Railworks America

Here's a new wip I'm finally getting finished up. I think I've pretty much solved my Maya to RW work flow issues since I've had a stripped down version rolling in game.

For anyone that is not familiar with it, it is a ex Southern Locotrol receiver car for mid train operations. The cars were built, in the mid to late 60s, to house Locotrol receiver equipment instead of crowding the electronics in the locomotives. Certain locomotives housed the transmitting equipment and were designated as masters. These locomotives were differentiated by the use of black numbers on a white number board as opposed to Southern's usual practice of white on black number boards. You could also spot a master by noting that the nose number boards actually extended from the nose a bit instead of being flush. This was due to the Locotrol equipment in the nose which left no room for the number board bulbs.

Also on a side note, the Southern and later NS exclusively used EMD units for mid train operations up until the late 80s. Prior to that it was said that all GEs were restricted from mid train operations. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that their slow throttle response/loading was exacerbated even more by the radio equipment which might lead to problems?

Weren't the Canadian roads also dedicated users of Locotrol boxcars instead of fixed slave units, saying it allowed them more flexibility in assigning DPU's?
Perhaps then a CN/CP paint scheme would also be much appreciated., plus perhaps some clearly visibile marking that this ins't just an ordinary boxcar but a Locotrol slave car.

You could be right about those early GE's. Due to their slow loading they were also prone to exhaust stack fires, something you probably don't want in a mid-train slave unit.

I wonder how the Locotrol worked in long tunnels. What was the frequency and transmission type used? Was it like PRR's inductive train phone, i.e. using the rails and code lines as propagators of the control command signals? Or was it all wireless, then bear in mind that VHF/UHF signals best carry linear and are therefor less desirable in curved, narrow valleys and tunnels. Saying mid sixties probably means analogue or crude digital computers using some form of packet transmission in an endless send/receive/acknowledge loop.

The whole of the mid sixties Apollo moon rocket used as much computing power as in one of your pocket calculators or simple mobile phone. Controlling a train is perhaps less daunting, but safety is still of paramount concern. A typical unit has 8 notches, so needs 4 bits to control it. If you want to control mid train braking you need a couple more bits. If you want a control readout of your mid-train slave units, you need a return signal as well.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:Weren't the Canadian roads also dedicated users of Locotrol boxcars instead of fixed slave units, saying it allowed them more flexibility in assigning DPU's?
Perhaps then a CN/CP paint scheme would also be much appreciated., plus perhaps some clearly visibile marking that this ins't just an ordinary boxcar but a Locotrol slave car.

You could be right about those early GE's. Due to their slow loading they were also prone to exhaust stack fires, something you probably don't want in a mid-train slave unit.

I wonder how the Locotrol worked in long tunnels. What was the frequency and transmission type used? Was it like PRR's inductive train phone, i.e. using the rails and code lines as propagators of the control command signals? Or was it all wireless, then bear in mind that VHF/UHF signals best carry linear and are therefor less desirable in curved, narrow valleys and tunnels. Saying mid sixties probably means analogue or crude digital computers using some form of packet transmission in an endless send/receive/acknowledge loop.

The whole of the mid sixties Apollo moon rocket used as much computing power as in one of your pocket calculators or simple mobile phone. Controlling a train is perhaps less daunting, but safety is still of paramount concern. A typical unit has 8 notches, so needs 4 bits to control it. If you want to control mid train braking you need a couple more bits. If you want a control readout of your mid-train slave units, you need a return signal as well.

You're right! Supposedly Canadian Pacific did use slave cars. I think the Canadian cars were home built and different in appearance from the Southern ones. I've actually never seen a picture of a Canadian receiver car.

As far as the how the system worked, it was wireless. The receiver cars carried 3 firecracker antennas and the masters carried two on the short hood. For tunnels or other issues where the signal dropped, the slaves would maintain their last setting for something like 90 seconds before cutting out. As a safety feature they would also cut out if there was a certain reduction in brake pipe pressure. I think its quite similar to the current system's safety features.

From what I've read, the Southern's 'radio' trains were known to be a real headache. When it worked, it was awesome, when it didnt it was a huge pain in the butt. Anyway, I thought these would be nice for SMM's NS route. I'm not sure if they were ever used between Atlanta and Chatt but I do know they were used north of Chatt in the Rathole. So I'm going to take a little modelers license and run them south!

An interesting story I've heard was that there was a slave consist cut out and sitting in the yard in Ashville, NC. A master unit proceeded to enter the yard and was supposedly previously set up for the particular slave set in the yard. Needless to say the radio car and its accompanying locomotives took off in response to the master and I guess you could say, tore up a few things.

Here's another look at the car prior to going into the game. A lot has changed since this version and I still have corrections to make to a few areas. Since it seems like I've got part of this process figured out, I'm going to start back on my GEs. One of the other loco's I have roughed out, in addition to the U18B and U36B, is a high hood B36-7 for Southern which a few were master units.

what are u using for your render?

eyein12 wrote:what are u using for your render?

Render setup is Mental Ray with global illumination and final gather. Two point lighting and ground plane with background shader.

Looks very good, rendered.

One final question concerning your model: this was no ordinary boxcar but a special purpose built car with those end doors?
A rebuilt boxcar would have had a clearly visible patch in the sides were the doors were. Your car even has a line of rivets showing the internal ribs are unbroken along the whole side.

That Locotrol looks like sort of a harebrained solution, cutting out after a certain time. That makes it less than usefull in mountaineuous territory where trains go through tunnels.
Anyway, those are only prototype concerns, like you said we can model what we want, like we want, and operate as we want.

Hopefully you can bring your car into the game straight from your program as I am unware of TS2012 exporters.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:Looks very good, rendered.

One final question concerning your model: this was no ordinary boxcar but a special purpose built car with those end doors?
A rebuilt boxcar would have had a clearly visible patch in the sides were the doors were. Your car even has a line of rivets showing the internal ribs are unbroken along the whole side.

That Locotrol looks like sort of a harebrained solution, cutting out after a certain time. That makes it less than usefull in mountaineuous territory where trains go through tunnels.
Anyway, those are only prototype concerns, like you said we can model what we want, like we want, and operate as we want.

Hopefully you can bring your car into the game straight from your program as I am unware of TS2012 exporters.

Thanks! Yes these particular cars were made by a builder (cant remember the name) specifically for the Southern. They are smooth side, no rivets. What you see, from what I can tell in photos, is some kind of very faint ridge/rib in the side that dirt and grime seemed to collect on as well as the white roof paint running down. I've seen other images of the cars where they dont show up nearly as much depending on the weathering and camera angle. I just added them as a faint normal map. If you look at some of the resin kits that were available for these cars, the ribs are really exaggerated. Anyway, they had a door on each end and all accounts say they were pretty much empty except for a few racks for the radio equipment. The floors were poured concrete for ballast.



A list of all the master units...



As far as getting it in game, I've started using 3DS Max as a go between with Maya and Railworks. It seems like a win win as I can finally get things in game and learn another modeling package on the side.

That's an interesting roster page.

Even lowly GP7 and GP9's were master units, and a lot of other smaller 4 axle power too.
One would think Locotrol was reserved for the biggest and heaviest mainline power, like those SD45's and U36C's. The Locotrol equipment probably moved with the generations, being taken out of the older units and installed in the newest and most reliable units available.

Man, would I like to have a roster of those high hood Southern diesels!

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:That's an interesting roster page.

Even lowly GP7 and GP9's were master units, and a lot of other smaller 4 axle power too.
One would think Locotrol was reserved for the biggest and heaviest mainline power, like those SD45's and U36C's. The Locotrol equipment probably moved with the generations, being taken out of the older units and installed in the newest and most reliable units available.

Man, would I like to have a roster of those high hood Southern diesels!

You're exactly right! The equipment was moved around between units. I think the very last move was from retired SD45s to the SD60s masters. That particular roster doesn't list the post Southern SD60s so I'm not sure how many were equipped for masters setup but there are a few videos on Youtube of 2 SD60s head end, with a radio car and SD60 mid train. The reason for the GP locotrol equipped masters was for coal branch service where weight and curve/turnout radius restricted six axle power. I've seen pics of 4 GP38ac mid-train with a radio car, in coal service.

Great looking car, Jim! Interesting info, as well. Thanks for sharing.

~R

Excellent work...how about a Southern Ry. version?

@dogmouse - Thanks!! Southern's radio operations have always intrigued me.

@harryadkins - Thanks for the compliment! You bet on the Southern version! I already have my color swatches and font set up.

SCLJim wrote:

are you a trainlife member ?

No, actually I've never heard of it until I found the article on their website.

Ah , OK then , lots of good info & things there , if you're looking for something Sou that ran in NS paint , try this > http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/mode ... ruary-2003 < page 26 , makes a really neat model .