Milwaukee Road Coast division 2, Template project started |
Milwaukee Road Coast division 2, Template project started |
Oct 7 2018, 06:07 PM
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#1
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Train Master Group: Members Posts: 1,017 Joined: 4-February 07 From: Canada Member No.: 21 |
Hello to all,
In preparation for the release of the Milwaukee Road Coast division 2 route, I have received in late August from Moe Smith with Jerry's permission the route to start preparing the template project.Thanks again Moe for your assistance and to Jerry to allow me to start preparing the project! It took a few weeks to figure out the proper download requirements. After that, I have started to install markers on all serviceable sidings in all possible areas. Due to the heavy number of sidings in the Tacoma area, some sidings were omitted (not that many) to allow more performance in the area. The total number of serviceable sidings in the entire route is around 420 (around 300 in the Seattle-Tacoma corridor area alone) Three railroads are involved: the MILW, NP and the UP (running between Seattle and Tacoma). Due to the presence of intermodal yards in Seattle and Tacoma. I have found among the downloads what I believe to be among the first container cars which started to run in North America in the late sixties. Timeframe of the template project has been set in that period, prior to the NP becoming the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) in 1970.There are 70 different regions in the SWLTDB file. Each siding has received its respective car attribute. Two payware (and all bonuses) from BLW/ZT downloads are required. They are the Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road freight packs. They are the same packs used as with previous template projects involving some of the previous MILW route templates. The freeware downloads ( from CLW and TS) is around 27 to complete the count. Among the downloads are one low-poly car string download which I have started using in some bigger yards to add some eye candy and railfill. The first and only template done so far is the MILW WB main from Cle Elum to Seattle's Van Asselt Yard. On this one, there is only work in Cedar Falls to pickup or set out cars before reaching Seattle. I have yet to create and test the run from Cle Elum to Tacoma. On the Cle Elum-Seattle SLG-generated run, I have experienced serious traffic issues which took a week to find the culprit: a marker which has been mistakenly put to one siding in Maple Valley on which AI traffic trains pass along. That resulted in all AI trains stalling at the Indian siding. Problem solved! I have also discovered how to use OR's dispatcher (CTRL-9) feature and will be very helpful with activity creation and to make sure of the position of trains in real time which is different when testing in the MSTS AE. Due to the detailed nature of the route, I had to lower down some video settings in OR to have a reasonable performance. In maximum settings, some cars didn't show during passage of AI traffic trains. Had also to reduce world object settings from 10 to 9. I may be necessary in older computers to go even lower in these settings. Here are the first pictures of the first SLG-generated and successful run from Cle Elum to Seattle: MILWCOA2Image1 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Meeting the North Coast Limited West of Easton MILWCOA2Image2 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Crossing the NP line West of Easton MILWCOA2Image3 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr At Whittier where you can see the NP line above at Martin, near the Eastern portal or the Stampede tunnel and also seen above is the Switchback line with its 5% grade in most of the line. A test run has been successfull along the switchback line with 2 Geeps,5 loaded cars and a caboose. It is not guaranteed to make it through if you add more cars to the consist because of the limited length of one of the switchbacks. MILWCOA2Image4 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Meeting an EB at Rockdale. Behind you can see the access to the Hi-line which has been used prior to the construction of the Snowqualmie tunnel with grades up to 3% MILWCOA2Image5 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Cedar Falls MILWCOA2Image6 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Bagley Jct. Seen on the left is the MILW's Enumclaw branch and, across the bridge, the NP line towards Barneston. MILWCOA2Image7 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Maple Valley and the Pacific Coast railroad alongside crossing the MILW line MILWCOA2Image8 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Black River Jct MILWCOA2Image9 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr All three Railroads (NP, MILW and UP lines) in Seattle. MILWCOA2Image10 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Reaching the Van Asselt Yard That's it for now. Will be posting later as the project progresses -------------------- Denis Gionet
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Oct 14 2018, 03:16 PM
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#2
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Train Master Group: Members Posts: 1,017 Joined: 4-February 07 From: Canada Member No.: 21 |
Since the last post and with Benny's first report, I have made some major changes. First, I have removed the 2 COFC (ATTX & VTTX) downloads to be replaced by two TOFC downloads. They are the djr_75fttofc.zip and the zt75tofc.zip files. The two finished templates and the master template files have been reworked to replace all traces of the COFC to TOFC's.
High poly values of the COFC (about 2 to 3 times those of the TOFC) may be the reason I had some issues in terms of visual performance (some cars of the AI did not appear when passing by and also white void areas). The first two pictures show some examples of what I have encountered. All consists were modified to replace the COFC by the TOFC's I have extensively reworked the railfill among some larger yards for the first two templates, the MILW and NP WB main templates and the master template file, from which other templates will be built from. Some yard sidings to be worked were instead used as railfill ( w/ low poly car strings-included with the requitred downloads) to cover the designated sidings. That Include the Van Asselt, Cedar Falls, both Cle Elum Yards, Auburn, the NP West Yard and the UP-MILW joint yards. I have also corrected some shape issues from some of the downloads. That means that the corrected files will be part of the oncoming templates. As mentioned, the first two show the issues encountered before the COFC-TOFC swap. All pictures here were taken before the Yards railfill extensive rework. MILWCOA2Image12 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image13 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr The following three (3) are from the MILW WB towards the UP-MILW joint yard in Tacoma Jct MILWCOA2Image14 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image15 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image16 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr The remaining are from the NP WB main between Cle Elum to the NP West Yard at Tacoma with meets along, including the NP Mainstreeter at Stampede MILWCOA2Image17 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image18 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image19 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image20 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr MILWCOA2Image21 by Denis Gionet, sur Flickr Will update as it develops -------------------- Denis Gionet
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