Powder River Basin

[Tomcat]

Tomcat,

For reference, here is what I have laid out so far for the Black Hills High Line marker and terrain wise. Just need the expertise to build it.

What time period are you looking to re-create? and what DLC are you thinking of using for the scenery?

I've spent the past few days looking over the area and I must admit it is an interesting subject for a route. I was wondering how difficult it would be to lay the track since the line is long abandoned but then I realized the old right-of-way has been turned into the George S. Mickelson Trail which is fairly easy to follow with Google Earth overlay in the editor.

I've got a long haul in front of me to finish the Powder River Basin but this is intriguing. I don't think I would want to add it into the PRB route since I'm sticking with a relatively modern presentation and in addition, I'm not sure I can include all the track I want in my route. I figure, roughly, that by the time I get to putting in Guernsey and getting past the double horseshoe curve at Crawford Hill I might be pushing the limits of the tracks.bin file with 1200 miles total track, then there would be the additional 160 miles to make it to Alliance and then on to Guernsey before even placing however many miles of track are in the yards at Alliance. Putting in the yards at Alliance might very well push the whole thing over the edge. I may have to prune those yards down in a major way if I can put them in at all.

If nothing else, the High Line would make for an incredibly scenic route.

[krellnut]

I might be pushing the limits of the tracks.bin file with 1200 miles total track,

My Trans Canada route was up to 2500 miles before the tracks bin gave out. Bin size was 30 mb's., Opened; 458 mb's. I could lay track, but when trying to save the work, it would crash and all the new track I just laid would be broken. Just before that though, it would take over 3 minutes to save any work.

I wonder if anyone knows when saving working on a bin file; with each save does it rewrite the whole bin, or just add the additional lines?

Love your work on this route.

[Tomcat]

My Trans Canada route was up to 2500 miles before the tracks bin gave out. Bin size was 30 mb's., Opened; 458 mb's. I could lay track, but when trying to save the work, it would crash and all the new track I just laid would be broken. Just before that though, it would take over 3 minutes to save any work.

I wonder if anyone knows when saving working on a bin file; with each save does it rewrite the whole bin, or just add the additional lines?

Love your work on this route.

Thanks Walter!

Oh boy!, 3 minutes to save! That will be painful approaching that mark. I assume that was just adding track? After the track is down then adding any track linked objects such as grade crossings, speed signs, signals, etc. will just keep adding to the tracks.bin - This is why I really wanted to see an editor for TSW right off the bat, 64 bit as opposed to 32 would have allowed for all of my memory to be utilized and hopefully have allowed much bigger routes to be constructed with much heavier traffic. Perhaps someday, but for now TS20XX is what it has to be.


And now for something completely unrelated I offer up the following for your amusement;

I haven't figured this out yet. I've changed engines/moved consist to adjacent track with the same result. It seems to be the bathtub gondolas but they behave as expected anywhere else on the route. I've looked at the track and nothing seems odd - same track as used at all the other mine loops with the same track rule used for the entire route.

[Tomcat]

Some scenes from a scenario.

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.11127--105.32903_10-14-36.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.12556--105.30119_10-17-19.jpg

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Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.13202--105.27939_10-20-17.jpg

[Tomcat]

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.13148--105.27964_10-21-28.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.13587--105.28059_10-22-33.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.17422--105.28143_10-26-52.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.20925--105.28988_10-31-49.jpg

[Tomcat]

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.21016--105.29077_10-31-59.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.21409--105.29116_10-33-23.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.25417--105.30201_10-40-09.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.26271--105.30037_10-41-58.jpg

[imnew]

Nice shots!

[chrisreb]

Scenarios! Great!

[hobo1960]

Are there scenarios coming for PRB?

[Tomcat]

Nice shots!

Thank you.

Scenarios! Great!

Are there scenarios coming for PRB?

I certainly hope there are scenarios coming. The screenshots are from my run checking out a scenario from one of the forum members, which I think is a perfect introduction to what might be a typical run on the Orin. Since it's not my scenario I can't say when it will be released, that's up to the creator to officially announce it and make it available when they choose to do so. I will say that it was thoroughly enjoyable (I've run it maybe 7 times so far and it doesn't get old) and was packed full of the amount of AI traffic that motivated me to do the PRB in the first place.

I think there may be one or two others besides the author of the above scenario who have hinted that they may, at some point, try their hand at scenarios - or that may be wishful thinking on my part. In any case, as time goes by and the PRB continues to grow I'm hopeful that we will see a greater interest in scenario authorship.

If I can get to a point where I don't feel guilty about taking time away from constructing the route then I would like to try to create a few scenarios myself. I've tried it before but invariably come up against my own ignorance of scenario creation which then convinces me that time would be better spent filling in the route.

[Tomcat]

Another week, maybe two and I'll have stage 2 ready for release. As a reminder, The Black Hills Subdivision will now go to Newcastle and the Orin Subdivision will extend to Reno Junction. Scenery is basic for much of the new extensions and still unfinished for a portion of stage 1 - it will be quite some time before I can call it done as I am concentrating more on the track infrastructure.



Some screenshots of work near the tracks around Upton.

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.10162--104.63655_17-37-56.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.10005--104.63396_17-38-22.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.09526--104.62627_17-45-21.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_44.09084--104.61908_17-39-50.jpg

[gtrtroger]

Will be looking to see if the scenarios I’ve done pass the update test...(don’t think there will be a problem)..maybe then release....

[Tomcat]

!!*ok*!!
Will be looking to see if the scenarios I’ve done pass the update test...(don’t think there will be a problem)..maybe then release....

More scenarios is welcome news!

There should not be any conflict with stage 1 scenarios when I release stage 2. I haven't reworked any stage 1 track in any way other than adjusting a gradient arrow here and there and adding a few track markers at Moorcroft.

[Tomcat]

Getting Newcastle to look right and also run smooth is going to be a bear. I expect it will be a WIP over the course of the next several stage releases. Moorcroft is a fraction of the size and several of the tiles are over 2500 assets with which I'm not entirely comfortable with. Upton is on a par with Moorcroft in terms of size, perhaps a bit more spread out and thankfully most of the houses are set in a dense copse of pines which enabled me to dispense with the road grid work and detail work that would never be seen, this resulted in tiles with no more than 700 or so assets - making me feel more at ease with the representation. Newcastle is shaping up to be a completely different animal and the road grid work is going to have to be faithfully represented I think.

We'll see how I do over the course of the coming months.

I'll end with just a couple of shots of a Westbound departing Newcastle with the Wyoming Refining Co. in the background. The Google Earth capture shows the layout and the distance in meters from the camera position to the refinery, backing up just a few meters more causes the refinery to blink out.

2018-06-12 copy.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_43.85458--104.24580_17-03-37.jpg

Screenshot_Powder River Basin_43.85466--104.24603_17-01-22.jpg

[chrisreb]

You really are making something special here.