Powder River Basin

[gtrtroger]

Just set the DVR....

[Tomcat]

Stage 3 is nearing completion so for a change of pace I spent the day working on a quick standard scenario. The scenario takes place entirely on the Reno sub and is shaping up to be about 35 minutes long. It will take at least a week to polish up; 3 of the planned 5 AI trains are in and timings are being tweaked.

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[chrisreb]

Scenarios! Great.

[Tomcat]

Scenarios! Great.

Well, just one from me at this point but there is one in the file library from BoostedFridge as well. If my effort turns out okay then I may continue to work on a new standard scenario for each stage release. If I place my head down on the rail then I swear I can hear some other scenarios coming this way but I don't have my timetable with me and my radio is out so It will be a bit of a surprise to see what comes around the bend.

[chrisreb]

Whilst I can do my own scenarios I find many great freeware routes die through lack of scenarios which is also a shame.

[Tomcat]

Whilst I can do my own scenarios I find many great freeware routes die through lack of scenarios which is also a shame.

Point taken! My scenario is pretty much complete and it was actually quite a bit of fun to work on and also highlighted a few things that I need to do throughout the route to get AI to behave. I suspect that I might now have the scenario creation bug.

And now for something completely different;

Does anyone know what is being done at this location near Jacob's Ranch Mine? There is a rake of tank cars on the outer outbound track with tanker trucks lined next to them. If you look closely you can also see some sort of thing (pipe maybe?) in the ground and spaced as if for each tank car.

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[gtrtroger]

So, I treated this like ants to honey and started tracking out from this spot as these are either loading or unloading....

Follow Clareton Hwy west toward Hilight Rd, then continue West on 420/Little Thunder Rd on look south of the road. Just a short distance on the south side of the road is a big white storage tank, with more of the exact same vehicles. So, I figure they are loading here (and maybe other sites) and transporting to the railhead to unload.....crude maybe, or coal oil.....

[Tomcat]

So, I treated this like ants to honey and started tracking out from this spot as these are either loading or unloading....

Follow Clareton Hwy west toward Hilight Rd, then continue West on 420/Little Thunder Rd on look south of the road. Just a short distance on the south side of the road is a big white storage tank, with more of the exact same vehicles. So, I figure they are loading here (and maybe other sites) and transporting to the railhead to unload.....crude maybe, or coal oil.....

Thanks Roger, sounds like a plausible explanation. Since TS20XX does not have liquid transfer points I guess what happens at that location is not terribly important. I'll try to duplicate the look and throw down a siding marker so a scenario or two might be done which would be a change of pace from hauling coal.

[McCRRR19]

Does anyone know what is being done at this location near Jacob's Ranch Mine? There is a rake of tank cars on the outer outbound track with tanker trucks lined next to them. If you look closely you can also see some sort of thing (pipe maybe?) in the ground and spaced as if for each tank car.

It's for loading oil. There was plans to build several oil facilities along the Orin line, only two to be built was a large facility south of Bill at MP113 and some piping put in there at East Thunder (it hasn't been called Jacob's Ranch for quite a while now). Not sure what the plans are for the oil facilities anymore since that drop in oil prices a few years ago almost brought the beginning of an oil boom in the Powder River Basin to a halt. I'll have to see if I can find it, but there was a map on BNSF's website that showed the locations of the proposed facilities. UP seemed to be handling most of the oil in the East Thunder oil load out. They would bring a unit train of oil, take the power off, and it would seem like the cars would sit there for a month before being loaded and the train removed.

[Tomcat]

It's for loading oil. There was plans to build several oil facilities along the Orin line, only two to be built was a large facility south of Bill at MP113 and some piping put in there at East Thunder (it hasn't been called Jacob's Ranch for quite a while now). Not sure what the plans are for the oil facilities anymore since that drop in oil prices a few years ago almost brought the beginning of an oil boom in the Powder River Basin to a halt. I'll have to see if I can find it, but there was a map on BNSF's website that showed the locations of the proposed facilities. UP seemed to be handling most of the oil in the East Thunder oil load out. They would bring a unit train of oil, take the power off, and it would seem like the cars would sit there for a month before being loaded and the train removed.

Thanks Tim. Good to know that UP power is what I should go with if I do a scenario for it. Is the facility South of Bill the Genesis Energy - Pronghorn Terminal? I think that's what I see South of Bill on Google Earth, though the imagery is from 2013 and the track work appears only half done. Again, the information is much appreciated!

[Tomcat]

Most every mile having some sort of basic scenery in place is nearing completion. Last on my list before stage 3 was getting in the basics for Coal Creek. I've just about hit my tolerance limit for scenery so I'll be glad to leave this behind soon and get back to laying track. Once stage 3 is out I'll continue track on the Orin, adding in Nacco Junction, final 3 mine loops for this subdivision and Logan Hill. I'll see how close I can get to Bill, Wyoming before I go back to scenery.

Gouging out the part of the mine visible from the tracks with basic terrain painting. I'll leave finishing up for another stage.

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View from the top of one of the overburden piles.

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Overburden pile next to coal Creek loop.

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Approaching Coal Creek Junction.

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[Tomcat]

PRB: Stage 3 Release

If you have downloaded Stage 2 then you only need the following file:

Update file (37MB) *REMOVED*

If you are new to the route then you need the above file and the following two;

Route file (2GB) *REMOVED*

Assets file (228MB) *REMOVED*



This stage is 99% scenery additions and 1% buried signals/signage/track markers. No new track has been added. Fixed bad paths issue for some assets.

There are 3 free roam scenarios included and 1 Standard scenario. There is also an awesome scenario by BoostedFridge in the file library.

My thanks go out to BoostedFrige and gtrtroger for providing sage advice during testing. Any problems or peculiarities that sneak through are due solely to me.



The next stage will be the extension of the Orin Subdivision to Bill, Wyoming and maybe adding another mine or two to the Campbell sub.

[chrisreb]

Big thanks for this!

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Well done TC. Now only the PierreG assets are missing, but those aren't hard to find.

Over on his own site at ajrailsim.free.fr are lots of new asset packs, including US cars, bathing people to populate those beaches, animals, etc.

[Tomcat]

Big thanks for this!

You're welcome.

Well done TC. Now only the PierreG assets are missing, but those aren't hard to find.

Over on his own site at ajrailsim.free.fr are lots of new asset packs, including US cars, bathing people to populate those beaches, animals, etc.

Thanks Edwin. I would also note that you were the first to mention about the bad path names in stage 2 and if it hadn't been for you and BoostedFridge I would probably still be unaware there was a problem - much appreciated!


I should also post the links for the three asset packs again that are not included in my files but I'll do that in it's own post immediately following this.