3 Track Cajon Project

[Boss1]

Looks fantastic!

[Tomcat]

Thanks guys!

I've been adding background housing to Lancaster and Rosamond past two days, now I have to go back to plant trees and assorted vegetation in those developments shown above. This is actually what I consider the easy part, these developments that is. To the East of Palmdale is the area I've been avoiding, all those scattered houses most of the way to Phelan. Same situation on the Cushenbury branch off Hesperia, miles of scattered stuff that is hard to get looking right.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Nobody who isn't local to the area will notice when their property isn't modelled at 100% accuracy.

Are those Palmdale residences for the affluent? It is scorching hot in the Mojave desert during summer, but living must be good otherwise.
They don't look like trailer parks at all, and that commuter railroad is there for a purpose ...

[Tomcat]

Nobody who isn't local to the area will notice when their property isn't modelled at 100% accuracy.

Are those Palmdale residences for the affluent? It is scorching hot in the Mojave desert during summer, but living must be good otherwise.
They don't look like trailer parks at all, and that commuter railroad is there for a purpose ...

I don't even try for 100%. I'm not about to put driveways in for each house or have mailboxes and garbage cans at the curb... or even a curb. One of the reasons to place the trees and vegetation is to hide the lack of detail and even so the asset count can quickly get out of hand. I think the highest asset count tile in Palmdale is about 2400 and I'm going to up that maybe a hundred more for a bit more trackside detail and some parked cars on the roads closet to the tracks.

I don't know the particulars for Palmdale but it certainly seems as if it's a nice place to live. After spending some time in Google Earth street view I find myself thinking that it would not be a bad place to retire to. For the most part it seems very clean and well manicured.

[buzz456]

I can think of approximately a zillion places where the cost of living is less than Kalifornia.

[Tomcat]

Filling in Palmdale.

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[minerman146]

Tomcat, I have been reading along for a while now and I was hoping your were going to put up some images of Palmdale. You prove the point why its worth doing the deep scenery. It looks natural, and blends in with the world. Someday, some guy will be flyin down the line, he wont consciously notice, but his subconscious will be telling him "real". Great stuff man!

[jalsina]

Getting better every day. This one, the Big Sky Country and the Bergen, are the three great routes to follow and wait for.

[Tomcat]

Tomcat, I have been reading along for a while now and I was hoping your were going to put up some images of Palmdale. You prove the point why its worth doing the deep scenery. It looks natural, and blends in with the world. Someday, some guy will be flyin down the line, he wont consciously notice, but his subconscious will be telling him "real". Great stuff man!

Thank you. I have thought the same as you many a time... if you can give someone the feeling that something just feels right then it doesn't matter if they can't quite put their finger on why and perhaps it's better that way lest the spell be broken.

[Tomcat]

Getting better every day. This one, the Big Sky Country and the Bergen, are the three great routes to follow and wait for.

Thank you. The Bergen Line is a gem, I eagerly await Big Sky Country and I would add The Siskiyou Line as well.

[buzz456]

The desert is tough because you can more or less see forever. On the MRL we have mountains for the most part on both sides so while the view may be fairly wide there isn't much detail out there. My barrier is usually treed mountains or just big hunks of rocks. In any event you are doing a great job on this iconic route.

[Tomcat]

Thanks Buzz.

I do struggle with the seemingly endless fields of view in many places. Now I know why in the original Cajon Pass the route builders created ridge lines parallel to the track in some areas but I can't bring myself to manipulate the terrain to that extent.

[BoostedFridge]

Your integrity to representing the terrain 'as is' is one of the strengths of the route in my opinion. Your use of the texture palette at distance is creative, and gives the route a very realistic desert 'feel'.

[Tomcat]

Your integrity to representing the terrain 'as is' is one of the strengths of the route in my opinion. Your use of the texture palette at distance is creative, and gives the route a very realistic desert 'feel'.

Thanks Boosted... That means quite a bit coming from someone who obviously knows their way around not only using textures but also creating them as evidenced by the screenshots in your Siskiyou Line thread.

[Tomcat]

Work In Progress.

Placed the last of the Palmdale developments (Trees yet to be placed in these newly laid down housing developments) and reached Vulcan Materials Company - supposedly the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates (No railroad service at this location, just 1.5 miles of sweet emptiness). East of here it becomes more open, scattered housing and large tracts of scrub. Last two shots of the Fort Tejon Rd underpass which in my mind marks the division between planned, organized developments and Vulcan and then the more open housing.

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