LA Expo Line (WIP)

[Tim The Terrible 586]

Description

The Expo Line is a Light Rail service in Los Angeles (USA) run by the LA Metro company and is named after the Exposition Boulevard. The line features unique artwork on every station and runs from 7th Street/Metro Central (Downtown LA) to Downtown Santa Monica and was opened in 2012.

More info

 

Joak and I decided a while ago to recreate a part of the line. He would make some stations, and I would do one or more trains. The result:

• Joak: Jefferson, Santa Monica & 7th Street Station.
• Tim: P3010 Train, Expo Line catenary, wires, rails and textures.

 

The stations and train will be released as soon. I made the other stuff to show what Network Skins will offer in the future. See for yourself!

Note: Not all segments/nodes of all networks look as they should.

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Jewish_Banana 9]

A job well done, to the both of you. Super excited for the release

[wasmic 111]

I don't want to ask too much of you guys... but would it be possible for you to also create a version of this track that is visually identical, but allows trams instead of trains?

[Ombladon156 2]

Wooow, that's so cool, reminds me of GTA San Andreas :D. Can you give me the name of that building in the 4th picture? Please  

[R3V0 909]

Nice job you got there, glad to see our LRT problem is solved. With andre's metro overhaul and this, we pretty much covered every major means of transport, maglev/monorail is the only last thing we need. 

Great job guys, very good indeed. 

PS: It's railnetwork skin yes ?

 

 

[wasmic 111]

23 minutes ago, R3V0 said:

Nice job you got there, glad to see our LRT problem is solved. With andre's metro overhaul and this, we pretty much covered every major means of transport, maglev/monorail is the only last thing we need. 

Great job guys, very good indeed. 

PS: It's railnetwork skin yes ?

 

 

Not quite. This system is made on the basis of the train system, which means that sections of this cannot be combined with sections of street running. It's not actual light rail, but rather a train line reskinned to look like light rail. It's really pretty and I absolutely love it, but it doesn't allow for true light rail that can have both street running and grade separated stretches.

[R3V0 909]

9 minutes ago, wasmic said:

Not quite. This system is made on the basis of the train system, which means that sections of this cannot be combined with sections of street running. It's not actual light rail, but rather a train line reskinned to look like light rail. It's really pretty and I absolutely love it, but it doesn't allow for true light rail that can have both street running and grade separated stretches.

I don't care at this point.  If it runs like this in a city, it's a LRT for me, period. A true LRT would be a tram skin but its turning angles are pretty annoying it also has lower priority in transportation, aka cims don't take it if they see bus or other alternative. This will to the job nicely as a LRT if it's used properly. 

 

[wasmic 111]

Just now, R3V0 said:

I don't care at this point.  If it runs like this in a city, it's a LRT for me, period. A true LRT would be a tram skin but its turning angles are pretty annoying it also has lower priority in transportation, aka cims don't take it if they see bus or other alternative. This will to the job nicely as a LRT if it's used properly. 

 

I dunno what you're talking about right now. If this is LRT for you, LRT has been possible in CSL for a very long time - even since before Snowfall. Tram as LRT is not prioritized below buses, and if it runs on dedicated track (where the speed limit has been raised using TM:PE) it is prioritized at the same level as metro.

Anyway, I'd very much like to have this mod - or, rather, just the tracks - in a tram-track version, if it's not too much trouble for the creators. That would also allow one to create something like the Karlsruhe model, which is a pretty nice and interesting solution for public transit.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

On 15-10-2016 at 11:56 PM, wasmic said:

Anyway, I'd very much like to have this mod - or, rather, just the tracks - in a tram-track version, if it's not too much trouble for the creators. 

In my opinion it would only make sense if you reskin the Tram Only roads (don't know their exact names). But the again you would have the problem with certain trains/trams taking 90 degree turns, which can look weird.

Also, Light Rail is a very unspecific description and can take many forms, sometimes depending where you live. Where I come from, Light Rail doesn't run through streets, we call that a tram by definition.  

[Tim The Terrible 586]

On 15-10-2016 at 10:31 PM, Ombladon156 said:

Can you give me the name of that building in the 4th picture? Please  

It's a vanilla Unique Building, but it might be part of a DLC if you can't find it there.

[Matthias King 348]

In the title picture at the very top, what are those white houses with the white front fence walls at the sidewalk? They look very SoCal. I must have them!

[wasmic 111]

18 hours ago, Tim The Terrible said:

In my opinion it would only make sense if you reskin the Tram Only roads (don't know their exact names). But the again you would have the problem with certain trains/trams taking 90 degree turns, which can look weird.

Also, Light Rail is a very unspecific description and can take many forms, sometimes depending where you live. Where I come from, Light Rail doesn't run through streets, we call that a tram by definition.  

That's what I was going for - an alternate skin for Tram Only roads that looks like this, but without the annoying pedestrian paths that the Tram Only roads have. Preferably made in a way so that both can be used in the same city (perhaps network skins, although that mod can't remove the pedestrian paths AFAIK).

I already have light rail lines in my current city using tram vehicles as LRV's, and it looks just fine.

If you want a real life example, the light rail line that is being planned in Copenhagen will supposedly have some 90-degree turns towards one end of the line. I'd personally call that line a tram and not a light rail, since it will have a bit of shared right-of-way with the general traffic, and most of the line will run in a road median.

Another example is in Karlsruhe, where trams run along in shared traffic (with 90-degree turns in certain places, IIRC), but also continue out onto main-line rails. I'd really like to recreate such a system in C:SL, but that would mean drawing the Tram Only roads out across the landscape, and that would look very ugly - which is why I'd like a tram-version of this rail asset.

[wasmic 111]

So... how is this mod coming along? From the images, it looks like it's ready for release, but there's obviously something that isn't quite done yet. Can you put a time-frame on when we can expect it to be released? It looks really really nice and I want to play with it

[Tim The Terrible 586]

3 hours ago, wasmic said:

So... how is this mod coming along?

It won't be a mod. It's a combination of assets and mods. First we have the Train Stations and the Train itself which will be published soon. The second part was meant as a Proof of Concept where I customized certain Network Meshes using ModTools. Network Skins will support these options in the future, but only @boformer can tell us when and how.

 

[wasmic 111]

2 hours ago, Tim The Terrible said:

It won't be a mod. It's a combination of assets and mods. First we have the Train Stations and the Train itself which will be published soon. The second part was meant as a Proof of Concept where I customized certain Network Meshes using ModTools. Network Skins will support these options in the future, but only @boformer can tell us when and how.

 

Now that sounds exciting, that's even better! I don't really care for the train (because I prefer to use Snowfall trams for light rail, and have too many train assets installed already), but the stations look awesome and also seem like they could fit well in roles other than as light rail.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

8 minutes ago, wasmic said:

I don't really care for the train 

Thanks.. :'(             (just kidding)

[Delta2k5 311]

Nice idea

I got also some P2000 train lying around - welp, I finally need motivation to finish all that stuff

[Igorp133 28]

On 25.10.2016 at 6:44 PM, Tim The Terrible said:

It won't be a mod. It's a combination of assets and mods. First we have the Train Stations and the Train itself which will be published soon. The second part was meant as a Proof of Concept where I customized certain Network Meshes using ModTools. Network Skins will support these options in the future, but only @boformer can tell us when and how.

 

Tim, have you ever thought about merging your work at Expo Line with newly released MOM. Because it already allows to select track type, so no need to wait for update of network skins which will support custom rail meshes. But then we have to wait for one-way MOM tracks.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

1 hour ago, Igorp133 said:

Tim, have you ever thought about merging your work at Expo Line with newly released MOM. Because it already allows to select track type, so no need to wait for update of network skins which will support custom rail meshes. But then we have to wait for one-way MOM tracks.

Thank you for your interest!

Yes, we are working together with @andreharv and @BloodyPenguin to make something that works for the Expo Line. It is however uncertain what the end product will be and when this will be released.

More information to follow.

[wojtason 113]

Wow. That's fantastic. How can I have these realistic looking rails?

[BloodyPenguin 147]

On 12/14/2016 at 5:46 PM, wojtason said:

Wow. That's fantastic. How can I have these realistic looking rails?

@andreharv What do you think of incorporating @Tim The Terrible's rails into MOM?

[andreharv 1,197]

@Tim The Terribleplease send me those spectacular rails and I will put them in MOM right away.  I am currently getting the 3rd rails separated from the tracks for easy toggle...ability..and while I am at it I can update the rails too.  If you send me the models and textures I would love that and I would include you as a contributor to MOM.  Just send them to andreharv@yahoo.com (if you are willing to share) and leave me a message on steam when you do.  I just ran across this thread yesterday and it looks very impressive.  Keep up the good work!

[mutton noir 170]

Superb job guys- another quantum leap for the game. Unfortunately I just don't seem able to get multi track station mod to work with MOM.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

33 minutes ago, andreharv said:

please send me those spectacular rails

Ha, joke's on you, I already sent them earlier this week when we were talking via Steam, you must have missed the link  

[andreharv 1,197]

AWWW SNAP!!!

[accapulco 132]

Are those the Japanese catenaries? They fit in very well. I'm really excited for those station props (dem turnstyles *drool) and stairs the most. Will you also release the green fence?

[Tim The Terrible 586]

28 minutes ago, accapulco said:

Are those the Japanese catenaries? They fit in very well. I'm really excited for those station props (dem turnstyles *drool) and stairs the most. Will you also release the green fence?

We will use custom Expo Line catenaries, but Joak used the Japanese in his screenshots (since only I have the custom ones). The Japanese catenaries are available for Train Tracks using Catenary Replacer

[wasmic 111]

So now that it seems like this is going to be part of MOM, will it also be  released for Network Skins when that mod is finished?

[j4lambert 22]

So for the P3010 train, will it be released in multiple configurations?

[Tim The Terrible 586]

On 16-12-2016 at 10:48 AM, wasmic said:

So now that it seems like this is going to be part of MOM, will it also be  released for Network Skins when that mod is finished?

MOM will get a toggle for Third Rail and Catenary. Network Skins will eventually support Train Tracks, but I don't know if Network Skins will support MOM in any way in the future.

14 minutes ago, j4lambert said:

So for the P3010 train, will it be released in multiple configurations?

Yes: 2 (1x2), 4 (2x2), and 6 (3x2) in lenght.