Show us your Railroads!

[SimCoug 5,976]

Neat!  It looks like you need to raise the cargo props up a bit though... they look like they are sinking into the rail cars.

[CT14 2,486]

SimCoug: I'm glad you like it! I believe those are well cars which do sit the container down lower in its walls. It's the original prop from JES vol01. Here's a similar texture I found online:

T-Wrecks: Thanks for confirming my hunch there... I ended up doing something similar with overhanging props and only transit enabling a single direction on the end of certain lots. Most of the lots are 'filler' without any TE. There are end lots for left and right, with versions for engines, yard mule+car, and just cars. Filler lots come in several overhang types and static railcar prop types to make a variety on the lines: overhang left, overhang right, chip car, boxcar, tank car, etc.

I am happy with the result. Double lines of intermodal are probably next, and I also have to go back and add one more railcar to the main prop family - coal car, along with pieces for coal car plops. Maybe some more pieces to support creation of large unit trains for coal, juice, and even side-by-side unit trains. I'm also curious about STR but couldn't find any info on modding lots for it.

Here are the puzzle pieces. I placed each one twice for clarity on the prop families.

Clockwise from lower left, it's right and left TE ends for intermodal, right and left TE ends for mixed freight, mixed freight with 1 engine (yard mule), mixed freight with no offset, boxcars, mixed freight with left offset, tank cars, chip cars, mixed freight with right offset, intermodal filler.

Engines left, right, double-sided TE. I want to extract/create props/prop families from the VDK NA engines but I haven't looked into it yet.

For the entire set of pieces, the concept is that the second track (south track in the editor) is allowed to have overhanging props, but the north track's car is always flush with the puzzle piece edge, so that the end/transit enabled pieces can leave the south track empty, go flush with their non-TE edge on the north track and remain compatible with any of the filler pieces.

[raynev1 1,887]

@CT14 very impressive , I like what you're doing there . 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

So do I! It's a pity that north country dude's textures are now no longer in the same style as the RRW textures, but RRW looks just too good to pass. Using the standard in-game textures, you can make side tracks that look halfways realistic, but not a realistic-looking rail yard... bummer.

[CT14 2,486]

I agree that the double tracks don't look very realistic for large yards. 3 and 4-track textures like NCD but matching RRW would be amazing. Seems like a patch texture pack along those lines could be popular...just to bring all the old lots which use NCD up to date visually. I'm aware that not all NCD textures will have a 'true' RRW equivalent since they are not realistic to prototypes in terms of short-radius curves, etc, but this would be just for pretty picturing and rescuing legacy content.

[CT14 2,486]

@raynev1 glad you like it... I'm working on STR lots today but first few tries don't have STR texture working. Can't locate it in Lot Editor yet, overrides don't seem to apply to the lot even with full transit enabled and TE STR on lot edges.

OK, I found the STR textures now but they're in RailwayAddonMod_STR_WideRadiusCurves_RRW.dat, as FSH files. Going to have to pull them out somehow... time to learn a little more.

Figured it out, used FiSHMan to export PNG of the color and alpha layers, one PNG for each. Used SC4Tool to create new texture file (creating a new texture dat in this app is funny - you can only do it by opening a .dat that doesn't exist!). Found that new textures are automatically overlay textures only if they have an alpha layer. The STR textures seem to exist as transit textures (a third type beyond base and overlay) in the NAM dat. Once I was able to create my own texture .dat, I made it accessible to PIM-X and got it into the lot as an overlay texture.

With base textures now clashing quite noticeably - here's the result.

So I read https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=285.0, ignored all the vague warnings and removed the base texture from the lot using iLive Reader as described in that thread. It's getting closer, but:

There is another problem... there is more than one straight rail STR texture in that NAM .dat, and I think I grabbed the wrong one... it doesn't quite match the STR override transit textures.

I went ahead and made double track intermodal. Definitely need those 4 track tiles for yards...

  Edited November 11, 2015 by CT14  

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, you're picking up things very quickly! Good progress here. Regarding your problem with the texture not entirely matching the STR network, could it be that networks are handled differently from static lot textures, requiring texture makers to adapt the brightness of their textures? Maybe someone knowledgeable in that field can answer that question.

[CT14 2,486]

I updated my prop family IDs with an officially issued range and had to replace props on a couple of dozen lots. I also went through and changed wealth from 2 to 0 (medium to none).

No progress on STR sidings despite some more poking around in the textures.

However, 4-track intermodal looks kinda fun... there will be some overlay texture work required for track leads.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Woohooo, intermodal party!  I think you have reached a point where you could consider opening a modding thread for your creations, by the way. 

[CT14 2,486]

I made a thread in Modding forum, thanks. Here are a couple of shots showing STR-to-DTR leads into sidings, and more embankments/trenches. I am still trying to find the best MMP for the embankment sides. "Bushes (Seasonal)" and yellow wildflowers, here.

Looking across the 31m double height embankment, with 8m trench on far side of view:

[T Wrecks 10,210]

That looks beautiful! A little cargo loading platform is all that would be needed to complete this delightful industrial scene.

[philforhockey51 4,220]

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Couple of photos from a tile I'm working on.

 

 

[9gruntsand1hammer 3,198]

Commuter train station and surrounding high density developments.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

The RRW in the NAM 34 is incredible!

[philforhockey51 4,220]

A scenic ride on this rail

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

@Ln X, can you tell me how you managed to impliment all those new features, or link to a guide?

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

I used the new NAM 34 and for the textures I used this grass RRW texture mod from Indiana Joe- https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=15931.920. His post as a variety of RRW mods and WIP, but the relevant link is this one- https://www.dropbox.com/s/ks52lm1i23vnrrf/Low%20Wealth%20Green%20Rail%20Textures.zip?dl=0. Place the files in the z_NAM folder.

[philforhockey51 4,220]

I know I just posted a pic but I finally got one of this area with a train in it so I wanted to share

 

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Great rail and nature scenes philforhockey51.

/

Garforth Station.

[9gruntsand1hammer 3,198]

Commuter and freight rail lines running through Quigley.

[philforhockey51 4,220]

@Compdude787 & @Ln X

You'll notice the avenue, I've done something like this in different parts of my region, the previous suburb one is much longer and has two different slopes on either side of the bridge, this one is more of a quick dip under the rail. 

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

That's a great way of keeping the railway line's elevation constant!

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Another photo, this time of a yard I am working on.

Misc shots

 

 

 

 

[CT14 2,486]

A yard using my own QTR ladder puzzle pieces from simmer2 textures pack (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3329) with other rail related lots by SFBT, SimGoober:

Engine and car service, water tower, yard office, mainline

Auxiliary area with watchtower at ladder mouth. Need to find cabooses for empty caboose track.

Ladder/classification tracks overview, A/D track and mainline at bottom

 

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

 

[TakemeThere 5,834]

Spoiler

On 2016-02-04 at 11:28 AM, DavidDHetzel said:

 

 

Cool^ what industry is that(at the top)?

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

1 hour ago, takemethere said:

  Hide contents

 

Cool^ what industry is that(at the top)?

In a weird twist of fate, you're actually asking me for something

Here it is.

 

 

[TakemeThere 5,834]

Thanks! And yeah it's a little twist from the norm lol