ATSF Redlands Loop (c. 1956)

[BoostedFridge]

Looking great! I wonder how fast the guy in the first pic was driving in order to get pulled over.

[Fireexplorer249]

Some eye candy for y'all. An update will be coming up shortly. Just have some work to finish...

[Fireexplorer249]

Alrighty, here is the update like promised. Work is continuing in Mentone as I inch closer and closer to the Santa Ana River. As seen in the screenshots, there has been a lot added in a fairly small block. Houses and businesses are going in and the orange groves and thinning out, but only for about a mile. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy as always.

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[JohnS]

Really looking forward to this Santa Fe route.

[Fireexplorer249]

As y'all have seen, I've been busy repainting, but also have been hard at work on the Redlands Loop. I have recently been introduced to a new grass pack available and fell in love with the look. The route has been getting overhauled with the new grass. This should help me cut down on assets and produces a much better look. In addition to the grass, I have been able to expand the "downtown" area of Mentone. This includes more homes and some additional shops. Finally, scenery has made it to the Santa Ana River. This is one of the largest sections of scenery I have done in a while. It is almost a mile and a half from Mentone Blvd. to the bridge. Progress is moving along at a steady pace and hopefully, we can be in Highland by the end of summer. Thanks everyone for sticking along with this project through the years and hopefully I can get something out to y'all soon. In the mean time, here are some new screenshots of the progress...

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[JohnS]

Beautiful!!

[Fireexplorer249]

Well, I'm back once again with an update! So after giving the idea some thought, I'll be taking a page out of the ol' Minerman notebook and start doing weekly updates. The idea behind it is to keep things more organized and keep me on track more importantly. Especially with my summer class coming to an end. I'll be doing them on Thursdays to not interfere with the Bergen updates. Any way, enough rambling. Lets get on with the first installment in the new updates...

Route Update: Thursday July 2, 2020

And just like that, we are back in Redlands, but with good reasoning. Since the last update, I have been redoing about 80% of the scenery between Redlands and Mentone. This was done to implement my new methods, which are much quicker and cleaner, and to replace the old grass with the new pack that I have been using. The next two pictures show a couple of blocks that were completely reconstructed from the ground up.

Looking East at the Church St. Crossing

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Looking East at the N. University St. Crossing

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These areas had very dated scenery and in areas, still used 2D trees as orange trees. Needless to say, I hadn't touched this area in quite some time. The great thing about my new methods and grass is that I do not have to rely so heavily of ground textures to make the area look right. I have been hard at work getting the right look for the route and this one is a keeper. I have been able to find the right grass that gives that California look and isn't too green. The last couple of pictures are some ground shots to give y'all an idea of how things have changed around some of my more commonly visited areas in these updates.

Looking Southeast at the Judson St. Crossing

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Looking Southwest at the N. University St. Crossing

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Looking Northeast at the intersection of Church St. and Central Ave.

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Moving forward, the plans are to continue through Downtown Redlands with the scenery updates and finally start making some progress west toward San Bernardino. This shouldn't be too far in the future!

That's it for this week! Let me know what y'all think of the new format and of course, what your thoughts are on the new progress.

[JohnTrainHead]

Looks beautiful!

[CArailroader]

Looks great! What pack are you using for grasses? I stalled out on my own route project probably close to a year ago because I could not find suitable grass and shrubs.

[Fireexplorer249]

Looks great! What pack are you using for grasses? I stalled out on my own route project probably close to a year ago because I could not find suitable grass and shrubs.

I am using the grass from the Vulcan Productions pack. Using these with asset blocks has greatly sped up the process and there is so much variety.
https://www.vulcanproductions.co.uk/rb.html

[Fireexplorer249]

Route Update: Thursday July 9, 2020

And just like that, another week has passed and it is time for another update. A lot has happened over the past week. The focus for this week was to finally tackle the oldest section of the route. This was one of the first areas I did back when the route start a few years back. Needless to say, not much has been touched in this area since. In the process, I was able to finally start expanding the scenery in this area and actually make some forward progress into areas that were previously untouched. Below are two before and after screenshots...

Before:

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After:

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Here are a few detail shots of the area...

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The main work this week was centered in these few blocks, but yesterday I stumbled on a saving grace. The Redlands Area Historical Society has recently released an interactive map using Sanborn maps. For those unfamiliar with this type of map, they are used for fire insurance and show detailed locations of buildings and infrastructure in a region. Usually you have to purchase these maps and they are extremely expensive. This makes a huge difference as previously, I was solely relying on Historic Aerials to try and lay track. This proved a challenge as much of the downtown Redlands area is built close together and the imagery was blurry. So yesterday and today's work on the route has been focused on laying accurate trackage through downtown and preparing the next areas for work. If all goes well, the next update will have a lot of new stuff in it.

That's it for this week's update!

[Tomcat]

Beautiful work so far. This is a route with personality. All indications are that it will be quite a gem when finished and I'm looking forward to that day!

[Fireexplorer249]

Beautiful work so far. This is a route with personality. All indications are that it will be quite a gem when finished and I'm looking forward to that day!

Thanks! I really appreciate it coming from such a great route builder like yourself!

Route Update: Thursday July 16, 2020

Well this unfortunately is gonna be the update that never was. I don't have much to show for this week. Work has still been focused on prep work in Downtown Redlands. Basically, that means a lot of roads, sidewalks, and tracks were re-layed. On top of that, a recent repaint project has pulled me away from the route a bit during the week. I'm hoping to have a more substantial update for y'all next week. Until then, carry on...

[Fireexplorer249]

Route Update: Thursday July 30, 2020

Once again, we are back. Sorry there was no update last week, I have been working hard to finish a few other projects. Fortunately, today, we have progress. The focus for this update was to finish the road and track work in the Downtown Redlands area. Not much scenery work, but almost all of the prep work needed to continue scenery through the entirety of Downtown Redlands has been completed. This also meant that all existing scenery in this area needed to be scrapped. I will be leaving on a trip in the next couple days, so there will not be an update for a few weeks. I figured I can get a lot of the tedious and monotonous work done so I can come back from my trip and jump right back in. Anyway, on to the stuff y'all actually want to see, the pictures.

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New track work and markers throughout downtown

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SP track finished to the Sunset Route

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Anyway, that's all for this week. A lot more to come!

[JohnS]

Looks great! Have a good trip