I've still been working on the route every week but haven't posted any screenshots for bit. Feel free to leave me any feedback or suggestions. If wasn't for all the help everyone has provided me here I just wouldn't be able to complete this project. A rainy evening in Polk County. E Elm & N 2nd street in Clinton. Standing outside the Lion's Club in Weaubleau. Looking south down the MKT line. Mrs. Cleats waives to the MKT engineer from her stoop in her back yard. Gallinipper Creek just north of the Osage River. Looking west while #24 travels north along Gallinipper Creek. That's the abandoned KCCS on the near side. A MKT GP7 spots a Manufactures Railway Company car (full of party favors) at Crome, W.F. & Co. wholesale groceries in Clinton. Here's a single dome SLSF tank car I reskinned. Setting at the oil tanks in Bolivar.
Really doing a nice job with your version of the Highline! Your appreciation for the line is coming through loud and clear. Andre
Holy cow! At first I missed the "V scale" heading. I thought my modeling skills were slacking. Those images are very cool. I would like to do that for the Hoxie Branch but I have no software skills. Very nice.
You are doing a fantastic job, Derrick. It won't take many more images like these to make me a V scale convert.
I appreciate that. I still have family close to the old Highline and that's what makes it special to me. Actually that's the beauty of "Trainz". You don't need a high software skill set. IMHO it's the best for creating routes. It's funny you mention that. I contacted the editor of http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/. I was hoping to write an article about v-scale featuring my Highline route with pics and video. After several emails there doesn't seem to be much interest. The editor mentioned there is a significant conscious in their community that v-scale belongs in a "computer magazine". The editor has expressed in past editorials he adopts the new electronic medium. My guess is he could be afraid of feedback from advertisers and I can totally understand that. Still most v-scalers are also traditional modelers and I think think this forum shows that.
Nice job Derrick! I am enjoying the heck out of seeing my favorite Frisco line being modeled in vscale. The smoldering trash barrel in the backyard is a nice touch. I grew up in small town Missouri and burning the trash was one of my chores back in the 70's. Hadn't thought of that in many years. My only suggestion is that you extend the line north from Clinton to Kansas City. Don't take the magazine rejection personally. The editor at model railroad hobbyist has a good point and would definately run the risk of offending advertisers. Many manufacturers see vscale as competition for hobby time which takes time away from scale modeling or may even cause a modeler to abandon the hobby completely. I have mixed feelings about it myself as a manufacturer. I see it as competition too, but admit to using MicroSoft Train Simulator and Andre's Arkansas and Ozarks Sub when I need a break from modeling. Dale Rush Blair Line LLC Carthage, MO
Hi Derrick: As Dale mentioned, it IS in direct competition with conventional modeling. Money spent in V scale will be money NOT spent in conventional modeling in any form. The two mediums are NOT symbiotic. Thus, the magazine editor is doing what he needs to do to protect his interests and his bill-paying advertising customers. I do both: V scale and conventional modeling. Just depends on the mood. Each medium has its strong points and its weak points. On the other end of the spectrum: I have a friend (a narrow gauge nut!) that was heavy into the conventional modeling until I introduced him to V scale. In a short time, he was completely converted over to V scale, selling his conventional stuff, and continues in V scale to this day. That is an extreme case, but does illustrate the geniune concern a conventional modeling supplier has. Andre
I must have been very tired last night when I looked at your screenshots or I am in need of new glasses! In the 5th shot I thought that was a guy burning trash in the backyard in a barrel. Instead it is a guy at a brick bbq pit. Funny how sometimes our eyes see what we think is there or what we are familiar with when in reality it is something totally different. Where I grew up burn barrels probably outnumbered bbq pits 50:1. Only the rich people had bbq pits. Nearly everyone had a burn barrel. Dale Rush my Native American name: "Guy with Coke bottle glasses trying to model N scale" Carthage, MO
That's quite alright and thanks for pointing that out about the burn barrels. There is a a smoldering barrel available that I'll have to use in the future. If I remember correctly it was still legal to burn in Independence, Mo. when I was a kid. It might still be legal in Clinton. I remember my grandfather burning trash in a barrel when I was pretty young. Loved to go out and play in the fire.
No its not my creation. I couldn't create the simplest thing in gmax or blender. Try this <kuid:371339:60009>.
Thanks for the tip on the BBQ pit. I went to download it and, what do you know, there were a couple Anheuser-Busch beer cars for download, too! BBQ and beer, it cannot get any better! Thanks, George
Time to add some more screen shots. Thanks again to all the helpful folks here on the forum. Especially Karl who has been a wealth of knowledge on the Highline. A farmer waits for his neighbor to come help him get his new John Deere started. Looking down a small stream with a pair of F7's in the far distance. One of the SLSF caboose reskins I did. Train #20 leaves Flemington almost right on time headed to Kansas City. 12:29 pm. Crossing Weaubleau Creek south of Gerster, Mo. Here's some shots of the "Seed House" and Standard Oil in Bolivar, Mo. Deane Tunaly of the Trainz community made these incredible models from photographs I'd taken of the subjects. If you have a chance view the structures in Google Earth in street view. Deane really did a fantastic job. Thanks to everyone that posted information on the SLSF whistle posts signs. These posts were created by bnsf50 (Clem) of the Trainz community. Vista, Mo. Notice the very small depot in the 5th pic here. According to legend there's a old SLSF boxcar buried in all this junk somewhere just south of Vista.
Standing close to the Frisco Depot in Clinton. Coal traveling down the Highline just north of Osceola.
A view of the Vista depot and Missouri State Hwy 13 Bolivar and the MFA Elevator. Thanks to Deane Tunely for the beautiful MFA elevator. The model was created by Deane after his trip and research to Bolivar all the way from Australia. A warm glow is cast across the Ozarks in the early dawn hours as a Frisco steamer leaves Lowry City, Mo.
