The Revamped Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (for T:ANE-SP4)

HiBaller

19 Years of Trainz
Here are some shots of the latest, and probably last, upgrade of our original Trainz 2004 offering:

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-- More --

Bill
 
it'll be so much fun to take a standard gauge freight train for a spin on there.


Well, it might, but it would surely look odd because the route is only two-foot gauge. Some of the gradients are in the 10 - 12% range, so no consists longer than 2 or 3 cars and no motive power larger than an 0-4-0 or possibly an 0-6-0.

Bill
 
Thank you for posting those videos, Butler57. Much of our content was created after seeing them on these videos. We can thank Dave Drake (dmdrake) for over 2,000 scenery items.

Bill
 
Shame we don't have some more realistic locos and carriages - dirt and grime etc.'

In the videos - love the guys chipping coal sitting on top the coal (tender) section and outriders in front checking the track etc.

Also in the videos there are a lot of Tourism signs/maps etc at nearly every station - something that could be added.
 
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The outriders are mostly there as sanders. It rains most of the time way up there and the track gets slippery. Even with a minimal consist, wheelslip is a big problem.

How good are you a reskinning, Butler57. I'm fairly sure Peter (Narrowgauge) would let you take a crack at it. I agree, we could add lots more content, but when we built this originally (back in the TRS2004 days) computers weren't the whiz-bang machines they are now and if we cluttered up a scene too badly, it would grind to a halt.

I'd certainly welcome some new content if you feel up to it.

Bill
 
Butler

What do you have in mind? There are several, more up-to-date, coaches you could tackle.

Have you found the freight stock? I modelled everything that I could find at the time, it is quite possible that you could find something I missed.

However, you can make or modify whatever you wish. One proviso, unless what you modify has a DHR prototype please don't label it as DHR.

Narrowgauge
 
Hi Peter,

My latest reskins have been the Eggliners 100+. So am up to most things.

I believe I already have all DHR rolling stock available some 27 odd assets.

Would love to grime up the DHR loco's, carriages and freight, plus add anything not yet on DLS (Noted: do not label as DHR). Basically, try and make them as real world/realistic as possible along with nameplates etc.

Also, thought of attaching appropriate "sander guys", coal guy & driver to loco's - that may be a while as I will need suitable figures to reskin.

Happy to pass anything I do for your approval before any release to DLS.
 
To overuse a word, that's outstanding, Butler. A little grime here and there would be perfect for engines and rolling stock, some of which are over 100 years old. Sanders that animate when you hit the "sand" key would be topping on the cake.

Bill
 
Fantastic job guys.

Imported the CDPs from Hiballer and away we went.

I'm running DHR in TrainzPlus beta v107918 with assertions TB 4.7. There's a format change from TB 4.6 to 4.7 (don't know what implications for converting assets yet) but in this case I'm running all assets in compatability mode. I have not yet attempted to upversion assets. I did, however, convert some tag 'alias' assets to mesh-asset format so they could be upversioned later. I also saw one assertions 2061.72. Don't know what that means so by-passed it.

Like the noble Duke of York nursery rhyme I ran one train up to the top of the hill and back down again.

No track problems. I even did a switch at one spot.

Some grid lines showing in groundtextures if you go a-roaming.

The road and rail need dirtying up. Currently the road is pristine macadam. Needs filled and unfilled potholes. Also oil stains from trucks and cars. This is also an area that gets earthquakes, and probably a stretched maintenance budget, so some cracks would be appropriate. And suffers from washouts due to heavy rain during monsoon season.

There is some background terrain that grows and sinks as train goes around curves. Probably need to adjust distance rendering.

For later versions of Trains I would suggest:

1. Replace some trees near tracks with speedtrees. Mk5 up to and including TB 3.7 and Mk6 for TANE, TRS19 and beyond.
2. Animated water in streams cascading off mountains.
3. Replace cardboard cutout people with 3D versions.


And now my wish list (don't want much, you think)

Technology 1. Drivable vehicles, with parking and passing bays on road.

Technology 2. Animated people.

Scenario 1.

Monsoon has caused landslide blocking highway and rail.
Train halted or due in couple of hours.
Vehicles backed up in both directions.
Clearance time from <1 day to > 1 day maybe weeks.

Need road and rail gangs to clear slip, get traffic moving, and repair broken rail.
Possibility another train from other side of slip and transfer passengers and freight once path cleared on road and its safe to transit the slip.
Alternatively buses to replace train and allow passengers and freight to continue to destination or return to departure point.
Animated passengers.
Animated gangs.
Drivable trucks.
Drivable front end loader.
Soil and rocks either carted away or dumped over cliff.
Traffic Control.

Scenario 2.

Traditional Indian wedding in one of the villages with guests arriving, and departing maybe after several days.

Scenario 3.

Diwali festival

Market
Food
Light
Music

Scenario 4.

Truck collision blocks highway and rail.
One vehicle hanging dangerously over cliff having smashed through safety barrier.
Similar requirements to Scenario 1 with addition of working air rescue helicopter taking injured to hospital in Darjeeling.

Future

DHR ad infinitum.
 
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That's quite a laundry list, Ian. Very thoughtful and we appreciate the effort. Your first three observations are doable, but unlikely. At least by either Peter or myself. The original crew peeled off years ago (our DHR has been around for 16 years) and only he and I are left actively updating the route. Fresh eyes are always welcome. We though about speed trees, but decided against them. In my case, given the computer I was using at the time, they absolutely killed my frame rates. With my new on, it might work. I had not seen any animated streams anywhere. If they are the DLS, could you point them out? As for the two-dimensional people, that would be Dave's (dmdrake) baliwick. He's almost completely removed from Trainz now and has given us blanket permission to alter/upgrade any of his content. None of us, however, have the original meshes for them.

In several spots, I added the details of landslips and earthquake damage. The entire Paglajhora region (Guyabara, through Mahanadi, and to Giddahar) is in constant danger of landslides due to rain. As for the road condition, I agree, but it would be a major undertaking to alter them now. Neither Peter, nor myself, plan on doing any further versions for future builds of Trainz. TANE is as far as it get for me.

The scenarios look interesting, and could possibly be worked on independently of any input from us. All a person would have to do is point the map KUID to the current version of the DHR for it to function. Everything you mentioned could be added to the scenario instead of the route. On one of the videos we used, there was indeed a train/truck collision that needed to be cleared and the track re-gauged for the train to continue.

Pretty much everything hinges on finding one or more individuals willing to devote years of their time to keep the route in shape.

Bill

EDIT: I forgot to mention all the roads would have to be mated with invisible roads in order to animate traffic. Plus, you'd have to add some sort of traffic blockers to make all the grade crossings clear when a train goes by (AND, there are a LOT of grade crossings which was the primary reason we didn't have animated traffic.
 
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Ian

The roads have always been my particular baby and adding moving traffic was considered. As Bill said, interaction between train and cars would be very difficult to arrange. What would be possible is to animate selected segments and switch them off when the train passes. There are 170+ separate road segments. The track is separate.

If you want to experiment and need to add to the road meshes, I will send you some files to experiment with. You need M.ax to modify them

Bill and I have maintained the DHR for literally years and and I think we have nursed it for long enough. I agree with Bill, wee need someone to take over.

Peter
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the quick replies.

I was well informed about your epic journey. I was an avid follower of your journey to India.
Like you, I'm a senior member at 84 years young. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer or creator, skills that I'm envious of. Repair work is my forte. I've been working on a utility since 2006 to automate repair of Trainz creators efforts that have either not measured up to the specs initially or have fallen foul of the ever more stringent validation. It's an adjunct to Andi Smith's AssetX that he and PEV developed. I'm using the whole of the DLS assets as my testbed, nearly 2 TB, and this is the fifth time I've done this. Wasn't too much of a problem over fibre, but now frustratingly slower over 4G wireless. Still, a lot better than the 16K modem we started out with all those years ago.
Apart from congratulating you and letting you know DHR worked at the latest version of TrainzPlus beta, a notable feat in itself, I was tongue in cheek hoping that others would take up the challenge and progressively build on your extraordinary efforts. Hence my suggestions.
 
Ian

I'm 91.5 so perhaps I'm a SuperSenior. At that age the problem is 'memory', my desk is littered with notes to remind me what i was working on.

Peter
 
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