MC&SA Public Beta Testing

[inc3pt]

Alright, got it all installed, fired it up and look two of the SW's from Camden to Moscow to grab the cut of log cars waiting there on one of the sidings. I pulled them back down to the yard but the unloaders were being used already so I decided to let the load sit in the yard for a while.

Overall, an incredible addition to the US routes available It may be small but it seems like it has plenty of interesting things to do, and won't get boring. Personally, I could go back and forth all day dragging empty and full log cars between the two cities. Thank you very very much for all of your work on this.

Since it is a beta, I figured I should note the few things that I did notice were wrong:
1) Not sure if it's just me, but the SW900s (downloaded from the file library here at Railworks America) are missing two things: brake sounds and number textures. There are no sounds whatsoever for the brakes (no air noises, no squealing, etc) but all other engine noises sound fine. As for the number textures, anywhere that a number is supposed to appear (side of the cab, on the front and rear light) I get a "Missing Texture" logo.
2) A few floating trees, as somebody else mentioned. Not anything graphically weird, just a few here and there that seem to have been placed on a hill, so its understandable that a few could be missed and don't perfectly touch the ground.

And thats it. Everything else looks amazing. I did notice the ends of some of the wyes weren't forested, but I don't know the area at all so maybe that's just how it is.

Thank you again!!

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

Thanks for your report!

I think I could at least fix the engine's missing numbers (and the crew in the "no crew" engine ). I think the numbers were caused by still being aliased to my GN repaint.
http://rapidshare.com/files/300889733/M ... e.zip.html This is a patch for the engines and should fix both issues. I hope it works.

About the floating trees. How many of them are there? I've run the route plenty of times, and it seems by now I fail to see the wood for the trees. Initially there were hundreds of floating trees as most of the vegetation had been placed by copy-pasting (which works like a charm in RW, even better than in MSTS) . I fixed many of those airborne trees by going up and down the line, swinging a rope around each one of them and then having the SW900s pull to get it back down into the ground, but the remaining ones I somehow don't see any more.
Could you possibly narrow down the locations of them? Like, for example, "east of the girder bridge"? That'd help me a lot.

To all who have run the route and sent invaluable feedback:
I really appreciate your help.

Michael

[dejoh]

Enjoying this route very much. Thanks. Looking forward to future projects

[GreatNortherner]

Heh, so someone IS really running the European style scenarios. Cool!

The route is online now, you can already get it right here in the RWA file library.
Many thanks to Ed for adding it!!!

Have fun, hope all works fine with the final (hopefully...) release.
The payware scenarios will follow shortly, I still have to sort out some things with the rolling stock first.

Thanks again for helping me putting all this together.

Cheers!
Michael

[inc3pt]

Is the version in the file library the same as the latest beta posted in this thread? (ie: Should I redownload?) thanks!

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

They are in most parts identical.

The new things in the release version are only:
- a few corrected scenery items (mostly floating trees)
- added rolling stock that is needed for free roam scenarios (SW900s, flatcars, woodchip hoppers)
- added route description for the RW route selection screen

Other than that, the last beta is identical to the release version.

What I'm more concerned at this moment is: are the scenarios in the release working for everybody? I've gotten an email last night about them not starting up, but so far I haven't been able to figure out why that might be happening.



Cheers!
Michael

[Hawk]

Is the version in the file library the same as the latest beta posted in this thread? (ie: Should I redownload?) thanks!

Heck, it's only 20 MB. Go get it.

[inc3pt]

Heck, it's only 20 MB. Go get it.

Will do!

Hi,

They are in most parts identical.

The new things in the release version are only:
- a few corrected scenery items (mostly floating trees)
- added rolling stock that is needed for free roam scenarios (SW900s, flatcars, woodchip hoppers)
- added route description for the RW route selection screen

Other than that, the last beta is identical to the release version.

What I'm more concerned at this moment is: are the scenarios in the release working for everybody? I've gotten an email last night about them not starting up, but so far I haven't been able to figure out why that might be happening.



Cheers!
Michael

Michael,

A few comments- thank you again for the wonderful route. I can't comment on the extra scenarios as I do not have any of the payware that they require, so I didn't download them.

One thing I'm wondering is.. could there be a lumber loader in Camden (I hope I picked the right city)? Basically, the "other end" of the route, there is a wye, some sidings, and in the freeroam scenarios, some rolling stock sitting on it. In my mind, that is where "they" are doing the actual logging, cutting down trees, loading them up to bring back to the mill in Moscow (forgive me if I've mixed up the cities ). As it is right now, I like to play the route in freeroam, and I'd love to be able to shuffle back and forth between the two cities loading and unloading, but I can't really do that right now.

If it wouldn't be prototypical to add a loader at the other end, I understand, but I do wonder how cars are getting loaded down there? Also, it seems maybe there should be some tree stumps of areas that have been clearcut

Thanks!

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

Back when the line was built, it connected to an extensive network of logging branches that spread around Camden (the town with the lumber mill). The whole region was a huge logging district, so also up north and south on the SP (which heads off to N and S from the interchange at Moscow) you'd find more small logging railroads. During the 20th century however, many of them disappeared. The last line linked directly to Camden was abandoned in the 1940s, if my informations are correct.

So any time past that, and certainly during the time frame the route has been modeled in (post-1965 when dieselization was complete on the MCSA), most of the lumber would be brought to the mill by truck. I don't know if the inbound logs from the SP interchange is historically accurate, but it certainly adds a lot of operational possibilities. However, there were still other logging railroads in service that were not directly linked to the MCSA, so I don't see why the SP shouldn't have played linking railroad.

Finally, if you'd like to add a log loader on your route at the west end (Moscow) and still would be able to use the scenarios, I'd suggest to add it somewhere at the north side of the wye. This part of the line will most likely never be touched by any of the standard scenarios, so that'd be a good place to add stuff to.

Cheers!
Michael

[inc3pt]

Michael,

Thank you for all of the history on the route! While having loved trains since before I could walk, I still don't know all the intricacies of their operation. I toyed with adding a loader where I believe you are suggesting, so once I install the latest version of the route I will re-do that section. Do you know if there is a tree stump asset included in RailWorks by default?

Also, what other kinds of freight was shuffled between the two cities? I see boxcars but don't see any place that boxcars would be unloaded in one of the cities.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi again,

lumber and lumber products were really the only things shipped on the MCSA. So the boxcars would be loaded at the mill and then taken to Moscow, from where the SP would take them to their final destination.

Before the modern freight cars came along with centerbeams and all that, mostly boxcars were used to transport pretty much all lumber products, except for when they exceeded the loading size of the boxcar (doors). The cars were loaded manually by the workers, so it did take quite a while to get a string of boxcars all loaded with wooden planks and stuff.

Heck, from what I learned in the past years, back then boxcars were used for almost everything, even for transporting grain from the elevators before the closed hopper came along. In this case they just nailed some planks behind the open doors, leaving only a little space at the top of the door opening, through which the grain would be filled in.

Cheers!
Michael

[DaveS]

Michael, I'm having a problem with the installation.I checked it with RW Tools and it says its missing,
\trackrules\all main tr-bin
\transferpoints\yards\lumberyard\lumberyard.bin
is this to do with the asset package, or am I doing something wrong with something else.Could it be it's Monday and not a full moon
Thanks Dave

[GreatNortherner]

Hi Dave!

Thanks for the report! The first missing file (track rule) is a known non-issue. In other words: it is missing but so far it hasn't been reported to cause any trouble. As a matter of fact, it is also missing on my PC - so I have no idea why the route actually calls for it.
Guess I should've mentioned this in the readme though.

The second one is new to me though. This is the lumber crane (log loader). It is sitting right at the middle of the log spur at Camden. I thought everybody had this asset in their RW installs?
Obviously not though. Could it have come from the PO&N route by Jim Ward instead? I only know that it's been around since ages.

In case you don't have the PO&N route, I can strongly advise to install it. First of course because it is a blast to run (talk about play value!), but Jim also came up with many very innovative solutions for objects placement, interactives, etc. And quite possibly also a log loader...

Cheers!
Michael