CNW Chicago Division Progress - 2021

[GokuMK]

As for the road pieces... that's what I use to line up the power lines via WorldFileHacker... the road sections will eventually be removed, leaving the towers and lines behind...
[...]
Since power lines dominate the scene from the cab, it's essential to get the wires lines up. I've got several versions of 100m/150m/200m wire lengths, and in a straight line, the wires always come close to being perfect...

Do you know that instead of making dozens of different shapes and using WFH you can just use one shape and auto placement with two point rotation? Super fast solution for making wires etc.

[eolesen]

Eric, this is a stupid question from someone who doesn't build routes -
Are you able to create the illusion of the bowl tracks with dummy track? Would dummy track even show up in TSRE5?
Would be cool if it did because I'd think users could fudge up placing static cars, or something of that nature. Beats me, just wondering.

It's possible, but time consuming....

One benefit of TSRE is you can add track without writing it to the TDB, so you get the visual benefits without taking the performance hit of hundreds of track vectors that never get used.

[eolesen]

Do you know that instead of making dozens of different shapes and using WFH you can just use one shape and auto placement with two point rotation? Super fast solution for making wires etc.

I've seen the feature, but no documentation on how that works.

"Super fast" is relative. The shapes I use have been in my library for about ten years. Once I have a shape built in Sketchup, it takes on average 30 seconds to make a length variation, including the time to export to a .S file... Placing almost three miles of power lines took me about ten minutes including running the script thru WFH.

[jonpd]

Where were you able to find 3rd rail track pieces? I have never come across them.

Jon

[eolesen]

Where were you able to find 3rd rail track pieces? I have never come across them.

Jon

That's the magic of WorldFileHacker.... It's Scalerail track with a matching third rail static object created that shares the same axis and geometry as the track sections.

Based on the staticDetailLevel of the track object and a 1:x cross-reference file read by WFH, they get lined up perfectly.

[GokuMK]

Using TSRE autoplacement you can autoplace third rail just like wires, embankments etc. using short shape with one click. Object count will be much higher than when using dedicated shapes, but tile object count isn't important in TSRE and OR, unlike MSTS.

[eolesen]

OK, it sounds similar to the Gantry function in MSTS's editor. Not sure I agree on tile object count, though. On a high powered desktop or gaming computer, it's not impactful, but on the power-saving chipsets used in laptops, I suspect it's still an issue.

[eolesen]

Given the proximity to the West Line, and I'd already done Yard Nine as part of the Harvard, I couldn't *not* model a little more of the southern portions of Proviso Yard, but I did have to trim it back to just a couple areas...

I thought it would be important to have Global One's intermodal yard to support transfer runs from there to both Global Three in Rochelle and Global One near downtown (both of those yards are also included in the route). I've also included some of the original Yard One, but I'm not going to take on Yard Five (a decision I made in 2015, and still don't regret yet). I *may* include Yards Four and Two so that the Diesel Shop is accessible...



Here's how Proviso has morphed over time.... I'm trying to stick closer to the 1970's than I am the 2010's, which is why going with what it looked like in 1992 is probably the safest bet. The areas bounded in green are what's modeled with a little artistic license...

[eolesen]

Side note... I've had requests to get a copy of the route.... It's partly complete right now.... There are 230 miles of track complete (closer to 500 miles if you include double/triple track plus yard tracks and neighboring MILW/CTA/BNSF trackage). There are over 5900 custom scenery objects, yet areas where there's no meaningful scenery placed. Signals were removed over a large portion of the West Line because of the track relocation that's underway, and I still have more to adjust...

In short, I'm not quite ready to release something that I know will be buggy.

The bigger concern... Size. It's currently 13Gb in size, of which about 10Gb is the satellite terrain textures.

[jbtower]

Having the CNW Chicago sub and adjacent subs made in to a OR route is like a dream come true for me. I grew up in Wheaton blocks from the CNW west line experiencing decades of trains from the F and E unit parades of daily commuter traffic to Geeps, the very first SD-40's and SD-45's, UP run through traffic, GP-35's with a slug sandwiched in between all the way up to the last GE power. Of course we had the Chicago Aurora and Elgin in Wheaton too and I watched the end years and dismantling. If I can offer any help do not hesitate Eric as I saw it all in real life! Thanks for taking this one on!!!!