Begining the 3 Rivers route

[artimrj]

Talked with Michael and he didn't mind, so I started a new route with the DEM data that at one time was the RWA community route. This is to be another fictional route and also another community project at the NERW site. I have 5 volunteers who will be helping me work on the route. I am laying the track and they will help scenic it by takeing certain tiles for themselves. No one else can lay track though. Then they give me their updated files and I add them to the route. Staying away from othe other guy's tiles makes it go quite nicely.

I started working on it 6 days ago and here is a shot of the 2d map. If you recall the DEM was for the Point at Pittsburgh PA. So the double white lines are tracks on both side of the river. There is a double track line onthe north of the river, a single track going around the penisula of land on the right side and another double ine track following the south side of the river. Just west of the point is a container yard that I modelled after the one in Wall, PA which you can view on Google Earth. I am considering making 3 shortlines out of it. Maybe even 4 as there is nice terrain that looks like road bed going up into the center land mass above the point. It might be steep but it looks like somethnig should be there.

The track is about 50 from east to west, one line. What is there on the map is probably 200 miles.

[artimrj]

Got close to 40 hours in this now. A lot of track is down, but a lot more to go. I have been carefully keeping track of the assets I am using. So I will be able to RWP everything in one file this time. I am using Pikehkrs signals again but I editted all 80 some files to get them out of the Kuju folders and added them to the RailWorksAmerica provider folder that came with the DEM. Lots of bridges Using scalerails now also and it has made me relearn how to lay tracks especially when transitioning from mainline to yard types with no ballast or little ballast. The mainline ballast is higher than the default tracks I am used to.

I have all the water decals down for the rivers, there is a lot!!! of river here and tracks on both sides from end to end. I have a few industries laid out with buildings for mock ups. I have painted any terrainat all yet. My friend Rich is working on some new textures one is a ballast texture that resembles Scale Rail ballast. So far there is a coal mine, a container yard, a general central yard at the Point, an engine maintenance facility, an oil storage facility, a gravel pit and some assorted little industry areas.

Also, if anyone desires to tinker with route building you are welcome to join in. I had helpers on the NERW route and will take on helpers for this one. I do it a bit differently though following some guidelines I read somewhere in the wiki or someplace I don't remember. Only one person lays the tracks for the actual route. All helpers can do anything else. They can not lay track or anything that connects to the track, signals, speed signs, loader/unloaders, etc. Records for these types of editting go into the tracks.bin file and if everyone was editting track, then it willget all messed up overwriting other's work. But you can place roads, loft item like telegraph poles and pipelines and walls and paint the terrain and mold the terrain, even dig under the tracks to place bridges or over passes, plant trees, anything else. If you want to lay track you can to show me what you would like to have done, I just would not be able to use your files.

Thats what we do, keep track of the date when you start editting, then zip up all the files after that date and email or ftp them to me and then I release a new version of the route for everyone working on it to have the same thing. I did this every 3 or 4 months.

So you would explore the route area, find a place where you would like to do something, turn on the tile markers and write down which tiles you will working on and then no one else will work there. It will be your area of the route to do as you wish. If you make mistakes, you just reinstall the last version of the route and start again, or make backups and recopy it in. Its fun.

[glenn68]

Bob,
What I see it is excellent in the 9 key map. You mentioned to me about grabbing some tiles and working. I can only say I wish. I have no idea on building routes.



Glenn

[artimrj]

Bob,
What I see it is excellent in the 9 key map. You mentioned to me about grabbing some tiles and working. I can only say I wish. I have no idea on building routes.



Glenn

There is a creator guide in your railworks/manuals folder. Thats what I started with, after that I just experimented like a kid in the sandbox. Took 7 retries before I had a good handle on the NERW. Anyone is welcome if they want to try it out. If you ever placed scenery in a scenario, you have the basics of building a route, you just put in more objects.

[Rich_S]

Hi Bob,
Please don't take this the wrong way as my question is not meant to be negative. I'm just curious as to why you continue to build fictional routes? There are a lot of interesting prototype routes, both past and present and the greatest thing about Rail Works or any other current simulator is, no restrictions. With a model railroad you are restricted by the size of your layout room, but with Rail Works those restrictions are removed. Again, my post is not meant to be negative, just wondering?

Regards,
Rich S.

[artimrj]

Don't think your being negative just curious. I do it because I have no restrictions and can do whatever I want. I do it because most real world routes do not have much to do on them. Look at Horseshoe Curve. It is authentic but what is there to do other that switch one of the two huge yards at either end. Look at Donnor Pass. Thats a 3.5 hour end to end run. Not much else to do either. I am looking to drive trains not remake history. I am also making a virtual railroad out of these routes, so I make them to last a long time. Lots of things to do on the NERW as there will be on the 3 Rivers Railroad.

Then another reason is there is no scenery objects to really do Pittsburgh. So I am not going to struggle through learning how to make them when I can do fictional and have it done and running before I could learn 3D Crafter. And lastly TDwolf already did Pittsburgh with the P&LE, I don't think it would be proper for me to do it again.

[glenn68]

Bob,
I see what you mean. Can I throw in my two cents? Knowing of Thomas's P&LE route and the limit amount of default assets, you could turn what is Modern Day Downtown into a small township. I alot of sense I agree with Rich S. but also your NERW route is good and it is all freelanced which makes things interesting. If I have the time this weekend I will go into my manuals and read up on route creation. If you have all the elevation set I may try to help. I think that trying to go from scratch I would pull out my hair!
The old MSTS days I had fun playing around with Great Northerners Allegheny route. I actually cloned the route as a mini-route and made changes to it adding more industries to suit my interests. Who know what I am capable of.
I have to say this, I do work alot of overtime so personal time is at a premimum.
Glenn

[artimrj]

All the elevation is done from the DEM. You might have to level a few places depending on what you are doing. If you were able to play around on an MSTS route, then you should have no problems in RW. The Point on the 3 Rivers route is not a city like Pittsburgh, I guess you might ccall it a township, so that is actually what I am doing. If your time is very restricted, then you just take a smaller area. It is up to you, but you are welcome to try and play with us on it. Who knows, you may discover that it is not as hard as you think and make your own route for us someday.

All the guys that help me like to help because I am so laid back. I let them do whatever they want. No belittling or hollaring or anything, we just have fun. I am not a control freak.

[glenn68]

Bob,
Give me a spot down the river a ways. In our terms either up the Allegheny or down the Monongahela.(I would perfer the Monongahela) I will give a small area a try. If all is well expect a small specialty metals mill similiar to ATI in Houston Pa, since the location is along the river, a bulk transfer facility similiar like the one that the Union Railroad has over in Douquesne and maybe a public delivery yard around 3 tracks wide. Nothing special. This would be perfect for GP9 and sw1500 operation. I have toyed around with the idea of a freelanced railroad called THREE RIVERS and have repaints to show for it.
Let me know.
I know that since this is a freelanced route the rivers would have different names but you know what I mean.
Glenn

[artimrj]

I would rather you come over to the 3 Rivers forum and download the route and assets and look and see where you really want to work on the route. There are some large chuncks of property around the bends of the rivers and some are also small. Also at this time there is no hurry either. None of my other volunteers started anything yet so I have just been pounding down track and will release another version when everyone is ready to start in. You can however come and grab what is there and at least take a look at it. I'd feel more comfortable if you made the decision where to work. Me assigning you a spot makes me feel like a boss.

Anyway the route has it's own forum at the NERW forum.

[glenn68]

I will do that.
Bob, Where is the forum at?

Glenn

[artimrj]

Click the link in my signature. I thought you were already a member? Are you not Glenn Blum? Or am I confused?

[glenn68]

Bob,
Yep I got it and I am a member. I did not have anymore time last night to get into railworks. I did download the route files and that was it. I did read the instructions (which I thought was very clever). Maybe, just maybe I will have time this afternoon to get the install done.

Glenn Blum

[artimrj]

If and when you need help or have questions post in the route's forum at NERW and we can go from there. There is no rush, this is for fun, not a new job.