Erie / LTV Mining Railroad

[Racer]

Hey Guys,

My name is Tom Mihelich and having grown up in Michigan on the St. Clair River, I had the great pleasure
of getting to see the Great Lakes iron ore freighters passing by almost everyday.
The movement of the iron ore (Taconite Pellets) was something that I have always wanted to
try and reproduce in model railroading but alas...not enough room in the house at this time.
Enter 2012 Train Simulator.
Being able to reproduce the rail line of the Erie / LTV off of Lake Superior was the perfect choice for me to
build in the sim.
I have done a fair amount of solid modelling work and texturing for a few flight sims so that part of it is not going to be an issue.
Of course, learning all of the in's and out's of this sim will be an adventure for sure, one I look forward too.
To document my progress, I have set up a number of blogs which are laid out to navigate just like a website would.
Of course, comments are always welcome.
I hope you enjoy the subject matter as much as I do.

Here is the Blog Link to the Main Site-
http://erieltvmining.blogspot.com/

[jpetersjr]

If the route is going to be freeware I'll be glad to help you build some assets to put on it.

I as well have been building scenery assets for a while and have already got several models into the sim.

All I'll need are some good reference photo's and I'll build them.


.....If I do build you some assets I'll start with old houses for the route.

For reference of how my buildings look, here's a picture of some buildings I built and put into Railworks, they're now available in the file library here.

Downtown_Buildings_Pack_1.jpg

Jonathan

[Racer]

That is exactly what I am talking about.
I have that video they are referring to and I have to say it is very very informative.

[Racer]

Getting the feel for the RWDecal program. Once I got the hang of what it was doing
it made things much easier to do. I also figured 400M square decals were about the right size for my needs.
Here is the start of the route about 6.75 miles from the dock.

[Racer]

Set up my first scenario on my new layout.
I took the locomotive for a test run down the main line from start to finish with no issues.
Time to read up on the best way to create an accurate grade with what I have done so far.

[glenn68]

LTV Erie Mining was a very interesting company.

[Racer]

Here is a shot of the locomotive heading around the last turn just before pulling onto the dock.
This completes the trackline from Dyers Lake to the dock.
The distance covered thus far is 6.75 miles with an elevation drop of just under 600'.
The dock deck will sit approximately 80' off the water.

[Bananarama]

Looking forward to seeing your progress and one of my favorite locales! I'm not sure what you plan for scenarios since the route's in dark territory and single track. However, aside from mine turns, there was usually not more than a single train over the entire line so it might not matter.

FWIW, normal water level (600' amsl) to the dock's railhead is 91'.

[Racer]

Here is the completed rail route for the Taconite Harbor area.
All the tracks drive very smooth with the grade changes. No bumps or lumps.
Now back to Dyers Lake for the journey west.
Only 67 more miles to go till we reach the mine area.
As you can tell from the picture, I want to get all of the rail system in place and working before I bring the scenery
to it. (Lessons learned )

[Rich_S]

Looking forward to seeing your progress and one of my favorite locales!

Marc,
Is there any chance your Erie Mining structures could be ported over to Rail Works for this route or does Abacus own the right to them?

Regards,
Rich S.

[Rich_S]

He would have to own them of have permission

If I remember correctly, he created the structures and the rolling stock for the MSTS verison of the LTV Erie Mining route.

[Racer]

Now what kind of fun would that be guys....
I could have just bought the Abacus mod and ran it in that other sim.
No...part of the enjoyment of doing a mod is doing it yourself and learning in the process.

[Rich_S]

Now what kind of fun would that be guys....
I could have just bought the Abacus mod and ran it in that other sim.
No...part of the enjoyment of doing a mod is doing it yourself and learning in the process.

Hi Tom,
To be honest, you really don't want the Abacus Erie Mining route. The grades are not correct, they are too steep. There was some confusion back in the early days of MSTS and some folks were not sure if the Route Editor used degree or grade percent. Unfortunately, the guy that laid the track and imported the DEM data though the Route Editor used grade percent, so long story short instead of the grade out of Taconite Harbor being 2.5%, he set it to 2.5 degrees which works out to be approximately a 5 percent grade. As for the structures, I was just thinking why reinvent the wheel, but on second thought those structures are 11 years old now and a lot of advances have been made in the 3D modeling world. You are probably better off just creating everything new.

Regards,
Rich S.

[glenn68]

I made the mistake of buying that route. SO I can only say DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE THAT I DID! LOL! The route is still in the case in my junk drawer. Oh and dont even try to install it above a windows xp system, the installer is too old.

Glenn

[Racer]

Tonight, I am back into the RW Decal program and am making my way westward now 4 miles and continuing up the 1.25% grade in this long section to the 1800' long Cramer tunnel. I will also be getting my first taste of the long double siding on the east side of the tunnel.