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Three Rivers Region

Started by dedgren, December 20, 2006, 07:57:49 PM

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tkirch

#1300
David,


Awesome as always!!  The maps you make are just amazing and you have to give us some tutorials on how you make them all.  WOW!!

Every day I come in here and you inspire us all.  I can't wait to see what you do next.

Todd

dedgren

#1301
Todd (tkirch), did I just see you join the 3RR "double-0" club?

We'll see...


David

EDIT: (a while later)...

Well, my friend, sorry.  We ran short of funds to do the "00" honors this time around so had to cut things off a bit early.

* * *

Joan (jmouse), as you made the 1,291st comment on 3RR here at SC4D, we're proud to bring to your attention the following.



And, right behind the marker...



A small plaque on the engine not visible in the pic notes as follows.



Quote
F. J. LAVINO and CO. #1291
This saddletank coal-burner switch engine was built by the American Locomotive Company, Paterson, New Jersey, June 16, 1923, at the company's 19th-century Cooke Works.  The engine, which was Builder's No. 64764, is a Class 060-T-123, meaning it has six drivers, no pilot or trailing wheels, carries its 1,700 gallons of water in tanks astride its boiler, and was designed to weigh 123,000 pounds. It is 32 feet 3-1/2 inches long, 9 feet 10-1/2 inches wide, and 13 feet 3-1/2 inches high, weighs 117,440 pounds (58.72 tons), and has 44 inch drivers, 17 inch x 24 inch cylinders, 180 pound boiler pressure, Stephenson valve gear, and 24,200 pounds of tractive effort. It carries 1-1/2 tons of coal in a bunker on the rear of its frame. With no tender, the 0-6-OT had excellent rearward visibility.

The engine was delivered new to the F. J. Lavino and Co., a fish-packing firm, as No. 1291. Lettered in various schemes, with yellow trim and cab and bunker "L" monograms and white wheel rims, it served as a busy Thunder Bay yard switcher until retired when the Pineshore-Cold Lake Short Line was abandoned in the mid 1950s.  Local residents called it, based on its appearance and the color its smoke left their wash when it was hung outside, the "Grey Mouse."

You'll be happy to note that, with the assistance of a grant from the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum [linkie], No. 1291 is scheduled to be restored by the 3RR Historic Society starting in 2008.  At that time, it will be moved to a permanent location in Thunder Bay Regional Park, which will be fully wheelchair-accessible.

So, welcome to a place on the 3RR landscape.

* * *

Todd...

...

...just kidding.  Your turn is on the way.


David


All text and image rights reserved in the original copyright holder.  Text and images are modified and used in 3RR on this non-profit website under the Fair Use Doctrine and as imaginary satire.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent or, if unchanged, are not meant to refer to any actual person or entity, living or dead.

D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

flame1396

#1302
Quote from: dedgren on May 23, 2007, 11:24:36 AM

Several large airports in Alaska have resurfaced 100'/32m+ wide runways in asphalt.  I think most major US airports, though, use concrete- keeps the concrete contractors happy, I guess.


Here's my 2 cents.

Concrete is more durable than asphalt, BUT asphalt is more heat tolerant: it can more readily expand and contract without cracking. Asphalt in AK makes perfect sense due to the inherently harsh freeze-thaw cycle of the northern regions, they can sacrifice some durability due to the lighter traffic load at most alaska airports (barring small plane traffic, ie. bushplanes).

Some major airports are also located in harsh climates where increased heat tolerance would be beneficial, BUT the high traffic most likely makes it more cost effective to use the more durable cement vs. the more heat tolerant asphalt as the small-area damage, like cracks, in cement are cheaper to fix (in time cost, which is important at major airports, with small damage time delays can be spread out or eliminated) than overall wear on an asphalt surface which can take days to repair.

Personally I think that's some pretty solid logic for a 15 year old  :thumbsup:

PS: Still annoyed about the crosswalks in the middle of nowhere? Piques my interest, seems time for a good experiment.

PPS: You got any insight for seasonal god mode trees? I'm made an initial effort but have had a wee bit of trouble in 2 areas: 1) Not sure what the heck I'm doing, 2) My idea for it allows only 2 seasons (game must be fooled into thinking the tree is 1 prop I think I may have figured that one out but only for 2 seasons)....  ()sad()
The most astounding and unique aspect of the human race is our fervent application of our ingenuity to kill each other, thus completely defying the near-universally proven fact that the ultimate goal of a member of a species is to ensure the survival of the species.

BigSlark

I like the switcher story, David. I'm curious as to what Todd will be memorialized with...

Cheers,
Kevin

tkirch

You big tease.  I actually got down.  Then you pulled a fast one.  That was great.

Love the 1291 Train.

Side note:  Was willing to pay more taxes for a 00 marker  :D

Darmok

Hello!

Hehehe....

You sure are funny!

Just came home, looked at AVR, and there was the shortest and funniest post in a while!

Back to 3RR, I'll have to step a few.... well strike that, a LOT of pages back and read....

In the meantime, relax and consider yourself saluted my friend!

-John
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=112.last#last

If you have a closed mind, do the same with your mouth

Shadow Assassin

*shakes fist at tkirch* That was mine! :P

Hehe, welcome to the '00' club. :P

Thunder Crack's looking nice, but it's kinda devoid of rocks for the waterfall to run around...
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See my uploads on the LEX!

dedgren

#1307
Folks, this isn't photography...

That's what I have to keep telling myself as I work creating pics from SC4.  It can't be.  The elements we're dealing with here are artists' renditions of natural and built objects, and many different artists at that.  The fine granularity of nature, in particular, simply cannot be duplicated when the smallest element one has to work with, the individual pixel, cannot be resolved down to much less than a scale foot across.  So, when I find myself struggling to achieve that "just right" pic, that's what I tell myself- it isn't photography.

That's the reason, btw, that (unless I expressly tell you that I have, and I can count those times on the fingers of one hand) I don't PhotoShop from-the-game pics, except to remove the stray cursor or "go-away" button (and then I only clone as small an area from nearby as it takes to erase the unwanted intrusion).  While P-Shopping is just fine with me in the abstract (and I certainly use it in other 3RR content- that switch engine a bit ago was a 4-10-2 locomotive when I started), I want folks to see what can be done with the game, not with the graphics program.  That's why you see rendering artifacts, such as diagonally barred rocks, from time to time in my pics.  I could 'Shop them out, sure, but as far as I'm concerned that's not what it's all about.

So, on to today's incremental progress with using custom rapids lots in Thunder Crack to create swirling rapids in a chasm.  I fiddled around with and tweaked some lots at the upper end of the gorge to make the transition more seamless.

#1


#2


#3


I have one last idea for a way to best transition from game water to rapids like this, and I'll throw that at you tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's a few more pics from the downstream pov.

#4


#5


#6


#7


You might take another look at my opening comments about photography versus what I'm doing in connection with looking at this last one.

#8


* * *

I note that midnight today is the midpoint of the year, and we'll almost certainly pass 24,000 views of 3RR (although, as I have told you before, a significant number of those may be coming from my little old auntie in Hoboken [linkie], who loves me dearly and has nothing else all day to do).  All joking aside, your loyalty to this little enterprise is truly gratifying, your continued interest is most humbly appreciated, and we still have collaboration to go.  I've made it this far more or less on my own- I promise you that the best is yet to come as the collaboration team takes 3RR to the next level and beyond.

24,000 page views- about 4,000 for each month we've been here- thank you very, very much.


David

p.s.:



...maybe I should charge a lurker tax or something...

No, no, no- as has been said elsewhere, "that would be wrong" [linkie].  Lurkers are always welcome here.  I do recommend, though, that you register as a member of this great website- the price is right, and we can set a payment plan for the truly needy.  Then, once you register, drop us a comment here at 3RR- it'd be great to hear from you!  -DE
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

emilin

Congratulations. On, pretty much, everything! 24.000 views will certainly be milestone (as so many others that have been passed already by 3RR).

It will be extremly interesting to see what the collaboration phase will bring. And I must say, that it does take some guts from you to open up the region for development of this sort. I can't even begin to imagine how many hours you have spent in total on shaping 3RR. To let other people in on building it must feel like your own children moving out of the house.

Oh, and the rapids look great too. ;D

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flame1396

I love your update schedule! Never a long wait for more eye-candy.  :thumbsup:

Loving the rapids!
The most astounding and unique aspect of the human race is our fervent application of our ingenuity to kill each other, thus completely defying the near-universally proven fact that the ultimate goal of a member of a species is to ensure the survival of the species.

thundercrack83

Well, my friend...my eponymous chasm is looking absolutely splendid (I really just wanted to use the word "eponymous"). It truly is amazing what is possible to do in the game before moving to Photoshop, provided you have your talent and patience!

Also, congratulations are in order to you on 24000 views, and to Jmouse and tkirch! Welcome to the club, guys!

BigSlark

David,

Your rapids are great, as usual. And I know that I add at least two views per update, simply because I miss something that makes me go "wow" the first time.

Keep it up, and you'll become the most popular MD'er in SC4 history!

Cheers,
Kevin

dedgren

#1312
Well, hey!  We checked under the couch cushions and, sure enough, there was enough loose change...

...probably dropped by all those lurkers...

...to honor Todd (tkirch) after all.  Sorry for the scare, but we're right at the end of the 3RR fiscal year, and the funds from recent bribes unspecified revenue sources haven't cleared the bank yet.

Drum roll, please!

On the north side of the Low Light Hills over in the SW quad of that same name are some stone ruins that the blink of an eye might cause to be missed.



While the ruins are on private lands, along a road passing to the north one sees this marker.



It doesn't mention that the demise of Brother Todd, who must have been in his 90s by that time, occurred as the result of the quake dropping the church, which was also his home, on top of him during dinner.  It is also not noted that Brother Todd worshipped as a deity St. Heidi, an icon of which



was recovered from the church ruins and now is stored at the 3RR Historical Society's Warehouse #3 in Pineshore along with many other artifacts of 19th century that are too mundane to put on display.

* * *

So, my friend, there you have it.  Recognition for the 1,300th comment and a little piece of 3RR you can call your own.

Have a great day, folks.  Off to work outdoors.


David


All text and image rights reserved in the original copyright holder.  Text and images are modified and used in 3RR on this non-profit website under the Fair Use Doctrine and as imaginary satire.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent or, if unchanged, are not meant to refer to any actual person or entity, living or dead.
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

Jmouse

I am both flattered and humbled by the honor of becoming a small part of 3RR and representing the history of dirty laundry. (Who said begging doesn't pay off!)
As always, today's photos are gorgeous, and my voice joins many others in calling you an inspiration. Whenever I get discouraged and feel tempted to toss the whole computer system in the lake -- complete with the SC4 disks -- all I have to do is visit 3RR for the incentive to try harder.
Thank you, David.

Jm

ACEfanatic02

Quote from: dedgren on June 30, 2007, 08:24:35 AM
Folks, this isn't photography...
Could've fooled me.

Excellent work as always, dedgren.  Those rapids are amazing.

-ACE
日本語勉強中-最近読んだ本はこちらで見えます。
Python Enthusiast

tkirch

Thank you so much.  I love the marker.  My last name actually means Chuch on Hill in German so quite appropriate I must say.

My wife does not need to know about this Heidi though, she's my girl on the side.

As for dying when the church fell on me I knew I should of gotten Norm Abrahm and This Old House in to fix the place up but I kept putting it off.


Thanks again David

Shadow Assassin

#1316
Looking much, much better now that you've added the rapid lots. I feel sorry for the poor person who has to whitewater raft down there on a dare. :P

EDIT:  Like I said- Class VII- runnable only by the certifiably insane.  -DE
New Horizons Productions
Berethor ♦ beskhu3epnm ♦ blade2k5 ♦ dedgren ♦ dmscopio ♦ Ennedi
emilin ♦ Heblem ♦ jplumbley ♦ moganite ♦ M4346 ♦ papab2000
Shadow Assassin ♦ Tarkus ♦ wouanagaine
See my uploads on the LEX!

Darmok

David, is there something I missed somewhere along my reading... (darn glasses...)  ???
in your update "Folks, this isn't photography...", picture #6, looking at the water downstream, that's the ingame water... correct?
so seeing pic #8, what we see upstream... is that some kind of new ploppable water that I don't know about???? if so it looks simply fantastic!!!  :thumbsup:
if it's available who do I have to beg, to get it..... short of selling my soul (or what's left of it) I'd be really interested!
**drooling on the keyboard**

John
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=112.last#last

If you have a closed mind, do the same with your mouth

thundercrack83

Congratulations again, tkirch! I can't wait to see where Brother Todd's Kirche is on the 3RR map!

flame1396

Haha! gotta love the markers!  :thumbsup:
The most astounding and unique aspect of the human race is our fervent application of our ingenuity to kill each other, thus completely defying the near-universally proven fact that the ultimate goal of a member of a species is to ensure the survival of the species.