Australian screenshots

mine worked fine

Deadly said:

You've got some catenary as a WIP as well? I also have a model which I have tried to mimic Davido's version (wire height, etc). The intention of it was not to copy it, but so it could work with it. The version takes up slightly less space so it can fit on areas with 3 or 4 tracks (between pairs).

Tada: (one on left is mine, right is Davido's)

Still working on textures and making it look prettier like Davido's, lol.

Lastly... what are the thoughts of people here in terms of migrating a route from TRS 2006 to TRS 2010? I just ordered a copy yesterday. :wave:

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my own layout worked fine going from and to TRS 2010

so far TRS 2010 is pretty good for my layout bing a very long one over hundreds of kilometers - so highly recommend it

just took a while to work out how to get older content into it

Ryan_McC said:

I won't be down that way for a few months yet so if anyone knows what's down there, could you please let me know so I can model it better. Ryan

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That I can help you with, I'm down that general direction all the time (ahh, the joys of living on the GC!:hehe: )

Right, here we go. You have modelled the Pacific Motorway to the west of the station. There is a road bridge across the southern end of it, then the tracks go on straight to a dead end. At the bottom of the resulting embankment, there is Reedy Creek Road and it's juncture with the motorway. Over the other side of Reedy Creek Road, agood 50 - 100 metres away, is another embankment which looks considerably higher. That hill you have modelled in your third to last shot looks just like it.
Now my uneducated guess is that they will build a bridge between these two embankments (I did see work vehicles on the other one so I guess it's a railway mound), then continue down following the motorway, crossing it near Tallebudgera or Palm Beach, then following the line of the Tugun Bypass, crossing it to the eastern side, tunneling under the runway then looping north to Coolangatta Domestic Airport.

That is all according to me seeing it while passing by, and the street directory.

Hi Ryan_McC,

If you have broadband have a look at the area your interested in, using Google Earth. The Streetscape camera view above roadways may get you close enough to actually see what you need to.

I have used both GE & it's Streetscape view extensively when researching the Narrandera_Tocumwal Branch Line.
We were fortunate in that the Newell Highway runs parallel to the old line for most of it's over-100-mile length.
I was able to plot all sorts of things, even old telegraph poles & old signals. Even points levers where near road crossings.
Bridges & culverts often can bee seen from the side, giving structural details.

GE is a tremendously powerful research tool, especially when you use it in conjunction with a route inspection, & other available data.

Yes, I've learnt my lesson

matruck said:

Howdy Folk's
I thought a Beta was a test of an object or loco or rolling stock not sumthing to be used in a route to make screenshots look better.I also thought it was up to the creator to say to whoever downloaded the Beta that they were to try and break it give it a run for it's money and get back to me on it as a Beta was just a final test just before release.I currently have a SW1200 Switcher nearing completion and would hate to think of the emails one would get about why sum people got it and not other's or why it's taking so long.
Cheers Mick.

Click to expand...

Yes, I've learnt my lesson.
I'll never public beta anything again. The hassle's are certainly not worth it and the feedback........ very little.

nbrettoner said:

If you have broadband have a look at the area your interested in, using Google Earth. The Streetscape camera view above roadways may get you close enough to actually see what you need to.

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Good point, but images taken on Google Earth, even the street view images, can be up to three years old. There are still images of my driveway with a Holden Commodore we sold for spare parts in June 2008 standing in it.

For detailed, up to date building purposes, I would recommend www.nearmap.com over Google Earth, because it shows images taken as recently as 21 November this year. The first I knew of the Go Between bridge in Brisbane was through Nearmap.
So there you have it, an alternative imagery site to explore. Only it doesn't really photograph isolated areas very clearly, only built-up areas. It's great in that respect.

Brunswick St to Milton


Ipswich Bound 1207 appraches Brunswick St.


1207 arriving at Central.


1207 arriving at Roma St.


1207 leaving Roma St.


arriving at Milton.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

cheers

ghosty

Very nice pics Scott! Arriving at Central has to be my favourite.

Thanks DaSmith 75

Daniel

Can anyone point me in the direction of a good tutorial for putting google map images on trainz to accurately lay track, please.

^^

It's quite painful, but the idea is quite simple. I am assuming you have gMax experience. You simply need to create a plane in gMax (or whatever other editor) to a size of 500m x 500m or so. You can create smaller or larger planes but that size actually worked quite well.

Once you've got that, you need to get the images out of Google Earth to match the size of your plane at a resolution usable by Trainz (e.g. 256 x 256, 512 x 512 etc). I did it by using the ruler, but there may be an easier tool available (Google that, lol). Save the image as a .bmp or .tga and apply it to your plane in gMax.

Then your standard export for Trainz with the model, config file and texture and import it into Trainz.

You might wanna check here if what I wrote is confusing:
http://www.g0akh.f2s.com/Trainz/Basemap_tutorial.html

Alternatively... I found it easier to just use the given coordinates from Google Earth to mark out the track from the longitude and latitude. That's how I marked out all the track on my Macarthur to Cabramatta route. I am still using it to mark out signals, bridges, stations etc as well. I basically just noted down 3 or so positions along straights, and every 100m or so on curves. I also noted down additional coordinates for special places like junctions etc. Make sure you are patient with it though as it does take a very very long time to do it accurately.

scottling said:

That I can help you with, I'm down that general direction all the time (ahh, the joys of living on the GC!:hehe: )

...snip....
Now my uneducated guess is that they will build a bridge between these two embankments (I did see work vehicles on the other one so I guess it's a railway mound), then continue down following the motorway, crossing it near Tallebudgera or Palm Beach, then following the line of the Tugun Bypass, crossing it to the eastern side, tunneling under the runway then looping north to Coolangatta Domestic Airport.

That is all according to me seeing it while passing by, and the street directory.

Click to expand...

That is pretty much spot on Scottling from what I know. I was down on the coast at Tugun quite a few years ago and saw a plan in a Real Estate agents window and that sounds pretty close to what I saw of that plan. They are to come in at the back of the Airport, tunnel under the runway at the southern end, making a u turn and coming into a station out the front on the highway side.
Glen

Thanks for the help Scott & Glen, I certainly appreciate it.

DaSmith 75 - Thanks again for the compliments. The "tunnel" is just a couple of walls, concrete slabs, bridge pylons, etc put together. I've quickly learnt that as I can't create my own content, I've just gotta be creative! All the cut and cover tunnels (e.g. Roma St, Bowen Hills, Beenleigh) I've built in different ways to get them looking as realistic as possible.

For the bored tunnels, I've used the built in UK 'scenery' type tunnels or the Blue Mountains tunnels - I NEVER use the 'track' types that only attach to corners of grid squares, that's no good for accuracy. I'll always take the time to do the dighole thing if I have to (plenty of practice with this on my NZ route).

Ghosty - That's tops!

Regards

Ryan

Thanks Deadly, i appreciate the help and advice. I tried doing my own Macarthur to Glenfield using the same way you did but i wanted to see if doing it this way was easier.

Cheers, Michael

Davido said:

Yes, I've learnt my lesson.
I'll never public beta anything again. The hassle's are certainly not worth it and the feedback........ very little.

Click to expand...

I'll echo what David said.

I've distributed several assets for 'beta testing' and I have to say that was the biggest waste of time. Apart from David (who I worked with for quite some time) only one other person gave comments that were worth while. I made some errors with some assets to see if anything came back and I got back almost zip. To make me more irritated, I started getting emails asking me if this person could distribute this beta there, or reskin that etc.

If you accept a beta, it is that - a beta. The creator releases a beta because it is/may be unfinished, and comments/constructive criticism are expected. If you only want to play, don't download a beta. Betas are for those who want to improve the game and are willing to put in the effort to TEST.

I'm off my soap box now.

All Change At Erenst Junction!!!!!!!

lenice said:

That is pretty much spot on Scottling from what I know. I was down on the coast at Tugun quite a few years ago and saw a plan in a Real Estate agents window and that sounds pretty close to what I saw of that plan. They are to come in at the back of the Airport, tunnel under the runway at the southern end, making a u turn and coming into a station out the front on the highway side.
Glen

Click to expand...

Well Glen; I couldn't resist commenting on the planned rebuilt modern South Coast Railway. That railway follows in some sections of the original southern section of the South Coast "Mainline" (its was classed as a mainline but wasn't upgraded to mainline standard to carry C17, B18, BB18 and lightweight diesals). I am currently planning to make the southern section (when i finish the Southport To Beenleigh section) which was the most senic ocean route becuase between the stations of Burleigh West to Coolangatta.
Trains were know to stop for photograghs on this section, but the Labour Goverment of 1961; forced QGR to closes the line becuase of fasle traffic figures but the line was very very busy with freight, tourist trains and yearly picnic speicals. What an injustice????

Some more progress shots for today.


"The Speedway" - Looking south from Glenfield platform 2.


Glenfield junction looking north.


Glenfield Junction looking south.


The Old Casula Powerstation now has a building but not stack! Good find from the European shots thread! :hehe:

Apart from comments, I thought I would start showing some of my WIP. The DEM is from a part of Australia that I have had for sometime, however I am not building it to that Location. My name for the layout at the moment is "Imagination" :hehe:, so that may give you a "clue" that I am not sure what I am actually creating :hehe:



Just like doing bits and pieces and then joining up all the parts

Merry Christmas and a Happy Safe New Year.

Craig


EDIT/ADDED: There really have been some great screenshots of late, congratulations to all.

Deadly? show us some screenshots from Trainz, NOT real world locations *chuckles* seriously? Looks absolutely fantastic - truly inspiring what can be achieved with time, patience, and a lot of reference material. I'd personally show off some 'new' work in progress, but its highly preliminary stuff at present - and where I'm stumped, is thinking of texturing this large point to point route - its got me intimidated - but I'll keep plodding away at it, aleivating some of the excessively tight curvatures and hopefully it'll continue to grow and evolve.

Davido said:

Yes, I've learnt my lesson.
I'll never public beta anything again. The hassle's are certainly not worth it and the feedback........ very little.

Click to expand...

Sorry Davido,

I downloaded your railcars and found them to be very excellent. I still run them regularly and they work fine. However I wouldn't know if they are prototypically correct.

Where I live is a rail museum and they have one of these.



The only thing I can spot that is different, that your model doesn't have graffiti vandalisation on it, or appearing more and more every day.

Regards

Axe

PS: if you would prefer for me not to include screenshots of your beta railcars in future then I will do so.

PPS: I am hanging out for all your extra content.

axe1970 said:

Sorry Davido,

I downloaded your railcars and found them to be very excellent. I still run them regularly and they work fine. However I wouldn't know if they are prototypically correct.

Where I live is a rail museum and they have one of these.

SNIP

The only thing I can spot that is different, that your model doesn't have graffiti vandalisation on it, or appearing more and more every day.

Regards

Axe

PS: if you would prefer for me not to include screenshots of your beta railcars in future then I will do so.

PPS: I am hanging out for all your extra content.

Click to expand...

Haha.....cheers Axe you just keep doin' what you're doin' and thanks for the feedback

Just for fun though, make a consist up of 2 or more railcars and save the consist. Then plonk the consist on a track in surveyor and see what happens.
Does no one use consists?

Regards
David

Davido said:

Haha.....cheers Axe you just keep doin' what you're doin' and thanks for the feedback

Just for fun though, make a consist up of 2 or more railcars and save the consist. Then plonk the consist on a track in surveyor and see what happens.
Does no one use consists?

Regards
David

Click to expand...

Yes I do use consists. I have the NSW SRA 620 Railcar Candy saved as a consists (only two cars). However I did what you said to do, (save a Four Car consist) and I get an error.
"Thread exception ER_arrayOutofbounds" - This is for TS2009 Sp2

I have you and a few other content creators also saved as filters so I can get to your content quickly. Which is another way I build consits.

I also get the same error for the NSWGR 720 railcar.

I did notice problems with saved consists on your 81 Class candy, but I thought that was a problem with trainz actually. Seems that the Running Numbers break.

regards