Cabin Creek Railroad

[Toripony]

I've been debating whether or not to actually release information on the route that I've been working on for the past month or so, mainly because I have ADD, and I get distracted with shiny things.

There's little progress on The Creek this week, mainly because I had an operation on Tuesday,

Hey, "don' worry'bout it"... I know for a fact you are not the only one here with some issues and health ups & downs. I won't bore you with my list.
Routebuilding is a lo-o-o-n-g process; some weeks my head is just not in it; sometimes I go maniac and work for 3 straight days with barely any sleep! I think it comes with the artistic streak in us. I know painters, crafters, musicians who are all the same way.
The two most important things are to keep it fun and stay involved with the community. For me, at least, reading and posting here daily keeps me from getting TOO sidetracked by the shiny things (well, most of the time, lol) and reminds me that this is a hobby... it's supposed to feel like fun, not work. Enjoy the peace... stay relaxed.

Get well soon,
Tori

[Shortliner]

Time for my weekly update on The Creek. The route finally has another town and soon, an industry siding. I am now able to drive between Northwood and Tabor Park. Northwood houses the CSX interchange yard and Tabor Park houses a Gravel Pit. Thanks to Golden Age of Railroading gondola, you actually can load gravel up with the default coal loader. So this will allow longer scenarios because now the engineer will be able to depart Cabin Creek Yard, take the gondolas down to Tabor Park, fill them up and then bring them back to Cabin Creek. One of my goals for this route is to have as much interactive industries as I can, so that the driving experience feels more real.

The route as it stands now



I also worked on the design for the CCR locomotive and logo, and this is what I have come up with. If anyone has suggestion, please feel free to voice them and I'll take them under consideration!



Now for some screenshots. I tested the longest and heaviest train on the route, 2 GP38-2, 30 double stack cars, and one SD-40 helper, enjoy!

Departing Northwood.




Charging up the steep incline.



All three engines are running at notch 8 on the 3-4% grade.



Finally reaching the apex of the steep incline.





At the Tabor Park passing loop, which is long enough to accommodate this train.



Well, that's all I have for this week! Hope you enjoyed the update!

[Toripony]

In the COA beta4 Assets 2of2 pak there is a default coal loader we refitted with a JBF's gravel dispenser. It gives you the right graphic (white dust) when loading.

[jpetersjr]

Keep a eye on the file library because I have some city apartments coming the way of the route builders. Just uploaded one to the file library, can expect that it will come available tomorrow morning.


Sincerely jpetersjr


I tried route building, but I'm terrible in that, so I'll stick to asset modeling.

[skoda43531]

I cant wait too, I always wanted a shortline with coal mine
BTW i would love to see a battle hardened(very dirty) GP9 in your paintscheme.

[Shortliner]

I cant wait too, I always wanted a shortline with coal mine
BTW i would love to see a battle hardened(very dirty) GP9 in your paintscheme.

You know, I actually have thought about replacing the SD40-2 with the RSC GP-9 for the helper locomotive. :)

[arizonachris]

Nice shots. What is it about those MARC's I like that livery. I mean, I really like that one. Nice!

[dogmouse]

I think your Marc's look great, too! Please share with us on your progress!

Rich

[Shortliner]

Well to be fair, the Marc repaints aren't mine, they came with the GP38-2 package offer by Jointed Rails.

[shicoe30]

very cool, looking forward to this, although CCR will always mean Creedence Clearwater Revival to me, I guess I can make room for another CCR

[Shortliner]

So just a quick update. The route now has a river (Hey, can't be called Cabin Creek RR without a creek eh?), that runs alongside the track at the first portion of the route. The route also has it's first town, Northwood. Northwood is a small mountain town that has a depot that local businesses use to get freight in and out of the area. Cabin Creek Railroad services many small mountain towns like Northwood.

I don't have any screenshot right now, but do plan to post some at a later date. After I get finished up with Northwood and the river, I plan to build the town Tabor Park, put in the gravel pit (and the tracks for the gravel pit) and then push northward with the track laying.

Progress has been slow because I'm in the pet boarding, pet daycare business, and everyone is on vacation right now, so it's a busy time of the year for me. However, I am slowly but surely working on the route.

[Shortliner]

So, just to let everyone know that I haven't abandoned this project. I just had to wait for a bit till I can get a new computer. Well, I now have my new computer, and I'm back in the saddle.

Speaking of saddles, I wanted to try the trains up against the 3-4% grade with the RW3 upgrade, and the trains actually perform better on the grade now that each locomotive is pulling their own weight. However, there's another problem.



I don't think coal cars are suppose to lean over that far.

The whole train tipped over on this route with the double stacks. So I have some options, either find a way to make the turns wider, or put in some superelevation on the turns. I thought slowing the train down from 35mph would work, but this was done at 25mph, so speed isn't the answer. I'm alittle weary about using superelevation, mainly because I haven't really seen any shortline that uses them, but maybe I'm wrong.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

Wow, that looks scary! That happened at 25 mph? This looks like a pretty sharp curve in the screenshot (though that might also be caused by RW's wide angle cameras), maybe you need to go down to 15 mph. You can now easily counter the "boredom" of slow speed track sections by increasing their bumpiness. Use, for example, set varying track bump values between 20 and 50 and you'll have quite a ride at 15 mph.


BTW, You should try running some loaded hoppers over a set of crossovers at high speed and then see what happens. Last night I came down the grade at Monument on the Castle Rock, didn't slow down in time and hit the crossover into the yard at 25+ mph, (didn't derail), but the cars just violently swerved from side to side. Quite a thing to see, but I was happy it only happened with pixels and polygons and not actual steel parts.

By the way, it's great to see you are still working on your route!


Michael