Re-gaining motivation

LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-04 AT 09:56 AM (EST)

I hadn't worked on my route for almost 3 months. I was busy working (and playing) with other stuff (NS East River, very-early beta of the KC&G, started doing some re-skins). I've finally found my motivation to get back to working on my route (the attached picture is the reason why).Worked on the track work some more for about 3 hours this morning. Laid the wye off of the engine terminal by the south yard (for turning power - I have some interesting ideas for activities), and then I re-laid a section of mainline. It used to run 250r5d-100m-250r5d-100m-250r5d-100m. This has been replaced with a piece of dynamic track (first piece ever laid on this route, which I was hoping I wouldn't have to do, but the old track arrangement looked horrible). Then I laid the track for the creosote plant. Its a good thing I skinned up eight GP20s for this route. The spur that goes up to the creosote plant is just about a 3% grade for about a mile. The plant is in a big pit at the base of one of the bluffs. Once the route is completed the pit will having fencing around it - I guess they really don't want anyone getting in there (Sorry, no pics of that today).ShawnEdit: The shot below was taken upon delivery of the newly rebuilt, freshly painted GP20m's as they cruise past the south yard.

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RE: Re-gaining motivation, NS4Life, Jan-05-04, 12:22 PM, (1) RE: Re-gaining motivation, shawnbecher, Jan-05-04, 12:24 PM, (2) Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-06-04, 05:59 PM, (3) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-07-04, 09:44 AM, (4) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-08-04, 09:25 AM, (5) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-09-04, 10:54 AM, (6) RE: Progress report, Coonskin, Jan-09-04, 10:45 PM, (8) RE: Re-gaining motivation, taracer, Jan-09-04, 07:19 PM, (7) Laid the wye off of the engine terminal by the south ya, CWA13000, Jan-10-04, 10:05 AM, (9) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-12-04, 09:39 AM, (10) RE: Progress report, CWA13000, Jan-16-04, 12:12 PM, (11) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-16-04, 12:23 PM, (12) RE: Progress report, CWA13000, Jan-20-04, 05:35 PM, (13) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-20-04, 05:44 PM, (14) RE: Progress report, CWA13000, Jan-21-04, 10:33 AM, (15) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-21-04, 10:43 AM, (16) RE: Progress report, shawnbecher, Jan-22-04, 09:50 AM, (17) RE: Progress report, CWA13000, Jan-23-04, 06:30 PM, (18)

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Glad to hear your back to it, and never thought of the East River as an motivation tool, but if it works go for it! NS4Life
NIN4Ever666@Yahoo.com

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It was at first, but then it became more of a distraction (because I was too busy running trains on it instead of working on my route). But now that I have a fleet of locomotives for my route, I need a finished route to run them on Shawn

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Just a quick progress report. I added a second track for the creosote plant - one for incoming and one for outgoing. I also laid the spurs for the local furniture factory and the local newspaper (they're so close to the tracks and the mill that it is cheaper to get their paper by rail ), and set up the passing siding around the refinery spur (the switch for the spur is laid, but none of the rest of the track). Sorry, no pictures today.Shawn

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Spent some time this morning finishing off the refinery track. Then I got myself tied up building the refinery. I don't think I'm quite done with it yet, but I'm pretty much done. Thanks for the awsome structures Bill!The shots below show GP20m #201 doing a track inspection of the refinery spur.Shawn

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Almost finished up the track work this morning. The small interchange yard at the north end of the route has been built, including the wye for turning power. I started laying the tracks for the sawmill, but didn't have enough time to complete them. Those tracks should be done within the next day or two. Once all of the trackwork is done, I am going to start on roads and scenery. I will try to post pics tommorow of the areas that have some detail.Shawn

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The trackwork is done! Hooray! Phase 1 is now complete.Here are some pictures of what is done scenery wise so far (and a few to show off the track configurations - nothing special mind you). We'll start at the north end of the route.1. The small interchange yard and wye
2. The newly completed sawmill trackage and a few buildings
3. The refinery, furniture factory, and local newspaper printing press
4. The pit that will eventually be the creosote plant
5. The lumber yard and the landscape center
6. The paper mill complex
7. The main yard and wye at the south end of the routeI have a lot of scenicing left to do yet. Enjoy!Shawn

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Good for you Shawn!Amazing what having the luxury of a little time away from RE can do for one's "git-to-it"!Andre MingVisit V Scale Creations Forum at: http://www.3DTrains.com

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Glad to hear you're back in the hunt. Your route looks very good.

Modeling CSX, Metro North(ex CR, PC, NYC) Hudson Line.
Mainline 100% complete.

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Asuming that you are going to release this to the community in the future, may I make a suggestion. It sounds like maybe your wye may not be planned to turn trains."Laid the wye off of the engine terminal by the south yard (for turning power"
Since MSTS cars have a front end and a back end ( notice the wheels counter-rotate when a consists is pulled from the rear ) it sure makes it nice to have tails on a wye that facilitate an engine and maybe at least 5 cars at a time so that whole trains can be turned for a return trip.Just a thought.

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Thank you for the complements guys. CWA - I hadn't planned on anyone turning trains around at the wyes as both wyes are right next to yards, but I will think about it as it shouldn't be too hard to add this in.As for more progress, I put close to 10 hours in on the route this weekend and I was working on my creosote plant. Thanks to Bill Bzak for the asphalt pads (borrowed from his refinery kit), Ron Picardi for the chain link fences (which I don't have them all set up yet), and Alan Garrett for a couple of the buildings (part of the four large industries kit in the file library), Michael Gilmore for the forklifts, and Larry Friddle for the tie stacks, this is what I have come up with so far.Shawn

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" I hadn't planned on anyone turning trains around at the wyes as both wyes are right next to yards "It seems the tendency in this hobby is to design activities that go from point A to Z with some stops in between. I prefer routes that I can run " open-ended " endlesly switching and long-hauling.In the real world it makes sense to only have a place to turn the motive power but since MSTS isn't set up to pull from either end of a car, then we need to turn them as well.I think early on I had a lot of trouble when I mixed cars into a new consist while running a route. I think that more than just looking goofy (with the counter rotation thing), I thought that having various strings of cars in the same consist facing different directions seemed to screw-up the physics making the consist harder to pull. Being a steamer, that would make a big impact on my experiance.If, as it appears, your route turns out to be desirable to me I would have a tendency to load it up with loose consists and drive day and night endlesly draging them too and fro and this is why I need a bunch of good wyes to turn on ( ala PO&N ).Thanks and have fun.Wild Willy the Wacko

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I guess I'm not completely following why the consist would be harder to pull. The weight should be the same either way. And as for the counter rotation, I believe that is just a graphic glitch (albeit undesireable) that I personally have not witnessed. The activities that I currently have planned (extremely early stages of development) would consist of running cuts of cars back and forth between the two yards with some switching on each run (which to me would only facilitate turning the power). Please help me to understand why turning the trains would be necessary. I am willing to work with you on this. If anything, I'll place some larger wyes farther out on the route so as to maintain the primarily prototypical look of the route. Thanks.Shawn

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"I guess I'm not completely following why the consist would be harder to pull."I had bad experiences with something early in my carrer as a MSTS engineer/fireman where I could not budge small consists made up of cars facing different directions. Having assumed that the problem may be related to the game being confused about the physics, I have since never mixed cars like that, so, maybe my testing and conclusions were faulty. Now I have another mission, that is to go back and test mixing a consist of opposit facing cars to see if it really makes a difference or maybe I was screwing up something else and did not realize it."just a graphic glitch"Lets say you just complete your route as planned. Will you pull the same consists back and forth on your route knowing that at least in one direction all the wheels on all the cars will counter-rotate the whole length of that pull? Or, will you place other consists facing the other direction for that return trip to make it look right?When I drive, I start out with a consist and I deliver cars to where I like ( as in a few loads of coal at a power station, a couple boxes at a factory spur etc.) When I get to a yard I seperate what I got left into the yard and gather up other types of cars I can deliver on my continuing journey. Eventually I end up with cars at both ends all facing toward those ends and I will want to turn them so they can be dragged the other direction. I guess my problem is that I can't stomach the thought of those wheels turning backwards. That is why I have to turn them.What would you say to your best friend if he pops in for a surprise visit and he isn't a rail fan and he says " what kind of junk train are you driving, my man? I thought you said that it was as real as it gets!" I will turn them, even if I can only do it one at a time but I have driven routes where the tails on the wye were so small that it was difficult to turn a small steamer and impossible to take one car with me. I don't drive those routes much. Sorry to cause you grief. I was just trying to point out a technique that could add playability to any ones route. I could never understand why KU JU didn't just put wyes on the ends of all their routes and many of our dearly appreciated route developers (I truely mean this) here seem to have followed their pattern. Think of it this way: why not put unprototypical wyes at the end of ones route, is it less protypical than just ending the tracks at the last station with absolutely no way to turn anything around like in the Settle & Carlisle route?They don't call me Wild Willy the Wacko for nothing.Thanks.

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One of the wyes currently has 100m tails on it. The other one has curved tails (had to "bend" the tracks so as not to interfere with the sawmill), but I don't remember the exact specs on that one. Would 250m to 500m tails suit you? If so, I'll just lenghten the tails on the existing wyes. Please let me know ASAP. Thanks.ShawnPS - If this will make it more run-able for you, it could make it more run-able for others as well. Thanks!

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Sounds great to me.I'm humbled by your response. Sorry I didn't get back sooner.So, what about the question as to would it bother you to see wheels counter-rotate or would you have delt with it differently in your own activities?Thanks Wild Willy the Wacko

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I can honestly say that I've never seen that happen, nor do I recall ever seeing it brought up here in the forums (of course I probably wasn't looking in the right place either). I'll have to test that out and see what happens. Thanks.Shawn

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I'll be a son-of-a-gun! I threw a short consist together last night, and lo and behold, the wheels were spinning backwards on the cars that were backwards. The funny thing is that wasn't the case with the loco that was backwards. Why is that?Anywho, once you get up over 20 MPH, it is very hard to see those wheels spinning backwards, which is probably why I never noticed it before.Shawn

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The first time I saw it, I deleted the car from my " Trainset " directory. I thought it was a defective car. Later, I found that they are all that way. The thing is, unless you drive open-ended you would never notice because you would work a conventional activity and hook-up to a consist that was placed in a siding facing the right direction and never pull one backwards because you would be off-path and not completing the activity properly.I have not run many conventional activitys since I discovered PO&N, quite a long time ago.

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