Railworks America

i think ive gone over the edge this time.....

well with RW decals now free i decided that i would try and make CN's Walker yard in Edmonton AB.......boy was i in for a suprize on how much of a job this will be!

Why i have gone crazy you ask? well.....lets just start off with some basic facts about this yard:

-34 track hump yard
-10 track locomotive shed complete with turntable
-looks like a 10 track car repair shop with a mess of a storage yard around it
-the WHOLE yard measures well over 10kms long
-ive counted over 25 different induistrys around the yard that are serviced by the railway
-connection with CP and edmonton LRT
-i cant even count how many other tracks there are (well over 100 for things like eastbound, westbound, storage etc)

i recomend going on google maps and take a look at the yard, it parallels the yellowhead highway in town (hwy 16, 3 lane in each direction incase you have a hard time finding it.)

well i plan to release the main part of the yard in beta 1.0, just the tracks and no scenery items. this is not going to be 100% prototypical because i dont have ReDem to use for the landscape so extending it to the real thing isnt going to happen...although i think releasing this as just the tracks in V1.0 will give alot of route bulders a good starting point in their fictional routes. what i plan to do is try and get as much of CN's operations around the city as possible ....in 1 lifetime?

i will post screenshots of what i have done later tonight after supper.


(what have i gotten myself into! )

le pics:

Holy Toledo - that's some project you got - nice work!

Hack wrote:Holy Toledo - that's some project you got - nice work!

yeah, its no small task. but this is one of the WIP's that i am determined to release. i think if i really try hard enough i could have most of the trackwork done by the weekend....but im going to say 2 weeks from now just to be safe.

depending on how smoothly this project goes i might end up making an actual prototypical route using ReDem and all.

but for now this route will just include the yard, surrounding induistrys, and connections with both the LRT and CP.

my head hurts now

#9 views of the route:

Looking good

Heck Yes!

Whoa, Nellie!! very abititious, indeed! Good luck!

Well now, this looks really, really good, we had Chicago Yard as a stand alone layout, so, this should work very well indeed.
Thank you for bringing some Canadian content to the community.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Oh wow, nice! Now if we could only hump the cars! LOL

Now I've got a question for the people who would be using this as a starting point for their freelance route. Would you like me to only do the track work, or track work and adding some markers explaining what different areas are and minimal structures to give a good idea what it could be used for?

thecanadianrail wrote:Now I've got a question for the people who would be using this as a starting point for their freelance route. Would you like me to only do the track work, or track work and adding some markers explaining what different areas are and minimal structures to give a good idea what it could be used for?

Well, since you've asked ... As a scenario writer, I would use your route as a finished product, so I'd prefer both the trackwork and some markers, preferably quite short and placed near the middle of a siding. Also, I'd like to see complete structures (as much as possible, anyway) and please don't forget portals on entry/exit tracks. If you'll be placing signals as well, please think about isolating the various yard sections from each other, making simultaneous AI - Player switching possible. I know that this is a lot to ask, but primarily I'm listing the features that the Chicago Yard route lacks.

Many thanks for asking,

Yes, I'd like the layout to be a stand alone, I'd personally like the complete yard with track markers and everything included and trackage out from both ends to simulate incoming and outgoing trains, long enough to accommodate trains of 150 wagons or so, as often seen in reality. Some nice trees and buildings, to recreate the local area, doesn't have to be realistic so you have to create buildings from scratch, just enough scenery to not leave it bland and desolate.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

well if you want the complete package you will be wating a few months before its released as i will be going away from my pc for up to a 2 month period within 2 weeks (hopefuly). and the yard is able to handle trains well over the 200 car mark, i think 250 is even possible on some of the longer tracks? i should also mention that on the picture i currently have up showing a full view of what i had done at that moment in 9 view is almost exactly 14kms from left to right (not including the extra from the track going at a 45 degree angle in the one section) and not shown is the extra 5kms or so to the other end of the actual yard, so in total the technical full yard measures something like 20kms which is a bit bigger than i first mentioned in the first post. i will have more pictures up either tonight or tomorow....yesterday was payday so i am going to go for a trip and buy some HO scale trains in the city

I'll give you a 4\5, on account its not 100% accurate.