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"First Look At The SP Coast Route"

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Daylighter (58 posts)
Feb-01-02, 09:25 PM (EST) "First Look At The SP Coast Route" The first two images show the horseshoe curve below the Santa Margarita's

And the wye at Camp San Luis Obispo. I've got to make the wye longer but I'm worn out laying dynamic track for a while - had to use a lot of it on these tight winding curves, but it works!
This is Templeton Station several miles north of "The Hill".
Entering San Luis Obispo from the north.
Typical signals set up at passing siding

Two single head searchlight signals protect the block, preventing trains from leaving the siding if occupied.The double head protects the siding from an oncoming train and indicates red over green if you will be taking the curve of the switch and green over red if straight.The single head to the left of the double, facing away, is a permissive signal for departure from the siding that shows the condition of occupancy on the block. It is at least interesting to watch if you are on the siding waiting for an approaching train coming through the tunnel.Obviously I have a lot of scenery work to do but I'm finally making track laying progress and figured out the use of the signals -limitations accounted for I could use some cactus if anybody has any!I'll get a route map up in a while if I can make it legible - it's long!
Cheers!

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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: First Look At The SP Coast Rout... landnrailroader Feb-01-02 1 RE: First Look At The SP Coast Rout... Daylighter Feb-01-02 3 RE: First Look At The SP Coast Rout... Hobart Feb-01-02 2 RE: First Look At The SP Coast Rout... Daylighter Feb-01-02 4 RE: First Look At The SP Coast Rout... landnrailroader Feb-02-02 5

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landnrailroader (153 posts)
Feb-01-02, 09:43 PM (EST) 1. "RE: First Look At The SP Coast Route" Great work. I'm anxious to see the progress. This is one of my favorite spots on any railroad, although I have only seen it once, and may never again ride over it - read your papers tomorrow, and see why - AMTRAK expects to file to discontinue all long distance service on Oct. 1 unless Congress provides a few "B" of $$, say about 10% of what they fund the airlines with.On January 22, 1999, I retired to my compartment on a Superliner, (east or north side of train), and plugged my camcorder into the 110vac outlet. I put it on a tripod, and locked down the shutter and recorded the entire run from where the track goes under some highway, just before the summit tunnel, all the way down to just before the trestle, at which point my wife opened the door, and made me make room - women have no mercy for us railfans.I had seen many articles on this line, many magazine pictures, but it is more spectacular than they indicate. The grade is pretty steep, about 2.5% I would judge, and the curves are sharp. I assume, you will include the "California Men's Colony" next to the horseshoe.J. H. Sullivan, P.E. (retired from CSX) Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Daylighter (58 posts)
Feb-01-02, 11:28 PM (EST) 3. "RE: First Look At The SP Coast Route" Man I'd like to see that video. I'm working from topo maps, DEM data, mif markers, a few photgraphs from a book on SP Coast trains, an SP points of interest map, and WILD GUESSES when it comes to terrain detail. >I assume, you will include the
>"California Men's Colony" next to
>the horseshoe. In the early 40's, that area was occupied by Camp San Luis Obispo, an army training camp that was a major stop on the line (but you already new that I'm trying to duplicate the line of that time period, the hayday of passsenger travel. Topo's leave something to be desired when it comes to locating bridges and and overpasses, and the ones I have found are relatively present day with much more expansion of population and not much of the old RR shown anymore. For instance, I know Obispo had roundhouse and yard back then, but it is not there now. LAUPT looks relatively intact on the MAP and probably has not changed much, at least so that if I lay just 10% of it, it will be too much! x)
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Hobart (164 posts)
Feb-01-02, 10:49 PM (EST) 2. "RE: First Look At The SP Coast Route" Hey DL,
Looks great so far. A rule of thumb that I recommend is signals go in last. If you need to cut into your mainline for any reason the route editor will hose the track database. Lay all your track first and when your satisfied with it then put in the signals. When I first started I lost 3 or 4 days work because of this. Best Regards
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Daylighter (58 posts)
Feb-01-02, 11:34 PM (EST) 4. "RE: First Look At The SP Coast Route" > A rule of thumb
>that I recommend is signals
>go in last. Ya, I know, but I figured since I layed that 90 miles of track at least a dozen times already I might as well put in the signals - 'cuz I ain't goin back and change it agin!Actually I havn't had any problems with the track Dbase - yet, though I have had to re-link some of the signals a couple of times when messing with track related terrain elevations and such. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
landnrailroader (153 posts)
Feb-02-02, 10:02 AM (EST) 5. "RE: First Look At The SP Coast Route" RE: VideosThere are some commercial videos available that show this route. Look up the Pentrex and Greenfrog web sites as a start.
www.pentrex.com
www.greenfrog.com (I think)I would also advise you of two things. First backup, backup, backup. I have a CD burner on my system, and while I have been developing the CC&O, I burn a rom about every 3 evenings or so. In between, I back up the td, tiles, and world directories to another hard drive each time I finish a session, as well as all of the files in the root directory of the route.Secondly, what was said about signals, also applies to roads. One advisor to me suggested that the problem arose when you deleted the first road piece that was put in - this then corrupts the road database. The same thing will corrupt the track database. My solution for both, was to put a piece of track, and a piece of road, in an out-of-sight location, where they just sit there, to occupy the initial point in the database.Lastly, and this is a question to pose to the group, as much as anything else. We cannot sell any of these route creations for profit, without violating the copyright of MS. Most routes, even if compressed, are so large as to absolutely require high speed net access to upload/download. I am wondering if anyone has considered the implications of trading CD/Rs of routes via snail mail. Considering that CDs only cost about $.25 in quantity, and are easy to produce, perhaps a limited distribution, of say one or two, with permission to proliferate as long as the original author gets intellectual credit, might do it. I also wonder if MS themselves would not be interested in marketing some of these creations as their own product, as has been done a number of times with FS add-ons. I have shared an early copy of the CC&O with a friend, and my total cost was less than $2.00 counting postage. I would not want to do more than 1 or two copies this way, but then if those folks send out one or two copies -----.J. H. Sullivan, P.E. (retired) Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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