GP7 A+B unit (Final for real this time)

[Just Crazy Jim]

IMPORTANT:
----------
If you downloaded this mod earlier, please make certain to delete the following
files from your EngineTypes folder:

GP7twins Loco.CAR
GP7twins Loco.LCO
GP7twins Tender.CAR

READ ME FILE:

Code: Select all

GP7 A+B Unit
------------
This locomotive mod is meant to be BROADLY representational of the GP7s and GP9s built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and General Motors Diesel from 1949 until 1963, no few of which are still in service as "park engines", but many more still see regular service on North American class I, class II and short line rails.

This year (2016), I saw a freshly painted and rebuilt GP9 B-Unit in the yard at Raceland Kentucky, being moved under its own power without an A-unit.  The operator was using the simple controls on the side, that are usually hidden by a panel door.  It was an unusual enough sight that I stopped the car and inquired about it.  Living were I see mile-long coal trains on a regular basis and having to wait for them to clear the all too frequent gradings while my groceries liquefy in the summer heat, I'm not usually a fan of diesel.  But this odd encounter made me at least interested enough in GP7s and GP9s to respect them for being able to haul more coal out of Appalachia than any other locomotive design.

I went with a proper "slug" design for the B-Unit based on what I saw.

Available: 1953-1993
Fuel type: Diesel
Location: North America (custom stats)/North America, World (Poptop stats)
Top Speed: 75 m.p.h. (custom stats)/ 71 m.p.h. (PopTop stats)
Grade climbing: Above average (custom stats)/Average (PopTop stats)
Cost: $380,000 (custom stats)/$200,000 (PopTop stats)
Annual maintenance: $17,500 (custom stats)/$10,000 (PopTop stats)
Fuel economy: Above average
Acceleration: Above average (custom stats)/Poor (PopTop stats)
Reliability: Outstanding (custom stats)/Good (PopTop stats)
Passenger Appeal: Ugly

IMPORTANT!
----------
There are two versions of the LCO and CAR files.  Choose one set for your installation.
The custom stats version costs a little more to run, but gives superior performance on grades
The PopTop stats version is identical in every way to the default GP7 in RT3 for running costs and performance
Both sets of files use the same PK4

INSTALLATION:
-------------
The LCO and CAR files go into the Data/EngineTypes directory of your RT3 installation

The PK4 goes into the Data/UserExtraContent directory of your RT3 installation

NOTA BENE:
----------

If you downloaded this mod earlier, please make certain to delete the following
files from your EngineTypes folder:

GP7twins Loco.CAR
GP7twins Loco.LCO
GP7twins Tender.CAR

Edit: made a new texture that is less hurtful to the eyes, tweaked the mesh in several ways, slight improvement in grade-climbing, updated ZIP file

Edit: Revision 3 - improved grade-climbing (for real this time), fixed beauty shot, fixed profile image

Edit: added Eyecandy version, exact same stats and running costs as the PopTop GP7

Edit: Another calibration of the LCO... When will it end?

Edit: For real this time, Final version. Two sets of LCO/CAR files for the same PK4 included in the RAR archive. Updated ReadMe file.

---

Edit by Hawk: File removed from post. Added to archive.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Post Script: I am willing to make a different skin for this loco, I just am not original enough to think of a colour scheme that looked better than the PopTop skin and I was hesitant to go with real world liveries, especially since my taste runs to the obscure and fallen flag sorts of railroads (e.g., Providence & Worcester, Boston & Maine, Maine Central, Delaware & Hudson, etc).

[Gumboots]

My 2c: just pick any livery you like and use that. If someone else wants something different, they can pull their finger out and make it themselves.

My extra 2c (which makes 4c, so you'll be rich): Do it without the railroad name. This will give a generic skin so you don't have Boston & Maine or whatever all over Africa.

[Just Crazy Jim]

My 2c: just pick any livery you like and use that. If someone else wants something different, they can pull their finger out and make it themselves.

My extra 2c (which makes 4c, so you'll be rich): Do it without the railroad name. This will give a generic skin so you don't have Boston & Maine or whatever all over Africa.

I will take your four cents and thank you for them. Somehow, it never occurred to me to not include the logo/name on the texture... Talk about OCD.

[RulerofRails]

Gumboots gave good suggestions.

Personally, I don't like Poptop's skin on this one in the first place, most anything else will be better to my eyes.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Gumboots gave good suggestions.

Personally, I don't like Poptop's skin on this one in the first place, most anything else will be better to my eyes.

Agreed on both accounts. I have tried to like this one's default texture, but even being a Miami Dolphins fan can't cut through the ugly on this one.

Because of all the details, the base texture for the GP7 is not one of the easier ones to recolour. PopTop out did themselves on this one - adding scabby paint and (dubious) discolorations and implied/discreet/mock 3D highlights. TBH, outside of the salvage end of a rail yard, I don't think I've ever seen a loco IRL as beat down as this thing ships from the factory. The yard dogs they use at the mines hereabouts look better.

I'm not sure why they went to the trouble. Even using dgVoodoo2, the details are mostly lost. AFAIK, when new, most GP7s (1949-1953 production) and GP9s (1954–1963 production) were painted solid black, with the company name/logo/letters typically blazoned in white. Only the few that saw PAX service got better painting, and there weren't many that saw PAX service. IIRC, at the time, as far as diesel-electrics were concerned, the sharknosed Baldwin RF-16 (1950-1953 production) was considered the new sexy for PAX even though they had enough "gruntitude"* to do coal drags in Appalachia. IMHO, it's sad the sharknose design lost the battle of the loco designs. The bullet-nosed EMD PAX cabs never thrilled me. Even the 1950s-futurism of the EMD LWT12 isn't appealing to me.

*best new railroading term ever.

[Gumboots]

How about this for a five minute job? Could easily be tweaked some more, but 'tis less gruesome than the default IMO. I sorta got the idea from some of the paint jobs various Australian diesels have had.

[Just Crazy Jim]

How about this for a five minute job? Could easily be tweaked some more, but 'tis less gruesome than the default IMO. I sorta got the idea from some of the paint jobs various Australian diesels have had.

Very nicely done.

My work isn't complete enough to get a full model shot yet - but I went with two ideas:

LiveryChoices01.jpg (11.04 KiB) Viewed 11382 times

[Gumboots]

Looks promising. You're doing it properly. I just used selections and hue/saturation tricks for a quick test.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Looks promising. You're doing it properly. I just used selections and hue/saturation tricks for a quick test.

The hue/saturation tricks are usually pretty helpful for most textures, but the few quick tests I did ended up looking worse than the original.

So, I'm doing it the hard way. Even going to the pain of pixel-painting the details on a new layer and trying to replicate some of the bumped out bits using bevel and emboss. You can see how they did some of the texture details if you're familiar with Photoshop effects. But that grotty paint thing with fresh paint over peeling paint, I think was a repeating texture they stamped in as needed.

[Gumboots]

Yeah they probably threw a texture overlay on it, then did the panel lines and rivets on top of that.

[Gumboots]

Y'know on closer inspection the default skin is a bit rough in places. It's not done to a consistent standard. The rear end of the roof gets chopped by a useless bit of alpha that doesn't need to be there, and the cab side windows were never skinned properly. There's couple of other minor niggles as well.

So they put a lot of effort into making the paint look rough and doing panel lines, but then missed some pretty obvious stuff. I'd never noticed before because I never use diesels anyway. Not hard to fix if anyone wants to, but just more RT3 bugz.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Y'know on closer inspection the default skin is a bit rough in places. It's not done to a consistent standard. The rear end of the roof gets chopped by a useless bit of alpha that doesn't need to be there, and the cab side windows were never skinned properly. There's couple of other minor niggles as well.

So they put a lot of effort into making the paint look rough and doing panel lines, but then missed some pretty obvious stuff. I'd never noticed before because I never use diesels anyway. Not hard to fix if anyone wants to, but just more RT3 bugz.

The whistles/horns on the model are in the wrong position as well. They're typically positioned on the roof, sometimes over the forward headlights, sometimes mid-body. Some surviving examples have those nacelle bumps at the top, but I'm pretty sure those are rebuilds because the "humps" were not present on the demonstrators GM sent out for on-rails testing (e.g., GM EMD No.100) and are not present on units in period photos of GP7s (e.g., Belt Railway of Chicago No.477; Burlington No.234; Chesapeake and Ohio No.5704; Chicago Great Western No.1635; Georgia RR No.1026; Illinois Terminal No.1605, Missouri Pacific No.1771; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Nos.101-104). It's in photos of units during the early 1970s that you begin seeing the "humps" (e.g., Bangor and Aroostook No.75; Canadian National No.4803; Canadian Pacific No.8411; Reading Nos.608 & 614; Western Pacific No.713). And there are some so-called "GP8" rebuilds by Illinois Central that have their own oddities. There are also a few details that differ between the USA-made units and the units made in Canada.

TBH, I don't know precisely what the PopTop boys were using as a basis for their model, because I have yet to find a photo of an EMD GP7 that lines up detail for detail with their model. But, then, I am very much like you, Gumboots. I am no fan of the modern marvels. However, I will rush out of the house with camera in hand if I hear the sour, raspy note of a steam whistle in the distance.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Making progress... not sure if I should paint the undercarriage and trucks though. The pilot is almost always painted to match the livery, the undercarriage stuff, usually just gets splashed with black paint if it isn't aluminium paint.

[Gumboots]

I wouldn't worry about it.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Finished with the 1024x1024 textures for both units. Now, I just have to go through the resizing process for the smaller textures.

Of course, as one project comes to a close, another leaps to take its place. Now, I'm thinking about making a matching EMD DH1 unit to fill the Shay niche for the diesel era. Not exactly, perfectly accurate, but, well, what in this sinful world ever is?

[Gumboots]

I just realised that you've removed the cab and various bits from the B unit. Which makes sense now that I think of it*, but is not something I'd thought of before. Nice job.

*I assume the non-cab units were cheaper to produce, and just as good for a B since double-heading diesels doesn't require two crews.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Thank you.

Yes, you're correct on a number of levels. The cab-less units were a bit cheaper to produce and diesel-electrics generally have a linkage that allows one driver to control as many units as are hooked together from one controller. The B-units I saw in the yard at Raceland, Kentucky, were essentially A-units without a cab, but there are quite a few variations. Some B-units had a higher end and a lower end, you might see some of those on Norfolk Southern rails. Also, some B-units were about half of the overall height of the A-unit, especially those used by Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe and Canadian National. Some low-height B-units were build with a cab, those look very much like a typical diesel switcher. And finally some B-units have a flush-set cab that has windows facing out from the centre-line with no view of the tracks (which seems crazy to me).

With no cab at all, the cost for a B-unit was about 20 to 25% less than a typical A-unit. I have never seen an documentation on it, but I would also guess that the shorter B-units probably cost less than full height B-units.

The key point in all of it is that one driver can control a bunch of diesels at the same time. I didn't know that until I started researching B-units, which is ironic indeed since my best friend is a driver for Norfolk-Southern and I never thought to ask about that.

[Just Crazy Jim]

Final version is now available in the first post. I tried to implement what I thought was reasonable performance and profitability using Gumboots and RulerofRails data. I tested it, it made money, it climbed grades. Now let's hope it works as well as the real world GP7s and GP9s...

[Gumboots]

Well, it's still a beast that only a mother could love, but at least it won't scare the children now.