Even More Track

[Zorronov]

Looks marvelous, Bill!  Now, how about some brown, rusty, oily looking stuff?  Just me talking dirty...

Cheers,
Fred

[Dermmy]

Ballast looks great, but I reckon that light sleeper will get annoyin'....

[jadebullet]

Nothing that a shit load of creasote wouldn't fix. Anyway, they look really good Bill. I am going to have to head out to the local tracks that still exist so that I can pic out what ballast texture would look the best for the Shamokin Division.

By the way, do you think that there could be any way that you could release a bit of track with low black ballast? The reason that I ask is that I am going to need it for the two coal breakers, St. Nicholas and Locust Summit, on the Shamokin Division.

Something like the color of the dirt around the breaker.


(Some examples of what I need it for)
Locust Summit Breaker




St. Nicholas Breaker




(I think that this route is going to be fun, but like a trial by fire for me since I plan on learning how to create buildings in Gmax(or blender, not sure yet) so that I can recreate structures like these breakers, the freight depot at Tamaqua, and the structures at Saint Clair's yard, along with any other stuff that I come across.)

[s-driver]

Thanks for the comments guys.

 Any place they frequently tie down a loco for the night would have grease and oil spots.  If I can get a suitable picture I'll whip up some dirty grimy track for you Fred.

 I have a nice stockpile of tie pictures to chose from.  It's just a matter of swapping out that light colored one for another one closer in color Andy.

  Alex.  By low ballast I'm assuming your talking about were more of the ties are visible.  That can be done.  I'll have to make some transition track to get the ballast up to were the rest of the ballast is. I even have a pic of some dark material like that for ballast.

Bill

[jadebullet]

Nah, by low ballast, I meant less of an angle on the ballast, but I realized that I can create the same effect using by sinking the tracks a bit.(the tracks seem to be about level with the surrounding ground, just a bit higher.) Though once you mentioned the height of the ties on the ballast and I looked at the pics I realized something. Is there any way that you could make some track with the dark ballast close to the tops of the ties, maybe a little bit of coal on the ties from where it spilled out of the hoppers?

[s-driver]

That would be easy enough to do.  I have some ideas I'll mess with later.

Bill

[jadebullet]

Okay cool, thanks.

[Mikeski]

Looks great Bill, love the tracks in the last shot. Is there any chance you could do some abandon tracks? Overgrown, broken ties (that'd probably cause the poly count to go through the roof), etc.

[s-driver]

That is abandon track.  To make it look overgrown it would be best for you to put whatever grass and weeds your using for the route.  The chances are high that whatever foliage I made or used wouldn't match well enough with what your using.  Either that or I wouldn't have enough or to much grass for what you want. About the most I think I could do is put some grass in the texture itself.  When I get a chance I'll see what I can do about some broken ties.  The biggest challenge with that would be to prevent the obvious repeats like that light colored tie.

Bill

[jadebullet]

Repetition shouldn't be that bad of a problem if you keep it pretty simple with the broken ties.

Here is a good pic of a simple broken tie. It shouldn't be that repetitive if done like this and kept the same color as the other ties.(I don't think it will anyway. I have no real experience with content creation yet.) This is a pretty good example of what the railroad ties, and ballast look like around where I live by the way.

[Zorronov]

Bill...if you want to see some pics of the kind of track I'm talking about go here:

http://www.wislew.com/riversubphotosinfo.htm

This is a terrific website for anyone interested in the CSX River Subdivision.  It has page after page after page of text and photos of the West Shore of the Hudson.  Lots of pics and info.

Cheers,
Fred

P.S.  I have both of the DVD's mentioned there and they are way cool!   

[s-driver]

By request I have redone up my track without the oil and grease stains between the rails. These have different kuid numbers so you can have both on the route if you like.  They should be available soon but in the mean time you can get the light colored here, the dark colored here, and the red colored here.



Enjoy.

Bill

[DelmarvaFan]

Beauty tracks there, Bill!

Also, a probably would you make a concrete ties? Likely, belong to BNSF and UP from west coast. Maybe, you should be knowledge about that. 8)

+1 for Bill! Because, he always keep alot a build make a new a improvement version of an tracks and rails thing like be projects something, make he work hard. So, that's why I give him a applaud increase one point! 8)

[s-driver]

I'll be doing some concrete ties but I don't know when.  I still have a couple more ballast types I need to finish up too.

Bill

[DelmarvaFan]

I'll be doing some concrete ties but I don't know when.  I still have a couple more ballast types I need to finish up too.

Bill

That no problem.

Ah, that's cool so just taking your time, Bill!