RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done

Colleagues,Tonight, I will bore you with a few screen captures taken as the westbound Olympian Hiawatha (OH) passes Alberton, MT. The OH did not stop in Alberton, although the Columbian and local passenger trains did. The OH was all there was after about 1957 or so, and the OH died around 1964. BiPolars were briefly used on the RMD after they were retired from the Coast Division, but these did not work out too well. However, they did free up Little Joes for use on freight which was the main rationale. When the OH died, the Bipolars went to scrap except for the ones remaining in museums.I am using a LOT of trees because this area of Montana has thick forests alternating with cultivated areas, then once past Haugan, it is very dense. However, I am setting the detail level at 7, so that those who are video challenged can turn off the trees. However to get the full effect of this, as well as the RMD-2 requires running the detail slider to the max. By the way, I was in CompUsa a few days ago, and they were selling Nvidia 5200 boards with 128M of ram for $60 with rebates in the PCI version, and full price $99 in the AGP version. I believe that is a pretty hot board. I am running the RMD-4 quite well on a GeForce-2, board with 32M of vram, however.J. H. Sullivan

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RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, DRGWK36, Jul-21-04, 08:39 PM, (1) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, landnrailroader, Jul-21-04, 09:00 PM, (2) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, jpmurd, Jul-21-04, 10:51 PM, (3) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, BN_9402, Jul-22-04, 02:14 AM, (4) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, KeltikSylk, Jul-22-04, 08:02 AM, (5) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, ENR3005, Jul-22-04, 10:03 AM, (6) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, landnrailroader, Jul-23-04, 07:51 AM, (10) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, landnrailroader, Jul-22-04, 11:17 AM, (7) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, DRGWK36, Jul-22-04, 08:51 PM, (8) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, KeltikSylk, Jul-23-04, 08:05 AM, (11) RE: RMD-4, Alberton downtown is about done, jonathanmlewis, Jul-23-04, 04:03 AM, (9)

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Jerry - you certainly don't bore me with your updates. Not only can I see some very nice route building in progress, but I can learn a bit of history to boot. Nice shots, and I've probably learned more about the routes and roads you've been working than I'd ever do otherwise. Keep these updates coming!Andy

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Thanks Andy,You were the first person in some weeks to respond to a post, other than the one where I had questions about ball parks, so I just figured folks had had enough of this old geezer.I have never had any problem laying track accurately, and roads more or less okay, especially since I learned some of the masters tricks about sorting out rebuld errors, lost poles etc. Getting the scenery to look "real" is quite another matter, but I am particularly pleased with the way the sightlines up the draw toward Lolo pass worked out, that is my best effort so far. None of the towns on this subdivision have large structures, although there is a regional hospital in Superior, I believe, so I can use the large hospital structure (as at DeerLodge) there.However, there is a orphan pair of poles in the forest service road near Falcon, (west side of St.Paul Pass) and also a place where I inadvertantly let the road slip a notch so that the left lane is connected to the right lane about 1/2 way between Avery and Stetson, also west slope of St.Paul Pass. Rather than fix this, I have a solution in mine which I will not reveal, but downloaders will find it unique - whereas it will be very realistic, given the terrain of the area. I probably won't worry about the orphan poles because this road sees very little traffic, or i.e. it did when the railroad was in operation, but now there is a heavy traffic of log trucks etc. on it. I will just terminate any carspawners a ways from the spot.Trees, Trees, and more Trees. Someone put some sitka spruce in the library a year or more ago, which are supposed to replace certain trees in the US2 series - but I want my cake & good eats too, so I am working on figuring out a way to rename some copies of the appropriate shapes so that I can have both kinds - I need some really tall spruce or fir trees for the St.Paul Pass area.Tonight, I extended scenery texturing almost to east Cyr, and started planting trees. The area is sparsely populated except in the villages. By the way, there are several websites with data on Alberton. It was founded by the railroad, and nearly dried up when the railroad left in 1980, but has now stabilized at around 2000 residents, and they have a coupleof Bed-n-Breakfast places, a railroad museum (using Frenchtown NP depot which was moved). It must be a pretty nice place to live. Though most of my life has been spent in big cities, my favorite periods were when I lived 2 years in Tullahoma, TN (pop. 30,000) and 5 years in Huntington, WV (Pop. 45,000).J. H. Sullivan

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I am enjoying your updates also. The Bridges are a work of art, and now the scenery is making it look REALLY good. Keep up the GREAT work. John

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Keep the updates coming Jerry, its gonna be another one of those must have routes!! I've been way too busy with real life and other projects I'm working on to really keep close tabs on the forums anymore...ugg...gotta love summer Austin

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Jerry,
I have downloaded RMD4 but haven't made the time to install it. I need a place for the EF-4 and EP-2 to stretch their legs during testing. Most of the other heavy electics will also look at home there.I like these little updates, they are interesting to me. Please keep them coming.Frank MusickMoving America into the 19th Century!

www.kelticsylk.com

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-22-04 AT 10:04 AM (EST)

I have been watching the building of your route with much interest as it has given me some new ideas for building wooden trestles on my Esquimalt & Nanaimo's Victoria and Port Alberni Subdvisions. I most impressed with your attention to detail on this route and look forward to seeing more updates. For some of us younger guys this is only way for us to experience something from the past. My favorite three types of power disappeared here in the North West just before I was born, Milwaukee electrics, FM units on the Kettle Valley and the Baldwins on Vancouver Island. Then there is the countless miles of right away torn up that some of us can only dream about trains running on it when going to see it. I look forward to running electrics on this route someday. Keep up the good work!

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Although making a trestle is somewhat tedious, it is really quite simple, just doing the same thing over and over alot.First I created a basic 5 pile bent- most trestles are either 4, 5, or 6 pile, with the majority being 5 piles, at least in my experience.
For the X bracing, I use a transparent polygon, with the X on it in opaque textures - Ron Picardi made these for me. Decide what your verticle spacing is to be, 12-15' is average. After setting up the bent, without bracing, save it (in TSM anyway) as a part, maybe call it "unbraced bent". The piles should be longer than the tallest bent expected, I used 250' - actually such a trestle in wood would have several layers of bents stacked on each other, but that makes too many polygons.Create the transparent polygons, with the X brace tiled in 1-max number of 12-15' increments required, and save each one as a seperate part. Though there are many increments involved, each one has the name number of polys, "2", unless you successfully made a two sided poly.Now you can create bents in the various heights by simply placing the above incrememted X brace parts on the bent, going to "point mode" and adjusting the points at top and bottom to fit the batter (i.e. lean) of the outside piles.I believe I explained how to do the actual trestle in another message, but if you want a detailed explanation, send me an E-mail, and I will also send you a zip of my TSM parts, provided you agree to properly credit Ron Picardi for his part in it all. Other than the X-braces, all you need is the complete set of Ron's TSM bridge parts which are in the library. He may also have added the X-brace there by now. If I get a large number of requests for it, though, I will just put it in the library.J. H. Sullivan

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I hope you mean the RMD-2 as there has been nothing put in the library concerning the RMD-4 (yet). Look for the RMD-4 sometime in late Sept., early Oct. Gosh, to think I do all this for free - my wife questions my sanity, but--------HHHHEEEEEE,cackle, cackle----.J. H. Sullivan

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> my wife questions my sanity, You're in luck, Jerry. My wife knows I'm nuts for doing all this! Andy

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No, I'm actually from the future...It's amazing what the Internet can do... Yes, RMD-2.I think it's in the marriage contract somewhere...small print. "Wife will question husband's sanity at frequent intervals".Frank MusickMoving America into the 19th Century!

www.kelticsylk.com

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Nice job Jerry
Looking very good http://groups.msn.com/MSTSNarrowGauge (Now being updated more oftern)

Jonathan Lewis
jonathanmlewis@msn.com

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