Route Ramblin's...

[Coonskin]

Are those trestles close to the real ones in design, or semi-re-imagined by you? Either way they are amazing work and I salute your modeling skill. I also wonder how you did those puffy mountainside whiffs of cloud.

Hi linkj!

Thanks for you very kind comments. To me, my routes and my objects are quite dated by today's standards (I even hesitated showing them here at Trainsim), so I always appreciate kind comments.

My trestles:

Those are my "good enough" trestles. They are very low in poly count (that used to be very important), and they have solid floors so I don't have to deal with gravel showing if I ever get into running Open Rails. (Open Rails does not recognize objects under the track as does MSTS, so you have to bury the rail into the object in order to make the ballast go away.)

Those "puffy mountainside whiffs of cloud":

IF I'm seeing what you are seeing, that's pure MSTS. That is, the distant mountain is fading and the foreground mountain is solidifying. Thus it's in between being a distant mountain and a foreground mountain.

Thanks again for your gracious compliments.

Andre

[rdayt]

Andre,

You need another tree.

RIL-Ponderosa.zip

Randy

[Coonskin]

Andre,

You need another tree.

[ATTACH]n2332435[/ATTACH]

Randy

Thanks Randy!

Your zip you've kindly shared: I have saved the zip, and soon I'll unzip/install and take a look. Is it a single tree or are there different sizes?

Yes, I need lots more tree varieties! Sometime soon I'm going to hit the file library here at Trainsim and download any usable trees by Michael Sinclair. THIS time, I'm going to create a folder and save to it. I downloaded some of his stuff years ago that I've used on some of my hobby route projects... but I can't find zips for them anywhere. Haven't a clue what I've done with them.

Given the radical elevations on my Colorado & San Juan, I suspect your Ponderosa Pine would get far more use on the Raton Pass 1882 project I'm seriously looking at. My C&SJ route is solidly in the spruce/fir elevation range with some aspens needed at lesser elevations such as near Silverton and Ouray),

Thanks again!

Andre

[baldwin]

Hi Andre
Been looking at your Colorado & San Juan pictures. I see you have not lost the knack of making a little look a lot. Your bridges and trestles, are they made for each location or a mix n match kit of bits n bobs.

Mervyn

[Coonskin]

Hi Andre
Been looking at your Colorado & San Juan pictures. I see you have not lost the knack of making a little look a lot. Your bridges and trestles, are they made for each location or a mix n match kit of bits n bobs.

Mervyn

Hi Mervyn!

My gosh it's great conversing with you again. We go WAAAY back. LOL!


"Making a little look a lot"...

Well, you know me: Ever the poly miser. It's in the genes. LOL!

As for the deck trestles:

Those are "kits" comprising of approach abutments (normal direction and reversed), as well as bridge pieces 30' long. The height of the bridge sections are in 15' increments. My kit parts contain bridge sections from 15' high, all the way up to 150'. (The 150' sections were used on my proto/free lanced Arkansas Valley & Ozarks route.) I have both narrow gauge and standard gauge widths.(I think?)

I place them by going to the target location, taking a height check (to determine the highest piece needed), then click the needed pieces onto the terrain near where the bridge is to be installed. I do NOT rotate or raise height of the placed pieces at this point. I then take one section of track in the proposed bridge area, and make note of the gradient, then delete it and replace it with another piece the same dimension, raise or lower it into position and click to make it part of the tdb. After noting the tile number and the lat/lon degrees, I do a save and exit. I then open up the target World file and find the track piece that was last placed. (IF there's no forestation/etc, the replaced track piece will always be at the bottom of the list for that tile.) Finding the track piece, I copy the "Q-direction" value, then paste that value into the "Q-direction" value (which reads "0 0 0 1) of the placed bridge/abutment pieces in the World file just above the track piece. That done, save, reopen RE, go to the lat/lons, and start copying/pasting the previously placed pieces, and start raising to height, and rotating as needed if on a curve. It's tedious, but to me its worth the effort. The same installation procedure goes for my cribbing kits. Changing the Q-direction places the bridge and/or cribbing pieces on the same gradient as the track. Of course, if the track changes grade during the bridge (it happens sometimes), then you have to place more bridge sections and replace a piece of track with the needed new gradient, and repeat the above.

Clear as mud?

Andre

[baldwin]

Hi Andre,
Thanks for you short tute on how you place your bridge bits. Currently a bit muddy, but have copied the relevant text for future study. I have copies of your Frisco and Ozarks routes plus the Arkansas Northern so will pull things from those to piddle about with.

Mervyn

[Coonskin]

Hi Andre,
Thanks for you short tute on how you place your bridge bits. Currently a bit muddy, but have copied the relevant text for future study. I have copies of your Frisco and Ozarks routes plus the Arkansas Northern so will pull things from those to piddle about with.

Mervyn

I made it sound more confusing than it is. If you decide to putz around experimenting and need better instructions, I'll do my best to explain it more clearly!

Andre

[Coonskin]

COLORADO & SAN JUAN Pt 5 (Conclusion)

This installment will conclude the tour of my C&SJ route. We'll be looking at the very "in process" Lake City Subdivision (i.e. there will be some pics with track and bare scenery), which runs from Silverton, twisting and turning alongside the Animas River to Eureka Junction. From Eureka Jct, the main line climbs its way up to the summit at Denver Pass. Okay enough of this, let's get to the pics and I'll describe what you're seeing.

First up is Eureka Junction. This junction has three different lines:

* The first switch with a line headed to the right is the 2 mile branch up Cunningham Gulch. (To several mines.)

* The second switch with track leaving right is the mainline to Lake City.

* Straight ahead is the 3.5 mile branch to the town of Eureka.(Large mine there.)

Eureka Junction is also a helper station, hence the engine house, water, and coal...

CnSJ_EurekaJct.jpg

Immediately upon leaving Eureka Jct, the main line starts climbing, and the climb doesn't stop for a loooong way. Along the way the line passes through three locations that have mines:

* Maggie Gulch - Ruby Mine

* Minnie Gulch - Station w/Pass Track and the Caledonia Mine.

* Burns Gulch containing the Boy Howdy Mine and the Grubstake Mine.

Eventually the helper location of Cinnamon is reached. Cinnamon is situated in the gulch that leads to Cinnamon Pass. There is a small station, an engine house, turntable, and a ruggedly made (logs are excellent for the extreme cold at these elevations) boarding house for the railroaders and regional miners passing through...

CnSJ_CinnamonHelpeSta.jpg

In the above scene, the camera is looking upgrade (timetable east) toward Denver Pass. In the pic below, it's looking downgrade (timetable west) toward Silverton...

CnSJ_CinnamonHelpeSta_2.jpg

Next is Denver Pass, where is a tunnel and stations on both sides of the bore. Denver Pass is the highest pass on the entire Colorado & San Juan. On the west side of Denver Passs sits West Portal, on the east side is Denver Pass (station). West Portal sits at 12,693', and Denver Pass (station) sits at 12683'. Here's the view of the tops of the mountains at Denver Pass station...

CnSJ_DenverPass_eastbound.jpg

From Denver Pass, the line drops down via four steep switchbacks to finally reach the valley floor and Henson Creek. Along the way down the switchbacks the line passes through the community of Packsaddle. There's a pass track and team track at Packsaddle for the burro trains that bring sacked ore for loading. From Packsaddle, at one of the switchbacks sits the Redcloud depot. The tail track at Redcloud serves a meaningful mine, as well as the small town of Redlcloud. Here's a pic snapped at Redcloud...

CnSJ_Redcloud.jpg

From Redcloud there's still another switchback, but eventually, the line leaves the switchbacks behind to pass through the town of Roses Cabin, and other small mining towns and mine sites. Eventually the helper station of Capitol City is reached, where are the basic facilities, as well as two significant mining operations. Continuing east, shortly after passing Henson, the line crosses just below Majestic Falls on a wood truss bridge...

CnSJ_MajesticFallsBridge.jpg

Next significant area is Alpine Gulch, where there is a large mining operation back there in the gulch...

CnSJ_AlpineGulch.jpg

CnSJ_AlpineGulch2.jpg

Just east of Alpine Gulch is a pass track by the name of Sugarloaf Rock. This is a popular stopping place so passengers can view the namesake rock formation, seen in the distance in this pic. The only way the Engineer gets to see Sugarloaf rock formation from his seat, is if the train he's handling is westbound! (As is the case here.)
CnSJ_SugarloafRock.jpg

Eventually the line arrives at Lake City, where the D&RG ran a line to connect with the C&SJ (their line is the line on the left) as well to attempt capitalizing on the mining business that exists at Lake City. Lake City is developing rapidly in this era...
CnSJ_LakeCity_west.jpg

From Lake City, there branches off the C&SJ the 4 mile long San Christobal Branch that runs up to the mining areas along San Cristobal Lake. Along the way to San Cristobal, the line also serves mines. Here's a pic at the end of the line at San Cristobal...

CnSJ_SanCristobal.jpg

SO, that concludes the look at my Colorado & San Juan project route. There's still SO much to do on this (and all of my) routes. However, I'll work on it every now and then and have a lot of fun doing so. My C&SJ route is one of my most favorite routes among my project routes that I have.

Don't know which route I'll share next. I'll figure somethin' out!

Andre

[Coonskin]

WELL...

Last night I did something I haven't done in a LONG time. I created a quick and simple switching activity on my Colorado & San Juan route... and ran it!

First I had to shuffle the cars at Sheridan Pass before I could scurry off to Red Mountain Town. That was accomplished in short order, then it was ease down the grade to Red Mountain Town. Once there I had to pick up an empty Tiffany reefer and set out a loaded one in its place. (Those miners sure run through the beer!) Next I needed to grab two loaded boxcars at the National Belle mine and replace with some empties.

Once it the stuff was spotted and pulled, it was back to Sheridan Pass and set up the north cars on the north end of the side track, cut, and pull the south cars down to the south end. Here's a pic of that taking place at Sheridan Pass...

CnSJ_SwitchinAtSheridanPass1.jpg

Once both cuts were in place for their respective trains to pick up and forward, I eased down to the water tank and watered the engine. Once spotted on the engine house track and the fire banked, I was done for the day. A pic of the engine simmering...

CnSJ_SwitchinAtSheridanPass2.jpg


Impressions...

My performance:

I'm rusty as can be and made many functional blunders, but in all, it was fun. I think that's only the second activity I've every set up for my San Juan route! (I started building this route April/May of 2014!) Took me a bit over an hour to do the work and tie down. I made many blunders as I relearned how things work in MSTS.

Defining moments:

It was fun. Years ago, I started building these routes in order to operate thereon and enjoy the fruits of my labor. Somewhere I've drifted away from that vision so that and it has apparently become more about building the route above all else. It was nice to actually dust off the needed skills and relearn the basics of operating within the sim... and simply take a break and enjoy the results.

It also caused me to realize that I can use operation to motivate me. For example, on my C&SJ route, I have reasonable (Phase 1) scenery in place from Ouray, all the way to Silverton. Over on the other side of Denver Pass, I also have Phase 1 in place on the Lake City line from Lake City to San Cristobal on the San Cristobal Branch, and from Lake City to Henson on the main line. On the main line west out of Lake City, the Phase 1 scenery is only 5.5 miles from Capitol City. where are a couple of large mines (and MANY mines on the way from Lake City to Capitol City). SO, I'm now thinking its time to consider pushing the Phase 1 scenery visually past Capitol City... and I can run Lake City "turns" from Lake City to Capitol City, and Lake City to San Cristobal. That would give me a BUNCH of places with Phase 1 scenery in place on which to enjoy the fruits of my labor:

Ouray to Silverton
Lake City to San Cristobal
Lake City to Capitol City.

Hm! Food for thought!

All fer now.

Andre

[Coonskin]

JUST A' PIDDLIN'....

Some build pics from within Route Editor of some of the stuff I did tonight.

First a look in Henson Creek Gulch at a couple of the many mines along the line...

RE_HensonCreekGulch.jpg

A look downgrade at the small mining town of Henson, Colorado...

RE_Henson_2.jpg

And a closer look at Henson...

RE_Henson_1.jpg

As for what I did this longish work session: Finished getting cribbing and bridges installed on the Henson tile. (That's a major undertaking. I only had about 20% of the bridges/cribbing installed on that tile.) It's very fiddly to install bridges and cribbing.) After getting the bridges and cribbing in, that freed me up to throw in some forestation to liven things up. IF I don't do structures first, then forestation placements goes to the bottom of the World file and complicates the World file hack I use to set my bridges and cribbing on grade. Learned that lesson the hard way! SO, I now install all the bridges and cribbing (at least I try to), THEN come back in an toss in forestation.

SO, only 3 more tiles to reach the goal of Capitol City. May not make it during this round of the fever bein' flung on me... but I'll make a dent in it!

All fer now.

Andre

[Daylight99]

Hello, I was wondering, Dose anyone know the pass word for the zip file for the Ozark Northern zip file. I recently reinstalled MSTS and Open Rails to get the best of both worlds and I like to add the Ozark Norther to it.

P.S. If this dose against any rules, I'm sorry, its been a vary long time since I've been here.

[Coonskin]

Hello, I was wondering, Dose anyone know the pass word for the zip file for the Ozark Northern zip file. I recently reinstalled MSTS and Open Rails to get the best of both worlds and I like to add the Ozark Norther to it.

P.S. If this dose against any rules, I'm sorry, its been a vary long time since I've been here.

You have a PM.

Andre

[Coonskin]

ON A ROLL...

Haven't been posting much in this thread for the simple reason that a fever is flung on me to reach Capitol City area with bridges/cribbing and then basic forestation on my Colorado & San Juan route. I'm about 1 1/2 tiles away from that goal, but I'm it's been a tedious job of placing cribbing alongside the rails that are clinging to the narrow defiles of Henson Creek Gulch.

Lots of cribbing:

I HATE to use the "Y" key in rugged terrain because it destroys it.

<Sarcasm mode: ON> Nothing says "real" Like a 50' wide embankment along the side of a mountain for a narrow gauge line in the rugged Rockies! LOL! <Sarcasm mode: OFF>

In other words, I'd rather have the rails clinging to the sides of a canyon via excessive cribbing vs destroying the dynamics of the scene with a 50' wide angular saw tooth "roadbed bench" on account of the coarse terrain mesh grid. So, there's lots of cribbing that's unrealistic, but preserves the "rails clinging to the canyon wall" effect for me. If it bothers you, there's a simple solution: Don't download the route when offered. End of problem! LOL!


ANYWAY...

If I am successful in reaching Capitol City and have persevered to the point that Phase 1 scenery is in place, I'm contemplating a beta upload via Wormhole. Also would need to put together an Equipment Pack for the line, too and Wormhole it, too.

We shall see?

Andre

[CSXCorp]

Hello Andre!
Nice to see you posting in the forums again. 19th/early 20th-century routes are so few and far between in MSTS/ORTS which is actually crazy considering it to be the true golden age of railroading. I was a huge fan of your StL&NA route as it was a nice change of pace from the usual mid-century routes I ran, which I lost with all my old content when my old hard drive started clicking on me and refused to read. That included the 1950 Frisco route I was working on several years ago. As a fellow Frisco fan and a frequenter of Northwest Arkansas, I am looking forward to following up on your Main line route. Somewhere in the library I have the only route I finished, the Kansas City Ozarks & Southern, uploaded and it isn't much different from 1800s railroading in the Ozarks.

Best Wishes!
Cade

[Coonskin]

CSXCorp

Hi Cade!

Thanks for your kind words about my old StL&NA route.

Yes, 19th/Early 1900 railroading is fascinating to me. I love how that (as a general rule) the facilities were more compact, sidings shorter, the trains were shorter, and more. Major cities were primarily out in the east or the along the west coast. Many mountainous areas in the US were still very wild and woolly back in the 1880s and earlier. The railroads were vital to those regions fortunate enough to have a railroad build through or to. Back then there were small towns everywhere and many of them had railroads. Small online industries were the rule. I always like the way "no place" today was Somplace back then! (Such as St. Paul, AR: Once the Frisco arrived in 1887, St. Paul boomed and soon became a timber center of the region.

I admit, the boom times are part of the attraction for me as opposed to the death, stagnation, and/or demise of a line that often the case toward the end of a line's usefulness.

Andre