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

Yeah, when SP2 HF1 came out for TANE, it was a faulty start but from my view, its better than SP2 when it introduced more bugs than fixes :hehe:

The good news is I see some of the content on the DLS being fixed so they aren't faulty

Hope to see more of your pics soon!
Have a safe time and travels

TGR Fingal Line

Thank you Hiawathamr,

Understand Software too, and Patches as they grow. I started with Dos 2.0 in 1986 or so, before they came out with Windows, there was good and their was tear your hair out versions and or buy a new computer to run it, hmmmmm? That has a familiar ring to it, where or where have I heard that before.

That's Ok, persistence and tenacity makes us stronger over time as we weather some of the Growth Storms. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface with T:ANE so much more to learn, and I still haven't read the how to Manual, I should be ashamed of myself.... No wonder I get in trouble some times.

Now on to filling your request for more Pics.

Today we dabble back the TGR Fingal Line, below if I'm correct, is a very Strong Horse of Locomotive called a Garratt, I have yet to see what this baby can do with heavy tonnage and Gradients., but I can assure you it looks good, and will find out what she can pull.

How interesting that the signal has a watchman to make sure everything is correct with signal aspect in correlation of Train movement as this line can and does move a good amount of Traffic. Their is Coal and Mine industries on the South end which I have not played with yet, only saw when I first downloaded and inspected the industries it had.

Later on I think I might add some logging camps in other areas of the Route.

OK we grab some cars to take to the Mine, which is quite a ways south of here, and across the other Tracks we have some small Diesel Units too. Nothing fancy, but they are easy maintenance and very reliable due to the simplicity of architecture of inherent design. Weather is good, but quick drenching storms from the Tropics can come in here in a Miami minute!

Well there you have it folks, it's raining, where did all that beautiful sunshine go......I can't see more than 150 feet in this much....That's OK, we don't run that fast on this line anyway, safe is better.

Here is another little guy, I don't know what he is? Out on our run with deliveries, and nice sunny day, I have yet to run at night.

Good head of Steam and about 30MPH on clear tracks, all is well in Fingal land. Kudos to Pware on a well done Route, just the right amount of Shrubbery, Trees etc, and no problem with extreme Stutter, my laptop always gives me very slight Frame Stutter, but I'm used to it till I get a stronger Computer with NVidia Graphics.......Sigh....

Here are Engineer and Fireman working together in perfect unison and this Loco shows their Loyalty to doing things right. Looks like we drop to 20MPH, and we might stop and grab some Aussie Apples in pinch, as we have a long trip ahead of us. With a short train, we can make a quick Water Stop and send the Fireman for the produce.

Now we come thru with loads, and one thing I found out about this crossing, you have to get quite a ways away before the gates come back up, and I see the traffic gets mad, as we are 1/2 mile down, clear of the crossing and the Gates are still activated, with Drivers honking their horns to get the gates clear......Have to adjust the Triggers a bit.

I see we have good signage here, remember we get hit, or should I say, we hit Traffic and Pedestrians who think with a slow train, they can still beat us, not true, we have had fatalities with Cars and Cowboys trying to beat the train at the crossing....Very sad affair for all concerned espically the poor engineer who it happens to!

I need to be forthcoming and honest with you, my audience, I'm very green on NG equipment, Locomotives, I just learning a little about some of the rolling stop as I try and use it. So to my visitors, sorry I don't have more information on some of the items.

Gosh hard to believe Xmas Eve is just 2 more nights away.........Coming quick our way.

Have a blessed weekend all, and Merry Xmas to all.

Thanks for visiting here.

blueodessey said:

Thank you Hiawathamr,

Understand Software too, and Patches as they grow. I started with Dos 2.0 in 1986 or so, before they came out with Windows, there was good and their was tear your hair out versions and or buy a new computer to run it, hmmmmm? That has a familiar ring to it, where or where have I heard that before.

That's Ok, persistence and tenacity makes us stronger over time as we weather some of the Growth Storms. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface with T:ANE so much more to learn, and I still haven't read the how to Manual, I should be ashamed of myself.... No wonder I get in trouble some times.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, the fun with programs, they can be so much fun (this is why I'm not a programmer myself as I won't have any hair on me :hehe:)

TANE has some nice features, and I would've made the complete jump if it supported RailDriver, so far sadly not, but heard that might be next. So far, I been sticking with TS12 and with its annoying things...

With manuals, its great that Trainz is including them, as they can contain useful info
When I played with UTC (that got me into the world of Trainz BTW), I had no idea where the manuals were kept, so it was all just crash course until I can master it.


As for the pictures, they look awesome! I need to make either a UK or AU route after this huge US monster route...:hehe:

Slenderman8888 Loco and Wild Bill III Route updates

Good Day all,

What a busy week as we draw towards Xmas.

Below is Slender8888 man's new loco and does it move........

I tried it out on my test track and it runs great no messing items and no issues that I can see, congrats Slenderman8888 on your first creation!

And of course I tried it with a conventional Loco and some freight works perfect too. Cantilevers come up and down OK with controls, I don't play with this type loco except in my FLAAM Route which is true electric and no Diesel for now. So I might put this bad boy to work up there in the Alps for trials, but that will be a while, as I fooling around in Narrow Gauge for quite while.

Speaking of NG this partial map of Wild Bill III rout, the top 3 green tiles and 4 grey tiles are merge addons, with the Grey tiles making up the height difference between the 2 Route, I decided I wanted add on the Stub end Tracks in Wild Bill, all the way to the right and have them curve out to left (upwards here) and go over to the three green tiles where I think I will make it Forest and Log Operation with Skeleton Cars and whole bunch of other things too. Still in the rough stages.

Looking over the lower right, you see huge Y section of stubs, one goes into a small yard and town upper right, the other goes into a lazy Susan, or figure 8 type convention, then it ends up in Tunnel into the left 3 green Tiles.........Grade comes up to 4-5% in small area, and I need too run test train several times to see where I can level out the heavy grade.........All in good time.

The three green tiles were standard gauge, and I did a quick bulk asset modify to Narrow Gauge, took about 1 min to do...Worked like a charm, now since the tracks are smaller, I will need to shift them closer together and also cut out newer era buildings and Oil Tanks, which is simple, there only a few, and then replace with appropriate Narrow Gauge items. I chose this small 3 Tile Layout because it fit my needs for expansion and is a easy rehab to convert over to Narrow Gauge. Like they say, somethings just work out, other stuff not so much.

Here is a better view and my Pic Lists for specific NG type items, I have 2 Pick lists, one for Rail and Bridges, the other for Buildings and Track side items etc, Rolling Stock.

Here is a view of the new small town, Storage Tracks, Roundhouse 3 leads, and Coal Shut Loading platform on left side. All this will be adjusted again, as I just threw in the Tracks from another NG Route configuration, using it as an idea on how I might set up area for Narrow Gauge Town and small industries.

Figure 8 Lazy Susan where it gains altitude and crosses over itself on the way to the tunnel, then into green tiles in the back here. That area will need to raise 50-75 feet higher with high mountains. Unfortunately for me, I do not have a real natural talent for mountain building and it takes me a long, very long time to play with the peaks and valleys to get them somewhat realistic looking. Other members like Dan Gavel, Phil Skene, are extremely gifted in making and texturing their Mountains and routes to perfection.

This is the Stub end of Wild Bill Route, so what you see is nice Background Wallpaper I added and really adds to the horizon view, so the stubs will now curve out and around to the left and really give it a different look. The Pond to the left is going to be extended out as well. After looking at the water color, I think I will fool around with the Color and change the contrast on it, this color blends in too much with the natural Tail Rock and other Desert Colors. So I want to see if I can bring the water more out in Color as a contrast Item.

Here is the expanded Pond, I doubled the size of it, and I will show more views in upcoming photos. I also found out, needed to add another Tile to left and behind the Wallpaper, leave it flat, and then this Wall paper even further back into the background for the effect I was looking for.

That's it for today, Mr's Blue has bucket list of things for me to do before tomorrow....

Everyone have a blessed holiday and thanks for coming by too see the Pic.

Xmas has come and gone so quick....

Greetings on a Tues, hard to believe that Xmas has come and gone already, we had family stranded back east, but by his grace they were able to catch one last alternate plane via Arizona where the weather wasn't Snowing, but one little caveat, Luggage was lost on transfer, then later today they found and it arrived 13 hr later...and that was a true blessing as there was needed medicine on it.......

Hope everyone had a nice day, tomorrow is a work day for many folks, so be careful in your driving.

So tonight after everyone went to sleep, I wanted to post some new pics up for you all.

The first one here is 3 strip part of the Merge and change of Gauge from Standard to NG30, also will demodernize this whole area appropriate for the Narrow Gauge era. Take a little time but it will be well worth it as the Texture is OK as it is with just minor changes. I hope to make this a Logging Camp and forested area.

Another section of three strip area, Water is here, and that's great for scenic affect ,and I just got an idea to put in a old Steam Pile Driver here too.

I dropped in more background to hide open tile space between this strip and main route.

I have some issues with large peaks across open spaces below, where tiles do not connect. But I will address it.

Here's a really good view of problem Peak areas.

These are new NG30 Tracks coming into the area for Logging Camp when I get it make.......

This road will probably change to dirt one.......The Black Rock Walls are from JR they are Rock Bluffs, easy to put in and use, Thanks JR for nice Asset Creation.

Now you can see the changes to Stub line at Freight Depot, I've added rolling hills and large backdrop, increased lake area, and Tracks rolling off to left along low hills.

Better view of the area, showing were the tracks go.......I moved a mine area to a hidden spot way over on Left upper corner of this picture, you can't see it from this angle. I'll post it in a few days. Just to the left of the lake, will be small Town and rail yard with some storage yards, Car Barns, and Loco Roundhouse etc......

On the right I have 3 sections of backdrop and I finally found a green, and some brown dirt colors to marry up to the edges of the backdrop, new rails are dropped in here, but much more work is needed along with both desert and light Forest Shrubs and Trees.

Past my bedtime too, lights out here,

Thanks for dropping in........And if you have questions or comments, please always feel free to post........

Wild Bill, Durango, Maria's Pass update

Good morning all,

Hope everyone is back to work ok, Travels back home etc, we are busy cleaning up the party mess. So much fun of course, and then you know the upcoming new year wants changes, so Mr's Blue decided to move Furniture around for a new look and feel, funny thing, that's exactly what I have been doing in this route area too, yikes, I must have changed the hills, the floor and the Textures a dozen times to get the look I want, and the colors too......All fun and learning of course, except I get impatient sometimes.........I sure that happens to you all too.

So in the first picture is another backdrop I tried out and I think I like it, because it will look even better when I get some Desert plants and shrubs planted in.........

I ended up adding another Tile in the back section which allowed me more room in this area to expand my new city, so I have just thrown in some loose tracks to see how I want to layout the direction of travel.

Different view show the open and grey areas that need to added in for hills and stuff, what a mess I made for myself, all good of course as there is more breathing room. In fact all the items you see against the Beige y Hill over there are going to move. Sorry for our mess during Construction.

Here are the added tiles as you can see the unfinished grey areas. The new town I am making is the lower left tile on bottom.

Here is the whole map of Wild Bill and the new work is going on in the upper right quadrant....If you see the little stub out below here, it might be connected to the Stub up on the left? Keep in mind, I have not driven any of the other parts of Wild Bill Route yet, which is a good size Narrow Gauge Route, so there is much for me to see and do on Wild Bill. I know, I need to get out more often, instead of Building Routes all the time.....But it's a passion I love to change some of the routes I download as well as Merging them, yup, I already merged the 3 Tile small Route from another Route.

Here is the new city now, and don't hold your breath, as I might change it up again.........It has Coal Mines (3), Lumber Mills, and Boarding Houses, along with small Township.

I think I finally have the desert colors in landscape that work for me......I Tell ya, Phil Skene and Dan Gavel are the masters in this area, their work is amazing.

I forgot to mention, we struck some good Oil here too......they'll be lots of Ore, Wood, and Tanker Traffic in this town for sure. I guess it was past the bewitching hour last night, I see a building rounded, that I forgot to delete here, it was too new for this area. I snatch him off the map tonight. So in this view shot from a far, I think the Snowy Mtns in the back here work ok, as they look high and far away......Well I hope so.........I also lowered my Snow level in environment settings too. Hey Deserts get some Snow too, this is High Desert area, and I think I will tip the very top of my Mountain here with just a hint of Snow on the top......Nothing ventured nothing gained they say.

Here is close inset of the area with my annotations so you can see what I have been referring too,,Sorry about squiggly lines.....

Alright we switch gears and take a Wood and Boxcar Session ride on Marias Pass Courtesy of Hiawathamr and his many sessions he created for Maria's pass, thank you sir.......And they work ok so far in the "X" version, although i have only broached 2 of them for now.

We are on the run to get the deliveries done today, lots of fun.

Well it's time to go shopping, more company coming tonight.

Hope you like the pictures and I bid you a good weekend ahead, thanks for dropping by..........

:wave: Evening all,

Just dropped in for a second, I have just downloaded and installed Rollings Pass Winter Edition by Jango and Team. And had the pleasure of taking out LOCO 300 on first run.

Link below is the first Pics I took on the Route..........It is amazing in how it looks......But hey, go over to the link to see mine and all the other Pics of this off the charts Route!

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?143177-Rollins-Pass-Past-and-Present

If time permits, I post more pictures from stuff I'm tooling around with.......

One Ques for the Forum, where may I find some information on Old Time Semaphores......I just started to use them, and not quit understand them the types to use and where to plant them.....?

Would appreciated if one you who knows could point me to somewhere I can read about them.....Thanks and good night.

Trip on Wild Bill with Ore Loads

Good Day all,

Is it New Years yet? Well it feels like it, I'm off to one of those Social once a year party, been busy making food and treats, yikes, half my day has gone by, and I didn't get to play with my beloved Trainz.....

OK enough jokes, so here is one of my Engines taking a run with some Semaphore Signalling in, what a difference it makes, not to many, just ones in critical places to control movement in Dry Gulch, hmm that sounds like an inviting name for the desert with not shrub bushes or any other plants yet.......Need to get some in here.

And I see a mistake I made, I need to change the switch lever handles over to the old type........

Number 478 hot, is pulling much needed ore and fertilizer to the next town of Larkspur on a sunny hot day.

Headed out from the yards, and calling ahead to get the switches lined up for us.......We do it by Smoke Signal or is that Telegraph........Will see when we get to the next puzzle tracks.

Changed the color of my water from tan to more bluish, I Think it shows better in this area.

Semaphore Signal at the Wye is protecting us from traffic ahead and holding it till we pass thru.

Coming round the mountain, or in this case round the Curve here with a full head of Steam and heavy load of Ore and Cow Fertilizer.

Well it looks like I need to increase my Video Draw distance some more so that huge mountain in the back will show it's true colors.

We are headed out on our Single main with passing tracks here and there.

Good Smoke pattern and running ok.

Crossing some new bridges here, the old ones where decaying and not able to carry the weight we have now adays.

That's it of now, I have to run........

Got party to catch......

Have a great day all....

Happy New Year from Wild Bill II Route

Good Day, Happy New Year to all,

WOW what a wild year it was, now if can just find some Rain, we are parched and Burned out in California.........

So did you make your New Years resolutions.....My is for better organization in Life........Will see if I accomplish that..

I've been real busy on this route, building ,changing and fixing things.

Our Ore Train continues up the Coast here thru really Scenic View.........I even have a Caboose on the end, imagine that.....First Class all the way....

We have lots of Rivers and Ponds here......And the area is going to change from Desert to something more plush.......Looking out here you can see a lot more Green ahead.

Headed to a short Tunnel and round the mountain loop to the track overhead as we start to change elevation. I love it, really nice how the Author developed this area..

Cool Tunnel, and it needed a little tweak in the middles with a Track Spline added.

Out of one Tunnel and headed into another now....As we go into some very tall and Snow Capped mountains, notice we leave Desert Trees and go into Pine Forested areas now.

In between Mountain Ridges now, glad we have a strong Loco and well experienced crew dedicated to doing things right.

River is shining as we cross over our Trestle Bridge.

Looks like the Township of Larkspur ahead where will stop for a while.

We are trying to fit in this shore siding here.

Time to Run, I'll be back later......

Going to the new Mines on Wild Bill III

Good Day,

Hard to believe the New Year is here already, wow was that a fast Thanks Giving and Xmas Etc. I still have family in Town for this week then they start making home trek back to one very cold City in Wisconsin......was 2 degrees yesterday, and 74 degrees in So Cal, crazy huh.

Ok so with the new town, I'm still testing Semaphore setups and Power of my Locos to climb 4-5% grades in the new Mining Camp, however, I think I need to cut the Grades down 1-2%, the Steam Engines are having a hard time up the hill,, but I of course have to cut the Consists down some too, I'm used to pulling longer consists too.......

So a little more Tweaking is needed Grade Elevations.

Below we are pulling out another Mining Ore Train for markets.

One other thing I did was drop a bit of Snow on some the very tip top of my hills here, and I think it will work better for the Snowy Sierra's backdrop you see here. I just did a hint of Dusting here and there in this valley.

Signal is working good here, but I found I had miss leveled some of my main Track when I was modding the Farm Field and hill areas........No derailment but train looked funny climbing over 1-2 foot bumps in the desert at Walking speed after I hit the first couple.....

When your adjusting the ground level with large circle, it's very easy to catch an edge of Building or piece of Track and not see it because the height is subtle change, at least for me.

I found I had another train around the curve and had not added enough Signals to decrease the distance of my Trainz in relation to each other, now I have 2 more signal blocks of protection between Trains on this main.

Headed around the Branch Wye ahead, will head toward Larkspur and the New Mine up in the mountains. Will need extra power to push back on new Main Spur.

As you can see I have everything in this consist but the kitchen Sink, Oh I think I have that in the large Camp House car too. LOL.

If you look across as we pass thru the Farm Fields here, the water color is more noticeable now, its a light blue and stands out more. Another thing I do to make this area more interesting is have some of these open fields rolling height of 1-2 feet above the level of the Track.......Helps take out that flat look.

Closer to the Water here,,,, And I still need to add Trees, Schrubs n Boats etc, this is nowhere finished yet........

We got some serious Smoke happening here as we pull a really heavy consist up to the mountain. And this Lash-up is not normal for LOCOS, I thru in Climax for min to see how strong it was pulling on Grade, it does surprisingly well, but it's Geared too.

Looks like we getting our speed up here, 15 MPH, Climax doesn't go as fast as the other loco, because it is Geared low for high Grades.

Can you tell I enjoy the Steam here..........

Well that's it for now,,,,,,Lots to do on a short week..

Enjoy and thanks for dropping in.........

Trip on Wild Bill with Mine Equipment

Good Thursday afternoon,

So I have been working on this route in the new Mining area, I found that my Grades were just to steep for the locomotives I was using, and I'm pulling probably too many cars up a 4-5% incline?

And the other thing:

I haven't learned how to operate Steam Locomotives properly yet, in regards to Water and Coal Controls. It takes a certain Knowledge called Experience on maximizing the Steam pressure, Heat of Fire with Coal or Wood burning types to give the max power up a hill. One thing I did do, is drop my incline Grade by 1.5% so the average Grade % is 2.25 to 2.90 respective of the old 2.80 to 4.00%.....

Will see how that works out and I also tunneled at the other end of the Mine area down into the Valley with a gradual Main line hooked into the Main with Grade Ranges of 2.8 to 1.25% downhill Gradient. That has to be tested too, to see if it works OK and how many cars I can pull?

Below is an area, that had a dry river, in fact several of these parts of the desert have dry river Rocks and they look fine, but for here, I decided to add water, the bottom is 5-9 feet deep. The one thing I wished was possible, too have different Water colors for the water in some areas verses others, say Desert more clear water. But if I recall it depends on what Texture you use will influence the resultant water color too? Hmmm.....I have to experiment. Anyway I think this looks nicer with water than without.......

Signals are working perfect too, I think however, I need to make the passing crossings a bit longer......

This is a weird lash up of Locomotives, I was having some fun with them, I know the couplers are quite different between the 2 engines, it's definiltly not protoctypical, so please extend me a pass today on fun time here.

Ok so here you see us heading into the Tunnel and will end up do a loop the loop which is to the left of here, now directly above from middle to the right is the new Mining area, and you can see it quite a bit higher on the Mountain range these are 3% grades and less, but still steep for these locomotives. The new Tunnel is way back in top of the right side, and goes for probably a Mile at least thru the rugged mountains into the next Valley behind this Snow Covered peak you see.

Headed into a very dark and black Tunnel from all the Smoke, we can barely see ahead.


Ohhh! Looking Ghostly here, wow, hope we make it out of the Tunnel soon, now I know why the crews whore Neckerchiefs, to keep from breathing all the Smoke behind the engine.

We made it out of the Tunnel OK, now we are above and circling and climbing in elevation to get thru the Mountain Pass ahead. FULL STEAM ahead Mr Engineer, Stoke that fire Mate!

And its time to go thru another tunnel as the new mine line switch is one more Mountain Pass ahead, then will push or do a runaround with our Train to change the loco positions, I see there is another thing I need to do, is add a Wye for turning this trains Loco Direction for the Mine entrance. Also notice this Tunnel is different than the other, I think we have some natural ventilation in this one that take the Smoke out to some rock openings above in the Mountain that our lower Tunnel didn't have. What a difference this one makes.

Now we have come into very steep Canyon Gorge here with huge Mountains on both sides of the Rail. Lookout when it rains in here, Washed out Rails is always a possibility in here during Flash Thunderstorms. Today our weather is great, and Daylight is short do to the Mountains. I wonder what Forest Creatures come out at night........?

Alright that'll do for now........Time to due some more experimenting and see how the decreased Gradients work out above in our new mine area.

The second track on the right is our new main line, which we either go further ahead to the yards in Larkspur for engine turn around, or later I make a passing track in the canyon, or, I will set up dedicated helpers here with Spur and Water/Coal reload facility, I have to experiment here. to see what will work the best, there is plenty of track for second passing tracks etc.

Below here we take a look from higher up on the mountain ridge as we pull up the new switch, actually will go past it to clear before our reverse move, not sure what the engineer has in mind on this one. it will take some more testing to see what is the best way to bring in loads and empties here for the heavy mining operation. We have Iron Ore, Gold and Silver and some other Ores too, these Mountains have a lot to offer us.


Alright that'll do for now........Time to due some more experimenting and see how the decreased Gradients work out above in our new mine area.

Thanks for coming in.

Going to the new Mines on Wild Bill III more changes Etc

Good Saturday all,

Well it looks like we might get a touch of rain this next week, can't believe how dry and warm it was. Maybe, and that's a big if, our next Summer might be a bit cooler with such a warm winter, 90 degrees in Dec around here is nutty....At least we cool off the last week or so before Xmas.

Alright enough of my Weather Rant. So Things are improving now with changes on the Mountain Grades and installing more signaling, especially in areas remote like this, where trains run somewhat by Paper not so much by Signal in some spots. However with the added Signals, this will improve as more Traffic is coming to this line with all the Industries coming on line. Below, we have just come into the canyon and will see how the decrease by 1-1.5% in Grades makes for better shoves up the Mountain to the new Mining area.

We are pulling past the new Mine Main Line Switch here to position for reverse shove up the hill.

Here is a good view to see how steep the Canyons are here, I love it, so scenic on how the Author built this mountainous range, imagine a good snow or rainstorm in this Canyon.....Whoa Nelly. One Idea I'm thinking about is having a dedicated helper Loco down here.

WOW here we are on the Highest Snow Capped peak, and look at how deep the Valley Floor is here, and you barely can see our train below as it gets ready to shove up the mountain. That's some real railroading to me. Will take the Tunnel Track to the left here to get up the mountain.

I like this Tunnel, much cleaner than the other one below that goes around the mountain for elevation changes..........We are pushing up now, will gain quit some altitude here. New Grade is helping a lot and I don't think I'll need to make anymore changes.II think I came down 20-30 feet to make it work up on top.An

And here we are on the top shoving in to drop a lot of cars and pick up a few too. So if you look in the picture here, you see a somewhat newer signal, displaying yellow warn light, it believe it or not is a non functional signal I found, so light always shows the same here, but it works as a Caution light for the crews to watch their speed up here, very easy to get a runaway. Because we are at 2% constant grade in most of the tracks, except some of the spurs, all cars have to make sure there brakes are set, other wise will have them roll down the hill, possibly into town of Larkspur, or worse yet, derail, tear up switches,, or hit a moving train coming thru or up the mountain, doesn't make a difference, as passenger service comes thru here to bring the workers in too. You can also see this is one rugged rocky area too.

Shrubs and some few trees will be placed later on.

OK so here we are bringing in the Worker House car, because we are still needing some Spur and passing sidings Etc for capacity and fluidity of our trains with 3 mining operations up we need to be able to Move the loads, empties around, still allow thru passenger service to get thru, and have good Storage capacity for our Mining operation. These are big mountains up here, there is tons to mine, all different stuff, from Coal, Gravel, Gold and Silver, rare Stones, you name it, we have it here. Lets just say we found a great area of Minerals, good money for the Railroad and the mining companies, you wont be driving trucks up here, it will be all railroad operation.

We are starting to sort out the loads and empties now.

We use a triple here, because this was the old 4-5% Grade, and boy did me need the muscle to bring our heavy train up the hill, now the next grade is 2-3% what a difference that makes on pulling power needed.

Have a great weekend, more pics to come in a few days, as this area changes.

Thanks for coming by.

Going to the new Mines on Wild Bill IV

Good Monday morning all,

Alas, mother nature is trying to make some rain, dare I say, I don't want to jinx it, and there should be more to come today......Yahoo......Fortunately for me, we got all our Xmas Deco down and put away over the weekend, always enjoy looking at it after the busy Xmas holidays, now it's back to work with the honeydew list and repairs/maintenance projects for this year.

Alright I found a NG car last night, I had seen a couple of weeks ago, and didn't quite understand it, but it has regular car coupler on one side and Pin and Link on the other side, however when you go to look in Google, it comes up as Dual Gauge Car with different Coupler off sets between NG and Standard Gauge, so I guess this is just another variation of Coupler arrangement, but it seems a little misleading to me? Maybe someone here understands it in better terms than I can explain it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Idl...+Railway&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1

With that said, now I can run different car set Couplers together as a unified train for the areas we serve using the older pin type arrangement. Very cool I think.

Below here, with the old Grade I needed 3 Steam Engines to get up her, I won't need that many now. We shuffling the Cars out to see how the Tracks, curve and clearances work, OK with exception of the old 4-5% Grades, which has been addressed now.

Were pushing back and dropping off Camp Cars here for the workers, Lumber and Camp Supplies, Water and Gas are portable for now, but will need to install a Water Tower and some Fuel Depot for the Locomotives, town below is not far away, but I don't want to depend on solely for my Fuel needs. Especially during bad weather.

Got my Semaphores and small ground switch signals working and installed, I had to tinker with one semaphore to get rid of Red Light issue, it just has to do with a section of unsignaled Track past this point., once I installed another mid Signal, it worked perfectly, no more stuck Red Light issue.

Doing some switching here between mains, we do have to back in the Tunnel a bit, later on, I might take some of this mountain down further into the Tunnel, so more track is exposed for local mine switching operations here.......Be easy to do, and this is a long tunnel anyway, about mile or more long, so I don't lose anything. It didn't become apparent till I start the Shunting moves, I think I need about 150 feet more of open line to stop ending in the tunnel with North end Switching moves.

We are splitting off the Third engine here as we break the Train apart for shunting moves into the require spurs. Also on the left of main line here, I will add a very long Spur to put in loads and empties as we stack up from mine operations, that'll keep the main clear for thru movements, including Passenger Runs.

Just another view from this angle, you can see my small Switch position lights, and they work perfect for our needs.

And let there be some locomotive light as the sun is starting to set, actually I need to find out where the sun is here, I don't really know...LOL, I need to place my Moon here too.......Work is never finished.

We are dropping some cars in place on the middle Storage Tracks, it is extremely rocky up here, but the Mineral Veins in these mountains are rich with Ore's and Gold Silver and other nice things.

I forgot, but I wanted to show you the Bully Bull,,I think it is called, it has it's tender in one piece as part of the locomotive and is strong engine with windows front and back for Reverse and forward unobstructed views, I really like the little guy.

Another picture of us pulling up 3% plus grade here to get to the mining camp with Triple head of power, and did we need it, as they cars as heavily loaded with Lumber and metal fittings for the Mines etc.

Well I think that will do for today, have a great week all, and thanks for visiting.

Storm from Hurricane Dolores strikes California/Wild Bill News

Good Wednesday Morning,

Looks like we received a little more than we bargained for in Rainfall amounts in the last 2 days,

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/07/20/impressive-rainfall-totals-result-from-weekend-storms/

Unfortunately in LA 1, and in Santa Barbara area 15 folks perished in the rather harsh Rain Storms, this was due to the terrible fires we just got thru. Locally we got 4 inches or more of Rain, in one fell swoop of the Rain Bucket.

And I didn't here it said but read it here, former Hurricane Dolores off Baja California was the cause of this, I don't recall a Hurricane mentioned in this storm system, but it makes sense why the Rain hit us so hard. However our Reservoirs needed the recharge as we have had little or no rain for several months. So will see how things play out in the future, now our ground needs to absorb and drain from the 3.2 Billions of Rain water that was captured from the storm, amazing amount of Rain.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016...ainwater-saved-for-la-county-recharge-basins/

Ok, enough of weather, lets go to the Trains commentary:

Alright so this some more of the Canyon Pictures from the old Grades I originally had, lots of Smoke and raw horsepower being applied as we move a heavy freight with material up the canyon.

I got these baby's as Run 8 so to speak with everything they have to get up the hill. In this spot, we are already at 2% plus some grade.

We actually have 2 trains back to back as some of the cars are Pin connected vs couplar that's why this Caboose is somewhat in the middle of the train.

Sent my little friend the Bully Bull Steam switcher down to give some more horses to the back end being pushed up, and it worked beautifully, our grade here has dropped to 1.84%, but it will sharply rise soon to 3% as we head up.

And here we are looking over the canyon lne below, where we just went into the tunnel to meet this track junction on the other side of the Mountain.

We have a double clear aspect up here as we are the only train on this end of the mining camp entrance. That's good so we don't lose our push momentum, till we stop around the corner of the other end where shunting and splitting off our power will occur. Granted this train is larger than normal, but I want to put this line here thru a heavy test to see what performance characteristics I get, and I got a good idea of how 4-5% grade will not allow this much train up the hill with the equipment power I running. I will have some Shay's working the Pin coupler cars, they are well suited for nasty grades like this one with their all geared action.

Signal changes to double red, perfect, and will head on outside Main Line to the next Tunnel. Notice we are at 3.13% grade here which is the steepest portion of our upgrade.

We made it up to the tunnel and broke our train apart, now shunting to the appropriate team tracks to spot the cars. We have long spur and some short Mining spurs to access for car spotting and storage needs up here. 3 Mines operate in this section so will have lots of activity with loads and camp supplies and mining timber etc to keep this spot going strong.

Workers Linen and Gas Car dropped here for the employees. The Gondola hooked to the Caboose is used to transport workers here too, till we can get some portable board housing built for this spot.

Looking good as we drop our loads off. I still need some water and Wood Ricket stuff to load our Steam engines fuel needs, for now will be ok. as we get our fuel from yard below in Larkspur, over next couple of mountains. Not to far away.

So I am still exploring and fixing/changing a few things on this route, more pictures coming.

Have good week, and our prayers go out to those who lost there lives and homes to recent rain storm here in So California.

Shunting Moves on Wild Bill Mine

Good Friday Evening all,

Been a busy day with meetings and stuff, and of course the Friday Traffic to boot, now I'm home and it's time to visit with you all! Nice cup of Hot Coffee nearby, and I'm rearing to go........HIGH BALL!

Let's get that Steam Engine a going I say.

Alright, so lets just rehash abit, I had problems with too steep of grade for these Loco's now we are 2.5-3.00 down from 4-5%. So we can get up the hill with 1/3 to 1/2 half less horses depending on the Engines I put together.

Below, we have started to separate our loads, and will leave out the same way we came in this time,, but in the future, I use power from the yard or up to pull up the Grade rather than push, I might just put in a small turntable for this area. I have to think on that, as well, I plan to knock down, or back the tunnel on the upper edge to give us some more shunting room clearance in respect to the Tunnel.

This is the Tunnel, I'm referring too at the top of this Mining Mountain area. It hhas much more clearance for the steam vapors and allows for the smoke to escape from our engines exhaust rather than the Smoke and Steam being pushed in thru the tunnel by the Train with smoke air clearance. You can see here the smoke settles more out of the way when we are in the tunnel, than in some of the other Tunnels on the Route.

I need to work on the Snow design in this mountain top, and on one of my other small routes, (another persons design) I found out the better snow Texture to use for darker areas of this mountain so it will look a little more realistic from this side, just like everything else on a route, you need to look from more than one direction when you are applying texture and Trees, Etc, it's amazing how different or messed up it looks from one side to another. Am I being picky, well maybe, but I would like it to look as good and as natural as I can. There are many fantastic modelers in this forum that just leave me in the dust with the how natural and awe inspiring they do there Routes, I don't need to mention names, you know who they are, and I hold them with the highest respect in their abilities to manipulate the Grids.

Ok, so you havent seen these before, they are some very old Diesels I found, from one of my Favorite Modelers, Phil Skene:His notes as follows!

This a freelance model of a typical small narrow gauge (3ft = 36inches) General Electric Boxcab Diesel locomotive. The original model was by Mike Davis (whecsailor). Some of the dependencies are by Peter Pardoe-Matthews (narrowgauge). I have modified the locomotive for use in T:ANE and changed the color scheme. The original and one alternative color scheme are included in folder containing this locomotive.

This updated version contains the correct credits.

I really like them, as they can pull some weight, so there going to working in differenent spots on the Route where I need the Diesel Strength on a tough grade etc.

Here is a better picture, and notice they are not very big, but quite compact in how Phil made them. Looks to me like he has a brake man on the steps to watch out for the Engineer on reverse moves.

We are pulling the rest of the string of cars up to the other end for shunting operations.

A little further out, we can see this area up here sits above the valley floor, and we knocked half this mountain in the foreground to make room for the Tracks and Mining buildings. If you look far left and follow the tracks back, you'll see the tunnel we came out of to get here. And the tracks below by the lake, where we head up into another tunnel to get here. We are up I think about 100 Feet or better to get into the Mining Camp.

Now if you follow the tracks just in front of BOX CAB Diesels helping our steam locos, you just see the other Tunnel entrance and the sharp peak behind it, I'm going to know that portion back for our track shunt moves. Probably 100-150 feet, so we don't end up going into the tunnel as much when we make up our consists or do shunting moves to the 3 Mine operations.

Oh and this little guy was just visiting, but I figured he looked to new of an era for this type route, so I pulled him back out of service. I think her is a Vulcan Diesel for mine and Gravel Pit Operations etc. I believe he has 2 individual Diesel engines, one on each side of the Engineers cab, hence the singular exhaust pipes on each end of the frame.

And here he is, getting his orders to leave for another Route........LOL......He will be missed, but he is too new for here,, looks out of place, don't know till you plan them and see how it looks.

That's about it for now, I am busy playing around with Russian NG Route, very long and stretched out Route named Zhukovka Russian Non Real NG. Looks very interesting.

Have a great weekend all, and thanks for popping in to see me. So long for now!

Russian 750MM NG on Zhokavka Route

Good morning all,

Well we have been to Switzerland, Canada, Tasmania, Spain, Australia and heavens knows where else both real and fictional, now we head over to Russia, and I am having lots of fun on this route, trying to learn how it all works.

I opened the config.txt file and translated the best I could in Google Translate the Russian language in the Route, and this is what it says about where this is, and how it operates, please forgive any errors on this, I do not speak or understand Russian language.

Have more pictures to post on this too. Hope you enjoy.......

"Zhukovka and its surroundings were lost somewhere in the taiga wilderness, forests and swamps all around, there are no normal roads, and there is no sense in building them, because in such a locality and in such a climate they quickly become worthless. The narrow-gauge railway line is the most reliable type of transport in such conditions, its construction, maintenance and repair are cheaper than an asphalt road, and even more iron with a wide track, trains, though small, but are not afraid of dirt and rain. this place has some coal, firewood, goods for shops, mail, and everything else necessary for life support, as well as products produced by local enterprises, for example, wood. On the road transport is carried out mainly in the settlements and near them. And for the locals this road is the only means of communication. Therefore, it is so important to ensure its smooth operation. The length of the main course is about 180 km. A road starts from the village of Glushinsk, where a large railway passes.

There, passengers can change from a large train to a small one and back, as there is an overload of goods and goods (not yet implemented). Passenger station Glushinsk - common for both ruts, tickets are sold in the same box office. The terminal station is Dimara (so far it is called as it is written on the station's building, until I came up with another name). Zhukovka is the penultimate one. (last but one in a series of things; second to the last)

In Dimar there is a main depot, small depots and garages are in Glushinsk, Coal and at some other stations. At both end stations there are triangles on which a train of 8 wagons of the PV type can be deployed entirely, so that the locomotive overtravel is not required. In Coal there is a reversal ring. After boarding-disembarking passengers, turn around on this ring, pass the station without stopping (if the late passengers do not run up) and drive on. Freight trains can pass without calling at this station (if not necessary)

The map consists mainly of pieces of Zhukovka maps with a wide track, the Robe River. The section from Oblomovka to Marino - the same name card of an unknown author was attached to me (there was a wide gauge). On the route we used animated arrows with a smooth movement of the waggon, rails P24 and P50, which allow us to ride on any narrow gauge railway station. There are no particularly steep climbs. The alarm system is UZ. From Glushinsk to Ugolnoy - autolock, in other areas - mostly PAB, if the transfer is short - AB, but without passing traffic lights.

Full package of objects can be downloaded here: https://cloud.mail.ru/public/43m3/1Xyq3TAvM.
Starting session without trains - <kuid: 386981: 100717>. (I checked this link, but get a 404 error on it.

So here is the very large Map, sorry it didn't come out better. There is a lot to see and do on this route. I've only scratched the service and there are so items to fix and change a little bit which I'll explain further down. The author is still in the middle of making changes to this route I think based on some of his notations above. HE did very extensive work on this route, and it is very commendable.

Im starting here to run the Steam Locomotive #15.......You can see there are several unfinished Tiles in the bottom right.

We just started out in the back country here, and from the dark clouds above, Rain is imminent, and according to the auther, looking at the Foliage they get a fair amount it.

We have several low hills, some mountains to pass before we get to the next small town. We are carrying empties for Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer from the Farm.

Coming round the bend here at 30-40MPH a respectable speed and this little loco handles and pulls well. Also has good brakes with Consist, I'm impressed. Lots of nice natural looking flowers here, again I commend the Author for a very nice job on texture and Foliage. Everything so far looks natural and the way he intended it to look.

Check out the tracks here, just what you would expect to see here in the back country, with little or no Roads, if they do, it's dirt and maybe some gravel, I believe some of the area is poor people and farmers just trying to get by.

Going thru a small mountain tunnel, and I can see I need to fill in the open Gaps around the Rock texture, probably use some large Granite Boulders and such to improve the view.

We've come into a farm and vegetable garden area, will stop for minute and see if any of the locals need to board the train. You see the Gardens in each house are nicely cultivated. Impressive but yet simple and not overdone here.

We did pick up a few riders headed for the next towns we make. Now we're headed into a small industrial area, There are some Coal like piles here, I not sure if this is a factory or what is going on? I have to look up this asset, and lots of them are in Russian........Skies are getting darker now as it gets later in the day, Sun will be going down soon. It looks very Dreary out here for sure, and tonight, oh my, won't be able to see to far. I don't have a clue as to what the scheduling is for these back country trains?

Alright, so I fixed another switch that required the K-50, Switch control Rod and machine, we are scheduled to pick up Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer here from the farmers Silo's we got 5 Carloads and will leave 2 empties behind for filling when he gets more for pickup later by another Crew and Train.

This is my first experience with 750MM Track, so far very good.

That's it for now, I have much more exploring and learning to do about this route and the industries I run into as we trek Eastward.

Have blessed Sunday, and thank you all for coming by.

One last thing, our Prayers go out to BEN DORSEY, the trestle man, Dangavel who are both having some rough health issues, they make fantastic Assets and Routes, we wish them a speedy recovery from The Trainz Group.

Russian 750MM NG on Zhokavka Route & Kolej K50 Switch controller (help needed)

Good Tuesday day all,

Was looking for some rain, but Nature says it will arrive on Friday, so I'll be patient.

Back to Russian NG 750MM,

In picture below, I,m trying to find any info on how to set the properties correctly for this Kolej Controller, the asset is blank as to how to use it, I contacted the Author, dmitriskif, and I will send a msg to other related Author tram_.....? Hopefully someone understands the properties and how this work with what looks like invisible rails on simulated Tie Roadbed, really strange tracks so I coming into unknown territory here.

I was able to make a Screen Shot of how this controller looks, but it looks like there are some variations too. You have to have this to move the Rail Points, in addition to the Switch Machine Flag on Right........

We just left the Farm Silo with a load of Ammonium Fertilizer parts unknown.........We dropped our Passenger car and Van to keep this load in the middle of the Train for now. Track and Switches work OK.

We dropped a car here for the factory, they're going to load something on the Flatcar.

Sky is getting darker as night approaches and maybe some rain too, this is Tropical area.

Coming up the main, we see MOW Crews on scene, they gave us the clear hand signal to pass, they are checking Gauge and Switch points for Wear and proper correspondence.

Small City and some Factory's coming up next. Looks like we have invisible Road on right but no Traffic, so I think they run some special Trucks and Vehicles, have to check it out to see what's available to run on these roads. I see there are switches on the intersections.

Back over to Wild Bill Route. We are testing out new Main Line from Mining Camp that comes thru a Tunnel and connects to North Side of Larkspur City, so far Grade is perfect, 2% or little more. But we have to watch out for Buffalo in here. These are grazing yards (open Range) for the herd to roam and stay healthy.

Well they just looked at us and kept eating the nice fresh grass, just what we like, don't want any Stampede action, don't need any derailments today or any day.

If you look way in the back, and to the left, you'll see greenish/gray mountains, that's where we just came from and our main line is quite high back there, we cross over two woodne Trestles, one over a River Fall and the other over our valley Main Line.

Here is the Trestle as another Train heads into the Tunnel, which you can't see here, it just to right of the Train.

That's about it for now, I downloaded a few of Phil Skene's NG and Standard Gauge Log and Mining routes. They look like a lot of Fun.

Thanks for dropping in folks.

Fort William-Mallaig-Crianlarich Merged

Good Thursday evening,

I've been busy with Fort William-Mallaig-Crianlarich Merge process, yup that little merger manic me has been at it again. But I must be truth full the main reason was I downloaded Crianlarich part of the Route first (1st picture below), and while I was reading it's thread, someone posed the ? if Fort Mallaig was the able to be merged and the author indicated that both pieces were or could be connected i don't recall the exact wording on the Thread here.

So I found the merge points by locating where the Main lines ended on each end and the pieces came together OK after about 7 tries and mismatching the Tile points I needed to come together. As you have to delete several tiles on one end to match the ends correctly.

This is the Fort William-Mallaig part below prior to merge.

This is the merge point is straight down here...

I just need to add some Rail, and slight cosmetic changes near the main line.

This is coming from Crianlarich end point of the merge.

As we head north, will start just south of the Station and see how everything works.

We make quick stop and continue on with clear weather. You'll notice we have semaphore for signals.

We cross over the River Bridge after leaving the Train Station. Highways have just the right flow of Traffic too, and I think my Laptop will just handle this sized route.

Here is our River Bridge crossing from another angle, and you can see the valley here.

Well Merges always come with some issues, so below you see some minor Trainz Quakes have happened here and I have seen them in several spots around the layout, so will do some Texture patching once I ride all the rails on this route.

Out hills have nice slope and good height to them, I do plan to smooth this square looking Ridge just to the right of the Main Line, so there isn't such a marked pronounced Line showing here.

That's about it for now, check out these too Routes if like have fun driving some distance with moderate amount of stops and industries, these routes should fit the bill.

Night all.

Fort William-Mallaig-Crianlarich Merged II

Good Saturday all,

We got some much needed rain, not enough for mud slides though so it was perfect. And the Jet Stream has finally got off it's high track and headed down into the southern section of US, so now maybe we will start getting some normal rain like we should have beginning in Oct last year, but better late than never here.

Alright so I had merged the 2 single routes together, and found out that it was little to large for my laptop so it won't work out for me, but if someone else has the issue on their CPU, you could just link them by Portals and then send train into one, close that route and open the other route, find your train coming out the portal on second route.

What I found out, these Routes are set for Passenger runs, and very little industries, other than some small yards for Consist Storage.

As we continue coming to different RR Stations we see beautiful towns between the countryside divides. There are just the right amount of Foliage here, but do to my GPU being lame, I get a fair amount of Frame Stutter, so after this post, I'll be moving on to another Route. I encourage you to check one or both Routes out if you enjoy long runs on single main line thru great looking countrysides.

We just arrived Tyndrum Upper, there is another line across the valley, called Tyndrum Lower. All the passenger train stations are done very nicely and they have curver approach patterns to the Passenger layout.

Caught me by surprise here, we have a water treatment plant close to the tracks, haven't seen this before, nice touch.

And another touch here, double switch setup on incline rails, we have a derail setup, so nothing gets away and crashes down the Rail into an oncoming train!

Bridge of Orchy here as a few passengers await the next train.

This will be my last set photos shot for this Route, hope you like it.

Looks like I should have cut off a few cars for this run, as I don't know if we could even clear a similar length train in opposing direction?

We leave Bridge of Orchy and head over rivers as cross the valleys here.

Be a nice area here to hike into the mountains.

Lot of open areas here in the valley, train speed is set to 40 MPH, I think I would set the speed up to 60 though in the open areas, but that is just my preference, and there is enough distance and straight track runs to do in several areas.

So will see what the next route I decide to look into, and then it time to come back to my Narrow Gauge Zhukovka Russian Non Real NG 750MM and Wild Bill III which are both interesting routes as well as Phil Skenes NG Routes too, lots of interesting things to keep my little mind busy.

Have a good weekend all, and thanks for dropping in.

Wild Bill III and Tunnel Changes

Good Monday Morning all,

Beautiful Winter day here at 58 Degrees, and maybe a touch of Rain on Thursday, and will graciously accept it. Got our 101 Fwy opened up in the Central Coast, that'll be good for Traffic.
5 Fwy and 101 Fwy are the major arteries between No Cal and So Cal, and if you can't get those it's a 6-8 extra hour trip through canyons and back roads....

Alright, so we left Fort William-Mallaig-Crianlarich Merged II Routes and moved back to Wild Bill for a minute!

Remember I said we would cut the Tunnel back for better shunting length, as we were ending up in the Tunnel too much, getting these upper yards shunted into place. Now we have about 100-125' feet more of open Tracks to drop in our freight moves. And it is working nicely, also I am seriously considering adding another 2 Tiles on the right of the this picture, and might do some angle Trackage to the right of the mountains, which will give me more room to get around up here. Unfortunately for me, when I had my big ideas about building a Mine in this tight corner, it wasn't the best idea, should have, could have, came into play.

I really need not to box myself in corners like this. Lesson learned until I do it again, old habits are hard to break......LOL

Got my little Rio Grande 488 working real nice, and we do some Car Moves. All the Semaphores are working perfect for me too. One thing though, I think I might have to change this Rock face texture, it doesn't blend quite right Color wise as I look at it from this angle.I think I'll use the brown and Tan Texture you see to the Right of this mountain.

Smoke escapes pretty good with this paritcular tunnel height and It works well for me..Engine has a good headlight too.

Train on left is waiting for the passenger Train on right to leave so he can get the new loads moved into place for the mining companies. We had to stop here for Passenger (worker) drop off to the Mines. You could ride a horse up here I suppose, but the Train is whole lot more comfortable and safe vs you climbing the Rocky hillside.

Got us a nice Drop Off point for materials and passengers, now we are set to go to the next town, of Larkspur via new main line.

Got us dispatcher office here too, so they can give Train Orders for all the movement coming thru, both Passenger and Freight. I have to find out if I change the name Creston on the Dispatcher building to something else.......

This little Bully Boy Steam engine has good pulling power, Traction etc.......He's on his way out with Passengers for the next city.

We just got thru the Tunnel, and here we cross over a deep Valley on our new Wood Trestle Bridge. Definitely a good view of the Forest. Much greener here than on the Desert side for sure.

Here's a side view as we cross over a deep river Gorge below.

Now you can see our Valley Tracks below as they enter the Mountains behind. Our train looks really small from way up here on the Mountain top.

That'll do for now. Will see which Route we land on next......

Thanks for visiting, always welcome to ask questions here.