Elvas Tower: Tim's and Frank's Horses at Work - Elvas Tower

Jump to content

  • 2 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

Tim's and Frank's Horses at Work Rate Topic: -----

#11 Inactive_Swissie_*

  • Group: Status: Passengers (Obsolete)

Posted 20 July 2009 - 02:45 PM

Hello Frank,

View Postkelticsylk, on Jul 20 2009, 02:52 PM, said:

(...) the time I did spend on it was enjoyable. My wife can atest. Our office has a "window" that overlooks our family room and the "oohs", "aaahs", "this is so cool" and "that is awesome" as I traveled the route were definitely audible to the rest of the family.

Where else can you roll out of Butte (I think) on the NP and dive into a canyon alongside two (maybe three) other railroads. In a country where parallel routes have been ripped up for nature trails it's something you can't see anymore. (...)

Anyway, thanks for the work you and Jerry have done recreating this. It's another reason MSTS still tops it's competition.


thanks for the flowers! I actually felt that Jerry has picked one of the most scenic areas for his early RMD-2 route, and I thought it deserved a little brush-up to the standards of his RMD-1 and RMD-4. It offers a lot of variation (some fast runs, some mountain railroads, then Silver Bow Canyon, and even some "interline" potential) in some of the most breathtaking scenery I've seen in MSTS.

Next time the family is near, run the NP from Butte across Pipestone Pass to Whitehall in an engine offering unobstructed views upfront. The climb by Skone is already a thrill, but let them have a glimpse of your screen when you round the bend at Welch and Spire Rock comes into view - sometimes you'd even see me hold my breath at this location (Jerry did a marvelous job building these rock formations, credit to whom deserves it!).

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii135/Yukonmusher/MSTS/RMD2/288_NCL_18.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii135/Yukonmusher/MSTS/RMD2/255_NP2661_Freight_04.jpg

Cheers, Lukas

#12 User is offline   NSL Fan 

  • Conductor
  • Group: Fan: Traction Nuts
  • Posts: 311
  • Joined: 17-April 08
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Illinois
  • Simulator:MSTS/Railworks
  • Country:

Posted 20 July 2009 - 03:51 PM

Hi Lukas,

I have to say, I've really been enjoying the RMD-1. i was one of the few who got ahold of the activities, and they have been a blast to run.

;)

I also await the RMD-2 eagerly. Is there going to be more stock, like those fabulous Quills that Frank made that you showed in the tri-color, or howabout a yellow set of Boxcabs?

Can't wait :D

Zach

#13 Inactive_kelticsylk_*

  • Group: Status: Passengers (Obsolete)

Posted 21 July 2009 - 12:44 PM

Lukas and I have been corresponding about the Quills. The project went on hold just before the beta release of the entire set and Lukas carried on with what he had.

There isn't much to be done on the entire series. They are pretty complete, especially now that Lukas has done all the physics and other goodies that I have no clue about. There are a slew of locomotives in the set starting with the as delivered #10300 circa 1919 and ending with a "what-if" Armour Yellow #E-18 circa 1957.
Attached Image: SFCAN086.jpg

I believe there are 9 in all...
Attached Image: SFCAN080.jpg

I think all ot them except the 1919 and 1920's versions are single ended...
Attached Image: SFCAN081.jpg
with the rear end rebuilt in the early 1920's (1923-1924) and the frames reinforced.
Attached Image: SFCAN082.jpg

The EP-3 models are three units, typical of my heavy electrics with two drive unit "locomotives" and the body shell a "wagon" coupled between drive units...
Attached Image: SFCAN095.jpg
The drive units on the more modern versions have the reinforced frame and plow pilots (courtesy Tim Muir)

Tim and I have been going a little crazy on a series of 1940 White semi tractors and trailers and I haven't done much else. We are finished playing with those and I will make an effort to get the quills released (it's about time)

Sorry to hijack your post Lukas.

#14 User is offline   NSL Fan 

  • Conductor
  • Group: Fan: Traction Nuts
  • Posts: 311
  • Joined: 17-April 08
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Illinois
  • Simulator:MSTS/Railworks
  • Country:

Posted 21 July 2009 - 05:24 PM

COOL! :D

I collected the Quills that you released way back when, I'm quite impressed. Ever solve the problem of the pink areas in the cab?

Need a beta tester? :D

;)

Zach

#15 Inactive_Swissie_*

  • Group: Status: Passengers (Obsolete)

Posted 22 July 2009 - 01:37 PM

Dear collegues,

no need to worry, Frank, talking about Quills in the context of the RMD is certainly anything but hijaking the post! I'm glad you could pick-up on the Quills again, and I'll look forward to the accurate alpha version of the single enders! May I just add a comment since things are still in development: When it comes to mapping, can I dare to point out that the roof of the Quills would prototypically need to be painted oxyd red (and it kept that coloring at least up to the silver E-11, although it looked more often like a grime brown smudge than a color...). I think the roof is currently sharing its texture with other parts of the car body interior, so it is dark grey, or whatever color applies there. The shapes would probably deserve to be altered in such a way that the roof has a texturing of its own.

@ Zach: The Quills you see are actually my own repaints of the double-ended shape which reached alpha state, so they're not really accurate. It was more the result of a lazy rainy sunday and my wish to try to re-create the various schemes, but the shape used doesn't provide e.g. the means to place the Milwaukee Road emblem in the proper places on various of the schemes (e.g. E11 should have the CM&StP logo midway on the body, E15, the leading red/marroon one of the double header should have large Milwaukee Road lettering along the sides etc.

Speaking of the activities: Actually Zach I hadn't released them for the RMD-1 for two combined reasons: First, I noticed that from MSTS bin 1.6.1022 (stable) to the newer MSTS bin 1.7.xxxx and 1.8.xxxx versions, train.exe starts to treat signals and passing pathes slightly differently. For example, when saving and resuming an activity, an oncoming train that is already "established" (to use an aviatic term here) to take the optional passing path at the time of the save will not resume the passing path option, and will get stuck at the diverging switch into the siding when the activity is resumed. Similarily, reverse points can cause eternal reds under newer MSTS bin's while they worked perfectly under MSTS default and MSTS bin 1.6.1022.

So I came to the conclusion that the activities needed to be reworked in such a way that these issues are minimised (since I can only suggest to users to revert back to MSTS bin 1.6.xxxx, but I cannot urge users who prefer 1.8. and its additional features to give up on that).

About at the same time, Simon and me started our talk about the need of a catenary placement tool, and when Simon surprised me with a beta version of CatMaster, I quickly decided that I would update the entire trackage of the RMD-1 and RMD-2 with the new wires in one go, merging the routes (since it was prototypical anyways to have passenger crews work all the way from Harlowton to Butte, according to our sources).

Bottomline: The activities are not dead, they have been updated and migrated onto the next generation of the route. The list of required stock is however getting longer and longer since it will now also include many NP, BN, GN and other items...

Cheers, Lukas

#16 User is offline   NSL Fan 

  • Conductor
  • Group: Fan: Traction Nuts
  • Posts: 311
  • Joined: 17-April 08
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Illinois
  • Simulator:MSTS/Railworks
  • Country:

Posted 23 July 2009 - 08:14 AM

Hi Lukas,

Yes, I'm well aware that you didn't release the activities. I got ahold of the beta v2 that you posted a link to @ T-S a few months ago. I will say, that they run fine on the latest BIN for me, no standoffs at passing sidings, and reversing points work as advertised. OF course, that is on my faster machine (which is actually my Grandmother's computer) On my home computer, I installed 1.6.1022 just to be safe. I'll run a few acts and see how that works.

Zach

#17 User is offline   B & O GUY 

  • Vice President
  • Group: Status: Elite Member
  • Posts: 2,354
  • Joined: 14-May 08
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:New York State
  • Simulator:Open Rails
  • Country:

Posted 26 July 2009 - 07:35 AM

Quote

Just in case you're through with the hot & humid summer weather: EF-2 E47 regenerates down the slopes West of Donald with some more coal to fight the cold.


Off topic here.

What hot and humid weather? We here in New York State haven't had any yet. Is there some out there? If so bring it on! YES! Bring it on! I've been waiting for
global warming for two years now. In fact I'm eagerly looking forward to it. Some of the trees here are starting to turn shade already from lack of sunshine and
warmth. And I'll clue you all in now. Glabal warming already happened and we are now into global cooling.

Allen

#18 Inactive_Swissie_*

  • Group: Status: Passengers (Obsolete)

Posted 27 July 2009 - 01:31 PM

Hi Zach,

View PostNSL Fan, on Jul 23 2009, 06:14 PM, said:

Yes, I'm well aware that you didn't release the activities. I got ahold of the beta v2 that you posted a link to @ T-S a few months ago. I will say, that they run fine on the latest BIN for me, no standoffs at passing sidings, and reversing points work as advertised. OF course, that is on my faster machine (which is actually my Grandmother's computer) On my home computer, I installed 1.6.1022 just to be safe. I'll run a few acts and see how that works.


you're right, memory plays a role in this as well. Actually, for the upcoming version of the route, I dug a bit into the sigcfg.dat and sigscr.dat files since, and found one or two improvements to make. Unless I save and restore a run in the worst possible moment now (AI train nearing a diverging switch to take passing path), I have the impression that things run smoother with these small changes. And as a small side-effect of this work, the player will now also get a medium approach and then a slow aspect whenever he's about to take the diverging switch into the pocket...

However, since the upcoming version adds passenger speed limits in various places, based on old timetables, references in books and trial, the timing of AI traffic needed some adjustment to these alterations anyways (it makes a difference if a passenger run from Harlowton takes 3 hours 50 minutes with the freight limits of 1976 in the previous version of the route, or the more prototypical 3 hours 20 minutes of the 1940's schedule with the passenger limits in the new version of the route).

Cheers, Lukas
  • 2 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users