Release Candidate Shots

[spartantrain32]

I see what you mean.

[artimrj]

If they haven't been included already, I'd like to request lots of portals, thus providing places for AI trains to escape (or enter: and please don't resurrect all those old arguments about "spawning": salmon spawn, not trains). Also, if there are any large yards, please consider placing signals (hidden if necessary) at each end of each siding, so as to allow Ai switchers to work alongside player driven switchers. Excellent examples of this can be found in Springfield Yard on the VNHRR.

Tom your going to be surprised at how the AI/Portals are figured in to the scheme of things. Something different.

[thecanadianrail]

Sure looks like custard to me now lol...big tubs of that stuff rolling down the tracks

[fecrails]

Corn?

cars_corn_mill.jpg

[buzz456]

wood3.jpg

wood2.jpg

wood1.jpeg

[GreatNortherner]

I'll do something about the woodchips texture. It is a texture of actual woodchips that is currently in use, but I think it dates back to MSTS so it's probably not best suited for RW's brighter and more vibrant color rendering.

[g_nash]

I'll do something about the woodchips texture.

nearly 4k royalty free >> http://www.photos-public-domain.com/tag/wood-chips/ ... they just need a tweak, I used 1 & 2.

.

[OldProf]

If they haven't been included already, I'd like to request lots of portals, thus providing places for AI trains to escape (or enter: and please don't resurrect all those old arguments about "spawning": salmon spawn, not trains). Also, if there are any large yards, please consider placing signals (hidden if necessary) at each end of each siding, so as to allow Ai switchers to work alongside player driven switchers. Excellent examples of this can be found in Springfield Yard on the VNHRR.

Tom your going to be surprised at how the AI/Portals are figured in to the scheme of things. Something different.

Between this teaser about portals and the corn/pudding/chips loads, I feel a drool coming on.

[ozinoz]

Being the colonial ignoramus, what real RR's might one have expected to see in this part of the country in the early 50's. I know Rick has mocked up a modified PM loco; suggestions on others ?

Somebody...anybody?

[ricksan]

http://www.american-rails.com/fallen-flags.html

[thecanadianrail]

Being the colonial ignoramus, what real RR's might one have expected to see in this part of the country in the early 50's. I know Rick has mocked up a modified PM loco; suggestions on others ?

Somebody...anybody?

Well from what I can find you most likely would see the DMIR, C&O, MILW, CNW, NYC, DT&I, EJ&S, PRR are some quick common ones I could find that would be in the area of the route and could be a possible connection, there are many other shortlines that were in the area at the time but the list would be too big to write down for the time I have.

[ozinoz]

[Well from what I can find you most likely would see the DMIR, C&O, MILW, CNW, NYC, DT&I, EJ&S, PRR are some quick common ones I could find

Cheers mate thanks - some names there I recognise, some I wouldn't have thought of for that area (but then again, not really sure just what "that area" is ) Need to do some research now...

DMIR or USRA Mallets on ore

again...

[philmoberg]

..., what real RR's might one have expected to see in this part of the country in the early 50's. ... I dont know what is involved, but the gons of wood chips look more reminiscent of vanilla custard - the load just seems very bright and gaudy - thoughts? ...

If we're speaking strictly of the Upper Peninsula, there's a really handy map here: http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/E ... er1955.htm with the bonus that you can change the year by means of the arrows in the upper right-hand corner (it defaulted to 1900 when I first found it). I live up that way brefly in the mid-'60s, and remember a lot of seasonal pulpwood traffic, mainly bound for the paper mills in Green Bay and elsewhere. Additional wood traffic was bound for the plywood mills in a variety of places. The color of the wood and wood chips varied depending on the species being harvested, ranging from very pale (nearly white) to a distinctly light yellow color.

Motive power was an interesting mixture of whatever the railroads regarded as secondary power at that point, being first generation diesels mostly from "minority bulders," at least with respect to the MILW and the CNW, whose operations were most of what I saw at that time. Particularly memorable was the operation on one pulpwood yard that was covered by only one FM cab unit: I'm sure the train crew had a grand time with that job. The Copper Range, or one of the other lines in the area, was still running some steam into the the '60s.

The ore docks at Escanaba were a partidcularly interesting operation, since they towered over everything in town. Ore boats, at that time, ranged from vessels buit shortly after the turn of the century to relatively new vessels from the late-'50s, including the Edmund Fitzgerald about a decade before she became known to the general public. I don't know whether the House of Ludington (an old resort hotel) is still there, but if it is, you may be treated to one of the finest dinners you ever ate, in a classic elegance of a different age.

Passenger service was mostly (if not all) gone, by then, but only a few years before. The CNW was still running long-distance gallery cars as far as Rhinelander, in northern Wisconsin, which lasted into the late-'60s. In the '50s, there was still a fair amount of passenger service on several of the carriers, so the Lakeside route offers the promise of a nice balance of traffic. I'm looking forward to this.

[ozinoz]

Thanks Phil, you're a champ