3 Track Cajon Project

[JackD]

Looks great. I hate crowds.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Now we are gonna have two modernized Cajon Pass's but I think I am going to pick tomcats over the other one because he is great at route building!

Thank you for the vote of confidence... and in the mean time, why limit yourself to one, if you have the DLC for it, grab it, and see what you think. If you have the original Cajon Pass and liked it then you are probably going to like this as well. I grabbed it after ErikGorbiHamilton enlightened me and it's not bad at all. It will give you sort of a hands on preview of what mine will be like in terms of the track work between San Bernardino and Martinez. It's the old Cajon with more and that's usually not a bad thing unless we are talking about more pounds after Thanksgiving dinner.

I just subscribed to the workshop one, its pretty good.

I think so too. It looks more modern and has some nice details like the electrical locks at manual switch stands.
I think super elevation has been applied to the track, but without easements, the ride is rough. Must look into the trackrule used and perhaps lessen it a little.

Paciently waiting for Tomcat's beta release, which by the looks of it, is even better stilll.

[Tomcat]

Thanks guys!

I'm still recovering from the computer mishap I had last week. As I mentioned in the thread in the problems & peculiarities section I am making headway on recovering all the stuff I wanted to recover. My HDD is now 175 gigs lighter and good riddance to most of it. It's amazing how much crud you can accumulate over 2 years.

My initial estimate of there being only one asset that was missing was a bit optimistic. It was more like 16 or 18, but I have reacquired those and need to run the route a few more times from end to end and see what catches my eye. RWTools was invaluable in making the recovery relatively painless though there is nothing like giving every meter of track and scenery the old eyeball treatment. In between re-installing non-train related things I've gotten the route back to the shape it was in last time I posted a screenshot. Maybe I've lost a week or so on the drive to get a beta out in September but I think September is still a good bet, just late rather than mid.

Looks great. I hate crowds.

I hear ya! I would not mind living in the desert at all. I've had about all I can stand of NYC, but I've been saying that for 30 years now and I'm still here. My wife loves the city in any case so it's just a fantasy of mine to move to the desert Southwest and leave the rat race behind. Maybe if my lottery numbers come through one day, but till then... oh well.

[jalsina]

When I read you had a computer mishap I only could panic:
But not. Three tracks Cajon is save and sound.

I have traveled somewhat along my life and know a few cities. Tell your wife NYC is my preferred city ever, second to none and followed only by Paris.

[BillS]

NYC is a great city! Its getting in an out of it that's a P.I.T.A.

[Tomcat]

When I read you had a computer mishap I only could panic:
But not. Three tracks Cajon is save and sound.

I have traveled somewhat along my life and know a few cities. Tell your wife NYC is my preferred city ever, second to none and followed only by Paris.

My wife likes you already. She looked at me and said "See" as if I had just landed from Mars.

NYC is a great city! Its getting in an out of it that's a P.I.T.A.

I'll grant you it's a great city to visit but you know the rest of the saying. Another thing I'll say is that as I get older it is comforting to know that an emergency room is never more than 4 or 5 minutes away.

[Tomcat]

I thought that delving into scenarios would be a waste of time for me as I push to get the beta ready especially since I've never created one before, but it has proved itself useful if only to ensure that signals are working properly. I had to fix one signal so far and have added 1 more which I missed, and this was just between Daggett and Barstow. That does not bode well for the rest of the route but I plan on working this scenario from Dagget all the way to San Bernardino and hopefully I will be able to catch any other problems that crop up.

This is a standard scenario running the Southwest Chief on a simple run the length of the line stopping at Barstow, Victorville and San Bernardino passenger stations. I want to give a sense of the traffic one might see so with that in mind let's start;

We begin with a rolling start at 49mph East of Daggett and as we approach the junction with U.P. at East Daggett we come alongside and overtake a U.P. consist coming out of Yermo. Before long we have a 3-way meet with a BNSF autorack consist heading for Needles. Looking back we see the U.P. about to eat our dust. The U.P. engineer is probably shaking his fist as now he has to hold up shortly and wait for us to clear main 1. And finally Approaching Yucca Ave. overpass we pass another U.P. consist heading for Yermo.

... and that's as far as I've gotten so far but if all goes well I'll have us to San Bernardino on time with many meets and plenty of angry freight engineers shaking their heads.

SouthwestChief01.jpg

SouthwestChief02.jpg

SouthwestChief03.jpg

SouthwestChief04.jpg

SouthwestChief05.jpg

[jalsina]

You keep working, release that beta and guys like me will take a good look to your speed limits and check signals work right.

[Tomcat]

You keep working

I took a teensy break to check out Alpenfreight's Simple Weather Mod. It's much better than the default 3D weather values that's for sure. Overall I like the mod and will be keeping it. The feeling of light is better represented, the air seems cleaner and you can see farther with this mod as depicted in the scenes below;

WeatherMod01.jpg

WeatherMod02.jpg

WeatherMod03.jpg

[Tomcat]

A few more screenshots showing Alpenfreight's Simple Weather Mod. Each shot is suffused in a nice, delicate, warm, late-afternoon, pinkish glow. It works well here in a high-desert environment but it's not as wonderful in places further West since it seems as if it overwhelms any terrain painting on distant scenes, covering everything in a creamy, pinkish covering. Overall though, a must have mod.

Needlessub01.jpg

Needlessub02.jpg

Needlessub03.jpg

Needlessub04.jpg

[thecanadianrail]

Loving it, the lighting is just right on everything and makes me want this route even more!

[Boss1]

Route is looking veeeery nice!

[Ericmopar]

Posting in the Workshop can be fun.
I've found that I have a fanbase of Chinese girls for some reason....

[Tomcat]

Loving it, the lighting is just right on everything and makes me want this route even more!

Thank you sir! It's coming soon.

Route is looking veeeery nice!

Thanks, the weather mod is doing wonders for certain sections of the route.

Posting in the Workshop can be fun.
I've found that I have a fanbase of Chinese girls for some reason....

Too many 3rd party assets for the workshop I'm afraid. And I hesitate to ask about this fanbase of yours... well, since I asked I didn't really hesitate did I? The wife would put a hurt on me I'm sure...

[Tomcat]

I can't resist a few more shots of how the weather mod brings scenes to life.

Rolling past USMC Yermo Annex and last shot in the U.P. Yermo yard.

USMCYermo01.jpg

USMCYermo02.jpg

UPYermo01.jpg