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

Grade Reduction improvement, Topology and additional Dredging

Today was a very pivotal day, I was able to reduce the Grade from 2.72% to 2% and less going into and out bridge, that will increase Freight speed and less wear and tare on the Brakes and Engines, Fuel Savings, all good things when when your running the Railroad.

I smoothed out a lot of deep crevices in places they shouldn't be, fixed some lumpy hills from grade cutting.


Dirt and elevated track meet now....Lot grading to get it there and smooth out from Track centers.


Wow what happened to those hanging tracks in mid air, now it looks right, and mountainsides blend in more naturally.


I had to dredge the lake and upper canal deeper, as I got the water way out of level between Lake and Bay area, didn't realize till I adjusted the water in the Bay and no water in Lake,,,Yup the joke was on me.....LOL



I had to reset lots of houses since I raised a bunch of land to get my Grade right to adjust for bridge height.....One to remember we are doing work on mostly existent land and Decor, rather than new land. So we need to be Creative when we make changes without disrupting to much of natural Route Form here.


I had to re-position the whole highway and massive grading due to my elevation of tracks, now everything lines up nicely. Also had to tear out the small beach area for shipping clearance at the mouth of inland waterway, in addition, the Pier had to move 1 mile away for the Smaller Cruise Ship Docking needs when they make stops in the bay before heading up the lake area etc.
 
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Cruise Ships, Highway realignment, moving hotel beach houses, Pier relocation!

The old Dock was across the bay and obstructed the mouth to the inlet, posing a shipping hazard. I built and doubled the length for the newer cruise ships scheduled to arrive this Summer. local business up river our excited as sales haven't been vibrant in the last few years. I f we take care of Travelers and make them want to come back and visit, tell their friends what a good time they have, this might be the start of something great in a business relationship way of thinking.

Look at this, we already have a cruise ship in port here to pickup new passengers!


The large beach house had to moved closer to the highway because Grade Construction, Railroad paid for the relocation and all the work , along with redoing the highway as well. They call this progress and it affects those in area. Remember the Railroad likes to be good neighbors with those affected by Growth and Change, it's very much in the interest of the Community and the health of the Railroad, which is known for bringing in Population and Job Growth.


Grade improvements and Highway alignment came together and now the area flows.

Sorry about the Trees left in the waterway, they're slated to removed tomorrow.


For the remaining Grid pattern, I just will cover in Battleship Gray Ballast till I see how I'll Color Texture it. But I just got an epiphany while I was typing, I think I see some low areas that would look nice in Beach sand with Palm Trees and BBQ pit, well that's if I have a Beach pit in inventory..........


What's this, I see we already have our full size Cruise ship sailing slowly up the canal, with a Ships Pilot keep them clear of any obstacles in the River.


The large cruise ship might not have enough room to get thru the Rocky out croppings , no big deal, if not, they have ship Tenders to take Tourist the rest of way to local resorts.
 
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Lucy we have a problem! OMG highways to nowhere, bumpy mountains!


Evening all, I was feeling good about my route till I looked at some adjoining areas where I tried to do some patchwork texture, and like they say, you can fool everyone else? Maybe, but can't fool myself. So I'm busy correcting my hiccup, Oh do I have few.

One side of the canal, paint looked natural and inviting, the other side looked like mulligan stew, with too many cooks in the kitchen, so I went back and recolored several portions, now it looks good, not perfect but good.


In this area, dropped a highway down to the Lake landing, and there is a cruise ship here that will drop off passengers to spelunking in the Countryside, B&B's and Wine. Not finished, I need Trees and Plants to compliment it better.

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I dropped (Select, Copy and Paste) some textures, but it messed with continuity of land, Waffle pattern, so I need a Steam roller to iron out all the ripples, and adjust the tree more Random!


The train is stopped for a bit till line ahead is clear of some Freights coming thru in opposition, we have problems with uneven Highways, and mountains uneven, so lots of smoothing the mountains, with relocating the highways.


In part of the new Canal below, I redoing the Farm Fields and edges of the land by the Water, lots of Color Texture to work with, and possibly some small Spurs line for Industry's, W.I.P. for sure. I also have to paint the bottom of the Canal too.

In the mean time we are preparing for a family outing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains all next week so I won't be able to work on this as there is no Internet in the wild where will be camping.

Our family has been camping all our life and we really enjoy it.

Night all and QUES and COMMENTS are always welcome.
 
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This is actually a pretty impressive route, especially for the sheer scale of the thing. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. Keep it up blue.
 
Thank you for your interest in my project

This is actually a pretty impressive route, especially for the sheer scale of the thing. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. Keep it up blue.

Thank you for the kind words,

When I started with Trainz Driver2 on Ipad, I learned quickly there where some memory and storage limitations and Video Lags. As well I knew nothing about routes, I got the quick idea from reading this Forum, that if I downloaded small routes, I could merge them together within limits, and really have diversified route with unique areas to play around with.

I decided a year later to buy TS12 and run it on my Laptop, and voila, 5 merges later, I ended up with this Route to play with, and it has it's moments when the user (me) messes up, but overall I'm having lots of fun and learning so much, and I still feel I haven't scratched the surface of what can be done with Trainz.

In short I wanted to share what I'm doing and how I do it so it may be of benefit to others who
might struggle like I and many others do.

Appreciate your coming by to visit my Thread.

Have a great weekend, Sir.
 
Travel from Boathouse landing to Farmland area, (New Highway Construction)


Evening all, this small boathouse landing has been a pain in the neck, But I finally got the Road where I wanted it, and the house leveled correctly. It took some time to get enough spline points in to support the Roadway where it would break on me. And fool around with the elevation to get it looking more normal.

I dropped several different Pines in here I think it flows OK now, funny thing, I had to figure out where the Road should go, what would be logical, so I decided it need to go up into Snow Country for now, Lovette Mountain is where we are headed.


I redid a lot of this area and increased the Tilled Fields for Crops, I might put farm animals later? You can see where the highway is going now, as this Highway wasn't here initially, I like the curves.


The local freight Train has stopped for a few minutes, Dispatcher advises us there's Passenger Traffic coming out of the Resorts today, probably about 1 hour delay time, but it's built into our schedule so it's not a problem, want to take good care of Travelers and Tourist as we make money, and loose money if Passenger Trains are significantly delayed

Looking at the ROW to right of Train, we have a lot area open to use to bring in the new Highway extension from the Lakeside Dock house.


I redid the Farm Fields, extended them out towards the Hills, and dropped in a Row of Trees for Demarcation of the fields.


Here is the new Highway Extension, and it goes to nice Grove of Trees over to the R.R.s Main Lines. I t has a good flow and I probably need to add Shrubbery later to taste.


Now you see the Highway extension along the ROW, and heads on up into Lovette Mountain Resorts area, you see another Freight parked just around the Corner doing some shunting work.
 
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New Highway to Lovette Moutain resorts Part II (Vista Point Project)


Well you probably figured it out, I'm always looking for something new to start in the middle of a construction Project. As I was laying new highway up the Mountain Grade, I experienced another epiphany, as I look out over the Eastern Lovette Mountain divide, I see a peak across the valley, and this particular peak has a beautiful lookout point over the Lake below, which also happens to be above the houseboat and Rock Outcroppings, so what if was able split off the main highway and make a road over the point where visitors could get a breath taking view of Lake and who Canal area, see the Cruise Ships as they as they travel about the area.


Ok we put a split in the highway and, now will start across a small valley and off to the Ridge point, lets see if we make this work, remember this isn't for sure, as there is a heck of a lot grading at the view point.


The left side of the highway will continue up and will see if there is way to get this down the ridge into the Valley, it's very steep, and not much room for the highway.....Hmmmmm?


Ok this is main area of interest, Lovette Mountain Resort area, so the highway comes in, and I have to see if I can get down into the Valley 40-50 feet down from up here, be nice if I can, will see.


Here is the view of Canyon across from where the Highway comes at the side of the Bridge, I may just bring the Highway down and underneath the Rail Bridge overpass and terminate there. Last thing I want to do is tear up have the mountain for one highway. It is simply too costly and not productive for this area, and would disturb the natural beauty.
 
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That area at Lovette Mountain is really cool. It feels like a model railroad, however, when I usually see those I don't really like them but the way you did it works really well and looks cool.
 
New Highway to Lovette Moutain resorts Part IV (Vista Point Project)

Thank you MEOW RR, appreciate the kind words, and my next Post will be some BIO on Model R.R Building to share with the group.

Things are improving here, Buses and Cars have come in to view the new spot, they really like the highway, vs 4Wheeling it and Hiking as has been done in the past.

I dropped in some Trees here and there, and will probably do Shrubbery later when I have more time to play with it.

Also need to put up so Road Safety Rails to, so people don't drop into the Lake below!!


Top view shows the placing of Forest Trees, always room for adjustment, I'm also toying with the Idea to put in a small Spur and have a Passenger train come in part way, possibly a small Station in Valley area with Shuttle bus to Cul De Sac? It's easy to bring Spur off main thru the pass there, plenty of Room in that small Valley, I'll experiment with it to see how it goes?

Sorry about the hanging Borders in the back, that's from my Video Card in Laptop is to weak to Render the whole background at this angle!


This is valley area hear in top of Mountain range, I would bring Spur in and Stop it before the Highway Division point. Small Station and a Restaurant, Gift Shop if I have anything......Open for Ideas folks.????.......Thanks.


Side view here where Highway cuts off to Cul De Sac, Stub end on left will continue up, then down into the Village below, not sure how far, because it is a steep drop. Have to be Creative, but need to work with Curves and limited area????

You can see the Trees I added in the Valley area top 1/2 of the Photo, I need to go back and move them around bit more, not quite satisfied, also when I put Station and Restaurant, some will be removed for Buildings Etc.


Just another view of the Highway, and I made it wind along the Mountain edge, I think it has a nice effect, had to raise the Mountains up, I wanted it to have that kind of view of the enormity of towering mountain ranges up here in the resort area.

I'm not a great mountain builder, but I try as best I can.....


This is a view from the Farmland Fields below the Vista Point area, now you see lots of Trees up there against the Skyline vs only plain mountains before I started on Vista Point. I think it came out OK but I'll tweak some more of course.
 
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Vista Point passenger Station Installation completed today


Well good evening, boy did I have a heck of time getting this Station installed, Problem being there was such an Elevation Change, caused by yours truly,,who loves big mountain ranges, I couldn't get the correct rise in allowable Grade below 12%, yup you heard it hear first, no matter if I came via Bridge, nor from the northern Mainline at the Rail Bridge overpass, or it was the fact the Curve would be way to sharp, so finally on 4th try, I dropped a Spur line in just around the corner of Mountain pass, had to hollow out a Canyon,and Voila, I got a 2.5 to 3.2% Grade, a little steep, but not so much our passengers trains can't back in.

Dropped in Service/Food Station, Hotel, and Restaurant, with some umbrellas and a few other odds and ends.

We got an old fashioned Train backed in, and I think everything will work out OK.

Got a novel idea to run a highway Tunnel thru the mountain and it'll hook up with the Lower Passenger Station, so actually Passengers can come in to Vista Point, stay a whole, and then go out on the lower Passenger Station and see some different views out the Lovette Canyon run if they like, Shuttle will rotate between this and other Passenger Station as needed, so we didn't have to tear up the steep path by drilling a short highway Tunnel from Upper Deck to Lower Passenger Station!

I'll bring in more Photos so you can see how I did the Road Auto Tunnel.

For the mainline I also dropped in a Switching house and Enter-locker 3 head signal to keep traffic control thru this area.

Dropped in Switch House that has control over all the switches in this area, as we have opposing traffic more frequently with lots of Freight movement, all good but we don't want corn field meets or bottlenecks with busy Tourist Traffic!

Picture below is over head map of new passenger station.


Shows Train and Split highway, left side going into New Auto Tunnel I built to service lower Passenger and Resort area.


Our new Passenger Train is parked in, and the Room is just perfect for the Train.


Hotel, Restaurant, and Gas Grocery, Hotel all within walking distance of Passenger Services, used a small passenger Station, very simple and unobtrusive for the area.


It just worked out, Train sits just behind the Dirt Road, so Traffic is non issue, couldn't have worked out better.

Customers will be shuttled to Vista Point for the amazing views over the Lake and Mountain Range area.


You can see Inter Locker and Small Dispatch house for Train control as well, CTC switch house added too!

New Dispatchers are added for the extra traffic on both Passenger Lines that feed upper and lower areas of Mountain Resorts and Mining areas. Our normal dispatch Center is 50 miles away, but I wanted to staff just a 3 person for here linking into the Harbor area as well, so theirs plenty to do for them, they won't be bored, as HarborMaster area is very busy too, so it takes good integration along with all the Farmland operations, and several Rail Yards, all this movement needs good flow control in the system. Of course a bad storm can run your whole day! Respect the weather, plan ahead, you stay ahead.
 
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Thanks,,,, been busy all day, fixing, preping, even saved some driver that crashed into a tree across
from my house today, auto turned upside down too!

Fell asleep at wheel or something.....

Got them out from bring trapped...

Crazy day, leaving tomorrow morning.

Can't wait to be headed to my beloved sequoia mtns...

Night now....
 
New Turnaround Y to

Evening all, Had a great week in mountains, except for spot of Flu, fortunately the good mountain air cured me. I will say, it was awfully dry up there,and we really need some rain badly. Send us some clouds to California, we could use them.

Ok, now to business at hand, recall I have 2 routes out of Mountain, well actually 3 if you count the lower passenger station, but let's keep to upper level, so the mains leaving Lovette Mountain, had route going downhill to the Valley floor, but if you back down past switch below, and then headed up on Northern Switch you could go out I portal to Montana Rail side, which is huge jump.

Now what I did is throw in a curved WYE below which allows you to fork easily to either of 2 routes out of upper area.

Making that curve took me a while, to get it centered and curved just right for the area, had to due some shaving, but I think I got a good free flow after 12 mods on it.

Brought up the Hills between new curve track and mains, to give it some more interest than flat area?

Also because I extended the tracks around the Coal area up ahead and around the Mountain, everything flows well for heavy Freights and Shunting activities.




Now we are down below the Upper WYE and I extended the Xx-overs for higher freight speed coming or leaving the area, especially if I have any large Freight Containers or Large Locos Etc.


SP Locos stopped at switch awaiting clearance for Shunt work, they may be old, but they are so reliable. They always come thru for me.


Front shot here, I like using the lighted CNR switch stands, it works perfectly for my needs.

I need to do a lot of Rail n Signal checks to make sure everything Jives as it should.


Looking South from I portal lead, you see beginning New WYE to left, and further down, Valley Main Lead in distance, showing other part of WYE lead into to Lovette Mountain. I've got all the Signals tied in, but still need to verify aspects for proper train movements.


If you look carefully, at the end of the curve, you'll see PORTAL ENTRY letters,, and this Portal will work great for me, however, because I have merged a lot of layouts, I need to inventory my 12 Portals and see how to best use them for connection points that'll make sense when I cross Rail Divisions, which brings up another point, I need to name 5 or 6 Sub divisions as well to have good order when I use AI for point to point moves etc, just thinking ahead, never be bored here, lots of diversity in this route.

That's about it for tonight.

Thanks for your interest.

Ques and Comments always welcome.
 
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