ComradeTaco

@ avrelivs  They can be found here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=13258                      and here :https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=13364. Thanks for commenting! @haydon Thanks! @ja/att Thanks! Really, you just have to break up the grid with geographic features like rivers and hills. Large multi block parks and embankments can really give a city character. Also, don't just provide neighborhoods with just jobs/power/health/education/water , think of their religious, transport and shopping needs. (Of course sims in game do not actually shop,  do any more movement than to work and back, and have some sort of odd church that everyone belongs to 0_o) Than you can create really realistic neighborhoods! @Schulmanator :Thanks! @Zulu: Don't worry, the preservation society is hard at work in New Little Odessa :) @Benedict: Thanks man! @Aaron Graham: Thanks! @Monday Rain: I will be introducing new characters and will do a bit better identifying characters in screenshots with the next update. Thanks!

Wilks "Willy" St. Jaques, the soon to be dispatcher for the C&O on its shelbyville branch, was greeted to the glorious morning sun from his two- floor home right next to the John F. Kennedy Industrial Park. After gathering together his lunchbox, keys and his wifes home baked cookies. His car is the blue 1955 Chevy approaching a stop sign on the T intersection closet to the shore. Eventually, he reaches the freeway and braces himself for the city. "Mmmmmmm....Wendy's......" is the first coherent thought to come upon this morning! He makes a quick stop at pine tree plaza just to get a little something for his son after daddy's promotion. A short ride later, hes at Suburban station, and already waiting for his train. But this isn't going to be another boring commute. Oh no, this time hes going to drive the locomotive, although without an engineer or cars. With his former expertise as an engineer with the C&O on its commuter division, he requested to be moved to a more peaceful part of the railway. With this, is a promotion to a Dispatcher, and as the C&O believes, a dispatcher must know the territory he's dispatching in. So they've given him an Rs-2 to deadhead back to Shelbyville and more than enough time explore portions of the route on foot! Shes a bit difficult at first, but Willy knows machines... ...and soon they're highballing out! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Slowly traveling through the portions of the line completely surrounded by wilderness, Willy noticed a small trail jetting off the tracks...with so much time on his hands, he decided to investigate. There, he found a town completely abandoned. Looks like a mining camp...but these houses...they're in near perfect condition! All these trees...they're all dead...even weeds won't grow... A bit spooked Willy went back to his cab and proceeded cautiously down the line... and noticed another abnormality... Unmarked construction equipment...abandoned...looks like they were going to dig something up too... Determined to know what was going on, he found a path leading to some sort of granite mine. Although it looks abandoned, tire marks and foot prints are everywhere. Looking for a better view, Willy climbed to the top of the granite mine... Than everything went blank. Thanks for reading! Comment in the section below!

The old embankment.

Comments (Pretty response graphic coming soon!) @K50dude I'll try to improving spacings as I expand my LRT network. Thanks for the advice. @Adrianor  Good adivce! My 5th 800x600 pixels in all its glory. @the00guvna Thanks! @spursrule14 Thanks! @Higu Often, I've found that a lot of light rail systems built upon old freight lines are pretty tight with the housing. Usually developers and residents try to push back the right of way without inspiring the wrath of the railroad, which usually never comes unless its fairly active. In this case, the line was more or less dead by the sixties, only reawakened after forty years of slowly encroaching suburbia.

"If you follow the suburban fashion in building a sumptuous- looking house for a little money, it will appear to all eyes as a cheap, dear house."-Ralph Waldo Emerson The words of Emerson ring true today within New Odessa, as can be scene with the beauty of Clayhurst university corrupted by the bland monotonous suburbs. Cars pass below the old railroad embankment, which is still in use today. Washington memorial park with its open grass spaces and lovely brick walkways makes it an excellent spot for young lovers. DB Intercity Express speeds by at over 120mph! Thank goodness for the embankment, otherwise, there would have been a lot of lost motorists. People need to buy their crap somewhere... Please comment on the section below! Thanks for viewing!

My transit map, based upon the MBTA's.

Here a LRV pair speeds towards the edge of the suburbs. Another LRV pulls out to transport another batch of commuters off to the sterile office buildings of the Financial District. In a city that never stands still, another train coasts into the beautiful Victorian Jamaica Plain station. DB Express 2056 speeds through South Minister station in cross-town service. A rare moment of peace at Diamond Zebra. Finally, the B32 slows for a stop sign in the Industrial Quarter. Even through the rain, the trains do not stop.

I would also like to say that many recent mass transit lines make use of abandoned rail ROW. Try to put in rail lines that would be used a through ways for traffic from neighboring cities. As your ever-growing city swallows up what was formerly rural land, reroute freight and intercity lines either around the newly formed neighborhoods, or onto another track. Uproot the rails, than start piecing together a light rail/bus route using the lovely light rail puzzle pieces in the NAM and the car blocker lots also in STEX. Connect the new line(s) to whatever preexisting network you have.

 Thanks so much for the advice JGellock!  Starcraft II has slowed down my updates a bit ;)  And I think my city is heading towards a decay phase....

I intended for them to be that large. Of course if Im breaking any rules by doing so, ill gladly change them.

These are just some preview pics for my city, New Little Odessa.

 @clhigh7 Thanks man!  @IssacOzzman I believe that all the pictures aside from the last one are of acceptable size,but I may be wrong

One of my newest suburbs.

I downloaded the latest NAM several days ago and every feature seems to work fine except the GLR. Sometimes I am able to place 2-3 GLR rail blocks,but than the game crashes and goes back to my start page. I'm running Windows Vista and running simcity in compatablity mod for service pack 2.

Thanks for the advice guys, following those steps I'm finally able to enjoy the GLR mod.