New Passenger Rail Arrives!

[BigRedFish 24]

Glad to see people are enjoying my little train projects!  Those pictures didn't come out though, Trainman. 

 

Kurtisb:  Welcome to ST!  And a really big THANK YOU for the scale information.  That's just the kind of thing I needed.  All I ever see in Real Life anymore are Superliners getting shuffled in and out of Oakland (Calif.) yard.

 

When I made the Metroliner set I ran into a problem with scale.  The game's passenger trains were significantly wider and taller than the elevateds.  After a bit of looking into it, it seemed that the elevated trains were more or less correct height-wise, but they had to be slightly too narrow to avoid scraping the third-rail or hitting the supports on the overhead signals on el tracks.   Those overheads became the guide, and I've been busily re-scaling everything I have to match.  

 

Everything on the STEX except the locos in the Amtrak California and GO Transit set are now properly scaled; and those will be done after I finish this set.  Trolca has given permission to include re-scaled versions of his Amtrak engines also, for completeness.  All version 3 and above files have this common scale.

 

I'm now off to go fix the pixellation problem on the offending Heritage cars, set the Viewliner and Heritage cars to be about 1/2 meter taller than the Amfleet ones, and make new headlights for the locomotives - since I re-scaled them, the default headights are now far too high.  Grr, argh. 

 

Hopefully I'll have all this stuff tested and ready to upload this weekend.  The Amtrak set queued for STEX release contains 10 unique single-deck cars in 14 files, 9 unique Superliner cars in 6 files, and 5 unique locomotives in 10 files.  And you could use ALL of them at the same time if you wanted to.  That's a lot of testing!  I'll post a note when it's uploaded.

 

PS: No comments on the new locomotive?  Should it be taller?  And what are those weird ex-Santa Fe cab units in Pepsi-Can paint called?

 

 

[trainmanr5 0]

I believe that the Pepsi Can locomotive is called a Dash-9.

[Jarmst4571 0]

BRF,

Nice looking SD unit and paint scheme. If I knew how to, I would take the gray unit that Trolca made and put a Chessie paint scheme on it. I will be looking forward to seeing your updated set's when they are complete to your satisfaction. Your doing some great things here and it's greatly appreciated.

[thevoltmaster 0]

I have been very impressed with the work that you and trolca have done with the trains. In fact, so impressed that ive joined *gasp*. Keep up the good work! Id like to begin working on some train mods of my own but those probbably wont come out so well. Also on your first page, you said that the EMD F59PHI locomotive was the most efficient one on the rails but it seems like there is a new most efficient locomotive. GE has began production of their new evolution series which i must admit is really cool and beyond my image editing skills. (see attatched picture which isnt hosted in a way that i could insert it into the post) Any takers? I'd Really appriciate it. Thanks!!

[Kurtisb 1]

Good that I can be of help! Anyways, train and transportation mods are pretty much my only interests......*that came outta nowhere*

[+Guest]

Great job on the trains!!

[BigRedFish 24]

BRF = Big Railroad Friday!

 

Three new uploads, and three updates:

 

New stuff:

 

 

 

Plus, the offocial release of the Superliner passenger cars!

 

You can find them on the STEX; just search for

Amtrak .

 

I have also updated my Amtrak California, GO Transit, and Trolca Transit sets.  All my files on the STEX are now matched to a common scale, for your mix and match pleasure.

 

[Gemika 6]

Cool! they all look great I can't wait to get at em! In fact BRF I like them all so much I find myself switching them around to use all of them LOL. I'm amazed you find the time to make all these. Anyhow they look great you paid alot of attention to detail and I can see you spent a great deal of time on them Keep it up.

GE

[Jarmst4571 0]

BRF,

Very nicely done to perfection. I have already seen them in my cities and they look great. By the way, the Pepsi can engine is an SD40-2 not a -9. Attached is a pic of a Sante Fe -9.

[BigRedFish 24]

I checked on the Pepsi Can one - it's really supposed to be a Dash 8.  *sigh*

 

Update to my Amtrak Locomotive Set now posted on the STEX:

 

In response to comments about the Phase 3 Genesis locomotive, I re-did it to match the others.  I also corrected an error in the paint scheme on the Phase 4 - they both look more true to the real thing now.  Also touched up the Dash unit a bit so it doesn't looks quite so overwhelmingly gray in-game.

 

And as a bonus, for the download, I threw in this little goodie:

 

 

Be sure to delete all the old files before installing the new ones.

 

[Jarmst4571 0]

Date:5/31/2004 5:26:03 AM
Author:BigRedFish

I checked on the Pepsi Can one - it's really supposed to be a Dash 8.  *sigh*

 

Update to my Amtrak Locomotive Set now posted on the STEX:

 

In response to comments about the Phase 3 Genesis locomotive, I re-did it to match the others.  I also corrected an error in the paint scheme on the Phase 4 - they both look more true to the real thing now.  Also touched up the Dash unit a bit so it doesn't looks quite so overwhelmingly gray in-game.

 

And as a bonus, for the download, I threw in this little goodie:

 

 

Be sure to delete all the old files before installing the new ones.

 

[/quote

BRF,

I could not attach the pics that I wanted to show you. The Dash 8 series had only one large square blower unit at the rear that hangs off both sides, the SD units are the only ones to have five individual units along the top.

You can find pics of them at www.RailPictures.net .

Hope this helps.

[trainmanr5 0]

See, I was colse! Dash 8, Dash 9. . . I knew it was a Dash something!
I guess I know my Amtrak trains.

Anyway, the set looks really great, BRF. Very nice work! Now all you need are some of Amtrak's material handling cars and Roadrailers. They usually ride at the ends of the passenger trains and carry mail or baggage. I see them a lot on Amtrak's trains, espically if the trains is pulled by a non-electric (disel) engine. In many cases, an Amtrak train would have more material handling cars than passenger cars. If you added Amtrak's material handling cars and Roadrailers to your set, then it would be complete!

Anyone out there know what I mean?

[Trolca 15]

Date:5/31/2004 11:52:56 AM
Author:trainmanr5
... espically if the trains is pulled by a non-electric (disel) engine...

Did you know that diesel engines are electric?

[Jarmst4571 0]

Sorry guy's but the Pepsican unit in the post is an         SD 40-2 unit not a -8 or -9. Check the link for the Amtrak -8 units.

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=32567

 

 

[BigRedFish 24]

I think when I went looking for photos I found so many Dash units and SD40-2 units mislabeled as each other that I got confused!  Maybe next time I have to update the set I'll change the roof details to be more like a GE.  Now that I engage my brain a little more, it currently has obvious EMD roof details carried over from Trolca's SD40-2 skin. In the update, I put Trolca's six-wheel truck sets on these mystery units, so I guess you could rename them to RHPEngineAmtrakSD40-2-PepsiCan*.dat and all's well? 

 

As for the Amtrak material handling cars, I know what those are.  Last time I was on the California Zephyr, it was had two of them behid the locos, and another six trailing.  That's as many boxcars as there were Superliner cars!  [On the return trip, the Zephyr was also carrying two vintage 1950s D&RGW Zephyr streamliner cars - what a treat to see.]

 

Material cars are easy enough to make from a boxcar or reefer, but the problem is, I have no way of forcing them to appear on the head or tail of trains, so they'll show up in the middle a lot, and look quite strange (as do the baggage cars when they're not at the head or tail, especially when mixed with the Superliner set.)  Still, it's your game so if you really want it I'll take a crack at modding one of Trolca's BN reefers as a prototype...

 

---

Now, on to some new things:

 

When I made the Amtrak Heritage cars, by necessity, I made a pretty solid base set of vintage Budd/Pullman streamliners - that's what the Heritage fleet is, after all. 

 

One characteristic of those old streamliner cars is that they often lacked paint - gleaming stainless steel was the fashion of the day - and the road-names and car name/numbers were on narrow plates that you'd never be able to read in-game, even at the closest zoom.

 

So, I was thinking of releasing a plain streamliner set - a baggage/RPO, Coach, Slumbercoach, Pullman Sleeper, Diner, and Club/Lounge.  Maybe a Vista-Dome too? Any interest in this, and would a generic plain-stainless be OK?   They'd work with whatever locomotives you used that way.

 

To demonstrate the classic streamliner look, here's a prototype new car model I'm working on, in my personal BRF scheme:

 

It's a Budd Slumbercoach!

 

 Any interest?

 

[Jarmst4571 0]

BRF,

Go for it, I think that the stainless will be more realistic and look good in the game.

[trainmanr5 0]

Well BRF, now you've got me into this exciting new Amtrak set. What I'd like to know is, when and where will it be available to download! I also have some good suggestions for the set:

You could make an AEM-7 or the Acela hhp engine to pull those Amfleets you made. Or how 'bout Acela in general? That would be a nice addition to your Amtrak set.

How is the Septa project coming along? I still look foward to it. I'm sorry that most of the picturs I posted didn't show up.

[BigRedFish 24]

The Amtrak set is all on the STEX.  When the STEX comes back up, just search for Amtrak or my name... or click the link in my signature.

 

I've been sidetracked a bit lately - I had to wear my BSC Tech hat for a while to chase down some train prop conflicts that were messing up people's BAT renders.  I've also been putting in some time on Tropod's ongoing Network Addon project  trying to make SC3K-style individual on-off ramps for highways. 

 

I should get back to trains shortly.

 

[trainmanr5 0]

Ahh, yes. I've seen the sets in the exchange. Looks great, and I like the Metro too. I'll download them and tell you how they run!

[cammo2003 20]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing a generic set - the trains they have here are very much generic from the sides, so it'd be something closer to home for me.

 

Of course, Sydney uses almost entirely electrics for it's commuter passenger services. There are maybe 12 two-car diesel trains (if that) in use in the CityRail fleet; those go beyond the power lines (which actually extend as far as 200km away from Central Station)

[kassarc16 4]

Great work with Amtrak, BRF. Too bad things seemed to have slowed down in the past month.

[einstein2000 1]

Does anyone know if there's a tutorial somewhere to help me create my own trains, buses, etc.?

[madnick 0]

Anyone know where I can find LIRR and Metro North EMU trains?

[Trolca 15]

Date: 5/10/2005 1:57:23 PM Author: madnick Anyone know where I can find LIRR and Metro North EMU trains?

quote>

I posted a LIRR train set in the Train Mods thread some time ago but I don't know which page.

[madnick 0]

I know about that one and its a great set, but I'm talking about the EMU's (Electrical Multiple Units) which make up the vast majority of the LIRR and Metro North fleets (M1,M3,M7 for LIRR, M1,M2(M1 modified to accept overhead catenary power in addition to third rail),M3,M4(Modified M3) and M7 for Metro North)

M1 or M3 (they're pretty similar, so I'm not sure which)

M7