Back To The Darkside

[haverfordwest]

Front cab end looks very strange to me Bruce. But there again i think a lot of modern loco designs. Are different just for the sake of it. The CM's obviously do not take in to account aerodynamics. But that maybe because they are used on low speed services.

I have mine running on the Main South buddy.

Mike.

[seagoon]

Front cab end looks very strange to me Bruce. But there again i think a lot of modern loco designs. Are different just for the sake of it. The CM's obviously do not take in to account aerodynamics....

Yeah....you're probably correct there, Mike. But the crew would certainly have an excellent all-round view with the size of the windows!

It's interesting that the engine blocks are cast in Germany, shipped to England for assembly and then shipped to Boise, Idaho, for installation into the locomotive.

[haverfordwest]

Yes good visibility Bruce, windows remind me of the Class 52 and Class 66.

That is engine block insanity, buddy. What a crazy way of doing things

Mike.

[SurvivorSean]

I don't have Run8 box cars and I certainly don't own all the packs. It takes time but you can build a very realistic situation in single player or with a few in MP if you want to get there a bit faster. For example I don't have the woodchip cars yet but I want to get them. It simply will not call those woodchips or you can filter out certain cars as well. The included scenerios to me are just an example. You can run it any ways you want.

As for Trainz my son still enjoys it to this day as I bought Trainz2019 2 copies for both of us. He is more of the creative type as he loves building routes. Not sure how many hours he has but it's likely over 1000 by now with serveral projects. The issue comes down to the operations beyond the nice loading and unloading features. The AI WAS better than Run8 in V2, but V3 Run8 is now ahead with the exception of AI switching to some extent. Still something I grew tired of prettier graphics or not.

Thanks

Sean

[haverfordwest]

Pilbara Iron Ore route, developed from Robe River and vastly extended.



















Mike.

[haverfordwest]

UPDATED TO VERSION 2 TO REMOVE NON-DLS ASSETS.

Like many Trainzers who date back a bit, I cut my teeth in Trainz on the old Robe River Iron route that shipped with early versions of Trainz. DSEPR02 Pilbara Iron is my long-planned successor to Robe River. Whether it is good enough to achieve this goal I will leave to others to decide. Though Robe River was an amazing route in it's time, advances in Trainz itself and additional 3rd party tools make much more realistic routes possible, and these advances have been utilised for Pilbara Iron. The route was constructed in TANE SP2 ver 4.5 build 94916, and took roughly 2 years from inception to completion. About a year of this was actual construction in Surveyor once the terrain was built and textured, and research done.

SIMPLE ROUTE DESCRIPTION
This route models at full scale the entire Pilbara Iron mainline from the coast at Dampier south through Western Creek Junction, Rosella Junction, and onward to mines at Mount Tom Price and Paraburdoo. Recent aerial imagery has been used to ensure that the trackage is as accurate to it's 2019 configuration as possible.
Downloading the session named DSEPR02 Pilbara Iron Basic Session from the DLS will provide suitable motive power and wagons in their starting positions. I couldn't quite manage to exactly reproduce the 33000 ton prototype trains, but my Trainz versions are a fairly good analogue. They are certainly challenging to handle in CAB Mode if you don't mind such a challenge. Otherwise the AI schedules provided in the Basic Session can be used to direct the AI Drivers to do the driving for you. AI ore trains will also generate once every two hours near Western Junction and drive the doubletracked section of mainline to Rosella Junction then return. These trains are as long as the operations trains and can be demanding on computer resources. You can deactivate these AI trains by editing the session in Surveyor in the usual manner.
Downloading the session named DSEPR02 Pilbara Iron Schedule Demo will provide a means of observing most of the normal flows and activities of iron ore trains on the route, using the AI Driver schedules provided in the Basic Session. The AI ore trains are disabled in this session.

DETAILED ROUTE DESCRIPTION
This route was built with operation in mind, so for those fellow Trainzers who enjoy operations, here is a text based pseudomap of the route, from north to south.

Dampier ports with 3 ore dumpers.
---------------13km dual trackage across the Dampier Causeway
7Mile Yard complex
---------------56km single track with 3 sidings
Western Creek Junction, now a complex intersection with the old Robe River trackage
---------------167km dual trackage with multiple sidings and crossovers
Rosella Junction, unmodelled lines from mines to the East and West join the mainline here
---------------26km single track with no sidings
Wombat Junction and Mt Tom Price township. Mount Tom Price ore mine and it's twin loaders is just west of here on a short branchline
---------------steep 100km single track with 3 sidings. Ore trains require pushers northbound.
Paraburdoo Mine with 1 loader and a pusher locomotive base


TRACKAGE TYPE USED
Standard TANE procedural track with concrete sleepers has been used for most trackage on the route.

SUPERELEVATION
Fully implemented along the entire route. I based the SE calculations on the speed that a loaded ore train could attain during test runs on every curve on the route. On curves where a low speed is expected I used the equilibrium SE figure, but on higher speed curves I used the modified figure as per standard practice on real railways. Maximum SE angle employed was 0.089 radians, which equates to rougly 5.1 degrees of track cant. Only in a few places along the line did the SE approach this limit. The overall effect of this approach to SE produced a noticeable but not unrealistic end result.

GRADIENTS AND PUSHER SERVICES
The general ruling grade facing loaded ore trains on the Pilbara Iron network is 0.33 percent. There is an exception to this along the 95 km climb northbound from Paraburdoo to the line summit just south of Wombat Junction. This part of the line has a ruling grade of 0.42 percent, meaning that this section of line is a modern-day pusher district. Locos for this purpose are kept at Paraburdoo and push the ore trains to the line summit before returning to base. For southbound empty trains the ruling gradient is 2.0 percent which can be found along a 10km stretch which climbs the Chichester Range south of Western Creek Junction. It makes for a nervous descent in a loaded ore train if you are using Cab mode!
I was able to construct the Trainz version of this route while adhering to these prototypical ruling gradients. It wasn't easy in places, but I got it done. Vertically, the lowest point of the line is 8m above sea level, while the summit is at 751m.

TRACK CONDITION
This is a very well maintained railroad, so track condition has been set to 100% for all trackage that is in regular use.

SIGNALLING
The real railroad incorporates in-cab signalling and now robotic trains, but also uses visible aspect signals where required. So I used a similiar mixed strategy in the Trainz version of the route. All open mainlines have invisible signals with a marking board. These signals can be seen ahead by use of the mc display custom HUD rule which simulates an in-cab display.
Around yards or facilities or junctions, visible aspect signals of various types are used. Some theatre style indications are used at several locations, mainly to ease driving operations.
As a general rule, signalling has been arranged to facilitate smooth AI Driver or User operation, rather than attempting to be purely prototypical.

TRACKMARKS AND CAMERAS
All locations along the route have trackmarks added to the degree necessary to facilitate smooth AI Schedule operation and the use of most areas of the trackwork using Driver commands. Cameras have been added at reasonable intervals along the entire length of the mainline and facilities.

LEVEL CROSSINGS
Level crossing equipment of the TRC type are in use. The American style of TRC asset are fairly close analogues to the equipment often used in Australia so that was good enough for the author. These seem to work as intended in testing. I used the simple logic setup specified in the TRC asset instructions I found online.

SCENERY AND TERRAIN
The arid Pilbara region, though spectacular in real life, doesn't automatically translate into a spectacular route in Trainz. With this in mind, I generated the terrain out to a considerable distance from the trackage. Four baseboards either side of the one the track is on were generated so hills in the distance can be seen from the cabin. I also built as much lineside detail as I could in the allotted construction time, in order make it somewhat interesting for those drivers prepared to undertake a 5 hour mainline drive without appointing AI Drivers to mitigate their boredom.

MIND THE YOWIE
There is a yowie to be found on this route, somewhere. For non Australian readers, a yowie is the aussie version of the BigFoot or Yeti. Most sitings of this creature occur in a region of Australia that is also known for having the most marijuana crops hidden among the lush hills in the area. Make of this coincidence what you will. The asset is named People Yeti .

CREDITS
The builder of the route is me. The builders of the DLS assets that made this route possible are a great many others, and I thank them for their asset creation efforts over many many years. You guys make Trainz what it is. In particular, a couple of needed assets were custom built in response to my request by asset creators RR_Signal and Dinorius_Redundicus, so an extra thankyou goes to them.
Another special thankyou goes out to the trainzer called Sardo. His reskins in modern Rio Tinto colours of Dave Snow's ES44AC and SD70ACe locos made it possible to have fairly prototypical locos in the base sessions. Read the notes for the basic session for important info about using these locomotives on this route.

UPLOADED SESSIONS
There should be two sessions for this route on the DLS named.....

DSEPR02 Pilbara Iron Basic Session
DSEPR02 Pilbara Iron Demonstration Session

Bloody lovely route, no idea how i missed this for over 2.5 years.

Last two pics are at Rosella.

















Mike.

[haverfordwest]

VR BG heading for Tocumwal.













Mike.

[seagoon]

Like many Trainzers who date back a bit, I cut my teeth in Trainz on the old Robe River Iron route that shipped with early versions of Trainz. ......

Wow!! That brings back memories!
I spent many a late night creating that route and my son did his first 3D creation when he made the (non-animated) unloading module.
So many years ago, now.

[haverfordwest]

Yes Bruce, i used to play RR a lot. I like this updated version, just a shame Rio Tinto, use US loco's and not Australian.

Mike.

[seagoon]

Yes Bruce, i used to play RR a lot. I like this updated version, just a shame Rio Tinto, use US loco's and not Australian.

Mike.

Every iron ore mining company in Western Australia uses US locomotion, Mike.
It started way back when Lang Hancock kicked off the iron ore boom and I think his operation used SD-40's. When Robe got into it they used the Alco C636 "Centennial" units available at the time.
Now we have BHP-Billiton, Fortesque, Pilbara etc, all with heavy US power.

[haverfordwest]

Hi Bruce, appreciate the info thank you.

Shame as there are a few top quality freeware Australian loco's, with custom cabs and sounds.

It would have been nice, if i could use them.

Thanks buddy.

Mike.

[seagoon]

The site for info on the Pilbara iron-ore railways, Mike.

[haverfordwest]

Nice one Bruce, thanks very much.

Proper job buddy.

Mike.

[haverfordwest]

VR BG Mangalore - Tocumwal, more modern coaching stock.





Mike.

[haverfordwest]

Pilbara Iron route.















Mike.