Maine Central Mountain Division

[R. Steele]

Nice work, indeed -- It does look really natural. How is that done? --- the forestation on the hills --- surely not single trees. ( I am an almost total ignoramus when it comes to route building )

[CSRX]

Nice work, indeed -- It does look really natural. How is that done? --- the forestation on the hills --- surely not single trees. ( I am an almost total ignoramus when it comes to route building )

I would be pulling my hair out if that was the case.

I did a little trick that Andrew from TS had taught me with the copy and paste method, and using forest regions to fill in a large area quickly. This is only one set of deciduous trees so far, I have a few more to place in, as well as some spruce and white pines. Individual trees and some clumps will be along the river front and near the small downtown section, that will take a bit more time. Roads are going to be another trick for the area, ScaleRoads are a bit too big, so I may need to use some of the ones in the NewRoads source, which will work for the narrow back roads of Maine.

[CSRX]

After about an hours' worth of scenery adding..

Crossing the Saco River, the first of technically six times between Hiram and Crawford Notch.




Approaching River Road, just shy of the east siding switch of Hiram siding.

[R. Steele]

Wonderful work Shawn, good lookin' route --- Don't burn yourself out.

[CSRX]

Wonderful work Shawn, good lookin' route --- Don't burn yourself out.

Thank you!

That is the one thing that sometimes happens, and why I typically pick up doing a repaint here and there just to break it up, or create an activity for a route or two. Actually, one is currently being tested and hopefully gets a good to go report so the public can have at it.

[phydeaux]

Dang, Shawn, I've been following this thread so far and I'm amazed at what you have accomplished to date. That is a terrific undertaking, and I appreciate the amount of time and effort you are putting into it. I've only been to Maine once - flew into Portland in the middle of winter and was snowbound in a motel for 4 days, so I really can't comment on the accuracy of your landscape. All I saw was snow, snow, and more snow - and I'm from Michigan!

[CSRX]

Thanks for the kind words Larry. I am really striving to have an accurate as possible New England based route, with actual terrain data, correct grades and grade changes, town placements, etc. A huge thanks towards Sean for providing me high quality DEM data for this route, as well as Andrew and Brock on tips and tricks on signals, forest data, ground textures, etc. It also really helps being able to use a majority of assests from TrainSimulations, as well as many freeware items from Travis Ebner, Paul Charland, Ron Picardi, and several others to give it life.

Snow is not ideal, but this route will have many chances to do plow extra jobs up through Crawford Notch.

[Unoriginal]

I was just curious, but do you plan on releasing this route when it’s finished?

[CSRX]

I was just curious, but do you plan on releasing this route when it’s finished?

Still a long way off from that, however, that is my eventual goal when the time comes. That's about all the detail I can currently give.


an empty welded rail train returning back from Crawfords through the swamps in Hiram/West Baldwin.

[burgerbern]

I will look forward to that day, love what i have seen so far

[CSRX]

Recently been plugging away at the route again. I've added more siding labels to Rigby Yard, Thought thinking of just having them simply "4" "6" "8" etc versus Rigby before each siding, but anyways.. Also been slowly adding in some houses and streets near the yard. Added in Thompsons Point Yard plus the old PTM car shops. Added in trackwork for Yard 8 before diving into the massive Commercial Street yard that is owned by Grand Trunk. Also added in tracks from mile 37 to mile 42, trying to push into Fryeburg by the end of this month.






Thompsons Point Stub yard to the right, with the Mountain Subdivision mainline to the left, coming off the mainline between Rigby Yard and Royal Jct, Maine.



I-295 Overpass, with a bit of texture work under the bridges so it's not just grass the bridge work is laying on.




Yard 8, where the coal gets loaded for shipment to Rumford, Maine's paper mill coal burner, and the Sprague's warehousing, mainly for what I believe is woodpulp to be shipped overseas.

[qballbandit]

Making great progress there, Shawn. Looks like it will be quite enjoyable to run once finished. Keep the updates coming!

[CSRX]

Making great progress there, Shawn. Looks like it will be quite enjoyable to run once finished. Keep the updates coming!

Still a very long ways to go on this line. Thankfully someone that is developing this same route from TrainSim Classic, is giving me the boost to continue with this version. I'll be curious the things you will have to offer on the end result when that time comes, as I have seen what you've done with the LSRC, that is, of course, some of the inspiration has reflected into my own work on this route, case in point, the weedy/grassy yard tracks of the old P&O at Thompsons Point.

[ossie]

That's some really nice shots Shawn! It must be really satisfying to be building your own "home rails".

[CSRX]

That's some really nice shots Shawn! It must be really satisfying to be building your own "home rails".

Between this, the NB&M Mattawakeag Sub, and the Vermont Railway System Rutland Division, it's pretty satisfying indeed!