J3A Hudson 20th Century Limited (Empire State Express)

[jpetersjr]

Will post some more progress tomorrow.

By the way, this engine is to be freeware when done and it will have a custom 3d cab. Not sure about sounds though since I haven't been able to find any.

If anyone has any vintage sounds or a vintage video about the actual 20th Century Limited, Empire State Express steam locomotive those will help a ton, especially if I can clip the whistle sound out of it for use on the Railworks 3 version.

[jpetersjr]

It is a new day and working on the model some more.

Just finished the rest of the gangway and built the steps onto the gangway.

Empire State Express Progress 12 A.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 12 B.jpg

Put on the front hand rails.

Empire State Express Progress 12 C.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 12 D.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 12 E.jpg

[jpetersjr]

A sneak peak at what the cab will eventually be. Also did this of the insides today.

Empire State Express 2.jpg

[jpetersjr]

Working on the frame for the engine, slowly figuring out how to alter the cube using SMM's tutorial for guidance, thanks for the tutorial.

Empire State Express Progress 13 A.jpg

I expect that it might take a while longer before I finish the frame.

Some more progress on the frame, it's coming out well I must add, I figure later I should be able to make the trouble no problem after learning how to manipulate the shapes like this. The frame will be finished very soon.

Empire State Express Progress 13 B.jpg

[jpetersjr]

Finished the frame and put it on the engine.

Empire State Express Progress 14 A.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 14 B.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 14 C.jpg

Also, painted the front plate in the default colors it was in 1939.

Empire State Express Progress 14 D.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 14 E.jpg

The 20th Century Limited locomotive originally had a top speed of about 110 or 120 miles per hour. It was capable of pulling passengers comfortably well about 100 mph along the New York Central line.

[jpetersjr]

The bad news is this frame won't work with the engine, will have to find another that is designed where it won't interact with the trailing truck. And that was one of the only blueprints I was able to find, will have to try for another and then make a new frame.

[mrennie]

The bad news is this frame won't work with the engine, will have to find another that is designed where it won't interact with the trailing truck. And that was one of the only blueprints I was able to find, will have to try for another and then make a new frame.

It's difficult to make a model without having access to detailed drawings ... not just one side elevation, but drawings of individual parts. In any case, it's looking good, keep at it, and I hope you come across some photos or something that gives a clue as to how to do the rear of the frame and the trailing truck,

[jpetersjr]

Most likely will be posting some more progress tomorrow, I plan to start making the window frames for the front, back and the side windows.

Then I plan to make the pilot wheels and then the trailing truck wheels.

After that will come the new frame and then the front and back trucks.

[mrennie]

Most likely will be posting some more progress tomorrow, I plan to start making the window frames for the front, back and the side windows.

Then I plan to make the pilot wheels and then the trailing truck wheels.

After that will come the new frame and then the front and back trucks.

OK, but after that, I would recommend that you have a go at doing the bogie and engine blueprints, because it's best to get the object groups set up properly early on. If you don't have the group centres in exactly the right places, it can be a real pain moving everything afterwards (believe me, I know, it took me hours to reposition the wheels, brakes and valve gear when I found I'd accidentally shifted the wheel group and loco group centres relative to each other).

[jpetersjr]

OK, but after that, I would recommend that you have a go at doing the bogie and engine blueprints, because it's best to get the object groups set up properly early on. If you don't have the group centres in exactly the right places, it can be a real pain moving everything afterwards (believe me, I know, it took me hours to reposition the wheels, brakes and valve gear when I found I'd accidentally shifted the wheel group and loco group centres relative to each other).

How can I go about doing this. I want to do this as soon as possible and try the engine in the game. I might need a little explanation on how to do the blueprints though.

[Bananarama]

Read through the RS developer docs. They contain many of the answers you seek.

[jpetersjr]

Some more progress on the engine, got the side windows made and put into the locomotive. The question is, what way would you rather see it released as, engineer side windows appear open, or engineer side windows appear closed.

Empire State Express Progress 15 A.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 15 B.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 15 C.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 15 D.jpg

Empire State Express Progress 15 E.jpg

[mrennie]

Read through the RS developer docs. They contain many of the answers you seek.

True, but they can be a bit confusing, especially as they don't give an example for a steam locomotive.

Here's a quick explanation.

First, you should organise the parts of the model in the following group hierarchy:

Scene (that's the default root group for everything)
.. Locomotive
..<in the locomotive group, put the objects that aren't part of the bogies>
....bo01
....<objects that are part of the pilot truck, except for the wheels>
......bo01wh01
......<The pilot wheels and axle. This should be called 1_2000_bo01wh01 >
......bo01wh02
......<Even if the pilot truck has only one axle, you still need to give it two! The second one can be a simple box that you paint with a material to make it invisible. It should be placed along the centreline, about 1 metre towards the front of the loco. Call it 1_2000_bo01wh02>
....bo02
....<objects that are part of the valve gear and motion, except for the wheels. The valve gear and motion will need to go into further subgroups, but we'll worry about that later .. much later>
......bo02wh01
......<The wheels and axle nearest to the pilot truck. Call the object 1_2000_bo02wh01>
......bo02wh02
......<The wheels and axle in the middle (intermediary). Call the object 1_2000_bo02wh02>
......bo02wh03
......<The wheels and axle furthest from the pilot truck. Call the object 1_2000_bo02wh03>
....bo03
....<objects that make up the trailing truck, except for the wheels and axle>
......bo03wh01
...... just like the bo01 above, and you actually need two axles (one can be invisible).

I think the reason you need two axles for the trucks is that RW isn't capable of placing a one axle truck onto the rails. It needs two axles so that it can work out the angles. It can't cope with Segways.

Make sure you can see the group centres (better to display everything in wireframe mode, so yo ucan see the red, green, blue axis thingies). Then make sure that the group centres of the wheels really are in the centre! If not, you'll have to go into shift mode, shift the object until it's centre lines up with the group centre, and then in normal mode, move the object (along with its group centre) back into position.
Do the same with the group centres for the group bo01 (pilot truck). Nake sure that its positioned where the truck pivot is located.

The group centre for the bo02 doesn't matter, but I always place it in the exact same spot as the group centre of locomtive, which has to be at rail height (very important! otherwise your loco will float).

When you've got all that done, we can go on to make the blueprints for the trucks and engine.

Also, make sure that you can export the model to Railworks as an .igs file. Do it by going to File > Export > Trainworks (you must enable this in the options) > Railworks... (igs). Everything has to have been textured first, otherwise you'll get an error message saying the export may (might, sic) be invalid because of an untextured part. In fact, do as I said before, and just try exporting the model as a simple scenery object, so that you can view it in the object viewer and see roughly how it's going to look in RW. You can even export it to RW and place it as a scenery object if you want, just to take a screenshot. You don't need the groups and animation to do that.

[mrennie]

The windows look very good, but, there's one problem. I think you've misinterpreted the blueprint. The corners of the windows (the part with the glass in it) should be square, like the windows in a house, not rounded. The rounded parts you see in the blueprint are actually the corners of the cutouts in the cab sides. The cutouts weren't made with right-angles, but rounded corners, to prevent cracking. I'll make a screenshot of mine, to show you what I mean.

[jpetersjr]

Actually, this particular locomotive had rounded window corners. I can redo the window if I have to though.