Powder River Basin

[Tomcat]

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_43.32841--103.74500_06-33-23.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_43.32356--103.75217_06-31-12.jpg

[Tomcat]

For any interested parties out there an imminent release of Phase 4 of the Powder River Basin should be forthcoming in a day or two.

Since it has been almost a year since the last phase I will be providing a full release of the route file rather than an update. Quite a bit has been added. As a friendly reminder, this is a work-in-progress and represents approximately 30% of the projected/planned track miles and a lesser percentage of completed scenery.

There will be only 2 files (other than the listed dependencies) that are needed that I will provide in .rwp format;

1) PRBRoute.rwp (1.86GB) - If you have already downloaded phase 3 then this is all you need to grab and install using TS20XX's utility program.

2) PRBAssets.rwp - Not needed unless this is your first time grabbing the route. All of the freeware assets you will need other than just 4 are provided in this file - see the requirements below for the links to those 4. I would imagine that most folks have them already.

Installing the route is just as most would suspect. Doesn't matter in what order you install; route file then assets or assets then route file, as long as both are installed before you actually run the route and, of course, you have the payware dependencies.

Note: Tehachapi Pass is the most important dependency by far.

I'll repeat all of this in the post for the official release which will have the links for the route and asset files.


Dependencies are;

Payware:

Tehachapi Pass (Majority of the route is from this dependency)
Soldier Summit
Sherman Hill
Steven's Pass



Freeware:

RCAP from Railworks America. http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/d ... =22:models

Pipeline lofts and Coal Mine Conveyor from Golden Age of Railroading. http://golden-age-rails.com/rwscenry.html

Eléments de raffinerie from http://ajrailsim.free.fr/ Under the Objets tab you'll find refinery assets under 'Eléments de raffinerie' for download. It's a 3.3 MB file - easy install.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Thanks.

Looking forward to your new route.

[JohnS]

Thank you for your hard work!!

[gtrtroger]

Various shots from the Update....

[Tomcat]

Thank you for your hard work!!

Thanks.

Looking forward to your new route.

My pleasure men!

Various shots from the Update....

and with that as an introduction, here it is;

Powder River Basin: Phase 4

Since it has been almost a year since the last phase I will be providing a full release of the route file rather than an update. Quite a bit has been added. As a friendly reminder, this is a work-in-progress and represents approximately 30% of the projected/planned track miles and a lesser percentage of completed scenery.

There are only 2 files (other than the listed dependencies) that are needed that I provide in .rwp format;

1) PRBRoute06272019.rwp (1.86GB) - *REMOVED*

If you have already downloaded phase 3 then this is all you need to grab and install using TS20XX's utility program.



2) PRBassets.rwp - *REMOVED*

Not needed unless this is your first time grabbing the route. All of the freeware assets you will need other than just 4 are provided in this file - see the requirements below for the links to those 4. I would imagine that most folks have them already.




Installing the route is just as most would suspect. Doesn't matter in what order you install; route file then assets or assets then route file, as long as both are installed before you actually run the route and, of course, you have the payware dependencies.

Note: Tehachapi Pass is the most important dependency by far.


Dependencies are;

Payware:

Tehachapi Pass (Majority of the route is from this dependency)
Soldier Summit
Sherman Hill
Steven's Pass



Freeware:

RCAP from Railworks America. http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/d ... =22:models

Pipeline lofts and Coal Mine Conveyor from Golden Age of Railroading. http://golden-age-rails.com/rwscenry.html

Eléments de raffinerie from *REMOVED* Under the Objets tab you'll find refinery assets under 'Eléments de raffinerie' for download. It's a 3.3 MB file - easy install.


And as always many thanks to the freeware creators;

EMDSD90MAC
SMMDigital
John Lippai
Great Northener

and the payware providers;

3DTrains (Marc Nelson)
G-TraX
DTG

[AmericanSteam]

Thanks, updating route as I type. I have much enjoyed this. Thanks for the update.

[Tomcat]

Thanks, updating route as I type. I have much enjoyed this. Thanks for the update.

Thanks for downloading! Hope you continue to enjoy the PRB as I make my way to Guernsey and Alliance.


Need a weeks break from the Orin and Butte subdivisions so I spent a handful of hours on the few miles I put in on the High Line out of Edgemont.

[chrisreb]

Many thanks for the update!

[Tomcat]

Many thanks for the update!

You're welcome.


Starting to fill in scenery between Newcastle and Edgemont. This is the Eastern end of Newcastle.

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_43.83067--104.16681_08-06-27.jpg

[chrisreb]

Oh lovely - will be great when some talented people can do some scenarios.

[Tomcat]

If you really hate something, do it first and get it out of the way. Anyway, that's my theory in regard to laying track. With that in mind I've pushed down to Crawford on the Butte Subdivision and once I get the double horseshoe curves at Crawford Hill in I'll switch back to the Orin and get it down to Shawnee Junction. Once signalling and markers are in place, along with whatever scenery I put down, I'll be ready to release the next phase.


Locations at the bottom of the image are my best estimate as to where those locations are. Connect those locations to get a rough idea of the large loop that will be the final route. If I put in the Highline then that curly-q at Edgemont will wind its way up to just under where it says Powder River Basin.

PRB07162019 copy.jpg

[gtrtroger]

Massive.... 3 state coverage....

[chrisreb]

Oh my.....

[Tomcat]

Massive.... 3 state coverage....

I'm currently in the state of frustration - once again caused by track.

Oh my.....

I've used quite a few not-family friendly expressions the past 2 days.

Okay, so I make it to Crawford Hill and expect to have the double horseshoe completed in short order - silly me.

First off, none of the track types have a small enough radius for me to follow the curves. I turn easements off and just lay track freehand around the tightest part of the curve and see that the radius is 195. My idea is now to edit the trackrule and make the radius 190 for freight. I do that and can't see much of any difference from the initial value of 341 and the new value of 190, it's still way off from the prototype. Next up is to reedit the trackrule and change the yard value from 242 to 190. This seems to actually work as I can now follow the curves with easements back on, so I place both curves down with the 3 changes in gradient that I want throughout the curve. Everything looks great, so now I just need to select 200 to 300 meters of track centered on each grade change and use the smooth tool... and crash to desktop with an access violation as soon as I hit smooth. Repeat for each grade change, selecting both tracks or selecting one track - access violation. I fly over to Crawford, a couple of dozen tiles away, and put down track with a grade change and the smooth tool works just fine. Now I'm thinking that I may have 2 corrupted tiles where the horseshoe curves are so I delete those two tiles from the network folder and start over.

Same problem. Now I'm going to change the grade as I lay the track in .1 increments that are 25 meters long instead of using the smooth tool. That's done, so I go to superelevate the first curve and bam, access violation. I must have restarted the game at least 25 times due to the crashes along with a cold boot of the computer twice. I checked all the usual suspects along the way and nothing was amiss.

Long story short, I relaid the curves freehand with easements turned off (speed limit is 20 on the curves in any case) and did the .1 increment thing on each grade change. After 8 hours over 2 days the result is below. If I add the one pair of signals on the curve and I get an access violation I just may do something unspeakable to my computer, so I am going to calm down and leave that for another day.

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_42.60188--103.35427_06-56-47.jpg