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

Oil Tanker Fire in ALPS airport, some injuries........

Good day all.

Thinks are quite in this part of town for the moment, Amtrak #551 is waiting for orders and watching Smoke across the way as Airport Fire Crews put out a Oil Tanker Fire.......

Were busy here getting these loaded Beer and fuel cars loads in the back pulled out, just in case this overturned Tanker situation gets works........

For now the Fire Crews think they have control of the Fire as they try to cool it down, fortunatey we have a good cold snow on the ground, a true blessing here.

This baby is smoking a lot......Driver lost control on slick ice he didn't see.

If they can squash the fire and cool it completely down, they get a pumper in here and then do the cleanup, for now the oil spill is small.......We have boom trucks on the way in to dike it up just in case the Tank ruptures on us......We pushed container and snow up against the Tank to stop the oil from spreading and it's working with Cold temps and Ice.....

It is lucky at the moment this thing didn't turn over, and it's melting downward for the moment.........All airport flights are diverted for now, we don't get that much in here, because this is a smaller rural one.......

I'm busy up in Snow Creek doing a lot more re alignment and earth moving to accommodate other new areas with industries that need fixing.......

That's it for now, I got the new SP-2 update last night, and I'll discuss that in my next post.

Thanks for dropping in folks.........

Good Thursday all,

Yesterday was an interesting and painful day, I went out bicycling, and tried to pass some pedestrians on narrow section of Sidewalk, went off the curb into the street, and down on the ground, was lucky I didn't get hit by a car, lesson learned, thank God I had my helmet, long pants, and gloves on, or the road rash would have been worse than it was......No broken bones, but the body is definitely sore from extending some back and arm muscles to break a very hard landing, the Bicycle, it just got a twisted Brake control......

So lets talk about Trainz, so far my SP-2 update is working OK, the program is faster and more resposive,and it seems like I get less frame stutter from the Graphics load......All my routes are there, nothing missing.

It took one reboot to set the update in, and 20 mins for it to install and rebuild and check database.........

I really like the font style and size, so much easier for my old eyes to read.

If I see anything else, I'll mention it here.

As for my Triclops the Author told me to use this File Spec off DLS

"T3p sd60"

I downloaded it, changed the Asset and it appears to run ok with it from what I can tell.......

I really don't know anything about this Engine Spec, I suppose it's a Generic one there on DLS and there are several to choose from? If any of you know more about the Physics on this one, I would like to hear about so I can understand better what it simulates for Power Stroke? Thanks.

Been busy working on Snow Creek Route, did a lot of Rebuilding in small sections, and I'll take some new pictures to show later this week.

As for the Airport Fire in the Alps, we found out Driver turned the corner too fast in Snow, and skidded out of control, and caught fire, he had moderate injuries, and will survive to go to Court for unsafe driving.....He will also be paying restitution to Railroad, and Airport cost and delays!

Lucky if they don't put his commercial license on suspension too!

So below these are the Cars we needed to pull out for safety reasons, with the Fire in the back, if you look on the left corner behind the Green car, you'll see fire equipment and Ambulance with injured Driver.......

Union Ice Co facility serves the fishing market etc on the newly made Dock here, all our Fisherman like it's easy to approach load and go for them. Aboat is in here now, getting a load of Ice for Fish catch today.

In the back you see our new Airport Hangers and Air Freight buildings we installed for the airport.

Artic Sunrise is coming thru the area, they help with getting larger boats in around safely to Docking spots on Rail fed Docks here. They are a top notch Crew and keep things running smooth for our Marine Commerce........That's what we like and what our Customers demand, with minimum downtime, excepting Weather issues.

Do some CN power moves and Diesel Fueling ops for the Beer Train coming from Airport area across the Water. You get a fairly good view of the new Yard Tracks........So far so good......Will see if I need to put in any additional X Over connections to Yard Tracks or Local Industry connections etc.

Few Maintenance workers having a smoke as they talk about upcoming RR projects, and we have a slew in the Que!

I can see one mistake I made, Main Line next to passenger platform is out of alignment, need to center it so I have proper Train clearance.....Must have moved one the switches and pushed this on of center alignment.......LOL

Old Alco's shunting our beer and chemical train across here, then CN Power, fueled up will lash up, grab some additional loads off the Freight Depot and will be on our way up into the Alps Canyons to deliver the Tasty Cold Beer area Townships......

Amtrak MOW stays parked here for the moment........There awaiting orders for next MOW Job.......

Rail workers getting ready to board Amtrak soon as they get there Work Orders...Due to airport Fire, some things are a little delayed this morning. They are looking out enjoying the view and chewing the fat in conversation.......All is good here.

We are at the South end of Yard, and you'll see lots of empty Tracks, but not for long, as Empty's are on there way for our Cement, Wood and Freight operations. Plus we have lots of Passenger Service capability too, as that was one thing I wanted to make sure of no bottle necks with Fright and Passenger Meets........That's all you can do is plan, implement and then see if it works out as designed?

I don't think you've seen this special Cement Mixer with Concrete Aggregate (3 indiv Tank) Supply car. we offer to our RR customers, we can now generate a good fresh load of Concrete anywhere our Rail goes, they just need to supply water, we do the mixing on board......and it will be pumped out on a spur into a transport truck of their choice.........Found this on the DSL a few weeks back........Kinda cool I think. We will also get a Water Tanker to lash-up with this special consist later if this business proves viable for us.....We can also use this for our personal MOW projects too, where we need Cement brought in for Rail Foundation Work on the ROW........

Across the way, we have small Container facility that handles smaller Container Ships and some wood products, our Port Facilities have a little bit of everything here...........Good variety and not to large for the Ski area and locals.

I think this about it for today........Thanks for dropping in folks........

Good Saturday day to all,

I'm healing up from the Bicycle spill the other day, reminds me of being a kid, I want to go out today and pedal some more, but I need one more day to heal up.....


Weather is cooler for now, fortunately we only had one small fire that I heard of, prayers go out for loss of our Naval Sailors who perished in the shipping accident this week.

I've been real busy fixing, straightening and cleaning up more trackage in Snow Creek and the surrounding Tiles, I also made a decision to trash a huge Yard nearby that someone else built,,due to the fact I never use it for my Route, I will take some the switch ideas and incorporate it in some areas where it will benefit my other yard areas. Made some new waterways and small lake ares in Snow Creek and closed out some others that were too close to nearby merge points. Will discuss this much more in depth, when I get to that series of pictures in the Que.

Now in the higher North Western sections of the layout, I realigned the station tracks below in this view, and you can see our CN power lashing up front and back to portable Cement Mixing consist, I need a good water Tanker added this consist to mix with the Dry Cement. for longer runs.

Our lead power is getting orders from the Dispatcher and having a final Chat before we load up other parts of our consist. Weather is perfect no rain or snow in view.

6137 is in view now with helper on the right. Dispatch has cleared us to load up and get down the Road. Airport Tanker Fire is put out and everything back to normal after a minor Oil spill, less than 100 Gals cleaned up and ship out for handling.......We were lucky this time, driver will recover from injuries and is suspended for 6 months, with fines, and restitution for improper vehicle handling. His company has been put on notice by the Alp Authorities.....

Got our power lashed up, fueled and getting consist is put together. As we look thru an empty passenger station, we see some shipping containers stacked for another Trans model Consist to come and receive them.

Head Dispatcher giving us the final wave off to head out, we see some MOW workers ahead, getting ready to report with Amtrak MOW for projects too. Everyone is on the move today and its a great day to work. Inside this Dispacher office the other Dispatcher is lining/stacking our Signals for us to clear out of the yard.

Small CN Switchers have brought our chilled and iced Beer Cars with some other commodities for us to haul out today......

And now they head off for Fuel and back to the airport for more Shunting.

We use a simple Fuel hose here and try to minimize our use of Semi Fuel deliveries when possible.

Looks like I have a bit of a clearance issue here, I have to shift this building over a couple of feet........

Our yard switch-man has radioed and told us we are lined up for departure here.

.Our total length is about 20 cars long. That's all for now, have a great weekend folks......

Snow Creek Summit new installation (Radio Telescopes, Microwave, Tv & RR Radio Etc.)

A blessed Sunday to all, and I brought some more Pictures, I hope you'll find these of interest,

A while back more like 6 months ago, I had the idea come across my mind, it would be cool if I could have some area in my Layout where I could set up an communication area to handle many types of things, both land and space based......and if I ran across a spot where it looked OK, then I would try and do installation to see if it was viable.

So yesterday and today, I went to work on the Snow Creek Summit, which sits across from the Alps Canyon with large open areas........And below is what I came up with.......Everything just fits.

Over head views and captions explaining what is there in new equipment.

I also plan to add some special Mars Project Microwave Antennas too!

Found this Telescope on the DSL, and is rotates up down and around, really cool how it works and looks.

The 7 Story Building in the back is for Hotel accommodations, Science and Technology work rooms, and anything else you could imagine?

NV3's Blue Planet Passenger Train has brought in our first set of International Scientist and other specialist research groups.

Large AM-FM radio and TV transmitters....Ironically, and I didn't plan it out, but I just had the right plateaus and small mountain groups just large enough to fit this equipment. And just the right amount of Tracks for our other needs here, we have limited Logging and Coal Mines on this part of the mountain.

Below is the Snow Creek Summit circled in Red, I ripped out a lot of extra Tracks to free up this whole area so it wouldn't be so crowded when I started.

If you look carefully below, you can see the large RADIO TELESCOPE, and Sat Com Antennas below. In order to have a good Summit, I stair stepped the Rails below with 3.10% to 2.7% Grade Spreads going up, and curves wide enough to handle Passenger Consists, Etc.

These are the new Crossings bucks members made and I will get rid of any old ones I find.........

:wave: I think this will do for today, enjoy our week ahead, thanks for dropping by, if you have any ?'s please ask, and i will be more than happy to answer.

Shipping Port Moves

Good Tuesday all,

And things are looking very good at Snow Creek,

Now that I finished the communication center on Snow Summit, I moved over further on the Snow Creek to the lake ports and Valley Section of it, where we have Power Storage and heavy industrial with some several Shipping Ports, it wont be as hard to restructure the tracks, since lots of them are exactly where I would need them, and lots of Industrial's are parked in there too, just some tweaking here on there on Elevation, and minor Track changes, alignment etc.

There will need to be some more infrastructure added...


Recall I added a new port below, and at the moment one Dock Rail lead for now, with room for a second if needed and easy to install, our CN power is coming in to pick up the loads from ship delivery.
Got our load, air and brek check, we are ready to roll here!

We have about a 1-1.5% grade here to the main, as we head out into the upper canyons.......

We just got dispatcher's clearance to head out of Port Lead trax onto the Main. On the left, you see our newest RR Antenna, so we get great signals into the canyons now.

We got our Green Signal and we are headed up at 2% grade into the tunnels.

Oops, well dispatch just called us back, we got Cement emptys to pick up just behind us, they want us to clear them out for new loads coming tomorrow, all a days work, and we have plenty of power to add some empty's on our consist. Easy Breezy!

Our enter locker Signals are working perfect too. Whomever designed this yard did a great job.........


Backing up to pick up those Cement Hopper empties in the Cement Plane. We pass the Freight Railway house, he doesn't get any loads today. He has a designated spur on left, but can take additional loads on this side too, as we have front and back route pathways to get to our Cement Plant.....All good.

Looking good, not obstructions, and Cement Workers have been notified that we are shoving in to connect up.. we are clear, no Blue Flags seen, we always check visually and telephonic ally for safety purposes, Workers have died in the past when Train Crews didn't check too see if someone was out under or between cars as we are shoving back.

It was an easy move from the Port, we pulled up around the curve onto main #2 and slipped back to next track over.......

When we bring in Wood Products and Loads ahead of us to right back corner, I need to see if we need another X Crossover connection to the Wood Yard and Factories, that lead is 2 Tracks to our left here, and slightly awkward approach, but it may work out OK....Have to play with it.

Just another view of our approach, we had to move some other cars over to clear a path backwards so are consist is lined up in correct sort order to drop off locations in the Canyons ahead of us.

That's all for today, see you soon, and thanks for coming by.

Beer Run with Cement Oil Laden Tankers on the move

Good Day all,

Been busy getting ready for the 4th, and the this week is flying by.

I went into the next Merge Route and had to remove a lot of Tracks due to the way they were put into cramped quarters, the high side of it is, there are some really nice designed waterways, and I'll need raise the terrain in some spots that are too low for the water areas. The good thing is I don't need to tear out or rebuild a lot of Mountain areas like in the Alps.

So back at lower end of the Alps below, we grabbing the last of our Consist loads for pickup.

This is our Cement Silos and these Hoppers will be filled quickly and will take Bulk Transport to some new customers up in the Alps.

All loaded up in no time, and we are on our way to shunt them into our consist on the Main.

Loaded Tankers here from the Port Side Ships awaits us while we move our Cement Hoppers to the front of the Train and do Brake and Air Tests.

Switch tracks and will make a JOINT and do our safety checks, we have great Crews here and I never worry about them cutting corners safety wise.

Were pushing and pushing by an old Manual Switch Lever Dispatch and Control Point, it's no longer used now, since everything is handled by Computer and a Human pushing a Mouse to do Graphically in Windows, amazing technology when you think about it.

Safety Checks are done, all with in spec, we move out with manifest and OK by Dispatch to proceed ahead. No trains coming our way at the moment, but there are Sidings we can duck into if a Passenger gets sent this way with Skiers. We are headed around the new designed Curves ahead. The Radius looks a lot more efficient here. And we have a new customer on the right which is a lumber company, and boy do we have plenty of Timber in these mountains, however it will be watch over, we don't want huge Clear Cutting in these Forrest, or it could cause uncontrolled Floods and avalanches in this area if not down correctly. But up here everyone is on the same page, we want to the companies to make money, and our Residents want to feel safe, it's a joint project and everyone wins when done with good planning.

We also need to make sure the Forrest is healthy by thinning the Trees out so competition for Growth is healthy. especially if there are Drought Concerns.

Morgan Hybird Lumber and Supply is our new customer, and he'll be taking lots of loads if we take care of in the Customer Service Dept.

Nice Houses here for our Tourist folks to stay out as they do recreational activities here during our busy season. You look to the left, I need to replant several Trees, here so they look better than they do now. That come later as I'm working on new Main Tracks, and Industrial leads 30-35 miles from here in Snow Creek and other surrounding Merge spots.

We headed up the beautiful pristine hill here crossing some newer and now Double Tracked vs earlier Single Tracks that were here before. Everything is signaled out fairly well.

I think that is about it for today. See you around and thanks for dropping by.....Stay safe out there with the Fireworks, I saw a 12 yr old child the other day with one of his hands completely bandaged up from what I think was playing around with Fireworks or improper BBQ Lighting, and it looked very painful.........

Beer and Oil etc is on the move!

All is well as we take our Boxcars of Chilled bear into the deep mountains and Canyons of the famous ALPS, we pass by a small frienght station and community stop bothe Freight and Passenger Runs.

Got ourselves an old Relic of a Caboose for the CN, she even has a pot bellied stove that keeps the Crew warm on crisp days like today.

Going thru newly lengthened and tested Snow Sheds here, Crews really appreciate these sheds when heavy Winter Storms come upon us.

Upsee Daisey and into the Tunnels now.

Looks like we have a Pine tree Root coming thru the tunnel Roof........

Wow, what a majestic view we have on the other side of our Tunneles........We start slithering up the Steep montain Gorges now........


Have a blessad Sunday............More Pictue coming.--------

Hiya Blue! Been meaning to drop by for a while. Looks like you've been putting in some very good work on your route, and you've certainly been posting some nice shots as well! I have a locomotive recommendation for you which I think would go with the CN theme you seem to have going here. Check this out: http://www.rrmods.us/product/cn-sd60/I think you'll like it.

Hope you've been doing well!

Thank you Southern1581 for CN SD60 referrals...(need help on Rogue Jet Airplane)

Southern1581 said:

Hiya Blue! Been meaning to drop by for a while. Looks like you've been putting in some very good work on your route, and you've certainly been posting some nice shots as well! I have a locomotive recommendation for you which I think would go with the CN theme you seem to have going here. Check this out: http://www.rrmods.us/product/cn-sd60/I think you'll like it.

Hope you've been doing well!

Click to expand...

Good Evening Southern, was busy at work today, now I can address some stuff, first thanks for SD60 CN units, boy do I like it, they are nice, Strong and Quick Units, , they can run that's for sure. I put some quick layup pics here for you to see..........I'm one happy camper with these new units, they'll fit in nicely.

So on another note, I'm working in Snow Creek and part of another Merge area, when I'm working on Tracks, Tunnels and Mountain, Water detailing and tear down when I see something flying overhead in Surveyor Mode, over a particular area of my Mountains, and I was able to finally snap a shot, as when I go to chase it with the Mouse it disappears and then does a restart in the picture below? I looked for an invisible Track, the Red Line thingy in the air, there is none that I can see, so this must be a Terrain object of some sort, but I have no idea how to find out what it is......I'd like to remove it off the layout, as it is a nuisance, you really don't see this plane flying unless your up on the Mountain? Any ideas on how to find.

Thanks for the kind compliments, I have been tearing stuff up all over the place, and finding better ways on how to do the Routes, learning so much from other peoples accomplishments, long ways to go and much more to learn. But it is challenging and a great teacher for me.

How are you doing? Did you heal up now, all OK with your injuries you suffered, hope so........Thanks for dropping by.


Below is Rogue Plane flying small area and then it disappears and then reappears again in this picture.

Here is RR Mods SD60 CN now running on my layout, I really like the looks and performance on these. I think I have an SD40-2 in the 3rd position as we do a light power move here into the Alps ahead, no problems with T:ANE either it likes them fine.......!

Passing a Refinery here sitting on the side till I see how new Main Line Grades and positioning work out?

Background picture here from across the River Banks.......This main line goes across into a long Tunnel thru the tall mountains you see in the foreground.

Flying down the tracks at 70 MPH and this power is definitely in the hunt for sure......Oh yeah.......

Going thru Rosala area, it's all farm and Animals in this section, some Silos too.........Great Farming area here, Steers for the market in Cattle Stock cars, good Grain business for the Railroad too...Well it's time to run now, tomorrow morning back to work early lots to do......

See ya Southern1581, thanks again for the great advice on SD60's

Very nice shots sir! Glad you like the new units!

Running the Ridge and Tunnels in ALPS area....

Happy 4th of July to all,

So I have been very busy over in Snow Creek area, it's a beautiful route with some great sites, Waterfalls,, Rock features etc, and Tracks crisscrossing all over the place, in fact I think I'm still lost in lot of the Mountain Curves.

I hope to try and improve the Route layout so the route directions will be somewhat more directional rather than the helter skelter way it is now.

When I merged this route with several others, it broke a slew of Track Connections, and I am getting exposed to BNSF50's Street connections and Crossing Gates. It's real fun to see how things are put together but I need to understand Traffic Light hookups too, all in good time of course.

So lets skip back over the Alps, here is one of way older Tunnels, take a look at the Grade % on the Hud, 14.04% and that doesn't count several other areas where 9-11% Grades where encountered on my Test Runs, however a lot of that has been remedied to 3.5% or less thru all ALP areas. Just takes time and a lot of Patience.

Another thing I started was my Pick Lists, and they are cool, saving me a lot of time when I need to find familier things I use a lot.

Below we are traveling 3.0% newly Graded Tracks now, much more Engineer Friendly, as for the highways below, I plan on putting in a Retaining wall and some Road Tunnels where applicable.......The bridge we are crossing was newly installed here.

We are close to the deepest part of the canyon bottom here.

This area is still under construction as you can see, I have houses all over the place as relay the land, Roads and Tracks etc.

Passing thru a small farm crop area here. I need to build some Freight Depots and other industries where handle Commerce, maybe some small Grain Silos.

A wide view of the Canyon here.



Small Creek to the left, as we enter a long Tunnel ahead.

Small creeks run from high up in the Mountains, when a huge storm barrels thru here, these seemingly innocent little Streams turn into Raging Waters and deadly to any of those that try to drive across them during a deluge of Rains in the Summer time.

This area has been raised to smooth the ruff Grades here. I have to back fill huge parts of the mountains to level everything out, you'll see once
I'm done this area will look much better. The tracks in the bottom middle to right bottom are old line that was never completed and the tiles were cut off when I did the merge, however our mainline tracks head around the mountain and up to Snow Creek which is the more practical way out of this canyon.

Our consist has turned the corner is headed up a 3.5% upgrade from here, several miles till we top out at the back canyon area.

That's it for now, have a fun day.....Thanks for coming to visit.

Grid View and Assets hidden below Grid Line heights Etc......

Good Day all, just finished a good Bike Run, I needed the exercise, before it gets to toasty out here, and it has been quite warm, low humidity, and we have had some spot fires break out too.....Going to be a long hot dry Summer I think.

So I have been having fun fixing broken Tracks and Roads in Snow Creek, on the bright side, the Author has tons of Logging operations and items I have never seen, that I would put in some other spots of my Mega Route.

Been working a lot on my Pick lists, now I need to go back and make some more sub Pick Lists and organize the ones I started better, now that I have been working with them for 3 weeks, they make a heck of difference too, so much quicker.

You'll notice in some of my pictures I use Grid View, and I use it a lot, why, well for a variety of reasons.

Connecting to the attachment point may not be easy on some assets, like Bridge Piers, where the point is not always apparent when trying to move or delete and asset, due to the fact it isn't where you think it is, and/or another Asset may be obstructing it, and your actually not making connection to the Asset you need to modify, delete or move to another spot.

Also when a Route is constructed, modified etc, some assets, for reasons I do not understand, will drop below the Grid lines, and it looks to us like the asset just disappeared, so we hit + sign and add another one in it's place, not knowing the one you started with has been pushed down below Grid line level. Ever found some off assets in your Tunnels and wondered how the heck they got there? That's how I started finding, Trees, Stop signs Vehicles, you name it in my Tunnels, when did I find these, well when I would run a Train thru them........Crazy huh?

Be surprised when I download other folks Routes, and find buried Tracks, Rocks, anything else, extra Water in spots from overlap when making Creeks and Rivers.. So I make it a practice every so often to go a Grid View and scan optically thru and see if something was left behind, as well as cleaning up excess Water overlap, all this stuff will use some resource if it's in your layout, it's counted on your Route list.

Just something to think about.

In this picture, I'm testing the Grade incline headed to the top of the mountains upper right, which goes into Snow Creek, you actually see a Rail Line suspended in mid air, that's temporary because I using max 3% rate of climb between, -370 feet in the bottom of the canyon below to a high of +40 or more up in the top, so it's crucial I get it down to 3%, now in some spots where the Alps and Snow Creek meet, I might go to 3.25% but for the most part I try and keep it from 2.75% -3.00% spread in uphill grade for the longs trains I plan to run here.

We are headed up and to the left, will go into a long circular Tunnel that will drop up out of the top the mountains to the Left. I put in dual Track going into the Tunnel for Capacity and Flow issues, should work nicely, and this track you see here may be converted into Dual Track later.

Ok, here is an example why I like Grid View, this is an area where I make some severe height corrections for 3% Grade Range compliance, an lots of items are hidden here and there, because I pushed the whole Town and Roads out of the way to redo the Main Line, Ya, I know, I made a big mess here, like a teenagers room, lord how do you find anything in this mess? LOL.....So once I get the Tracks and switches where I want them staged, then I'll adjust the rest of the Terrain in level where I need it, and start grabbing and placing items neatly the way I envision them, and chances are I won't use all the items, and grab some new ones. Also Grid View (or Wire View as it's properly known) leaves the texture colors out, and is just easier for me to work in my little Sand Box area so to speak. I can also peak thru as you see here and see relative heights of other items in Grid View, I wouldn't be able too if in regular view..........

When I originally started in Ipad Trainz Driver 2, when I was new to Trainz, I didn't have Grid View available in that program, IPAD Trainz is constricted in some options because of IPAD capacity in HD, Memory etc. So once I got to go into TS-12 on PC I became exposed to Grid View in Route building, to me it's the best thing next to Sliced Bread, I really use it a lot and works great for me.

OK, so now back to this picture, this is junky looking for now, in Rough Stages, but I needed to get the Main Lines in correctly, as this change of heights dictates how the rest of Main line will connect in the upper reaches of the canyon, so far, I'm able to keep close to 3% or less....And the Route will be great for running long mountain trains when I want to.

Sorry the picture is not better but you can see the low part of the Canyon on far right side, as it does a nice swing upward into Snow Creek area.

This is upper part of Transitional Canyon area that connects Snow Creek to Alps merge points.

OK, here is the beginning of Snow Creek merge point to the Alps. on the left side of the Main, because this Route was chopped like a Jig Saw Puzzle to fit in here, I need to take out some of the Tracks where these two points meet, lots of Terrain leveling and smoothing, color merge and match will go on here till it looks natural.

You see a Tunnel Section in bottom middle, hanging in the Air, since I'm still in process of pushing my 3% rate of climb into and around a long curve up at the upper left of this picture. lots of back filling, and I plan on making some lakes in part of these Forests too.

Now here you see my line down deep in a crevasse I created to get it connected, this whole area will change, and I think you'll be surprised later on when I Show how it turned out after multiple revisions.

You see, even though I'm hacking and messing up the terrain here, all these above ground tracks can be deleted and moved at will depending on how this work's out, and that's the fun of it, I keep a lot of the original author's work , and modify what I don't need to get my Merge to work seamlessly with the new added Route on Mega Merge here.

It allows me some contrast in my Route as I travel from one end to another, I have Beach, Desert, Mountains, Alps all thru different areas, it keeps me from getting bored from the same scenery on the whole route, plus you have unique industries in one part but not on others, up here I have lots of Logging stuff going on, in other parts, lots of industrial, in other sections, maybe lots of open ground, and waterways being very scenic, not much industry and some passenger stations, so there's lot more variety to take in when your driving, plus I can take a long circuitous route or do a day in the switching yards building consists, or do some small shunting jobs in heavy industrial areas of my route, it's the Cats Meow for me. Keeps it fresh if you know what I mean.........

Here the new Main Line from the Alps section continues to curve and rise at 3% are goal is to get it to the height of the track crossing over the top here, we have 15 feet to go, we just climbed 385 feet from the bottom of the canyon, about 6 miles away from here or 3 tiles etc.

OK, we finally leveled out here on bottom right, and will come thru a small meadow, then come into a small Tunnel on left, that goes 200 Feet or less to other side of mountain........This is Farm and Logging area now.

:wave: That's about it for today, hope you enjoyed the pictures and captured a sense of what I do and why I do it?

Please don't hesitate to ask questions if your not clear on something I mentioned here, I'm more than willing to answer.......

Have a good day, and stay hydrated out there.

Good Saturday Day to all on this very hot week, whew, can't wait for our dumb high pressure to break at 4 corner States, Utah, Nev, AZ, and Ca, so we can get some cooling breezes, it was around 105 and some humidity the last few days.........

So I have been working feverishly with Snow Creek, Ripping out whole towns, bridges, lots of trackage, and redoing the hard scape in several areas.

What I have noted so far:

Excessive use of BNSF50 invisible tracks, going under mountain ranges with traffic tunnels (no one sees traffic in the Car Tunnels), double Streets in Cities, inconsistent Bridge types put together, and some large Rail Yards jammed up affecting the natural flow of the Trains coming in and out.

I do need to read how BNSF50 invisible Rail works and how to best use it for my needs later on, however I have seen a route with so much use of this Invisible Rail used all over the place?

Lots of excess Brush and flowers, pushed all the way into the Water (lake areas where you didn't see them until I checked. Excessive use of Street Lights and Electrical Bridging and even a triple Dig Hole left under a building, lots of strange stuff. And this was probably by design, but for me I need to change this for reasons of Frame impact and other items.

There is a slew of Tracks going in every direction from Sunday, LOL, my plan is later once I get some runs in, to see if I can trim and streamline the Route where possible, so will see how that works out.

I also plan to thin out lots of the trees, due to my weak Laptop Video performance.

On the other hand, I have learned a lot about the unusual items he has for Logging and other areas that were done, very interesting things. (Lots of Pictures to Show you)

So lots of fun for me, and though it's lot's of work, been the end result will be phenomenal after removing some excess items.

I also came across a post in the forum, yesterday, that discussed the use of Spline Trees over individual Trees, and one of the Op's said that Spline Trees can exhibit quite a performance Drag on Frame rates over regular individual Tree Planting, I hadn't heard this before, other than too many Trees in general planted in mass, or lots of Train Cars in a Rail Yard can both be a performance hit, now that was TS-12 and before, I don't know about T:ANE, especially SP-2 update, so it might have improved?

Haven't got to the point where I have stocked up my Rail Yards yet, as I'm still in the remodal phase, here with 19 Merges and probably, 60-80 miles of Route running.

Below is an area I working thru, get my mainline merged into the existing tracks with Grade of 2.5 thru 3.1% max, on the far right side is the mainline coming up from Alps Canyon, 400 feet of rise in 6 miles.

The area below is diverting into small rail yards and industrial leads. There are lots of areas here that need Texture patching too, I don't know why they were left this way, but I do see it is some folks style when they haven't completed the route building, no big deal, even though it's tedious. I can fill these areas with not to much time, I just need to not wipe out the original color scheme as I fill the colors in to match.

As you look at the map, which is just one part of this huge area, there is a lot of meandering Tracks, and I will clean out the excess and streamline where practical.

A larger view here, shows the large Curve from Alps Canyon on lower Right Quadrant, as it connects to a three point merge here. The Dark Green on upper Right Quadrant is a Narrow Gauge route for Logging and mining, and I might rip that one out and position in another section of my Route, because the height difference is huge and may be impracticable.....No biggy, I do lots of merges and changes till I get what I want.........

Besides the NG Route is small anyway, I can stick it anywhere, or not use it at all, since I have 2 large NG Routes too play around with........

Here we are in Dry Creek yard taking our Tricyclops out for test run, to check Grade %'s and also check all the curve clearances, switches and Signal aspects which is very important to me.....

Here is one of my Favorite Cabooses, I saw this all around in the So Cal, and finally up in Sacramento area, I never had the opportunity to ride this one. I do remember long ago seeing this on some Freights....Thinking back, hey, the Police our riding the Train and keeping it safe for the engineers........Soooo Cool

Inside SD60 Tricyclops running with an alternate SD60 Eng Spec, while the Author retools it for T:ANE, no defects and it runs great, we have fantastic view here as we leave the yard at 10MPH.

Coming around the curves here, we see some items for Steam Service on the left, and will have a Cattle Car full of Cows and Steers to pick up for market, maybe 3 cars and with a Scrap Metal car, just around the next curve.

Water Tower here is colored up for low flying aircraft that come thru the area, it's a good safety idea......Don't like plane crashes or Forrest fires, with this amount of trees it would be a terrible disaster for sure.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but in pictures you'll see lighted Switch Stands CNR style if I remember, helps me from running thru points on closed switch......

That's it, going to take a nice drive along the Coast.........

Have a wonderful weekend all...........Thanks for visiting.

Checking the new Yard Leads in Snow Creek

Good Monday all, As you probably know it's been a bit toasty on the So Cal, and we've had some power outs, Forest Fires the usual Gambit for this time of year. Our Fire Department's and such have been doing quite well for us, thank you for job well done.

So in our new yard, we are doing switch, light aspects and proper curve and Grade Checks.

Passing thru Dry Creek and the weather is perfect....Great day for testing everything.

Even the Cows are out and happily munching away in their pasture. And the best news, I have some new OLD Farm buildings from Sir Dave Snow, master builder. Thank you so much, this is exactly what I needed for this and several other farm areas up here.

Below we are running a Safety Train, CSX Operation Lifesaver, quite a long consist, but I wanted to check our line length and capacity. The curves are a bit tight in some spots, so I might try and adjust them a bit. But if not, it will work, we just need to keep our speed down in here until such time I check and see what can be done. And there are other areas we definitely will not fit, and that's OK, this mountain running with tough Grades and Curves and our crews will act accordingly to proper Rules for running longer cars.

In retrospect I have plenty of spots to run my Passenger consists, and there are smaller length, older Passenger Cars I can run too, so lots of options and variety is available. Another thing too, I need to get used my Merged Route and the uniqueness of each route's characteristics.

We coming past a Wye in the yard in the middle here, it makes for a quick turnaround, Caboose and all.

We have lots mining companies up here.

CSX Special getting some Steam up here.

Here's nice view of our Chessie Safety Express.

Now I mention several Route Sections by name, here is a map overview of my part of my merged sections and where I'm currently working. I know it looks a little crazy, well a lot crazy, but I have so much fun going thru the different areas.

In the middle of the picture is Snow Creek, as I previously mentioned, there was lots of twisty Rails in this route, and I tore out about 1/2 the excess track to balance out the Route.

I'm busy working on rebuilding Cities, Bridges, and removing improper Pier Supports Etc.

:wave: That's it for now.......Thanks for dropping by.....

Maps and clearances Etc on Snow Creek

Posting in progress. more to add on this msg!

Ok, I'm back now, I can only add 6 pics at a time, so it's a 2 part process.....But it works as intended.

I hope everyone is doing well, Im off to out of town wedding for next couple of weeks, get to see a some young folks tie the knot!

Alright, so back at the Snow Creek Camp here lots of cutting filling, and shifting things around, (pictures are in the Que).....And things are starting to come together for me as I learn more about Yarnish highways and roads. It just takes time as I try to sort out where I want the roads in my cities and how I want the industries laid out. All in good time, and then there is that Texture thing where I need to match up merge points and color differentiation in contrast.

Below is the Snow Creek Run on right 2/3's of Pick, and on the left 1/3 is the Canyon turnaround loop as it ascents 400 feet to Snow Creek. You can also see there's a lot of Tracks in the area, that need to be connected, or removed depending on what I need to due with the mountains and new Tunnels I'm adding for transition between the routes.

Picture below shows the one of several small yards on right with Safety Passenger Express leaving on a morning run, and the unfinished Canyon lead on the left when connects Snow Creek and Alps Route together. Industry wise in the yard, I have Diesel Facilities, Coal Powered Electric Plant, Union Ice Plant, some Refinery Storage for Oil Products and Engine and Light Car service Bays for our Trains.

We also have Steam, Sander and Good Water Storage here too for our needs.

Leaving here and we can see the Cattle enjoying there morning breakfast of nice green pasture Grasses.

We have a green and our on our way to the next passenger Station around the curve past a Cattle loader Spur our Farmers use to market their Cattle.

I take it back, I'm still learning this Route, we pass thru some Waterfalls and minor Bridges before we hit the passenger stop. Are clearances are ok, but I need to broaden the Curves out a bit if I can for these passenger cars, they over hang a little more than they should, but considering the Canyon Cuts we have in here not bad.

I want to see if I can Run UP Big Boy, but that may not be? Will have to test that one to see if curves are too tight for him. (Safety first of course) !!!

Ok here is our small passenger and Freight station Combe, and all is good, 1.5% Grade in here to a max of 2% in small spots. No Hot Brakes or Journals so far.......Will stop for 5 mins to pick up, or drop off a few patrons, min delay and it's figured in our Route timetable for this area.

Say hi to our dedicated Engineer on Chessie Safety Special #614 or watered and fueled up, ready to go........It's a very good day, and dispatch has freights on the sidings where appropriate for meets.

As you can see I have lots of finish Texturing to complete all over the place, but prime concern is getting the Grades and Tracks, Mountains and other Terrain diametric s as I want to them to be and handle.

That's about it for today, I have to get ready for my trip coming up tomorrow morning at O-Dark Thirty, before the Sun Rises, don't want to be late to a Family Wedding.

I post more in a few days, stay hydrated.........And thanks for coming by to visit.

Testing Mainlines in Canyons

Hello from South of the border in Mexico, sorry I haven't posted, but the internet is not reliable in some areas I have been staying.

Finally got a good connection today, so I'm shooting thru some shots to you all.

Be back in min, I have more to add.

Alright I'm back,, dropped some more pictures and showing progress in some areas you haven't seen.

This one below, I replaced bridge and abutements releveled the grade in here. Now it's perfect for my 4th run threw the area. Still have Texture to fill in here and there, but that's an easy task at this point. You can see our Grade is a respectable 1.87% thru here, easy on all trains....

Nothing like hanging out in a mid air rail actually this is the way I do a lot of my restorations and changes, I drop the rail where I want it, and at the Grade % I want, ,check it with 3-4 runs, both up and down the grade, too see how it works, and if I have any clearance issues. this one will be find, but I had to change the Tunnel location at the other end of this Mainline, bottom mainline is the one that comes from this and descends into the Alps canyon below..It is connected to the one above via a wraparound horseshoe tunnel arrangement.

This is coming form the east end of the Route out of main Rail Yards situated to mountain ranges behind here. So far so good. here on the lower Route, we run 2.5% to 3.2% downgrade.....

We run against the Canyon Wall here, but have some room at the moment, however the mountain edges to right will be fill in so there will be upper cliffs, about 10 feet of ROW clearance once I'm finished.

Just a different view here showing large open canyons across the Canyon Face. 2.09% Grade now.

We have descended deep in the Towering Mountain walls here, and there is much smoothing and tapering of the Canyon area to do after I make sure the Grade is where I want it. 1.76% here, perfect for what I'm looking for. Good space of Signals, but I might cut in one more signal for speed safety....Not sure yet.

Again we are hanging in the air as I get this Track where I want it to be, then will adjust the ground terrain up to the tracks. Yo see I have 3.56% here, so the Grade was below 3% further back, but here it's 1/2% to steep, so will go back and adjust the two areas into more even Grade % in respect of the contrast %'s......

Back in Alps Canyon, I added this bridge in, thought I would like once centered, but it just didn't look right so I changed it out to a flat Concrete one if I recall correctly.

Here is top limits of canyon wall Grade running at 3.08% grade, and our steamer has no problem pulling the safety Train special up thru here, before it ranged 5-7% grade in this parts originally.....

Going thru tunnel at other end, I did just adjusted the tunnel height a little to accommodate the softer grade %.......

That's it for now, I send more pics, when I can.....

Thanks for dropping in folks, have a blessed Sunday.

Redoing the Alps Canyon Cities and Psgr areas.

Hello from a very sunny and humid Loreto, Mexico,

Taking a break for some air conditioning and dropping some pictures off here. I'll be back to finish the Story in a few minutes while I grab some more pictures.
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OK I'm back, a member of our Family got married last night and it was beautiful, they look so young, brings back memories for us.......And turned out as perfect as one could wish for........

There are no Railroads where we are at or I would post a picture of something for you to see.

On to my Route, I've been busy here, reconstructing all the Passenger Stations and Cities along the Canyon Route, this is one in construction phase, tracks are re leveled where I want them to be. Terrain was adjusted slightly here and there. Our Chessie Safety Train is taking a trip to see how the new alignment is working, we had a couple of sections in the Grade that were 1-2% off excess Grade heights, so that was fixed, you know how your Track elevations can change when your doing construction in the area. Double and Triple Check is the name of the Game! I have learned the hard way over the course of time.

Houses and such are in disarray for now, but will organize that when I come thru again after making sure my Tracks are lined up where they should be. All the Spline Pine Trees need to be changed out later too, apparently they affect frame rate more than I knew.

Remember the Curve Blue Girder-ed bridge I had earlier, I didn't like it, so I changed to this styled, it just didn't look the way it should in this area. I think this will work out better.......Chessie Safety Special is coming thru at speed, and no issues so far. Very Smooth Ride for the passengers. They like my Church up on the hill here as they pass by.

Just a further away view here, showing all the houses I need to reposition. New Roads and rerouting of Canyon River all come into play at the bottom here. Will need a lot of Retaining walls for the Highways, because Semi Truck also use the highway, need good clearances for them and local traffic, will use Traffic Tunnels to where practical.

Looks like we have some utility Pipe Construction to be done here.

Now this area has changes a lot too, where the old main line came in was upper right of the switch below, I made it a spur, this part of was 11-15% downgrade, so I re cut a new mainline, and removed an old Tunnel crossing the bottom of the Canyon, it was just too convoluted of a design. Now this part works much better for my needs. Will use the spur for Helper Power and or maintenance consist Storage etc.

And here she comes round the mountain, looking strong as can be.

There are some really high mountains in here and I like it...........My kind of country......You see the Grade is 3.19% here......

Hmmm Guess I didn't put the road back together yet, hope no one tries to fly over it...LOL!!!!! We are down in the lower part of the Canyon and you see a small trickle of water coming through now, but I want to put more Water in if I can, but that will depend on how much the elevation changes in some spots, which means I might have small pools of Water not connected when the Elevation drops to much.

There is a small sorting yard for deliveries here that needs to be redone, and I might enlarge it bit, not sure yet, have to experiment some more.

So there is much to do as you can see.

In the mean time I working on Mountain building between the Alps Snow Creek , and English Highlands Routes where the merges come together. I have about 130' of difference in some spots, the thing that saves me, is English Highlands has 2-3 Tiles on each side of somewhat centered mainline, so there is just enough room to make it work out.....But it will take some time to build the Mountain connection Slopes.....

That's it for now, have a great day....See you soon.

Checking Alps Signals Etc.

Good Thursday all,

Only a couple more days here and it's back to California, Food and everything else has been great, the Ocean is a Stunning Emerald Green to Deep Blue.

So back to RR here, are Chessie Safety Special has been coming a long way from Snow Creek Yards into the deep Alpine Canyons, now into the Airport area, I've installed Signals appropriate for what I think is needed, now is test time. So far the aspects are spot on.

Curves are just right, as we meander through the back country.

Since there will be lots of train meets here and there, I made my Switch approach very gradual rather than short and abrupt especially for long passenger cars I have in some consist, Freight included.

Chessie #614 gets diverging route aspect.

However, we needed a different track and asked Dispatch to realign this switch path,



Coming thru the Snow Sheds, if you look towards the right, you can really see why we have them here, might steep mountains on the Right, lots of Avalanche potentail in this area.

Previously we had a bad derailment in this area, Tracks got moved by Snow and Ice Flow buildup from previous Storms, we got everything rebuilt and repaired.

Crossing a previously frozen River with our new and much stronger bridges, we have a double main line installed from a single to handle the increased volume expected from increased Customers we've picked up.

Curves are working as intended, and no serious overhangs noted at this point. Up ahead, is our new Wood Products Co on left. Lots of building materials will come out of here for loads to many of the townships. Great business for the R.R.

We planning an overnight stop here, take in some of the Great Food and entertainment. We have a medium clear ahead as we enter to where will park our conist.

Over here we don't have a lot of lighting as it gets into the evening.

That's about it for now. Thanks for dropping in!

Excellent work Blue!

Night Train in the Alps

Good day all,

Well it's time to catch a plane soon, back home from Mexico, I've enjoyed the Sun and Food here, a couple of us met up with some not so nice Jellyfish in the Ocean, fortunately a little Vinegar and some Creme took out the Sting, and now back to normal. What do they say, no pain no Gain! LOL

So now back to the Alps, in our last pics, we had entered the area in late afternoon, as decided to stay overnight. We are rounding the Wood Products area headed into the passenger station around the bend here. Nice lighting leads the way for us. Definitely going to be a cold night too, but little Hot Chocolate with Coffee chaser out to fix that up real quick.

Anyone need to make a phone call, we have the latest model in the Red Box.

Will Steam a little further down the line to where we are going to park........Just few lights here and there.

Looks like Amtraks MOW is getting ready to leave later tonight, ahead we see the wonderful City lights and large outdoor Clock. Sorry about the Switch indicator, I must have forgot to shut them off......From the looks of the I.D. I have lots of Identification to do for my Junctions.

Yellow Steeple on Right is our Clock Tower, all lit up for us to admire and watch as we get close to the midnight hour.

Here is our Station Stop, nothing coming threw tonight, and any Freight will pass thru on Freight Main Line at back of Station.

Wait for it !!!!... Ah here is our renound Clock for all to see. If you look carefully in the back upper level, you can see the top of another lit up Hotel.

Pulled up to the end of the Platform and will tie up here for now, I really like the night mode these buildings have to offer.

That's all for now, see you in the States soon, I'm off to the airport.