the heavily Rocked face of this serene canyon wall. Notice it is a single Track in here too. We are humming along at 12 MPH with Train Handling at 100% no error for mistakes in this Canyon.

Take a look at these awesome waterfalls here! Imagine getting this Bridge in place safely without falling in the River and washed away?

Awe now we come into Dual Track and lots of run by traffic headed down to the valley as hot Grain Train passes us on the Left. We get a red here as we take the siding for him to pass us. Minor delay of 10 mins or less, at least 7 mins for the switch to align after he passes us.

That's it for tonight, enjoy.

Good Fri evening all,

I decided to do the Patch update to 90945, had to do an extended database repair, and fix some of my faulty assets, get rid of some other Files that are now out of compliance with the new Patch #. Took some time to install, and took 50 mins for DB repair, but now load times and File Saves are doing OK.

Bought the BNSF Train Car pack from JR, and got Thanksgiving day sales price, really nice in the pack was Geep 38 Dirty with various Flatcar, Gondola, and Gondola Scrapped Load on Flatcar. I post pictures later on this.

Thank you JR for well done work as usual.

Decided to stop Route building upgrades for a while and get some actual Session and Run time experience for while. Below is Hinton Division on C&O Route in a rain storm. I'm picking up full Gondolas and dumping there loads then moving them to other points for delivery etc.

Some really nice Steamers laying around in this yard with their Green Running Class lights at the ready. Another one on far left has pulled in with Empty Coal Gons and waits for Signal and destination update from dispatch, I suspect there is incoming Traffic from other side.

Were getting our Gons hooked up for transfer as it rains harder on us. More Stormy weather ahead for sure.

We stop for a second and pick up more orders for Freight Shunting.

Back over to Canadian Atlantic Corridor, I'm learning my way around this huge Layout with little Shunter and running a Gypsum Gons to the loco factory up the road about 5 miles or so. Big mining pit for Gypsum minerals.

Got our empty Gon Cars about 20 and headed up the route to the Mine Facility. this little guy can pull pretty good too, I'm of the of thought he is geared low for better pulling power.

We cruise up the coast next to scenic River. There is if I recall correctly 200 Miles of Route on this one, so plenty of area to explore........Fun, Fun, Fun for me.

As we come thru our last curve, our Gypsum Mine is comes into view. And as I look at the Tracks, I need to make some changes and additions, a few other moves too.

Back over at C&WC Port Royal Branch Route we are taking another load of empty Coal Gons using Modified SD80 Macs with plenty of HP on-board. Our Crossing Gates our functioning here, however I have several that are DOA.....Something is missing or corrupted.

A little earlier in the Day at Power Plant we are busy moving the empties to form a solid one train with 2 Power at front and one to rear as DPU power tonight. It took a little longer as way freight goes by to Harbor Yard and other distant locations.

That's about it for now, I'll be running around on several different Routes just having some fun to break it up a little for now....Diversion is good for the mind as decide what I what to work on next.

Wishing you all a great weekend ahead as we approach the Xmas Season.

Thanks for coming by to visit.

Drovers Caboose Travel

Back on my other Route,

We have what they call a Drovers Caboose that handled Freight and the Cattle Owners who needed to go to market with Live Stock I believe. Pretty interesting Caboose and it worked very well for these Live Stock owners.

UP Steam is on the move with the owners nice Green Signal ahead for us as we exit the Yard.

On our way thru the Canyons as we head to the Wharf......Hopefully we get in before night Fall.

Back over in our Indian Village, we had some Rail Break and need to get this car re Railed, however, the locals will unload the supplies quickly and the car will of course be much, much lighter and easier to block up for Re Rail operations.

The Box Car Wheels were too damaged so we just had it put on flatcar and hauled off the the Car Shops for repair. Tracks are repaired now.

Over in the city UP #2366 Local passes by a Pharmacy as head to the Oil Refinery to drop off these empties just around the corner. Will meet our other Wood Products Local who is pulling in side track now to clear for us.

As we pull in with empty Tankers, our partner local UP#2561is coming out for Spline Cars heavily loaded with fresh wood products for Market.

These tracks were all freshly laid out, and I have to see if my ideas work on the way did the intersection between the Wood and Oil Factories where the Tracks Cris Cross each other to access local Spur and Team Tracks. As soon as we pull our lumber loads clear of this Diamond, our Oil Can will clear the switch on his side and backing into the Oil Refinery to drop off empty's and pick up any Loads they have for us.

Looking good, I forgot, we have 2 entry tracks here to the Oil Refinery, so we drop off our Caboose for a while, and shunt the Empty Tankers back.

Everything is good and we picked up some full Oil Cans. And Extra Spline cars for another Wood Products Customer who is waiting for them to load.

It's a good day, everything except a minor derail which fortunately for us was on a Spur, all is well and we are on time.......

I downloaded this Route off the DLS which is supposed to work under SP-2 update, so I plan on fooling around with it. And our good Friend Pware has revamped it to work with T:ANE, no small challenge that's for sure..........Check it out if you like NG Routes.

The TGR (Tasmanian Government Railways) Fingal narrow gauge 42 inch (3 ft 6 in - 1067 mm) line ran 47 miles (75 km) from Conara Junction to St Marys. Built to T:ANE SP2 standards. Uses high detail scenery and speed trees. All content is built-in or on the DLS. The route and its sessions may be modified for personal use.
Created using data provided by the Australian Railway Historical Society, the Tasmanian Transportation Museum, the Australian National Archives, Google Earth, Google Maps, railway historian Jim Stokes and others.

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/sho...gal-Line-1955-route-and-sessions-for-TANE-SP2

See you in a couple of days then.....Enjoy the day.

Charleston & Western Carolina Railway Port Royal Branch

Good Tuesday my friends!

Hard to believe Thanks Giving has come and gone so quick and now Xmas is around the corner, as I start Stringing up the Xmas lights outside, Like Tane, they have errors, Which light was is it, that caused the 1/2 the String to burn out? LOL.......Just poking some fun here. I really like T:ANE despite the the broken assets I need to fix. It is much better than TS-12 in several ways.

So back to The Charleston & Western Carolina Railway Port Royal Branch, I am really starting to have some fun on this one as I get a few things worked out for my needs. It is a wonderful Route to play on.

My SD80 Mac's are on there way to the new Coal Mine Co Operative, as we head north in the early evening our Signal shows a diverging route, happy I am as the signals work spot on for me. These puppies have lots of power and run smooth as silk.

We take the siding as there might be another South Bounder headed our way. However once we got in the siding, a Green lamp lit up for us, and dispatch advised we did in fact have one headed, but it took a turn on one of the Branch Lines ahead of us. So as he turned against us, that's why we got the Siding for a minute for safety spacing of opposing train movements.......I like it a lot......No head on collisions, safety first, Crew First etc.......Everyone goes home safe to their families!

thought you'd like the little sign here, as we pull out of the siding on Clear Lamp.....

And while I'm at it, on the right of us, is new Loco Power assigned to Factory in the back, we just opened 3 Service Tracks on both sides to handle Boxcar loads. and heavy Machinery and other like commodities for this new factory. More biz for the line and we can handle it easily with Double Tracks and Single Tracks with passing sidings. Everything is well signaled, and if we have any unperceived bottle necks, will do our best to clear it up, we make a habit of meeting with our Customers on regular basis to see how our service is doing, and do they need changes etc. A co operative relationship, remember if you lose that customer to other Transportation modes, you stand the chance of not getting their business back.....Or to a competing RR Co........It happens. Remember Customer should be King, and yes there are exceptions and some folks you cannot satisfy..........

I need to adjust the trigger locations a bit for the spur, the Gates where a bit slow coming down, which reminds me, we do our best to never go through gates not fully down, that means our signal maintainers better be on their monthly Crossing Check, to make sure everything is in Spec! unfortunately with the latest rains, we had issues with 2 Crossing with Slow orders in place till repair and Solutions are put in place.

OK Gates are down, and we are on our way, I'll send a memo to MOW re slow gate issue off Spur.

Here is a quick Stat Info on our Train, 8141 which is not heavy for us, GON's are empty, wait till we bring Loaded ones back, ouch, it get's heavy.

Oh, and I am using an additional HUD that show's me graphical view of Junctions, Name of Companies we serve coming thru. Shows Switch Position too.


At the end of this 65 Consist, we have DPU pushing the rear, the only thing I wish I knew how to do is put on Red Marker Lamps. Someday I will have to experiment to see if I can do it.

Gantry Signal awaits us with more deverging Route, normal for here as we split into the right side of it.

Sand and Gravel to our left as we pass by, have dedicated power here as those Sand and Gravel are heavy loads to pull out/ move around etc.

And if you look closely, there are 4 Steamers sitting in the siding for the night, they are on there way to another end of the Route.

Our bright lights on as we hit 42MPH passing thru the night.

I continue playing on Pware's new TGR NG Route, Tasmanian, and it is out of this world cool......Kudos to Pware. Will have more pictures off that route to show this week.

Route Name: TGR Fingal Line 1955 Narrow Gauge (3ft 6in - 1067mm) (TANE SP2)

Thanks for coming to Visit here.....If you have question not sure about something you see in the picture, you can always ask........

Heading to the Coal Mine on Charlestond and Western Carolina Railway Port Royal Line

Good Friday All,

Been so busy with Xmas Deco Xmas Shopping making treats for Xmas yikes, I forgot to post some PICS, wow......

So here we go on The Charleston & Western Carolina Railway Port Royal Branch Route,

It a beautiful Dawn here coming soon as we cross the River Bridge on our way to the Coal Mine. The air is crisp and we have a our hot thermos full of Coffee and Hot Coco. Our heaters our working fine.

We have a Green so will increase our speed as we head north and hear is our Track Route Rule in action, this is not mine it comes from the DLS, check my Visitor messages it has the name and information how this works. Also there are all types of Rules on the DLS too for many different things.

Signal Bridge ahead shows caution, have to slow down to 20 or less till we see what is ahead.

Don't see anything but Helpers parked on the siding ahead.

Crossing the Triple Diamond we see couple Dispatchers taking a Smoke Break, they wave to us as we pass thru...........This little Dispatch Station here is very busy at the four corners! Accuracy is a must on making sure Trains move thru safely from all four corners of the Route. Remember, these Diamonds get their share of wear from all angles, so our MOW has the priority to make sure there are no defects.

Not quit daylight yet but it's coming. Oops, looks like our next signal is Red, we need to call the dispatcher here and see if maybe they didn't get us lined up, look at our speed, we headed down to 10MPH.....Slooooooowwwwwww. Lets get this show on road folks........

I don't think you've seen this part of the new Freeway overpass, this replaced all the Roadways inside of the Quadrangle and it works great for getting traffic across rather than thru the Diamond area.

Nice looking rail and ties here as we head thru.

Unfortunately, our Route here was not cleared here. So we wait 7 mins for the switch to unlock......Grr....Oh well, lets have some Coffee..........And check our route notes for any upcoming changes., Am I too impatient here, well yes I am.........

Oh my we have our Dirty BN Train Pack from JR, thank you JR for the interesting loads of Commodities.
Including Scrapped Gon on Flat Car..........

Thanks for coming in to visit.

Running thru the back woods

Good Monday Eve all,

I'm on the Road to Arizona trying to finish up some Family business, got a chance to catch the internet for a min and post.

Been giving Narrow Gauge a whirl, and consolidatiing my routes to see what I have and it appears I have 3 different NG sizes, 24, 30, and 42 or 3.6 Feet size, hmm, I need to learn more about NG, and also find some running equipement I think in the 30 size, as I don't have too much of it, in fact I think about 8 pieces....

So back on the Aussie Merge Route, were headed thru the back woods to the Harbor area. Rails are smooth, signals are working.

Go my Old SP workhorses pulling a heavy load up a 2.5% or better gradient..........

Sky's getting a little dark here, might get some rain on our way to the Harbor.

Looks like we have some Snow still on the higher ridges of this range.

And if the Snow drops, well, not a problem either, we come fully fitted with Snow Sheds to get thru if we have any avalanches.

Looks like the Rain is chasing us to the rear, but we are staying just ahead of it........



oops, we had another TANE quake from merging another Route into the main, hate when that happens, going to take a while to get the Tracks out of the Stratosphere....LOL.

This was some Payware I purchased a while back, I really like the Iron Ore Mine here. It comes with Mine and Cars to go with it.,not the SP Loco, that's was from somewhere else.....

Just testing the Mine loader out and new spur tracks I put in Alps route......Works great.

Another far above shot to show the area and all the colorful trees too..........

That'll do for now, I bid you all a good week, and thanks for dropping by..........

Good Thursday all,

Great to be back home from being on the Road, I can tell you, the Winds and Smoke and Blowing Sand were not nice to meet on the Road last night, our State is in bad shape with all this dryness and wild fires......The worst I think I have seen it since the 60's.....1000's of Acres including Fruit Trees going up in Smoke, unfortunately for us, we have no rain in site for the Next 2 weeks or more!

Lets go to some more pleasant things here. Shout out to Pware and ElStoko helping me out with solutions to 3 different assets that were faulty in T:ANE I have several hundred more to do from the Patch update from SP1-to SP2, some I just had to many problems so I deleted them......The Rest, ahim, well? will see what we can to do to fix. And Asset X really helps when possible for the mundane Coloration and other items, Asst X is a must have. Kudos to Andi06 and may he RIP, we sure miss him, what a prince of a gentleman he was.

So I still fooling around with some NG layouts, and I plan to merge 2-3 of them together, looking at NG3 I think over NG2 size for the moment, but I intend to play with both gauges. I just don't know which is better, because I'm a Newbie at this.

So pics for today are from Coal Country, great payware route.,,,,So well done, and love the Trains that it came with too.

Below is Old fashion Steam Train rolling thru the country we pass a rail Bridge that had it's Tracks removed.....Very cool feature.....

Ah, and here is our Loco with a good head of Steam as she gets ready to hit the Dark Tunnel ahead........Weather is great for now.......

Here is a larger pic of the area we are passing thru, don't get lost in the Jungle of Trees.........

Cleared the Tunnel and we are on our way thru some great country scenery here.

Business man in the car with the Watchful eye of the police keeping a lookout for Train Robbers on horseback, and yah, they are out there looking for a train to Rob......

Mean while our Loco is setting out cars to loco Businesses for delivery before the Passenger train comes thru today....Won't be long so we have to clear Main#1 or have one upset dispatcher on our back........It's all in the timing.........Our crew is good so there shouldn't be a problem here.

RPPX #2502 old engines, but they always startup in any weather........And don't laugh either, they are paid for.........We are shoving loads to local industries and doing a run around to get some other loads pulled out of freight consists.

Dispatch just told us, we have about 25mins to spot our loads, then we have to clear the main for Passenger Train with VIP business folks coming thru Smoky Country......Lamp is green so Run 3-4 and is in Vogue for now.

Coming down thru another underpass as we set up to get some Coal Loads off the siding.

Sky is getting darker as the late afternoon comes along, and we have a lot more loads to push out in Sun or Rain, will get it done today......Make sure we stop at the ole Country Store for a second and Grab some sandwiches and hot coffee, think will need it today.

Ok that about wraps it up for now.......Got my Honey Do List, and this time of year it is a full list........See you all later and thanks for dropping in to peek around......Hope you enjoy the pictures......

One last note, lots of Families lost their homes to Wild Fires, pleases say a prayer for them......Very tuff time, I can't imagine losing a home, as well as Horses and other Animals they had.

Good Sat all,

Like all Xmas seasons, the weeks are passing by fast as we prepare for the upcoming holidays........

So back here at Coal Country by Scratchy, I running around and grabbing the Caboose end to shove back into some industry before our Steam Train comes by.

Grabbed a couple of Flats with heavy machinery loads and drop them off at the station.

And out we go and grab some Hopper loads at Parker Station.

Meanwhile our special equip train local pushes into the work siding for the day. They have finished their shift for now. He just needs to be clear of the mains.

Looks good, and there are no Coal Loads today. Tomorrow yes, but we start him early so he'll be clear for the empties ordered here.

And we are still shunting some items and we pass by our Local that has tied up for the night. Nice Bale of Feed piled up to dry in the Farm Yard to the left......

aa



A view from across the field as we clear our Power to the right and move more loads around.

And over at our 2ft Narrow Gauge Himalaya route, our little Steamer climbs up a steep mountain route to the Village in the Clouds.........What a picturesque route this is.

It's late and a busy day ahead, I shouldn't be up this late, but I thought since it was, I'd fire up these new Pics and get them posted ahead of time.

Have a great weekend, we have family coming over for the weekend, and will be cooking some good food to boot, guess who the taste tester for Quality Control. :hehe:....Just love that job.........Something good always cooking in the Kitchen......There outta be a law against that........LOL

Night all and thanks for coming by.

Good Mon Eve all,

Currently since I upgraded to SP-2 Patch, like others I have a slew of more of Faulty Assets to deal with, originally with SP-1 I had 350-400, now I have 1100-1400, the reason for the spread, is part of the number is Trees that just won't work in SP-2 environment. So I had to delete the assets unfortunately, as for others running them thru Asset X with Color fixes and other things, it seemed to fix some of them. So each day I fix a few until I get it all caught up.

Also have continued dabbling with different sizes of Narrow Gauge items and Routes, it is going to take me while to get my head wrapped around the different Gauges and Drawbacks.

Below is a night running on the Flaam Route, some of the Canyons are quite deep and foreboding, Kudos to the route builder for how this turned out. Below we are in a very deep Canyon crossing between 2 very tall mountains as we head to the top.

You want to have well maintained Rails and Rolling Stock etc in this canyon, the winds can get heavy and so can the Snow Storms that come into this area. Much different that flat lander living for sure..But then there is potential for strong Tornadoes. However for me, Mountains are majestic and always be respected.

So looking from the Rail below Skyward, we see a huge water fall from atop, splashing down into the deep canyon walls, how cool is that? Anyone for Bungi Jumping, LOL, you go ahead, I just not confident I could do it, or hang glider for that fact.

Oh wow, looks like we might have some Dusk showing up here, or it could be the city lights above reflecting off the clouds.

The Snows as I said before can be avalanche heavy, so many Snow Sheds have been put in from the get go to protect the trains from Snow Slide issues. Again as always, safety of Crews, Customers and Equipment is all important on the long scheme of operational environment. One major Lawsuit, loss of equipment to put a big dent in the bottom line or even, if it is bad enough, bankruptcy, non of which serves the public or Business at large a positive. It hurts everyone......

Heading thru about 40 MPH everything looks and feels good here. Track running is smooth, no defects, and our Customers are fast asleep as we travel the night to our next town.

Better not be anyone walking the tracks here in the dead of night, less a Bear or Elk........So far everything is clear ahead as our engineer keeps a watchful eye.

It won't be much longer, but winter will sit in and there will be signs of Snow and Icicles. Our Engineer and Conductor are going to enjoy some hot Coffee now.

Really nice looking equipment, I think I mentioned before, I plan to run some freight later on in this route, but I'll need some double Tracking and probably tunnels too for more capacity. That's all in the Future. I also need to finish the Rail line on top of this mountain as it dead ends into Portal on one side if I recall, and on the other side it ends into the side of mountain where a Tunnel thru is planned.

Below we come into a small city with Nice Motel, will tie up here for the night, Customers who made their reservations will disembark the Train after a very comfortable ride up the Mountains. We have other small cities to stop at ahead. We also will pick up some new passengers who are heading out to their next destination.

Lots to do, and then there is that Narrow Gauge I need to play around with.....I need to check out Slug Masher's site, he has some routes that look interesting too.

Wish all a good week ahead. Thanks for dropping in here.

Good Weds all,

I have to run out with Mr's Blue and buy our Xmas Tree before they are all gone,,,,,,crazy weather at 83 degrees, way too hot for this time of the year........

Will write more caption about what's going on in the Pics later tonight..........Thanks for peeking, ...........

Alrighty then, it's next morning and we are headed on out for final Destination, all passengers boarded from the luxurious hotel. We would stay longer, but we have a train to run. Lights lit, and away we go.

And here is the name of our stop, Vatnahalsen, of which I don't know what it means. Btw we are running electric up here and this Loco does very well.

Sky is a bit Gray, Snow is possible at this elevation, but we are still a little too warm at the moment, but that can change in little time.

I like the passenger car livery too.

Not too many houses up here, there is a lots of Pasture up for grazing.

This is our Track line map, the tracks do not actually cross each other, rather they climb up the mountain above each other in Stair Case method.

Sun is rising fast and the weather looks like it is steady for us.If you look straight out over the top of this opening, you get the feeling we are very, very high here! Better believe we are at high altitude.

Coming round the curve here, as we head out.

We are coming thru to this Quint Stop, I really like the look of these station houses. and on passing track, our other Passenger Train is headed back down the hill. Timing is spot on as always. I do think I will add a few more trees and some other type scenery up here when I get around to it.

I forgot, we have made it to end of the line, as the tracks goes out to the right, that goes into double portal setup. I haven't had a chance to see how it configured for Trains yet.

Looks like we have Locomotive Storage and some equipment Storage.

I have more to learn about this route, which will come over time as I operate more Trains here.

There is more Track area to extend with the help of some tunnels etc.

Durango & Silverton NG

Good Friday all,

What a busy time of year it is for everyone,,,,,I unfortunately lost a close friend to Heart Attack, so today is funeral........So before I leave for the Funeral, thought I would post this real quick.

Downloaded this a couple of days ago, after looking it over, it is a keeper for sure, Below is info on the Real Route, and pics below are some stuff I cobbled together to take a run starting in Durango section.

Beautiful Route for sure, and just the right size for my Laptop, any larger and I wouldn't be able to run on Laptop............ When I get back I'll annotate more on the pictures.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durango_and_Silverton_Narrow_Gauge_Railroad

he Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates 45.2 miles (72.7 km) of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and is also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge line from Antonito, Colorado, to Durango. The last train to operate into Durango from the east was on December 6, 1968. The states of New Mexico and Colorado purchased 64 miles between Antonito and Chama, New Mexico, in 1970 and operates today as the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Trackage between Chama and Durango was removed by 1971.
The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. In March 1981, the Denver & Rio Grande Western sold the line and the D&SNG was formed.[3]
Some rolling stock dates back to the 1880s. Trains operate from Durango to the Cascade Wye in the winter months and Durango-Silverton during the summer months. Durango depot was built in January 1882 and has been preserved in original form.

Update:Below is the Whole Map of Silverton and Durango Route in it's entirety.

Author's Notes on Route Asset: Durango to Silverton set in the mid 1920's. All assets can be found on the Download Station. The map is generated with Trans Dem software and is very accurate. Although efforts were made to preserve accuracy there are some things that are not prototypical to the original area/towns/operations. The route was started in Trainz 2010 then finished in Trainz 12. Then, the route was imported into TANE and made compatible. Highly detailed this route requires some horsepower to run smoothly.

Here is the section, I started with the first run, Engineer Alcaron will take Shay Freight.

Lots of Smoke and the Shay goes about 11MPH max, I'm assuming due to being Geared low for heavy grades in Mountain climbing.

And we are on our way now. They tell us to watch ouch for low hanging trees too!

Little peek inside the Cabin, the controls couldn't be simpler.

And we are off to see the countryside here, and there's much to see, towering Mountains ahead.

I found this little Cubby Short Caboose for the back of the Train!

52 Tons in weight for this whole train, and 2000lbs of Coal to burn, wow that is not much weight, lets see how far I get?

Shay number 8 is doing well, and I really like the track too.

This is leased equip here from Cold River Lumber Co, wherever the heck that is..........Look how simple this Steamer is, so few parts, but don't break those gears otherwise you'll not be going anywhere. Think I'll need to change locomotives when we get to the Yard ahead.........I need more speed on this route........

That's it for today and thanks for Dropping in folks.

Wild Bill III (New Route added to my list)

A blessed Sunday to all,

This weekend is flying by, yikes, so much to do before Xmas.......

So I would like to introduce another Nice NG Route I found, actually I tripped over it looking for some more NG Rolling Stock, Bldgs etc, HiBaller's Route is called Wild Bill III, SP-2, there was one minor Asset Texture correction needed on Download with the help of "Asset X" Repairs made it was simple.

I have to say that is amazing for Route, Scores an "A+" in my books. Route is good size lots of Narrow Gauge Running, and T:ANE is happy with it.......Got to love that, because in retrospect, I have out of 1500 Faulty or Missing Assets issues with T:ANE SP-2, and I confess I brought about 300 in myself prior, this is a blessing to not have a bunch more....Each few days, I take time and try to knock the list down. I think month ago, I was at 1100 now I'm down to 909, I fixed a Texture this AM on one, and it fixed Faulty Asset issue on 4 others, I like that just fine, fix 1, clear up 4 total.

Of Course you can't, well I can't because I don't build Assets, fix some of them, they are just beyond my capabilities with way to many issues in T:ANE SP-2, and for those I run across, I have to sadly use the Delete Key. However each day, I learn a little more about Asset components, and sometimes a simple substitution will due the Trick. I just try my best.......

OK so below is HiBaller's remarks about the Layout, kudos to him for a well down Route...........

Author's Notes:This route is based on John D'Angelos very fine Black Canyon Narrow gauge route. It is a fictional run through the Colorado Rockies. Mostly an end-to-end route, with facilities for turning at each end, but you can also add other modules (when I get them made) at various points in the route. Each module is/will be fully functional in itself. I have left out any rolling stock so that you can add what you wish - I highly recommend the D&RG 2-6-0's by Elvenor.

Here is the Map over view of what it looks like. One of things I like on his route is you can take the long way on the Route and it comes back at the middle to get back to bottom portion.

What I did is put a Climax here with some cars at the very end of the Route and we'll head out to see what we encounter. Notice the Mountains are very nicely detailed here.

This little Loco is a hoot and a 1/2, he works hard for his small size but he can pull the Train well. Will see how he does in up Grade %....I should say I running all empty's here, because this is my first time running this little guy...........

We came out of Mountain Canyon spurs making a right turn past some small yards and Station Platforms on a Wye setup up here. I slowly learning about Semaphores too, all new to me with Narrow Gauge stuff.

We have cleared the Yard Limits and our headed with Green Signals ahead.

OOPS, Yard Master just advised me we have a Car that needs to be dropped off here for loads....So will change switch and drop one off, easy and time is permitting, since it is still early and no oncoming traffic.


We stopped here to get some water and then on our way out after dropping one of empties at the Freight Station behind us. And to left of the Water Tank is a noisy Wind Mill, I have to say, it sounds exactly as some I remember when I was a Young Boy,,,,Good work on Sound Animation!

Aha, looks like we have another Train that pulled in here....( The real Story, I found if I recall, 2-8-2's or similiar strong NG Loco's with the help of Forum Members) and will back in to unload the Cars for the Town.

Looking Fine I'd Say, I'll have a chance to run this later to see how strong it is, I have a Feeling this baby can pull real good on the Grades.

We are doing a reverse move here to set out the Cars.

That's about it for today, and a shout out to the Narrow Gauge Builders who make this fine rolling Stock, I found a fair amount yesterday so my Inventory is building.......
Really appreciate the help from the Forum Folks.

Thanks for dropping in, please when your out there shopping, be courteous and kind to others............

Wild Bill, Durango, Maria's Pass, TGR Fingal

Good Tues all,

That Derailment with Amtrak looks very serious, now we wait for the answers, our prayers go to the ones that lost their lives and/or were injured.

Ok now to Narrow Gauge, I found a fair amount of Rolling Stock from DLS and other sites, thanks to the kind creators for the items they made for us.

Below on Wild Bill III Route take a look at this cobbled together consist, and you see in the middle is a Camp Workers Car, looks like a small house on Wheels, amazing, they will sleep and work out of this car as they go to different parts of the Route to construct, repair Etc the needs of the Route. Next to it is Chemical Car and Passenger car for the other items.

Nice day, great scenery as we head out for Surveying the Route and dropping off loads to different customers. We have Workers on board with us too. Nice looking mountain in far distance, lots of Snow on him too. I really like this route and have already merger some small sections onto it for expansion purposes. I'll show pictures soon as to what I'm up too.

OK, I downloaded the wrong file for Marias Pass, it was TS-12, I didn't read the download menu correctly, now I have the correct one for T:ANE, someone else on the forum had the same issue, which helped me solve my problem. This is one heck of Route, I am really going to enjoy it.

This is the correct name of the Route, but the File Name is "MPRX45_CDP.7z" so make sure you get the correct one for T:ANE.

This is Marias MAP, really good size reproduction and lots of running time to play with here when your Mile High in the mountains.....Amazing the ones who built this route back then.

Need to move this tree away from the track a few feet, almost caught on fire with our locomotive which just barely cleared the branches of this mighty tree. MOW get this thing replanted this week.......

Little heat and smoke on the Tree..........We slowed our running speed down to see that we could clear it.

This is a map of Talgrundbahn 760MM NG Route, which I haven't yet operated on......So will be checking this one out to see what it is like.

Some shots from Rainy TGR Fingal line, never stops raining up here at this time of year, but will get thru it, very Tropical area......

That's it for now, much to do, as we get closer to Xmas........Have a great day all......

blueodessey said:

Good Tues all,


OK, I downloaded the wrong file for Marias Pass, it was TS-12, I didn't read the download menu correctly, now I have the correct one for T:ANE, someone else on the forum had the same issue, which helped me solve my problem. This is one heck of Route, I am really going to enjoy it.

Click to expand...

Your pics looks nice mate.
I hope you don't mine me suggesting some add-ons for your Marias Pass route. If you search my name on the DLS, you'll find around 20, maybe more sessions that'll add more (some might have missing assets due to TUME's things becoming payware....)

:wave:Good Day Hiawathamr,

Thank you for stopping by, and absolutely yes on the Marias Pass Route, I think when folks make Sessions, that is a great way and a Bonus for someone whose not familiar with the Route. No worries about missing Assets, I can deal with that!

I have a serious headache with about 900 of them now from the new SP-2 Patch and more aggressive error checking protocol, it is as they say, the nature of the beast, or is it the cost of doing business........LOL...:hehe:

Glad you like to the Picks, I have a lot of fun playing with Trainz, kit bashing different ideas about with Routes I download and then sharing some my ideas about what I do.. And the Forum here really adds to the entertainment and comradery, plus the value of learning from others who are much more knowledgeable than me.

Have a wonderful holiday sir..