Tonight saw the completion of the spur up Straight Hollow out of Dante along with it's switchback and other oddities. The grade on this thing is horrible, over 7% in spots to reasonably match the terrain, and I broke all of the rules about using dynamic track in bits and pieces, but since it is a VERY SLOW BRANCH OR SPUR, we will hope it works.Got most of the Buffalo Hollow spur done, but then ran out of world to complete it. It extends further east than my scenery, but no problem, after I do everything else, and take a final backup, I will add one or two tiles, and re-extract the scenery on the St.Paul Quad., specifying that adjacent tiles are to be left alone - this was one of the neater tools JohnCS put in the later versions of DEMEX. Sometimes you just need one or two extra tiles, but you don't want to mess up what you have.Went back, and 4-laned US-52 through St.Paul. Last time I was over it, in 1985, the area from about where the Norton line passes over it on a trestle, through town, about a mile or so up the grade south of St.Paul toward Abingdon, it was two lane, but now the aerial photos appear to show 4-lane all the way. Also it has been straightened out and the small hill in the bypassed bend of the Clinch River just west of town has been pretty much flattened out and made into what looks like a small factory and a baseball field. US-52 on it's new alignment went right through the middle of this hill.Need now to complete both ends of the Norton line west & east to the edge of the "world". It is tempting to extend the N&W as far as Carbo so as to include the Dumps Creek line, but that will wait for a future revision, and for now the N&W will end about a mile east of their Clinch R. bridge., and where it comes alongside US-52 a few miles west of St.Paul, just before the Bull Run tunnels & trestles.J. H. Sullivan, P.E. (retired)
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