Bethgons, Autoflood, RDL Coal Hoppers

What I've done is made up a bunch of consists naming them such as COAL_BN_01,_02, COAL_CNW_01, etc. where I might use the same hopper consist(And maybe rotate them too) and change the locos, or vice a versa. Adds enough variety and doesn't take too much time?
Dean

Great idea Dean. That would save folks sum time who arnt really into the coal hopper research idea and can just jump straight into a session.
Cheers Mick.

That is basically what I did initially. I created a set of 100 hoppers and saved it as a generic consist, added locomotives to that consist and saved them as individual consists rotating and rearranging the coal cars for each. But I am unsatisfied since the consists of coal cars are somewhat artificial. Now I am digging deeper to create more or less accurate sets of hoppers as best possible.

Sharing your consists, Dean, would certainly, as Mick points out, save those who just want to drive or setup quick sessions a lot of work. My own consists contain quite a bit of payware and might not be suitable for sharing. If you decide to share your consists on the DLS you might want to preface the name with 97 PRB or something like that.

My problem too is there's a bunch of payware and non-DLS locos that I find more suited. Just doing that one session with DLS assets I found frustrating. But there's no reason why anyone can't build there own consist of hoppers. I've been trying to work on basic schedule sessions to cut down on the work of trying to figure out routing without a big hassle and still run smoothly? But then expecting someone to use that is also frustrating for those unfamiliar with a basic starting point as far as consist go?
Dean

I think for the time line the route was designed for Dean these steel type hoppers were mainly in use http://matts-place.com/trains/coal/car_types-rotarydump.htm The top square style were available for Trainz sum where but I just cant think where they were now.
Cheers Mick.

I myself have tried to stick more to locos in use at the time. As far as what seems to run smooth for me there's the H62 hoppers at the older RRMOD's, only downfall is no ARN. But you can mix and match them so it's not so noticeable. One thing that kills it for me is LOD on some hoppers when viewed from track side. And when I say run smooth is all seem okay until there's hundreds of them and then things can get wonky with the game?
Dean

I found this also about hoppers. Notice date of article.

https://www.joc.com/lower-weight-less-corrosion-make-aluminum-coal-cars-popular_19920915.html

Certainly looks like they were using aluminium by then Dean and the good ol SD70MAC was the loco of choice too by the looks
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/421320/
BN actually helped EMD sort out the DPU stuff that was installed I read it in a Railroad magazine I have here on helper engines used in the states, And it has a good article on the drivers using SD70MAC's in the PRB as un-manned helper's.
Cheers Mick.

Thanks Mick,
I read something the other day that BN was very proud of those and just wanted them to be used for what that pictures shows!
Dean

Norm i found a couple more Coal Hoppers for you to check out type in Slabay as the username on the DLS Scott has a Utah Belt and VRSX Hopper based off a Pullman Standard Coal Gon, Pretty sure i alos have the PSD for this so i will ask Scott if we can do sum BN style ones too maybe. The Utah Belt one doesn't really belong on the PRB but the VRSX one would fit in I reckon.


Cheers Mick.

Great find Mick.
Not the greatest pic!


One more.


Dean

Thanks guys, I do have slabay's hoppers but hadn't included them in the mix.

I'm thinking that Davesnow's Autofloods are also suitable but I'll need to figure out which of CSXT, DKPX, FLCX, KGLX, BMKX, or NSPX would suitable. There are surprisingly few repaints. I also think that Dave's 5 bay Trinity's might be suitable he's done JHMX and RWSX again no repaints I know of. I suspect that his Trinity RDLs are too modern.

Slabay also has a H62R <kuid:528206:100346> H62R 4Bay Hopper Pennsylvania MFX# that has ARN on the DLS that might be a repaint candidate.

JR has some nice 100 ton 3 bay steel hoppers but they are all eastern railroads I think.

My biggest problem with all of these (with the exception of JR's) is how clean they are. Looking at that 1996 video shows nothing but filthy railcars, in one shot you can see clouds of coal dust blowing off the cars.

I just spent 2 hours running through the 13 minute 1996 video It looks like the BNSF locomotives were solely SD70MACs and most of them were BN Executive though there was one consist that was made up of KCS, Sante Fe yellow and black, GM Electro-Motive, and BN green. I did not see any marked BNSF. UP, on the other hand, was solely GE Dash 9s of a couple of different flavors and most were in UP yellow and black although there were frequent C&NW's mixed in as well as a pair of SP and a pair of Santa Fe war bonnets. (Odd that both UP and BN had Santa Fe locomotives in 1996)

While I was looking at the locomotives I noticed that the coal cars were not as dirty as I had remembered, some were as clean as Dave's even. Given the quality of the video it was mostly impossible to see reporting marks on the hoppers although I did confirm that some consists were made up of what appeared to be 4 or 5 bay hoppers although the majority appeared to be Bethgons. Only a couple had a mixture of the two types. I also noticed that the colored ends (presumably the rotatory coupler end) were not necessarily facing one end of the consist or the other although they seemed consistent within groups. A majority of the consists were made up of black or dark colored hoppers.

A fun way to spend our first rainy morning in 160+ days. (I can not tell you what a relief it is to begin to relax from fire watch worries.)

Edit: So I spent some more money





<kuid:461273:100278> UP Dash 9-44CW - SRS
<kuid2:86105:6249:1> Loco GE Dash 9 Chicago & North Western - DLC
<kuid2:37573:100005:3> Southern Pacific Dash 9 ARN - DLC
<kuid2:45324:100278:1> UP C44-9W (ex-CNW) - JR
<kuid2:45324:100273:1> CNW C44-9W - JR
<kuid2:45324:100271:1> SP C44-9W - JR

A quick $35 for the three JR locomotives. :'( :hehe: I've been looking at the SRS locomotives trying to figure out why the skins aren't working. Still have not solved the problem.

Hi Norm,
I found with SRS locos like the SD75's(Along with others) the skins don't work in TANE, although I think some folks know the fix. But I ain't one of them. I found if the loco has 2 files, or doesn't have the TANE logo then it's not TANE ready. If that makes any sense?
Take care,
Dean

I was going to do a lot repaints of JR's Bethgon's but not sure how to get rid of the shine on the Bethgon's after you save the TGA file in Photoshop. I see all the main files are all dark when saved before i started messing with the file? Not sure if it has to do with the Alpha part?

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sureshot28 said:

I was going to do a lot repaints of JR's Bethgon's but not sure how to get rid of the shine on the Bethgon's after you save the TGA file in Photoshop. I see all the main files are all dark when saved before i started messing with the file? Not sure if it has to do with the Alpha part?

Click to expand...

Yep. Separate the files using PEV's Images2TGA, then work on them. You just recombine them when done editing them. If needed, you can create new Normal, Specular and Reflectivity maps in Gimp.

Thanks RRSignal that worked like a charm.

What I've been able to find with a little help from my friends. Some on the DLS, some from elsewhere. Sorted by reporting mark.





I'm a bit concerned about the ARN number range on some of these since my understanding is that TANE/TRS19 has difficulties with ranges greater than 2000. I am also concerned that small ranges may result in duplicate numbers in multiple consists with common railcars, does this cause problems in the game? (Small being defined as less that 500 - 1000 remembering that consists typically have 100-150 hoppers)

If you are aware of any that I have left out please let me know.

Wow thats quite a list there Norm great work mate. But you've left out Slabay he has two coal hoppers on the DLS UB Coal Gondola and a VRSX Coal Gon.
Cheers Mick.

Thanks Mick, I've added them and a few more from jkeenan as well as 5 from NARM. Most of these are fictional rail lines or fictional cars of real rail lines.

BTW FYI
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/abcs-of-railroading/2006/05/railroad-reporting-marks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reporting_marks:_A

Great work Norm hate to muddy the waters even further in our quest to find more hoppers but i found a great link here if ya interested https://www.flickr.com/photos/photographernikon/sets/72157669125810681 I have quite a few of these hoppers already started in 3ds max and have found I could look at sum of these site's for hours just gaining little bits of info here and there for modelling them one day hopefully.
Now sum photos have the date they were taken and there are quite a few that would be in our time frame for the PRB I reckon.
Cheers Mick.