Donner Pass - UP era

[dtrainBNSF1]

To ensure that the grades really are accurate, I've begun downloading terrain data. I'm not sure if I trust RSC's land shapes or not. I'll see if I can override any terrain data that may be there already (if it even exists). If I can't override the terrain data or if there is no terrain data there at all what may end up happening in the end is taking the terrain data, just starting a whole new route using Donner Pass' ground textures (which should have the appropriate lat/long saved anyway along with route markers), importing the data, and then just completely rebuilding the route from the ground up using assets from the original Donner Pass, RCAP, Horseshoe Curve, Scale Rail, and Scale Road.

Should I need to completely rebuild the route, my plan of attack is to rebuild the route like a modular railroad. I'll load in a chunk of terrain data, lay the track, lay the road, place any needed track infrastructure (signals, crossings, etc.) then lay down scenery. Somewhere in there I should address ground textures. After I finish that chunk, I'll load in another chunk, and so on and so forth. It'll take a long time, but I believe that it'll be worth it.

What do you think, guys? Have I lost my mind?

[PapaXpress]

Yup.

You should look at the work Eric has done and extend from that.

[gtrtroger]

I believe your original plan to update Davis Yard and the surrounding area to its pre-1999 state is a better and more achievable plan than trying to tunnel your way into and out of Reno.

[Ericmopar]

This. DaveDewhurst was working on it, but haven't heard about it since.
He said in one of his last posts that the assets would be available to anyone that wanted to work on a Reno Trench.

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=7209&hilit=reno+trench

Eric.

[dtrainBNSF1]

I believe your original plan to update Davis Yard and the surrounding area to its pre-1999 state is a better and more achievable plan than trying to tunnel your way into and out of Reno.

I'm trying to update the route to post-1999 after the UP-SP merger, to the way it is today, and part of that process of updating the route to its modern state will be tunneling under Reno, NV. In theory it's not so difficult, just very time consuming.

This. DaveDewhurst was working on it, but haven't heard about it since.
He said in one of his last posts that the assets would be available to anyone that wanted to work on a Reno Trench.

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=7209&hilit=reno+trench

Eric.

I'll have to take a look at it. Any help at all would be welcome.

And wouldn't you know it just when I'm getting ready to find some hgt files Matt Peddlesden releases a tutorial on YouTube/Twitch all about how to go about it. I'm legitimately excited now

[dtrainBNSF1]

So I've sent DaveDewhurst a PM asking for permission to use his assets from the Reno Trench he'd been working on, I've downloaded all the hgt. files for Donner Pass and I've cloned Donner Pass again and removed the Network and Scenery files so that all that's left are the textures that came with the route. Just today while doing my laundry at the laundromat I loaded all the new terrain data into my cloned route.

After seeing how much the shape of the land changed, I've begun to appreciate how big of a task this is going to be. I'm not backing down by any means. It's just sinking in just how long of a rebuild it's going to be, but loading all the terrain data this morning made me think about how to go about this from a different angle than before, and I've begun to understand why the folks at then-RSC did the things they did when building the route. Still this rebuild is a go

Eric, would you allow me to use the texture update you've released for Donner Pass in this project? It looks a lot better than what was already included with the route, the textures are the current textures for the route in real life (as far as I can tell after seeing satellite images and video of the east part of the route) and obviously it would shave off plenty of time in the end; all I'd need to re texture is the portion of the route from Roseville to Emigrant Gap (a lot less than Roseville-Sparks).

Not long ago I mentioned my intention to extend the line to Vista as it is the eastern terminal/yard/whatever-you-want-to-call-it for Union Pacific's Roseville sub, the idea being that the complete subdivision would be represented and Vista isn't all that far away from Sparks so why not? But then I got to thinking: Isn't Sparks a crew change point? So would there even be a point of extending the line to Vista? I'd like your guys' on this one. Should I go ahead and extend to Vista as intended or should I just end the route at Sparks?

[Ericmopar]

You can use my Donner Scenery Upgrade, but I'm still working on phase 2. I've gotten from Emigrant Gap to the Balloon Loop.
I'm planning on going at least as far as Colfax with terrain painting and after that I might continue to Roseville to plant down and tilt flora.
If you change any terrain data, my upgrade wouldn't really work since the scrub, trees etc won't follow the terrain changes.
I've seen evidence of that when in the editor. You'll see past buried assets below ground level on occasion.

I've also touched up some stuff I missed when I released it.
It amazes me how many times you can drive something like that and still miss things.

[imnew]

I'm planning on going at least as far as Colfax with terrain painting and after that I might continue to Roseville to plant down and tilt flora.

Please do mr Eric!

dtrainBNSF1 , good luck on your project.

[dtrainBNSF1]

dtrainBNSF1 , good luck on your project.

Appreciated imnew. I'll need it

[dtrainBNSF1]

Time to update things again since it's been a while.

Work progresses. I'm going over the grade profile of the original Donner Pass with a fine-toothed comb and comparing it with the chart that I have for Donner Pass. Actually more or less between Rocklin and New Castle the profile is correct. Between New Castle and Colfax seems to be okay, coming out of Colfax looks good. Between Colfax and Gold Run there are several "stair step" areas where the track goes from a 2%+ grade to 0%. Comparing their locations with the track chart these also look okay. Approaching and leaving these sections seems a bit too abrupt/extreme, so I'll have to smooth those sections out. I'll be going from Gold Run to Emigrant Gap to see if the grade's correct there. One place that does concern me, however, is the section between Truckee and Norden. This section also has some "stair steps", but I don't see those on the chart. The chart shows that it's not a steady climb up there with a few bumps in the line here and there, but it doesn't indicate any area of just flat track between Truckee and Norden.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, if you've downloaded my collection of timetables I submitted to the library a while back, open up the UP+TT+Roseville_5,082409.pdf and turn to page 38 and look at the grade chart on the right-hand side of the page and look between Norden and Truckee.

Thinking 3 steps ahead of myself, at Reno does anyone know if UP rebuilt the track to go under Reno (indicating a grade change) or did the City of Reno build itself up over the tracks?

[dtrainBNSF1]

Time for a long-overdue update.

The project is not dead - it's actually making progress quite nicely considering

After comparing the grade profile in-game with the grade profile provided from Union Pacific, there do not appear to be many significant "glaring" issues with the grade profile. For sections where the grade seems to be abrupt (like outside Cape Horn) I'll go ahead and smooth out. Besides smoothing out some sections, don't expect many major grade changes.

The pass now has two sections of single-tract territory: between switch 9 (basically Emigrant Gap) and Shed 10 (I think that used to be Crystal Lake) then between East Norden on main track 2 down to shed 47 on the other side of the tunnel. These sections have been set up and all the signals seem to work properly. Trackside snow has also been added to these single track sections. The screenshots will show you how the single track sections work out (and this is confirmed by images on google earth):

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.29696--120.67296_12-01-27.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.29835--120.67232_12-01-55.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.30010--120.67041_12-02-45.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.32526--120.59509_12-13-18.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.31402--120.56228_12-18-34.jpg

[dtrainBNSF1]

Now for the section of single track at Norden:

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.31479--120.34882_12-03-42.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.31570--120.34972_12-03-42.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.30828--120.33186_12-06-18.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.30008--120.29807_12-10-58.jpg

Screenshot_Donner Pass Union Pacific Era_39.31169--120.26923_12-15-39.jpg

[ssbobz]

Nice!

Both Donner and Cajon Passes getting the modern treatment, I like it a lot.

[dtrainBNSF1]

Just this morning I converted several existing cross overs from automatic control to manual control as per the UP Roseville timetable:

Emigrant Gap, Eastward main track 1 to main track 2
Fulda (to balloon track off main track 1)
Midas, Eastward Main track to main track 2
Towle (I'm guessing this is the equivalent of Alta as the location and crossover seem to match up) eastward track 1 to track 2
Gold Run, universal (the full cross over is now manually operated)
Colfax, universal (the cross just to the west of the yard is now manually operated)

I also removed some crossovers from the original route as they don't appear in UP's schematic for the subdivision.

There are also crossovers at Lawton and Floriston that are supposed to be manually operated, but I have to check on their locations on google earth before implementing them.

The next projects are checking to see if the sidings at Gold Run and Truckee are long enough - Gold Run's siding is supposed to be 6400 feet long and Truckee's North siding is supposed to be 5190 feet long with the South siding being 6023 feet long. The it'll be time to extend the platform at Colfax, build the station at Auburn, finish construction of the rest of J.R.Davis yard, and tackle the Reno trench. I'll have to see if Sparks needs to be restructured as well.

[dtrainBNSF1]

I've decided to release 2 versions of the route: one version will be released on the Steam Workshop using default assets. Another version will be released here at RWA afterwards using the freeware versions of 3DTrains' SP ScaleRail with wooden ties as well as assets from the latest release of the RCAP project to sparkle things up a bit.

I should also mention that the route is being built using the final version of EricMopar's scenery upgrade for Donner Pass, so credit goes to him for the scenery objects, land shapes, and ground textures. I'm just tweaking the track infrastructure and adding a few things here and there as needed.