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About this City Journal

Highways & Interchanges, Railways & Infrastructure, Skyscrapers & Skylines, extensive mmp work and custom lots & BAT's.

Entries in this City Journal

TakemeThere
For this update we head back to Orchard Heights first seen in entry 25. Back then I only showed closeups and focused on the hydro corridor and the residential area surrounding it. But in recent years this neighborhood has developed a small commercial downtown owning largely to the governments policy of intensifying density near Fastraxx commuter train stations. The area now accounts for a little under 20% (5500 of 29,000) of Dresden's commercial jobs while12,600 live in the area. The Orchard Heights train...
TakemeThere
Over the past year I've rebuilt the entire highway network as it had previously had been almost entirely maxis-highway based. The hardest and most time consuming part of that process is rebuilding the major interchange between highways. Just when the rebuilding process was nearly done, the NAM team goes out and gives us NAM 33/34. Because of this I've had to rebuild several of the major interchanges, yet again. Thanks a lot NAM team... for being so DAMN AWESOME! because building interchanges has always...
TakemeThere
Continuing on with infrastructure entry's, Power generation and consumption must be balanced across the entire network at all times. If a portion of the system fails, electrical current can actually re-route itself over other parts of the system which may not be capable of handling the increased power flow possibly causing additional or even larger power failures. Therefore operators must react as quickly as possible to any faults. As mention before, Hillsoboro TS is linked up to several important...
TakemeThere
This entry will deal with infrastructure related facilities located in Dresden.City Overview (looking north) 1 - D.M Peters Water Treatment Plant Posthumously named after a former mayor of Dresden who authorized the construction of this facility. This medium sized facility is the only water treatment plant located in the South Shore borough. It provides water to Dresden's 102,000 residents plus an additional 25,000 residents from several adjacent towns. The plant was constructed in 1951 replacing a smaller...
TakemeThere
Industrial sector G is one of 5 large industrial areas built in Pretoria. More than 90% of Dresden's industry is located here and it employs 12,061 people. The map below shows the juxtaposition of each sectors within the region. As seen in entry's 22 & 23, the region's largest power plant is located in this sector. A medium sized traditional port with only a small intermodal facility is also located adjacent to the south shore of Cisco Bay. This entry however will focus on the industrial zone located...
TakemeThere
Continuing on from where I left off last week, we'll now go for a drive southbound on highway 702 from Looper Juction(C) to the city border. But first a short discussion about the numerous safety features commonly seen on 700-series highways in Pretoria; Noise abatement walls in urban areas of the metropolis are a common sight. These walls are between 5m(lubu style) and 6m high. I created a new wall set as in time for this entry as the lubu style was admittedly getting a little repetitive in the city....
TakemeThere
To help reorient where we are, here's a quick look at the southern portion of the regional transportation map: Dresden is the large size map at the southern most part of the region. The metro area extends further south and I might add that area to the region in the future, though it's largely suburbia south of here.The Highway System in Dresden Dresden is served by two 700-series expressways, highways - 700 and 702(4 to 6 lane RHW). These are the two primary north to south highways in the region, they...
TakemeThere
As seen from the last entry, my CJ can be quite heavy on the dialog at times. Not that I think that's a bad thing, but it's good to take a break sometimes. Also while the focus of the CJ is on infrastructure and transportation, that is not all that encompasses Pretoria Dresden has probably the largest suburban population of any of my cities. Here's some views of those suburbs up close, specifically the neighborhood of Orchard Heights; One of my favorite parts of the suburbs is where the Hardack hydro...
TakemeThere
Drseden's city center is the fifth largest commercial in the region, behind downtown & uptown Pretoria, Calgon & Garden City but ahead of both Cisco Bay & Lindin City and a few others. This which makes it the largest city center I've previewed to date. It's more on the generic side and probably has the lowest amount of custom content of any of the high rise nodes. Out of the 32 buildings that I would consider as being highrises in the downtown core, exactly half(16) are custom content and the other half...
TakemeThere
*Update* - This entry only showcases the maxis night shots of the power plant. For the cooler dark night shots please check out entry 34. The rest of the city may sleep at night but the power plant is very active. Normally only two units are required at night, but on this humid night all units are active while another nearby power plant is down for maintenance. The stacks for unit 3&4 weren't built with a maintenance/rest platform so aside from a single high-intensity xenon discharge flasher on the north...
TakemeThere
The Dresden GS(Generating Station) is a major coal-fired power plant owned and operated by the PRPA(Pretoria Regional Power Authority) a publicly owned electrical utility company which owns and operates a total of 11 power plants in and around the Pretoria Metropolitan Area. Dresden GS is by far the largest of PRPA's power plants with a total nameplate capacity of 2,240MW. When operating at peck capacity the plant produces almost 50% of Pretoria's electric supply, enough power for 1.2 million people. The...
TakemeThere
The Ring of Steel(RoS) is the name of the main telecommunications array for the South Shore borough. The array is built on Mount Tokiko() which is 632ft /192m high and is positioned in an ideal location near the center of the city. There are much taller peaks both within and just outside Dresden city limits, such as Mount Hadron(1,145ft / 349m) and several others in the Phaeton mountain range that rise above 1,500ft / 450m tall. However none of them are easy to access because of steep cliff sides so it was...
TakemeThere
After months of work, with many breaks in between mind you, I've just about completed my Interchange Rebuild Project. Looper Junction, located in Dresden of the South Shores borough is where highways 700 & 702 meet and one of 7 major interchanges that needed to be completely rebuilt. current Highway System map; As with the others, the reason for rebuilding this interchange is because I decided to used the Project Symphony highway mod, which is not compatible with NAM highway interchanges. Looper Junction...
TakemeThere
Hydro corridors in general seem to be an under utilized feature of the game. In fact they're so ubiquitous and quite frankly not all that interesting to look at in real life, that few of us even notice or pay any attention to them. I get the feeling that most SC4 players, not necessarily on this site but in general, view placing power lines as little more than a nuance. However, its actually one of my favorite things to do - running numerous hydro corridors throughout the entire region. In some cases right...
TakemeThere
This will likely be the final entry from the Middle East borough of Pretoria. To mark the occasion I've completed a street map of this area which covers 21sq/km. Due to the size of the map I had to split it into two images. However it seems the top portion doesn't always show. Silly imgur, doesn't know what it wants to do from one moment to the next. In any case the image for the bottom 2/3rd's of the map is working and is the more important section of the borough. At first the city borders were...
TakemeThere
Kalahari peak overlooks downtown LC and rises to an elevation of 536ft/163m ASL(above sea level) which makes it the second tallest point of elevation in LC, a mere 9 feet shorter than the nearby Drogo peak 545ft/166m. There is a private road that leads up to the top that locals like to frequent. Those that make the trek are greeted with a pleasant view of downtown LC and neighboring Cisco Bay. The peak is located near the geographical center of the Middle East borough of Pretoria which makes it an idea...
TakemeThere
This entry will deal with the transportation network and locations of interest around LC. Lindin City Street Map Transportation Highway System LC is served by no less then five! highways(700-series - interchange access only). In numerical order these are; Highways 700(6 to 8 lanes), 704(6 lanes), 705(4 lanes), 707(4 lanes) & 709(4 lanes). There are two highway interchanges in the city, the massive and sprawling Spaghetti Junction and a smaller interchange between highways 705 & 709. In addition there are 3...
TakemeThere
Lindin City(LC for short) is the second largest city in the Eastern portion of the region. It's located just north of the city of Cisco Bay, seen in entry's 5 to 10. I've actually already shown two of my favorite areas of this city already, those being Spaghetti Junction & the Hillsboro Transmission Substation, but there is more to the city than just two places. This entry will focus on the downtown area and the nearby Kalahari Peak. As with the first entry on neighboring Cisco Bay, this update will only...
TakemeThere
Ever thought about working on the railway? If so this entry is for you! This entry detailed one specific but very important facet of the job - the switching of rail cars. CJ entries from time to time be go beyond the bounds of SC4, mostly through the use photoshopping. This is my way of going beyond the bounds of SC4, by using real life information and stands as one of the most informative entry I have made, with that said lets us begin! The objective here is to switch out the Eastgate Intermodal...
TakemeThere
Mayfield is one of those extra little towns I made at the edge of the regional map. It's a little more dense, but not as scenic as its northern neighbor Gravenhurst(Entry 11 & 12). City Hall & the Mayfield "Welcome sign" I meant to put this entry up last week but I spent most of my spare time working on one of my three major projects - the street map project. I've almost completed mapping the Middle East borough, which comprises a total area of 24sq/km, 13sq/km of which is developed. The other two major...
TakemeThere
This entry is divided up into 7 sections; Mosaics Close-ups Before & Afters General Info Real World Comparisons User Guide Interchange-wide Pano's I've merged the previous entry with this one, its better having it all together in one entry. Without further delay, here she is; The core section Stats Highway entrance lanes - 24 (3rd of 9) Highway lanes central section - 29 (3rd of 9) Bridge Structures - 10 (2nd of 9) Total Crossings(time a highway ramp crosses another) - 30 (2nd of 9) Tunnels - 1 (T5th of 9)...
TakemeThere
First off few little mosaics of this quaint little town before we hit the road. long angle of the west bank: wide angle of the west bank: wide angle of the east bank: City wide pano: long pano; Now for the spaghetti... By that I'm referring to Spaghetti Junction one of the 3 largest highway interchanges in the region. This interchange is located in Lindin city which is just north of the city of Cisco Bay and west of Gravenhurst. After numerous delays the interchange has finally been completed. But I...
TakemeThere
There's some big infrastructure projects that I'm just about ready to present, but before that here's an extensive look at the Trueno river as it winds its way through Gravenhurst, a suburban area of the Middle East borough of Pretoria. Gravenhurst highlighted in red: Overview: The opposite angle: The idea with having white rocks on one side and not on the other is that the rock wall was constructed higher there for added protection since that's where the city is so not all the rocks get covered in algae...
TakemeThere

Entry no.1 - Intro

By TakemeThere,

As some of you may know I already have a CJ for this region in the forums. I was hesitant at first to use the CJ section since I wasn't sure if it would be as user friendly as the more traditional forum section. But I think its time I went with the times seeing as how the CJ section is the more active place for CJ's. I'm not sure yet if I'll maintain both journals, but this one will be less involved, that is over descriptive. The primary focus of the other CJ is the 'M Project' - short for the...
TakemeThere
Continuing on from where I left off last time, City overview: A - Broadcast Hill B - The Trueno River & related tunnels C - Guardians Gate Bridge D - Port of Isuzu, Supra River & Isuzu (Rail)Jct. E - Highway 709/Astel Rd. Interchange F - Kewston(neighborhood) G - Highway 709/Malkin Blvd. Interchange H - Cagalli (Rail)Jct. I - Downtown J - Highway 709/Crosby Ave. Interchange K - O'Leary Peak L - Fastraxx Cisco Bay M - Highway 700/709 Interchange N - Cisco Bay Beach O - Highway 700/Malkin Blvd. Interchange P...
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