Donkey Works

Points Clip Box

2012-01-25T10:18:00.001Z

Spotted this box next to the Lambrigg signalbox and wondered what it was. Zooming in showed the words Points Clips written on the box.

The following definition of point clip is from wikipedia.

"To clip and scotch a set of railway points uses two pieces of equipment to temporarily lock a set of points into a particular position. The point clip clamps the end of a moving rail of a set of points to its associated stock rail, and the scotch is a timber wedge used to ensure that the other moving rail is kept away from its associated stock rail. In this way the points are fixed in either the 'straight through' or 'divert' positions and cannot be moved by the usual setting mechanisms. For infrequently used points, this guards against mechanical failure of the points leaving them in a condition to derail trains. The 'clip and scotch' method can also be used to positively deny access to the turnout or mainline."

Couldn't resist the temptation, so a wet Monday afternoon produced the following.

Scout Green

2012-01-23T13:31:00.000Z

Scout Green was a crossing with purpose built Saxby Farmer signalbox on the WCML and was a famous spot for photo shoots. Not only was it unique construction but it was particularly noteworthy for the wonky chimney stack.

This is my impression of the box for the route over Shap.

Over Shap

2012-01-21T13:52:00.000Z

I've been asked to contribute a couple of items to a new route under construction and these are the first.

Also, gives me a chance to try the new light sources for TS2012. Took a little time to get to grips with them, hope I've got them properly sorted?

Characters

2011-12-13T12:47:00.004Z

Following a suggestion on UKTS that a pack of people would be a useful addition the set of UK Freeware Packs, I thought I'd give it a go.

I got this rigged character in 3ds max and animated him as if he was using a mobile phone and it seems to work ok.

Unfortunately, when I try to export him to RW I get error messages telling me the bones are not properly named. The RW wiki says that the naming must follow the guidelines, but doesn't actually provide any guidelines. Big help!

Tried renaming the model bones after looking at the sample character file in the development folder in RW, but still no joy.

Guess I'll have to come back to this one at a later stage.

I'm back

2011-11-28T15:04:00.000Z

Took a little longer than I thought but I'm back, at last.

It's amazing how much you forget when you're away for several weeks, so I've decided to start with something fairly easy.

Having had some involvement with Ben Yates' recently released Cockermouth Keswick Penrith Route, I selected an item that was missing from the route, for my re-introduction to modelling.

Connected to the signal box at Cockermouth Junction is this unusual bridge structure which allowed the signalman to exchange tokens with Down locos, without having to cross the tracks.

As it is so out of the ordinary and iconic to the route I decided it would be a good model both as an addition to the route and as an exercise for myself. Anyway, here's my version.

Apologies

2011-07-27T18:08:00.000+01:00

To anyone who reads my blog, apologies for my absence.

I'm afraid real life is very much in the way of virtual hobbies these past few weeks, so I have been unable to add to my body of work since my return from the USA. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will see things back on an even keel and I can return to my modelling. So, to quote Arnie "I'll be back", in the meantime thanks for your patience.

Holiday

2011-05-24T08:51:00.000+01:00

I'm off to the USA for a couple of weeks (ash clouds this end and tornados that end, permitting), but before I go a picture of one of the bogie open goods wagons I managed to complete in time.

56041

2011-05-16T10:17:00.000+01:00

The combination Guards/Goods van was obviously very successful, because the L&B later built their own version of the concept at Pilton Yard, #23, later#56041. Based on the same pattern, it had the addition of side duckets to improve the guards visibiltiy.

Brake Van

2011-05-15T13:11:00.001+01:00

The next piece of rolling stock is one of the early brake vans. Originally open ended they had been glazed in by the 1930's, the period in which we are constructing the route.

Here's the van awaiting duty in Pilton Yard.

As the couplings on the L&B were asymmetrical, with the "chopper" at the "Down" end of the vehicle, it's necessary to ensure the wagons face the right way. I had some doubt as to which direction the brake vans were oriented but this photo from Yeoman's book shows the van with the glazing at the "down" end and the guard standing on the step.

So, I fitted the van out the same way.

A couple more bogie wagons to do then on with the passenger stock.

More Goods Vehicles

2011-05-12T11:59:00.000+01:00

Continuing the build of bogie goods vehicles, I have now completed the 8 ton Bogie Goods Van.

Thought I'd celebrate with a little run over the Chelfham Viaduct.

Bogie Wagon

2011-05-09T22:00:00.001+01:00

I completed my first wagon with the new freight bogies some hours ago, but I have only just got it into the game.

Tried and tried to load it into the game but no success. Changed all sorts of things but no joy, then eventually realised I had made the ultimate newbie mistake.....I'd missed a "-" sign off one of the bogie axle values. Doh!

Anyway here's the new platform wagon for the L&B.

The photo below was sent to me, not to show the crash, but to illustrate the presence of coal rails on the 4 ton open wagons.

Consequently, I have amended my model accordingly.

Bogie Woes

2011-05-08T10:53:00.001+01:00

Moving on to the bogie goods vehicles, I found Chris had made a really nice freight bogie, which I thought need a couple of small additions to complete it. Don't know what went wrong but when I rendered the finished item the normals were a total mess and I decided it was easier to start afresh than try to fix the model.

Consequently, I began modelling a new bogie using the same blueprints that Chris had used, but struggled to get the model to look right.

It took me best part of a day before I realised that both endviews were upside down! Hardly surprising I couldn't make sense of it all. So, as a result of my own foul up, my re-build meant I actually ended up with a more accurate model.

Here's the completed bogie ready for me to start on the bodywork.

Goods Van

2011-05-05T17:21:00.000+01:00

Due to the fact they share a chassis the open wagon quickly re-modelled into the 4 ton Goods Van.

I think the S and R need to be faded a little to match the ones on the wagon plus one or two other minor texture tweaks, then it should be finished.

Coupling

2011-05-04T12:39:00.000+01:00

Having sorted out the stencil shadow and auto-numbering on the 4ton open goods wagon, I completed the wagon blueprint and placed the model in game using the NG couplings currently available. I didn't, however, like the look of the couplings as they were much shorter than those used on the L&B, so decided to make my own.

Thanks to the help of Captain Bazza I quickly put together a new coupling which, I felt, more closely represented the L&B version. I decided to also include the vacuum pipe, as part of the coupling model, so I could animate the linking together of the pipes when wagons couple up.

This has not been a total success as RW has hardcoded elasticity into the couplings, which means the pipes move apart when the consist is under load, as can be seen in the in game screenshot below. Not sure what to do about this issue, do I just accept it as a consequence of the game engine design, revert to a non-coupling vacuum pipe, or wait for inspiration as to how to get round the problem?

Anyway, here's an in game screenshot showing 2 wagons behind Kevin Martin's model of Lyn. The gap between the pipes is disappointing but, otherwise, I am quite pleased with the results.

W.I.P

2011-05-02T19:16:00.000+01:00

Have commenced work on the L&B rolling stock and the first model is taking shape, its the 4ton open goods wagon.

Having the usual fun with the TrainBumpSpecEnvMask shaders, hope somebody will write a tutorial on these bump map shaders sometime, but, in the end, I think I got the look I was after(getting the S and R to extend over the metalwork was interesting). Still to add the Stencil Shadow and the auto-numbering, then need to get the wagon in game and working.

All comments welcome.

L&B Latest

2011-04-23T10:31:00.000+01:00

Chris (Ferrisybuga on UKTS) made some rolling stock assets for the route but has moved on to University and the current demands on his time are more important than making models for the route, however, I'm pleased to advise he has passed the source models over to myself so that they can continue to be developed.

Over the next few weeks I hope to complete the work he started to add to the L&B experience.

I'm also pleased to advise that Gary's health is continuing to improve and work has re-commenced on the route scenery.

Has been a while

2011-04-14T10:08:00.000+01:00

Sorry, haven't posted for a little while, but a combination of health, holidays and new computer issues have got in the way.

Can somebody please explain why it's so difficult to transfer stuff from your old machine to the new? A week of my life just disappeared.

Anyway, what little time I had to spend on modelling was used up helping Ben with Penrith Station on his Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith route. Here's a quick look at the results.

Once again, I used my old MSTS models as the basis for the new Railworks version, although the canopies are mainly new, just a few textures re-used.

CKPR

2011-03-20T21:12:00.004Z

I have been helping out Ben Yates with his CKPR route and decided to try and resurrect one of the TSM models from my MSTS version of the route.

Was a bit of a pain, firstly I tried the new Italian shapefile converter, but it didn't work. It does seem a bit hit and miss as it has worked on other models. Anyway, I had try another method which was to import the .dst file into 3DCanvas then export it to a VRML file, which was then imported into 3ds Max. 3DCanvas does export 3ds files but Max doesn't like them, says they are an invalid format!

Having imported the file I tidied up the mesh (I wasn't a very good modeller back in the TSM days) then applied some shaders and voila....

Not the best model I ever made and certainly not to the standard I would currently expect to achieve, but not bad for a tweaked TSM import.

An apology to L&B fans

2011-03-11T20:51:00.002Z

Regretably, due to ill health two of the main contributors are unable to continue at this time.

Kevin, who is contributing rolling stock (Lyn) and Gary, who is the route builder are both unwell and unable to continue for the present. I apologise to any L&B fans reading this blog but there will be limited development on the route for the foreseeable future.

However, both Gary and Kevin have expressed a desire to finish their work when they return to better health, so all is not lost.

On the goods news side, Captain bazza's dead computer has been replaced and work has restarted on the Manning Wardles.

We wish Gary and Kevin well and look forward to the day they can return to the route.

Cauliflower update

2011-03-07T07:49:00.002Z

The loco and tender are now in game and working.

There's still alot of work to do but at least its a positive step forward.

Unfortunately, I am having my usual difficulties with the coupling of the rolling stock as I get overlapped buffers, and failure to couple, problems. Its one area of RW I've always had difficulty with, so if anyone out there knows how to do it, let me know!

CKPR

2011-03-03T20:05:00.004Z

I live in the Lakes District where there are two railway lines of particular interest, the Furness Railway and, my favourite, CKPR(Cockermouth Keswick Penrith Railway).

I spent several years researching the route and developing it for MSTS, but never released it. Consequently, I was very interested when Ben Yates started to produce a version for RW and a great job he is doing of it. Ben and I have had some correspondence on the route and he expressed a desire for a Webbs 18" Goods 0-6-0 loco, nicknamed Cauliflower, as they dominated the traffic on the route upto and into, the 50's.

I had a similar desire when I was doing my MSTS route and as no one expressed an interest in helping, I made my own.

As I understood Ben's frustration I decided to try and resurrect my old model. Firstly I imported the .dst files into 3DCanvas from which I exported the files in .3ds format. These were in turn, imported into 3ds Max and I had myself a model of a Cauliflower.

The mesh was a mess and took some sorting out but finally I was able to export the loco as a RW scenery model.

Still a bit of work to do on textures and shadows but not bad I thought, for a first loco!

Then I started on making it a working model for the game. Spent days wondering why it wouldn't show up until I realised you have to have a simulation blueprint before it will appear as an engine. Since then I have struggled with blueprints for bogies, couplings, brakes, cabs etc etc etc not to mention scripts and csv files, animations and audio. I'm nearly bald with the hair tearing frustration. Still, the engine now appears in game, although I get a SBHH system crash if I go anywhere near it!

So watch this space for imminent reports of my early demise from RW Physicsitis.

Aaaaaargh.....!!!

2011-02-24T12:28:00.002Z

The amount of work I put into modelling for Railworks is a good demonstration of how much I like the game, but occasionally it makes we want to tear my hair out. I hadn't intended to post anymore on the subject of the Transporter bridge but I thought I'd give a liitle background on my last few days, in the hope it may help someone else.

I have been trying to add sound to the model and had endless problems. It took longer to add the sound than to build and animate the model! As too often, the wiki is worse than useless and only confuses rather than informs, so the only way to go is looking at the work of others, for which Mike Simpsons RWTools is invaluable.

The problem I wish to draw attention to is caching by the asset editor. Here's a comment from Pete(karma99) which I found invaluable.

Sounds like the asset editor and it's infamous caching.. if you try and rebuild with a file that's older than the last one it saw, it will ignore it.
It's trying to save time recompiling everything on every build, but it's a pain in the ********* butt if you don't get every single part of the export perfect on the first go!

If you go to the Assets/Kuju/Shapeviewer folder and delete the appropriate folder in it (ie Scenery) you should be able to get a fresh export without it remembering everything.
Note: DO NOT delete the files in the route of the Shapeviewer folder. If you do this the Asset Editor can sometimes die horribly and just stop working altogether until a random point in the future!

Whilst this was good advise, I found it was also necessary to delete the entries in the relevant assets folder as well. Not certain but perhaps the .tgt files may be the culprit here?

Anyway, I found that everytime I made a change to the sound file it was necessary to undergo this tortuous procedure to ensure the changes took effect, otherwise I was never sure if I had made a mistake or the system was just messing about.

Ok, rant over, but I sometimes wonder if the phrase "user friendly" was ever used at Kuju?

Quick update and a problem.

2011-02-18T17:51:00.005Z

I decided that a transporter bridge needed to move, so I created an animated version.

Whilst doing this I came across a problem. Both the bridge and the gondola have night textures which illuminate parts of the model at night, by use of the AddATex shader plus the suffix -night on the object name. e.g 1_0512_decklights_night

As the gondola is now moving, its night textures had to be seperate from the bridge ones, so I split them accordingly. Consequently, neither appeared in the game as, apparently, RW only supports one object with the -night suffix! Not an issue with static objects, but certainly a problem with animated items.

Very big crane!

2011-02-18T15:56:00.003Z

Many of the counties in the UK have significant rivers flowing through them, Thames, Severn, Avon etc. but I was born and raised in County Durham which is (I believe) unique as it is associated with three major rivers. There is the Tyne to the North, Tees to the South and the Wear throught the centre.

Each of the rivers has iconic bridges associated with it and I grew up seeing them on a regular basis. Kuju have already created the Newcastle-upon-Tyne crossings for railworks and Darpor is currently doing a great job of the Monkwearmouth bridge at Sunderland, but there was a recent request for a model of the transporter bridge across the Tees at Middlesborough.

If you have read the earlier entries in my blog you'll know I like cranes and the transporter bridge is a very large variation on a crane, so I was unable to resist the challenge. So here we have it, the Middlesborough Transporter Bridge.

This is an extract from a history of the bridge...

The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge has been a symbol of the area since it was opened in 1911.

It is a total of 851 feet (259.3 metres) in length which makes it the longest of those remaining in the world. Its cantilever construction has three main bridge spans that give it its unique appearance. The bridge is, effectively, two almost independent structures joined at the centre of the River Tees. Each half of the bridge has an 'anchor' span of 140 feet (42.6 metres) and then cantilevers across the river some 285 feet (86.8 metres) from the tower leg to meet its twin from the opposite bank. The passenger gondola is suspended by steel cables and runs on a wheel and rail system approximately 160 feet (48.7 metres) above the River Tees.

The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge is fully operational and provides a regular quarter-hourly service between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence for 18 hours a day. It remains the largest of the Transporter Bridges operating worldwide, and provides a valuable public transport service, crossing the river in two minutes.

Traffic update

2011-02-10T20:01:00.006Z

This whole traffic idea was stimulated by the shortage of 1930's vehicles for Railworks, so I'm pleased to report that Jeff Layfield has added a bus to my collection. Seen here causing a traffic jam.

I also took the opportunity to create another vehicle model of my own, so here's the pre-war Morris 8. Once again the spokes have been removed from the wheels on the Traffic version of the model.

I also experimented with laying the invisible path below an existing road. This works just fine, but I can't deny that placing the loft under an existing road loft is a bit of a pita!

More traffic news

2011-02-08T20:18:00.006Z

Thanks to Jeff Layfield, I was able to place a couple more vehicles on the traffic blueprint, but this highlighted a further problem. As I hope you can see in the picture, the wrong way round effect puts the driver on the wrong side of the vehicle and the lettering on the front and back are reversed.

Consequently, it was necessary to mirror all the models, so they appear the right way round in game.

Its not easy to see but the second picture also illustrates what we decided to do about the non-rotating wheels. All static reference points were removed from the wheels, for instamce holes, nuts and spokes.

As a consequence of all the work that was needed to get these models working in game, I am convinced that moving vehicle models should be made especially, whilst static scenery models should be made seperately. It may be possible to use the same model for both, if it is a modern symmetrical vehicle and the glass is obscure, but totally pointless with asymmetric classic/vintage vehicles.

P.S. Just had a further thought on whether to have different models for static and moving traffic. Static traffic looks naff at night with its lights on and moving traffic silly without them, so another reason for seperate models.

Road testing Jeff Layfields Foden

2011-02-05T16:28:00.015Z

As previously mentioned, I want to create some 1930's traffic for the route but it's not possible to create traffic in Railworks without access to the original .igs file of the vehicle model. Jeff Layfield has kindly agreed to donate his Foden model to let me try and see if I could get it working.

I created a Vehicle Properties Blueprint using Jeff's .igs file for the vehicle source, so I had something to run on the road. Next I made the Traffic Control Blueprint which populates the road with as many vehicle blueprints as you wish to select and finally the Vehicle Path Blueprint which links your vehicles with the road. In this case I chose an invisible road for convenience as I had previously set it up when I was animating Captain Bazza's ships. They were all exported to game with the following result.

As you can see, the wagon is facing the wrong way and RW have still not resolved the problem with vehicle paths which turns the model inside out and the wrong way round!

Firstly, to deal with the direction of travel I imported the .igs file back into 3dCanvas (realising how much I had forgotten since changing to 3ds Max) and rotated the model 90 deg left. From the film you would think it should be 90 deg right, but remember that RW turns the in-game model end over end. Then I normalised the objects, which resets the pivot point to the correct orientation, and the lorry should now run the right way round.

Next, I needed to solve the problem of the inside out look. There are 2 ways to do this in 3dCanvas. Firstly, use the double side plug-in, which does exactly what it says... it makes all the poly's double sided. Not the best option as it doubles your poly count and may cause some z-fighting issues.

The second way is to open the properties pop-up of the object then enter BackfaceCull=0 in the RailsimX field. This tells the game to texture both sides of the polys, so overcoming the inside out effect.

Whilst altering the properties I took the opportunity to change the Diffuse value to 50, as 3dCanvas' usual setting is a bit bright in RW.

So, I then re-loaded the model into RW with the following result.

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I think that's a success, although I can see there's some z-fighting on the underframe.

Discovered the problem with the underframe was due to overlapping polys, so deleted the excess polys. Whilst I was working on the model in 3dCanvas I took the opportunity to add softshadow, stencilshadow and night glows to the model.

One problem remains to be solved and that is the wheels, which don't go round. Looks weird! Don't know if scrolling textures might solve that, will have to think about it?

Back on topic

2011-02-05T11:34:00.003Z

There is a shortage of 1930's vehicles for Railworks, so I contacted Jeff Layfield to ask his help in providing motive transport for the route. More on this later.

But it set me thinking. For some time I have wanted to try out the poly-modelling technique of model building, as opposed to the primitives method I normally use. So, as I was looking for more 1930's transport, I thought a new vehicle was a good way to try out this method and here are the results.

Off topic

2011-02-05T11:11:00.009Z

Just for a change of scenery I offered to help John Bennett with a couple of items for his Bacup route.

The first was an attempt to transfer one of John's sketchup models into Railworks using an import script I found for 3ds max. The importer worked fine, but then I had to tidy the model up a bit followed by renaming to RW standards.

Also took the opportunity to add night textures, stencil shadows, smoke and waterscenery effects.

John also asked if I could use one of his watercolours as a basis for a Burton the Tailors shop.

A generation ago these were on every High Street and all had distinctive "Art Deco" facias. On a personal note, at one time I used to do alot of business with Burtons and visited their Leeds HQ on many an occassion, but that was in a former life:)

Anyway, I gave it a try and with a bit of artisitic licence, came up with the following.

Problem solved

2011-01-30T12:06:00.004Z

In my earlier blog on crossings I mentioned a problem with Pilton Crossing. Although the crossing is single track, on the Pilton Yard side there is a junction so it quickly becomes twin track which meant the trigger was too close to the crossing.

Thanks to AndiS, the problem is solved by the simply increasing the number of triggers in the blueprint to 3.

Click on the image for a better view.

.....and finally!

2011-01-27T09:15:00.003Z

At last! The final station building for the route, Lynton & Lynmouth Station.

Over to Gary now to scenerise things.

Level Crossings

2011-01-23T17:02:00.002Z

I was a bit fed up with doing buildings so, for a change, I have been updating the level crossing I made for Braunton Rd.

Had some fun learning the basics of 3ds max animation, which, like everything in 3ds max, is very powerful but easy to get wrong. Thanks to the guys on the UKTS forum I was able to overcome my difficulties and produce the results below.

Thought I may as well continue and make the crossing for Pilton Yard as well.

These are based on AndiS's lua scripts as I don't know how to use the new RW crossing scripts. Perhaps I'll update them again when RS eventually release the details of their new crossings?

AndiS, if you're reading this, perhaps you can tell me if its possible to have a single track level crossing with more than one trigger for when there are two tracks converging to one, just before the crossing?

Goodshed

2011-01-19T14:12:00.005Z

After a major crash of 3ds Max, at long last the goodshed for Lynton is finished.

I must try RSDerek's less is more approach to modelling, it must be less stressful.

Must tone down that white brickwork on the chimney a bit!

Lynton Yard

2011-01-09T17:54:00.005Z

There are a couple of strange structures in the Lynton goods yard, as can be seen in the following picture. (click the picture for a larger version)

On the right is an unusual leanto building which appears to have been some kind of store. To the left are some odd wooden structures which I believe were intended for the use of the coal merchant for storing coal awaiting bagging.

Anyway, here's my attempt at modelling them.

Lynton Revised

2010-12-08T13:27:00.003Z

I have been reliably informed that my Lynton locoshed is too small. Apparently, it was extended during its life to be large enough to accept a carriage.

Consequently, as the route is being built as it was in the 1930's, I have revised the model and taken the opportunity to add the disused coaling stage and inspection pit, to the south of the shed.

Lynton

2010-09-24T09:46:00.003+01:00

I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd leave you with a screenshot of my first assets for Lynton station.

Both the locoshed and the signalbox have visible interiors which I still find difficult to light properly. Using just a 3DS Max "skylight" makes the interiors too dark. Currently I tweak the shadow map to get the effect I want, but if anyone knows a good way of illuminating the interiors any guidance would be appreciated?

Caffyn's Halt

2010-09-21T18:51:00.003+01:00

Moving right along, we arrive at Caffyn's Halt.

Only Lynmouth left to do, yeah!

Woody Bay

2010-09-20T17:19:00.005+01:00

Back to work on the Lynton & Barnstaple!

Have just finished the assets for Woody Bay. Originally called Wooda Bay the station survives today and is home to the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust, who preserve the station and a short section of track. However, they hope to re-instate the whole line at some point.

On the other side of the track is the Station Hotel, later re-named the Moorlands Hotel. It still operates as a small country hotel and self-catering holiday establishment.

Platform Trolley Update

2010-09-13T15:09:00.002+01:00

I had a request to update my trolleys to be selectable in scenarios, which only takes a few minutes, so I agreed to do so. It also gave me the chance to fix a problem with one of the stencil shadows.

While I was in the mood I also agreed to provide some luggage and boxes to put on the trolleys and here's the result ...

Luggage trolleys

2010-09-07T17:12:00.004+01:00

After the release of the recent steam era luggage trolleys, I was asked if I could make some modern versions, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Texture tweaks

2010-09-06T12:21:00.005+01:00

In retrospect I was rather unhappy with the textures on the Parracombe watertank, it hardly looked like something that had been around for several decades.

So, courtesy of photoshop, here's a revised version.

Parracombe Halt

2010-09-05T10:45:00.003+01:00

Moving on up the line, have created the assets for Parracombe Halt.

The dirt platform is a lofted item to follow the track using the offset tool and the watertank is a "fuelpoint" asset, so loco's can re-fill their tanks.

Have been experimenting with lighting to try to improve the interior look of open assets, like the Parracombe halt shelter, with mixed success so far. Just using a skylight illumination makes the interior too dark, so have added spotlights to illuminate the interior, but not too successfully I'm afraid. Will have to do some more research on the subject!

More Blackmoor

2010-09-01T13:59:00.003+01:00

At long last the final buildings for Blackmoor are ready. These are the goodshed, goods store and stables.

The stables were built to provide accommodation for the horses for a coach link to Ilfracombe, but this was not too successful. They still remain, converted into holiday cottages, whilst the station is now a hotel and restaurant.

Carry yer bag, sir?

2010-08-30T13:35:00.006+01:00

As my health improves, I'm starting to get back into things, but decided to start off with something simple.

So I thought I'd put together a collection of luggage handling items I'd seen in various photos of the route.

I think some of them may have had the station name painted on the side and that can be added later if Gary wants them that way.Its not very clear but you may be able to see the word Chelfham on the side strake of this barrow, just below the smaller suitcase.

I am very pleased with the results, so I have decided to re-skin them all and make a set for the UKTS community.

Wow! 128 downloads in 2 days, that's what I call a success.

Gradients signs

2010-08-16T11:12:00.002+01:00

Received a list of all the gradient changes on the route, courtesy of Bob Barnard's route map (see here), so determined to make gradient signs to suit, based on the one at Woody Bay.

As I didn't want to make 60+ signs I tried to find a way to make a simple sign and add the relevant numbers when it was placed in the game. After many abortive attempts I settled on using the Railworks milepost feature to create the sign.

The problem with this method was that the data could only be input as 6 digits, so, if only 4/5 digits were required there was no obvious way to remove the surplus digits. On consideration, as 9 rarely appears in the gradient profile, I allocated the numeral 9 to a blank space so a gradient change from 55 to 135 would be input as 559135.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to make the arms adjustable in game, so in the end I had to make 10 variations of the sign, which, I think, covers all the options and is still considerably less than 60+ signs!

Mileposts and such

2010-08-12T19:42:00.004+01:00

Still not back into the full swing of things, so settled for making up some new mile and quarter mile posts.

All of the bridges on the L&B were numbered and the number was displayed alongside the bridge on a cast concrete marker, you can see my version next to the mileposts and here's an original which can be seen at Woody Bay.

Blackmoor Gate

2010-08-02T09:29:00.003+01:00

I was delaying posting an update until I had completed all the station buildings at Blackmoor, but following a nasty fall down a flight of wet steps, I am unable to continue modelling for a little while. Consequently, here's an interim update on where I had got to with Blackmoor (apparently the railway never called the station Blackmoor Gate).

Apologies for the lack of scenery, but Gary is relaying the track at this time, so scenery is on hold until he finishes that.

Track Update

2010-07-19T12:04:00.006+01:00

The new flat bottom track is now in place along with the new manual switches. Many thanks to Kevin Martin for all his help with this.

Bratton Fleming

2010-07-16T14:21:00.003+01:00

Moving further out into the country have now arrived at Bratton Fleming. Here are some of the assets for the station.

I have made the watertank as a fuelpoint asset and animated the filling spout to swing out when activated, but, in reality, this tank was very rarely used as it was too far from the platform to fill up the loco tanks whilst the train was standing in the station.

Track

2010-07-13T12:58:00.004+01:00

The original track on the route was the 2ft bullhead available from UKTS but it has been decided to upgrade to the flat bottom rails that was actually used on the Lynton & Barnstaple.

Therefore, with the help of Kevin Martin, the track is being replaced with a L&B specific track which will be included with the route. At the same time, an opportunity has been taken to replace both the buffers and the manual switches with something more prototypical to the route.

Here's a couple of photos of the results so far.

The first shows the wooden faced concrete buffer used extensively through the route.

Second shot shows the flat bottomed track, the new ballast and the manual switch.

Still a WIP but I hope they show what we are trying to achieve.

Chelfham

2010-06-01T13:18:00.002+01:00

As promised, its time to move out into the country!

Have just finished a set of assets for Chelfham station.

Just the platforms to do. Going to experiment a little first, to see whether we prefer a populated platform, or an unpopulated one. We're not very happy with the populated platforms as "people" tend to accumulate at the platform ends, which is very unprototypical (if you exclude trainspotters). So, the idea is to use an unpopulated platform with a much smaller invisible populated platform to limit the movement of the people. We'll see how it goes.

Castle Quay

2010-05-17T22:18:00.002+01:00

In between trying to sort out the physics on the wd-crane model, I have been putting together a few low poly models to populate the Castle Quay.

Have tried very hard to identify the strange whitish building on the right in this picture. It was part of the electricity works, but its actual purpose remains unknown.

Anyway, here's my version of Castle Quay, which. hopefully, is my last asset for Barnstaple. Time to head out into the country.

Track update

2010-05-13T09:53:00.001+01:00

Solved the problem of the piece of track for the static crane by a little sleight of hand.

Created a clone of the existing track then edited the .bin file to remove the Start and End geometry entries, so now have a track loft that doesn't put buffers at each end.

ex_WD crane part 2

2010-05-12T12:15:00.004+01:00

The static version of the crane, for Lynton goods yard, is nearly finished.

Needs a couple of minor adjustments and some stand alone track. SR laid a length of track just for the crane to stand on.

ex-WD Crane

2010-05-11T10:59:00.002+01:00

After days of hair tearing and frustration I eventually have the crane in game. I won't bore you with the problems, but I nearly gave up all together.

Anyway, here's the results of my labours.

I still have to sort out the physics for the wagons as they won't couple up and keep rolling off down the track of their own volition. I think that can wait until after I've done the static version of the crane, that used to stand at Lynton goods yard.

Match Truck

2010-04-28T22:14:00.003+01:00

After a bit of a struggle with the blueprints, I have my first piece of rolling stock in the game. It is really annoying when the blueprints use the same word (geometry) to mean three different things.

Anyway, problem solved and here is the match truck that will be needed to go with the travelling crane.

Still needs alot of work. Rivetting detail to be added, and a LOD to take them away again when viewed at a distance. Tweak the textures which are too bright, as they always seem to be in RW when you use bump mapping!

Also, the wagon won't couple up yet which is disappointing, as I wanted to see how the wagon would work with the coupling on the bogie, rather than the body, as is the norm. Additionally the truck has a tendency to roll along the track for no apparent reason what-so-ever, but I've seen that in other people's wagons, so hopefully someone has resolved the problem?

Apart from that, I'm happy. :)

Pechot Bogie

2010-04-25T12:59:00.003+01:00

Prior to WW1 the French army developed a 60cm gauge light railway system for logistics support for the front line troops, in particular the artillery. Under the supervision of General Pechot (in conjunction with Decauville) an entire light railway system for the French forces was developed. This system employed a standard range of locomotives and wagons, many of which carry the General's name in recognition of his effort. Both UK & USA created similar rolling stock but the Pechot name became the standard for the type of bogie used.

After the war there was a surplus of equipment which was disposed of as ex-WD stock. Two Chambers & Scott travelling cranes were purchased by Southern Region, from George Cohen & Sons, for use on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway.

Fitted with outriggers, they were designed to lift 3ton at 15ft radius. There was little need for a breakdown crane on the L&B as most problems could be fixed with a jack, so one crane spent its life languishing in a head shunt at Pilton Yard, the other was stood on its own length of track at Lynton goods yard and used to handle heavy loads.

I have begun modelling these two, starting with the Pechot bogies. I still have to do the couplings and stencilshadows, before commencing the daunting task of texturing, but here's the progress so far.

As always, my thanks to Keith Vingoe for his support and the many L&B photos he has supplied for reference.

Bessie Gould

2010-04-21T10:06:00.007+01:00

Have just finished a new vessel to go alongside the quay at Barnstaple.This is my version of the Bessie Gould.

The Bessie Gould was a ketch built in 1872 by William Westacott,in Barnstaple for Mr George Chugg. For several decades the Chugg family owned many of the vessels built and/or operating out of Barnstaple. He worked the boat for Mr William Gould, a local builder and timber merchant. I believe the boat was named after Mr Goulds chilean born wife, Elizabeth.

She would sail out to the Crow, Middle Ridges, Klondike and Zula sand/gravel banks where they would beach her at low tide and fill her hold with the sand/gravel. The crew would only have 2 or 3 hours between tides to load the gravel, which was loaded using a shovel carrying about 25lbs, which was thrown over the loader's shoulder into the hold.

The photograph shows her loading gravel on Crow Gravel Ridge in 1920 with l-r: George John Irwin, George Coates, Herbie Hartnoll, Shada Mullen, Tom Phillips, Geoprge Parkin and Harry Riddal. Seated: Frank Bowhill and Bertie Irwin. The dog was called Shep.

Floating off at high tide, she would return to Brunswick Wharf, which belonged to Mr Gould, and discharge the sand and gravel dredged from the nearby Taw Estuary.

Brunswick quay and Goulds warehouse on the River Yeo, are still preserved in Barnstaple. Mr Gould's residence, "Northgate House", stood between the warehouse in the picture and North Walk/Rolle St.

Until it closed in 1935, the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway track ran between the warehouse and Northgate House and crossed Rolle St by a gate controlled crossing.

This model was made with help from others and I would like to thank them for their contribution, in particular Captain Bazza.

Rolle Quay revisited

2010-04-05T12:31:00.003+01:00

I'm pleased to say that I have finished the final warehouse for Rolle Quay and the quayside now awaits Gary's magic touch to finish off roads, yards and track etc.

More clutter

2010-04-04T14:24:00.004+01:00

Added a few more clutter items to my UKTS uploads.

These are all items I made from tutorials on the web when I was starting to learn 3ds Max. I particularly recommend the tutorials by Chris Tate. His website is here

Railworks Clutter

2010-04-03T11:11:00.004+01:00

Everyone uses the default oil drums on their route and it is becoming repetative...

..so I decided to try out my new photoshop elements 8 and add a little variety.

These have just been uploaded to UKTS. They are higher poly count than the default drums in order to give a smoother appearance, but still not too high as I have used normal maps and shading to create the ribbed effect.

Rolle Quay grows

2010-03-21T16:31:00.002Z

Added a few more assets to Rolle Quay. Hope to finish here in a couple of weeks then Gary can work his magic with the roads, quayside and other non-building objects.

Stanbury & Son

2010-03-09T21:32:00.002Z

Taken a while but, at last, I have finished Stanbury & Son. A flour mill on Rolle Quay it is the first building you see as you leave Barnstaple Town Station and appears in several portraits and photos of the line. Such an iconic building had to be prototypically modelled (as well as I could, at least).

Started in 3DCanvas and finished in 3ds Max its my first major model in the new software and I'm reasonably pleased.

3ds Max

2010-03-04T11:24:00.005Z

I am now the proud owner of 3ds max 2010 and I am trying to learn how to use it. I think its actually harder trying to change modelling software, than it would be if I was starting from scratch. Having developed a set of skills for 3DCanvas I now have to unlearn them and develop a new set for 3ds max. Its especially difficult at the present, as I want to continue development for the L&B, so I find I'm jumping from one modelling tool to the other as my skills aren't yet good enough to model exclusively in 3ds max.

I will persevere and with the help of RSDerek's tutorials on the Art of Railworks blog plus the many other tutorials on the web, I hope I will get there.

Anyway, here's a glimpse of my first 3ds max model for Railworks..a sack of coal!

Over the Leat

2010-03-04T09:32:00.004Z

Just completed a block of buildings to cover the area over the Leat from Pilton Yard. Thought it would be easy to do a few low poly models with textures UVMapped on them, but proved to be a little more difficult than I thought! Ended up unwrapping them all.

Here they are in the route.

And this is a view of the original.

Steam workings

2010-02-19T22:25:00.004Z

Whilst working on the Rolle Quay buildings I came across this picture of W.Dallings premises, with three steam lorries parked outside.

Couldn't resist the challenge, so a new vehicle arrives for the L&B route.

Rolle Quay

2010-02-14T16:43:00.003Z

At last, a start on Rolle Quay. Starting to fill up nicely.

Chelfham

2010-02-06T11:32:00.002Z

The Chelfham Viaduct is one of the principle features of the L&BR, so was one of the first items I modelled for the route. As my skills have gradually improved I have become very unhappy with the original model, so have now updated it with pleasing results.

Update - Project Platform

2010-02-02T10:49:00.001Z

Believe it or not, I did get the dump truck textured in time and it will be in this charity project route.

Project Platform

2010-01-28T15:23:00.003Z

Have been working on a new vessel for Captain Bazza, which is for the new Project Platform route, in aid of the Railway Children's Charity.

Have also started a model myself, of a dump truck, which is required for the route, but I don't think it will be ready on time. I've never unwrapped something this big before, so could take a while.

Textures

2010-01-24T09:57:00.003Z

Texturing the tower didn't prove as difficult as I thought, so its now in game.

Whilst doing the texturing I decided to implement something I've been thinking about for a while. I like the fact that Stencil Shadows help to give a 3d feel to the model, anchoring it to the terrain., but, in common with many others, I find them difficult to do and not the best form of shadow effect. In particular, I hate the shadows being cast at night, as it seems somewhat less than prototypical, especially when they are cast onto the surface of a light beam. Consequently I now add the _ fx_day extension to my shadows, so they only appear during the day.

On the subject of textures, Gary used some of the US assets which don't have winter textures, so asked if I could make some? Making winter textures is easy with the help of RWTools, but the problem is getting the game to recognise they are there. Took me a while to work out but I came to realise that in the .geopcdx file is a line like this, for objects without winter textures.

textures\[00]us_road_dirt_1lane

But, if you change the [00] to [08], then winter textures will be recognised, so problem solved.

What time is it?

2010-01-20T13:43:00.004Z

On Google Earth is a model of the Prince Albert Memorial clock tower, in The Square, Barnstaple, and I thought it may transfer to Railworks, with a little effort.

Unfortunately it ran to 30000 polys, so I decided to make my own. I managed to complete the model in 2550 polys.

I also animated the hands, but I suspect there may be a better way as my .bin files don't look like the Kuju ones. Still, it works.

I was very pleased to complete the model in one day, but I suspect the texturing will take considerably longer!

Heritage

2010-01-15T17:34:00.003Z

Just completed my version of the Barnstaple Heritage Centre.

A fairly low quality version, but I hope it gives the right feel.

Barnstaple Heritage Centre is housed in the grade I and II listed "Queen Anne's Walk" building on the riverfront. Once a merchant's walkway (the Great Quay once cut in in front of the collonade). In 1709 the fancy stonework and statue of Queen Anne was added. The building behind the Colonnade was built in the 1850s and has been used as a baths & wash-house, a masonic lodge and a day-centre, but has now been given a new lease of life as Barnstaple Heritage Centre.

The shipping news

2009-12-17T10:07:00.003Z

I've been helping CaptainBazza get a couple of new vessels into Railworks. The first is the MV Infanta, a small cargo ship made for a new route based in Cantabria.

The second is a sailing vessel used to ferry cargo up the River Taw to Barnstaple and was a request of mine for inclusion in the L&B route. Should be appearing alongside Rolle Quay (when I finish Rolle Quay)

East of Barnstaple Station

2009-11-30T16:52:00.003Z

At last. Finished the block of buildings to the east of Barnstaple Station

As it was

My version

Crane again

2009-11-06T20:56:00.004Z

Crane is now in the game.

Must try animating it sometime, should be fun trying to get the "level luffing" system working. Still, must get back to L&B before Gary and the guys get annoyed with me, but it made a nice change.

I love cranes

2009-10-29T19:50:00.003Z

Absolutely nothing to do with Lynton & Barnstaple, but I love cranes and when somebody on UKTS asked for one of these, I couldn't resist the challenge!

Texturing still to do, so will be a little while yet. Wish I could bake some shadows, wonder if 3dsMax will ever do a pensioners version?

Level Crossing

2009-10-23T20:35:00.003+01:00

Very impressed with AndiS' lua script for opening level crossings. Couldn't resist trying it on Braunton Crossing.

Barnstaple Electric Light

2009-10-18T15:34:00.005+01:00

Having just finished the Barnstaple Electric Light Works, just thought I'd add a bit of interest with an electric vehicle to go with it.

The vehicle livery is in the same style as the original but I had to guess the colour scheme.

Let there be light

2009-10-13T15:43:00.003+01:00

A new asset for the roadside, to add a bit of illumination.

Some difficulty with the transparent textures trying to avoid alpha sorting problems. Not sure I've completely solved this one but I am pleased with the lighting effect on the post itself, showing light in the beam and dark outside.

Davies Tyre Works

2009-10-11T15:23:00.004+01:00

Just completed my latest addition to the route, Davies Tyre Works.

Has taken a while, as the research material consisted of the black & white aerial shot, above, when it was still a seed merchants, and a couple of partial views glimpsed in the background of Barnstaple Station photos.

As nothing remains of this site (now a telephone exchange) and it was modified by 1935 (my period of interest), it was something of a jump into the unknown, both structurally and texture wise.

Anyway here's my take on the subject.

What fix?

2009-09-20T09:41:00.002+01:00

Having created a new boat in Railworks and reading that RSDL have fixed the problems with the pathways for boats, I thought it was an ideal opportunity to make a new boat path for RW.

Well that didn't work. The model, in game, is still turned inside out and the wrong way round, so what they fixed I don't know.

On closer examination it seems they have solved the problem of extra boats being generated at track joints.

PS Carrier

2009-09-19T14:11:00.000+01:00

Todays problem is to help CaptainBazza export one of his models into the game. This is the Paddle ship Carrier, which used to work the Isle of Wight ferry in the 19th century.

Checked the model and materials, exported to igs then added particle effects in blueprint editor and voila!

Story to date...

2009-09-19T08:53:00.000+01:00

About 10 months ago Gary Soden, who I worked with on the Westvale route for MSTS, asked if I wanted to help create a route for RS. I agreed and so we started the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway.

It's been a long learning curve, starting with 3DCanvas then RS itself. As it's mainly single track, with its own specific rolling stock, we felt the route would have limited appeal for scenario/rolling stock creators, therefore we decided to make the route as prototypical as possible. Hopefully, this would do justice to one of the UK's signature NG routes. We also chose to model the line just prior to its closure in 1935, when under Southern ownership.

The choice of prototypical has generated its own difficulties, particularly in researching the line as it was during the 1930's, but much help has been received from Keith Vingoe, the archivist for the L&B. In a similar manner, as a first time 3dc modeller, I knew I couldn't produce all the items necessary for a prototypical route, so a number of people from the UKTS forum have kindly agreed to provide content.

I would like to give them a mention here in thanks, they are...

Barry (CaptainBazza), Brian (BWalker), Chris (Ferrisybuga), David (Longbow), John (Johny), Kevin (Kevmt), Mike (sp762)

So, where are we today? The track is laid and I've produced over 20 bridges to represent the 80 that were on the route, the latest being the Taw viaduct which was created as a loft with the uprights as separate scenery items. The uprights had to be made separate because the bridge curves, but the uprights are all parallel to each other, so couldn't be part of the loft as geometry items.

We are currently concentrating on Barnstaple, trying to reproduce as many of the buildings as possible, before we head out into the countryside. Its time consuming work and will take a while, but we'll get there!

In view of the length of time we envisage the route will take, it is now being developed in Railworks as that is the format supported by RSDL and we want to take advantage of any improvements that arise.

Welcome

2009-09-18T09:23:00.001+01:00

Hi,

I'm currently helping to re-create the Lynton & Barnstaple railway for the Railworks train simulator, and hope to post the details of some of my trials and tribulations as I go along.