Illuminated caboose

Hi all, been lurking the forums and DLS for caboose(s) with lit interiors, markers etc. for night sessions.

So far I have searched for "illuminated" "lighted" "lit" and "night" with caboose added but to no avail. I did find an old thread from 2009 on this topic with some KUID's, will take a look when time permits.

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/archive/index.php/t-46565.html

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike

It would be nice if all cabeese (and passenger cars) were illuminated, especially the PRR N5C with the round windows … I wonder how difficult it is to retrofit a non-illuminated caboose, so it has night mode ?

Agree 100%. Sadly I it has been a while since I did any content creation, I remember making a few boxcars and repainting a switcher to match a local RR here back in TRS2004. But alas it has been many years. I will keep scouting - we certainly cannot be the only ones interested in this!

Assuming the traincar doesn't already have a default-nightmode mesh in its mesh table, it's pretty easy to build a simple "transverse bulkhead" mesh that just runs down the middle of the traincar. Texture two-sided, call it "light.im" or the like, and set mode to "lamp."

But this only works if the traincar has transparent windows. If it's got only "reflection picture" texturing to represent windows, the nightmode mesh has to somehow conform to the pictured windows while existing just far enough outboard of them to avoid interference (.007m works pretty well). A relatively easy way to do that would be to make a copy of the traincar's texture file and turn it into an alpha map on which everything except the windows is transparent, then map that onto a simple mesh for each side. Difficult, but easier than it sounds.

BTW, my New Haven hacks [cabooses] have lighted interiors . The method there is to place mesh panels just inboard of the inner walls, but that's a lot more complicated if you don't have the source file for the mesh (3ds or Blender).