Rolling Stock skinning ideas

[WPandP]

I haven't done testing to see whether or not it is actually affecting gameplay, but what I have been doing is changing the car weight in both places - in the CAR file, I set it to be half of the full weight, and in the CGO I set it to be equal to the full weight that I desire.

Actually, I was hoping that by releasing these I'd get some playtesters who would pay attention to this. More specifically, I meant YOU bomber, since you said you tried testing weight changes before. That tells me that you have a test-bed scenario already created, so I'd appreciate it if you put the Iron hoppers to the test. They range in weight from 50, to 70, to 90 tons (after 1907), nice even increments that should have an affect.

So basically, I don't know whether I have "solved" the issue or not!

[Hawk]

OK! I got all the new cars added to my site.
The three hoppers and the Express cars.
You might want to stop by the Extras page and double check me. You know how I make mistakes.

[KevinL]

MORE CARS ARE AVAILABLE!

Have you ever noticed that the default Hopper car in RRT3, which gets used to carry bauxite, coal, and iron, has a stencil on the side which clearly forbids such loads? "Ballast Loading Only" it says, or something to that effect. Isn't that irritating?

Ok, I am an ignoramus. What is ballast and why cant you put bauxite, coal, and iron into a hopper?

[wsherrick]

Ballast is the gravel that you put under the railroad track to hold it in place when you speak of it in a railroad context. Ballast can be any aggregate material. In the past locomotive cinders were used a lot since there was obviously a steady supply of it during the steam era. Broken up slag, limestone or anything else handy is often used. If a railroad track just sat on the ground, it would soon sink into the earth from the constant pounding of trains running over it. The track would also kink out of shape in places and shift out of line. This was a big problem during the building of the early railroads because they didn't have enough cash to do a proper job or they were laying track as fast as they could throw it down with the idea that they would come back and fix it later. Ballast holds the track in place and elevates it above the ground so water can easily drain off the right of way.
The railroads use old gondola or hopper cars to move ballast to where it is needed. These cars have mostly been retired from regular service and are dedicated only for use in track maintenance and therefore are stenciled as such. Some cars are specifically designed for ballast transport and are able to be dumped etc. and are unsuitable for any other service. Hope this helps you out.

[Wolverine@MSU]

That leads to an interesting idea for scenarios. With Rock now a cargo, one could give a break on track maintanence (or other operating parameter) based on the number of Rock loads hauled.

[Canadian Viking]

Good idea, Wolverine. Another angle would be an extra charge if a small number of rock loads are not hauled every couple years. If you don't maintain your ballast, your track becomes uneven and you experience more derailments, thus the extra cost.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I can't seem to get the Fruit Reefer to show up properly. All of the other ones seem to work OK (although I haven't looked at specific situations that invoke each Coach/Diner). I like the new look, and the different hoppers for coal/bauxite/iron. Goods and Pulpwood work fine, I just don't see the new reefer. I double checked, and reinstalled all of the necessary files in the right places, but it's a no go. Any ideas?
Another comment/question: The number of associated files in the UserExtraContent folder is growing rather large (over 900 now). Is there an upper limit on the number of files that can be placed into a folder on Win XP?
Kudos to you Viking! It looks like an incredible amount of work to put even one new car together, let alone the number you have provided. It adds a nice new dimension to the game.

[Hawk]

Kudos to you Viking!

Don't you mean WP&P?

[Ace of Spades]

Everything is working fine from this end. I really like the new coal hoppers.

WP&P....Did you ever figure out what the problem was with the 2D Pulpwood icon? It still uses the old Goods icon.

Again...Great work on all of these new skins. They really add a lot of something to the whole game.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Kudos to you Viking!

Don't you mean WP&P?

Yes I do. My bad

[WPandP]

Okay, I am back on the job, getting cars skinned and packed up! Here is what is next:

The Corn "Covered Hopper"











This is the first of a set of "Covered Hoppers" that I intend to do, each using different roadnames, but all basically grey. I had to cheat a bit with the early cars, since they were boxcars (real covered hoppers didn't exist prior to the turn of the century) and I couldn't find any grey boxcars. By bleaching out the color a good bit, these early cars are "greyish"; when I do boxcars they'll be noticeably darker.

The 'X' car model is the Northern Pacific boxcar, which occurs from 1882 to 1922. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am following a master plan to introduce transitional car models, with a more gradual increase of car weights, and start/stop dates that overlap more.

If you want to download this for your own enjoyment, do so here:
http://wpandp.com/RRT3/Ccorn.zip

If you wish to read the ReadMe, click here:
http://wpandp.com/RRT3/ReadMe_Corn.txt

As always, I enjoy your comments!

[Hawk]

Are these ready for prime time (adding to my site)?

[WPandP]

These are ready, as is the Royal Hudson that I posted on another thread.

[wsherrick]

Really, really, super great These are here in time for my next scenario in which corn is one of the big factors. It's about the near future, oil shortages, sky rocketing fuel prices and shipping corn to the ethanol plants (warehouses) to turn it into oil and diesel. Keep it up, I just love all of these new cars.

[Hawk]

These are ready, as is the Royal Hudson that I posted on another thread.

Got 'em. I'll try and get them added today.



Edit 1: OK! They've been added.

[WPandP]

The Grain "Covered Hopper"









The next Covered Hopper is for Grain - the "A" and "B" era cars (prior to 1892) look the same as the Corn cars, already released, while the later cars have different roadnames. For the "D" car, I couldn't resist using the SOO with its large grain logo. For the "Z" era, the BN car uses a trick I just discovered, in that I combined a boxcar body with the HopD body, by naming the HopD body as "Truck3", and then remapping the skin file. This is extremely tedious, but it shows that it is indeed possible to combine engine and car bodies. In this case, the HopD provides the four hopper bays below the sill line; these are skinned with a simple gray color to keep the hex-editing simple - the lack of detail down here is not really noticeable.

If you want to download this for your own enjoyment, do so here:
http://wpandp.com/RRT3/Cgran.zip

If you wish to read the ReadMe, click here:
http://wpandp.com/RRT3/ReadMe_Grain.txt

As always, I enjoy your comments!

[wsherrick]

I just downloaded the grain cars? As usual they look absolutely great. I have a question though. Which time period are the BN cars?

[Hawk]

Can I assume this one is ready for Prime Time?

[WPandP]

Actually, Hawk, maybe you can hold off for a little bit - I realized that one of my IMB files declares the wrong size for the car icon, leaving a gap between one car and the next on the 2D interface. Should be a simple fix, but I'll have to re-pack the PK4 and re-upload it, hopefully tonight.

wsherrick - the BN car is the last model, available in the 1990's and beyond (I forget when the actual breakpoint is, perhaps 1987 or 1992).

[Hawk]

Actually, Hawk, maybe you can hold off for a little bit - I realized that one of my IMB files declares the wrong size for the car icon, leaving a gap between one car and the next on the 2D interface. Should be a simple fix, but I'll have to re-pack the PK4 and re-upload it, hopefully tonight.

Will do.