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LAST EDITED ON Jul-13-02 AT 04:26 PM (EDT)

San Diego and Arizona Railroad (SDA Desert Line) v1.0For Microsoft Train Simulator.
Filename: SDA10.zip, Uploaded: July 13, 2002Location: San Diego and Imperial Counties, California, USA.The line through Carrizo Gorge was operated by the SDA,
which used the route to run passenger and general freight between
San Diego and El Centro where the line linked up with the Southern
Pacific Railroad. Desert Line: Extends northeast from the
International Border (Division Station) to Seeley, where it joins
the Southern Pacific (SP) Line from El Centro. The Goat Canyon
Trestle, built in 1932 as part of a realignment of the main line
following a tunnel collapse, extends for 633 feet, 185 feet high.
It is claimed to be the highest and longest wooden trestle bridge
in the United States.This simulation is an eclectic combination of eras on the SDA.
The Last Spike was driven on November 19, 1919.
The line operated from 1919 to 1976 when on September 10, 1976,
Hurricane Kathleen badly damaged it. It reopened in 1981 only
to last until the summer of 1983 before being shutdown due
to fire damage to several tunnels and trestles.The presence of the Goat Canyon Trestle indicates operation
after its construction in 1932. The fact that tunnels 8 and
16 are still open, indicates operation before their collapse
in the 1980's. The presence of the De Anza Springs Nudist
Camp along the line indicates operation in the mid 1990's
although the line was finally put out of operation by
fires in 1983. Siding locations where I could not physically
visit were taken from USGS maps last field checked in 1975.I've hiked along this railroad from Dos Cabezes to Dubbers, over
trestles and through tunnels. I've driven the dirt roads around
Jacumba, Sugar Loaf and Coyote Wells. It is an area of San Diego
County that I love.This route took me 6 months of fairly constant effort and still
needs work. Fortunately, there is not much scenery in the area
where the line runs. The line is complete with all sidings that
I could identify, mileposts, speed limits and signals. The signals
are not typical of SDA operation (I don't think they had many) but
are rather done for MSTS activities. There are several dummy
activities so that you can explore the route from either
end or points in between.Turn on Distant Mountains for the best effects.In MSTS, the route will display as "Carrizo Gorge v1.0".My thanks to all route builders and scenery builders who preceeded
me. Credit given for all shapes and textures downloaded
from train-sim.com and uktrainsim.Special thanks to:
TSTools for markers and milepost locations
USGS for DEM data and maps
Demex for the terrain and Distant Mountains
Train Sim Modeler for all the new objects
TGATool for textures
Route Riter for getting the Distribution Package ready.
Michael Vone for his great book on Route Building
SeaView for the outline of installation instructions
Robert Hanft's book
"San Diego & Arizona: The Impossible Railroad"Comments are always welcome. Please send me any activities
that you develop and I'll include them here.Mark DiVecchio
San Diego, CA, USA
markd@san.rr.com
July 13, 2002

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

Attachments

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San Diego & Arizona Railroad [View All], SanDiegoMark, 04:16 PM, Jul-13-02, (0) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, bnsfrr, Jul-13-02, 04:28 PM, (1) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, atsfdude, Jul-13-02, 11:35 PM, (2) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, bcdef, Jul-14-02, 02:10 AM, (3) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-14-02, 10:15 PM, (7) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, Max_Power, Jul-15-02, 07:19 PM, (10) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-17-02, 00:00 AM, (18) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, PcKiller, Jul-14-02, 01:19 PM, (4) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, GT46PAC, Jul-14-02, 01:49 PM, (5) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-14-02, 10:16 PM, (8) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, zhivago47, Jul-14-02, 02:23 PM, (6) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, MKT1972, Jul-15-02, 01:24 AM, (9) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, sniper297, Jul-15-02, 07:42 PM, (11) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, shoskins, Jul-22-02, 01:41 PM, (32) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, chuckzeiler, Jul-15-02, 09:21 PM, (13) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, sniper297, Jul-15-02, 10:19 PM, (14) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-16-02, 02:01 AM, (16) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, calr, Jul-22-02, 02:10 PM, (34) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, dkunath, Jul-15-02, 10:56 PM, (15) Stations?, trainwhiz20, Jul-16-02, 06:20 PM, (17) RE: Stations?, SanDiegoMark, Jul-24-02, 11:28 PM, (42) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, gdwrench, Jul-17-02, 01:24 AM, (19) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, Gixxer86g, Jul-17-02, 05:14 AM, (20) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, batt, Jul-17-02, 07:25 AM, (21) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, lincolnzoo, Jul-17-02, 09:20 PM, (22) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-18-02, 01:19 AM, (23) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, enocell, Jul-18-02, 03:21 PM, (24) Distant Mountains don't work and why that is, JohnCS, Jul-18-02, 09:16 PM, (25) RE: Distant Mountains don't work and why that is, WabashJae, Jul-18-02, 10:16 PM, (26) RE: Distant Mountains don't work and why that is, SanDiegoMark, Jul-20-02, 00:06 AM, (29) RE: Distant Mountains don't work and why that is, MikeSimpson, Jul-21-02, 05:40 PM, (31) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, rpatton, Jul-19-02, 12:18 PM, (27) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-19-02, 11:58 PM, (28) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, jstarkey, Jul-21-02, 09:32 AM, (30) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, shoskins, Jul-22-02, 01:47 PM, (33) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, CyberSky, Jul-22-02, 07:16 PM, (35) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, MikeSimpson, Jul-23-02, 00:06 AM, (36) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, atsfdude, Jul-24-02, 10:41 AM, (37) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, Tree Frog, Jul-24-02, 11:32 AM, (38) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, SanDiegoMark, Jul-24-02, 11:25 PM, (41) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, bwaterman, Jul-24-02, 12:14 PM, (39) RE: San Diego & Arizona Railroad, shovelnose, Jul-24-02, 07:38 PM, (40)

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Cool, finnaly a route from my hometown. The Carrizo Gorge looks great! - MIKE - -Trains from www.frograil.com/gifs/gifs.htm

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I am very familiar with the route. After living in San Diego and seeing parts of it in person and the N scale layout at the San Diego Model Railroad museum in Balboa Park. Looking forward to running it. BTW, I have heard rumors that they might be running traffic again on the route?? Anyone else have any info?
-- John Tackett --

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where can i get this S&A Railroad?

FAMOUS HIPPIE slangs
Man-to get atension( hey man )
Chick- hippie gal, girl, woman
Dig- get it, get interseted in
Crash- sleep
Crash Pad- where one sleeps
Groovy- cool, neat, all right
Later- hippie of sayin bye
Nifty- cool, nice, sexxy!, exc
Head- a hippie! :)

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I uploaded the route on the 13th. Should be in the
file library in a few days.Mark

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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yea i heard info about it too, i believe they are just trying to get the OK, i think the money is pretty much in order,

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This thread in the General Forum, talked about the
possibility of opening the line again:http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/1491.html

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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WOW, Another well made route to add to my collection. Looks really nice too.

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Great route there. Also excellent info about the route. Can I know what is the file size and how long is this route? Certainly looks very interesting and hopefully be in my collection.
Thanks,
GT46PAC

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The uploaded file (courtesy of Route-Riter) is
30 mb. The route is about 38 miles long.

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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Oh no, another route that I am just going to have to have......geez you guys are going to force me to get a bigger harddrive.......lol...
Sounds great Mark and can't wait to try it out........Normally I like a lot of trees, but this sounds too good to pass up. Thanks for all the hard work and making it available for all of us untalented people....Tim
The Spur Line
http://tahunter.net/thespurline
Appalachia RR

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Just when I thought things couldnt get any better another desert route shows up. It looks great from the screenshots you have posted. 1972"I am the game and you don't want to play me." Lemmy Kilmister--Motorhead

http://www.trainsimstuff.com

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Nice route. One minor glitch, bird01.haz calls for Bird01.s, no Bird01.s or Bird01.sd in the \Shapes folder. Easily fixed by deleting Bird01.haz, but you might want to think about finding and uploading the shape & texture files in a patch, a bird hazard sounds like fun.
Also some buried track on the curve west of MP 89, that one is always a pain. You think you got them all, and another one pops up!

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No need to be nervous -- everything loads and runs the first time you try it!!Never even knew of the "bird hazard" situation until the fix showed up inthe File Library this morning. Will add it in a little bit.I do have ONE problem though -- leaving the east end (heading west) with three GP-9's and a 20 car train, can't make it more than four or five miles before stalling no matter what I do. Three GP-9's is what the SD&A trains normally showed with in the later years (1970's). Anyone have any suggestions? Yes! I ddi release the engine brakes this time!!

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I've downloaded and installed SDA10.zip, and it installed flawlessly. Thank you.On my first trip, I stopped at Titus. Did your research show if there was ever a station (or town) at this location?

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Nothing to be nervous about, minor glitch, easily fixed. The one place I can visualize it causing a problem is if an activity is created near a bird hazard, and hazard levels are turned up from the default zero, the hazard would activate, and you'd get the missing shape error. The only reason I found it so quickly is cuz I usually look at new routes in the RE first, hazards don't even appear in explore route mode. That's why I suggested fixing it, it's a beautiful route and is probably gonna be very popular, and people are gonna write activities for it. I also wanna see what a bird hazard looks like!

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Thanks for finding this, sniper. I realize what happened.
This hazard is from a Crow designed by Mark Todd which
I downloaded from uktrainsim. It comes with the BIRD01.s and
BIRD02.sd and BIRD01.haz files. When I used Route-Riter to
get the route ready for distribution, I didn't realize that
it would not connect my use of BIRD01.haz with the *.s and *.sd
files. RR just removed them thinking they were not used.
I need to add those files to the KeepMe.txt file to tell
RR to keep them around.I want to wait a few days until any other problems are
found before I release a patch file. In the meantime, you
can download crow01.zip from the uktrainsim site.

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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Is that a gas-electric in your screenshot. Is it in the library. I have ridden on a train similar to that as a kid. It was operated by what was then Great Northern. I lived in South Dakota at the time (early 50's)

Cal Rasmussen
Beaverton, ORColumbia Gorge Route (Temporarily on hold, while working on several TSM projects)

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Mark, Just downloaded your route today and have to say its really beautiful! So far have just done the explore route but the mountains and views of the valley are simply spectactur and just as I have remembered them years ago in Northern Mexico. Great and thanks a lot!Dwayne

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I really think the SDA railroad is really cool. I was wondering though, could you place more stations on the route? I'm big into passenger operations. It would be cool to add on the patch that you mentioned. Just a suggestion. Thanks!

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I'm trying to keep the line as 'accurate' as possible so the
stations along the line are from the SDA route map as I found
on the www.sdrm.org site.

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-17-02 AT 01:57 AM (EDT)

Thank You for the route. What really makes this real is all the TELEPHONE POLES. Good work. Thanks Fred..

Fred... "Mr. Goodwrench" a ASE General Motors Master Technician for 45 years...

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d350733051a8841.jpg

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I love thid route.Great work.The grades make it a challenge for large trains.As for the poles,I also love them.The tunnel portals and other details are impressive.When I worked for the NYSW signal dept,we spent a couple of weeks cuting down the old poles.

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-17-02 AT 07:49 AM (EDT)

I also like the poles and tunnels, but what I'm really in love with is the trestlework. Personally, I think it's the best I've seen on any route so far - freeware or payware.....And for some odd reason, I feel like I'm driving a train through a familiar Sergio Leone film. -----Blondeeee!!!!!----- Great fun anyway-Batt

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http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d35541f6d150198.jpg

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What does the "Keepme.txt" mean? It reads like you can't replace certain files.

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Is a file used by Route-Riter. Not used by the sim.
It tells Route-Riter which files must be kept in the
route as it is packaged for release. You can replace or
edit those files if you want. You can also delete the
Keepme.txt file if you want.

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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Really great route. There's some dips under the rails, though.
The grades are really cool(=steep), I almost stalled with this only 722 ton train when I didn't follow the speedometer for a few seconds...

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d3714fc402db92e.jpg

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Mark:Very nice work. I haven't seen the prototype myself, however having been to the San Diego MRR museum it looks exactly like their layout so I'd have to say you nailed it.Lots of nice details.However no-one can see your distant mountains. You didn't include the .e and .n files from your lo_tiles folder. Train-sim does NOT rebuild these for you (thus the purpose for steps 3-5 in DEMEX). If this is a Route-Riter caused problem please pass it on to its author.Once I created them it does add alot to the route.

JohnCS
dem_ex@hotmail.com
visit the DEMEX website:
http://www.dem-ex.com

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Great route all around... easy to install, a challenge to run, and the scenery isn't too bad either;)
Jae

Jae

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d37764304ea328c.jpg

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d377652051dc11a.jpg

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Don't ya figure! One of the most important things on this
route are the mountains and I screwed it up.I don't know exactly what happened. I went back to my backup
done right after I added the DM and the files were there. Then in the
backup from 2 days later, they were gone! I restored the
lo_tiles directory into the SDA10 directory and the Distant
Mountains reappeared.John, your great Demex created them just fine and Mike,
Route-Riter didn't have them to start with so no problem there.I will be putting together a patch file this weekend to fix this
and a few other glitches.Thanks to all for the nice comments on the route and for all the
help (releasing a route is sure a good way to find mistakes).

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

Attachments

http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d38e16d2e0685be.jpg

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Hi John,Thanks for that tip on the .e/.n files not being re-created by MSTS. Route-Riter does actually delete them in the lo-Tiles directory, so I will fix this this week. Only route I had actually tried it on was Marias3, as this is the only other route I had come upon with the lo-Tiles in use.For Mark,I will fix this as soon as possible. I almost got the non-default Hazard fix done, should have new version ready this week.Mike.

Mike

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Well, San Diego Mark, you have done a good thing, tunnels and all. And some serious grades that troubled even a Garratt. Clearly a labour of love. When can we expect the part of the line through Mexico (Tecate, really!)?
But I have been asking how, just west of Carrizo, heading west, I got a tremendous overhead shot of the train and tracks from perhaps 800 to 1000 feet straight up. The view came up without warning on the "3" or rear view. Looking down on a map is the best description. How did you or I do that? I cannot get a repeat performance.
Thanks againThe Old Professor

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I think the camera just hit a mountain. The camera can not
go underground and when it hits terrain, it just runs along
the ground. With the fairly steep mountains in the Gorge, the
camera got pushed really high. You can try this with the
CTRL-up and CTRL-down arrow keys.

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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This looks like a really nice route! I tried twice to download and install it, but there seems to be a problem with the DOS InstallMe bat. file installer. It starts to copy files OK but only copies a few (about 30 seconds worth) and then stops. Not enough to install the program.....I'm sure it's something that I'm doing wrong. Suggestions ?James

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Sometimes we downloaders don't quite read the instructions the way the authors write them. I've done this many times.Here's what I did and had absolutely NO problems:
1. Go to your c:/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Train Simulator/Routes folder.2. Make a new folder there...and name is "sda10".3. Unzip everything in the downloaded folder into that "sda10" folder.4. THEN click on the Install.BATI've done it ass-backwards a few times (click on install.bat before moving everything to the proper folder) with other routes with the same results described above -- you can NOT hit the install.bat unless it is in the proper destination folder.

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The same thing happened to me. When I double-clicked the .bat file I was expecting the copying to take a few minutes (either because the readme says so or because this is how long it takes with other routes). But, it only seemed to do something for 20 or 30 seconds and then it was done. The route does seem to work, though. I haven't had the time to really explore it, but perhaps it is okay. Maybe I'm just assuming it should have taken longer?

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The reason installme.bat takes such a short time as this route was prepared using Route-Riter which only copies the required files from the default folders. Older installation procedures just copied everything across, which is why it took so long, and why your hard-drive is now full

Mike

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Mark,
Using Route Editor I took a look at the route and I was floored. The detail you added is fantastic.
I especially like the boxcars that are laying down the side of the hills along the route. I was just amazed at what I was seeing.
I did look beyond the end of the route and it looks like you were planning to do a bit more (Based on the tiles and all) Can we expect some more on this route?
Anyway thanks for the great route and look forward to your future work.
-- John Tackett --

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Mark,Like John, I spent a good bit of time last night carefully examining your route with the Route Editor to see what I could learn. I was extremely impressed with your skill and attention to detail. Things like those great trestles, your use of terrain transfers to simulate a river way down in the valley, you tunnels, all the little detailed scenarios that add realism, etc, etc.Please don't stop building! Bill Burnett

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Well, good intentions at least. My original plan was to
do Division (where the line re-enters the US from Mexico)
to El Centro. That would double the mileage to about 70 miles.I'll probably do a v2.0 with more details of the current
extent first.

Mark DiVecchio
markd@san.rr.com
San Diego and Arizona Railroad

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Downloaded the route the route the other day and installed it last night. I have only explored about half of the route so far but it really looks great, with the exception of a few areas where terrain covers the track. I know I will have many hours of fun running trains over the route. I will have to get better at building activities. A way frieght dropping off and picking up cars along the route would be a great activity to have. I will also have to download some SP locos and frieght cars.

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Great route Mark !Installed like a dream complete with patch, and doesn't take half my disk up, due to there not being many buildings or trees.All that mountain railroading and trestles really suits the old 4-4-0 steam locos .

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