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

Weather/ White Pass RR News/ Snyder Route building ideas

Good Thursday all,

Well it is hard to believe, Winter is only with us for a bit longer, but I have enjoyed the Cooler weather, because if our supposed mild Spring does not appear, and we go immediate 90 degree days, well lets just say, I wont be a happy camper, Cold doesn't bother me as much as Heat....The other issue in California, In first part of April, that just about closes the Rain Door for us, not good, as we are dry now......Means lots of Forest Fires.....So will see where that goes, and we usually get 8 months of no Rain the last decade.......

For those who follow White Pass Line in Alaska, this might be of interest......Good to see they are keeping the line alive.

https://skagwaynews.com/2020/02/10/wpyr-spends-millions-on-larger-more-efficient-locomotives/

Lets go to Trainz, First a Shout out to Sir Dave Snow, lets keep those prayers going on, to help Dave get back to health. And thanks for a amazing Alma Route, I am playing with it, there is lots of areas to explore and plenty going on. I haven't taken any pictures just yet. But I will show them in the Future.....Dave has knocked this one out of the part. It is a fabulous Route with much to see and do.....Thanks Sir Dave for another Gem of a Route.

Now will move over to Snyder E/W Shunting and look at some Tracks and Industrial Centers I setup.

In the past, I have referenced using the Tape Measure Tool in Trainz, it really comes in handy when you want to Square up at area that is say 45 degrees off the true Grid-lines. Makes it easy to get your tracks and or curves in a direction that looks and acts the way you want the Rolling Stock to run.

In picture below, I have 2 tapelines, to get my Buildings square on 45 Degree off set of what the Mainline is running. In the left side, I have chosen a bunch of building models I think I will use in this industrial Project.


Looking down, I dropped in a whole bunch of Tapes to get my Buildings angled the way I want them to look.......Reminder there is nothing said, that everything has to be Square, in real life it is not. And that is OK too........



Next shot the Buildings are pretty much set in the location I visualizzed and I brought in some more warehouses too.


Now in this Shot, we are in Wire View, I want to see how my tracks align on the Grid, I don't need to see the Texture at this point, I need a clean view, in this area, I want the mainline straight and my spur's trailing off. I need a certain amount of spacing between the Mainlines too. Not too much, not too little.......Everyone has there favorite spacing.....

Here I ran a Tape, because one of mainlines was not straight, and when I added the extra siding to drop in Freights for delivery, I couldn't get that 3rd line looking straight, brought the tape, and lined up my Spline points and not the Tracks are trued out, further down out of view, they go into a Curve.


Overhead view here, shows how my Track Plan worked out.......When I lay my Spur's and Switches, I want there to be some logic and purpose when I do my shunting, and the first layout, might end up being 3, 4, 5, 6, changes to get it working......What I don't want is tripping myself over the spotting of cars not have the switches in strategic spots, where your doing a bunch of back and forth moves........There are those situations where it is unavoidable, and you have to work within the confines of your Track build.....

Over here is Diesel and Propane service, at first I was only going to have Diesel Service, and then the thought came to mind, I think this can work for us too......


More distant view, Cardboard manufacturer in front of Diesel and Propane Facilities, I need to add lots of junk and other things you'd expect to see in an industrial area, so very much WIP here.


Looking here, the best logic is having your many cars sorted ahead of time, before you drop them in here, and that is where the Rail Yard down the way comes into play, do most of sorting if possible, before you come in here, sometimes, time will not allow. You run with it, and sort the mess here instead.......


Wire View here, I needed to get this Curves lined up better, so Grid View cleared it up for me.....

Looking on the Right, you see I have set off the Building off angle, it is not square with the Main line......Further up Spurs are going to more than one customer and branch off in Trailing pattern?

In addition to checking the Tracks to see if there lined up to my preference, I am also checking ) 08 Signal for 3 Block assignment, and the Signals light up for the proper Switch arrangement, allowing the Engineer to see how the Switches are aligned.....Not all signals will work properly, it really depends on how you have set your switches.

That'll do for today.......Thanks for dropping in.
 
A blessed Sunday to all,


Got lot to do this week, since I found some hungry Termites eating my Roof in a spot,,,,,,work and maintenance on an aging house never cease, it only increases with age, akin to Arthritus and my old body....LOL


We received some lightning and a few showers, nothing to write home about, but better than none at all.....Spring is coming, now is the time to dig into the Garden, tidy up unfinished projects and get some Flowers and potted plants I have grown into the Ground, before the Heat of Spring and Summer soon after make it near impossible for yound plants to get established....


Today, just some simple Locomotive Pics with Heritage models, I bought........Haven't run them yet, but I will soon. Been playing around a little bit with Alma Route and is a keeper, will probably show pics on next message......
I think this is a K&L locomotive, I bought quite a few Locomotives from K&L and Diesels from Jointed Rail......

Check out the Colored Smoke on this one,,,,,,I need to learn how to do this with other Locos in stock, in fact I need to retool a lot of Smoke Characteristics....That will be fun when I get around to it.......



Latest Roster of Heritage Models.....Like them a lot......



One of my favorite SP Switchers I remember as young kid



Ain't she a beauty.......Powerful too....Seems to me, these are SD70's?



Interesting paint scheme on this one.....I forgot why the UP Number maybe it was a merge with Western or buyout, please forgive my being Naive here......



Distance shot on Route.......This might be UMR 2020...not sure.....



Getting ready to do a Power Move Transfer to new Routes? Points unknown, but Alma and UMR2020 are definitely in the running....


Another interesting Paint Scheme


Ah D&RG another of my favorite Loco's that got absorbed by Fallen Flag SP......Like this Scheme of Colors a lot....Very nicely done....


Baby blue, a crowd favorite....A little to light shade of blue for me I prefer some silvery blue cast.......

And that'll do it for now.......It's out to the yard and get some stuff done before the Sun fades away today....Thanks for dropping in.........
 
Good Thursday to all members here,

Well this year is turning out to be very busy, Mr's Blue has reminded me, we have been in our house for almost 3.5 Decades, and we now, more than ever need to Spruce this 58 yr old House up a bit, as it now showing it's age. And potential buyers are too. Yes eventually, we like other friends we know, need to down size, clear up the Clutter, make things more manageable as we age. It just makes good sense.

I was looking at my inventory of Trainz Assets, now at 526K and thought oh my, I have accumulated quite a bit of Assets, some Version 1 and on up, I need to go thru and do a major clean out, keep the best of the best and say so long to the others, that I had for so long.

In the same vein of Thought, I ran into repair issues that needed my Insurance Company and Pest Control Companies help, and it became obvious to me, they couldn't be there or provide the On the spot service I needed, some of these Companies I have been with since the early 80's. My thought is, and I was taught this at an early age from my parents, Customer is King, and Customer is right until proven otherwise, Service is performance. So when the New Year comes around, and Prices for everything is on the Rise! Ask yourself, are you getting what your paying for, if not, why Not? And what are you going to do about it?

So my message here, take a few minutes, think about your concerns of Services you need, and how it relates to you as an individual, and make the changes. Do your due diligence, before you do......Have a plan "B"..........

For me one of the companies that serve me will be losing me as a customer, and possibly another one too.........

The last thing I would remind to my friends, you receive what you pay for, so Cheap, is not always a good option at times, you have to make that call, in the final Note? You are number #1, the most important part of the equation, make the most prudent change for your lifestyle......

Now lets get to the fun part of day!

I want to make a Shout out to Sir Dave Snow, on his Alma Route, if you have not downloaded, please look at the pictures I will be showing here in the coming weeks, and ask yourself, is this not one awesome Route by one of our beloved Creators. I think it is, and I am having a bang up time playing on it.......


This is a nice size Route with lots of action, Boats, Airplanes and neat little crooks and cranny's to check out.......The range of different Train Models used is phenomenal here and if you download Sir Dave's Route, give him a Shout and let him know, how you like the Route......I am one happy camper with Riding on the Alma River Route.....


Thank you Sir Dave Snow, for one very cool and entertaining Route.........It's a keeper for sure......God Bless you Sir and keep you on the mend........Best wishes on your recovery......


I had some other photos I was going to show, but somehow in renaming other Photos, I over the ones I wanted to show tonight. So will see some others......


Back on Snyder Route, and E/W Switching Route we have some shunting action going on.


The Map shown here, looks like a lot of Xmas Lights, I finally got all the Signals in place and things are ship shaping up well......



This is the completed overhead Industrial Park I modified and added to more commercial Packing Houses. After many tries, and changes, I got the Tracks aligned and one crossover where it doesn't affect other traffic on the Team Tracks.





Over in the same area here, I am working in Wire Mode for final adjustment of Track to grid points, and do a check on Interlocking Signal, so far so good.



In Food and Freezer Storage area I added another Siding too handle excess cars needed for these large company's so we don't interfere with Amtrak designated trains and other priority Freights etc.



Had some power sitting over here in Industrial lead, will press them in for lots of Shunts.



Got a cobbled together lash up of different power to handle some heavy loads coming in today..




Loads are just down the track, will pick them up and get them spotted.....



They gave us some MOW Unit Consist to get moved into place for upcoming Track and Ballast work scheduled Maintenance Windows.



Last part of Shunt in progress, as the Sky above darkens and looks very threatening with a nasty Storm coming over the top of us......Can't wait for the Thunder and lightening show I am sure will follow on the heals of this bad boy.



Thank you for stopping in.
 
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Triplex arrives at Alma River Yard today......

A good Sunday to all,


Been hard at work getting my roof ship shape, today looks like will have a little Rain starting last night and most of Sunday. Our area is quite dry now, as the good rains we did receive thru early Winter have severely tapered off. In fact we have had 85-90 days in the last few weeks, which in the end of Winter is very troubling, and will signal more Forest Fires starting early again this year.


Ironically one of our Northern Dams has to be drained and repaired because they have found some weakened spots in it, and a Flood potential to the small cities downstream........And this is not localized to California along, it is a major infrastructure across the USA......


https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dam+needs+repairs&atb=v207-4__&ia=web
================================================================
This week I downloaded the Triplex Locomotive from


https://forums.auran.com/trainz/member.php?1046944-fant_autentico


https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?157008-Big-(triplex)-boy&highlight=Triplex


Thank you for great looking model.


Here is a picture of it waiting in Sir Dave Snow's Alma River rail yard. Water and serviced ready for a departure later tonight.





Our consist will have Baggage and Mailing Sort Coaches lashed up and ready for a Trial run in Alma River Country tonight.



Look at those nice Looking Green Marker Lamps, this Triplex is in the Hunt and ready pony up the Horsepower.



You should hear the thunder of Steam as this magnificent Triplex comes thru the yard.

On a dark Starry night, Black Beauty is lit and on a roll into the Country.


Track path is cleared, and switches set, Signals are stacked, and we are clear to let this beauty power up show her stuff.


Yard exit is directly ahead.


Earlier today we Genesee & Wyoming #46 Gen-set Power for some MOW scheduled work window.


We're making a joint with MOW Consist. Track over to the right is end of Triplex Baggage consists.



Coming thru the Locomotive Shops, our power will get quick check up on Battery status and Fluid levels before they go out.
Mechanics are on duty, and this shouldn't take too long.

I'm enjoying Alma River Route this week, there is a lot to see and do, and more pictures on the way.


That'll do for today,,,,,,,,
 
Rail News Links/ E/W Power move for new customers.

Good Thursday to all,


Got my Roof watertight now, and next week, looks light we have a 3 to 4 day Rain event, believe it not, we already had 3 small fires in So Cal area that I know of......And our area Temps are sub 90 degrees, which means, we are too dry.

Over to computers for a moment, I had some directory problems, and found that I had what is called Cross linked Directory's which one was hidden until I did File move, and all of sudden the other Directory showed it's true name. I had changed my Download Dir to a different name, which WIN10 showed much displeasure and I did what I thought was rename, but for some reason it didn't go thru right......Now by luck when moving some files around, all is well.......


This week, I figured I needed to do some more spring cleaning with my Hard Drive, get some more organization done, throw out some stuff I don't need etc.......

Been playing on couple different Routes, one Alma, and the other helping a friend out with some Route changes.

And some articles of interest for you.....
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/119847636/second-locomotive-buried-in-river-bed-may-be-recovered


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...ent-prince-george-school-evacuation-1.5487136


https://www.sonomamarintrain.org/all-news


Today will look at some pictures from E/W Module merge.

Looking out in Western Horizon is quit a sight to see in this part of Rural America



Coming thru a small grove of large trees.



Coming in strong our fresh Power for heavy Oil and Boxcar Loads.



Large Power move is coming into the area for staging at key points.



Looks like Storm is brewing in East, will see if get some Rain out here?



Power is headed downtown to local disptatch and Rail Yard.



Power is stopped for a few minutes while we get our break out orders for positioning.



Another look from afar, Locomotive power as far as the eye can see....Our dispatch has already received several calls from Vendors asking about why so many Locomotives here. We politely inform them, there over a dozen new industries just came on line, with that, and one being a large Beer Plant, we need enough power for this and a large Creamery operation just opening this week. As anyone know, Rail Biz is very competitive, if we lose our edge, someone else, will pick up the biz and chances are we wont get it back.......


Power is holding on left side as outbound Freight heads West with some of the Power units from what just arrived.



Load of Missouri Pacific Rolling Stock is coming thru town....



That'll due for today, thanks for dropping in.
 
Nice screenshots Blue!
Maybe your next adventure could be more American Mountains? ;)
Speaking about American Mountains, I started a TRS19 version yesterday, and posted some alpha screenshots in the American Mountain announcement and support thread if you want a sneak peak :D

Cheers
 
Good Tuesday to all,


It wasn't a good weekend for Blue, we lost a family member to Multiple https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/multiple-sclerosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20350269, they made it just past 30 years old, had made thru College re-markedly consider her extreme Medical issues. But time ran out and the Lord took her from us......At least now, she is in peace.

And with that came more bad news from a close in-law, they have a quick form of onset Dementia and they are not even in their 60's yet, in addition to that our Grown up Child mid 40's needs a knee replacement and may have a Cancerous lesion growing in a Gland. A very troubling weekend indeed, it will be another 2-3 weeks before the surgery occurs and we can get more decisive results since they have to make deep incision to get inside the gland in question. We are hoping it just Benign, but you never know, so we prepare for the worst and hope for the best outcome, and say our prayers.......

For tonight will spend some time over on the Island of Kauai 2008:

Island Steam run has come into station for pickup. Our station personnel at the ready for Passenger arrival/departures.





And on the left our latest Island Passenger Train in living color.....Thank pweiser for a classy looking Asset....Love it.


Both new and old Liveries side by side........Question held here, which do you like, for me, I like both, they are both Special Trains. Steam will always be held in respectable esteem. A touch of Meloncholy for love of Steam, and sound of raw power.



And she is steaming away to the next several Station Stops.


Looking across a Island, our New Haven Passenger Train is headed to the City Stop.


These trees are shadowy and see through when I took this picture as are assets on other Routes, usually A REVERT TO ORIGINAL, OR Alpha Mask change in the Config.txt does the trick and they change to full visibility.

Our next shots will come from a Route we have covered lately, as requested by member who is very talented and I enjoy his Routes too.

That'll do for today, thanks for dropping by.
 
Good Saturday and health to all,


Well, today we got a barn buster Rain Storm, and our dry areas got some much needed Snow and Rain as is appropriate. As for Traffic well, you know how that goes.....Out here, because it doesn't rain as much as other parts of the country, our Drivers be inpatient, or otherwise don't slow down. So we get sat 20-50 accidents in a day, it goes to 300-400......


It is what it is, bad habits are hard to change......LOL


OK So great news on my Laptop, I was able to exchange a new M-2 Crucial Sata SSD, 1 Terabyte for my small 256Gig one, now I have some breathing room, I am awaiting a 2-Tera Crucial SSD for the Second Drive, and I love Acronis Software, it just works, and works well, like it should be........


Supposed to come in tomorrow, and super easy to change drives in this ASUS Strix, max of 5 tiny screws and simple access from the bottom side of Laptop, I love it......Bless those engineers who laid out this computer, one of the best Laptops next to Lenovo one, I ever owned.....


Now on to Trainz,


Tonight we head back to America Mountains Route by hiawathamr.


<kuid:605579:100619> American Mountains - TANE


It says for TANE, and I run it in TRS2019 with no issues at all, runs perfectly......


He has made lots of nice sessions for this Route, I really like the way Track Plans are and wonderful green foliage with Charcoal Mountain hardscape, dramatic contrast, somewhat like Iceland and Norway I think.......


Tonight we do a little Oil and Coal Run, here are the pictures.......I found out, I have to restart my Engines on saved sessions, with Santa Fe Power, I like that a lot, I need to convert some of my locomotive power to Start/Stop Engine control, of course easier said than done, but it goes into my bucket list for later......


We start the session out in the local yard with Consist Ready for departure. We also have inbound traffic, but since we have dual mainlines (my favorite) it works great, and gives more realism of active RRing action when your operating your Consist..



Rail yard where we will start our Coal and Oil Session.......


Green Clear Dwarf gives us the go ahead as we head out perfectly straight Yard Ladder Tracks, with makes it lots easier for our empties, not snaking out have to Crawl here. I head up to 25 MPH now.....

Just heading out of local Rail Yard with Rake of empty Oil Cans and Coal Drag. As you can see here, this Route is superbly detailed with appropriate Detail and Color Contrasts.!

Just as we head out of the Clear, there is a inbound heavy thru Freight, with Auto Loads passing us at SPEED.


We go thru s Dark, Smoky, but not to Dark Tunnel here, I have never seen this Tunnel in my whole time of Trainz, I have to find out what name this one is, I like it a lot....Cool and very musty Spooky looking Tunnel......LOL

Signal ahead tells us we are doing Crossover onto Long Spur entrance for Oil First then further up leg, we end up in Coal Mine Tipple for loading.


Coming off the main, and I like the good spacing for Switch distances, so your hangover as you come into the Spur, looks natural and not jerky.....Perfect spacing for sure on this and the whole rest of route, well laid out Crossover and escape cutoffs for doing your Runarounds on Industries......Well done Sir.....

Several miles off the Main, we head up our Spur to Oil and Coal industries for today's load. Look at the lush countryside and the green well diverse Trees he has put it......


We cross over a tranquil nice looking River to other side where Customers are located.


Dropped a set of Tankers off for Oil Fill.......Headed back to Spur and re hook up with our Coal Drag, last 1/2 of Train.

Thank you for dropping in.......
 
Nice screenshots Blue!
And thanks for doing another round of American mountains - always nice to see when someone is enjoying the content you made:)
I see you haven't install AM v1.1 yet into Trainz. It does update quiet a few assets, reduces the number of items that needs to be downloaded, and updates the rolling stock and a few of its locomotives. Might be worth to check it out;)
For the time being, taking a small break from creating new items, as this will give my brain time to recharge and think of another route project to work on.

Take care, and stay safe as this nasty thing goes around the world.

cheers
 
Nice screenshots Blue!
And thanks for doing another round of American mountains - always nice to see when someone is enjoying the content you made:)
I see you haven't install AM v1.1 yet into Trainz. It does update quiet a few assets, reduces the number of items that needs to be downloaded, and updates the rolling stock and a few of its locomotives. Might be worth to check it out;)
For the time being, taking a small break from creating new items, as this will give my brain time to recharge and think of another route project to work on.

Take care, and stay safe as this nasty thing goes around the world.

cheers

Thank you Sir,

It is wonderful Route to play on, and I have lots of Sessions you made to do it too! The color contrast is extraordinary , I like it a lot, and all your foliage is unique without particular pattern, I can see you spent quite bit of fair time making this one. Bravo.....

As for the Virus, I pray for the world, this is one of those things I have read about in historical sense, now we need to be smart, prudent and on our Game, as we have quite ways to go.

May the Lord look over us for unknown Road we travel ahead.......

Peace to you and those you love.
 
Alma and American Mountains discussed with hint of Computer Backup

Good day all,


Well I received my Second SSD from Crucial, 2 Terabyte and it just works, excellant.....No issues so far. I did have to do a couple of CDP re installs to Trainz, about 4 lost Assets, but no biggy ,,I have backups, so just have to do a Search and we are good to go......


Will continue on with American Mountains RR as we continue the Coal and Oil Session.
=====================================================================================
Ok before we goto tonights Photo's lets discuss some potentially painful issues with Computers, as most of you know, I have been playing around, with Computers since 1970 Tandy TR-99 Radio Shack era, in some cases before you were Born, with that said, I have my issues like all of you, Blown Hard Drives, Burned up AMD CPU Chips, Blown Video Cards (heat issues) and a static shorted out Motherboard (users error, no wrist strap for grounding static electricity). What is all the point of this past erata, you learn by your mistakes, painfully and Mother Experience will get your attention and your hard earned money.


Great, Now lets just gloss over a couple of basics to save yourself some unneeded grief:


Backup of your data is in my opinion #1 Priority, you backup what is needed, and what your can't afford to lose, simple right......You need 3 copies to do it right......One on External Hard Drive, one in Cloud and one in location that is not your house........


Next most of you should be able to change out Hard Drives and Video Cards fairly easy today, if not get yourself a good and reliable Computer person, be it a friend or a Computer Shop.


If your like me, a Geek in Technical World, take your time and do the work yourself, but make sure you learn how to do it right, absolutely no shortcuts.


Why do I say all this, I have read all the horrer stories in this and other Forums, about lost or corrupted Routes, in some cases years of huge built Routes, years of dedication labor that is gone, never retrivable again. What a terrible heartbreak.


Has it happened to me, yes Folks, you bet your Skippy it has.


I lost if I recall, back in TRS12 Trainz, 10-13 Months worth of Route I had been working on. Sure I was able to rebuild it, one of reasons why, I had quite a few Photos of my work. Was I upset, you better belief it, for probably a week, I kicked myself several times, for not backing up my data properly.


Was that the last time it happened, answer NO,


Because Windows Disk write Errors did me in again years later, about a year ago. Only this time, I lost couple of weeks, because to my dismay, my shorter term copies of Marias Pass, which I had been building a Mine Pit and several other areas was corrupted in layers.....That's when I found out my backup program, CARBONITE was affecting continuity of TRS2019 File save operations, giving me CTD (windows crash to desktop) Windows and other co currently running Software do not play nice, one of them acts like a playground Bully, taking memory it shouldn't have causing your Hard Drive to struggle for consistant Drive Read and Writes. And Windows has it own set of issues, you know it, and I know it......At this stage of Game, actually for years, I do not ever 100% Trust Windows, I have been burned before!!!


Bottom line, now when I work in Trainz for Route Building merges etc, I have my WEB turned off, and all non-essential Win programs closed, so Trainz Game has exclusive control of computer RAM, HD etc when I do Route Work......If I am playing with Trainz running Sessions whatever, then this is not an issue on Disk Writes.


Bottom line, I too have learned the hard way by experiencing Software and Hardware issues.....


You just need to figure out, how much information (Files, Programs etc) you can afford to lose....It is always your choice!!!


One last thing, I would suggest folks, you be aware of a term in computers, and other things too, MTBF, or another way, "Mean Time Between Failure", it is a measurement of what based on suggested mechanical number assigned to Computer Equipt, that tells us how long something should last before it Fails....With Hard Drives being the most important.....For those who play with Metals, it is Metal Fatigue before a catastropic break in Metal Frames, like Cracks, IE Air Craft is one.


Finally the last thing,


Computers do not like Heat, it will wear and degrade your electronic componets eventually causing them to fail, especially your Cell Phone, carried in Pockets next to your 98.6 degree body, Cell Phone Batteries can get quite heated, thus reducing the life of your Cell Phone, and I do think Cell Phones, or Small portable computers they are more than a phone, are very expensive these days....Well North of 1000$ dollars.....I once almost got a fire going in my pocket, because I forgot I was carrying my Cell Phone and not using some sort of leather carrier. And I knew better, what did happen, I had to replace the Cell Phone Battery a few months later......We have all seen what happens when Cell Phones over heat from lack of proper ventilation.......It aint pretty.....


Make sure you dust off and blow out the accumulated Dust buildup in your Computer, Laptop or Desktop, it happens to all, and that will help keep your computer running Cooler.........Once every year, or every 6 months is better, if your dust buildup is worse......


As I sit typing this now, I am backing up my whole User Directory to external Disk, as I am installing Windows Feature update today.


I hope this helps a little.......


Now lets get to the Pictures for today......


From Alma Route were running a Silica Sand Train.....



Full length view of our heavy, and I mean heavy Sand Train, anyone tries to beat a Crossing in front of us, well, you know, they'll be turned into Pancake at the least.......



Were headed to higher elevation as we take this Tunnel Northbound.



We cleared the Tunnel, took a loop around track as we keep headed up a 2-3% Grade, train handling is very important here, proper Slack, no broken Knuckles if we can help it. Keep enough air pressure, so when we hit a downngrade, our Brakes will work for us. On the way up, we picked up another helper, as one of our units was not working at full power, now we have the ppwer to safely negotiate the last part og our trip.



On another side of the Route, working a Log Train here if I remember correctly, been testing lots of Trains, and doing a little Signal Tweaking.



American Mountains our Coal Run is still in action here. As we pull up to switch and cut out the Oil Tankers to get them filled at the Refinary.



Earlier we passed across a Lake Bridge.



We cleared the Oil Refinary and have our Coal Gons headed up to the tipple for a Coal Fill up..



And here is the main entrace to the Coal Mine Tipple.



That'll do,,,,off and running, thank you for dropping by.
 
Blue my friend, I am glad to see that you are well although if you can, just leave your house only for what is strictly necessary. I also hope that your whole family is well.

Very good advice about backups; it is better to waste some time than to regret later.

Hugs and greetings to Mrs. Blue.

Javier
 
Neat screenshots Blue!
And that's always something that can't be stressed enough - always make backups, and then test the backups once a while to make sure you can restore, as you don't want to lose everything, and then find out you can't restore the files because of who knows why.
As what IT people say - a backup isn't a backup until you test it, else its just a waste of space.


Thank you Sir,

It is wonderful Route to play on, and I have lots of Sessions you made to do it too! The color contrast is extraordinary , I like it a lot, and all your foliage is unique without particular pattern, I can see you spent quite bit of fair time making this one. Bravo.....

As for the Virus, I pray for the world, this is one of those things I have read about in historical sense, now we need to be smart, prudent and on our Game, as we have quite ways to go.

May the Lord look over us for unknown Road we travel ahead.......

Peace to you and those you love.

Thank you - glad you are enjoying the route:)
I also made the route special as you can run passenger, switch out the industries or at the yards, make local runs, run mainline freight, etc - a very special route;)
As for the virus, same here. I'm hoping that this will soon pass by so everything can return back to normal, as this is just crazy on how everything is going...

Anyway, take care to both yourself and Mrs. Blue.

Cheers
 
Blue my friend, I am glad to see that you are well although if you can, just leave your house only for what is strictly necessary. I also hope that your whole family is well.

Very good advice about backups; it is better to waste some time than to regret later.

Hugs and greetings to Mrs. Blue.

Javier

Hello Fant,

Thank you for concerns,

Our country is going to be worse with the onset of this horrible Virus, so yes, I am staying put, except for Food or Medical needs...Blessings to you and those you love........

The better side of this situation, people are finally listening and coming together to beat this horrible Virus.....Now time will tell as we wait in our homes for better days ahead.

Hugs to you my friend, as I pray for the whole world during this very difficult time.

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


Hello hiawathamr
,

Thank you for the kind comments, and me and Mr's Blue are hunkering down, we are hoping to find some Toilet Paper and Paper Towels maybe?

Went to 6-8 stores today, not a good scene with many shelf's completely cleared out from panic buying and or hogging in several cases. My hope is this situation will normalize a little......

Now we have lines waiting to get into Stores, part of the reason is physical spacing 6 feet distance to hold down cross infection of this Virus........

Take care my Friend.
 
Prayers are sent to all affected by Covid-19

Good Day all,


First and formost, this is a very tough and scary time for America, and the World with Covid-19 running around, with that I pray for the World, you, and ask the Lord to keep watch and help us try to get thru this very rough Storm we are facing......


Been going around trying to support our local Restaurants who are having a really tough time trying to stay in business, this is one of those times when the Community can come together in numbers and show their Strength and resolve to support by patrinizing these little mom and pop places........


Now I fixing and trying to get some much needed maintenance on our Home. When you live in a House, your never really finished trying to keep it livable, there is always something to fix, paint Etc.


Now over to Trainz:


Here are a few shots on single test Tile with the Setting Sun, it just happened to work out this way as I ran a new Steamer I got ahold of.....


Coming round the been with a good head of Steam showing.....


Further away and the Sun is almost set....


Sun is set and as we see a long Steam Train running the Training and Test Track here, to make sure everything is working, I do a lot of testing on this and 3 other small track plans...



Hmmmm.....Watch your speed around edge here, its a very long ways to the bottom..


Diesel and Steam having a quite conversation, wondering which Route they will land on, truth is, I don't know either.....


Famous UMR2020 Route MAP, this is really terrific Route, has plenty of Line Running, lots of Nooks an Crannies to poke in and do some shunting. I encourage you to check this Route, it well made......Check it out Folks.......As well there are several previous versions to chose from too, I think back to TANE?


Playing in the Alma Lake Rail Yard here.....Plenty to do.....I changed a few Tracks and Signals.
Absolutely stunning Route.

Local power is running thru, getting a little Oil and some other quick items, it has its Consist, that just got their 90 Day Maintenance done behind these Switchers, it's a good day.....Now lets get going and not spend too much time in Maintence Building.

Peace and Prayer to all........Thank you for coming by.......
 
blueodessey;1801611 [I said:

Hello hiawathamr
,

[/I]Thank you for the kind comments, and me and Mr's Blue are hunkering down, we are hoping to find some Toilet Paper and Paper Towels maybe?

Went to 6-8 stores today, not a good scene with many shelf's completely cleared out from panic buying and or hogging in several cases. My hope is this situation will normalize a little......

Now we have lines waiting to get into Stores, part of the reason is physical spacing 6 feet distance to hold down cross infection of this Virus........

Take care my Friend.

Your welcome.
That's great news to hear that you and Mrs. Blue are doing well - especially during this crazy time in history.
Yesterday I was lucky to get 3 packages of TP, since we had only 1, maybe 2 rolls remaining, and have several rolls of paper towels.
I will agree, as a few weeks back, went to 20 different stores, just to see they didn't had TP.
So far I haven't had to wait in lines to get into the store, but then again, I only live in a small city and not the large cities that I'm used to...

Also, nice screenshots and descriptions - thanks for sharing:)

Stay safe; cheers
 
Good evening all, prayers around for you and your families as we are bad situation now with more cases developing each day for Covid-19. This is one time of your life that'll be quite significant, as we wait thru these time periods to see when this Nasty little Virus tops out, and things start to look better. For now, we need to support one another the very best we can.


I have been busy trying to shop and get enough Food Supplies and other things, one day at Costco, I had to wait in line for 3 hours, fortunately I was able to find some Toilet Tissue and couple of other things, on that day, there was probably 600-700 customers standing in line waiting patiently as well. I have heard this is a familiar scene in many other areas too.


Unfortunately for me, California is now one of those high ranking Covid-19 Case Hotpots, as well as New York and some others, this will be a sure test of Skills to gain a grip over Covid-19.....


This week Beaches and other areas of interest where closed down, to help mitigate the further spread of this Virus.


As well, I applaud all the First Res-ponders, Hospitals, Police, Fire and Trucking Association, Food Co's and Markets that are working long hours to get us thru this Pandemic.......


My Hope is we learn some things to help us, when another Pandemic comes, hopefully not in my Lifetime.


In the mean time, I have tasked myself with getting some much needed Maintenance and old Projects not completed around the house, a good source of time and diligence as my family spends time home. I took an old, probably 30yrs at least, Wheel Barrow apart, and replaced the Wood Handles, Changed out the Rotted old, cracked almost broken Wood Handles and under-frame pinning. Power Sanded all the Rust off of the Metal Barrow part, it was incredibly well made. And is quite thick gauge of Metal, Very heavy, but will handle any load, dirt, Concrete etc, except I have changed the Rubber Tire 4 Times, probably because of Sun Rot, which I have decided to build a Shed, where it will be kept out of the Heat and Rain Periods. Should do real well for the new wooden handles.


What I didn't cover, I have to Ping out the interior side of the Barrows Walls, too remove some hardened Concrete that has built up over the years, it will take some gentle knocking of the hammer, so as not to distort the Metal walls, more than what they are......Just takes a little more time and patience. What I am saying to you, take each day as it is, and try to enjoy something, to give your mind a little relaxing as we try to get thru this tough time. We all have different ways of relaxing. This is my way.


I think about all of you here in the forum, and pray to God, that you'll be OK and get thru this tough time......


Over to Trainz, here are some pictures of Freight movement thru the Grannis area, Alma's Route....Thank you Sir Dave Snow, speaking of whom, I hope you are on the Road to Recovery my friend, I so enjpy all the Routes and Assets you have made over the years.....


Here are the pictures:




We even brought a working Steam Shovel too....Someone here ordered it to be transferred over for some Digging......


Check out our POW Caboose, a very stark memory of my Teen Age years. Some never came back from Vietnam War........


Headed to Air Force Base to pick up Loads and drop off some....





Are Air Force Sentry watches all movement from Lookout Tower.....



Empty Freight Cars are waiting for pickup......


Air Force job completed and we are to our next way point......

Folks please forgive me if I talked too much, but I just felt I needed to convey my feelings to you all......

Thanks for dropping in, my the Lord look over each and every one of you......Peace
 
Snyder Merge Power Moves

Good Wednesday to all,


I'm trying to be positive during this dreadful Virus infection we all face. I say a prayer everyday for the my Family and that of the whole world during these uncertain times.

Been busy fixing an old Wheelbarrow, so I could make some concrete repairs, almost good as new, except the Wheel Axle needs some new shims to keep the Tire centered, other than that my Wheelbarrow is much better shape than it has been in the last 30yrs......It was great day to due our concrete repairs when my broken Plumbing Pipe needed to be installed due to pipe old age and breakage, a very costly repair in the 1000's.

It is spring time, weather for once is still cool, not to warm for this time of the year, but I will hold my breath, as we have gone from 50 or 60 degrees in 3-4 days to 85-95 degrees. Which is no fun for me, others might like the heat, as for me, not so much after having 2 Sun strokes and one heat related illness. My body does not do well in heat, been that way since I was born, a family trait of one my parents. Cold weather no problem....Just one of those life issues you have to adjust too......

So for Trainz, not a lot going on, since I have been very busy with Roofing, Plumbing, and Gardening repairs around with Mr's Blue helping me out, and giving me some great ideas on improvements.

Tonight will look at some Merge Route Pics on Snyder and East West lines.

A load of mixed freight headed downtown for Points East of here.


Some leased SP Power working our Customers and headed over to Locomotive Shop for 90day maintenance window checkup.


Inside one of these old Reliable Beasts, everything works, so much different from the newer Cabs, a little noisier, but that is OK, they good horsepower and rarely if ever break down, well, we have good equipment maintenance too.


An ATSF Unit headed in too pickup some cars.


Our newly installed Locomotive Fueling facility, I think this isn't going to be large enough for our Locomotives, I might have to find an additional site for more Locomotive Maintenance and fuel needs. Looks like one for the bucket lists.


Another set of ATSF Power has brought in our Rosters of Leased Units, looks like 15-20 units, sounds like a lot, been when you stack 3-4 units for heavy Freight, they go fast.


Looks like a Storm is almost on top of us, hope we get all these Locos put away before the weather gets nasty. No we don't stop our work, Rain or Snow the Railroad will keep on the move........Funny thing the last few days, we got some calls from Homeowners asking about all the New Locomotives comeing in (Power Move) we told the our concerned residents, the Railroad is growing, and so is our customer base, we didn't have enough power for all our new Rail Customers. Especially the new Beer and Frozen Food Plants, along with a new Creamory. All good business for Railroad.


Another new set of Power is coming in today.


A MOW Consists passes us on Main #2, we await clearance from interlocker 08 Signal. Looks like one of the Locals is ahead of us making some switching moves.


Our new Engine Fuel and Sand Facility, (OOPS) think I need to check up on the not installed Sanders, get right on that. I'm looking real close here, hope I can drop in another Service Spur here too make more room for our newly leased Loco's.

I think that'll do for now, thank you for coming by. May the lord look over each and every one of you during this most challenging time we face......Amen
 
Routes Downloaded recently,, Alma Pictures

A blessed Friday to all,


Hoping that everyone is doing OK. It's been Raining like Cats and Dogs this whole week, and we are grateful, since our State was in 50% Drought, now our Rainfall has brought us up 65% of Normal Rain. In fact I think we are breaking some rainfall records too.


Other than that, have been working in the Garden and around the yard removing those pesky Weeds we all get when Spring shows up.


Since it is raining so much, I decided to go Route hunting, and I came across interesting Routes to add to my collection......Some are older and some are quite new, all really nice to run on. Some have missing Assets but will make do.


<kuid:884720:100349> BCSJ-508
<kuid:793180:103212> CSX Black Creek Sub
<kuid:439337:100859> New England Coastal
<kuid:471011:100166> Patriot River Lines- Tetris Challenge
<kuid:471011:101315> Patriot River Lines V2.1
<kuid:457919:100391> WhiteshoreFinal


With that will swing over to Alma Route from Sir David Snow......


Nothing like doing some Cruising and Fishing a bit on natural River way......This Route has Boat tracks everywhere, so you can literally go boating instead of Trainzing, stop your Boat near one of tracks, and pick up a passing train......Very Cool.


Local Air Force base Freight passing thru headed to points West of here.


Headed thru the back country on a Return Loop from the Air Force Base. Everything looks so nice on this Route, Sir Dave has a flair for great scenary. Looks as natural and proparly placed as you could expect.


Mixed Power Pool pulling a Silica consists.


A view from the just behind our lead units, looks like a lot of greenery ahead.


Easing thru the Crossing as we head down hill about 1.5% or better downgrade.


A larger overview from the top here showing part of the large return loop from Air Force Base line.


Back over at the main yard, looks like our Cattle cars are cleaned up and ready to haul some Livestock Meat to Market.


A heavy Boxcar Consists headed into Tunnel for Industrial Plants.



This part of the Alma Route, just wanted to show how much River runs over/under and around the RR Tracks. You can have lots of fun on Alma, and there are Planes, Heliocoptors to fly around the Route as well. What more could you ask for, Boats, Trains and Planes on this one.....


With that, our next 1-2 Months is probably going to be quite a Game Changer for everyone. We say a prayer for all in our Country and abroad, that we can get thru this horrible Virus Pandemic.


Peace be with you.
 
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