GN Hi Line

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

I've got a bunch of questions regarding the GN Hi Line. I've read the documentation and based on what they say about "scenery being incomplete or yet to be finished"

Would I be correct to say that the GN Hi Line (Michael Stefan's Route) has been completely scratchbuilt from the ground up (created brand new in RGE) and was NOT done ala NEC V4 and PRR-ER.

This means my guess is that the GN Hi Line was made completely from scratch and was not created using the default Marias Pass as a base to start, unlike the NEC V4 and by extension the PRR-ER, which were created using the default NEC as a base.

[eric]

Why don't you ask? ---> http://www.golden-age-rails.com/support.html

I'm fairly certain this was an almost total rebuild using track charts.

Michael moved on to Railworks about 14 years ago and last I saw was still releasing items for TS2020.

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

Thanks Eric, I apologize for not realizing this.

While we're on this topic, I asked this because I noticed that there are routes that model the same area but are completely scratchbuilt.
For example, Austin Yoder's NS Pittsburgh Line from Johnstown to Altoona is completely scratchbuilt and did not use the now removed Middle Division as a base.

[eric]

Scratch built is always more rewarding...

One of my first attempts at route building was using someone else's track as a starting point. I quickly realized it was more trouble than it was worth.

Next time around, I stripped out the track in the world files and kept the scenery and terrain, which was a little easier, but still more work ultimately than building my own version.

[landnrailroader]

I'm not sure about the content of the GN HiLine but many years ago when I was doing the RMD routes, I got permission from Michael to use his version of Great Falls in my N. Montana route. It was very good, very well done, accurate ---EXCEPT whatever coordinate system he used placed the main line of the Milwaukee Road parallel to, and about 50 yards north of what it was on my route which used Google Earth as a digitizing point. Although it makes the route less than perfect, I used his GF anyway and just put a wide zig-zag in east of the AFB which lies east of town. Did the same thing when I extended the Milwaukee road to the end of track at Agawam. As an aside, one of the members of my group at CSX, a 50ish black fellow from Georgia was stationed at GF when he was a Air Force Sergeant. He said to me "Jerry GF is no place for a black boy from George, I thought I was going to freeze my manhood". Sadly, my friend passed away 10 years or so ago when cancer got him at a relatively young age. I used Michael's GF depot as the depot as Missoula and Butte in the RMD routes.

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

If i recall, Michael was an early adapter of photo maps, and that 50yd offset was a problem with several of my early routes using SRT and other utilities for importing imagery to terrtex.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

Here's his response:

"Goodness, that has been so long ago... my memory is quite fuzzy about what I did or didn't do back then. I can rule out that I used any parts of the original MSTS Marias Pass route, but I don't remember if I used parts of Marias Pass 3.1 or not. I guess is that I probably started from scratch with DEM terrain. I do remember that I made extensive use of period USGS topo quads, many of which I received from a friend and fellow GN fan, Warren Ulrich, who helped me big time with the prototype information. Not sure if I had track charts at that point... I do now, from BN, GN, and BNSF, but I don't remember when I first got them.

I'm afraid that's all that I can remember."

So I'm guessing he started with DEM terrain, and he probably spliced and modified Marias 3.1 parts. It kind of makes sense that he didn't use the original Marias Pass route as a base.
Since he was backdating the route to an earlier era, it would be more difficult as he would have had fewer resources to work with.
Also, didn't the Whitefish from his route get used for Charlie's Marias Pass 5 TYS route?

[oper190]

Finally got High Line it up and running. Took some doing. Downloaded the bundle and could not get all the files to unzip on my Window 11 system, ( zip in a zip in a zip ). So copied them over to my old XP system to find two of the files still would still not unzip, saying they were bad files. 3-1 and 3-2. Came back and downloaded each file individually, with the same result on Win 11, where the 3-1 file would not unzip completely. Still managed to get the 3-1 .exe file to run ( sort of ), as it showed it was unzipping files but never made the new route folder. So back to the old XP and got all to unzip properly and work. MS did a great job screwing things up as usual, ( bring back win3.1 it worked! )

[eric]

Ugh. If someone is up for a project, repackaging some of these "install v3 then 3.1 then 3.2" classics into a clubbed version is fine with me as long as the content isn't changed.

[PerryPlatypus]

My impression from the quality of the trackwork and the terrain is he started completely from scratch, rather than using bits of Marias 3.1. The track isn't perfect but it's a huge improvement over the other Marias versions. Given the accuracy of the grades (including the brief flat area near Blacktail horseshoe on the west slope), I would wager he used track charts.

Honestly if it weren't for the low res terrain textures in the foreground, I would probably run it a lot more often

[ChandlerBranchRailfan]

Don't forget it was made back in 2005-2007 IIRC, computers weren't as strong back then.

[R. Steele]

If I wanted to replace the GN Hi-Line track with one of the new replacement sets in the library --- which would I use? ( as if it didn't show -- totally ignorant of the process )

[rdayt]

You will probably want to use default-track-atrack-06feb24.zip and mtracks-atrack-textures.zip.
That will cover the xtrack and mtrack shapes using the default textures.
The texture used in the route is pretty good so you might want to stick with that.

Randy

[R. Steele]

Thanks Randy, I've been following Eric's progress ( and others ) on the thread discussing these track replacements...never done anything like this, so I wanted to start learning the process. You've given me the push I needed.

[eric]

It sounds more painful than it should be... but do make sure you have a copy of your Global\Shapes just in case you hate it.