Vermont/ CN Route

[RickKfoury]

I was toying around with scenario ideas tonight, had sort of a fun idea for an emergency police extra bringing reinforcements to relieve a prison riot.





Although unfortunately it seemed there were saboteurs on-board


Just fun to take a break and mess around a bit!

[RickKfoury]

Many thanks to Jonathan Peters, who has graciously created a covered railroad bridge and a covered auto bridge. They have found a welcoming home on my route and added an extra touch of New England charm. I've added two to the Western Vermont Railroad shortline segment of the route.

[Chacal]

This looks good indeed.
Congrats John.

[RickKfoury]

I'm now ready to send the route out to any experienced route testers! Double check the list of required assets below and send me a message if you're interested.

Payware
-VNHRR Springfield Route Version 2 (Payware)
-Portland Terminal Route (Payware)
-RWA Lakeside Route (Payware)
-Horseshoe Curve Route (Payware)

Freeware
-3DTrains Scale Road Assets (Freeware but requires registration http://www.3dtrains.com/products/rw/scaleroad.shtml)
-Railworks Community Assets Project (Freeware)
-Hebron Depot (Freeware) viewtopic.php?f=38&t=13261
-PCBauer Barn Pack (Freeware)
-Kuju RailSimulatorUS and Core Assets (Included in game)
-Both of Jpetersjr Covered Bridges (Freeware at http://www.i-m.mx/jpetersjr/BigJProduct ... -page.html)
-John Lippai's New River District Trestle Pack (Freeware)
-Great Northerner's Semaphores and wooden trestles (Freeware)
-Freeware B&O Caboose and Western Vermont repaint

[RickKfoury]

The route has been sent to beta testers! Thanks for all the help.

[BillS]

That's good news!

[harryadkins]

You guys are in for a real treat! This route is awesome. I ran from Bloomfield to Waterton tonight and I am impressed. The scenery definitely has the look and feel of New England with tons of details. There are lots of opportunities for switching and even running milk trains. The era suggests late steam/early diesel operations and dispatching is done by train order signals. I like it!

Harry

[RickKfoury]

I'm glad you like the route! Getting some great feedback from the beta testers and I've been working on fixing some of the issues, thankfully there are no big ones this time (so far)

One issue I was having was deciding what locomotives to include in the free-roam scenarios. Free-roam scenarios won't show up in the menu without a drive-able locomotive. Of course, standard scenarios can always be released later with different rolling stock. However for the two basic free-roam scenarios included with the route, I wanted to make sure they have locomotives that I know everyone using the route would own. Therefore, both free-roam scenarios will feature the RWA Alco RS-1, repainted in the liveries of the Central Vermont Railroad and the shortline Western Vermont Railroad (which are the subjects of the two free-roam scenarios). They have been uploaded to the file library tonight and so it might be a good idea to install those repaints before downloading the route, so the free-roam scenarios work correctly. Plus they look pretty sharp, If I do say so myself!

[jpetersjr]

I'm glad you like the route! Getting some great feedback from the beta testers and I've been working on fixing some of the issues, thankfully there are no big ones this time (so far)

One issue I was having was deciding what locomotives to include in the free-roam scenarios. Free-roam scenarios won't show up in the menu without a drive-able locomotive. Of course, standard scenarios can always be released later with different rolling stock. However for the two basic free-roam scenarios included with the route, I wanted to make sure they have locomotives that I know everyone using the route would own. Therefore, both free-roam scenarios will feature the RWA Alco RS-1, repainted in the liveries of the Central Vermont Railroad and the shortline Western Vermont Railroad (which are the subjects of the two free-roam scenarios). They have been uploaded to the file library tonight and so it might be a good idea to install those repaints before downloading the route, so the free-roam scenarios work correctly. Plus they look pretty sharp, If I do say so myself!

Either that or Great Northernor's freeware GP7 and GP9, everyone should also have those engines as well.

[Chacal]

This is awesome.

If I may put forth a suggestion, maybe you could ask a few of our great scenario authors here at RWA to contribute a simple standard scenario for this route, so that it comes packaged with a few of them. That would make the route so much more interesting.

I don't know if I'm the only one like this, but free roaming just doesn't do it for me. I need a purpose, i.e. I need to be assigned a task list. Railroads, after all, are all about business. This is also a great way to discover and enjoy a route, especially if a "tour" scenario is made for presenting the route's features along the way.

[harryadkins]

Beta testing 6-8-15 report attached.

[RickKfoury]

Changes applied! Just one question: how do I go about changing switchstands?

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

It is fantastic news that the route is so close to being complete, I am looking forward to it very much! The screenshots do look fantastic.

Please feel free (and encouraged) to include my freeware assets with the route's package.

Just one question: how do I go about changing switchstands?

to replace an automatic/manual switch:
- use the split tool at the switch's node (the red triangle in the editor)
- (un)check the auto/manual switch radio button
- weld the switch back together with the weld tool
- reposition the switch stand / switch machine

to change the shape file of the switch stand model used throughout the route:
- edit the tracks.bin in RW_Tools, search for the switch stand reference line, copy the path/file reference
- use search/replace function to replace that file reference with another switch stand blueprint of your choice

Cheers
Michael

[RickKfoury]

Thanks Michael, I will take a look at that tonight!!

I have decided that once the route is completed and released, I will make a copy set in the early 1990s, 30 years later. It shouldn't take too long to modernize the route, i already have quite a few things planned. I am looking forward to portraying the changes the CV experienced, especially as they began to separate from the CN. Another big change will be the purchase of the Delaware & Hudson by the CP. It will also be interesting to show how the shortline Western Vermont has changed. I can say that their route will have changed the most...
This will create the opportunity to run more modern rolling stock on the route. I'll keep you all posted on that once this route is finished!

[Chacal]

I'm specially interested in this idea, because I've started working on a personal project, which is making a script for automating mass replacements of assets in routes or scenarios.

Taking your idea as an example, you would make a list with 2 columns:
1- The asset currently in your route (vehicle, building, sign post, character, etc);
2- The asset you want to replace it with (more modern vehicle, building, sign post, character, etc).

Then the script would perform a find-and-replace for the whole list on your route files. Same as the global search-and-replace function in RW-Tools if you could save swap lists and re-apply them.

Also useful for swapping rolling stock:
- I could make a list of rolling stock I don't want to buy, find appropriate replacements, and apply this list to any or all scenarios;
- I could make a list of modern rolling stock and replacements from the 1940s, 1950s, etc.