Progress:Yarmouth Switchyard North

[hecrowell]

Well, Some progress for the Yarmouth Subv - FINALLY
Collected drawings/blueprints, got some pre-help from Paul, then bit the bullet.
Small section between Gardner St and Allen's Lane
Laid mainline1 track c/w splitter for mainline2. Then added switches for the Coaling facility spur just North of Allen's Ln (now called Richard's Ln). Added switch for the spur for the East side of Cosmos Connon Mill And finally the switch for the spur which ends just South of Gardner St.
This was all a HUGE learning experience for me and even though very small, was complicated.....getting 1 track sections and 2 track sections to meet up properly, etc, etc.
Next, I wanted to check it all out and the only way I knew of to do that was to drive a train on it. Built activity using the DAR RDC as the vehicle to check for bad track sections (yes - I found a couple) and to check the switches. After a few more mods, I can move on with another section.
Will try to post some screen shots at a later date

[Paul Charland]

Hi Harold,

That's about all you can do, add some track then run a test. If you don't fall off, maybe it's right!

When I'm making a test activity I make the path on a piece of track I know isn't likely to change, then make the path just about the length of the engine I use. When you make changes to the track around just need to open the test activity, select File>Calculate and Save, then Save and you should be able to open the activity without having to create a new one for the test.

Paul

[hecrowell]

Ok, my friend - I will read that again to digest it. Gee wiz - just when I thought I was safe by making an activity that contains no mishaps...Your statement seems to imply that maybe a gremlin can creep in at any time...does that mean it will (or could) do something to a track system that already works ok? Now I'm getting nervous!

File - - - calculate - - - haven't used that before, as a matter of fact haven't even noticed it...will have to experiment with that to see what it does (unless you want to tell me the workings behind it) ((hint hint))

[Paul Charland]

Hi Harold,

No, I was just trying to save you some time when doing your test runs by making a quick 'calculate and save' as opposed to creating a new activity every time you wanted to do a test run. Calculate and Save will update your activity to include any new track or road sections you've added since the activity was created.

If you add track then try to use a previous activity chances are it may not open (adding buildings is OK, adding tracks or roads alters the track data base file and will change the version number. When MSTS sees the activity has an earlier version number then the tdb file, it usually will produce an error and close).

Strange thing can happen though. After posting my last DAR beta I was running a test train and was surprised to find on to separate occasions a white 1980s Ford Torus at different crossings. That wouldn't have been noteworthy except my carspawn file doesn't have a Ford Torus listed although it is included on one of the groups of vehicles I've downloaded.

Paul

[hecrowell]

Ok - Here it is - The Switching yard for Yarmouth.
This shot is looking South from the Cotton Mill approximately at Allen's Lane. The Spur on the left is for the Coal Pit and the end of the spur is just North of Allen's Lane. The route begins at Gardner St which is farther north behind the cp29 steam engine and coal tender. The train station will be on the left adjacent to the Switch Yard.
I have to thank Paul C for a lot of help in getting the switches and trackage explained to me C/W drawings. Without his help, I would never have made it this far at this time.
The trackage gets a bit simpler from here on down to where the track met up with CN trackage. One hurdle to get over now is the turning wye North of what I have already done.

[hecrowell]

Jan 03/2010

Today - Finished up and tested the main switchyard...all OK so far. Have completed down to where the yard reduces to two tracks (South). Next will continue South and pick up the rest of the spurs - Eastern Steamship wharf, Fuel Oil Storage, scrap iron works, and remaining spurs. Once this is completed, I should be able to continue North to the turning wye and then continue the route through Dayton, Milton, Hebron South Ohio etc etc. It would be nice to be able to get as far as Weymouth sometime, but that's a long way off and a lot of other things (water areas for one example) will have to come into play sometime soon.
In any case, wish me luck and hopefully sometime if the sky doesn't fall and the rivers don't rise I will be able to package something of value for other interested parties to enjoy.

[hecrowell]

Switchyard done and tested from Cotton Mill to Freight Shed.
Route extended to South Ohio (about 30km) and turning wye added between what is now a housing development between Chestnut and Hibernia streets. I will replace all those houses with two barns as per the 1929 blueprints
Coming soon: Southern end of the yard down to H&SW RR including spurs which will pretty well finish up the basics....land shaping and land scaping will follow along with streets, then I can get serious about buildings
Got a start on the old roundhouse (after all - the era that I am trying to capture is the late 1930's)and sized so a cp29 engine/coal tender will fit in the bays.

[hecrowell]

Well, today was a good day - lots done. The Yarmouth sitchyard pretty well cleaned up (just a few minor hitches) and completed from junction of DAR/H&SW lines to the South of Yarmouth. Cleaned up the line from the wye to South Ohio so that is now complete. I guess that makes about 35Km of track laid down.
Have added the Cotton Mill, Roundhouse and station and looks kind of neat rolling up and down the tracks in the old town now.
Not ready for screenshots yet - want to get a few buildings (as soon as I get them done) and streets placed as well as a bit of terrain and vegitation. (this is a LOT of work)

[Paul Charland]

Hi Harold,

"(this is a LOT of work)"... not sure people who don't do this know just how much is involved in a route!

Did have a suggestion for you. Make sure you have about a mile of H&SW track so you will have plenty of room to spawn CN AI traffic out of sight. Doesn't have to be fully sceniced or anything, just disappearing into the trees would be enough, or around building, whatever works to make it go away once it's out of sight from the end of the DAR limits in Yarmouth (suspect the DAR would have some terminal trackage rights over CN and vise versa in Yarmouth).

Paul

[hecrowell]

Thanks for the heads up Paul.
The H&SW line ran South for only a short distance then made a turn to the left to continue on out past the Yarmouth airport not far from the end of runway 06 and then on to a village called Arcadia. I assume that if I continue the route for H&SW around the turn would suffice what you described above. the distance would be only a couple of Km.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Harold,

Sounds like a plan, don't think CN trains would be too long so a couple of klicks would be plenty. Much easier to do this now then to "complete" the route and find you didn't have enough room to spawn AI traffic.

On my route Coldbrook is the spawn point for AI traffic but I went ahead and sceniced it anyway... never know, someday might start heading south!

Paul

[hecrowell]

G5 #1293 (4-6-2) leaving Yarmouth heading to South Ohio on test run of trackage

[stem]

This is pretty cool! How exactly do you eventually link up what Paul is working on with what Harold is working on?

And where did you get that Pacific? Share please!

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

I have a theory about this that I'll be testing soon.

Last August I started working on the CN Bedford Sub from Windsor Junction to Halifax station. Have track laid from WJ to about half a mile from the end of track at the station. I'm guessing I'll run out of track to scenic at Hants Border by the end of February and need something to do while I wait for someone to upload the missing satellite shots to Windsor so I'll be trying to import the world files from the Bedford Sub to the DAR route. If that works the eventually Harold's Yarmouth Sub might be able to be imported into my files and connected with a completed Kentville Sub.

Paul

[stem]

If you can figure that out, it opens the door for multiple programmers! That would be awesome. Imagine Harold on the Yarmouth sub while someone else works on the Midland or the North Mountain from Kingsport to Weston.

I suppose though the dividing line is going to be the size fo the world tiles right?