Saluda grade

[kylewoody]

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to TS, used to mess around with MSTS years ago, then never had a good enough computer to run the newer TS until recently. I've always loved Southern Railway and been fascinated with Saluda. Not seeing anything out there for the Railworks train sim, I thought I'd give a go at it!

Please bear with me and be gentle! This is my first route, still figuring out track placement, scenery, everything. Thank goodness for Google Maps overlay though, definitely a major help. I thought Saluda grade would be a good first route (other than the crazy grades) since its short, and has relatively simple/repetitive scenery (mostly trees). I started with laying the track at the more or less correct grades for each section of the route and following the turns. Now, I'm just slowly pushing west from Melrose and going back over with detail such as backdrop mountains, trees, grass, roads, buildings, etc.

The route



Working with the Google overlay in editor... I think it's a decent resemblence!



Now we'll start moving west from the far east point near Slaughter Pen Cut



Coming through Melrose... still need to work on the repetitive look of the trees.



About to cross the Pacolet River



On the trestle - I thought the runaway siding was cool in this shot!



Crossing the river



Just starting up the grueling grade



This is what nearly 5% looks like!



And looking back on what's done, I'm working around Sand Cut now


Hopefully I can keep plugging away at it - I'd love to run both some modern -9s and maybe Britkits Southern steam on the grade here!

Kyle

[ErikGorbiHamilton]

Amazing work! Will this be posted to the TS workshop or released here on RWA?

We actually have the correct signal types here in the file library in the RCAP collection. I believe they are the correct type of Griswald signals on the route that are still there today.

[Joshuaharkness]

To help with that "repetitive look" of the trees, you can add multiple types of trees in an asset block, a mix of deciduous and coniferous would probably be good for this area of the south. The 2D conifers that you are already using are Tamaracks and change color and lose their leaves in the fall, on my own route, I typically use the "Pine Large 01" as it gives an accurate look for Hemlocks and White Pines (both I'm sure the Saluda Grade has a lot of). When adding assets to an asset block, you'll notice a density setting that defaults to 10000, I often will set this to 12000 as it gives a much denser and realistic look to the trees. Beneath the density setting there is another that defaults to 0.00, this controls the height of the assets, and how much they differ in height. 0.20 and 0.30 are often best for getting an authentic uneven look to the canopy.

On the 3D trees, it helps to add scaled up and down versions of the "Tree Near" to close portions of the forest, adding other types like Black Ash and White Oak will also help dramatically. You should also have Fir and Pine options with the routes you are using. You can also place both deciduous and coniferous trees with the "Tree Near Line" and "Tree Pine Line", they provide a decent mix and flex to the terrain.

I'd also do a bit more terrain texturing if I were you, but what you're doing with it looks like it'll be fine.

I hope this helps! Best of luck!

[NStrains]

YES!!!

[Noel]

Looking good so far! Finally glad to see a Southeastern NS route being made!

[DKSspeed]

SALUUUUUUUUDDAAA!!!

Always wanted to run this route! Thank you for bringing it to the game!

[TheTeenageFoamer]

I've always wanted to pound the grade! I hope to see this go farther!

[kylewoody]

Thanks guys for the motivation! And thanks Joshua for the tree/asset block help. I saw that "scaling" of 0.000 but wasn't sure what it did. Now that you said that, I went through and adjusted my trees - MUCH better now! Same goes for variety, I mixed them up a bit. I'm now going back over some of the ground painting as the green is too green. I appreciate the feedback, I'm having as much/more fun building than I am running trains.

And yes, I totally plan to upload this to RWA when finished, if it meets all the criteria then Steam too. I don't anticipate it being way off down the road - I'm actually doing all of this on my laptop while I'm deployed here in my freetime... a little less than 5 months until I'm back stateside.

I'll keep updates coming!

Kyle

[kylewoody]

Alright, just a few pics - been covering a lot of ground since this is a small layout and the area I'm working is pretty much all woods.


Looking back east towards Melrose



Down in the "jungle" - trying to portray how buried in the mountains this run was with trees, shrubs, even kudzu constantly threatening to reclaim it.



A small cut about a quarter way up the grade... took a little liberty since it's hard to tell exactly where they would be.



Little farm house near the base of the grade, looking back at Melrose



Coming across the trestle with the runaway track off to the side



Yard at Melrose from the front porch



Looking back west at the grade



Yard/helper siding



Up to Sand Cut


Kyle

[gtrtroger]

Funny you should mention "kudzu". I drove across Georgia twice this last weekend and noticed that there was very little left of this stuff left. Slowly but surely it's being eliminated. The forests look so much the better for it.....

[kylewoody]

Got up to Sand Cut done...

[TheTeenageFoamer]

Very nice scenery! You are keeping track of the DLC being used correct? That is very important because the route could require certain assets, and some people might not own it.

[BoostedFridge]

Nice work, especially for a first route! I'm looking forward to running this when you release it.

[Joshuaharkness]

Wow, nice texturing job! I would recommend texturing some sand down along the roads though, don't get me wrong, they look fine, but I feel like they look a little unnatural and, in my experience, ground texturing along the roads helps with this. You've come along way already and it's hard to believe this is your first route! It took me six years of practice until I was finally happy with my technique and started a route!

[kylewoody]

Thanks! I am keeping track of the assets, I don't have a lot myself anyways - trying to keep it to (so far) Feather River, Penn Coal District, Sherman Hill, and US Assets.

Good call on the texturing too, I tried blending them in a bit better around the curve and at the water treatment plant here.







Kyle