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

Granite added to Concrete Tunnel Opening, Missing Tender on Turbine,,,OOPS!!


Evening all, I added a bunch of Plants and Shrubbery in this area, and redid the colors in some spots, as well as the Canyon walls, plus I was experimenting to dress up the Tunnel Opening with some Granite Rocks...I think it looks OK, just like to see what you think, is it OK, or does it not work aesthetically? You won't hurt my feelings.......


Closer Picture of the Opening, I laid the Boulders across the top of the opening to Tunnel.


Ground level view here


Here is same Tunnel and what it looks like on other side, but I won't change this one because I don't have high height Mountain on the Entry side for comparison......


Put a whole bunch of Shrubbery and Plant Hedges in the area of the Red Arrow.....I think it came out OK.......Dropped some big Boulders in the Field on lower left for more contrasting color arrangements.


Ok....I made a big Boo Boo here, and the Corridor Mgr gave me phone call tonight, well actually this morning, Last night I was super happy to get my A & B UP 8500HP Turbine unit, so when the Corridor Mgr called me, he asked so how do you like your Turbine, I said well it not quite ready to leave yet, we are still assembling the Consists! That's good, but you know you don't have all the Units?

I think I fell like an idiot now as the Big Boss is talking with me, So do you know what your missing,, ? I answer honestly, no sir, I don't but if you explain it to me, I promise not to let it happen again! And he said, well the units you have use a bit of fuel, so depending on what your pulling and Grades Etc, there is a possibility those Engines could run out of Fuel before you get to your next destination, so Union Pacific also had a special Fuel Tender that comes with your units, it was in for Maintenance when you ordered the Turbines, and they should have sent it to you? But it appears you were not informed on this.....:hehe: He started laughing, I just didn't want you to run out of Fuel in the Mountains over there, and it take a while to get Fuel up there via Semi......

Son, don't worry about it, I have it being deadheaded over to you for later today, and you can hook it up,,,I'm sending the instructions for Fuel Lines too......

I thanked him and I think my Face went 3 shades of red from out right embarrassment! So here is the complete unit below.....


This Consist will be something once we get the rest of the Tankers added onto to the back, 60 car Train, but it is loaded so it will be heavy, I'm adding a different Turbine (helper service) in the Back, it doesn't need a Fuel Tender....I don't wont any Broken Coupler Knuckels.LoL.

Like they say you don't know what you don't know.

Tanker Train with new UP Turbines (Our Trip begins)

Good Day all,

As you know, I've been modeling like crazy, I going take a diversion here, and do some Trainz Driving with my new Toys....

So here we go, Picture of my engineer getting ready for a Road trip from Aurora to Montana Rail Link.

Here is my other Turbine Loco, and does it have power and speed.....It will be the Helper that gets us over the heavy Grades ahead, one of them is 5% so this guy should keep me from breaking knuckles on heavy grades.

I pushed the Caboose to the back so we can have it at the rear......

Here is a look at the Turbine Motor, strange to me, I've never see one before.....Now lets see if it has the Power to muster this heavy Tanker Load up the hill.

Moving back to pick up our Caboose

And here we go.

Tanker Train with new UP Turbines (Our Trip begins) II

We are getting our helper and Caboose together, will do some shunting of Tankers till we get our 60 Car Consist together then we head out of Aurora onto Montana....Lots of sights to see.

Both rows of Black Tankers full of Fuel and Oil will be Shunted to the Right side.

This is first part being shunted over to the our Consist with UP Turbines.


We have our 60 Car Train and helper attached, we are on our way out up a steep 2-5% Grade and over some Bridges.........


We are headed into the Mountains now......Heavy Grade ahead.

I post more pictures later Tonight as we head to Montana.......

Thanks for Dropping by............

Based on the way the road digs into the terrain on the first pic, a tunnel might be a better choice. Going over means lowering terrain to prevent the road from going too steep. Even road engineers try to keep the grade closer to level, and loaded semis wouldn't strain/breakdown climbing steep grades. Or even worse, lose the trailer on the grade due to broken trailer pins.

maruffijd said:

Based on the way the road digs into the terrain on the first pic, a tunnel might be a better choice. Going over means lowering terrain to prevent the road from going too steep. Even road engineers try to keep the grade closer to level, and loaded semis wouldn't strain/breakdown climbing steep grades. Or even worse, lose the trailer on the grade due to broken trailer pins.

Click to expand...

Sounds good to me, and I think I'll bring that Tunnel closer to the Rail Overpass bridge so I can smooth out that Canyon, which was one of things that was vexing me in the way the Road cut into the hills.

BTW, off topic here a bit, I hope someone keeps an eye on Florida, I have a feeling that Hurricane they said would probably not hit Florida, will be a bigger deal than expected, hope folks are preparing just in case!!

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/04/americas/hurricane-matthew/

Thanks for good advice too.

Tanker Train with new UP Turbines (Our Trip begins) III

Our 60 Car Consist is now on the move.....And we are headed for heavy 5% grade ahead......

Out the Engineers window, on a heavy Grade we see the major Bridge crossings ahead, lots of traffic hauls thru these double Track Bridges, best thing we did, as originally we had single main line with several intersecting Lines, what a Bottle Neck it created.......Now Traffic flows unimpeded.

What more come one ask!

Will be passing a Lumber Mill on the way to Montana Rail Division.

CN #2527 is passing on second track headed north.

The rear has just cleared Yard Limits and our Helper is working great on 5% Grade here.

The Rail Over pass at back is a Coal and Scrap Steel Dump on side of Rail Yard.

That's about it for tonight.....I'll post more Pictures as we continue our Trip into Montana Mountain Area......We are headed to some Oil Processing areas....I don't think you have see yet?

Night all and thanks for dropping in.

Watching the weather channel as I type. Current track has the eye wall running up the eastern coastline so that side NEEDS to escape NOW. That side is calling for 125ish sustained winds and multiple inches of rain. I am on the gulf coast side and should be a breezy wet ride with about 1 inch of accumulation. I still built a hurricane kit and battened down the hatches just in case. The 48 or so hours are what to watch. After that, this monster will be out to sea again. If it stays on this coarse or veers more to the east we actully avoid the nastier eastern side of the storm.


We'll see and pray for now.

maruffijd said:

Watching the weather channel as I type. Current track has the eye wall running up the eastern coastline so that side NEEDS to escape NOW. That side is calling for 125ish sustained winds and multiple inches of rain. I am on the gulf coast side and should be a breezy wet ride with about 1 inch of accumulation. I still built a hurricane kit and battened down the hatches just in case. The 48 or so hours are what to watch. After that, this monster will be out to sea again. If it stays on this coarse or veers more to the east we actully avoid the nastier eastern side of the storm.


We'll see and pray for now.

Click to expand...

I (we) will pray for a safe journey thru this Storm......I've seen the Pictures of the massive clouds you get along with the wind......God Speed and keep you and your Family Safe my friend.......

Good evening all, and our Thoughts and prayers for the East Coast as Hurricane

[url]http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/us/hurricane-matthew-florida-carolinas/

Ok,,,Now I after discussions on best way to install new Road, we chose a Tunnel, as the best way for Traffic, Semi's etc instead of trying to scale high Hills in short space......

Red Arrow is where the Road originally dead ended in the Canyon, and Black Arrow is where the new entrance is now, Yellow Arrow on Right is where side Highway intersects and joins the Tunnel Highway.....I back fill the Red to Black arrow, raise the floor so to speak, and I think it flows a lot better now rather than the way it looked before.?
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Over view Map here, Red Circles Bottom is where we go in and top left is where we exit the Hill Tunnel and quite smoothly, we head back down to next to the Main Track and continue a long ways around and back to the Bay area on other side of Mountain.

Here is the Exit and you can see the Highway has a nice gradual descent, perfect for the Truckers.

Other side view here shows the Road 3 Red Arrows > coming down the mountain in the Back..I'll add some Shrubbery or Trees later when I get a chance.

looking the other way again we see the highway as it takes a gentle cure along the Mountain with Mainline.

It continues on, ans in the very back of the curve, is where our Spur line heads up into the New Power Plant I installed last weekend.

New Highway Intalled in Mountain, Tanker Train on move to Montana

Continuing on we follow the new Highway as it goes past new Power Plant.

Ok, now we are back to Tanker Train headed North to Montana, so far so good. I forgot to mention we lost a Tank Car, damage to Front Bogey in the yard when we assembled our Train the night before, it was caused by a slight derailment in the Team Tracks, for some reason when we changed some of the Tracks, more switches etc, I had a misalignment when Rail Joints where the Black Tank Cars were sitting, they had come in from the top of the Yard,, and it didn't become apparent to Shunting move out the bottom of the Yard, 5MPH derail and we were fortunate, MOW came out and repaired the Track, it might have been caused Ice buildup or something......Tracks had moved about 1.5 Inches out of Gauge.......

Coming thru the Forest opening here, about 40 MPH......

Rounding a steep canyon on the right which has a Water Fall to see as we pass thru.

Here is the water Fall here,,,,,Water cascades down a steep Rock Wall Cliff.

I'll post more Pictures as we continue our Trip North......

Thanks for visiting.

Aurora Harbor Upgrade and expansion begins......

Shout out to Florida, I hope they are doing OK, Big Storm comes in now.

Well, I know I said i would be running some Train Trips, But I had been trying to fix this Silo Building in reference to Terrain Level from Main Lines to the left, more of the Problem was brought on by me bringing in the Tunnel Track from Harbor Master area.

What I found out was I didn't have enough room for the Height difference and the lower area to transcend without one side or the other be out of alignment. The two levels were just to close to each other, so the solution is to move everything further out to see, and do some land fill expansion......

So I decided to revamp this whole area....Red Circle....

We r in Grid View, I moved the Land out 4 Grid Tiles where the Red arrows by bay show......I'm approximating 100' feet additional land space.

This is the Transend area in Red,,,,,the Building will be moved to the Right ,,,,,Silo is just temporary sitting in the Corner, till I see what I going to do once I get things relocated.

This is the other area I had issues with Height adjustment. Red area is new expansion to the right in Red Circle area.....

Silo in Red Circle temp resting spot for now. White Circle is problem area I was alluding to,

Aurora Harbor Upgrade and expansion begins......II

Evening all,

It's 2Am, and I just wanted to post the Pictures, been a very busy day with Automobile Issues, so I didn't get to work on my Route till late tonight.

I changed and redid most of the area, I will add more commentary later today for these pictures below, yes it is Saturday already.......

:wave: Have a great day, and I hope Florida and East Coast are trying to hang in there with the terrible Storm Surges etc.

Ok, I have a BDAY for family to attend to later, so I will try and finish my thoughts out! Thanks for your patience.

So I tore up this whole area, for several reasons that had been bothering me, when I brought in the Mainline from Harbor Master side (directly behind the Mountains here in the back, I changed my Contour levels with respect to Line Elevation on other side of the Mountains, and also when raised the mountains to accommodate my new Tunnel, it posed a issue on this side, I had chopped the mountain in the back of Rail Yard, and just never looked right!

In addition too that the Coal Loaders in the Rail to Ship Transfer below in Picture had some really Sharp Curves which I didn't care for either, as I would also use these Tracks to unload other Ship Items as a convenience when our other Ports were busy etc.......

I also wanted to change most of these Rails to Dockyard Rails, rather than Traditional stuff, I really like the look of Dock Yard Rails.....

So in order to fix the chopped off look of the Mountains in the back Corner, I need to extend a whole bunch of Coast Lines about 4-5 Grid Tiles (not Baseboard Tiles) out for realignment and extensions and better Curves off the Pier, and push the Plant Buildings more towards the Beach, so I could get my Ground transition to smooth out easier.......

I'm showing this in WIRE MODE, as it and I dropped the Water out of sight so I can see, rather than guess what I'm doing in the bottom of the Ocean.......


Transload Facility Piers and Tracks have been moved out here, and I redid the Dirt below the Pier Support Frameworks......

One issue on this side as the Dirt Drops off into your Ocean, when you drop a Deck in, it will sink too and not line up with your building here, so I had to get the Dock in the right spot so it would mate up with bottom of building, and be seamless, not sloppy where the Building or Dock our 1-3 distance between bottom and tops of each item...Red Arrow is area of interest. It's very easy when you throwing stuff in to miss this, yes you can hide the mistakes with weeds and such...But I know it is still there,,,,,That's just me folks......Guess I'm to picky for my own good sometimes......

Now you see I have a good fit here, no Gaps........

I kept moving these empty boxes around trying to find a good spot where they would look ok, and they have to be level too, as they sink once you move them out towards edge of Dock.....


Still lots of work to do in this area, Trying to figure how I want to lay things out, Purple is new place I put Lumber Loader for now, it was back behind on Left next to Red Circle.

Red Circle containers will get moved back up front probably next to Purple circle between the Transload Dock extensions.

Yellow Square is new push out area I created with Land Fill for more Lateral area to work in.......

Green Circle is Silo that will sit next to Tunnel Track with Spur Rail Service for Silo Feed Stop off load and Transport.....

That's about it for now......

Thanks for dropping in folks......

Aurora Harbor Upgrade and expansion begins......III

Here is additional Pix I wanted to add from last night,

Yellow Icon is Hill area I smoothed and expanded out to get rid of the Chopped off look,,,,,,,Red Arrows is ?New Road I put in to bring semis through the Yards, we didn't have a dedicated Highway before, now we do.....That will improve the Yard function and better control our delivery's etc,

Factory in the back(upper left of this picture) sits level now and I'm not fighting the Rail Grade behind which put it or the Rail height out of alignment all the time.....it was just to close to uphill terrain from the Grade % I had in Rail coming off the mountain in the back.....

White Dotted circle is where the original Rail Yard extended and I never liked it, :'( I did it, so now I'm fixing the problem I created.....This hill has been raised and I'll recolor to match surrounding area.

Now you can see the area after I fixed it, Red Arrow, and it looks so much more natural now....I have to figure out if I am going to put a large factory in this back section (Dave Snows Cotton Oil one) just not sure, or a small Rail Yard?

Look in Middle upper part of picture and you see the /Silo has been placed there with Spur Track support, fits perfect......Add a water Storage Tank for the large Tan Manufacturing plant. Everything fits so much better now......I'm a happy camper......Almpst forgot , I put in a dirt road in the Back too.......

Good Day all,

We had a nice BDay Party last night.

I was a very bad boy having went on the See Food Plan, everything looked so yummy, I ate it! .......

Now I have to go on a strict Diet today....Well at least for a couple of Days......LOL it's all good!

:hehe:Was falling asleep at the computer almost did a face plant on the Keyboard so you guessed it, I didn't post till this morning!

OK. So here we go......This is the recent mapped area of what I have been working on, The Black part is Water, at this distance it changes from Blue to underlying color I painted in the bottom......

You can see how I laid out the tracks in the Harbor, it is not 100% complete just yet, I need to put in some more small buildings and Loco Maintenance Support Items, Like Fuel, Sand and Coal Tipples etc.....And probably some small X Over switches here and there, that will come once I start the Shunting moves and see what Bottlenecks appear that aren't so evident now.

Yellow Arrowed area is not finished I have to figure out where the Coal Tipple will fit best for Steamers, I might put it right of the Turntable Tracks..Trail and error., .nice thing, I have several different Styles to play with.

I think these hill lines look a lot better since I brought them further out and reduced the cut off effect. Red Arrow areas.

I like the way this A-1 Truck & Rail (Dave Snow Creation) fit in, I had just enough room with Track on other side that goes to Boxing Company back behind it in corner Upper Right of Picture. The Rail for this building runs thru and out the Back so you can pull in Loco head first and escape out the back into main Track, it will work out great.

Some new cars came in for Trucking Company on Left, some of them need to go elsewhere in the back Rail Yard. Our local power will shunt when they come on duty at noon. We have a lot more cars coming in for Coal Trans load on Pier side. I've tried to make nice curves in this yard and leave enough room for the Shunting Operations too.......

I might also try and drop a Scrap Metal Yard in here too......Just thinking about it....Will see......

Ah, these are the Locos for Yard Operations, Probably have some 1200-1500 Switchers brought in too for some of the Curves. There will be plenty of work in this little yard, it fills the Gap, when our other larger Ports (Harbor Master area) get to busy and we can take smaller Cargo Ships here........

I still need to situate these Containers, I used some of them for other buildings in the Yard, if you look carefully here, to the Blue Fishing Company on upper Right side you'll see a Green Container same ad the one by Red Arrow, sitting on other side of Semi over there that's picking up a load of Shipment from them now in the back, it tool a bit to get it leveled with wooden Dock in back, as it would sink to the bottom of the Water Level...... But I finally got it placed at right height......

I don't remember if I mentioned or not, but Red Arrow, that building I found out, I had it turned backwards off 180 degrees, and no where for the Semis to turn around in the back.....So I got that fixed yesterday.......Now the Trucks load on Front side of yard where there supposed to be.......EEK

Just a view of Power Plant and Aurora Yard shown here so you can see how Silo on top and everything lays out........

Have a blessed day all, and thanks for coming to visit me.......

Aurora Harbor Upgrade and expansion begins......IV

Good Sunday evening all,

Looks like its midnight and the loco is in the hunt looking for Traffic to Shunt.....I'm happy to report that some of the newer buildings have night lights, so I will not need as much lighting for night work as I thought........

Ok in night shot here, I moved the Turntable again, and now I think I have everything in place, put in a PULP MILL out of my 3 Team Tracks, lost one of them due to space considerations.

Water Tank service added for Steam Engines and Coal Bin. Didn't add Sand fillers yet. Have a big pile of dirt from all the Land excavations I've been doing, it can sit here next to Box Company back yard till we decide what to do with it..

Another set of Power was brought in as we have Coal and Ore shipments coming in tonight, so will need the extra units to move stuff around, ready to ship out pronto.

Red Arrow is where I decided to move the building from 200' further back.

Also I drop in a new General Signal Control Tower for the yard, and it has night lights too...

This shot, I added a bunch of trucks into the where house and lighting for each of the Dock Loading entry places.

All Yellow Arrows were added or moved to new locations.

I believe I have all the tracks in place and just a few small areas to add small equipment items for operations support.

Enjoy your evening and thanks for dropping in..........

Good Monday Morning all, Hope you have a great week,

We have been busy in the Yard and surrounding areas since Construction is fairly completed except for some Trees and Weeds for the area.

Picture below is Grain Cars being filled up and will send some power from the Yard to grab these and drop off some more empty's which reminds me, I need to get a hold of Main yards and request some Hoppers, as I don't have any here due to new construction.

We brought in some more Power for the Yard and something special came in yesterday?

Older Santa Fe and Cabooses to go with it, OK.....Don't laugh it's paid for and she works great, Maintenance is up to date she purrs like a Lynx Cat.

Well here is one of our Pride and Joys, UP Big Boy Steam, will be having this one pull the heavy Ore Consists out of the Pier today up the heavy grades...I'm so excited we got this one over here to run the heavy loads, the older Engineers are excited too.....There is already talk in the Town about some Passengers Runs out of here for Special Holidays..Got a call from the Mayor's office when he heard from his constituents that this Gem of an Engine had come thru Town yesterday afternoon......LOL

Who says you can't "kit bash" a little here and there, I was looking thru my buildings to find something smaller to stick in the empty back art, and I saw this Green Industrial Building, and since the Pulp Plant below is Raw in finished products out, (see wood cargo Containers on Dock waiting for Flatcar Trans load) why not give these guys so more oppurtunities for building other items out of wood and more space to due it in?

Voila, I added the building, shortened the Spur right below the arrow, Colors matched not exact but close enough for "Government Work" as they say. Now we have a nice industrial , raw materials operation going on here and more Rail Traffic Biz for my Yard, a win win for every one, and my Crew Base will have more work here for Shunting as well........He you know Xmas is not far away, the folks could use more hours work!

Across behind, you can see the Sand House and Sand Fillers Coal Boxes Etc for Steam Support.

What yard would not be complete without a someones (one of my Bosses) Private Car stored for future Trips on it's own spur......Well what can I say, he paid for the Spur to be put in, and a Fence too, we haven't had the time to do the Fence, but that will come in a couple of days. Trucks are here loading up for Retail deliveries.

Cars came in for local factories here.

Remember Big Boy, he's coming over here to Drag this load off the pier, it came in last night off the Boat and is ready to be delivered to one of our customers.

Our Yard is looking good, I put another spur at the entry to this yard for Car Storage......I'll post the picture later.

It has been a good experience redoing this area, now I have to work the yard and see if I need any more Crossover Connections, I have pretty good Curves all around.....I also need to check and see if I have any bottlenecks in here.,,,,,Time will tell.

Thanks for dropping in here......Hope you like what you see, and Comments are always welcome........

Hmmmm.

Seems you have a good thing going here.

1. The SF unit will draw the SF foamers from all 4 corners increasing the tourism.
2. The majestic Big Boy will keep the industries busy enough to increase worker hours so they get extra money for the upcoming season. (Santa is gonna be busy around here. :hehe: )

3. The kitbash looks great, Some poor shmuck can paint it later.

4. This is just my opinion,

In post 174, pics 2 & 3. The "cat ear" peak looks out of place/odd.

Hill is repaired now, Looking for more SF Loco's

maruffijd said:

Hmmmm.

Seems you have a good thing going here.

1. The SF unit will draw the SF foamers from all 4 corners increasing the tourism.
2. The majestic Big Boy will keep the industries busy enough to increase worker hours so they get extra money for the upcoming season. (Santa is gonna be busy around here. :hehe: )

3. The kitbash looks great, Some poor shmuck can paint it later.

4. This is just my opinion,

In post 174, pics 2 & 3. The "cat ear" peak looks out of place/odd.

Click to expand...

:wave: Hello maruffijjd,

Thanks for coming by, and your comments our always welcome Sir.........

I think our audience enjoys the different Brands of Engines, I know I do, I like have something different in the areas. Just trying to keep it fresh.

Update on SF Units: you just gave me an Idea, I'm going to look for a particular Set of SF I won't say here until I see if I have them,,,,,I think they'll like it if I can find them for my Yard.......

Glad you like the Kit Bash, it just seemed to work for me, I kind of tripped over it and thought what the heck, I'm going to try this out.....

I don't know how to Re-skin stuff, hopefully some day I'll learn that when I get most of my Route Building complete.....

I see what you meant about the Peak (Cats Ear) I went back up there and I think I got it better....I'll post a picture with the next group of pictures later today/tonight.

More ATSF War Bonnets have arrived!

Good evening all,

I have a question about the War Bonnet F units below (red Arrow), they are somewhat different models, and the Speed Writing is different too,,Look on top and see the Exhaust Turbines are grouped on Right, on left the one of the Turbines is separated from the other 3) , Color shades are different as well can anyone tell what the difference means?

Is it possible these two different Authors for Reskins?

Sorry I'm clueless when it comes this type thing on Locomotives.

And now I have all the Power I need to keep my Yard and surrounding areas serviced in the Aurora Division........

I threw in another Steam Engine Too........Next to UP Big Boy..........

I have a confession to make, the Santa Fe Loco behind the #116 Unit was a Slug and I didn't notice when I got it that it didn't have Cab Unit on it! OOPS., so I ordered the SF #116 Unit to mate up with the Slug.....

Update: Courtesy of better informed source......(is not a slug it all, it's a GP60B) my bad.......

Another view of the Yard with a cast of new Characters on site......Now we just need to put them to work today........

That's it for now, I did some work out in the Farm area today and I'll post pictures of what I added to Farm Tomorrow......

Thanks for Visiting......

I could be mistaken but I believe the F units on the left are F7's and those on the right are F3's, and if not the difference might be dynamic brakes which would account for the extra cooling fan. As for the color difference that is just probably down to different skin artists, for example if me, and say a handful of the legendary skinners at JR all attempted to make FURX SD40-2's, firstly my result would pale in comparison, but more importantly every single one of us would probably wind up with a different shade of green. Also, your "slug" is not a slug it all, it's a GP60B, much like the F7B trailing your F7A. It is fully powered but requires another, cabbed locomotive in order to operate it. A slug is a locomotive with no prime mover and only traction motors on the trucks, which feed off of the excess power of a mother locomotive at low speeds to gain addition tractive effort. Hope that clears up any confusion there.

As for the progress you're making on the route, it's looking quite good per usual, keep at it Blue!