Progress:Yarmouth Switchyard North

[hecrowell]

Steve:
The Pacific #1293 came from http://trainsim.com/

Just type Canadian Pacific 1293 into the search box in the search for text line

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

I think the way it's going to work for the Bedford Sub is for me to copy and paste the world tiles from that route into a copy of what I'm working on now. The first thing I'll have to do is to remove the "default" water from the DAR route as it's different then real default water that will be imported with the Bedford Sub and maybe in the future with the Yarmouth and other subs (thinking this is going to be a pain in the ass but once the muggy water of the Minas Basin is replaced I won't have to keep doing it when importing other parts.

The Bedford Sub has nothing other then track and water, my idea is that it shares nothing with what I have and I should have no problem working back to Windsor as Google has satellite shots right to Hants East... then of course I hope Google or Bing adds the missing satellite shot between Hants Border and East Hants, there are satellite shots from north of the the Windsor yard at least to Brooklyn that I would include as somewhere to spawn Truro Sub traffic to and from.

Now, as far as adding other subs go, my theory is as long as you do not include the same world tile while adding another sub, no part of the two parts over lap, then you should be fine. You would then need to connect the two parts with what, a thousand feet of track, then fill in the trees or whatever between the 'patch', but that wouldn't be anything major. Along with the world files you would also need to import shapes and textures for buildings, but that's nothing too difficult, just need to add the files for the new part and let whatever needs to overwrite overwrite.

If we coordinate things to keep it running smoothly, several people could do a joint effort and we could actually have the entire DAR in one big MSTS route file.

Paul

[hecrowell]

Hi Paul

I am wondering how far I should work when laying track? I was originally thinking of Annapolis Royal. What are your thoughts?
There is an awful lot of work involved from Yarmouth to Annapolis Royal, and it sure would keep me out of trouble for a while. I really believe that the info that I have would allow laying a fairly accurate line that far.
You spoke about water and you sort of detailed that to me at one point, but with all that has been going on around here, I have misplaced whatever you told me and I think you sent me new or different water textures.
I am ready and willing to do whatever I can to accomplish and help to accomplish our goal of a line from Halifax to Yarmouth.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Harold,

If you go to Annapolis Royal I'll have a go at the Kentville Sub once I make it to Halifax. Last time I checked satellite shots they were only good to Wilmot thought, maybe that's changed or may change in the future. Would be nice to get the entire DAR completed but it's a pretty big job for one person.

Water... The problem I will run into is I have my route's default water changed to a muddy color. That's great for the Minas Basin which I have plenty of but Bedford Basin is a deep sea blue color, not unlike the actual default water color that Microsoft provides with the game... so... Before importing any other world tiles into my route I'm going to have to turn off all my water and replace it with big sheets of muddy water so I can use MS default water for the Halifax area and eventually your route when I add it to my route.

Now, adding default water...

Open your route in Route Editor.

Select F7, a grid will appear. The blue lines surround a world tile, the black lines divide the world tiles into smaller chunks.

Left click in a black square, you'll see a red outline appear.

Right click and a menu will come up, select "Toggle Water". You probably will not see anything but if you hit "w" the green terrain will disappear and you may see a square piece of water below.

Right click again and select "Set tile water height", a window will appear and you will then have to set the elevation of the water for all four corners. I set Bedford Basin to 1m for each corner, this eliminated the floor flashing through.

You need to do this once per blue world tile, meaning, every time you cross a blue line you'll need to set the water tile height again. To speed things you can select opposite corners in a blue tile and toggle the water for the entire selection in one shot. I prefer to do this in open areas but only toggle to water along the shoreline even if this means doing so one black square at a time, then filling in multiple black tiles away from the shoreline.

Think that should get you going, if you have any questions just ask.

Paul

[hecrowell]

Here is a couple of updated Screenshots of the Yarmouth Sw Yard and engine 503 in the enginehouse. WIll try today to get the Freightshed and a few other misc buildings built and placed.

[stem]

Wow Harold! That's coming along isn't it?

I always loved this shot if the engine house with the coal loading track and conveyor:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=I ... -2627c.jpg

I think it's funny too that they just gave up and painted it black. One wonders if it was any other colour originally.

[hecrowell]

Well, today (Jul 09/2010) I managed to do some work on the terrain around the Switchyard and the Yarmouth Harbour itself. I just found out how much time it takes for the terrain shaping process using the MSTS Route Editor. It is plain to me just how much time it takes to create just one part of a route and gives me a much better appreciation of those that have walked this road ahead of me and thanks to them, they are willing to pass along their knowledge and experience to those like myself that are just learning.

I have included a shot of the Yarmouth subdivision switching yard from an angle that is looking North West out over the end of the harbour. A small island in real life supports a few trees.

The old Steam Loco has just arrived from the Valley and is discharging passengers at the station (c'mon - use a little imagination). If you look real carefully, above the caboose there is a waterway peeking out between the hills - That's Lake Milo.

[stem]

Wow Harold. This is looking great. I see you figured out how to upload. What do you think the problem was?

[hecrowell]

Not sured what the problem is with the direct upload of images to the forum...These latest uploads are vis storage at Photobucket and that seems to work fine.

Here's my latest with the station (in process of being revised with new textures) and shows two PM149's at the station - one loading passengers for the valley run and the other just itching to do some freight shunting If some freight ever arrives at the yard.
Also if you look closely, you can see Cp Forchu way off in the distance over the first spur to the right right of the locomotives (Freightshed Spur). Yarmouth Bar is immediately to the right of that over the 2nd spur that is for another freight facility and also leads to the Cotton Mill Loading dock.

[stem]

This is superb progress Harold! Can hardly wait to see some wharves and buildings!!