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Guys,I got to thinking, for the sake of labeling exits properly if we should choose a 'year' in which the Yard Duty simulation takes place. Since most of the images were taken in the early 90's, I was thinking of 1994 as a good year, right before all the modern mergers. This would cause most exits to be labeled with the following roads: UP, SP, CNW, BN, ATSF, CR, CSX, NS. In addition, I could rename the public teams along this line as well.What do you think?Jim
Yard Duty, The National Freight Yard Simulation - www.YardDuty.com
I like the labeling of exits being pre-merger mania (i.e. pre 1995). In the NE we've been working on 1998 schedules (at least for CR trains), so we are already used to back-dating things a bit. And like you said, it goes in line with the timeframe of the images.I'm not so sure of renaming the teams though. I think it might be more confusing if we had 5 teams out west instead of 2. I get the impression that we are still having trouble differentiating BNSF yards/trains from UP yards/trains. Adding 3 more teams would really confuse the issue.Just my .02Paul Metzger Superintendent of Map Connections CP Rail System (D&H) "Courtesy keeps customers"
I could see it having both good and bad effects.Bad 1. Some maps might become obsolete if a timeframe was established, like the Taylor Grain Mill which was opened in 1999. 2. Like Paul said, more teams could cause more confusion. 3. Locomotives would have to be deleted to be made prototypical for the era.Good 1. We would have a good definition of what train symbols to run as each team could have a "captain" whose main job would be to research the operations, symbols, motive power, and possible new maps for that given team. It would open up more jobs for incoming members as well as long time members. 2. There would be no guess work, everything could be pinned on a certain year.That said, I know that you don't want to force people to do things like this Jim but that's just how I see it.If you are also intent on picking a year, I'd say late 1990's, 1998 or 1999.Chris Lee Train Artisan
Chris,The main reason for picking a year is for the labeling of track exits, not for Teams or Engines. I think pre merger mania is better because if if you see an exit labeled ATSF, you would know that it was Santa Fe, but is now obviously BNSF. However, if it is labeled BNSF, you wouldn't really know if it came from BN of ATSF without a bit of reasearch. Also, fans of recently merged roads (in the past 10 years) could continue to operate them like the old days. For example Conrail and SP fans could operate their favourite roads. I guess this is where I am coming from.Jim
Yard Duty, The National Freight Yard Simulation - www.YardDuty.com
Early 90's would be a good choice for the above mentioned reasons. But don't forget that most of the images from terraserver are from 1992-1994 anyway! Corey "LongHoodForward"
