A new shortline

I finally decided that building large, undetailed routes just isn't me. Plus I'm now a sophomore in high school (dang, freshman year flew by....) and my time available isn't a whole lot now.

So heres the progress on my new shortline!

I only have 2 boards done so far, the town of winnebega.


We start our tour on the south side of town. There is a grain elevator that receives barley on trucks, and then that barley is transported to trains.


plowing on ahead, I deliberately made the track uneven to simulate a shortline with tracks in need of repair.


The only crossing in town, with a budwieser billboard off to the side.


Main drag of town. I designed the town after all the little towns we saw on our road trip to ohio. the road going to the left connects to a freeway beyond the hill.


looking back

the towns other industry, a warehouse/team track


end of the line, for now

so what do you guys think?

Nice!

...yea, the years just fly by from here on out...

Hello Jimmy, glad to see you found something to help you by your school years!

Route building freelance is ok, you can hone your chops for bigger endeavours...

Your route looks great thus far...love those tall pines!

I got to mention, don't pay attention to the Budweiser...you'll certainly get more done in the future! Though they certainly give back to the community with car races, sports events, concerts, etc, they will do well without wasting your time...they so need to invent a drink like Coca-Cola!

I started using Auran Trainz from a demo that did not save changes to the only route included, but the fascination of railroading as a hobby became so much better!

That was back in 2004. My first shareware train simulator was TRS2004.

I am into TS2009 now, you have no clue as to how my hobby has expanded & how much enjoyment I experience DAILY!

So, enjoy your hobby, hang in there with route creation, as it occurs to you, you can do a lot of research on the web, maybe get some railfan books or magazines to help you learn what railroading is all about.

We'll be here to help, if you ask!

One hint...large route building usually includes the routes of prototype railroads that use Earth maps & track charts provided by the actual railroads or books, magazines, etc.

And remember TRAINZ RULES!

Hi Jimmy,

Excellent choice of track. May I suggest:

Adding some ballast paint for your track
Adding a variety of trees (various pines would be great)
Download some of JVC's content such as grass to add more foliage.

Keep up the good work!

Your route looks great thus far...love those tall pines!

Click to expand...

thanks!

I got to mention, don't pay attention to the Budweiser...you'll certainly get more done in the future! Though they certainly give back to the community with car races, sports events, concerts, etc, they will do well without wasting your time...they so need to invent a drink like Coca-Cola!

Click to expand...

I prefer RC cola over anything

Adding some ballast paint for your track
Adding a variety of trees (various pines would be great)
Download some of JVC's content such as grass to add more foliage.

Click to expand...

I thought the ballest for the track was pretty good, i'll try the paint and see what it looks like
I tryed mixing a few different trees in, but they blend in too well.
I think i have a bunch of JVC's grass

...one thing to keep in mind...

I noticed the absence of "carpet textured" effect by your using the [] keys whilst applying the textures.

You even added lighter shades of grass textures!

Keep in mind that you may be able to major on a specific aspect of route creation...that may be a self-trained craft...later...

Great work, Jimmy. I want to suggest additional textures, being dark grass, lighter grass, dry grass, and just maybe ballast textures. Like someone suggested, grass elements from JVC would help greatly. I might also want to recommend BNSF50's crossings. Keep up the great work!

Uneven Track

Jimmy,

Nice beginning. I especially like the uneven track. How did you do it?

David

Jimmyp4 said:

...I thought the ballast for the track was pretty good...

Click to expand...

The ballast is fine, but the ground under it should be a little more ragged looking. A light spray of gravel texture along the track should roughen up the appearance and add a little variety.
Trees never really blend well together an real life. Find different heights of the trees you're using and add some smaller saplings scattered around. JVC should have some smaller trees that would go well under the canopy.
It's a really good start. Keep up the good work.

Claude

I noticed the absence of "carpet textured" effect by your using the [] keys whilst applying the textures.

Click to expand...

the extra colors i did do that, however the base color i just decided to use the fill option.

I especially like the uneven track. How did you do it?

Click to expand...

In this case it was an accident. when i was making hills it would unbalance the track.




thanks for the ideas and comments guys.


I have added 2 more boards since then along with alot of grass. I should have more pictures up tommarow.

Excellent railroad screenshots!

Looks Good, I agree the big undetailed routes get boring. if i make a big route ill have a section or two of wasted space just a river and some rolling hills. then the other ends have good detial and realism..


Backyard- I am with you on that that you start out give this game a try and now your intrest is huge and you go into super detail. i create lots of free lance and the more i do it the better i get and the more real they look. since i was born i been playing with toy trains and toy cars then when i was 17 got my Drag race car..

Trainz is great im super busy March to September with my Drag racing and my job so once late september comes its trainz time.. I am waiting on 2009 to come any day now..

A thought occurred to me today. The ground under trees tends to be a little bare, since the canopy blocks sun and rain. Some earth textures on the forest floor mixed with sparse grass might look good in the areas near the track.
Also, textures show up farther than objects, so on distant hills a tree texture where the forests are helps when the terrain starts to be visible.

Claude

I took some suggestions and did some work. 3 new baseboards (total of 5 now) and heres the new look on the origonal 2.


approaching the town of winnebegas road crossing. lots of new grass now.


looking at the town through a layer of trees.


winnebegas warehouse. For those who didn't notice before the track slopes up to prevent runaways.


reducing speed to 15mph for an old wooden trestle ahead.

slowly creeping along the trestle at 15MPH.


looking out the cab window, a fisherman is out on the creek with his fishing shack looking in bad shape.


the tracks curve around a small hill.


another railroad crossing.


approaching the paper mill

the switcher at the paper mill is an Ex-VR t class. we'll trade trains so we can tour the paper mill.



the track the T class is on now is the mill lead track. the 3 tracks on the left (from left to right) are tech service, storage, and the rolling shed.


a view out the cab. these 3 tracks are all for the 2 main paper machines housed in this large building.


if you take the trackage behind the main paper mill building, you arrive at the finishing room and kiln. the passing track also ends here.

now we'll cross the mainline of the shortline to get to the 2 parts of the paper mill on the other side of the tracks.


to the right is the filtering plant and where woodchips are dropped off.
to the left the the package and shipping center. the completed rolls are brought here to be packaged, and either loaded into boxcars or into trucks.


some trucks getting loaded.


that concludes our tour! thanks for viewing.

What kind of track is that?

its made by some foreign user. there was a thread about 2 weeks ago about it.