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flarrfan (570 posts)
Apr-28-02, 02:27 PM (EDT) "Florida Funnel" I am about halfway done with scenicking my route. Track objects, sound regions and signals will come later. I'm posting these now because I'm excited to have reached my favorite train-watching location, Folkston GA. Yes, the scenery's a little thread-bare yet, due to the dreaded black screen interrupting my work in Folkston this morning. First is the historic Folkston depot as a southbound pig train crosses Main St. And here is the view of the tail end of the train from the overpass at the north end of Folkston, where the Jesup sub to Waycross diverges from the Amtrak Savannah-Jax line.I'm estimating mid-summer for a relatively finished version of this route to include the double track main from Burch to Jacksonville and the Jesup and Callahan Subs. That's assuming I don't run into any major signal issues. There are lots of trees on the route and some likely FPS issues on slower systems, but I'm doing this for myself and will be glad to share with other fans of this busy CSX line. Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Florida Funnel CSXALine Apr-28-02 1 RE: Florida Funnel jkcooney Apr-28-02 2 RE: Florida Funnel Kentucky86 Apr-28-02 3 RE: Florida Funnel flarrfan Apr-28-02 4 RE: Florida Funnel jkcooney Apr-29-02 6 RE: Florida Funnel jkcooney Apr-29-02 5 RE: Florida Funnel flarrfan Apr-29-02 7 RE: Florida Funnel jkcooney Apr-29-02 8 RE: Florida Funnel Southern_Railway Apr-29-02 9 RE: Florida Funnel CStevens Apr-29-02 10 RE: Florida Funnel flarrfan Apr-29-02 11 RE: Florida Funnel Kentucky86 Apr-29-02 12

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CSXALine (553 posts)
Apr-28-02, 03:48 PM (EDT) 1. "RE: Florida Funnel" SWEEET!!!!!! I was there yesterday :O)Jason Webb
The Seaboard Coast Line/CSX A Line from Tampa Florida to Jacksonville, FL
http://sclcsxaline.cjb.net/
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jkcooney (749 posts)
Apr-28-02, 04:30 PM (EDT) 2. "RE: Florida Funnel" Wow. Folkston, Jesup, Waycross. Brings back memories. worked in that area in 1991 and 92. Never realized how rail intensive it was (other than Waycross of course). Good work. Can't wait to get those trains rolling.
Joe Cooney, Ocala, FL Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Kentucky86 (51 posts)
Apr-28-02, 08:30 PM (EDT) 3. "RE: Florida Funnel" AWSOME!!!Between the A - Line, the Florida Funnel. the Florida High Speed Rail Route and my FEC we well have Florida covered.Bob Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
flarrfan (570 posts)
Apr-28-02, 10:04 PM (EDT) 4. "RE: Florida Funnel" Still need the S-Line from Baldwin to Lakeland and Tampa, and the Tallahasse Sub and PD/P&A for Baldwin to Pensacola, and would be nice to see the FEC extended in stages, say Ft. Pierce this fall and Hialeah next year.There's somebody already working on Tri-Rail/CSX, WPB to Hialeah, I think. If I finish the Funnel, the S-Line is next from Baldwin to Wildwood. The A-Line project heard from a guy in Oklahoma who was working on Plant City-Wildwood several months ago, but no news since. Bob, your assignment is the FEC, and I've got a friend in Tallahasse I'll work on for the Baldwin-Pensacola line. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
jkcooney (749 posts)
Apr-29-02, 05:45 AM (EDT) 6. "RE: Florida Funnel" I live in Ocala, FL so you'll be coming through "MY" territory to get to Wildwood! Good luck...the natives are restless down here.
Joe Cooney, OCala, FL Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
jkcooney (749 posts)
Apr-29-02, 05:43 AM (EDT) 5. "RE: Florida Funnel" What kind of frame rates are you getting through those sections with lots of trees? Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
flarrfan (570 posts)
Apr-29-02, 06:40 AM (EDT) 7. "RE: Florida Funnel" LAST EDITED ON Apr-29-02 AT 06:44 AM (EDT)Joe, I have a 900 mhz AMD, 64 mb ATI Radeon 7200, and only 128 mb ram. I average 15-20 fps on most of the mainline (less as noted in Moncrief Yard). I get a consistent 17 thru Folkston in the location of that screenshot. However, I am gradually going back and replacing some of the tall tree blocks that I used in several places, which have caused drops to 10-12 in about half a dozen locations over the 40 scenicked miles. The tall tree block in particular seems to have the biggest effect, varying with proximity to the tracks. I liked it because when you line them up, it really looks to me like cultivated pine trees, which are all over N. Fla. and S. Ga. When you turn them a little bit they also provide a fair simulation of cypress, and the biggest fps hits I get are where I have them close to the tracks at points where my topozone/terraserver research showed that the tracks crossed creeks. Set far enough back from the tracks, they serve to block the open space that would be unrealistic for this heavily forested line. Plus I still have the eastern edge of the Okefenokee to do as I work the scenery up the Jesup sub to Waycross.Have you ever crossed the Edgewood Ave. overpass just north of Jax Amtrak and looked north? The A-Line tracks run under a canopy of tall trees as they curve right. I tried to use the tall tree blocks to simulate this effect, and that's probably where I have the worst fps. I still play around with this location every so often by thinning out the blocks, but haven't really gotten the results I would like yet.To me, 15 fps is acceptable, though it may not be for others. A friend with a faster machine and an earlier version of the route, still with some tree/fps trouble spots, gets 20-25. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
jkcooney (749 posts)
Apr-29-02, 12:25 PM (EDT) 8. "RE: Florida Funnel" Good suggestion about the tree blocks. I've used some of these as background filler also......I'll just go back and delete some and see what effect it has. Don't recall the area you're talking about but it certainly true about cultivated trees for pulpwood. Looking forward to your completed route. Experimenting with more and more combinations. Wonder if a faster hard drive would make any difference. My computer runs at 750HZ but I have 512megs of RAM so I don't have problems using the route editor although I still get runtime errors with 3DCanvas when I try to micro-edit a lot of points in the 3D modeling I'm doing.
Joe Cooney, Ocala,FL Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Southern_Railway (436 posts)
Apr-29-02, 01:27 PM (EDT) 9. "RE: Florida Funnel" Very nice. Can you actually see the Okefenokee from the track? I'm looking forward to seeing some of the swamp, been years since I was there. You need a few large alligators to place here and there. Bill Burnett
Marietta, GA Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
CStevens (9 posts)
Apr-29-02, 04:47 PM (EDT) 10. "RE: Florida Funnel" Your work looks great! Are you using default trees? They look like Live Oaks found in Northern Florida. I'm working on the Plant City to Wildwood S-line, but progress is slow. Actually I decided to start at Yoeman Yard in Tampa and work North. Yoeman is completed, and I'm heading for Plant City. I'll post some screen shots in the near future.
Carey Stevens
Tulsa, OK
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flarrfan (570 posts)
Apr-29-02, 06:09 PM (EDT) 11. "RE: Florida Funnel" Carey, good to talk to you again. Looking forward to the southern segment of Florida's S-Line. As noted above, I may tackle the Baldwin to Wildwood portion later this year.Joe, it's not really the deepest part of the swamp, but for about 10 miles between Folkston and Waycross, both the Jesup sub and US 1 run along the edge of the swamp, with tall cypress trees intermixed with short pine. An alligator or two along the ROW would certainly fit. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Kentucky86 (51 posts)
Apr-29-02, 06:18 PM (EDT) 12. "RE: Florida Funnel" Cool!Well what I did on the High Speed Raoute was only placed the trees nearby the rails to minimize slow frame rates. Seemed to work pretty well. I got some suggestions from Sniper to simulate Florida foliage so I will try that with the FEC. Bob Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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