Thanks everyone; after all the work it's nice to read your generous comments. I should probably elaborate on a few of the shots, in case anyone goes searching their assets collection for some of the objects:
The "04-Screenshot..." on page-2 features a small field of hops, with a hop-drier in the background. I recall a few farms that still had the old hop-driers standing in their fields as a reminder of days gone by. Apparently, the hop growing industry shifted over the Cascades to Yakima at some point, as more profitable crops, or dairies, took over the farmlands of Southwest Washington. The hops in the screenshot were made by pairing a couple of leafy trees and placing two shrunken and tilted telephone poles over them. Unfortunately, I could not find any straight horizontal wire objects to serve as runners for the vines, but at a distance it's difficult to tell they're not there. The hop-kiln was made by pairing two shrunken grain elevators together.
The bulk of the steam plant was made using the mill in the Stevens Pass assets. It was already a similar color to the actual structure, so I simply resized some of the buildings, using the route editor, until a resemblance to the real one was achieved. Same technique with the chimneys; I also added smoke objects to them, but due to scope of the structure, the view distance is so great that the smoke cannot be seen from the ground in many places; and I'm pretty sure everything is maxed-out in that regard (view distance).
Speaking of view distance, Mt. Rainier should be clearly visible in the distance, but adding the DEM data for it would have tacked-on another 500 mbs of data for an area without any trackage; just to get the view for distant scenery. So I opted to only run the route under cloudy conditions, which is quite typical for Washington weather anyway.
Since I'm targeting the mid-sixties era, and the steam plant didn't begin operations until 1971, it almost didn't make it into the route; but it's such a prominent feature that I had to include it. That's why some of the autos are a little more modern than I originally intended. But once I get out of the valley and onto the mainline, I'll try to keep things a little more "retro". Although I went a little too far in the other direction by placing the old roundhouse in Centralia (not pictured), along with a coaling tower for steam ops; but that's likely the only spot on the route that will feature steam facilities. I couldn't resist, since the footprint of the old turntable can still be seen in satellite imagery (for all our Easter egg hunters; it's on the North end of Centralia WA, West side of mainline).
I'm still debating if I should deviate from reality, and include loops at the ends of the route. I like to kick-back and watch the trains run through the scenery, so that's probably what I'll do. Although if it generates any issues with signalling and such, then it's definitely a no-go.
I'll sign-off now, with a few more shots from the Hanaford Valley branch. Cheers!
Screenshot_NP Tacoma Division, Longview - Centralia_46.75086--122.93065_15-05-13.jpg
Screenshot_NP Tacoma Division, Longview - Centralia_46.75558--122.85468_14-55-32.jpg
Screenshot_NP Tacoma Division, Longview - Centralia_46.75686--122.86479_14-49-53.jpg
Screenshot_NP Tacoma Division, Longview - Centralia_46.75894--122.85724_14-47-26.jpg
Screenshot_NP Tacoma Division, Longview - Centralia_46.76116--122.90798_14-40-04.jpg
Note: The aerial view of the steam plant was a very early WIP shot, hence the lack of surrounding scenery; just wanted to illustrate the height of the structure.
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by RudiJaeger » Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:20 pm 
