Trainz Septa Norristown Line (R6)

Hello everyone I'm an amateur in Trainz. But I finally settle down and schools been slowing down. I'm only 14yrs old just to let you guys know. Anyway, I'm in the making of recreating the SEPTA Norristown Line aka R6 from Norristown-Elm Street to 30th Street Station. However the process of making this line is gonna be a little slow throughout the year. I have the real R6 catenary and the Silverliner III Septa Cars. Also does anybody know how to repaint the M7 and M8 to make them look like a Silverliner V. Here are the projected days which part of the line is going to be completed:

4/7-9/12- Norristown Elm Street-Norristown Transportation Center
4/10-17/12- Conshohocken to Ivy Ridge
4/15-20/12- Manayunk to Allegheny

*However I these dates can change easily if I get alot of homework on the weekday and weekends*

When I'm done creating this route, I'm going to do the Broad Street Line from Fern Rock to Navy Yard. (Summer 2012)

Pictures will be in the next post.

Cool.

I'm originally from Philadelphia so the Broad Street Line would totally rock.

William0d0 said:

Cool.

I'm originally from Philadelphia so the Broad Street Line would totally rock.

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Me too. I love Philadelphia. I want to bring SEPTA to Trainz.

Also of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrZzv4CdyQo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OggfP8zJKmI
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8226029@N06/3396230676/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QpCGvPIYqM&feature=related
http://www.flyerguide.net/viewphoto.php?id=159783

http://www.phillytrolley.org/strafford.html
http://www.phillytrolley.org/redarrow.html
http://www.pa-trolley.org/Roster/66.htm

Screen shots

Screenshot #1
Screenshot #2
Screenshot #3
Screenshot #4

Norristown Elm Street Station

Currently, I'm at Norritown transportation center where the Rt.100 terminates

It this line run under wires or on third rail? I thought this was a third-rail type line that used to run the Brill Liners. I might be mistaken though because I'm not from the area, but visited quite often when my aunt lived in Overbrook Park.

Here are a few suggestions for route building. I know you're new at this, so I hope they're useful.

Try to vary the textures and swirl them using the [ ] keys. There thousands of textures to choose from on both the DLS as well as buil-in.
You can replace the default red lever switch stands with more realistic ones, including automatic motors, which will look a lot better.
Try putting your track on a slight grade so that it's not completely flat with the earth. Remember tracks need drainage and flat on the ground means they'll get washed away. Also speaking of track, try some ballast texture under them too. There are tons of these as well.

You're off to a nice start, and I'll be interested in seeing your outcome of this route. Remember take your time at this. You want it to come out right and not look hacked together. There will be times when nothing will seem to get done, and then there will be those moments where everything will fly along as progress is being made.

Good luck and keep up the great work.

John

It runs under wire. The Norristown High Speed line is a separate route that runs on third-rail and ran the Brill Liners, I think.

@stratuspheretrish:

Interestingly, I laid down some of the R6 line tonight, although I'm not planning on modelling it right now. I'm doing the R3 West Trenton and R8 Foxchase-Newtown, and the Conrail Trenton Line. I recommend using Google and Bing Maps to accurately model the area. You can even use basemaps so you can trace the tracks, roads, etc. Also, I recommend using GrahamSea's signals. His NORAC CL are the most prototypical signals available.

stratuspheretrish said:

I love Philadelphia.

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Now there's something you don't see in print everyday!

Thanks for the advice. I will try to use different textures for R6. I will have more pictures tomorrow and a video tomorrow Easter Monday since I don't have any school. I been using this Google earth map to help me with route so far http://bieniosek.com/maps/. Do you guys think I should use the link I gave you or another link of a better Google earth map. By tomorrow I should be up to the station Miquon. Then after that I will take a break with the track work and work on the scenery like the buildings, street, car, highways, etc. Hopefully I be done all of the scenery by, 4/16/12. The reason why I have that date because I don't know how much homework I will get from school. Also I will upload a picture of a Broad Street Line Kawasaki BI-V Ridge Spur cars from Google Sketchup.

Just two question:

How do I repaint the MN M7 and the Kawasaki M8 to make them Look like SEPTA Silverliners V?
How do I export my contents from Sketchup to Trainz.

Ok the next pictures is the view of West Conshohocken Station and town itself. I kinda added some high-rises. Though

Euphod said:

Now there's something you don't see in print everyday!

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I'll go as far as admit I'm from Philadelphia, but no further.:hehe:

stratuspheretrish said:

Thanks for the advice. I will try to use different textures for R6. I will have more pictures tomorrow and a video tomorrow Easter Monday since I don't have any school. I been using this Google earth map to help me with route so far http://bieniosek.com/maps/. Do you guys think I should use the link I gave you or another link of a better Google earth map. By tomorrow I should be up to the station Miquon. Then after that I will take a break with the track work and work on the scenery like the buildings, street, car, highways, etc. Hopefully I be done all of the scenery by, 4/16/12. The reason why I have that date because I don't know how much homework I will get from school. Also I will upload a picture of a Broad Street Line Kawasaki BI-V Ridge Spur cars from Google Sketchup.

Just two question:

How do I repaint the MN M7 and the Kawasaki M8 to make them Look like SEPTA Silverliners V?
How do I export my contents from Sketchup to Trainz.

Click to expand...

In answer to your first question, again, I recommend Bing as well as Google maps. There is also a third site, www.wikimapia.com, which has a few nice features including a distance-measurement tool that seems reasonably accurate.

"Repainting" is known as "reskinning" and a quick search should turn up lots of tutorials. 2Wayne, rcgx, Euphod, and the folks at JointedRail are extremely talented reskinners that produce many drool-worthy products. :udrool: JR actually has some basic reskinning textures at their site; you might want to ask some of the reskinners in the Content Creation forum.

Exporting from Sketchup to Trainz is also easy. See here:

http://www.dhobh.net/trainz/GoogleSketchUp/RubyTMIX.htm

ModelerMJ made the exporter and it does everything short of making coffee for you. Keep in mind that content created in Sketchup can be less efficient than content created from other programs, to the point of bringing a fairly high-end computer to it's knees, so there are some tricks and caveats you need to know. However, the software itself is pretty good according to many, especially for people who don't like the interfaces of more advanced software like Blender, 3DStudio, GMax, etc. To a degree, much if not almost all of this inefficiency comes not from the software itself, but due to premade products provided by Google for Sketchup via 3DWarehouse, and many if not most of the pre-made models can bring Trainz to its knees. That said, if you're going to pursue content creation of your own, good luck, feel free to ask many questions, and be open to advice and suggestions.

What an awesome thread! I live in the area, pretty close to the R6 but dont take it enough to know it. I do take the R5 line alot. I wasnt planning on doing any route building b/c it just seems to comprehensive. But maybe I'll try the R5 and we can have these together?!

Anyway, i, too, would like to know how to get a current loco/passenger car look like the septa trains today. I remember in the MSTS days a year or two ago there was a local guy who did the septa region rail cars. He might still be at it today. Can content be shared in any way?

I have more questions probably better saved for a route building thread. but I'll ask this one -- when building a route (maybe this was MSTS) I thought there was a way to use map coordinates to start with an exact topography of an actual piece of land? Or am I dreaming?

bmheron said:

What an awesome thread! I live in the area, pretty close to the R6 but dont take it enough to know it. I do take the R5 line alot. I wasnt planning on doing any route building b/c it just seems to comprehensive. But maybe I'll try the R5 and we can have these together?!

Anyway, i, too, would like to know how to get a current loco/passenger car look like the septa trains today. I remember in the MSTS days a year or two ago there was a local guy who did the septa region rail cars. He might still be at it today. Can content be shared in any way?

I have more questions probably better saved for a route building thread. but I'll ask this one -- when building a route (maybe this was MSTS) I thought there was a way to use map coordinates to start with an exact topography of an actual piece of land? Or am I dreaming?

Click to expand...

I think I remember that MSTS guy. You can't really port content from one to the other without the original creator's meshs and textures. Plus, if it's the situation I'm thinking about, the creator gave up in quite a huff because no one was sending him donations for a half-finished m.u. I suppose one could ask him to give Trainz a shot.

As for route-building, you're thinking of a Digital Elevation Map or DEM, possibly overlaid with a map of the area to trace out tracks, roads, etc. There are two ways to go about doing that. The first is Geophil's Tranzdem, which is a payware tool, but it's pretty cool and does everything itself. It's kind of fun to use once you get the knack of it. This is how I did all the terrain and mapping for my SEPTA R3/R8 route, using 1/3-degree US Geological Survey DEM maps (1/3rd degree basically produces 10m, or 33ft accuracy.) The only thing to know is that this system doesn't really provide coordinates for use in Surveyor or the game, but the overlay map can generally eliminate the need for them anyway.

I haven't been on in a while. This project is on hold because of my laptop. I have ants in my laptop and I don't know were the coming from?! Hopefully I resume my Norristown Line project by tomorrow, Friday. I'm going to make a new thread on the R3 West Trenton Line hopefully during the weekend or next week. So I'm going to do two projects at ONCE!. I just wanted to give yall an update on the project that I'm still working on it when the Ants stop having a party in my laptop.

My laptop is back working. I'm going to switch the catenary up for a momemnt. I'm going to give it the PRR caternary from uslw.net