Bear Creek & South Jackson - progress reports - Building a Mountain Railroad (1080p)

Wow ! that about when I started my Pennsylvania & Ohio route . .. amd you are much further along . . .and doing a better job . . . . . . .. . . . . . I look forward to more updates in due course . .. . . . . . keep up the great work . . . . ..

I am presuming that this is a DEM … Or did you create all this terrain by hand ?

cascaderailroad said:

I am presuming that this is a DEM … Or did you create all this terrain by hand ?

Click to expand...

A DEM? Not sure what you mean by that - a download of terrain contours from Google earth or a geo survey map into Trainz?

I created all the terrain by hand. Build up mountains, erode them away. Repeat several times with progressively smaller tools. Festoon with roads/tracks/creeks, etc.

Glutton for punishment or just that it's much easier on a computer than it is to erect wooden frames, cover them with a card-board strip mesh, top that with masking tape and paint it flat brown so it has a bit more 'tooth', then mix 1 part plaster with 1 part vermiculite add a teaspoon of black/brown tempera powder, add water and mix, spread about 1/4" thick over the plaster smoothing with fingers (or whatnot), paint, cover with ground foam and/or static grass, make and plant lots of trees, repeat for the next two square feet... etc. See http://www.bcsjrr.com for my model railroad website.


Cheers,

H. Fithers

render2017 said:

Wow ! that about when I started my Pennsylvania & Ohio route . .. amd you are much further along . . .and doing a better job . . . . . . .. . . . . . I look forward to more updates in due course . .. . . . . . keep up the great work . . . . ..

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words Colin.

As a notorious reviewer, you wouldn't happen to know a source of TRS19 compatible SP steam locos - in particular AC-10, AC-11, and AC-12 cab forwards, F-3 and F-5 2-10-2's, an SP 4-10-2 (the JR one didn't seem to like TRS19 when I checked it out). I'd much prefer to have locos that would allow setting the marker lights to off, white (extra train), or green (following section), and different fields for the engine number and train number boards (extras are typically numbered as X<lead eng #> where as regular trains use their schedule # (train 10, 201, 351, etc) meaning the train id boards need to allow an alpha-numerics. Also Tiger Stripe SD-7s road units and NW-2 switchers would be cool.

Oh yeah, and smoke units that don't sometimes send smoke billowing through the side of the boiler or emitting from within the tender would be great.

Cheers,
Horace Fithers

Hello Horace,

I love some of the SP steam . . but they seem to have been neglected in recent years . . .and I follow the eastern states RR mostly . . . . . . . . . . .
However, I have the JR SP engine and have not had any technical issues with it . . . but it is not taking advantage of the TRS graphics features .. . and the cab . .like the K&L trains model uses a standard N3V cab interior .. which ALWAYS looks wrong e.g. The windows do not reflect what is outside the cab . . .they have an old western square boxed frame window set . . . . . . . which looks crazy ! But it runs well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . but I have not done a in depth review . . . . . . . I did do a quick Content manager search on Southern Pacific . . set to Download Station . . . . . but I don't know if they are any good . . . .. . . . . . . I note K&L has three SP engines including the MT4 and the MK5 Mikado. . . but these are older models he made some time ago . .he started about 7 years ago . . . . . . . .. so I don't know how good they are . .and K&L use the same default cab interior on ALL models. . which as I said I think is not very good . . .. . . sorry I cannot be more help . . . ..

I have a full stable of PRR steam . . . .. reskinned to Pennsylvania & Ohio . .. which is not a real railroad . . my route is fictional .. located in the appalachians . . . . . . . . plus I have started a full size route . . for later . .of the Clinchfield . . . . . . .. . . . . but TRS2019 does not handle the large size too well yet . . . . N3V's Tony Hilliam has given me insight to what the issues are . .and sees it may be another 12 months before they improve the basic graphics engine to fix the issues . . . .. so it is on hold .. . . . . . . . . . the main limitations I have are being located in Australia . . . . not far from the N3V offices . .. . but not having first hand access to the topography . . . .. . and atmosphere of US railroads . . . . . . . Like you I started in HO model railroading . . back in the sixties . . . . .but now that even a basic . . F7 or USRA steamer cost many hundreds of dollars . .I quit Model RR altogether . . . . ..

Can I ask you a couple of questions that may help me . . . . . . ..

1. I note the had some dramatic improvements when you changed tree types . . . . . what were you moving from and to . . . .I need a different tree to the pines you use but it may help me . .are you using Speed Trees much . .. . . . . in the appalachians I need these types red maple, white oak, Sugar maple and red oak predominately .. . . but they are poor examples in TRS2019 that don't look well . . and have a LOD that makes them transform in the distance to something I call a blob !

2. I love the water color you have . . .is it due to Environment settings . . .and riverbed color? If so can you give me a hint on Environment settings and the color used on the riverbed . . . .. . . . sorry if I am asking for too much . . . . .

3. Am I notorious . . .smile ?

I have rambled a bit too much . .my apology . . . .. . . .

Cheers

Colin Rayner

Colin,

I have the K&L GS8 SP 4-8-4 steam loco. It runs well. The cab is a bit strange. Looking out of the forward cab windows I see the running board, but not the boiler - rather strange? The smoke generator works for the most part but sometimes the smoke is emitted from strange locations. Not sure if that's a K&L or N3V problem.

Trees:
New trees:
st_rmm_elka47_1992_22m <kuid2:211025:21364:1>
st_rmm_elka48_4918_40m <kuid2:211025:21365:1>
etc...

Old trees:
Douglas Fir mixed 30m spline <kuid2:33404:37152:3>
Douglas Fir mixed 40m spline <kuid2:33404:37151:3>
Douglas Fir spline 60m <kuid2:33404:37123:1>

Being a noob at Trainz, does the "st_" prefix indicate the two upper trees (Spruce) are Speed Trees while "rmm_" indicates they were created by "rmm"?

Water color seems to be different depending on whether one uses the built-in water or a spline.

My favorite water spline (at the moment) is: "River 100m water01 ice01" <kuid68213:37092> (oops, actually this "River 50m water01 ice01" - a narrower version of the spline) here in Salt Creek.g


I used "Creek Spline Rippled Water" <kuid 106916:10392> (from waay back in Nov 2009) in the lower parts of the Bear Creek



The paint job under the water makes a BIG difference in color. Model railroaders who use Envirotex casting resin (or equivalent) to simulate water know that a relatively thin layer of casting resin can be given the appearance of depth by painting the parts that are supposed to be deep a darker color - for really deep water use black. Then gradually fade the under-water paint color to the color of what ever is next to the creek/lake/etc.

I've used several paint colors for creek bottoms:
Onderwater <kuid2:46819:21096:2>
TS12-Gravel-228-Water <kuid2:82412:612228:1>
There are others... try typing "water" in the Paint section search box and look for things that are a dark blue/green color (I wish the thumbnails were more accurate color-wise than they are! Sometimes there is next to no relationship between the actual color and the thumbnail color... N3V can you guys fix this?)


For riverbeds I've used a number paints in the past but have settled on "PBR Moss & Gravel 01" for the past couple of months. I try to use the narrowest (smallest) paint brush and kind of zip along the creek/river bank to not overpower whatever other paint color(s) are being used there. I run the moss/gravel paint out under the water to simulate the water being shallower near the banks. Or sometimes I do it in the middle or even all the way across to simulate a shallow spot.


As far as environment settings go, I have only recently begun to play with them. I have tried to pick a time of day when the sun is coming in at a moderately low angle to get better shadows. There's a HUGE difference with real cameras and scenery when pointing the camera away from the light or (even a little) toward the light. N3V seems to have done a decent job of making this true also in simulated scenes. For best color saturation, shoot with the light coming from somewhere behind you.

Notorious or not, I've found several of your tutorial videos useful.

Cheers,
H. Fithers

Envirotex creek in HO scale

It's not color, but this shot shows some Envirotex water below the bridge... FWIW




For some reason, modeling rock faces in Trainz takes less time than hand carving plaster... Go figure.

Static grass is the model railroad equivalent of TurfFX.

H.Fithers

Needed - SP depot model(s)



If you know where SP depot models like the one above are available I'd like to know about it.

Cheers,
H.Fithers

Thanks for the details Horace . . .I appreciate it . . . .

and yes . .. my pet hate is how inaccurate the color chips are in the texture page . .. just a huge waste of time finding out that the darkest gravel in the color chips is actually the lightest in an actual application on the surface .. go figure . . . . ..

Just a note . . . . . . . . I am about to upload my next video . . all about using TRC 3 on road crossings . . in TRS2019 . . I have shown it can be done in less than three minutes . . . . . . . .

But I have included a link to this forum topic . . . . . . . . .. and your YouTube channel . .and recommendation . . of your route to my subscribers . . . . . . . .. . . as well as enticing them with a couple of your images . . please let me know if that is not wanted . . . . . .

Cheers
Colin Rayner

horacefithers said:

If you know where SP depot models like the one above are available I'd like to know about it.

Cheers,
H.Fithers

Click to expand...

Is this what you're looking for:

https://trainz-forge.com/p/scenery

BBarnes - yes that looks better than anything I've seen so far. Thanks!
H.Fithers

horacefithers said:

Colin,

I have the K&L GS8 SP 4-8-4 steam loco. It runs well. The cab is a bit strange. Looking out of the forward cab windows I see the running board, but not the boiler - rather strange? The smoke generator works for the most part but sometimes the smoke is emitted from strange locations. Not sure if that's a K&L or N3V problem.

Trees:
New trees:
st_rmm_elka47_1992_22m <kuid2:211025:21364:1>
st_rmm_elka48_4918_40m <kuid2:211025:21365:1>
etc...

Old trees:
Douglas Fir mixed 30m spline <kuid2:33404:37152:3>
Douglas Fir mixed 40m spline <kuid2:33404:37151:3>
Douglas Fir spline 60m <kuid2:33404:37123:1>

Being a noob at Trainz, does the "st_" prefix indicate the two upper trees (Spruce) are Speed Trees while "rmm_" indicates they were created by "rmm"?

Click to expand...

Yes "st_" stands for "Speed Tree" and "rmm_" stands for their creator, "rmm".

A wet day in the mountains

I spent a little time experimenting with environmental parameters - particularly rain - this afternoon. Here are some result screenshots.



(1) It's doing what it does best in Oregon, raining, not really hard but frequent




(2) Looks like the rain took a break for a while and the sun decided to come out and play. In Oregon these are called "sun breaks".




(3) It's raining, it's pouring, the engineer better not be snoring...




(4) Rain and sunshine often coexist




(5) The rain has quit for the moment and the sun is almost down behind the mountains.




I think after all these shots I need a towel and a warm fireplace to dry off!

H. Fithers

Great set of weather shots sir! Very familiar with those moments of Oregon weather, looks right at home. and I love that sundown shot. Well done!

Rainfanning the BC&SJ from Salt Creek to Summit

I was fooling around with the environmental controls. At the same time I had some brand spanking new scenery to share. So one of the guys said we should do a rain-fanning video.

With apologies to Gene Kelly (who might have sung):

I'm chuffin' in the rain
Just chuffin' in the rain
What a glorious feeling
I'm happy again
I'm laughin' at clouds
So dark up above
I'm chuffin', chuffin' in the rain...


The ops department had a double-headed set of GS-8 northerns on the point of today's train 202 so the camera guys followed that from just under Salt Creek up to Summit Yard (where detailed scenery ends for now).
The area from Oakhill to Summit has such rugged terrain the train crews are calling it 'The land of 10,000 bridges'. It made the camera work a bit tough, but the biggest problem was keeping the camera's and drones battery compartments dry.

Hope you enjoy the video,

H. Fithers

Back to Bear Creek (yard)

A camera crew went over to the Bear Creek yard to see if they could find some nice early morning or late afternoon shots with a bit of clouds and haze.

They returned with these screenshots.


(1) First class train 111 is waiting while the yard crew swaps a block in their consist. Once complete 111 will be on its way to West Salem.




(2) Taken from atop a local trucking company warehouse this shot shows most of the west end of Bear Creek yard including the engine terminal (and train 111 which hasn't made it out of the yard yet)




(3) A Bear Creek yard crew performing a block swap on 111. When 111 pulled into the yard it left its caboose clear of the access ladder allowing the yard crew to pull a block off and add a block to the back of the train. Once done, 111 will back onto their caboose and be ready to depart westward.




(4) This rooftop shot of the east end of Bear Creek shows there's a fair amount of traffic in the yard today.




(5) The not-quite-finished diesel facility at the west end of Bear Creek yard. Fuel racks, sanding stations, and a lot more clutter would seem to be called for. I think I'd better have a talk with Griese Oliver, the railroad's chief mechanic about getting this finished up... Harumph...




(6) The Bear Creek yard office. From left to right tracks are: empty car yard, caboose track, east-end yard ladder and switch lead, arrival/departure tracks 1 and 2, the mainline (with train 200 sitting on it), and the passenger station tracks. The cover hopper on the far right is at the tail end of the team track.



To optimize frame rate I used rails-only track for the classification yard and set the track and ground heights to bury the rail base in the terrain. Given there are 8 class tracks, 2 ice tracks, and a thoroughfare track, this made a noticeable different in frame rates. However, there are enough assets here that rendering is still a bit "steppy" - even with a high end graphics card and cpu. I'll need to be looking at more ways to optimize this area.


(7) The empty car yard at Bear Creek in he foreground. The white building on the left is the icing platform. The boxcars on the right are on the clean out track.




(8) The Bear Creek team track is empty at the moment except for a couple of covered hoppers at the far end.




(9) Train 111 on arrival/departure track 1 is lead by a trio of Black Widow GP-9s. The covered hoppers n the right are carrying sand for the engine service facility.




That's all for now. Hope y'all enjoyed them!

H. Fithers

Map of Bear Creek

Regarding the prior photos, you might find these maps helpful...






Hope this helps ya finds yer way 'round town!

H. Fithers

This is looking absolutely tremendous. Love seeing that Empire Builder sitting there!

Like those Buried Ties in the Sort and clasification Yards

Hello,

I like the idea of mostly Rail only to improve the Frame Rates. I need to go into some of my older Routes and change it to that style and depth, it would help me as well....

Your Route is coming along perfectly, thanks again for sharing and keeping us updated on your accomplishments....

Good looking Route Map too, makes it so much easier too see where the heck u r in this immense and well detailed Route......

As stated before, you are very gifted, it really shows in your work product......

Amazing!! I am really looking forward to more of your progress.