TrainSimulations: Sand Patch (CSX Mainline Subdivision) Development Thread

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

This is correct. Obviously, there are some small differences from year to year, but overall a late 80s representation of Sand Patch is a good stand-in for anything from the 1970s to the mid 1990s, prior to the closure of ND tower. That being said, there are a few areas where I am bending the rules slightly to make the route more inclusive of other timeframes.

Exactly MY point dude! Include the stuff of the past era, so if anyone wants a modern CSX pack and activities, they can just use their imagination and pretend the towers and now abandoned lines don't exist.

[RobGuru]

SD70MAC, ES44AC, ES40DC, ET44AC, AC4400CW, C40-8W, SD40-2, GP40-2, GP38-2, and a Capitol Limited Set.
Freight Traffic would be Intermodal, Manifest, Coal, Grain, Autorack.

Leave the rest up to the community and their generous repaint policy.

You forgot ethanol and oil.

[CSRX]

Yeah, but honestly who cares if certain tracks and signals are still there when they're not anymore?
A Modern CSX Pack for the route would be a good idea.

If an era swap absolutely has to be included, it should only affect the signal models you see and remove the towers and leave the track database as is.
Everything else is the unaffected.

Not everything has to be 100% accurate. No one has the time to nit pick.

Listen, my comment was basically trying to shut down the gimmie pig factor and demands going on in here.

Clearly it didn't matter....

My original question was a legitimate question by the way, and it's always pleasant to never get an answer.

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

Yeah like what CSRX said. While I do like the idea of a modern CSX pack, SLI already has so many of them available that it basically renders that a duplicate effort.
Besides, there's plenty of freeware stuff in the library you can use.

[dcarleton]

We'll see what happens, but don't be surprised if you can count on your hands the number of days from the day that the new Sandppatch route is released to the day that someone uploads to the library a modern CSX activity using CSX items that are already available. There's already plenty of stuff for the activity creators to work with, so go for it!

[PerryPlatypus]

Going to willfully ignore the most egregious gimme-pig comments in this thread to spare myself the pain and agony.

It seems like Andrew has made it very clear by now that he has absolutely no intention of doing a modern day rendition of the route, and for good reason. I think it's time to stop beating that dead horse, guys. There are way too many track database and other interactive factors involved for us to ever consider a single route product that can toggle between two vastly different time periods. At that point you'd have to release an entirely different version of the route, and we have absolutely no plans of doing that.

Not everything has to be 100% accurate. No one has the time to nit pick.

Sometimes I wish your "no one has the time to nit pick" comment were true, but this community proves the exact opposite to be true on a daily basis.

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

Going to willfully ignore the most egregious gimme-pig comments in this thread to spare myself the pain and agony.

It seems like Andrew has made it very clear by now that he has absolutely no intention of doing a modern day rendition of the route, and for good reason. I think it's time to stop beating that dead horse, guys. There are way too many track database and other interactive factors involved for us to ever consider a single route product that can toggle between two vastly different time periods. At that point you'd have to release an entirely different version of the route, and we have absolutely no plans of doing that.



Sometimes I wish your "no one has the time to nit pick" comment were true, but this community proves the exact opposite to be true on a daily basis.

Dang right they do!

This is why we can't have nice things. People are very ungrateful for what they have.
This is why you had to do TWO versions of Seligman.
If it were just a scenery upgrade era swap bat like Monon, so many people would have complained.

Sad.....

[trainlover2923]

Ok gimme pigs back to your pin. I'm glad they chose that time frame. I remember growing up in east central Illinois in the 80's. I didn't live far from the Chessie\CSX Decatur branch and I can remember seeing all the paint schemes come through. Even though they were mostly the Chessie and the Seaboard System\Family Lines. I did see a few L&N...the black Seaboard Coast Line and even a few Western Maryland even though those were very few and far between. I am really looking forward to that release guys. And to the gimme pigs.....Just be glad that they are still releasing products they could of stopped years ago and moved on to greener pastures but instead they are moving forward with newer products designed for open rails which is getting better. So please stop complaining if its not your cup of tea.

[CSXT Q-317]

I for one am thankful this route is coming. I love the time frame, for anyone who wants modern. There is always MLT's route to upgrade and extend for that purpose.

It's a bit of work, but it's not really hard to do.

[pschlik]

The older days were more colorful and had more interesting locomotives from an engineering and operations standpoint. All the AC motored stuff drives the same and is about as boring and simple as you can make a locomotive-all the fun stuff gets done by silicon. But with the DC power you get to deal with the joys of generators that can neither handle 6 motors at once nor going faster than 30 mph and the funky workarounds that entails (unless you are a GE Dash 8 or later). Still a ways to go before OR can simulate that but I've been doing research.

[eric]

Enough bickering over the timeframe and what should or shouldn't be included... Just be happy that there's a new route in development.

[geepster775]

The older days were more colorful and had more interesting locomotives from an engineering and operations standpoint. All the AC motored stuff drives the same and is about as boring and simple as you can make a locomotive-all the fun stuff gets done by silicon. But with the DC power you get to deal with the joys of generators that can neither handle 6 motors at once nor going faster than 30 mph and the funky workarounds that entails (unless you are a GE Dash 8 or later). Still a ways to go before OR can simulate that but I've been doing research.

To be accurate, AC motors are basically incapable of runaway wheel slip. Slip creep is the best it can do. I would be happy if Open Rails devs actually acknowledged that. Somehow distingushing what kind of traction system is involved with each ENG file.

[brama]

Sometimes I wish your "no one has the time to nit pick" comment were true, but this community proves the exact opposite to be true on a daily basis.

That made me spill my tea. Well played! 🤣

[derekmorton]

To be accurate, AC motors are basically incapable of runaway wheel slip. Slip creep is the best it can do. I would be happy if Open Rails devs actually acknowledged that. Somehow distingushing what kind of traction system is involved with each ENG file.

is this what you' re after?

ORTSTractionMotorType ( AC )

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

Enough bickering over the timeframe and what should or shouldn't be included... Just be happy that there's a new route in development.

Amen to that, Eric!

And to the people who want new CSX: If you want it so bad, Make it yourself!