The Motive to Create

Can't find the building, train car, item, or scenery you want? Easy, build it.

Trainz addon software, such as 3ds, GMAX, Blender, or Sketchup, offers opportunities to design the piece that is wanted. With the facilities out there such as measurements, specs, and eyeballed proportions, there is no excuse when asking for others to create the asset to not do it yourself.

I have hit the bug recently when beginning the Miami Sub. The Lincoln Industries cantilevers have as such been redesigned and now soon I will lay out a modeling scheme for the 3d roll .

• Vertical and horizontal traffic lights will be redesigned with realistic and light angled textures (ie. light -> 1 on the config file). ATLS scripting, as needed, will be updated to reflect whatever latest version Mike C. has applied in his script. I think the lights lack the ability to type the channel numbers, but I can plug it in. I have been given authority to manipulate the lights with the system, if you guys haven't known. 
• Mast arm: 3L, 4L, 5L with brackets holding, horizontal. Vertical: Doghouse, 3H, 2+2H
• Wire hung: see Vertical and will have the appropriate object holding it
• Backplates will be designed in alternate meshes. It may be scripted to be enabled the way poles are in the old lights, just me plugging a different function in in that case.
• Highway signs will finally be designed. of course my cantilever brackets were lacking. :) I will also locate the 2010 mesh of the cantilevers (FDOT) and modify the pole to be a different stainless steel, replace a concrete textured shape with the metal, and be all set. The Highway signs will be designed to have name attachments to the proper font in some way or another. Also directions will be one attachment, as "NORTH", "SOUTH", so on. There may be standard meshes as one with direction, shield, name (1 or 2 lines), and arrow. Scripting should be similar to Maddy's US Highway trailblazer sign.
• Darth vaders will be redesigned from scratch. May follow similar scripting to Jointed Rail's language and serve approach lit, change w/ direction, etc. FEC searchlights and old color lights will also be redone. Though, the focus in the accurate signals right now is the CSX side which is 99% Darth Vader in the Miami side.
• Buildings will slowly and surely get done. Once I get a bit of intel on FP&T's ginormous pavilion will I do it. I may also consider a mesh of the Miami Jai Alai, and numerous generic industrial buildings in addition to Xawery's offering. (ie. the ones with the walls that look like garage beams).
• Highway roads may see redesign to streamline lane changes,  interchanges, etc. A lot of the CSX tracks run next to 874, 836, and I-95. Bridges will follow suit.
• And of course train cars. I will be doing custom gondolas, namely scrap and thrall gons. The famed "Green Gons" that I rendered in 09 fell off use and don't run anymore. Then I will also apply sophisticated mapping and learn the ropes with it. Looks like the following unless JR or RRMods beats me to it :) Also some may be made into payware packs of my own:
• UP ARMN 57' mech reefers (white ones)
• TTX 60' Gunderson boxcars
• DJJX/JTLX/ZVBX/FPTX 52' Thrall gons (The JR ones do not satisfy me)
• GAMX and HOMX LPG tanks
• NATX/ADMX ethanol tanks
• NAHX/CITX/TITX center pressure flow tubs
• SPEX gons
• FRKX hoppers (version 2!)
• CYDX, CYXX, PRSX hoppers

Let's hope I find the time but then again there's so much time I waste that if I get busy it will happen!

CSXT Downtown Spur - Y120 Ops Session

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make for a decent ops session.

I only have on average about 100' in radius detailed. The only area I have touched is from NW 23 AV east to NW 20 AV. Yet having a bit cut off from the video of Y120, the total length in time is under 10 minutes. It is also a presentable route that looks mostly complete in the video.

Just switching Family and Sons takes 25 minutes of work. You pull the loads away, hook them to the empties, return the empties to the train, and drop the loads. It looks easy but it takes a while to do. You may even have to stop the train at a certain spot not to block crossings (though ATLS didn't cooperate by keeping the gates down forever). This is the beauty of the Downtown Spur.

On YouTube I am uploading the video run of this so you guys can see for yourselves. Shot in the wonderful Miami predawn, this cyber run of Y120 carries upon its work. Sometimes you are not Lance, Mal, or anyone in this that can have a tangible version of this route done. What's so nice is also that for just about 70 dollars (50 buck TS2012+20 bucks in payware engines) this whole thing can happen.

I have been having fun doing the Tampa terminal, and I am having just as much fun working the Miami terminal in Trainz. Here you're making downloadable content, have something to keep you busy, and the best part - railfanning from the comfort of your own home. Eventually I may hack the multiplayer abilities for this route to be MP friendly.

I promise by the end of the summer, computer upgrades will streamline the experience much better. That will blow away the onset of Trainzing more than ever before.

Downtown Spur & East Rail in Trainz

Why not create Lance's model railroad by way of cyberspace?

New Wave of Cantilevers

I'm back at it again, designing from scratch. Here's a Lincoln Industries 2-lane, new mesh vs. old/similar mesh. Its equivalent will be coming soon. Not too long a ways away I will be making working lights

Trainz This Week

Even though I am preparing for Railwatch, I haven't left Cyber Trainz behind. I flipflopped back to the Tampa Terminal to do work on Neve Spur and I believe my high iron itches are getting me to work the S-Line to Zephyrhills.
As a statistic, the two big routes, "South Florida Mega Route" and "CSX Tampa terminal Rail Network" have co-builders.
Mike (MSTS195) will have the 301-Alexander St. ish leg of the A-Line combined with the remaining piece of Big bend -Apollo  in one route file (for instant merge) effective this week.
Tony (magana47) now has the Mega Route from Delray to Palm Beach Gardens, both lines.

Also I am designing Lincoln Industries cantilevers, which will be followed by Harmon, one-legged and bridge, and MI last. All are redesigned from scratch.

History in Trainz

Trainz's TIGER and HOG mapping utilities happened to have caught the old trackage seen in areas, namely that of Fort Lauderdale by the airport. Of course, me knowing the area quite well, I know today things do not run as "Drawn". So these are my improvisations:

On the CSX Side:

 On the FEC side:

What I do like about this, amid the possible inaccuracy from how far away your track is from reality, is that it is a great history lesson. You look at the I and you can pinpoint that the tracks were rerouted around something. This is really easy to notice on the FEC as old roadbed is visible from Griffin Road. It is also interesting to learn how one service road was built on the FEC tracks. But what I found a bit more surprising was the CSX tracks being curved around. Yet looking at Google Maps, it made sense. I think the old 1980s video on Tri-Rail had a more straight pass through there anyway.

Either way, as I model this, more discoveries await.

Standardizing Complicated Things to Build in Trainz

Routebuilding in South Florida has an obstacle. Many railroad stretches are developed alongside highways, which have frequent exit ramps. To make a given ramp, of course the features of it unique to the interchange have to be captured, and the thing with the most difference is the signs. Green signs direct motorists in any US highway and even int'l highways where to go to go to a certain place (ie. East Bird Rd Left Arrow). One thing is these have different sizes, but in Trainz, it may not take different sizes to represent them after all. I will be designing a standard sign, similar to the new ones at Bird Road, that have four attachment points: State road shield, direction, name, and arrow. This serves as a compromise to this situation but a sufficient answer to the lack of these detailed signs in TRS.