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

Hello my Friend,

I love weather and watching Cloud Formations, and I not at all bored with your Weather information....Weather is so fascinating, and I think, that not a lot of people understand Weather very much in the long scheme of things, only to the extent they cry when it Rains, get upset when it's to hot or Cold. But do not understand the factors that contribute what causes what.....

For the a good part of the West Coast, we have this terrible thing called High Pressure Dome, which is almost at times a semi permanent High Pressure Ridge that literary sits down on 4 Corner States, California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, what happens then, our Winds can die down, with little or no Cooling from the Oceans, which is our normal Air Conditioner in the Summer Etc. And our Air becomes Stagnant and Smoggy, Dirty in every sense of the imagination....Very unhealthy, our Rain Fall is none, that is one of the Reasons we are in , and have been in, a very severe Drought for at least 5-7 years!!

As an example, we are in fall correct, we should be in the 55-70 degrees, more or less, but we still get spikes of 80-90 Degrees, which in mind, very, very bad, an with that said, we are still breaking out with Fires in extremely dry areas, dead Trees from Bark Beatles, because there is not enough rain.....

As well, our Forests are not being managed properly, with excess Growth culled out, so trees don't have to compete for Water. And then, Mother Nature steps in and does the Culling for us....Such as areas catching fire that have not burned in 50-60 Years. Which is ridiculous.

https://ucanr.edu/sites/forestry/California_forests/

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


So other than one small Storm we month ago, our last Rains occurred April, maybe a little in May.....As I have alluded to others, that is very bad for California is coming to bite us bad with the worst year for Fire Storms......As well, it Washington, Oregon, Colorado and some other States had there worst acreage Fires in History......So will see how it works out....

Personally, in the last 5 yrs, I lost Plum Tree, European White Birch, and Fruitless Plum Tree to Bark Beetles and Termites.....Really sad when you have remove 3 of your beloved trees, to save others from Pests like these.......

Right now, no Rain for the foreseeable future, have to see what pans out, however in Midwest to East Coast, I think they had Record Hurricanes.......They ran out of names to call them........I tell my our Friends in those areas to please send us some rain.....We really need it......

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=record+hurricane+season+2020

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...oundwater-now-state-hopes-refill-its-aquifers

https://www.drought.gov/drought/states/california


And when I here someone complain about Rain in Summer time here, I tell them, would you prefer more Fires etc, or ? They will say, well no, who wants Fires, then I tell them, think about our Drought and how precious Water is, a little rain in the Summer would be a blessing.......

There you have it my Friend,,,,,,,A snippet of our Weather System........

Misc Discussion / You Tube Picks / Alaska merge Route

Good evening all,

A prayer goes out to all of you, that Covid gets better, it really tough out there with increase of infection rates, and Deaths etc. I'm hoping we can get this horrid Virus turned around. Our ICU's in Hospital are down to 13% capacity California.

So I finally got my Pool Pipes repaired, I had to bust out some additional small section of Concrete to find a hole that was just about the size of Pencil Lead, could cause such a problem with Suction......Crazy......Now everything is in Good Order........Can't complain, the Pool is over 50 yrs old and.....The bad thing is, from the damage I see, it looks like some kind of Screw or metal piece got picked up in when it was vacuumed and acted like a cascading Drill Bit, chewing into the Copper lines in a 5 foot area as it tumbled threw under Suction......At least now, the lines are clear and there is no further detectable damage.....


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Blues You Tube Picks for the week:

CP Canadian 1970's

https://youtu.be/bYzAn_E0LPQ

Herewith is a sampler from his two trips on the Canadian in June and December 1970, with a few later shots of the Spiral Tunnels added. Merry Christmas!


Indiana Northeastern Railroad INER 1601 at Reading

https://youtu.be/RXKa1mKbn3E

Indiana Northeastern Railroad with IN 1601 in really fresh paint sits in Reading Michigan getting fueled on a hot June day. I followed the train to Hillsdale where the switched out most of the cars and 2 locomotives. I followed the short 2 car train west toward Coldwater.


The "Modern" Gibsland Shuffle!

https://youtu.be/PQGvCJFeHIo

Ask any veteran rail buff from the region about Gibsland, and they will most likely tell you about the "Gibsland Shuffle". Nowadays, two of the three lines that served the area have been replaced, but that does not change the fact that Gibsland is still a busy railroad town. Thanks for watching!

Fast Trains Passing Middletown Train Station! Norfolk Southern Railroad ex Big Four Railroad Main

https://youtu.be/bnTLdgxUsCU

Old abandoned train station built in 1909 on Norfolk Southern main line between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio in Middletown, Ohio. SD40-2 local switcher locomotive going to the industrial spur is seen passing the station with a tank car. This track is ex Big Four Railroad: Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago and St Louis Railway. Passenger trains stopped using this station on April 30, 1971 and today it is a private business. I always wanted to film a train going by here so today I waited in the cold on a windy and sunny day. I also filmed another train just a few miles north of here on this line. It had problems with its third engine and stopped on the main for about half an hour. I filmed it passing right after they got the train moving again. There is also a Cohen Recycling plant in Middletown that has a couple very old locomotives that I want to film. Notice the General Electric center cab critter in the outro that they named "Smokey". That engine pulled a few company gondola cars out of the scrap yard and next to the NS mainline. Cohen doesn't have a direct connection to NS although their tracks are parallel to NS. Cohen has a connection a couple miles to the west to the CSX. I wanted to film the little GE but I couldn't find anywhere to park without having to walk a long distance. I'm going to return to film the Cohen locomotives

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Well lets see, what have I been up too this week, besides fixing broken pipes, putting up Xmas Decorations, and helping a family member with Knee Replacement Surgery. Their rehabilition is coming along, but since they are older now, mending will take quite a while. But it is better than having a Bone on Bone grind and pain situation.......

So with my spare time, I have had this idea about putting together, some Alaskan Routes Merge wise, not mine, but other members to see what I could do with it.......So tonight here is some Photos of a much WIP progress stitched together Route. This will take a long time to finish. I need to find out what Industries and other Items Alaska has. I know everything comes in by Ships and Air Freight.

The is the original Route,,,,,When I opened it up this Route, it took me to the medium size part of the Route. I had no idea it was in 3 pieces, what I think, but I don't know for sure. Was maybe the other pieces were other areas of Alaska, and person didn't finish whatever their final intentions were? Who knows. But I just chopped up Tiles. Saved to 3 different Routes then put them where I thought they would work out the Best...



This is what the Route looks like at the moment after 3 merge Operations. One Large long piece and two shorter end caps where all merged together here.....Part of this Route was made from a DEM map and it has beautiful Mountains.

This is Seward section of the Route, and just put in some Harbor areas with some Tracks for connections.

This is Ben Dorsey's Ore Bridge for unloading Coal to ships, my understanding, it is animated for unloading Coal Cars only........I doubled the water area here or maybe I tripled it. I think it will turn out OK.....

Across from Ben Dorsey Coal loader, is an Inter-modal setup here......Everything is real basic for now, till I see how it comes together......


I threw some Ships in here, looking across the hardscape, you can see the large Mountains that were Drawn in with the Dem Map......Going to take some time to Texture them Etc.......I added a little color on the top of this one to see how it looks.

This area is where merge points have come together, I know it looks Choppy and Cut up, but all this uneven Ground area will get a good massage to blend these areas together, it will look much different when I get changed up.....

Look carefully in the middle, follow the white Ballasted Track and you'll see it headed into the Mountain, from there it turns 90 degrees and comes into Seward area........


Remember the chopped picture above, I took that chopped mountain, and grew it out to the right......


I dropped in a rough main line here, to see how my Grade %'s work out,,,,,So for nothing over 3% most of it is 1.5% to 2.00%.....for terrain leveling the height differences, that is not primary here, I like to get my Rail Lines in first when there are 100's of Feet in drop. And I did make the Main Line work out, took a few more Curves in the Route to make up for 4% 10% Grade Spots. Now we are in good shape.....

On the left here, I doing Copy and paste large areas for Elevation leveling.....Works pretty good, of course I have bring the Scraper in and knock the high spots off into a Rolling hill terrain......

I show more pictures in a few days so you can see more of the area I have created.

And that's your wrap-up for today Monday.....

Misc / Y Tube Picks / Alaska Merger Photos

Good evening all,

Found out two of our inlaws, Adult and Teen came down with Covid this last week. So far it is not too bad, will see how it goes. They live in the East Coast. Other than that, we only go out as really needed during California Lock Down restrictions.....Hopefully by Xmas maybe things will improve some, no one really knows.

Unfortunately for us, our Numbers continue to drop.....
https://www.ocregister.com/2020/12/...u-capacity-slips-to-9-in-latest-state-update/

Blue and Mr's Blue are putting up Xmas lights and enjoying the Xmas Spirit......

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Blue You Tube Picks for the week:

I Fell Asleep At The Railroad Tracks & This Happened! Ohio Short Line Railroads & Dreaming Of Trains

https://youtu.be/MIUpvnB2Mlw

I was at an awesome level railroad crossing in Sardinia, Ohio. A fast train with mixed freight cars went by and stopped at the Sardinia Holdout. I went ahead of the train and fell asleep while waiting for the train to pass again. Then the ex Erie Lackawanna and ex Montana Rail Link SD45-2 ( ex SDP45 ) #332 went by with a train at the same crossing. Cincinnati Eastern Railroad sent this locomotive out west recently so I was kind of surprised until I realized that I dreamed the whole thing. That would have been cool if the 3 clips in this video of #332 were real! The first shot of 332 is with it teamed up with a B36-7 pulling a train across Mathews Rd, Sardinia which is the same spot as the real train in this video at the beginning. The second shot shows it pulling a grain train with a B36-7 and an MP15DC going under Rt32 in Winchester, Ohio. Bonus shots show it at the Sardinia Holdout and crossing Bean Rd near Mount Orab, Ohio. This railroad is owned by Norfolk Southern and leased to CCET. I filmed this on December 9, 2020

W&LE 7011 bounces over the diamond at Upper Sandusky on the CF&E Railroad

https://youtu.be/Z-100qVS7DA

Here is the follow up to my last W&LE video, the crew has had their hotel rest and wyed the engines for their eastbound run. I caught up with them at Upper Sandusky where they cross the former C&O. I followed to Dunkirk and Bucyrus where they then creeped across the NS Sandusky District.

(Blue's remarks: no train should be bouncing over a Diamond, bad things, like more extreme wear on the points and maybe derailments.....Either Speed was excessive, or we have ground shift issues in play or both)

Lebanon Valley Jct in the Reading Years

https://youtu.be/wP_8SH5PjTE

Lebanon Valley Junction was located at the intersection of the Reading's Lebanon Valley Branch and the Reading Belt Line. A connection was built at the time of the Belt Line's construction from LV Jct. to Wyoming. This connection was not generally used by through trains until it was rebuilt in the mid-1950's with a reduced grade and power switches on the Wye tracks. There were also coaling facilities on the Belt Line, and water plugs on both levels. It was a favorite rail-fan spot in the steam era, as the Temple Hill helpers were usually attached to trains there, and the tower operators were known to be friendly. This video is a photo and film history covering the period from the mid 1930's until the Reading's inclusion in Conrail on April 1, 1976. It geographically covers the area within an average 1 mile radius from the tower including scenes on the Reading Belt, the "Connection" and the "High Line" Lebanon Valley Branch.

(Blue's remarks:I think you'll really enjoy this Video,,,,Old Times of yesteryear Vintage Rail Action)

Busy Day At Baldwin

https://youtu.be/VRTu62JgT5c

We railfan love to find hot spots. Places where you can see lots of trains without moving around much. Baldwin, Florida is such a place. I spent an 18 hour day including driving up there and back recently. I had a pretty good day.

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Work on Alaska Route continues intermittently, been busy with Repairs on House, Pool, and Xmas now has the lead.......



These are the kind of Mountains that make my day....They are DEM, I just did a little smoothing here and there......A lone Alaska Manifest Train comes across the newly laid Rail Bed..

Looking from a far, here is another look of Giant Mountain Peak in the Fore Ground..........


Nothing wrong here, except this is a Major Merge Point, and need to cut and fill this massive Mountain.......


Part of this area is prepared now.......Lots more to do......


Looking to the Right of Mountain Peaks, see the cutoff one at the end....There are several areas like this, I have to change so look more natural.......


Blank Tiles are added to the Right of this Merge Cutoff, will raise the elevation to match and Smooth down to Valley Floor, takes quite a while.....


One side of this Floor is going to come up level with the Tracks, so the other side will be steep Cliffs..........


Tracks are where I need them here, and about 2.00% to 2.25% height max,,,Runs perfect for my Trains..........Some signals installed at 6 to 10 mile distances for now.....I still have numerous industrial leads to add later on.....


Here on left side of Tracks, you'll see a tremendous of Cut and Fill going on.....It takes me time, and I fiddle and Fiddle to try and get the look I want......Slow and steady with Patience is the key here, I use Copy and Paste a lot too.......Both for Texture and Objects, I have Assets laying all over the place, and other pieces of Routes added in hidden areas on this Route to I can fit them in.........


Lastly when I installed my first set of signals and ran a test train, I had several Red Signals all over the place.....What happened you ask....Well lets say I was throwing down Rail so fast from bottom to top of this 25 tile span, I forgot to make complete Rail connects, so essentially broken rail instead of continuous... Above is the example of working to fast....LOL......I went back over the Route with Camera and spotted it within 5 mins......

That'll do for tonight.....Mr's Blue is calling me....Got to run ......

Misc / Y Tube Picks / Alaska Merger Photos Etc

Good Evening all,

Another exciting weekend, lost our power this Sunday for a few hours, and then our Cable Company, well several Cable Co's went down for couple of days........So that was fun, ever try to do work on Cell Phone, not easy for older eyes like mine......I'm one of those who needs my Screen Real Estate if you know what I mean......

Other than that, praying for news on Covid-19, and will leave it at that!

Yard work has stopped and Xmas Light Decorations have begun, and we got our Xmas Tree yesterday, lots of Folks buying Trees this year, I have a feeling the Lots might be sold out before Xmas Eve for those who like to buy there tree at the last moment, or an extra tree for the house, and there seems like a few who do......

Was watching a Xmas Movie with Mr's Blue tonight and saw, an old train in the Film from these folks.....Film was from 2019.....They didn't Show the Train approaching much just a few cars......And no Locomotive Shots, bah hum bug I say...How dare they.....

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

Should be one of these Locomotives

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-8-0

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Blue's You Tube Pics for the week........

Remote Control Train With Caboose Used For Railroad Switching, Steel Ties On New Railroad Siding

https://youtu.be/bGImce7KEow

CSX bay window caboose used for industrial railroad switching. The remote control train is used for switching customers on the west side of Cincinnati. A new siding was installed with steel railroad ties here on Central Railroad Of Indiana ( CIND ) next to the CSX main line. This is Cincinnati on the west side of the city with maps showing where I filmed this. We see the new siding first along with a map that shows the area before the siding was installed. Then we see the CSX train at the 4 track railroad crossing with the caboose on the rear. Next I show the CSX local switcher being operated with a remote control pack. You can see the operator with the belt pack while he backs the train across the road with the caboose on the rear. The maps show exactly where this was filmed. The first part of this video was filmed December 10, 2020 and the part filmed in the summer was filmed July 21, 2020

(Blues Notes,this is a One Min Video, so don't blink or you'll miss it...LOL)
Great EMD Lash-up on NCVA Freight Train 4K #shorts

https://youtu.be/tZnRE_nhPF4

Great lash-up on the North Carolina & Virginia Railroad Boykins to Ahoskie freight train. Preview of videos to come. Locomotives: NCVA 504(EMD GP38-2 Ex- FEC), NCVA 3837(EMD GP38-2 Ex- GATX, Ex- ARZC, EX B&O), NCVA 808(EMD yard slugging Ex- CORP, Ex-N&W), & NCVA 3808(EMD GP40 Ex-VSRR, Ex- LLPX, Ex- VTR, Ex- NS, Ex- SOU).
4K UHD.

UNAWAY TANK CAR!!! Real Runaway Train in Bethlehem, PA!

https://youtu.be/Qryq3nYa0o8

This is one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed, a runaway train! The tank car somehow got into the Reading line and kept rolling all the way through the Lehigh valley until it eventually came to a stop in Richards, about 15 miles east of where it started. The car was six to have reached speeds of up to 50MPH! It was loaded with Paraffin Wax, and luckily no one was hurt.


(Blues Notes, he talks about the much longer trains now, over 2 Miles in length, out here So California, UP runs a lot of them, it seems to me, there are more at night than daytime....?)
2 Mile Long Train W/ Loram Maintenance Of Way Equipment, Independence Kentucky Trains, CSX Freight

https://youtu.be/9lfx0muBCY4

Loram ballast cleaner on CSX 2 mile long heavy freight train. This is the main line between Cincinnati and Louisville Kentucky. Also a 2 track flange greaser next to a tunnel. The tunnel and flange greaser are on this same line but to the north. I filmed the huge train near Independence, Kentucky on a very narrow one lane gravel road. I was going to film a train through the tunnel but none came while I was there. This CSX line operates on 161.370 and 161.310 and is an ex Louisville & Nashville Railway ( L&N ) line. This is the same line that goes through LaGrange, Ky. I filmed this on December 5, 2020.

Fast Trains Passing Middletown Train Station! Norfolk Southern Railroad ex Big Four Railroad Main

https://youtu.be/bnTLdgxUsCU

Old abandoned train station built in 1909 on Norfolk Southern main line between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio in Middletown, Ohio. SD40-2 local switcher locomotive going to the industrial spur is seen passing the station with a tank car. This track is ex Big Four Railroad: Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago and St Louis Railway. Passenger trains stopped using this station on April 30, 1971 and today it is a private business. I always wanted to film a train going by here so today I waited in the cold on a windy and sunny day. I also filmed another train just a few miles north of here on this line. It had problems with its third engine and stopped on the main for about half an hour. I filmed it passing right after they got the train moving again. There is also a Cohen Recycling plant in Middletown that has a couple very old locomotives that I want to film. Notice the General Electric center cab critter in the outro that they named "Smokey". That engine pulled a few company gondola cars out of the scrap yard and next to the NS mainline. Cohen doesn't have a direct connection to NS although their tracks are parallel to NS. Cohen has a connection a couple miles to the west to the CSX. I wanted to film the little GE but I couldn't find anywhere to park without having to walk a long distance. I'm going to return to film the Cohen locomotives. I filmed this on December 1, 2020.

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Over to Alaska Merge Route, I now have merged about 6-7 pieces of large and small Dem and Non DEM Routes together.....Not all the tiles are connected, because I am working on the largest single part of the Route with High Mountains, that I am Sculpting out where they were cut off from original DEM by Author and some by me too during merge procedures....


This is how it looks now, still very rough as I add, delete tiles etc.....


Coming out of Tunnel through a medium size set of Mountains, Hills etc, this more for checking Tracks an Signal Aspects Etc.


We are out in the clear now, into a very large Valley area now......From afar you can see the Mountains I have been changing and smoothing here and there.

Part of this Map, or more, I don't know for sure is called

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=mat+su+valley+ak

I need to read up on this area to see where the Railroad goes in relation to the name........



Getting ready to enter the Tunnel which connects to Seward City and Shipping area on other side of these Mountains. This Tunnel works OK on entrances, no need for Dig Hole help....Thank Goodness......




Engineer is getting a 30 day Suspension for blowing the Red Light.....Actually, I had Train in Drive Mode, for whatever reason it stops just after the Signal.....I have had this happen before......Grrr!! Would be interesting to see if the other Light Engine was moving thru switch, they would have swapped some Paint as or derail......Fortunately other Engine was stopped, well clear of the Switch......

Besides that, I like the view of the DEM Mountains ahead gigantic and coming to close just ahead of the Train......I put some Snow on one of them.......


I got these Mountains built up here they just need Texture, they were part of merge point,,,,So everything was uneven, no biggy, I knew what I wanted......Just takes time to get it there.....


Here is a picture of a Cutoff Mountain, its not to bad here, but when you drive past on the Tracks up close, it doesn't look good to me..........These are the ones I am adding 1-2 tiles and adjust the drop on Right or left side to look more natural......

OK.....That do for tonight,,,,Got lots of Xmas and Shopping to do for Gifts....We are doing more online Shopping this year than ever due to Covid issues, and it is working out nicely...Hats off to all the Delivery Drivers etc....They are doing a great job....

Night now,,,,Bless all of you.....Please try to stay safe out there......Peace my friends and thank you all for coming to visit.......

Very instructive, as always my friend.
Beware of the virus.

Hugs, Javier

Good Sunday Evening all,

What a busy week it has been for me, all Christmas, Clean-up, Fix-up and heck before we know it will be Santa's' Day.......

Been working a little bit on the Alaska Merge Route smoothing and a filling in Deep Sections with more Valley's and smaller Mountains.

And I downloaded some more Routes I saw to try out....

Footplatephil at his finest....Amazing Routes for sure....Thank you Sir.....

<kuid:56603:100570> WeddinNSW Young extension - Triking the length
<kuid:56603:100798> WeddinNSW V4.1: Watch The Trains
<kuid:56603:100502> WeddinNSW V4: Session Base
<kuid:56603:100569> WeddinNSW - Young Extension
<kuid2:56603:100832:1> WeddinNSW: South lines to the Lachlan
<kuid:56603:100832> WeddinNSW: South lines to the Lachlan
<kuid2:56603:100501:2> WeddinNSW V4 (TRS2019)

And whammo, who knocked it out of the Park this Month, with his I would say is a very unique Route.

<kuid:298788:102631> Midshire and Rosworth Valley Lines - Default
<kuid:298788:102630> Midshire and Rosworth Valley Lines

I show pics later on when I get over to these.......
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Blues You Tube Pics for the week:

Santa Claus Train Chase Thru Virginia! Christmas Train On Clinchfield Railroad, Rare Locomotives

https://youtu.be/zuuFZBUnCNs

Special Christmas train with Santa Claus! Chasing the Santa Train in Virginia through tunnels and over huge trestles. Rare Clinchfield Railroad locomotives leading the train with CSX locomotives and CSX Office Car Special passenger cars. This train started in Kentucky and ran across Virginia to Kingsport Tennessee. I chased it from Kentucky to Speers Ferry, Virginia. Toys were given out in small towns all along the route. I filmed this on November 18, 2017 and I have another video right here that explains the importance of this train: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5rtb... The train used 161.100 for the trip

Railroad Switching At 10 Track Railroad Crossing! Cross When You Can! Norfolk Southern Yard Ex N&W

https://youtu.be/wofRKZCqGEk

Trains switching a railroad yard at a 10 track level crossing! This huge railroad yard is ex Norfolk & Western Railway and it was a hump yard at one time. Today this Norfolk Southern yard is an important stop between Norfolk and Chicago. Dozens of trains pass through here daily and this crossing is near the eastern end of the yard. Trains can be seen passing through here at any time and locomotives are refueled here along with crew changes. Since most of the local industry here has closed most of the traffic using this crossing is railroad related. This is the New Boston section of Portsmouth Ohio and the road is West Avenue. Filmed October 6, 2020. Thanks for watching! Check out this video of a train interrupting Santa Light Up La Grange Celebration! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQkv3...

Christmas Trains In Cincinnati Union Terminal, Lionel Trains & Vintage Model Trains! Toy Trains Yay!

https://youtu.be/MirYdN3fApo

Christmas trains layout of Cincinnati. Huge model train layout of the city with steam trains, passenger trains, trollies and Thomas And Friends. Includes Lionel trains room and Lego Trains. Some of these toy trains are close to a hundred years old. The first 5 minutes show what Cincinnati looked like in the 1940s. You can see the street cars, the inclined railroads, Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincinnati Union Terminal etc. Then we see the huge train layout in the basement along with vintage toy trains and Lego Trains. Thomas The Tank Engine and Percy make an appearance along with aerial trams and numerous trestles. These trains were filmed at Cincinnati Union Terminal in the history museum. I wanted to film from Tower A but I found out that it is not open and will not be open for the rest of the year at a minimum. Tower A is the room on top of Cincinnati Union Terminal with a great view of the CSX and Norfolk Southern freight yards. The outro of this video shows a view of Tower A that I filmed from behind the station. Filmed December 12, 2020.

9+
CSX 2772 Husky Refinery Switch job South Lima Yard with CNW coke cars

https://youtu.be/TvkVkGO37Js

CSX 2772 with CSX 2610, a pair of EMD GP38-2's switch the South Lima yard in Lima Ohio. The yard is serviced by Norfolk Southern and RJ Corman as well as CSX. G&W's subsidiary Rail Link, Inc then switches the cars to the Husky oil refinery and Nutrient ( formerly Potash Corp). This is a yard with a ton of history! To the right is the former Erie Lackawanna which crossed the B&O here, now only a connection to the main and RJC's SPEG line west to Elgin. To the left of the train in the empty lot is where the Lima Locomotive Works was. Many great steam engines were built here, NKP 765 and SP 4449 for example. The Norfolk Southern engine sits on the former Lake Erie & Western Sandusky to Peoria line, later NKP and then NW. RJ Corman also operates this line west of Lima.

The CSX local, Y102 I believe, works the yard daily pulling healthy cuts of cars. The CNW cars are loaded with PET coke, the solids from oil refining. The rest of the cars are loaded with fun chemicals! Once they were done switching I filmed them north on the Toledo Sub heading to Robb yard.
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Take a look at these beautiful Alaskan Mountains here to the Left of Alaska R.R. Co......


This is a large Barge 400x100 Feet holds close to 50 Rail Cars and transfers to Vancouver I think....This is Land Ocean, to Land Rail Bridge.....Only Rail or Plane to get into Alaska......!!!

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=alaska+rail+barge&ia=web
http://www.trainweb.org/ultradomes/features/bargeloading.html

Alaska Merge for the week, some tips of how I do some items......For the New Members of our Forum.....

In this Photo of Mountains, looking at the Left side, there is an ugly, well at to me, of Chopped off Mountain which I intend to fix! While I think about it, I am also doing a long Terra forming here from a distance too.....


I do an overhead of the area, which allows quick drawing out of Rail Track to start the Terrain Elevation......Blue lines are the Track Pieces here and then I snap the terrain to the Track, and where there are open spaces I just move the track over, but because by default, the Track will lap down to lowest level the Terrain, so you'll need to height adjust your Track on the high end, and Track will fall Straight, once you do this a few times, it will become much easier.........

Another thing I am doing here, is painting the new blank tile with Green, in one fell swoop Bulk replace tool.....Works good for quick mass coloring of Terrain........


On the side of previous photo, I have taken some Rail Tracks and laid them out like a String Line you' use for Block Wall or something to get it the way you like.....In this case it is for Elevation concerns to get my Terrain the way I want in the easiest way possible.....Laying Rails first and then hit the Ground Elevation Tool to bring the ground up to the Rails......It takes a minute to lay out the Rails close together enough to bridge the Terrain Gaps.......And this cuts trying to make an arch, which when you draw with UP HEIGHT setting does not like to go sideways like this......


Here is what the final height adjusted Tile looks like filled into the Side of the Mountain and Painted green.....Now when you look at this high Mountain from a distance it looks much more natural than before........Just takes time and patience........


Another across the big valley distance shot here.....Shows my Snowy Mountain Tops......I still will probably mess with the Slopes some more.........
Im trying to get the high Ridges better looking........


Over on upper right side, I smoothed a small cut off Mountain, and it came out great.......


Here is another area, in deep uneven Valley's from merge points......It took me about 20 mins or so to finish this out after this initial picture.......


Picture of my Ocean area by enter modal facilities......With Light House of course....

Ok folks,

Take care, and be safe out there this week, I have 4 In-Laws that caught Covid, will see how it works out. It started with one or two in a family, one didn't recognize the symptoms till it got more pronounced......

Peace and thanks for dropping by.....

Some amazing terrain tricks there Blue, and thanks for posting the Alaska pictures. I hope to get there someday as my Dad worked on Yukon Steamboats around 1938. I have been sending his films and pictures to the University at Fairbanks for archiving. The benefit is that I get it back all cleaned up and digitized! Have a great, blessed, and safe holiday season!

Forester1 said:

Some amazing terrain tricks there Blue, and thanks for posting the Alaska pictures. I hope to get there someday as my Dad worked on Yukon Steamboats around 1938. I have been sending his films and pictures to the University at Fairbanks for archiving. The benefit is that I get it back all cleaned up and digitized! Have a great, blessed, and safe holiday season!

Click to expand...

Thank you sir,

Warms the old heart if what I post and or Draw helps someone out here........

I remember on Thanksgiving in 2014, I had been play lots of Shooter, Puzzle and other games, and I needed something different to occupy some of my free time?:hehe:

Had thought about Model Trains, and the fact, my Back with some issues in the disks that were too close together was going to cause me too much pain, if I started climbing around a very old 4 foot Tall, 22x 8 foot wooden layout I had built, in mid 70's.........I knew, it was time to say goodby to my beloved layout......And try something new on Computer, I did have a try with Steam, MSFT I think, well actually that had started 2 yrs earlier, and I lost interest in it, because I couldn't modify the Routes....They were hard coded.......And back then, I didn't know anything about Trainz, guess I didn't know the right folks......LOL

So in Nov 2014.....I came across Trainz Driver2, what an experience, as that old IPad was to slow, to small Hard Drives......Graphics Card was not up to par, and you couldn't upgrade the IPad, if you familiar with how Apple does things.....
And from there it was history, the hard knocks of learning, not knowing what I was doing, and I didn't know there was User Group, AKA Forum here until later........The rest is history......

As per Alaska,


That is so cool, about your Dad working a Steamboat, from what I gather he had to be very Rugged, Skilled Worker, sounds like he did a lot of things while working there. A lot to be proud of for your Dad!!

Which reminded me of something, We took a cruise on inside Passage of Alaska Coast Line,,2004,,Had to be one of the best Cruises we (Mr's Blue) had ever been on......IT was everything a Cruise could be, our Cruise Director for Land Tours, was like someone we felt so comfortable with.....IT was such a memorable trip....I recommend everyone to take this Cruise if they could.........We got to see so many things in Alaska......Loved the little villages too.....People were so charming. Even learned that Reindeer Sausage is pretty darn good.....

Some links showing the areas we visited.......Also took the Alaska RR special tour as well.....Railroad Trip was awesome.........

You have a Blessed one as well........Thanks for coming by and visiting.......

Blue, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2021 better than this year that is ending.
Take care old friend and receive a big hug from my side of the pond.


Cheers, Javier

fant_autentico said:

Blue, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2021 better than this year that is ending.
Take care old friend and receive a big hug from my side of the pond.


Cheers, Javier

Click to expand...

Thank you my friend,

All the same to you and yours......And here is a link for some interesting looking Christmas Trains.....I didn't take the Photos......Enjoy.....

Hugs back and please be careful over there. our Covid Counts are off the Charts. Hoping it will be a better year coming up......:wave:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=Ch...-kZHXw3W-ao/s1600/Christmas-Train-Express.jpg

Some really nice content Blue

You and your family have a safe and enjoyable Merry Christmas
Hopefully next year will be better, as this year just sucks.

Cheers

hiawathamr said:

Some really nice content Blue

You and your family have a safe and enjoyable Merry Christmas
Hopefully next year will be better, as this year just sucks.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Thanks and you as well my Friend........That's all we can ask for at this point.....

California is the leader in a lot of things, but in this case, have the highest Covid Numbers is not a good thing for us.......:'(

Misc / Y Tube Pics / Legacy of the BN Rain Session

Good Day all,

Our first major storm of the season, has finally arrived and we are getting some very much needed Rain with a few good Thunderclaps too.....LOL I hope those having Covid hopefully are on the mend.......Part of our In-Laws are still in the throws of this Bad Virus. One is getting better after 5 days of high fever, so that is a good sign.....We continue to pray for the all of those afflicted for better days ahead.....

Was looking thru some of Rail News this week and came across this interesting article about a McDonald's train, of which I was quite unaware of........Enjoy .......

https://www.thedrive.com/news/38221...nalds-ambitious-plan-to-conquer-the-railroads



Blues You Tube Picks of the week.....

(Blues Notes: Watch closely on what is happening in front of this Train with Rail Employee, I was quite surprised at what I saw.....Don't want to spoil anything, so you be the judge)

Freight Train Struggles Uphill in the Snow | Merry Christmas

https://youtu.be/XcYjG9FMjjU

the hill scene is at 11:30 among some more really interesting content! Thanks so much for a great rail fan year everyone! We're ending the year at 23K Subs and I couldn't be more grateful!


Wabash Central Railroad drags out storage cars CNUR 7 Illinois Central Death Star train on bad track

https://youtu.be/O31-tUr4KqE

The Wabash Central Railroad with CNUR 7 pulls a short train consisting of 1 air-slide hopper and 5 ethanol tanks heads east on the former Cloverleaf line. I picked up the chase east of Warren Indiana and followed the train to Bluffton Indiana where they work out of a trailer.

Local Freight Train Makes Wasted Trip On Industrial Spur! Norfolk Southern & CSX Auto Racks Fly By

https://youtu.be/oUioEpyZRgE

Industrial railway spur action on Norfolk Southern dying spur in Middletown, Ohio. Then a fast CSX auto racks unit freight train flies by. The industrial railroad spur is down to its last customer and the remainder of the line in abandoned. The SD40-2 cut off its train on the main and took a tank car to the last customer. The siding was full of tank cars that were not ready to be pulled and there was no room to set off the car so the locomotive and car returned to the main and coupled back to their train and continued on. A lot of time was wasted so maybe a telephone call should have been made before entering the spur. Lol. I chased the train through an interesting railroad crossing and over a huge trestle that crosses a 4 lane highway and river. Then I got lucky on the nearby CSX main line and filmed a fast train heading toward Cincinnati. Thanks for watching! Check out this video of a train interrupting Santa Light Up LaGrange Celebration! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQkv3...

mtrak & Some CSX Freight Trains Over the ACL Trestle in Weldon, NC

https://youtu.be/XAJ2kjgcbKY

A few sights and some trains seen traversing the historic Atlantic Coast Lines-built trestle in the town of Weldon, North Carolina.
Trains:
Amtrak: AMTK 174(GE P42DC);
Local mixed freight train CSX H775: CSX 5394(GE ES40DC);
Intermodal train CSX Q033: CSX 3080(GE ES44AH) & CSX 3118(GE ES44AH);
Mixed manifest freight train CSX Q412: CSX 757(GE ES44AH), CSX 8849(EMD SD40-2 Ex- Conrail), & CSX 3128(GE ES44AH).

(Blues Notes: On my way to Arizona and points East, I saw these tracks going by on the Freeway, having no idea they belonged to Trona Shortline RR, who has been around for quite some time........Links below will give some more detail about this little Old Shortline.......

https://www.trona-ca.com/trona-railway/

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=trona+railway&ia=web

Trona and Needles Subdivision Railfanning

https://youtu.be/Znk3P2pCYPQ

Happy holidays! On Black Friday my father and I went out to Searles Valley to shoot the Trona, which was making a rare morning run down to Searles from the plant at Argus to drop off a cut of empty coal hoppers and return to the plant around noontime. We bolted up to Pinnacles and shot the train going across the valley from the Pinnacles themselves, then went up to Searles on top of Tunnel 29 to shoot the train switching while hundreds of offroaders swarmed around it! Then moving to the Needles Subdivision, where a curve between Cadiz and Danby was visited for the remainder of the day.

And finally I found this one, the most interesting historically.........The Railroads, today, yesterday, and yesteryear and further back, were, by many peoples standards amazing in what could be done........My hope is the ingenuity and drive witnessed by many, is still alive..Hope you like this Video....I did.....

The Trains That Changed The World | Power: Railways | Spark

Artists, writers, poets seem to have found the greatest fascination and the greatest romance in the powerful engines they have watched cross bridges climb mountains, and drive though the heart of cities. The romance of trains. The story of rail travel, is the story of huge loads, extravagant luxuries, and astonishing speed.

=============================================================================
So this week, I worked on the Alaska Merge, added another piece to the Puzzle merger, LOL Actually added another good size now I had to do some minor snipping of a tile here and there to get the fit I needed to work. Now I don't have any pictures yet of the changes, because, I forgot to take some during all this Xmas biz, actually was having a great time with our Grand Kids Etc. We had to do Quarantine like everyone else has too, and it was just enough time to make it a wonderful Xmas of 6. It really was a special Xmas Day........

Tonight will see some pictures of Legacy of the BN Grain Run Sessions.......I like this Route a lot, and it has several Sessions one can play on to get a good idea how this Route can be used.


Start out with Engine light move from Locomotive area did quick switchback to Yard area for empties pickup.


Headed over to the Grainery with Empties to fill.


Lined for Crossovers to Mill area.


Got our lineup while manifest train passes on the Right with Loaded Boxcars.


Will give a Roll By visual inspection for other train passing here.....No other trains for a while, Dispatch will give us priority for Crossover to Yard, once we get our empties filled and ready for reverse move.



We have 2-3 consist loads to move in this session.


I like the Animation, it works very well for Loading Operations.


First load out is ready, we head thru Crossovers here reverse move to main yards, drop off and pick up some more empty Grain.


Back over in Yard, head into another Storage Yard picking up more empties here.

That'll do for today, hard to believe, New Years is just a few days away......

Peace and thanks for dropping by....

Awesome content Blue!
I see you were having fun with the trouble some session with Grain Collector. I'm curious, did you managed to get pass the red signal that everyone has been reporting or did you do some tweaks to remove it?


Also I hope you had a enjoyable Christmas, and a safe new year transition from the trouble some year of 2021 - hoping that 2021 will bring more light...

Keep up the excellent content



Cheers

Happy 2021..

hiawathamr said:

Awesome content Blue!
I see you were having fun with the trouble some session with Grain Collector. I'm curious, did you managed to get pass the red signal that everyone has been reporting or did you do some tweaks to remove it?


Also I hope you had a enjoyable Christmas, and a safe new year transition from the trouble some year of 2021 - hoping that 2021 will bring more light...

Keep up the excellent content



Cheers

Click to expand...

Happy 2021 my friend,

On that Grain Run, I need to finish it, I got sidelined on that Polish Route, with some, well quite a few missing Assets, which took me a bit to find, with the Route Creator's help.......:hehe:

Didn't due any tweaks yet.....LOL

Our Xmas was wonderful, we got to spend some quality time with our Grand Kids, come tomorrow, time put Xmas Lights and the Tree away, it was a busy month for sure......Fortunately my in-laws with Covid are on the mend, a bit weak, but marked improvement.

Thank you for nice comments.........Best

Donner's Pass / YTube Pics / Misc / Donner Pass Pictures

Good day all,

I'll miss the holidays, but not all the hustle and bush-al with trying to accomplish things during this Covid situation. Our in-laws on the East Coast, 4 of them afflicted with Covid have been improving, fortunately we did not lose them, one of them though came very, very close to not making it.....We are grateful, they tell us that after recovering you feel very tired, similar to Pneumonia.......

So what have I been up too?

Well I upgraded to TRS2019 Platinum from my Standard one, only issue, of which I am aware of, I have a file mismatch with the Patcher, so I will need to due a complete re install. And that is a good thing, I have had this TES2019 for almost 2 years. So refresh is good, just like Windows installations....You get Crude in there after a while......Yes I have good backups, and I will need to due lots of CDP packs from CM too. Just to make sure I don't have an issue come up......Probably take 2 days to re due it all, but it will be worth it........

<kuid:78915:102729> L&N H25A 2-8-0 Engine - In Service by Trainman (thank you Sir, especially for added Caboose) and a big thank-you to all the other Creators, who made things for Xmas. It was a special Xmas with such nice looking Assets.

=================================================================================================
Blues Y Tube Picks of the week:

I have DSL layout of Yosemite RR........This Author is amazing at what he knows and how he creates Hardscape and Models for his HO Scale layout.....Enjoy.

Yosemite Valley HO Scale DCC Model Railroad Layout Tour With Jack Burgess YVRR

https://youtu.be/EHGkZHLqALY

Jack Burgess is a well known model railroader who has written many articles featured in model railroad magazines for the past 40 years. He is also known for his work documenting the history and operations of the Yosemite Valley Railroad in his definitive, but now out-of-print book, "Trains to Yosemite."

This video represents the result of months of planning, four working days of production, and countless hours of post production work... and we hope it will be seen by all as the ultimate tour of Jack's truly museum-quality masterpiece of a layout.

Not only do you get details about the HO Scale layout and the places that are modeled on it, but you also get to hear some of the thought processes that went into creating it; with some historical and operational tidbits about the YVRR included for good measure.

After the tour of the layout, Jack shares some of his scratch-built models and takes us into his workshop, explaining his methodology and showing how he designs models on his computer for 3D printing. Jack also talks about how he uses photos, blueprints, and other types of plans to get prototype accuracy.

Jack has a regular program on this channel. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOr0...


This has to be an unusual one, and it is a series:This narrator talks off the cuff, and lays it out. Ask yourself, would you do this. Can this be done? I think this is a great story about the will and the means demonstrated here!

4
We bought an abandoned railroad: 2nd Field trip part 1.

https://youtu.be/p7h2oDJ_j4g

In this video we take you on the road with us through Indiana to Illinois, Along the way we found some abandon Railroad tracks, a BNSF main line and a Canadian national main line, We also made a stop at Richard brothers to pick up n new truck.

"First Run In '21"

https://youtu.be/0foFyNwgM30

Watch the first run in 2021 on Utica NY's Schuyler Street by New York, Susquehanna & Western's UT-1, specifically on the morning of January 4th.

Changes are definitely abound in 2020, some for worse, some for the better, I have shown you RJ Corman videos in the past.....A great company with a vision........I don't like to see anymore Fallen Flags than need be, so with said, watch this one, RJ Corman has passed a while back, but his Company is still there, and exemplify R J drive to do things right.......

RJ Corman's New Acquisition: The Lehigh Railway

https://youtu.be/vq_6dvZ8YSI


On December 11th, just a tad over two months since the takeover, I chased RJ Corman from east of Wyalusing to Sayre with a solo Ex-CP SD40-2 along the former LV mainline
RJ Corman / Lehigh Railway LRWY-1
LRWY 5721 SD40-2 Nathan K3L
0:00 Towanda
1:14 LRWY-2 at Wyalusing with a U23B and a GP40-2
2:31 East of Wyalusing
3:19 West of Towanda
7:00 Resource Transport at Towanda
8:13 North Towanda
8:49 Ulster
9:47 Athens

I have yet to make it to Scotland for my first visit, and if it ever becomes feasible, I would want to take a ride on this Train.......This video is about Hour and Half, so make sure you have some time set aside to watch this.....I thoroughly enjoyed the Virtual Ride here, I hope you do too.....

The MOST BEAUTIFUL train trip on earth! Fort William to Mallaig from the driver's seat in full

https://youtu.be/xzOK8dnmXCo

Come along with us as we take a ride in the driver's seat for the 42 incredible miles of the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig.

It's often said to be the most beautiful railway journey on earth, here's why!
===================================================================================================
And for today's Picks? Will bring in one of my Favorite Routes, of which I have driven alongside on the Freeways, and byways from Northern to Southern California....Majestic would be one the words to describe the areas where this Route goes thru......And Jango brings that view to you when he made this Route,,,,Conceptually, it is a Route with Stunning detail.........!

UP's Gas Turbine Passenger Train as test run,,,if your not familiar with the Gas Turbine, here is a link for it.....

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=up+gas+turbine+locomotive&ia=web

Think about when this Built and idea behind it, it is remarkable, and yes it did have issues, like anything else brand new....But they made it, and it ran......

"Known as a Gas Turbine Electric Locomotive (GTEL), the GE 101 was quickly accepted, renumbered as the 50, and put into service in Wyoming. UP found the 50 to have teething problems, but it also proved the promise of turbine technology. As a result, from 1952 to 1961, UP took delivery of 55 Alco-GE turbines."

<kuid2:57230:100297:1> Donner Pass ver 1.2 by Jango of " TRAINZITALIA

Donner Pass - v. 1.2 - December, 2014 -
Environment, Layout,Objects, HD textures : GianFranco 'Jango' Messaggi
Tracks & Objects : Christian Steurer
Trees, Objects, HD Textures: RobertoConti19
BetaTester : Ettore Grua ;Carlo Lagomarsino UP844;Derek Munro;DennR Bob;

We start from Sparks Nevada, and work our way south on Drive thru......



Take a close look here at the Stunning Detail by Jango and others who assisted......It took a long time to create this masterpiece.....Aged to perfection.



Traveling thru high elevation Canyons in Northern Ca.



Big Freeways carry traffic as we head South.



I got back as far I could with the Camera here to show the Breadth and beauty of Mother Nature.



Mountains flatten out into some Rolling hills, here, but don't let that fool you, we are up several thousand feet here in Snow Country, and when it comes down, it's not just a few inches of Powder either,, It's heavy and substantial like 10-50feet, enough to need RR Snow Plows up in the Donner's Pass....




Theh Long View here, quite a view, isn't it? Imagine what it looks like in Summer, Winter Etc.....Mesmerizing for sure.....



Our trip takes a while and night has befallen us as we pass thru more deep Canyons here.....



I hadn't mentioned it yet, but these Signal Lights work great........Too!



Imagine that, local Police caught a speeder on the Highway, they are issuing a Speeding Ticket to Violator, good thing, he wasn't doing 100 MPH......

That'll do for today, thanks for dropping by.......

Peace

Reinstallation of Platinum Edition Notes

Good Day all,

I am in the middle of upgrading my TRS2019 from Standard to Platinum the right way! Lots of work to do all the backups and make sure I don't lose my work as well.......

Was up to 2:30AM doing this stuff, and cleared it all out. Fresh install of Platinum version. So far so good.....Now the long process of install my Payware, DLC's etc.....Then all the Assets I had, that part will take some time.......

Here are some of the pictures so far....And the Version is on here, so you can see which one I have.......

I post some Route Pictures in another MSG block when I get a chance.....Been very busy watching my Grand Kids due to unrelated issues......Family stuff, which will work out OK.....No Covid so far.........



Here is where I was with Patch error coming up, I can't show that, because I didn't take Photo of it,,,Only have the beginning one here, and then it goes to File Mismatch.......



Here was the other Error, unrelated to Update Patch.....This was a Corruption in Program......





Here is the fresh install with latest Platinum edition I purchased couple of weeks ago......



And now when I goto settings, no more Browser Refresh error.....Everything is OK.......At 10:00AM Wednesday.....Blue is happy camper at this point, and thank you to the Forum Members, (our Brain Trust) for all the Sage Advice is resolving this issue.......!

That's it for now....

I plan on edit updates on this msg as I continue with rest of ardent process in gettin all the rest of the items re installed............


Take care, be safe out there......One of my Friends caught Covid, and there Mother too......He will make it OK, but she passed on, She was Elderly to Frail, very sad for him......God Bless all of you my Friends during this difficult time......Peace

Hello Blue,
Looks like you tried to install PE into an existing installation of TRS19, which I do know can cause this.
The good news is, all of the features PE has are enabled in SP1 and everything from the PE game side are all part of SP2, so no real difference between the 2 anymore except the additional content and the camera modes / USD.
All I can say is, never install into an existing location unless you plan to have this kind of problem

Overall, glad you managed to get it fixed with the new fresh install of the game - Trainz needs that once in awhile. Now all you have to do is point Trainz to your existing content folder location, run a database update, and you should be good to go

Not like the older days where Trainz stored your content in the game directory. Now they're stored in 2 different areas, so you can reinstall the game, and your content won't be touched, and you can have your content located somewhere else on your computer - makes things easy.

Cheers

TRS2019 Platinum move pdate / You Tube / Pics of New England Route

Good evening,

Well it has been an a very interesting Transmigration from Standard to Platinum Edition. So here is where we are at this moment, almost 48 hours later with some sleep periods. I have been diligently worked on restoring most, not quit all the Assets I had.

And additionally:

Textures missing, will all kind of things......Which brings me the next item, it did save me a bit of time, Exporting about 20 CDP containers back into the new Platinum installation.

Old TRS2019 Data Directory was accessed and yielded some more but not all the Assets required.......Which is strange to me?

So after tapping the Directory and downloading all my prior Purchased Assets from NV3 Stores I found at least 80000 more Assets missing on Routes.....

I was not surprised at all, having used this same method with TRS12, TANE, TRS19 Standard, they all followed the same suite over the last 6 years......

What is good, there are no more errors with Platinum Edition of TRS2019 operating now.

It does appear to work faster.........DBR Repair is times are better too, but once I get all my Assets imported in, I would imagine the Program will slow down, due to the sure volume of Assets and Routes I have......... Just under 600,000.


And my Friends here were correct, you cannot upgrade Platinum into Standard Installation of TRS2019, it simply will corrupt your Standard Edition Module showing weird errors as I previously noted.....

============================================================================================

Switching over to Blue's You Tube Picks of the week?

Trains In and Around Fresno - 12/29/20

https://youtu.be/PcREgTIwqiI

As a final hurrah for 2020, I spent the day in Fresno. Caught some decent action from both the UP and BNSF, and a couple Amtrak trains as well, including CDTX 8306.


Here is something I might have shown you, A Virtual Rail Cam......24hrs a day.....Really cool to know about........https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=virtual+rail+cams&ia=web

La Plata, Missouri, USA | Virtual Rail fan LIVE

The PTZ camera is sponsored by Duane & Curt Lundgren, in memory of their hometown Great Northern Railroad. Thank you both!!

Want to take a trip to La Plata? Stay at the Depot Inn & Suites: https://www.depotinn.com/​

Check out Bob & Amy Cox's business, Train Party: http://www.trainparty.com/​

Radio Feed: https://bit.ly/2NbpuII​

Informational Maps (Courtesy of Curt Lundgren, thanks Curt!)
Original: https://www.curtlundgren.com/la_plata...​
Metric: https://www.curtlundgren.com/la_plata...​

You are welcome to join our family friendly chat, but keep in mind that there’s a community with rules already established. Please check them out below.

La Plata East: https://youtu.be/AAQUGsUzWbE​
La Plata West: https://youtu.be/0pG8AF_eCGI​
La Plata PTZ: https://youtu.be/XviGuHOFHd8

I thought this one was very interesting due to the many types of Rail Route Designs......

15 Most Amazing Railway Tracks In The World

https://youtu.be/-YQy5ba50QM

Also known as a ‘permanent way’, train tracks provide a dependable surface for trains to roll along. They are a cornerstone of public transport, but did you know that they can be significantly more interesting than you might realize? Not all railway tracks are a bog-standard straight line- zipping from A to B. Some are almost labyrinth-like in their layout and complexity. These are the most amazing railway tracks in the world!

-------------------------------------

Since we are in Winter, I think you'll enjpy this a lot......U might want to use Google Translate for German to English on what is written here,,,,,,,,ich spreche kein Deutsch

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+translate+a+web+page&t=ffab&ia=web

Die Wiedergeburt der Dampfschneeschleuder R12 der DFB, ex RhB / Steam Train Rotary Snow Plow

https://youtu.be/4PXcM8ZL7Ks

Ich durfte im Dezember 2020 den ersten Test nach der Revision, der 107 Jahre alten Dampfschneeschleuder der DFB, auf der Furka Bergstrecke begleiten. Ich hoffe ich kann allen Interessierten mit diesem Film meine Eindrücke einigermassen weitergeben. Wenns es mir gelungen sein sollte, schreibt es in die Kommentare! Herzlichen Dank!


Over to Russia, very interesting Steam Locomotive tutorial......Enjoy...

How Russian locomotive class L works.

https://youtu.be/qvUqZ1amDS0


This is a recovered Soviet freight train locomotive Class L, build in 1954.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian...

It works in Sverdlovsk Railway, in Ural region of Russia, Perm city. Now working as retro train locomotive.

The Engine driver Grigory show how to started locomotive, how to make a horn signal. Also you can look inside fire box.

Added English subtitles.

============================================================================
Due to Software upgrade, I will share some Pictures I have taken over time.......This is from New England Route merge.




New line here at the Creamory Plant.....This are also has tow active mines in the back to.....This is Daily Run here to make sure we have enough feed stock,, Empty Box and Ore Cars.....Good biz for the RR.




Ore Shipment going West to Processing Smelters up North.


Light Power moves to pick good amount of Rakes of Freight headed in today, and more tonight......


Light Power sits on the side awaiting for more deliveries......A thru Freight comes into view on the Mainline.


Heavy Power is waiting on Dispatch for next set of Work Orders.......


Got our clearance and we are on the move now.

My Brain is a little tired from moving all these Assets around, so I will say good night.....Thanks for coming by.

Reinstallation of Platinum Edition Notes Part II

Good Saturday Day to all,

Hope everyone is getting along OK with this Covid mess we are in,

I say prayers everyday, since I have some close friends that are recovering, one of who had a major heart attack last year and barely made it through. He is 15 years younger than me, so if you ever hear from a Doctor, the following statement

" YOUR JUST TO YOUNG TO HAVE THIS, we generally see this in older persons" think long and hard about what was just said....

When I was 30 yrs old, almost 4 decades ago, I was told this...Scared the you know what out of me.....And I asked the Doctor why did this happen, his answer, a small percentage of the Population this happens........?

But I took heed and tried to improve my lifestyle. And the affection I had, was nothing I did wrong, it was opportunistic, it changed my life forever.........So take good care of your health, as you age, and you'll pick up here on comments from Elder Members, it does not get easier as you body ages....I can tell you that for sure........!



Lets get off my health kick and discuss some fun stuff here.......

Jan 11th, I started the Transition from Standard to Platinum Version of Trainz.....And I learned a good lesson from more Knowledgeable members on how not to due the Transition......

Easy to say, you have to Erase the program, except your Data Folders, and start Fresh, no cheating and trying to install Platinum over a different version.....

Reality: Depending how long you've been in Trainz will determine the amount of time needed for a complete overhaul, in my case 1-2 weeks.......This is not fluff, it is reality, you only fool yourself otherwise...This is my Third Overhaul,

TS-12 to TANE

TANE to TRS2019

Standard to Platinum TRS2019



So far:

Install worked great, and no more issues with Browser Refresh Errors.

What did take about when I finish today or tomorrow, is 6 days of getting all my old stuff in.

Updating all the newer versions of Files



Re adding in all my Payware

Fixing all the missing files Assets, which doesn't make sense, since most of them are on the DLS....things like Horns, Sounds, Scenery...........I had a ton of Assets that only had 1-3 Files missing, all I had to due was select and download,,,,,I suppose it is the way Trainz is written to only due so much when an Asset is downloaded that has multiple support files........Crazy, but that is the way it seems, as Versions varied from 1.0 all the way up to 3.6 which astonishes me....I could understand the really old ones......It might tie up Trainz to long and slow the program down..?

I do like the way Platinum works, and have mine set at high, I can't run everything in Ultra, only a few, my Laptop is not going to handle that, and I am fine with it.....Platinum seems pretty quick and smooth.....So Blue is happy with it........

One thing I did, was all the Assets I downloaded from support sites, I kept in a Folder, approx 36 Gigs of Stuff, and took me, 2/3 of the day to reinstall all of it.......Update to newer versions.

On DLS I had 45000 Assets that needed downloading, took about 2 days to handle it......Which is fine, because a good portion of these Assets, like anything else, have multiple supporting Assets..

When all is a said and done, I figure I have downloaded about 150K of Assets.

My Current count.....87000 added.

Count when Platinum was installed show 3700... And this is Normal, because that is the Base Program, without your Payware, Putting in my Payware about 10-12 Hours.....



Now take into account,

I have been in Trainz since Winter of 2014, and picked up lots of things.....You know how it is, you don't realize it till one day, your Drives get full, and your shocked at how much you have accumulated over the years....Yes, I admit it, very easy to do.....:hehe:

At this point, I am little Brain tired, but it is all good, and I will continue fix, update my problem Assets Etc......On the second go around, I have need to cull several things, mostly older items that need to put to rest..........That'll require some exchanging of similar newer Assets in the affected Routes........And some Routes will just need to go bye bye........Just an honest assessment in the long scheme of things.

If anyone has a question about what, how, or why I did something here, please indulge me.....I am more than happy to answer the question......I still after all these years, have only scratched the surface of Trainz, there is much I do not know.........It is an amazing program, and I think it one of the best for my needs....


Problems, yes, and that is just reality, all Software has it issues....Just take a read in the daily news briefs with all errors, and other things going on......

That's it for now......And have a wonderful Holiday Weekend........:wave: