CSX Florida Business Unit in Trainz

YouTube: CSX O708

2012-02-12T07:44:00.001-08:00

Sort of a showcase of my new areas, yet it doesn't cover all of them!

Enjoy and sit back watching 2 SDs do the job.

Hornsounds

2012-02-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

There is a Trainz gamer who has taken to making new sounds. His game is marked quite well by custom sounds, especially when you come to see his videos.

YouTube user mutanay77 has filmed op sessions and simple product videos. His yolasite is full of a wonderful directory replete with various makes of K5HLs, RS3s, and what have you.

In the eye of a long time Trainz vet I say this is long overdue. Yes, my JR stock has custom horns but they are not the crisp sound that these attain. His work is simply amazing and very useful to anyone.

Just download the horns, import them into CDP, and edit the config file of your loco of choice to input the horn. I already did it for my ES40DC and will to do it when I get the [..CSX..] ES44AC.

But wait. This is also an inspiration. The success of editing all of these is motivating me to do other sounds, in general. I see he has successfully altered the rolling stock sound and even the railroad crossing bell. The bell, yes, is easy to replace and bnsf50 I think has said how to do it at one point. But I feel more willing to do it to my stock and have the videos just sound much better.

When making a Trainz video, as you can ever suppose, two aspects are very important: video and audio. You don't want your audio to sound that bad.

Rockport

2012-02-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Rockport Wye is coming along nicely. I have reason to focus on this area, as hordes of O-trains dominate the line during the day while T081 and Q740 make cameos. This is a ground level shot from the middle of the wye.

Going in Hyper-drive - Rockport

2012-01-25T23:10:00.000-08:00

Rockport is a phosphate yard and shipping port. I am beginning to model the area, but in only two days (totaling 5 hours of work) finished the wye and the N corner of the US 41 crossing, as well as many other touch ups around the route area. Wow.

This would be an aerial over the S Leg of the Rockport Wye.

This speedy return to the route is in part due to my interest in returning to the Miami Sub. However, I want to get this finished and out of the way. There's no deadline but I have picked up more of a feel for the route that allowed me to weigh in which areas get the most detail, where simple is effective, and which areas are just cover splines and textures. I feel if I give in one day to detail followed by one day of slappy texturing (miles away from the ROW) it is a systematic way to get the route done faster, and the detail is not compromised.

For instance, I began putting one block of grass texture at 618/US 301. That area is 1.5 miles from the S-line... Do I need to terraform the bridge? No. Do I need to detail the buildings? Not likely. That's where there's balance; getting rid of the LOD that does nothing but lag the game. Having the buildings for about .75 miles is good, when it's industrial park dense. Of course there can be exception when a skyline is separated by 1 mile of water and the track happens to be in eyeshot of the towers.

Anyway more progress should follow as the weekend approaches, but it'll be a little slower as I have a Fairchild competition for Debate.

Why I model the Palmetto Sub

2012-01-24T21:49:00.001-08:00

Google Earth probably gave me the ultimate reason today. :)

I am working on the Palm River and Causeway Blvd. areas. Yeah, the two will be connected very soon. The interesting thing I noticed is this. In one file from 4/4/2010, there are three trains within miles of each other! You can see Q740 meeting T080 at the Rockport siding and O708 miles north. I wonder how that mess was handled.

Detail By the Mile

2012-01-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

When working on an area, I always think, "how far should I give in this level of detail?". I'm sure you do too.

To that, there is truly no definitive answer. The density of the area is one of the largest variable factors. Also, the rule of thumb is automatically cancelled out in the presence of a spur, crossing line, or other forms of rail of equal or similar importance.

Another big variable is the presence of large river bridges. Hence, my query to self of course comes from the Palm River bridge in Tampa, FL. I am working down the Tampa Terminal/Palmetto Sub towards Gibsonton and I am laying details around the corridor. Coming to the Palm River I realize the brush needs to expand outwards, beyond what I consider reasonable for a given land area.

Texturing obviously is not the problem, as you can have various strokes, but scenery assets and splines are.

But, my guideline is as follows:

First 50 feet on each side: FULL detail. Grass, garbage, power lines, derelict items, etc. Cars for sure, as the object itself and not the general spline. Roads get their signs and light poles and mailboxes and etc.Buildings and waterways to full detail.
Next 250 feet: Good Detail. Roads can get signage, light poles, etc. and the occasional detail. Foliage is a little less significant, and the splines can begin. Buildings can begin to be splined, or repeated, or whatnot, but they have to be visually appealing. If a road is a track-laid chasing corridor, I can give leeway to it.
Next 500 feet: OK detail. Roads there, lightpoles only. Traffic lights may either be set to work or just the simple assets (ie. Traffic Signal 02). Grass details are out of the picture, but trees that will be visible well stay. Tree assets become splines. Water is just water & texture. Nothng else. Only if it's visible I may add a boat. Buildings spline or low detail. Texture becomes less sensitive.
Next 4,000 feet: Low detail. Just buildings if visible and tree splines. Water and texture only, no ifs, ands or buts. Roads just road, no detail on intersection. Texture becomes even less sensitive, in "blocks"
To the edge of the board: just texture. Very low sensitivity. Only if a skyscraper or landmark is ever visible, I add it.

I use this rough guideline to help me with FPS, since it isn't like candy on my machine. Of course this leaves me to upgrade my Graphics. I hope it decisively helps people too. Keep Draw Distance 3,000 yd (9000 ft) more or less and use good weather fog, too to lower the lag as well. So maybe I won't add anything beyond US 41 in the Palm River case.

CSX T081 with UP Power

2012-01-22T15:54:00.001-08:00

It's always fun to simulate fairly unlikely scenarios, like when UP run through power winds up on a Tampa coal turn. More often than not it's always CSX power.

Cutoff Map Update

2012-01-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

I do expect progress to be swifter this year, unlike last year. Note unlike past mappings it's all in one and that Winter Haven's almost through. Well, painting the outer boards can be done in few sittings as well so it's not as long as you think. My current field of work is in Tampa proper, working the active yards. I still have the Port Tampa lead in the map to do but I may award it if I cannot handle doing the downtown buildings, or maybe I'll be aided for that. Bone Valley got cut a bit deeper than I wanted, so the Agricola tram is still there but the Agricola junction's all gone. I might cut it all the way back to Bradley.

Official Cutbacks

2012-01-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

These parts of my route have been cut off:

Palmetto Sub south of Big Bend Rd.
Brooksville Sub north of the junction with Clearwater Sub
Brewster Sub from 1 mile south of Bradley
Abandoned SCL trackage through Zephyrhills

I am considering cutting off:

the entire Agricola Tram
Bone Valley Sub from 1 mile east of the Bonnie Spur
Valrico Sub 1 mile south of the Bartow Curve
A-Line two miles east of Auburndale due to inactivity except one customer

Why? I believe these areas will not cater to the route as well as the mainline spots like Plant City, Lakeland, Tampa, and Auburndale would. I am after lines that have good traffic. The Bone Valley is considered good enough, but only if you represent it by the trackage along much of the Valrico Sub and the Bone Valley Sub up to Three Post. I originally thought of cutting IMC Fort Meade but it's surviving due to its frequency. I believe the Hardee mine never was included but the Agrico mine was in the BV DEM, but it was already eliminated. The east half of the Agricola Tram is considerably dead too, with only one customer at the end surrounded by a bunch of dead phosphate mines. Sad story for them to run out of business and cut the line significantly but I guess easier for me to model in present day.

The cut portions are not entirely gone. Anyone who wants to do them can if they so please. But then again, the big BV cutoff is probably for the hardcore Bone Valley railfan. I believe though that I accomplished cutting off two years of work right there, that is two years of unmotivated work.

Expansion packs would come in bundles. The Palmetto south of Big Bend Rd is being designed to combine with a future Sarasota map. Brooksville and Clearwater will hopefully bundle together. The A-line would as long as it sees an expansion towards Davenport and surely the Bone Valley fragments will be bound together as well. But I don't think I will ever get to those.

Yeoman Yard

2012-01-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

When you are in the aid of Google Maps, the yard is a no brainer. I am laying the big 20 track yard as I type.

Route Cuts - visual

2012-01-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

This is a visual aid for the sections I am willing to give up. This image is current to August 6, 2011 and areas in W/H and Tampa have since been textured. Of course, the Brand Ribbon happened on the LEGO end so my route progressed minimally.

Tampa/Winston/Bone Valley - Route Cuts

2012-01-11T22:37:00.000-08:00

In the initial release of the Tampa Terminal route for Trainz, in whatever form, be it Payware, Freeware, or built-in, as the future may dictate, a considerable stretch of routing will be cut completely. I am not saying it is the end of it for any of those sections, however. They may be worked on "poco a poco" in the future as expansion packs, obviously merge-able with the current route. The main reason for these is due to low worthwhile train count and lack of interest at the moment. I feel the removal of these areas, temporary or permanent will preserve my interest (and is "necessary and proper").

The Brooksville Sub / Clearwater Sub trackage from one full baseboard north of Interstate 4 will be reduced to a portal. One big anti-motivational thing about it is that the Clearwater Sub is only present for about one mile.
Bone Valley trackage will be a separate phase of work. However, Valrico to Ridgewood will still be supported in the prime release, Three Post will survive the cut, and Bartow has a possibility of making the cut. All others will be ripped out and expanded in one Bone Valley file. The cut south of Edison is 1 baseboard length while the cut south of Three Post goes one board past the yard. In the most extreme case I may just get rid of 2 boards south of Winston Yard altogether if anyone is interested in taking up the areas.
No plans are in place to truncate south of Tampa Terminal, the Port Tampa Lead, any portion of the Auburndale Sub, the east stem of the Carters Sub out of A-Dale, nor Neve. However, if I do not have support for the Downtown Tampa skyline, I will suit myself and cut work west of the Amtrak Station to another phase.

Now, if anyone is interested in taking over the cut areas, or those endangered for cutting, you guys can contact me and I will work out plans to hand you guys the DEMed areas that are cut.

ATLS tutorial Part 2

2012-01-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

You guys have requested and I have produced!

In case Part 1 is still news to you, here it is:

Slow But Steady Progress!

2011-12-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

It has been a heck of a while since my last posting. Today I am continuing on the terminal. I did a little landscaping around the Adamo Drive crossing seen earlier and am now furnishing the I-4 overpass over the Neve Spur. Little by little I am delving around the heart of all the action, polishing little spots up. Definitely this can keep me from getting worn out as there are slightly different environments between 50th St, Adamo, and I-4.

Adamo Drive (Tampa Terminal)

2011-11-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Due to interests in the ample action in Tampa, I began work on the active Tampa Terminal and Palmetto Subs.

Here is a look at Adamo Drive, on the Tampa Terminal Sub, which I believe was originally ACL but not connected there any longer, due to a curve track to the S-line which looked like a diamond.

Progress obviously delayed

2011-10-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

I made a commitment map far before I got an offer for an arduous, lengthy project for a LEGO Store called the brand ribbon. The Brand Ribbon is the little displays inside the wall. That took about every chance away from Trainz progress, but since I hit and ease-up in the project, 2 weeks to complete 20 easy models, I can pretty much do some building again. I'll probably do the consistent progress going to the Winter Haven Portal then actually try to work back in the Tampa Terminal. By winter if $$$$$ permits a new graphics card/ram upgrade is also in the question, so I can have 12GB RAM and a 5770 Graphics Card. Here are Ryan Vince's videos with this card.

E109

2011-10-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

A trainz render of an empty coal train that just ran

Special Op Session

2011-08-27T16:12:00.001-07:00

Soon I will be posting a video of Q453 in Trainz with the exact power it has today: 8730 and HLCX 7190! I'm getting pumped for the real deal tonight.

Trainz on Hold a little bit!

2011-08-18T20:55:00.001-07:00

Progress on the Tampa Terminal will be on hold until at least I finish some homework and this LEGO commission I have been charged with. I might sneak a TTUS video since I did a little last weekend but otherwise, things are on stun. I believe next Friday I might afford an hour to further develop the Lake Wales stretch.

Q453-13 Video

2011-08-16T09:34:00.001-07:00

Here it is on YouTube:

Q453-13

2011-08-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

Watched from my own home :)

More Winter Haven

2011-08-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of assorted pics.

Trainz: Tampa Terminal Update Show: Episode 2: Winter Haven South

2011-08-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

The latest episode I mentioned earlier.

When you're south of Winter Haven...

2011-08-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

You're in Orange Grove country!!!!

CSX Homestead Sub 05.09.2011 - Malfunctions and Manifest

2011-08-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Two things you don't see everyday: Crossing malfunctions and AC44s pulling 4 cars. ;)

I must say, this is one of my favorite day outings.

Coming Right Up...

2011-08-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Tampa Terminal Update Show Episode 2: Never before seen areas of Winter Haven and a couple of lakes. These lakes are huge and it's an aid to the need of getting your route done quickly.

This episode isn't narrated because yesterday I was feeling bad, but I did manage to record it.

Route Updating Schedule

2011-08-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to showcase my plan layout for this route and when an area is completed. From the very beginning I set the mid 2013 window as when it should all be ready.

The Fun of Trainz

2011-08-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

One sentence tonight; screw up your placement of the Winter Haven FMID transfer track, and you can retexture and relay it, no harm, no foul.

[Requested] How to Set Up ATLS Crossings in Trainz (Part 1)

2011-08-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

I am doing a two-part how to special series on how to program an ATLS crossing since it has been quite requested by many. I overlooked a stopper which is not complicated at all, but configured the channel to work. This is the LCM Tutorial which uses LCM Mode. As I get to doing the Traffic Light tutorial, which will be more complicated, I will apply the ATLS Traffic Stopper. I did this crossing up in a win-win situation; I win by progressing further in my Tampa Terminal route by making one of the crossings (Now guess which one!) and the viewer wins by learning how a crossing can actually work. The same will apply for US 92 in Park Spur.

The video is NOT titled How to.... (Part 1) because Part 2 is Apples to Oranges with this one. Part 2 we go for the complicated stuff. Look for that tomorrow.

Trainz Tampa Terminal Update Show

2011-08-02T07:12:00.001-07:00

It's a new endeavor I am taking on YouTube. I'm showcasing my updates of the route.

Auburndale Industrial track (WIP) SX821

2011-07-25T01:11:00.000-07:00

Just a small spur south of Can Yard. IDK how active it is but I am still rendering it.

Auburndale

2011-07-19T14:11:00.001-07:00

A morning shot of Q251 through there. The area is pretty much complete, except that I'm about to move on west towards 570, which is an easy task.

Oil Field

2011-07-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

A true piece of work in Auburndale, the Oil field was a little simplified for placement in Trainz. Of course the delete button is there if I come to replace the components in the future with exact replicas of those structures but that'd keep me busy for a looong time.

More Auburndale

2011-07-13T00:54:00.000-07:00

Auburndale in itself forms a huge industrial park. Here's more from the industry-laden Derby Av. and surrounding roads.

Can Yard, Y'er lookin good!

2011-07-12T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Industrial mecca of Can Yard in Auburndale is now almost fully done. All that is left is the spur to Amerigas (I think it's amerigas). It runs by very intricate oil pipelines so it'll be a haul to do.

"I Learned From My Mistakes, Honey"

2011-07-02T03:41:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest mistakes I made, which horribly affected the Auburndale area, was neglecting to save the game before exiting. I accidentally shut down without saving and lost the one hours' work. Not to say it didn't affect my trainzing for a solid week.... I didn't even bother to work on anything with the route until today, where I was less disenchanted by this loss.

When Auburndale gets its premier expect it to look a little different..... ;)

And not to forget; the big lesson and moral for the day, and especially on Windows 7 when the "Pin to Taskbar" is in use; check if your Trainz Application is open before shutting down and Save FREQUENTLY.

My big problem is that the save takes 5 minutes each time, and I only save once, or when I am not to use the computer for a while, incognito to the fact that I lose time when I save. Autosave on my PC however does NOT work! It freezes for a minute to prompt you to save again when exiting.

Auburndale 2.0 (WIP)

2011-06-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

This was one of the original areas from the route I did in 2010 that was abandoned in favor of this project. While much of the buildings were reused I managed to make some changes compared to that render, those being the track/the scenery around it and the texturing. That's why I did it from scratch, to texture and apply my new routebuilding standards by hand.

YouTube: Train R188

2011-06-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

A show-off of the last two months of progress on this route. Boy have I done a lot, and this even doesn't have Valrico, I-4/SR39, nor Yeoman Yard. So there's been quite a bit of mileage done.

I am slowly working on Auburndale and eventually going to re-build the area west of it. I did the area between the 570 east side overpass and Auburndale in the old rendition so it's familiar terrain. I even recognized it when I drove that section on March 19 in real life. This then generates the Carters Subdivision. Meanwhile I did have Zephyrhills started and hope to complete that soon. The outlook is bright for this route, but it will all be done like others, over time.

Y121 &The New Jointed Rail Covered Hoppers

2011-06-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

I am personally impressed with these realistic Jointed Rail CSX company predecessor hoppers. I think the attention to detail was spot on and looked just like the real thing.

So I took it for a spin in a Winston local, Y121, which Jared Davis, Thomas East, and two others caught in Winston one day.

Q604 Fights the Hill!

2011-06-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

Another quality production showing off the Gay Rd. side. A few railfans did recently hit the spot so I thought it quite appropriate to model it.

YouTube: Vitis Junction

2011-06-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

Alas, we have the traditional production from Distant to Ojus Productions...

Vitis Junction / US 98

2011-06-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

Managed to complete and connect the two sub-areas in a eureka fashion. ;)

Vitis jct. converges the Vitis and Yeoman Subs into the Wildwood Sub. It also was plagued with the cruel head on between a Miami K train and a Q manifest. Nonetheless it is still a great place to railfan. The overpass provides for great shots of trains from above as usual. In real life one can chase trains on this stretch and enjoy such a pace.

US 98 Overpass WIP

2011-06-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

I have to admit it does get interesting when as I focus on one area, another just quickly gets my eye. Like the artistic rule of thirds, it's the stress points that score attention. This one is the US 98 overpass, an area north of Vitis not frequented but still with a share of coverage on YouTube. Hence it makes for some great overhead shots of trains from Winston, Miami, or Tampa. Maybe it's also that it's so easy to detail. But nonetheless my success story for this area will pretty much resemble the one for Winston Pass, where two close areas would be successfully detailed.

Vitis Junction

2011-06-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

And the humble beginnings thereof in detailing it.

Eye-catchers

2011-06-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes to enrich the train driving experience it's nice to add things like car fires, standoffs, and other extraordinary scenes. In this example from Lakeland it's a horrid car crash along I-4. It was loosely based off of the Killian Parkway and US1 scene in the KWE Modern day, which that video made 40k+ hits in 2 years. Hence seeing such a peculiarity not only works on my routes but will work on any other routes too.

Complete with Winston Wye, Progress in General, and a Forecast

2011-06-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

In a partially grueling process of working for a week or two on end with Winston Wye, I can finally say I'm done. This comes up with a well progressed four photogenic areas on the A-Line: Plant City, Clark Road, Gay/Galloway roads, and Lakeland Junction. On the S-Line there are four photogenic areas: Plant City, Yeoman Yard, I-4, and Valrico Jct. On the Vitis Sub I also touched up an angle north of Lakeland Junction and completed the I-4 overpass all the way to CR 582, two to three areas depending on who judges it. These eight areas, two of which converge the three evaluated rail lines, span up to about three miles of progress altogether. All of this was completed accordingly in about one month's time as the lag of getting Trainz 12 installed (2 weeks) and time to focus on school (2 weeks) shaved off the net time of two months given to this route. There is no rush and no deadline unless there really is one when route building. The net mileage on the whole route to come is about 150-200 miles.

I have started the rebuilding (new rendition of an area done in the obsolete V1 from scratch in this context) of Auburndale Connection, while commiting to the completion of Vitis Junction. However, Auburndale is closer to Lakeland Jct., the nearest area completed, than Vitis. I believe I will do Auburndale in three parts, one part for the interlock, and the other for the yard. Once a photogenic angle is generated at the overpass (US 92), I will breeze through the split-up at Vitis Junction, and return to Auburndale to finish the decent size, industrial dominant Can Yard.

What holds next? Intermediate areas, of course. I intend to work on Zephyrhills, between Vitis and Plant City, as well as the random brush north of Stokes, between Lakeland and Vitis. Then, Park Spur 2.0, Lake Parker Av, SR 570; all the areas from V1. As areas between the areas between the areas and so on, with respect to two endpoints, develop, a finished route is made. But what about west of Plant City? Those will be done... eventually. ;)

Video of Winston Wye Before Friday's Progress

2011-06-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

Though I have progressed on Friday, here's a kinda up to date video. Now, everything east of Gay Road to the dry creek was done. Power moves are common from Tampa to Winston to allow trains to run out from there.

Gay Rd / Winston Wye (Almost Done)

2011-06-03T22:48:00.001-07:00

The east angle from Gay Road is complete.

Winston Wye - WIP

2011-05-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

New progress and a complete-looking angle.

Winston Wye - WIP

2011-05-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

The second part of Winston Pass I am focusing on at the moment is the dull but action centric Winston Wye. The track you will see on the photo facing down leads to the yard. Many Bone Valley Trains use this wye, though from the far right leg (not shown), to go in and out of the yard. Power moves, turnarounds, and locals, as well as reroutes of said BV trains fancy the left leg. Finally, the track in the background is, of course, the A-line.

A birds' eye view of Galloway Road, the west end crossing of Winston Wye. Signals protect the crossover and the west leg.

Galloway Road from the North. I have a CSX crew featured for frills.

Galloway Road complete from the south. Expect this or a similar vantage when I am filming the TrainzWatching™ series.

This is an overview of today's progress. Note an abstractly detailed warehouse due to the distance from the track. This attributes to my levels of detail posting from way back when. Old Tampa Highway is the crossing in the Foreground. The old ACL cantilevers dated to the 70s are going to be eventually developed so it will require some patience to see those applied. A CDN signal is in place at the moment in the background.

The remaining input I am willing to commit to for this area is the NE quadrant of Galloway Road with the seemingly difficult neighborhood (hard to make out on Google Earth). A Drive In on the NW side of Gay Road will be a fun challenge, and the trailer park to the NE of that, which will be developed. I also intend to add ample brush to the fork in the west leg turnout. From then I will move on to another area, likely Vitis Junction, to mess around with then revisit Winston to finish it up in the days to come.

Q188 Down Home

2011-05-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

It's the basics that are effective, too.

Be looking for this to surface on YouTube soon. I wanted to shoot this to run a traditional, common train down the A-Line since I didn't do much Trainzing in over a week.

South Florida CSX Miami Sub & Miami Sub Layout: Lufthansa 462-10

2011-05-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

South Florida CSX Miami Sub & Miami Sub Layout: Lufthansa 462-10: "On June 10th and from there LH's flight 462 from Frankfurt, Germany to Miami, FL will be chartered by an A380. Of course, this enhances film..."

On my HO Scale/Real Train blog for the area I made a heads up style announcement for the impending arrival of the A380-800. Note how I say that "definitely encouraging for the Trainz creation thereof" on the entry. As part of the Florida Business Unit as a whole in Trainz, I am trying to rig up a Miami/Homestead Subdivision which will include MIA when done. That would require one of these big birds to be made to enhance realism not only for FSX as pictured but for Trainz. A perfect combo for your 4:00 PM O721, which passes just before Lufthansa returns to Frankfurt.

Next Area after Winston Pass

2011-05-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Thinking about it and you guys will like this one, I think I will work on Vitis Jct which is the famed junction of the CSX Yeoman Sub and Vitis Sub.

Three Sources For Trainz Routebuilding

2011-05-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

When building your route you must aggregate your details from either of four sources.

Google Maps Aerial - Updated 2010 for the most part, it provides decent imagery to accurately locate objects and scenery. Sometimes you could see where trees are placed. But in swampy Florida a slash pine and a shrub can confuse you.Nonetheless you can see where much of the stuff is for quick and easy placement.
Google Maps Street View - Slightly out of date, but for less volatile areas like Valrico or Homestead it can still help routebuilding. A grape to an apple versus Aerial, you act like you are there though the image is pixelated (in bigger computer monitors).
Railfan Photos and Videos - The newer, the better. You get the best idea of what really goes where with a month old or newer video. Photos do the same work as S.V. but can come in better resolution and can be overall newer. You also get a feel for the area in audio, and places like Fort Lauderdale (on the CSX) can sound different ambiently than Hollywood on CSX.

Iconic Locations

2011-05-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

The eyecatchers of anyone's trainz layout is simply the icons. Model a place like Rochelle, Folkston, or in my case, Plant City... They're hooked. People like to imagine the added possibility of running trains through these popular spots from the comfort of their home. While I am focusing on the dull spots, I mediate getting another popular spot done. Now I am working on Winston which is a little famous, but soon after I will land at famed Vitis Junction and detail the area up. The only reason I keep doing these less popular spots; Valrico, Park Road, east of Clark Road, etc., is so that I get more done without getting bored of simply doing the good spots.

The Tampa Terminal Route

2011-05-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

Is now featured on Skylar's AceTrainz site at:

http://acetrainz.yolasite.com/

There you will find some pictures. It should dwell into more of a photo album and repository while this blog remains a working journal. Forums are also being opened on that site.

Winston Pass

2011-05-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

to catch a train as late as it could

In the A-line, in the A-line

With GEVOs and '60s and what have you

which had a schedule that it failed to do

Only on YouTube, Only on YouTube

Winston Pass Part 2

2011-05-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

Continuing to detail the area. I should have a video tutorial up in the coming weeks in my "levels of detail" with Level 1 close to the tracks, Level 2 out another couple hundred feet, and Level 3 way out there. The giant warehouse doesn't look to be railserved though. The vantage is a realistic one from SR 570.

Winston Pass - WIP

2011-05-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

My current area which is west of Lakeland, FL is Winston Pass, a passing siding between the 570 (Polk Pkwy) and S Lakeland. I believe this industry in the background is all but abandoned, just to put it out there. The passing siding houses trains and cars stored/tied down and also has industries spurring to the north (left). In the middle is famed Winston Wye into the yard.

Next Area...

2011-05-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

My next area of work will be Winston Wye. It is the location that trains Q603, Q613, Q604, and Q604, the phosphate, sulfur, and numerous locals use to turn out into the yard. A wide open and rather rural area, the wye is a popular railfan spot for the ability to spot so many of these trains. Sometimes one can experience meets of trains yard bound and trains that fly on the A line. I may also delve into the industries like Publix (plastics section) to ascertain a switching experience (see one of the earlier posts).

Routebuilding Issues Part 1

2011-05-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

It often happens that the route builder gets bored of doing the same area on and on. Happens to me a lot, nonetheless.

Here's my solution...

I was working on Valrico last weekend, having chunks of area done up in full detail. The pattern looked like a checkerboard by Monday when the north side of the mainline between two crossings, then the south, then the north were detailed, the flip sides neglected. Of course working three days straight on little more than a junction in the back woods is tiring and otherwise boring. Now, there's a bit of commitment the routebuilder needs to make. My and I'm sure a lot of others' fault on this is that areas are often left unfinished, yeah I'll go back to it later, later, later, and never do. But this time I was devoted to finish the area. So it takes some determination to finish an otherwise tedious area. But my interim solution - Working on County Road 582 and Kathleen Road. Picking a completely different landscape can be entertaining when considering boring areas like east of Valrico Junction. As aforementioned, the drive to return must be there. If not, you'll end up with a not so motivational, incomplete route. Even so, the routebuilding process can be made much more efficient as well as you do not waste time struggling to complete areas that burn you out. Enthusiasm and the lack thereof leads to vaporware. This is one of many ways to combat that.

Mojave Sub

2011-05-07T22:43:00.001-07:00

This route IS fun! It is the best built-in ever!

K820

2011-05-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

Utilizing the versatility of UP power in Central Florida I bring K820 with two GEVOs. Surprisingly one alone stalled out on the hill track in Lakeland. Good game physics.

Florida - The Sunshine State

2011-05-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

Trainz has a nifty feature for good weather fog. Now, Florida isn't reputable for fog in most cases except winter nights where if you drive an open top convertible, your seat will be moist, but the setting can forge the effects of high sun on a slash pine forest. I feel that I have made this scene near Valrico, Florida quite effective to show heat since the good weather fog whitens up the scape, making it look like the sun is harshly shining like a Pokémon uses Sunny Day... Meanwhile the area was just complete late this evening.

Pine forest looking west

Overlooking N Valrico Rd. The Valrico Sub deep to the Bone Valley splits here.

Industrial Districts In Trainz

2011-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Vitis Sub is known by local railfans to pass by a rather fascinating industrial mini-park in Kathleen, FL. But that park can promote a huge challenge when switching.

CR582 north of I-4 is just north of the Superior Carriers transload and another warehouse. The warehouse takes roughly 5 to 6 spots, and I believe that number and the commodities vary so the train has to match up car with spot. Superior Carriers is like Transflo and takes a lot of corn.

This takes 4 tracks and 20 or so 16k tanks, and an occasional covered hopper.

And on top of that.... there's a gradient between the two. Get your dynamic brakes out.

Lance Mindheim covered switching by corn cars to be possibly difficult as the right grade of corn has to match in a blog entry about tight layouts. He is by the way in charge of a model railroad layout of Miami, basing off its eccentric qualities.

Now, CR582 is the newest area I began on in Trainz, to take a short break from Valrico which I worked on all weekend.

The fun part of Trainz is you can simulate anything for chump pennies and nickels per day, and all you pay for are a good computer, hardware, the game itself, and any payware of your desire.

I guess the argument here is that V-scale is an extremely effective means of model railroading and practicing the switching ops CSX does. You can still practice the same hurdles and obstacles a CSX crew goes through 5 days a week. That's what makes simulations fun.

Like the switching layout I intend to work on, Trainz can do the same work and will for Auburndale, Plant City (east of Park Rd.), Tampa (Transflo and Drew Park), and here.

T080

2011-04-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

The Madisonville, KY-Big Bend, FL train was mocked with RDVIs and EMD muscle, a little inaccurate but a make-do with what I have.

Here is the train through Plant City, Valrico, and Yeoman. Valrico since had a lot of progress on it after the production of the included video.

Plant City (Continued)

2011-04-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Now that it is semi-upgraded to 12 standards, Plant City now looks even more realistic... Though, the frame rates began to suffer a bit. The speedtrees are nice but not for medium end PCs. The video that was taken in this op. session does barely register as smooth, though. ;)

Here's Q188 with UP power, indirectly a pun on one recent Sunday where 187 had UP power that had to return north.

Progress....

2011-04-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Not on my routes though just yet!

It's been a frustrating two weeks. I order TS 12, yet it's corrupted. I royally screw up a file on my TS09 making me uninstall it. I miss a get-together with my friends. But it's all over. The game has come. Though it took a reinstall (content errata when importing)... it's all chill now.

The Wait Is Over

2011-04-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

The big routes are now making their final trip to my well-registered copy of TS 12. I am very pleased to have this as well as the complimentary payware courtesy of Jointed Rail as offered for the wait and the buy.

Hiatus and a lesson

2011-04-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

When I got TS12 from my good friends at Jointed Rail I had a great prospect that the downloads would go smoothly. Unfortunately, they had overlooked N3V Games' own mistake of providing corrupted files for dealing. Of course with a half-ass TS12, I had the greed to hack my TS09 copy to y'know, have doppler because there is a certain config that could simply provide it. Of course I hacked too much and the game [09] stopped working. Nonetheless I did the forseen a bit early and uninstalled the game; but of course did the smart thing and moved all 16.12 GB in my stash of content to a subfolder of Documents. So there's really no full Trainz version until the fix is done, presumably by Monday. This explains my lack of updating this fine blog in all these days.

I did manage, until Wednesday, to work a bit on the Park Road Industrial District (Plant City, Florida) which has a couple of industries, to which I believe are served by O711 (the Plant City local) No wonder they named it Park Road, because of the giant warehouses for General Chemical and another place I cannot name off the top of my head. The same road, CR 523, connects to the Plant City Sub so hell I wonder what creative railfanning can be simply done on that road.

In all this crap for three days I did learn a valuable lesson, patience pays. I will probably have (an albeit nonalcoholic) drink when it's all over and will be relieved after the tense waiting process. There is hope, and two to three YouTube videos that will follow suit when it is done. Another supposed reward is more coupons from JR for the 4 days of waiting.

Plant City

2011-04-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

Train Q188 runs from the sun eastbound at dusk on a spring evening. Inspired by my March 19th catch of said train.

Despite the unavailability of GE AC6000CWs I use two JR GEVOs.

I was originally skeptical about applying the TC built in Lamp NY 07 asset but chose to as to give a nice light bloom effect at night. These are the closest to the lamppost style the town of Plant City uses.

Plant City

2011-04-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

The heart of the small railroad town east of Tampa, FL looks pretty complete. I am at the point of expanding detail and installing ATLS on the crossings. For information on ATLS, go to this site: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boatztrainz.co.uk%2FATLS1.pdf&rct=j&q=advanced%20traffic%20light%20system&ei=kp-jTYaCIZGhOpHehOkJ&usg=AFQjCNGwlpep2CLrwJB9-nqn5FcPcXX0Cw&sig2=Pjt-rz6UxLoCTj6aw5Yb2A&cad=rja

For some added fun I have a pic at night (which is the time I was working with Trainz due to its automatic clock) and day. Taken east of the diamond to show the most of completed areas.

Yeoman Yard (A little more progress)

2011-04-04T00:35:00.001-07:00

Featuring Q740/The Juice Train:

Yeoman Yard - Bypass Canal

2011-04-02T15:13:00.001-07:00

A WIP area for my route.

Lakeland Jct. Again

2011-03-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

I made the most terrible mistake of putting the Vitis Sub stem at the wrong place... This cost me a few hours of useless work. I made such a big deal because I want as much of the terrain to be as correct as possible and when you do the George Jenkins bridge spline smoothing, your elevation changes soon become irreversible especially after you save it.

When I corrected it however, I felt that it looked a whole lot better.

Tampa's Yeoman and Uceta Yards

2011-03-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

It always is encouraging to see a map of Yeoman and Uceta yards waiting to be textured and detailed on my screen... :)

Lakeland v2.0: The Look South

2011-03-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

When I caught Q453-19 last Saturday I noticed a very cool view. Going south on Kathleen as the road snakes next to the Vitis Sub, you're actually at the crest of the infamous hill that caused trains-a-many to stall. You could undoubtedly see past the US 92 overpass, especially how the tracks go low and low. I believe from my sources that this is a 0.9% gradient.

Trainz routebuilding does not start off with a DEM unless you choose. Allen helped me out by providing DEMs under a deal that I do the artwork on them. To make them you'd have to have a program, Ie. Microdem or TransDEM (better but 30 bones), and then you'll be able to do up a GND file with TOPO data using something like the HOG program.

The Miami Sub was converted to a Microdem DEM in December 10, which has me mixed due to the infamous problem of misalignment. However this is a straight up, perfect Transdem.

You will not be able to stall Q604, trust me, without this.

I wonder if the adventurous filmer will attempt to film a train from this angle. Note you can see my WIP George Jenkins Blvd. overpass in the distance. As posted I appreciate the google earth update for allowing the most accurate do possible of this bridge. The USGS data was entered well before this bridge came to exist.

Lakeland v.2.0: Getting Things Right

2011-03-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

I know people like Allen were expecting me to simply add the DEM of the Tampa area to the one I already was working on, of Lakeland, B.V., and the New Wales area.

However when I reviewed the area, especially Lakeland Jct. for one, I accounted the improvisations and said, this ain't right.

When you are doing an observation painting for art, you have to look at the real thing. My goal is to create as close as humanly possible to 100% the railfanning experience of Lakeland, except that it would be in your computer screen.

I just estimated the mapping of the George Jenkins Blvd. overpass. Google Earth at that time didn't have that. Now they do (photo attached, reference purpose)

I even made the mistake of having the bridge bisect the tracks at once, 90º.

In this one I finally have a model to follow, the angle will be 45º ish, and trees will be plotted, "tree for tree".

This and other circumstances had me contemplate redoing the areas I did to refine them and to make them accurate; going over textures and edited land do not cut it as the atmosphere would not look right.

The Tampa Terminal rail network route for Trainz Simulator 2012 (coming April 21) will feature the Brooksville, Lakeland, Vitis, Yeoman, Carters, Plant City, Valrico, Bone Valley, north end of Auburndale, west end of Sanford, south end of Wildwood, Tampa Terminal, and Palmetto subdivisions for prototype-based runs ingame.

Plant City

2011-03-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

I guess I found new faith in doing up Central Florida. All the rail lines in the area have round-the clock trains, coal to manifest to rock to intermodal to autoracks, it's got it all, sun up to sundown.

The Miami Sub which I also focused on had flawed DEM joints, but this section, with the kind invaluable help from Allen (backyard on the forums) is flawless. I felt that with this fresh addition twice the real estate of the Lakeland Area, I feel that area needs to be redone to new modeling standards. When I did the miami sub, the area around Lakeland looked cartoonish and I knew for sure some trees were improvised and not realistically laid. Now, replacing textures to match new standards and other crap like that, is a huge project so I thought do it from scratch and the touch of originality and flow will be there.

I am also enjoying the SP 4 (build 44653) which is much like TRS 2010. It's nice of Auran not to make the "world builder" have to buy the "engineer" edition just to enjoy features like LAYERS that are a must for routebuilders.

Remember that this interim progress shot is only the beginning. I need a big hand getting Plant city's depot modeled but I hope we Trainzers can all work together to complete the route.

This route will be updated to TS 2012 once the game is released, especially with the help of assets from the Mojave Sub to which I value, i.e. the Bungalow and the signals.

Tampa-Winston-Bone Valley v. 2.0

2011-03-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

And so I finally got contracted, so to say, by my friend Allen, to be in charge of the coveted west section from west of Winston all the way to the Port Tampa area, including the Brooksville Sub.

There are a few technical difficulties but all looks a lot like my contribution of Lakeland is going to be started from scratch... Why? I want to have a monotonous standard of textures, all of which advanced since I got the first piece.

The whole Tampa terminal network excluding the west Clearwater Sub will finally see the light

Starting soon, as it looks, and my impending purchase of a HD5770 graphics card and RAM, a solid, well clad, Tampa - Bone Valley - Vitis - Auburndale route will be reborn, version 2.0. Featuring the detail and texturing like god intended.

Included will be:
Brooksville
Drew Park
Uceta
Port Tampa YL
Conagra's plant
Transflo
Yeoman
Port Sutton
Big Bend
Rockport
Vitis
Plant City
Lakeland
Winston
Mulberry
Auburndale
Winter Haven
Bartow
and all the places Bone Valley railfanning is deeply rooted in!

YouTube: The CSX Miami Sub Seeing Intermodal

2011-03-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

It has been stated that intermodal service could be back on the Miami Sub before you know it, here's a little what if of that. Mind you there will be a changeover of the container configurations in the near future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHYopC4J38

Well Cars

2011-03-09T23:00:00.000-08:00

I must say I am amazed with Jointed Rail's latest release.

First they came out with the well cars and an overall limited selection of 53' Jindo containers. Then the line of those broadened to a campy "containers for the masses" ;)

The new pack, at least in the case of the 53 footers, contains How Tomorrow Moves, UMAX, JB Hunt, Schneider, EMP, and HUB group liveries. The ultimate pack!

Now, for a Miami Sub routebuilder or one of the central-Florida A-line, one cannot have all of them together in one piece.

Hence I came up with this plan that will sort cars out to different assets, consider this a how-to, where the instructions are within the context:

For personal use only, pending any consideration from the JR team.

1. TTX Maxi-Stack "General"

This would be the intact, out-of-the-box asset.

Untouched

2. TTX Maxi-Stack "CSX"

The config would be altered to which the 53' containers tag in the Dependency Table will be changed to the corresponding CSX pack.
The CSX containers pack will only have seven meshes in the mesh-table: CSX, CSX HTM, UMAX, UMAX gray, STAX red, CSX (ex.STAX) and I think Schneider may be considered.

3. TTX Maxi-Stack "NS"

The config would be altered to which the 53' containers tag in the Dependency Table will be changed to the corresponding NS pack.
The NS containers pack will include five meshes: Swift, Hub Red, Hub Green, EMP green, and JB Hunt Intermodal

4. TTX Maxi-Stack "Reduced"

The config of the pack corresponding to this asset would be reduced to which any other container not in the above, but including Schneider, would be put in this dependency table.
The Reduced container pack includes Pacer, APL, Crowley, and Schneider.

5. TTX Maxi-Stack "Hardcore CSX"

Only two containers would form a mini-pack for this one: CSX white and CSX HTM
For uniformity

6. TTX Maxi-Stack "Hardcore UMAX"

Only the two UMAX container liveries would be forming a mini-pack for this one.
For uniformity

7. TTX Maxi-Stack "Hardcore EMP"

Only the EMP container will be the dependency here.
For uniformity

Once done, these will jive VERY well with FEC trains, CSX IM, and NS IM. I would like to remind the reader that this is for personal use, but the strategy is there for any curious Trainzer to try out. Look for my CSX Intermodal on the Miami Sub vision of the future video on YouTube later today (March 10) which will show the effect of the variety on CSX trains. This stratagem is designed to improve aesthetics when Trainzing the Intermodal of your choice.

Potential Trip to Central Florida

2011-03-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

I may be headed to the Orlando Sub area as well as the Lakeland and Tampa Terminal Subs to railfan on March 18-19. The main event is actually the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour show in Tampa. LEGO and multi-scale layouts will have displays at the show.

To Shadow Or Not...

2011-03-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

...That is the question.

Trainz ingame has an option that you could tick to enable shadows. Many people do that thinking it will make everything look 1000% more realistic.

Well, not all the time.

I for one have the option disabled, because as they say, you might as well. It does bog down frame rates and sometimes the shadows act really skippy, looking like rays pointing into oblivion.

But there is a nifty little trick to have shadows appear under a given asset. Rain or shine it is effective.

So what I do is when I landscape a given area, I seem to pick my textures from a family of grass colors. In that assortment there are light ones, and dark ones; I very well appreciate the presence of such a variety. Here is a photo comparing two ways I have landscaped the undersides of trees to.

The left was what appeared in many of my routes, even including the 2009-10 non-dem attempt at the Miami Sub. See how subtle and very bland it looks, with a constant shade of grass; it's like it's a tree of glass. (I no longer put my trees up this way)

The right is current, and in my current routes. As the Sanford Sub, Carters Sub, and FEC routes have been plagued by the left, they are getting updated with dark textures beneath trees.

The texture scheme works well for:

Bridges
Trees
Culverts
Conveyors
Water Towers
Tall supported platforms
Billboards
Sheds
Covered areas (ie. Drive-thru banking lanes)
Substations (dark sand or gravel)
Plane displays

You can simply see the difference in the dimension, the right looks very three dimensional while the left looks flat!

The route this was shot on was a very short-lived CSX Freelance route from 2009 btw, couldn't get past 1 mile of track-laying due to boredom.....

Homestead Sub (Video)

2011-03-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

In 2010 I began the Homestead to West Palm route which encompasses 140 miles of mainline and doable service to the quarries and other places.

Here's a video sample from the Homestead Sub, with O721. You can see the aspects of details I've been going after, which detail by detail will be discussed as tips on this blog.

There are animated people, birds, and gizmos all over.

Also if you look carefully note the evident presence of darker grass textures under trees and bridges.

Welcome!

2011-03-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

In here will be the ultimate Trainz progress resource for the Florida routes by me (brickbuilder711/Tolga E.) See progress and other content on here.

Here's my latest to get you acquainted:

CSX Q187 passing the Carters Sub.

This blog is the conduit for the following:

CSX Miami Sub
FEC KWE Modern-Day
CSX Orlando/Sanford Sub
CSX Carters Sub
CSX Bone Valley (Joint with Evan Lofback)
FEC Miami To Fort Pierce (On hold)