Auto Train Route (Lorton, VA- Sanford, FL)

[SithMurcielago]

Ok this is the official thread for the second planned project on my list. As the title suggest this route will feature Amtrak's Auto Train Starting from Lorton, VA to Sanford FL. That is around 850+ miles long of tracks. There is an additional extra miles of track from Lorton, VA to Alexandria, VA. I'm using the same route from the NEC project as a base.

For right now Tracks have been laid down between Alexandria, VA to Lorton, VA and Richmond Main Street, VA. This includes an already build CSX Acca yard. I'm laying down scenery and will resume trackwork soon.

[micaelcorleone]

Very nice.
But 850+ miles? I wish you very much luck.

[thecanadianrail]

so i assume it will be finished in around 3-4 YEARS! 850+ MILES!!!! WOW what a project! good luck to you and i cant wait for a TRUE long haul route.

[SithMurcielago]

Don't underestimate what I can do. I can lay that much track down until 3-5 months or less. Scenery around the same time maybe depending on my free time. Everything else will take me around 6 months extra. Keep in my that this will be in beta stages like the NEC Project. Keep in mind that 100 miles of track are already from Lorton to Richmond.

[thecanadianrail]

well that sounds promising.

[harryadkins]

I live in Kingstree, SC, and can provide pics and data from the Florence Subdivision. BTW, this is a BUSY line with LOTS of variety! I suggest you build the route in sections like the P&LE and involve others in the construction process. It should be a GREAT route!

[Toripony]

Don't underestimate what I can do. I can lay that much track down until 3-5 months or less. Scenery around the same time maybe depending on my free time. Everything else will take me around 6 months extra. Keep in my that this will be in beta stages like the NEC Project. Keep in mind that 100 miles of track are already from Lorton to Richmond.

I don't think anyone is judging your abilities. Rather, they (and me, too) are commenting on the challenges of RW that you may not have met yet. To prevent my own catastrophic disillusionment down the road, I would add "Fix-It" time to your schedule. Roughly, double your estimate.... and then don't let RW beat you when you're 3 months and 200 miles in and it all blows up one day for no obvious reason and you lose a week repairing what you already built.

Moral: Be REALLY careful what you click on when you're laying track. Make LOTS of backups! You WILL need them.

And you'll need all of the "good lucks" we can send... and you might need a new pc one day after you pick up yours and throw it through the wall, LOL (just funnin')(but I really was ready to do that just this week! grrrrr ).

I'm not being a doomsayer, just preparing you for the inevitable "bad day" that I think all of us routebuilders have had. It's not that RW is broken, it's just extremely delicate once you get a large route going. But we'll be here to help.

BTW, are you loading real geographic terrain for the entire route?

Tori
p.s. I really don't want to sound discouraging... just cautious and helpful! Protect your work... make backups!

[SithMurcielago]

BTW, are you loading real geographic terrain for the entire route?

I really want to, but I don't know how to get it going. Gonna need extra help on that. I will be saving my ****. All lessons learned from the last time I ran into a problem that deleted 30 mins worth of work. I'm also preparing for the day I hit that "t" button at the wrong time.

Thanks Tori for the support this will be a fun Journey.

[SithMurcielago]

Ok I take it back, I will be starting this route from scratch using the RemDem module and maker placement which means real-world Coordinates.

[kin3]

Most of all have fun. Sounds like a good challenge.

[SithMurcielago]

I'm having having a few questions with trying to use ReDEM. For one to start with, the site that was given in a tut listing Toporoute.com sucks. I marked the entire Auto Train route and when I go to download it I get an error message saying it was to long and I have to contact someone for them to extend the space or whatever. I want to know does anyone use a different site?

Second, I created a smaller version of the marked route, and it downloads and I go though the tut from UKTS and REDEm everything goes well, except when I went to create a series Marker file and name it and then go the the blueprint editor to export it, the bottom part of the editor says something about file not found and it didn't seem like anything got exported!

Another thing about the DEM Data, I downloaded the bil file with a 1/3 ARC and exported it back to REDEM everything goes well and the tiles are created no problem. So when I go to open the route there is nothing there except for the ugly desert grass terrain.

[micaelcorleone]

I used the data from the seamless servers or whatever it's called. The link is in the help/manual of ReDem.

If the files are too big, you can download several datasets and then combine them afterwards. This should be no problem as ReDem overwrites double tiles.
Did you put the Tiles into your "Terrain" folder of you route? Also try to clear the blueprint cache.

And now it's Superbowl Time. Packers for the Win!

[SithMurcielago]

Did you put the Tiles into your "Terrain" folder of you route? Also try to clear the blueprint cache.

Ok I just did that and it worked. thanks!

I didn't have problems wit the Seamless Server, but the main problems was from that site call toporoute.com that was listed for marking a route. Since it was 850 miles I couldn't download the entire route in the .gpx format so I created a smaller one as a test. I want to know is there another site like this that allows you to download a larger route into a .gpx file format.

[micaelcorleone]

I don't know what file you mean and for what it is? I didn't use such a file for my route I recently set the terrain up for.
For all Markers I used Google Earth. (.kml files can be converted to .csv with RWTols)

[SithMurcielago]

Screw it I don't like the way the terrain came out it is way to hilly. I'm just manually going to edit the terrain myself. As long I got the coordinates correct its good enough.