Cincinnati & Beyond

[Redferne]

Hello, everyone. I'm not new to trainsimming as I have been around since the early MSTS days but have only come over to the RailWorks world a month or two before TS2012 arrived. While I have not posted much in these or other forums, I do read many of the different sites out there on a regular basis and enjoy much of the content produced by the trainsimming community, both payware and freeware. Now I'm considering taking the advice of several of the folks in the community and giving back. I have never created my own route but I am ready to try and willing to tackle the learning curve. While I know the area(s) I want to model, I'm curious who else out there may be interested in what my final product would contain as I suspect from reading about other routes it will have a LOT of time invested to get to the finished product.

As I live in Northern Kentucky, I am interested in modelling the areas north of Cincinnati, down through the city and on south through Kentucky. This area is all currently CSX and NS with a few small excursion lines sprinkled about as well and some Amtrak service. As we turn back the clock though, we also include I&O, Chessie System, Indiana Eastern, C&O, B&O, L&N, etc. I think this project would offer some unique scenery and trackage along with many yards and even some unique scenario possibilites such as the CSX and UP trains removing radioactive waster from the Fernald powerplant.

Several of my friends and I have been area railfans for as long as we've known each other and I already have quite a bit of documentation and photography to help with the route, but of course I would love to lean on the community and ask anyone else with info on this area to pass along what you have so we can make it as accurate as possible and covering a wide range of eras. I know it is going to take a lot of time and patience and I'm sure I will have a lot of questions but that is why we have communities like this one, right? I know there are now tools out there to take advantage of Google Earth maps and topography maps which should aid in an accurate recreation. I'm excited at the prospect of what could be with this route and I don't know of anything else out there that covers this area. I hope you will be excited with me.

So experienced route designers... my question to you is, what is the very first document I need to read to get started. You guys have been around the block so you know what the best source of info is about route creation. I humbly ask you to point me in the right direction so I may begin taking the baby steps that will one day grow into a nice route for the community.

Thank you.

[TrainMaster1]

Best document you want if you want to work as close to the prototype is to obtain a track and employee TT of the area you want to represent in the era that you want to do. Track layouts in some case do not change for years where in others that seems to happen quite rapidly. There are lots of good CSX materials around Cincinnati online. Look up by division and you should be able to find a .pdf of the TT for your region/subdivision.

Here's link to hopefully get you started: http://www.ohiovalleyrail.com/ohio-railroads/csx/

Nick

[Redferne]

Thanks, Nick.

[micaelcorleone]

Hi!

Great that you want to make a route for Railworks.
The whole process is much easier compared to MSTS, but still there's a lot to do before you can finally release your route.
Route creation can be frustrating sometimes, but also it can make a lot of fun.

As you already have an idea what route you want to do, the next phase is researching.

Go into Google Earth and create a folder. Then scroll along your route and mark important points, sidings and other things you find important with the placemark option of Google Earth. These markers should be in the previously created folder.
You can also create a path along the rails in Google Earth.
Later, these markers and paths will help you in the route editor.

Also search on the web for pics of important buildings and locations along your line. Don't forget to look into wikipedia.
Maybe there are also videos on YouTube or on DVD available. Sometimes there are also books about a line.

If you want a really accurate recreation of the original you can also search for trackcharts.
A good source is Railfandepot.com

Next, you should obtain RWTools.
It's very useful for route creators. Moreover, it explains how to set up a new route template and get the markers a d paths from Google Earth into the Editor.

Another helpful tool is RW Decal which creates decals from Google Earth. They can be placed in your route.

I wish you good success with your project.

[Toripony]

Getting all the right folders/files in the right places to start your route can be confusing. As mentioned RWTools Help details the first steps where RWT can help create some of those folders for you and get your RouteTemplate in place. The most recent tutorial on route startup is in this post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3446
And if you want to import real terrain, you may want to look at ReDEM. TS'12 has a new terrain import feature but I think ReDEM still has some advantages. See this post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=379

I'm glad to see someone building for that area of the country; it will likely be different than anything we have right now but at the same time will complement the routes currently in-progress. The NS stock needs some new territory to run and we'll have a new place for proto C&O/Chessie/CSX stock to run there.

[Hawk]

The most recent tutorial on route startup is in this post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3446

That's a good thread for the discussion of the mentioned tutorial, and the tutorial itself can be download form the Miscellaneous Files section of the RWA File Library.

[LandN]

There is a Railfan Guide for the Cincinnati area available for $3.00 from the L&N Railroad Historical Society at PO Box 17122, Louisville, KY 40217.

Jay

[Redferne]

Thanks, everyone. Looks like I have a lot of reading ahead of me. Jay, I will definitely check out the L&N guide as well. Thanks!

[Clinchfieldfanatic]

Hello Redferne

I also live in Northern Ky. and I just started a route, the north end of the Clinchfield. I have all the track charts for CSX that covers Queensgate yard North too Middletown (AK Steel) I have the track chart from Queensgate down to Elkhorn City, KY.(Cincinnati Sub and Big Sandy Sub). I also have all the mainline track charts for the C & O dated 1968. This would have all C & O trackage North and West to Chicago. Letme know if I can help. Maybe we could share some resources. Let me know.

Kevin

[Redferne]

Hello Redferne

I also live in Northern Ky. and I just started a route, the north end of the Clinchfield. I have all the track charts for CSX that covers Queensgate yard North too Middletown (AK Steel) I have the track chart from Queensgate down to Elkhorn City, KY.(Cincinnati Sub and Big Sandy Sub). I also have all the mainline track charts for the C & O dated 1968. This would have all C & O trackage North and West to Chicago. Letme know if I can help. Maybe we could share some resources. Let me know.

Kevin

Hey Kevin,

Yes, I would definitely be interested in anything that would help out and I'm all for sharing. I'm really at ground zero starting out here but I think this area is just so rich with possibilities for our sim and it has never been done (that I am aware of) so I figured I would have to take it upon myself. Ideally, I wonder if it would be easier to get a group of folks together to complete a route, each with their own skill set. There are plenty of resources out there now that would allow collaboration. Heck, I even run a website for a local Camaro & Firebird enthusiast club so it would be nothing for me to throw together a private forum just to chat about our route build(s). I need to take my first step on mine though and thank everyone here for pointing me to some great tutorials.

I'm also sure the time will come when I will be reaching out to some of you 3D modelers out there, because that is not my cup of tea at all. lol

Anyway, feel free to PM me whenever, Kevin.

Thanks again,

Craig

[Redferne]

OK, so I decided where I am going to start. I am starting with a 10-mile section of the Cincinnati Southern between the Ohio River bridge at Ludlow, KY south to the Erlanger Yard. This is part of District 1 of Norfolk Southern's Central Division. Starting just south of the Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati, this includes the Ohio River bridge, a yard and shops in Ludlow, Erlanger Hill and the small Erlanger Yard.

Using Iamnew's tutorial, I was able to import terrain to my newly created route last night. I also started to play with RWDecal, but I need to hit that website up and watch some tutorials and it was getting late. The section of terrain I imported is actually bigger than the 10-mile section I will be focusing on first and runs from the already mentioned Queensgate Yard to the NS crossover of the CSX ex-L&N line in Walton, KY. So after I get the NS line complete through Walton, I will go back and add the CSX lines in as well. Once this section is done for both lines, then I will move on to the next section to extend the route. This is my plan anyway.

So, nutshell version... we have terrain! Thanks Iamnew.

Mods... you may wish to move this thread to the Route Design or WIP forum. You're call. Could you also rename the thread to Cincinnati Southern?

[Redferne]

There will be no updates on this for about a week as I am leaving for vacation... not that there was much to update yet anyway, but just FYI.

Probably getting ahead of myself here but last night I had to dig a picture out for a friend from one of my Alaska trips... it made me consider the possibility of creating a route based on the Copper River & Northwestern Railway route from Cordova, AK to the copper mines at Kennecott. It is 131 miles long and was completed in 1911 and then abandoned in 1938 as the mines played out.







Would anyone be interested in a route like this?

[railbard]

I too am a long time train simmer--playing since MSTS came out way back in the Middle Ages. :)

I tried my hand at route design using the variety of nice utilities people created for MSTS but found it, in the end, too much of a learning curve when I had many other things to fill my free time. So while I had done a pile of research and bought track charts and started collecting scenery and staking out rail lines in Google Earth, I let it go with some regret.

In late 2009 I had a fire in my apartment and lost a lot of stuff, including my computer. In country song fashion then, in early 2010, I lost my job, my cat died, and I was diagnosed with lymphoma. But don't weep for me, it worked out okay.

Now I have a new computer, and TS2012 (as well as MSTS) loaded up and am having a grand old time catching up with the simworld. AND I found a box of slightly smoky smelling CDs and papers: my design research on the Chicago & Illinois Midland and the C&O of Indiana, the two projects I wanted to do in MSTS.

Having grown up in Peru Indiana exactly three blocks north of the C&O, three blocks south of the N&W (former Wabash) and three blocks east of the N&W (former Nickel Plate), and having had demonstrated to me the relative ease of at least the initial setup part of route design in RW3, I am now embarking on the C&O project.

I've got the terrain done with a long term view of doing the whole COI from Cincy to Hammond, but for now I'm laying out track in Peru from Hoover on the west to Santa Fe on the east. I may play around with that exclusively for a while, trying my hand at scenery and maybe some scenarios first to get some practice in. Then I'll expand, one town at a time--north to Kewanna, south to Marion, north to Bruce Lake, south to Muncie, north to North Judson, and so on.

Just thought I'd mention my hopes and dreams since you all were talking at least in part of the area I'm focusing on.

Kevin Payne
Quincy, IL

PS. I still have all the C&IM research sitting here too, and I'm hankering to maybe do my current stomping grounds, the BNSF from Galesburg, IL to West Quincy, MO. But one thing at a time! :) Come to think of it, the WAB/N&W/NS from Springfield/Jacksonville IL to Hannibal MO would also be cool!

[Redferne]

That's great, Kevin, that you have got back to route building and enjoying the sim community.

I have not posted here in awhile but the holiday season sort of ambushed me and any time I had to get started on my Cincy-area route has vanished. I do still wish to do this, but I have to be honest that the learning curve seems a bit steep as well, especially when I have limited time to devote to this cause. I've read through the tutorial out there on using Google Earth and RWDecal, etc and think I have wrapped my head around that, but I need a bare basics tutorial on just laying the track and placing objects, etc. Given a decent tutorial I am confident I can get some work done on this route. Given enough time I can figure anything out but time is a luxury I no longer have, so I'd be grateful for some good tutorials instead. :)

[railbard]

Kevin (clinchfieldfanatic) mentione dhaving 1968 track charts for the C&O.

Kevin, any chance I could get you to scan and send my way the charts for C&O of Indiana, beginning with the viaduct out of Cincinnati and the line up Cheviot Hill? I've gotten a lot done using Google Earth but that whole end of the line is long gone and you can't see the remains clearly at all. I'd be happy to send some $$ your way to defray the costs.

I'd also like to have charts for the whole line because I want to set the route in the 1960s and 70s when I lived in the area.

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer.

On the route building front, I'm concentrating on Hoover - Peru - Wabash River bridge plus a bit of the NKP and Wabash lines for traffic and interchange opportunities in case I never get any farther than Peru. :)