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

Fall colors on the BC&SJ

I was messing around with the environmental settings are realized that setting the month can change the colors of certain objects (such as a seasonal deciduous trees).

So the company photographers were given trains to chase and the company helicopter with which to chase 'em. Here are the results.


(1) Heading uphill (eastward) towards tunnel 1




(2) Late afternoon backlighting ...




(3) Heading downgrade (westward) from tunnel 1 with reflections in the water.




(4) Heading eastward from tunnel 1 (visible in the far end of the train) toward Browning




(5) Ducking under the Browning highway on the way east toward Browning




(6) Reflections in the reservoir's ripples - heading downgrade from tunnel 1 bound toward Jefferson




(7) Five SP SD units and a grade crossing near Jefferson in the late afternoon.




(8) A bit further on from the grade crossing in the previous shot - I worked hard to put a very slight roller-coaster effect in the terrain. It's only a five or six feet of vertical over 300 feet of distance




Love the fall color effect. Love the haze that comes up in the early morning and late afternoon. Together they make for some interesting shots. And I just happened to use trees with the seasonal colors - pure luck on their placement amongst the evergreens that don't change coloration.

Cheers,
H. Fithers

@horacefithers Here are some places for some quality content most of which is free and works in Tane and may work in TRS19.

Here is a site that has some rolling stock and locomotives you might find interest in:
https://projectwestern.weebly.com/

SP sd40's c 40-8 cabooses and some quality freight cars of 60's - 90's Espee
https://sufferinpacific.weebly.com/

Quality steam era locomotives and diesels plus transition era rolling stock. Note these site names are somewhat the same but the content on each is different
https://trainz-forge.com/
http://trainzforge.weebly.com/

Here is mostly f-units reskins and alco's
https://n8phu.wordpress.com/

BC&SJ Reskins!

I followed the directions in the newest N3V youtube video and this was the result - the first custom BC&SJ rolling stock...



I hope I'm not too jazzed to be able to sleep!

Now I'll need to figure out how to get the BC&SJ graphics logo onto the cars and maybe try to reskin an engine or two...


H. Fithers

Wow! You are going all in for this route. Fantastic to have the rolling stock too! Looks like a great job of it too.

Hi Horace,
How did you get the PSD file downloaded . . After I downloaded it . . . . . . . . when I try to extract it . . . . . .. . just says file concatenated . . faulty or corrupted . . I tried WinRar, WinZip and 7Zip . . none would unpack the file . . . . . . any suggestions?
render2017

render2017 said:

Hi Horace,
How did you get the PSD file downloaded . . After I downloaded it . . . . . . . . when I try to extract it . . . . . .. . just says file concatenated . . faulty or corrupted . . I tried WinRar, WinZip and 7Zip . . none would unpack the file . . . . . . any suggestions?
render2017

Click to expand...

A .psd file is a Photoshop Document. You'll need either Photoshop Pro or Photoshop Elements to read it (it appears Gimp can open .psd files, but with some limitations). PHotoshop Elements 2019 is currently $99 for download at Amazon and bhPhoto. Or get a photoshop subscription from Adobe for $10/month (for the full photoshop I think).

This file contains a zillion (hierarchical) layers with colors and graphics for sever different boxcars - CP, CN, NKP, and something else. I added some additional layers for BCSJ.

Cheers,
H.F.

Horacefithers,
Your screen shots are wonderful. I especially liked the late afternoon sunlight effect - very nicely done. The reflection shots were great too.

Always love coming here to follow your work. Looking forward to more.

Heinrich505

Thanks for your response . . but I think you have misunderstood . . .When I select the download option in the description of the YouTube reskin tutorial . .what I get downloaded is a Zip file . . which needs to be "unzipped" (extracted. I have tried all the extraction methods available to me (including the Windows 10 one) but they all report a damaged file (Truncated) Even photoshop states it is a damaged file. Where did you get your PSD file from? My only other option is to use the TGA file but it has no layers and the instructions for using the TGA file are not encouraging.

By the way ! I am impressed with your artwork and love the slogan.

Colin Rayner

Collin,
Try fetching the .psd file from the content creation site linked in the YT description: https://contentcreation.trainzsimulator.com/reskin-the-custom-40-boxcar/

HF

Custom Reskin Tutorial

Thanks Horace,
that's where I have been trying . . is there somewhere else . . . but don't spend any more time on this . . I will contact N3V direct on Monday . . . thanks for your help.

Are you windows 7 or 10 or a Mac guy?

HF

Windows 10 Pro

Thanks for the Boxcar PSD file . . I will try and make good use of it.
Colin Rayner

Major Earthquake Strikes the BC&SJ Creating More Land!

From the South Jackson Gazette...
May 15, 2018 - Reusters
Citizens along the Bear Creek & South Jackson Railroad were woken this morning by a sizable earthquake. As one local commented, "It must of been at least 7.5 on the Rectum Scale - it shook hard enough to knock over my outhouse!"
Fortunately said outbuilding appears to have been one of the few structural casualties of the event.

Railroad officials immediately set out to survey the effect of the shaker on railroad track and equipment. Horace Fithers, railroad bigwig commented, "We shure are pleased that all the railroad stuff seemed to have made it through OK. We also found that a whole bunch of new acres had suddenly appeared."

The railroad promptly began to extend their tracks through the new territory. Salem, the west end of the railroad, has been moved quite a bit further west. The previous Salem, and East Salem areas are now Breton and East Breton, and a new town, Armstrong has been added between Salem and Breton. Additionally, the river running through Breton now has a channel all the way to the pacific ocean allowing those freighters that were attempting to move grain from the East Breton elevators to actually move it someplace useful.

The railroad also called a news conference to announce the creation of a Coast Branch running from Breton to Ross, Davenport, and Garibaldi, terminating at Camp Holden. Citizens seemed pleased by the railroads expansion especially since there was an open bar. A good time was had by all.

Company photographers took an number of photos of the new areas. Here's the first installment of them.

(1) The new BC&SJ track map - the photo locations are within the yellow rectangle.




(2) Waterfront area between St. Paul (right bank) and East Breton (left bank)




(3) The evening daylight leaving East Breton eastward




(4) The daylight from the roof of a nearby warehouse...




(5) The west end of East Breton yard. Lots of industries are in this area.




(6) A view of the St. Paul refinery from East Breton yard




(7) The east end of East Breton yard




(8) Looking west at St. Paul from the far east end of East Breton




(9) Looking at the massive export elevator in East Breton from St. Paul




(10) St. Paul is heavy with industry. This is part of the main road through town.




Hope you enjoyed the screen shots. More coming soon...

Horace Fithers

Earthquake - part 2

Continuing from where we left off...

(11) Looking east down the St. Paul main drag...




(12) The St. Paul tank car rack and storage tracks. Looking east in this shot.




(13) St. Paul waterfront rip-rap on the left bank. Ginormous mill in East Breton (right of the lift bridge)




(14) In the '50s and '60s war surplus Liberty ships were plentiful and cheap. This one is loading (or unloading - it's hard to tell from here) at East Breton port warehouse.




(15) An abandoned warehouse with overgrown track on the left with that ginormous mill across the river in East Breton. A small freighter waits for the bridge to lift so it can head out to sea.




(16) Aerial view looking east showing an overall view of East Breton (left) and St. Paul (right)




(17) Switching in the evening at the west end of St. Paul




(18) Another view...




(19) The lift bridge at the west end of East Breton / St. Paul




(20) Just another shot of the area...




Oops... time for dinner. More screenshots later tonight.

Cheers,

Horace Fithers

Horace Fithers,
Those are really nice shots. The backstory is pretty cool.
I especially like the shots with the lift bridge. It really screams Pacific Northwest. Very nicely done!!

Heinrich505

horacefithers said:

From the South Jackson Gazette...
May 15, 2018 - Reuters

"It must have been at least 7.5 on the Rectum Scale..."

Click to expand...

That's on par with a quote from a former Australian Prime Minister who said, rather ironically, "I am not the suppository of all wisdom..".

As a sometime creator of scenery assets, I'm unhealthily interested in seeing how route builders use things I've made. The way you've placed the rocks along the river bank, with heavy use of rotation, tilting and height adjustment to randomize the visible parts, strikes me as one of the best examples I've seen for those granite boulders.

Earthquake - part 3

Continuing from where we left off...

(21) The other side of the ginormous milling company...




(22) More of the Daylight...




(23) Daylight passing a freight on the double-track main before reaching Breton




(24) The river with freighter and Daylight in the background (right). One of these days I'll need to think up a name for this river...




(25) Racing the traffic on the highway next to a really big cherry orchard. When the harvest is finished the workers throw a PITy party...




(26) Three-way meet at Armstrong. This area is still far from finished...




(27) The entrance to the no-name river shot from about a mile off shore. I think there should be some channel marker buoys and nuns - Red Right Returning color code. Any kuid suggestions?




(28) The river entrance from closer in. The pier o the left is Ross which is just a Fisherman's Wharf and a depot at this point. Coast Branch is up for work once the main tracks to Salem get detailed. Is it possible to add an underwater highway and use ships instead vehicles on it?




(29) Another day, another Daylight passing that big cherry orchard. This time heading east. Armstrong is in the distance behind several hedgerows.




(30) The Lyle branch serves St. Paul. It connects to the main track with a wye at Lyle Jct. and crosses the no-name river on a series of Warren truss bridges. A highway bridge parallels the railroad bridge.



More still to come...

H. Fithers

Earthquake - part 4

Continuing from part 3...


(41) Another shot of the Lyle branch bridge crossing the no-name river




(42) Coming down off the bridge into St. Paul The row of buildings on the right in the background got installed about an hour ago...




(43) Another view...




(44) Trundling westward through St. Paul




(45) Passing the St. Paul LCL facility




(46) The west end of St. Paul isn't as dense...




(47) The west end of St. Paul




(48) Leaving St. Paul behind and heading for Lyle




(49) Leaving East Breton yard eastward heading for Lyle Junction.




(50) Taking the west leg of the Lyle Junction wye heading toward St. Paul



Phew! That was LOT of screen shots.

I hope you liked 'em!

H. Fithers

Dinorius_Redundicus said:

That's on par with a quote from a former Australian Prime Minister who said, rather ironically, "I am not the suppository of all wisdom..".

As a sometime creator of scenery assets, I'm unhealthily interested in seeing how route builders use things I've made. The way you've placed the rocks along the river bank, with heavy use of rotation, tilting and height adjustment to randomize the visible parts, strikes me as one of the best examples I've seen for those granite boulders.

Click to expand...

Hey Dinorius, glad the boulders were there for me to abuse in my scenery! The vast library of assets is a blessing (and a curse - there's so much stuff it's about impossible to know what's there!)

Best,
H. Fithers