Waterside Viaduct

I was in Sedbergh last week and couldn't resist going to have a look at the viaduct over the Lune at Waterside.

Consequently, the modelling desires were re-awakened with the following result.

Cab view

Just a quick post to say I have been busy these last few weeks, just haven't updated the blog.

Have been working on a cab view for the Cauliflower and here's a view of the work so far.

The modelling and animation is finished but there are one or two scripting issues that need resolving. Pete(karma99) is helping out on the lua front and we hope to have the glitches fixed soon.

Joy Valve Gear

While looking for something else entirely, I chanced across a drawing of the inside Joy Valve Gear for a Webb 18" 0-6-0 loco, also nicknamed "Cauliflower".

Could not resist the temptation to retro fit my Cauliflower model, so, with the help of Mike Adams tutorial on creating valve gear using 3ds max bones,(UKTS File ID 26781) I got to it.

Three days and considerable hair loss later, I'm proud to display the results of my endeavours.




Mike's tutorial doesn't cover the Joy Valve Gear, but without the hints and tips I got from his work I don't think I'd have cracked this one. So, thanks Mike.

Going to Church

A UKTS forum member pointed out there was a considerable shortage of churches in RailWorks, so I got carried away and built a few.

Coal crane

Some time ago I had a problem with the animation of the coalcrane for Pilton yard on the L&B. At the end of its animation it would suddenly jump to the out position.



Geoff Potter had a similar problem with his water column and has managed to resolve the issue. Essentially, you need two animations, one with an IA file ending in _activate and one ending in _deactivate and in the blueprint you need two animation fields, one with an ID of activate and one with an ID of deactivate.

I applied this to my model and hey presto, it works. Many thanks to Geoff.

Container Transfer Point

The RMG (rail mounted gantry) is finished, after resolving the problems mentioned in my previous post.

In addition to the static version I also created an animated one, plus two transfer point versions.



I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Dick Ham. whose help was important in realising the release of the transfer variants.

Transfer Point Problems

I have struggled for several days with a problem transfer point container crane and have just resolved the issue and want to record the details for the benefit of others.

When I ran the animation to unload a container from a wagon the system would crash with a SBHH (something bad has happened) report. I eventually realised that my animation was finishing before the container disappeared and wondered if this was an issue.

I lenghtened the animation time by a couple of seconds and this allowed the container to disappear first and the SBHH no longer occurred. Problem solved and another lesson learned.