Auburndale 2.0 (WIP)

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

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

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!

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

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

Vitis Junction / US 98

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

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

And the humble beginnings thereof in detailing it.

Eye-catchers

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

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

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)

The east angle from Gay Road is complete.