Bogie Wagon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.