Twin Cities to Chicago Mainline

[brandon261]

Josh and I have decided to make our own thread here on Trainsim for our route updates, questions and feedback. We have been working on a major route project for the past 5 or so years and have come to the conclusion that we really need some more people to help out. There is no way the two of us can do it alone and if anyone is willing to help us out please give Josh or I a PM or shoot us a message on this forum. One thing Josh and I are trying to avoid though are people just wanting the route to play with. Josh and I have years spent into this project and not wanting to give up now knowing that we are getting much closer to getting things rolling. We are hoping some of you will be willing to help us out as I know there are many talented people out in this community. We have also come to a major milestone as we have both come to the conclusion its time to merge the routes together into one and work on the route together as one big route. This will not be an easy task as I will be having to click on every track piece to merge it into my route and into the TDB file. I also have a few other routes that I have been working to merge into my route that is mainly in Northern Minnesota. We will need multiple people to help out with the project now and have had a few people come forward and wanting to help out. Josh and I will be getting in contact with these individuals. Right now the route is practically track and some roads with a few scenery objects here and there. This will in the end be a great route for multiplayer use along with all day activities with non stop traffic along the way. The route will stretch from the North Dakota/Minnesota Boarder in Fargo area all the way to Chicago, Illinois. Here is a list of major railroads that will be in the route along with a list of the routes that will be included.

BNSF- Fargo-Chicago, Duluth/Superior-Twin Cities, and Chicago area routes
CP- Glenwood, MN-Chicago, Chicago area routes
CN- parts of Northern Minnesota area along with Chicago area routes
UP- Twin Cities and Chicago area routes

All of the Twin cities along with all of Chicago will also be included.

Here is a list of things that we we do need help with.

Laying of roads
Signaling
Scenery Objects
Building Custom objects.
Beta Testing when finished

Josh and I hope this isn't too much to ask and hope to have some of you join our team in making this route really come to life and also a photo of my section of the route that I have done track wise.

Brandon

[ebnertra000]

I could probably handle some roads. I had marker files for roads on Brainerd and Hinckley Subs. (I started Hinckley but stopped when I saw this project). I could probably handle signals and trackside signage, too. I also have markers for I think all of Staples (the track) somewhere

[brandon261]

that would be fantastic and would free me up to finish up the route to Chicago. I already have the track laid out all the way to the Twin Ports from the Twin Cities and also have the Staples sub built from Coon Creek Jct to Big Lake just track though. I also did just discover that I will need to rebuild the whole North Shore Scenic Railroad from Duluth to Two Harbors as the terrain I built it on was way off when I first built it and now the track is way high in the sky after I redid the terrain.

Brandon

[ZachBell4400]

Hoping this would spark good conversation if we ever meet up Travis and Brandon Would love to see the progress being made and offer some suggestions too

[brandon261]

Just a little bit of an update. Josh has sent me his portion of the route. I have not started merging the route into mine yet but that will come soon. I currently have been working on my own section of the route and fixing up some areas that were way off track wise as they were built with only markers and estimation. My current project is working on the BNSF Wayzata Sub as it was the very first route I started with and also the line I have lived on for most of my life. I will then be working on fixing up the TC&W along with other routes that are off. I also need to rebuild all of the Twin Cities area and most of the yards on the routes.

Brandon

[brandon261]

So here is Josh's section of the route. AKA Chicago area.

[ChiFan]

Hi Brandon and Josh

You and your project sure have my attention along with many other fans of Chicago area railroads.

Have you considered using TSUtils to merge routes? If not, you might consider it.

Years ago I used it to merge ChicagoLand with a bunch of different routes. The largest route in terms of storage space was ChicagoLand with the PRR-Eastern at 3G. The largest geographically was ChicagoLand with the Raton, Glorieta, Seligman, Cajon Pass, Tehachapi, Rollins, Moffat, and Clinton routes.

Because of TSUtils ability to handle the sizes and characteristics of those particular routes, odds are high it would handle yours.

If you are unfamiliar with the TSUtils merge process, here is a link to an old post on the subject:
https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showth...es-An-Overview

If you want to give it a shot, I can help you do it if you run into difficulty, or I can do it for you.

There several other ideas, ways, and tools I have that might be useful to the project, but I'm curious about your thoughts regarding use of TSUtils for mergers first.

Chuck R.

[brandon261]

I have already got them merged together just working on getting all of the track pieces and tiles in. We are using the new TSRE and that makes it easy to merge routes. We have split away from the old MSTS editor. Also in the process of scale railing the whole route as well.

Brandon

[ChiFan]

That was fast work, impressive for both you and TSRE.

[brandon261]

yeah its fairly easy to merge route over with the new editor. Shouldnt be too long and I should have everything in place.

Brandon