CKPR

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

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

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

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.