3D Modeling

Just uploaded another MOW car.

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:42:48 +0000

Just uploaded D&RGW Maintenance Of Way car 04982 for your simming enjoyment.

Screenie provided by Sandy River Tom

Enjoy, Bill

Old Movies Containing Trolleys

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:26:13 +0000

I recently received an email from a friend of mine and thought people here would get a kick out of it.

Pure comedy but some great New York streetcar scenes....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqz3lpUBp0&feature=related

New York's first subway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKL8_er34s&feature=fvw

23rd Street, Manhattan ... an old Edison film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6waHQwR0G4k&feature=related

Lower Broadway in Manhattan about the same time....

class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsrdkySRSCY&NR=1

The roar of the four ... San Francisco ... pre war

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqs6DF_wGE&feature=related

A cable car in Seattle in 1897

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s25QjAtzF8U

I love this ... Portland ... modern Portland ... a city where people still
go downtown to shop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIKjC9ihgcA

Here is an Edison film of a trolley and horses in a village called Los
Angeles in 1898:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDk22MV7S0&feature=related

Shirley Temple inaugurates PCC service in Los Angeles 39 years later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2cwcnTyR2E&feature=related

A portion of the Pacific Electric 1914 training film is shown. The single
track east of
El Monte is today used by Amtrak's Sunset Limited!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a08Ol9EQUAU&feature=related

A New Orleans travelogue from 1940 ... segregated city, 4 tracks on Canal
Street, steam boats
on the river.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyf0K28r8So&feature=related

If you were enjoying it and want more detail, keep listening....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07IAAwhqYkk&feature=related

Boston trolley ride in 1903 ... a few others are visible.

Enjoy,
Sam

Two feet news

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:37:10 +0000

Hi Ladies and Gentlemen!

Its already a time when I wrote the last time of my progresses in building the MRR/SR&RL.
Due to my new job - selling insurances as a fieldworker - for some months I wasn`t able
to lay a single track or planting a single tree.

The worst time has passed now and I am slowly resuming my duties as I already promised
you many times that the release for the Monson RR was near.

At the moment there are 17 activities sent out to my Beta-Testers and Sandy River Tom
is finishing the last 2 Boyd Lumber Engines. Deep Guiness is reworking the Engine-files
of all MRR-engines a lilbit so we`ll be able to use the headlights in both directions
using the Bin-patch.

Progress is slowly and I don`t want to mention a concrete date - but it will be finished.
Perhaps this year ;-)

As my engines are again in the shops I in the meantime resumed working at the SR&RL with laying
tracks. Now Redington has been passed where I am building a lil fictious logging Railroad.
Grindres great stuff is inspirating me as like as my old old Shays I built 5 years ago.

Best regards from Bavaria,

Christian

BLW/ZT PRR Set 3 Bonus

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:19:26 +0000

BLW/ZT PRR Set 3 Bonus 1

Now available in the bonus area of the Valleypass forum

http://www.valleypass.com/forum

for owners of the BLW/ZT PRR 3 set.

This bonus includes a sample of those locomotives in their 'as-delivered' condition

EMD E7 - PRR Class EP20 - #5865, 5866B, 5866 (A-B-A)

EMD E8 - PRR Class EP22 - #5886, 5896 (A-A)

ALCO PA - PRR Class AP20 - #5755, 5750B, 5757 (A-B-A)

Special thanks to contributors Rob Bullen and David Carleton, and thanks also to David for beta testing

Thanks to www.railfonts.com for fonts used in this set

Enjoy!!

Rick & Gaetan

seeking eng. file advice.

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:10:38 +0000

i am seeking help with editing an engine file. i have noticed that during winter steam from locomotives particularly around the cylinders steam is much more noticable. i downloaded the milwheat.zip at train-sim.com, an invisible powerless steam locomotive and i plan to move the cylinder cocks back th roughly the area of the cylinders of a Berkshire. but i have a question, is it possible (and if so how) can you edit the eng. file so that the cylinder cocks stay open even after i close the main engines cylinder cocks?

DRGW Drop Bottom GS Gondolas

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:04:20 +0000

Recently I made a request on the Train Sim Forum if anybody knew of a DRGW all steel Drop Bottom GS Gondola available for download. None were available in the TrainSim library but someone did recommend that I go to the Elvas Tower website and check out the SP GS Drop Bottom Gondola that was in the file Library. I guess you could say it was close enought to the DRGW GS Gondolas. Of course the SP GS Gondola is the wrong color since the DRGW Gondolas were all black with white lettering. I was wondering if possible could the author of the SP GS Gondola be willing to pass to me the TGA or BMP files for repainting. If I'm able ( my experiences with repainting is limited )to repaint the Gondola to the DRGW scheme I would be willing to upload the new file right here for everyone to use. Of course as always the original author is credited.

Thanks ahead of time!

My old wooden boxcar

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:16:53 +0000

Hello everyone,

Well, this is my first image post here. Its an old boxcar that I am working on currently. I just wanted say hello to all the other modelers/artists here, who really like the older stuff.

Im using 3dsmax and Gmax, and am hoping to be able to talk to other 3dsmax/gmax users here at Elvas.

http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/clip_image002.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/clip_image001.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/clip_image003.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/clip_image004.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/clip_image005.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/clip_image012.jpg

Finally got it working in MSTS.
http://www.atomic-album.co.uk/showPic.php/242027/box2.jpg

Thanks for looking!

Here are some in-game shots of them, over at the UKtrainsim site: http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=239&t=108550

Enjoy,Rich

does anyone know if an msts model like this has been made?

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:22:20 +0000

At the railroad museum that i volunteer at there is an old electric locomotive.
this is the best shot that i could get.

"front" right side

"rear" right side

"front" on view(the pantograph is the object in front of the engine, we put it n the wheels to move it into the shop(the foot boards are just out of sight on the right)

does anyone know if someone made a similar model for msts sutiable for repainting?

Simple warship (frigate, RN)

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:49:14 +0000

It's down and dirty....and it's difficult making low-poly stuff these days.

Cheers Bazza

The Strasburg Railroad needs Steam!

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:33:32 +0000

I posted about this a while ago on T-S and have been meaning to post here as well.

As some of you may remember from my "At The Railyard" review of the Strasburg Railroad, I was unsatisfied with the lack of scenery in certain areas and how some of the hills were too angular. Here's the link to the review:

It has been almost one year since I created that review. Now, I am putting my money where my mouth is.

I hereby announce that I am working on The Strasburg Railroad V2! I hope to correct as many of the issues that exist with the route to improve both its accuracy and its detail. There's just one catch...

I've received permission from Chris Helfrick to release this upgrade.

Is anyone here potentially interested in working on any of the other Strasburg steam locomotives? Michael Knott's #7312 (pictured below) is a great model, and it would be nice to see #90 or #475.

Here's some screenshots for you all!

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73123.jpg

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73124.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73125.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73126.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73127.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73128.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73122.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/73129.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/731210.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm59/Train-a-Mania/MSTS/731211.jpg[/IMG]

Vintage traffic lights

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:55:12 +0000

Hello,

Has anyone created a scenery model of a vintage traffic light appropriate for a route in the 1920s?

Sincerely,
Walter

RGS #1 Goose

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:54:55 +0000

Hi all,
Found this little 'cutie' and thought I'd throw it together. It's a 1913 model T Ford and was the first inspection car for the RGS but not really known as a goose.
If anyone has any information on/about it, I'd appreciate any help you can supply including any possible blueprints or plans. I haven't been able to find much, myself.
I've never modeled a car before and am assuming that I need to export it as a diesel loco.
I've DLed a bunch of Model T Ford sounds and will have to adapt them to the default GP9 sounds I think it has now.
Still got a ton of work to do to it but thought I'd share my progress so far.

Niles Canyon Railway -Special Request

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:23:50 +0000

I have been working with the Pacific Locomotive Association and the Niles Canyon Railway to develop a proposal for a new depot in Niles. I am modeling the proposed depot to create presentation images and perhaps an animation, and I was hoping that perhaps there were models of PLA operated equipment that I could used for these renderings to complete the scene with an appropriate train. SP 2467 with a train of Harriman cars would be perfect, but models of other equipment including their diesels will work. I will probably collage photos into the renderings, but models would allow me to have more control over viewing angles and allow for the possibility of animating the scene.

I am not a V-scale modeler and do not have access to any of those programs. I was hoping to find .dxf (or similar) format models that I could use in the renderings. I work in FormZ. For that matter, If anyone is interested in my model of the SP 65,000 gallon water tank in the background, let me know.

Thanks

Randy

Modeler needed for a 1920s route project

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:32:32 +0000

Hello,

The Middletown & Unionville Railroad team is looking for modelers to create historic buildings and other scenery landmarks based on photographs of actual structures in Middletown, NY. These models will go in the freeware 1920s Middletown & Unionville (M&U) Railroad route. The realife M&U was a 14.7 mile shortline railroad, which connected with the Erie Railroad and Ontario & Western (O&W) Railway at Middletown, NY, which is located approximately 75 miles north of New York City. At the other end of the line, the M&U connected with the Susquehanna Railroad. The virtual M&U includes these connections with the Erie, O&W, and Susquehanna. One of the objectives of the Middletown & Unionville Railroad project is to show what Middletown looked like in the 1920s when it was a bustling city with three railroads, and served as the site of the headquarters of the Ontario & Western Railway. To learn more about the actual Middletown & Unionville Railroad, you can visit www.mnjrhs.org. I have posted a series of work in progress screenshots of the virtual route at http://www.elvastower.com/forums/index.php?/topic/11382-a-trip-on-the-middletown-unionville-railroad/. If your interested in building some models for the project, please send a PM to Walter Conklin.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Walter Conklin

Good Ole' Golden Glows

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:38:47 +0000

So, this is my FIRST time modeling anything 3D in ANY Program worth a darn, if you go back to 2006 in the train-sim.com library, there are some failed projects from TSM. I'm used to Autodesk style programs, so, I download Gmax. I went through the lil locoy tutorial and gathered important interface and operations information, turning objects into editable mesh, textures, etc. Then i went, the lil locoy is to small for me, i need something more challenging to the operations I will need. So I choose to make a High Detail part, went down my list, and I choose a Headlight that will go on the faces of many P&LV Steamers in the future.

[IMG]http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o197/Shadow_of_Sidious/PLVNERR/snapshot.png[/IMG]

The most important operation I learned with this object was the editing of vertexes. That Visor is a very precuriously bent rectangular box, and the rounded off casting on the Numberboard (which will eventually get latches to become the cover to the numberboard) is bent cylinders. Very Tedious, but an operation and knowledge that will come in VERY handy with building locomotives and cars, what piece of railroad equipment doesn't have some piece of Bent Steel?

Opinions and critism, tips and such appreciated

Nate

Queen Post Covered Bridge

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:59:57 +0000

Hi guys,
I've been taking a little time off from modeling to exercise another hobby of mine. (Cooking and Baking) While researching a number of recipes, I stumbled upon quite a few covered bridges. (Don't ask... I did say, stumbled.)
I fell in love with a little 'puddle jumper', 50 foot long, straddling a stream. It's an old wooden queen post railroad covered bridge that had been completely restored.
This is my version before the restoration and is built for narrow gauge traffic. There's a bit more detail to add to it, yet but, thought I'd share what I've done so far. (circa 1890)

Writing on jpgs, jpegs or bmps

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:43:32 +0000

I've been asked how you write stuff on such as a jpg... I didn't know...does anyone?

Need Assistance With Reading T1 4-8-4 modeling

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:46:15 +0000

The title says it all. I am undertaking the task of modeling the Reading T1 class 4-8-4 Northern Steam Locomotive. The only problem I am having is that I can't draw textures very well. Can somebody help me by drawing out good textures for me? I really want it to be repaint friendly and I'm modeling it using Gmax if that helps.

Thanks!
Josh

Texturing for Steam Engines...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:56:17 +0000

It's been such a long time since I've last textured a steam engine that I'm extremely rusty in this capacity. How exactly does one go about this? I remember my old textures were somewhat monotone, and I want to break away from that.

Advice for PE Fans

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:26:08 +0000

My advice:

Go pick up the DVD's "Pacific Electric, Remembering the Red Cars", by Transit Gloria Mundi / Catenary Video Productions. They come in three parts, and are about 70 minutes long each. A little spendy at $39.95, but can be purchased at some vendors for a little less. To the serious fan they are priceless for the glimpses of the action that took place during the filming around 1940 to 49. Most scenes are color and taken before the period that the Pentrex "Final Days" video contains, with more variety of equipment and scenes of routes not covered therein. Each part focuses on a specific district of the PE, volume one the Southern District and discussion of the Tens, Twelves and Blimps. Also covered in vol. 1 is the huge freight operations, both carload and LCL, with steeple cabs, box motors, RPOs, and MOW operations. Those RPO's and box motors could haul "A"! The action includes early diesel as well as double-headed with steam! Just awesome to see in action.

Vol.2 covers the Western District and local streetcar lines. Some good shots of the Beach Lines: Venice Short Line, Santa Monica Air Line, Ocean Park and the carhouse there, and lots of Tens, 950's, PCC's and Hollywoods (600 class), 100's, even some Birneys! Also rare footage of the 800's on the Huntington Beach line.

Vol.3 covers the Northern District, and more discussion of RPO and box motor service systemwide. I don't have this one yet, maybe next month. I do have all three on tape thanks to Mr. Mike, but I wore it out, so it was good news to find out Transit Gloria Mundi has re-issued the series on DVD.

K37 or K36?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:19:58 +0000

Today I received the excellent Quick Pic book on the K36 and the resource material is first class. Although there's no plan of a K36, I have enough information to enable me to start on the project after my current Brit loco series is completed......no time factor, ATM. The K27/35 project was a great learning curve, but has reach as far as it needs to go. As you know that is for Open Rails.

You can take part in the poll, if you wish, but I must say I'm not bound by the results.

Cheers Bazza

Transparent Windows for Buildings

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:15:08 +0000

I have been looking for a way to make transparent windows for an MSTS building model. For 3D modeling, I use TSModeler. My graphics editor is Photofilter Studio 9 and I have TGAToools2. I believe that I have to use an alpha chanel but I cannot find out how to make and use this layer.

MOW car upload

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:09:55 +0000

Have just uploaded three D&RGW MOW cars.

04147 began it's MOW service as a bunk car, then served as a tool car in the Salida wreck train, and ended it's service as a tool car in the Gunnison wreck train.

04410 also began it's MOW service as a bunk car, then served as a dining car, and because of it's unique roof vent most likely ended service as a kitchen diner or kitchen car.

04914 began it's MOW service as a “bunk and commissary” car, served as an office car, and then as a “water service”car. It was used by the contractor building the Navajo Dam, and is now at the Ridgway RR Museum.

A forth MOW car 04982, has been made and is presently undergoing tweaking and testing, and should be uploaded soon.

The above screen shot taken by Herb Kelsey.

Enjoy

More Art

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:35:31 +0000

Hi all,

I have More art, related to the CA&E 404 that is somewhere in the Traction Forum. This time, it is another CA&E Pullman, car 409, the only 1 of 20 Pullman CA&E cars to be preserved, currently in Union,IL, at the Illinois Railway Museeum. 409 has just been repainted into this Brilliant Red and Aurora Grey Paint Scheme. She is seem here Basking in the sun at the 50th Ave. El station.

[IMG]http://i31.tinypic.com/29f6r20.jpg[/IMG]

And the real thing...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-dVUTpbD9M/TDM3vWsNnRI/AAAAAAAAAzY/hvzx9fKFX9M/s1600/blog-04steeltrain.jpg

And Video!

Zach

Commercial Fishing Boats

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:56:21 +0000

Something our harbors are missing, medium sized boats,especially fishing fleets. From 1900 to the mid 60's, these filled most the harbors on the west coast, probably just about everwhere else on bays and oceans too.

I was going through some old Rudder magazines in my collection, from 1943 and ran across plans for a Salmon Troller, Oyster boat, Shrimper, and Drag boat. All of these are in the 50' range.

Here's a small version of the plans for the salmon troller.

http://earthseaimagery.com/salmontrawler.jpg

If anyone's interested in the plans, each about 500Kb, I'll be glad to send them or upload them to the file library.

Of course, this is just bait, as I'm trying to hook someone into building some of these, especially the salmon and oyster boats!

Steve

'Nother Flat Car load, canvas covered

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:53:21 +0000

Hi all,
Threw together another flat car load with a canvas covering over the top. Not too sure it came out as planned.
Here's a couple screenies. Is it convincing enough for you guys?

Thanks...

shape help

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:02:18 +0000

i am brand new to modeling. i have not even had tsm for one week yet and over the past week i have been playing around with it and so far i have figured out how to create simple shapes, texture them, and send them to msts. for my first shape i decided to make a feed water heater and number plates for sps 700 to make it look more like cn 6218. i made it and sent it to msts, and it shows up in shape viewer properley,

but in msts it shows up like this.

does anyone know what is wronfg and\or how to fix it?

Resolution problems at the London & Port Stanley

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:12:43 +0000

Hi gents!

Installing the LnPS on my new laptop I got a strange
problem with the resolution of the ground textures.
(See screenshot)

All the other routes are not having this problem.

Do you`ve an idea how to solve this problem?

My laptop is:

NOTEBOOK FUJITSU V6535
2GB RAM
WINDOWS XP PROF SP3
Intel Celeron
900 @ 2.2 GHZ
Onboardgrafics card

Thanks,

Christian

fsscr002.bmp (900.05K)
: 22

Cloning Locomotives

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:03:27 +0000

I have with the help of the members been able to clone a number of the locomotives from Stream Line ATSF eng 1 and 2
and Superfleet. My problem is that when I add the new locomotives to trainset file in sli superfleet and go to edit a consist with activity editor it crashes. If you take all the new locomotives I have created then activity editor works. If I take each locomotive and and add it to trainset by itself and not in the sli folders they work great and activity editor does not crash. I thought that by adding them to sli atsf folder and superfleet that I could save a lot of memory space not having sound and cab view and glass and int files for each locomotive. But alas it doesn't seem to be going to work. Any ideas would be muchly appreciated Hog Head.

Sidetracked again...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:44:03 +0000

While doing the UP painted Milwaukee Road H12-44's - I got sidetracked again... and have done a UP H10-44 reskin kit

It's uploaded awaiting approval.

Milwaukee Road H12-44's

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:06:11 +0000

I managed to find just one photo of a Milwaukee Road H12-44 (#740) on the web in this paint scheme.

Other than the actual shades of paint - is this prototypical ? and should I include it in the upload ??

It seems reminiscent of the paint scheme Tim said he remembers.

sound help

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:06:04 +0000

i read somewhere that back in the day an engineer was permanently assigned to his locomotive, so i got thinking (o no ) and i decided that on the Ozark Northern i want to make the 2-8-0 10 my assigned loco, with a small name plate painted on under the drivers side cab window, and i want to put on a different whistle. how do i go about doing that withought changing all the other engines that are set to the same sounds whistles? i want to use the sounds that come with the engine because i think they are perfect for it.

Santa Fe H10-44's

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:37:56 +0000

Just so you guys know progress is happening. A work in progress shot... this is just a dummy to model the stripes, it does not have correct Santa Fe details.

Milwaukee Road H10-44's are finished - H12-44's to follow, had to split them because of the number of variations would have made a combined pack too complicated.

Textures and Cleantrack

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:35:56 +0000

I'm am new to Gmax and to textures. I made a berm section for a test. When loaded into MSTS the ncleantrack1 texture is lost against the berm.

I thought I could alpha out the top of the berm, and the ends while I was at it.

So I don't understand the cleantrack texture, and I must be using the TgaTool2a wrong or not applying the alpha texture in Gmax correctly or both.

Could use some pointers.

Thanks
Michael

Missing files for the GE16 L&PS

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:27:41 +0000

Hi guys,
OK, I DLed my first electric and already have a missing files issue. I thought this little critter would be fun but...
I'm sorry, this is not good. Incomplete models uploaded to the file library is not a way to do things, in my opinion. And, I'm exercising it, my opinion, that is after being a member for a couple years and a contributer to this fine establishment.
ET should be checking these things before approval, shouldn't they? I don't know...
Nowhere in any of the readme files does it say that I need additional pieces of rolling stock installed for this model to work. Matter of fact, it specifically states that it is a stand-alone model.

First issue is a missing cseng.sms file.
Second issue is a missing cabview.

I guess electrics are not for me...

Thank you,