Changing Directions...

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

I'm currently working on the Windsor area right now, next will be the two mines north of Windsor and a couple of miles of the Truro Sub to make sure the Mixed has some place to spawn before arriving in Windsor. After that I have always assumed I'd finish the route by heading that thirty miles east to Windsor Junction. The scenery is nice but really it's thirty miles of mind numbing trees with nothing to do.

The other day I started thinking if I headed south from Coldbrook where would thirty miles get me... turns out I only need twenty-four to get me to Middleton. Berwick, Kingston/Greenwood, and Middleton had pretty decent traffic back then, plus the cars bound for more southern locals would fill out the train. Even little Wilmot handled more cars a month then were handles between Windsor and Windsor Junction in a year!

So... think this is the direction I'll be taking the route... probably leave the tracks in to Windsor Junction with the intent of finishing that area off in the future. Was also thinking after the mines are completed along with a couple of miles north on the Truro and east out of Windsor I might release the route as "Phase I" with Phase II being the line to Middleton.

Just a thought...

Paul

[stem]

Yay! I couldn't be more pleased to hear that! The Waterville station and warehouses. The Berwick warehouses. The Aylesford warehouses. The spur to Greenwood. Traffic to the RV place at Kingston. The CN interchange at Middleton with a short piece up to Nictaux Falls. The turn about at Middleton is a natural too for the phase II end.

You have to admit it is a lot more interesting than the run to Windsor Junction.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

I'll leave the track in to Windsor Junction and maybe pick away at completing it but I sure would be more interested in running a way freight to Middleton then spending half an hour doing nothing on the way to Windsor Junction... and yes, this would include a mile or two of CN track on each side of Middleton.

Had a friend in Nictaux Falls who's father was the first one in Nova Scotia to paint "AMBULANCE" backwards so people could read it in their rear view mirrors.

Paul

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My folks moved from Middleton to just across the river to Nictaux where I nearly had the bridge that crossed the Annapolis in my back yard. Great train watching! Never had the camera in my hand though when the train crossed the bridge although I have a lot pf photos of that bridge.

During the time I lived there, they moved the Annapolis river right up to our back yard to build a new bridge coming out of Middleton going to Nictaux. Got a few photos of that and the Aerial survey photos showing that too if you need some detail. Includes as well most of Middleton right up to about where the station is but clearly shows the CN tracks and interchange area.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

When were you in Middleton, was it when we were in Greenwood... 1971-77?

Please post the aerial shot of Middleton... and anything else you think would help. Right bow Google ends at Wilmot, I can switch to map view and get into the Middleton yard, so an aerial shot sure would come in handy!

Paul

[stem]

Have you got "Drop-Box"? The JPG is 72 MB.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

No, don't have Drop Box... the big Hantsport aerial you posted here is 600 x 1286 pixels and only 423 KB... any chance of getting a copy about that size? 72 Meg, you should be able to look down blouses with a shot that size!

Paul

[stem]

OK Paul. After many hours of fiddling around I finally got this 24000 x 24000 stitched together from two pieces I scanned and reduced to 2400 x 2400 so you could use it. As the original scan was at 2400 DPI, this one is at an effective 240 DPI. It should show you though everything in decent detail.

Pick it up here:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=F ... Aerial.jpg

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the image... and the time.

Was the reason to reroute the river just because they had to replace the bridge? Our Air Cadet squadron use to go to the La Have River to camp in the spring, been over the new bridge several times.

A week or so ago when I started to think about heading south towards Middleton I checked Google Earth and found they still stopped at Wilmot. Thought the other day I might see how far I could get in Street View and was shocked to find Google had uploaded pretty much the rest of the shots for the Valley. Not the greatest but you can certainly follow the DAR and any roads in the area all the way to Digby now.

Paul

[stem]

Hi Steve,

Was the reason to reroute the river just because they had to replace the bridge? Our Air Cadet squadron use to go to the La Have River to camp in the spring, been over the new bridge several times.

Paul

It was. They just couldn't shoehorn a new concrete bridge into the same location as the old single lane without removing a few houses, so they moved the river instead.

I see what you mean about Google maps. The clouds don't help either. So this photo fills in a lot of the detail and the piece between this and the clouds is probably just a straight shot.

[stem]

I've been running the current Beta over and over and really have had nothing to report in the way of problems. All your rolling stock and track works perfectly. There are still some minor issues with OpenRails compatibility but the overall performance is so much better it's a tradeoff on the plus side still.

Questions:
Location: east bound leaving Wolfville.
The line is straight through the town but at the end of the yards, the switch is the start of the curve and is a rather tight curve like maybe a #4 swtich. It's pretty tight. Did the track really abruptly enter a curve right on the switch like that or was the original switch there a curved switch?

Vehicles:
I'm not sure what speed you have them running around town and on the old highways but they look at bit fast in both cases. You could probably drop the speed in both cases 10 MPH. Too bad you can't control the accel and decel rate. They always look like they hit a brick wall when they stop and they look like dragsters when they take off again.

Just little stuff. Like I said, there are no problems whatsoever and I'm loving it.

Next Beta?

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Have spoken to the people at Open Rails about transfers not showing up in routes and they are aware of the problem. As you can imagine, reinventing MSTS is a bit of work and transfers are on the long list of things to get to, but not a real priority for now.

Yes, the east end of the passing siding in Wolfville did have a sharp change in direction as I have it, but maybe a little less sharp then what I have. I have to use the track components that come with xTrack, it's not like you can lay your own switches to match a prototype in MSTS. That said, what I have is as close as I can make it, and it's not that far off from what was there in real life.

Never figured out the logic behind MSTS vehicle speeds. Through towns I have vehicle speeds set to 50 km and highway set to 80 or 100 km. MSTS seems to give each vehicle a random speed from 10 to whatever speed limit you have set. It's pretty annoying seeing a group of vehicles on a highway bunched up behind one that's just crawling along, maybe Open Rails will correct this when that get that far... if you're seeing vehicles start and stop is that maybe where the carspawns start and stop and I just haven't been able to put enough trees around those areas to disguise them?

Still working away on Windsor, have all but a couple of buildings drawn for the downtown area, waiting for someone at the Windsor Historical Society to scan me a couple of shots of the original Curling Club which burnt to the ground in 2002 (or was that 2008). I'm currently working on Wentworth Road, have Fort Edward Mall and a handful of buildings drawn, five more to do, then about ten in the industrial park.

Did you get my e-mail about two weeks ago looking for an aerial of Windsor? I can't find any photos showing Esso, Fundy Gypsum, and Domtar that were served by the sidings at the Wentworth Rd crossing.

As soon as I get Windsor completed I'll post another beta... shouldn't be too much longer.

Paul

[stem]

I did find an OpenRails scenery note that should be easy enough to incorporate as you build. Maybe you saw it too?
http://wiki.uktrainsim.com/display/OPEN ... n+Rails%21

The car speed for the old Highways would look good at 40 MPH. That's about what everyone drives them at. Around town they it would probably look good at 20 MPH. There's is no rush in rural NS! The stopping and starting accel rates I mentioed were the ones where they stop and start and level crossings for instance. I didn't figure the game engine would let you mess with this though.

I looked and looked though my GIS data and on-line too but never found any aerials for that. Sorry, I meant to tell you that and forgot.

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

This has nothing to do with Open Rails not rendering transfers, this is trying to align floors and bridge decks to the bottom of the rails, which MSTS does quit easily if you remember to make the floor or deck and terrain object, maybe they were having problems getting that to work in OR. Transfers and like decals you apply to an already painted model aircraft. You may want you wing to be bare metal, but want you roundels a different color. The farm fields along the right of way are sort of the same, you have a terrain color for the general area, and use a terrain to add a field to the area, OR has yet to figure out how to do what MSTS has been doing from day one. In the case of a turntable, the terrain is turned off to allow you to see the turntable pit below the terrain surface. MS terrain is a series of triangles, not round, so there is a gap between the terrain that isn't turned off and the edge of the turntable pit wall... you fill in the gap using transfers.

We left Nova Scotia a couple of years after forced metric, town speed limits were 50 kph, old highways were 80 kph, and the new highway... opened as far as Berwick when we left was 100 kph... some people saw these signs as more of a suggestion though.

Maybe someone at the Windsor Historical Society might be nice enough to have a look for me, other then knowing the three customers were there, have no idea what they looked like. Did have eight shots of the Curling Club sent to me today, was from construction shots that appeared in the local newspaper back in 1943.

Paul

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Two different issues on the terrain side for sure. Just thought you might find the discussion on roadbed height enlightening.

I have repeatedly tried to contact the Windsor Historical Societly without success. If you find a contact, please pass it on and I'll try to make contact on behalf of the DAR DPI and see if there's any material we can glean or share.

If you think this 1950 topo map is of any value, I can send you a higher res version:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/images/Windsor_21_A16_East.jpg