Southern Smalltown Depot Project

[Frankie]

Recently I have been traveling around the states of GA and AL, and it came to my attention that SC4 lacks depots. Not huge commuter depots like others have made. But older ones from the 1800 or 1900's, no small town in the South or Midwest for that matter does not have one.

During the Late 1800's and 1900's small depots proliferated across the Southern states. A region still crippled (as it would stay until the 1960's) from it's failed fight for independence was becoming well connected by railroads. the L&N (Louisville & Nashville RR) built depots in every small town it went through during this time periods, and many other railroads did the same (such as the Central of Georgia). Most all of these depots remain intact, even if the railroad is no longer present.

During the 1980's and 90's mass abandonments in the South by CSXT and Norfolk Southern reduced the railroad mileage in these states by more than a half. Most of said depots were sold to the towns, where most were left to rot.

In light of this, I have started this project in order to bring a lot of these depots in to Sim City 4. I have many depots planned, and this project could take some time to complete. But in the end, I expect 30 to 40 depots to be released, allowing many choices for your small towns.

My most recent ventures took me to Eufaula, Alabama. A beautiful city located next to Lake Eufaula. Once a sprawling railroad hub, it is now serviced by a single shortline railroad that only makes a couple of trips a week. I took one picture of it, the other two are not mine.

Taken in late July of this year (or early August...I don't remember)



This is not mine: (Shows the renovation of the depot..)



My favorite shot, taken in the early 1980's before the Southern RR abandoned it, the line used to run from Eufaula to Montgomery, but it was abandoned. to the left leads to the E&O (Eufaula & Ozark) interchange (which was also owned by the SOU). Only a mile or two of the former E&O is still in operation and is owned by NS, but is leased to the GSWR (Georgia Southwestern RR):



Anyway, I began modeling the depot, I plan to make both the new renovated depot (the red and yellow) as well as the older CofG (Southern) one. You may recognize these from my BAT thread, but the depots will now be posted here exclusively.



I textured it to the CofG scheme first:



Here's what it looks like on a temporary lot in game:





Well, I hope this project will fetch some sort of interest in my fellow SC4 Community members. As always comments and criticisms are welcome.

If you would like a depot BATted, and it is in AL, GA, SC, FL, MS, LA, TX, or Arkansas (I forgot their abbreviation) feel free to post pictures here so that I can take a look. Exceptions will be made if I feel that it fits in with the project.

Thanks,

Frankie

[bat]

That is looking great, Frankie! Wonderful work!

[SimFox]

It is a very nice work, sadly almost none of it could be seen from game point of view... 

[Frankie]

Well..I was a bit disappointed since most of the most difficult details won't even appear in the game..

My next in line depot is located in none other than my hometown of Dothan, Alabama. They city boasts 3 different depots. A former Central of Georgia depot, Atlantic Coast Line (now CSX) and The Bay Line Railroad. The latter's depot is used by the fire department.

I started with the ACL depot. It is a fairly simple structure that is under-going renovation as we speak.

Here is a "front" view of it:



I may post the other views a little later..Anyway, I started modeling this one as well. I did not texture it yet, but I did get the ground level finished..



I have not decided how I will release these depots yet, and I think it's a bit early to be deciding. I am not very talented at lotting depots such as these, so I may just release this as a prop pack and allow the user to make their own lots..let me know what you think about that.

[JosefBrisko135]

Looking good frankie!!!!

[BigSlark]

Frankie,

Your depots look great! This week I will get around to photographing the Gulf, Mobile, & Ohio passenger depot and freight house, as well as the Illinois Central "Union Station" for your consideration.

And I've been playing around in LE lately and I'd be happy to have a go at turning your models in great looking stations. Send me a PM.

Cheers,
Kevin

[vester]

Well..I was a bit disappointed since most of the most difficult details won't even appear in the game..

Welcome to the club.....

I think that is very common feeling amongst the batter.


Looking like a good start. Is this your first bats ?

[Frankie]

JosefBrisko135: Thanks!!

BigSlark: I'll be waiting :') And I will be happy to let you lot my depots. Normally I would do it myself, but for some reason I'm not very good at lotting buildings like this. (my lotting skills are rusty anyway, it has been at least 3 months since I sat down to do some serious lotting.

vester: Well, these aren't my first BATs, I've actually got about 70 BAT/gmax files on my PC (no joke). Most of them were just failures or experiments. I've put out a couple of BATs, but I honesty hate them all...my warehouses...older grain elevator..they need serious work or makeovers.




Ok, well yesterday Glenni was kind enough to give me some textures to try out, and I now have time to do so. My goal for today is to finish both versions of the Eufaula Depots, (I want to redo the back wall). I also want to do some experimenting with the Dothan ACL Depot and try various textures on it. I was having some troubles with the roof on the ACL depot..but I'm working that out as I post this message,

I'll have some nice pics in a few 


P.S. Does anyone have a dirty/worn shingled roof texture? Similar to that in the shot of the Eufaula depot in the 1980's?

[Pat]

Frankie this is looking wonderful i soo hope you release these once done - pat

[Frankie]

Thanks, Pat, for your support 


I reworked the roof on the Eufaula depot, the original seemed a bit off.





None of these textures are final except the white walls, top of the platform, and the grey parts. The roof still needs work though. After texturing, I believe this one will be ready for rendering, I just gotta tweak a few parts of the model..

As always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

Many thanks,

-Frankie



Addendum: What I am going to do is, after finishing each depot, I will attach the file to a post so that they can be tested, more of a hands on review if you will. Unlike some of my other uploads, I intend to take this one slowly and get it done right the first time. The idea is I will BAT has many as I can until I get 10MB worth, then I'll bundle them up and upload. (usually anything over 10MB can be a pain to download).

[Pat]

Frankie its my pleasure to keep on coming back in and seeing your wonderful work and dont change a thing on this one....

[Travis]

Looking great Frankie- I especially like the textures on that last depot. 

Addendum: What I am going to do is, after finishing each depot, I will attach the file to a post so that they can be tested, more of a hands on review if you will. Unlike some of my other uploads, I intend to take this one slowly and get it done right the first time. The idea is I will BAT has many as I can until I get 10MB worth, then I'll bundle them up and upload. (usually anything over 10MB can be a pain to download).

Sounds good to me. Keep up the good work and drop me a line if you ever need any technical assistance.   

[figui]

this is looking great Frankie
this kind of depots/stations were very common here in Uruguay. nowadays, many of them are out of operation (as 1/3 of the rail net) but the buildings of the stations still remain.

this one is in Colonia del Sacramento (SW of the country, 246km via rail of Montevideo-the capital- 177km via road)
as you can see, this one is one of those ex-stations:

[Frankie]

patfirefghtr:  Thanks again 

Travis: Thanks Travis!

figui: Sadly most of the railroad networks of the Americas are disappearing more and more with each passing year. I'm not quite sure on the specific stats, but here in the US, only about half of the original rail network exists. Most low density lines are sold to shortlines, and when those shortlines fail it's the end of the line (no pun intended, lol). That station you posted looks great, there are a few on my list that have that stucco look to them, and I think you will enjoy them when you see them


Anyway, onward with the update. I have put aside the Dothan Atlantic Coast Line depot for a bit (I want to restart it..). My next one will be a former ACL depot in Enterprise, Alabama. (Where that tornado was early this year, I have family in the area and I went for a visit over the summer).

The depot actually has a semaphore signal on it, one of the last in the nation still on an active railroad. (but notice that it has been turned 90 degrees so that railroaders don't confuse it as an active one). I took these pictures while I was there.

Here's the semaphore:


This one is looking toward Daleville and Dothan, I didn't care to get the roof in this one, these are reference photos not works of art, .



The organization that takes care of this depot:



The opposite side:



The history of the depot:



The hopper cars that prevented a better shot of this depot:



Looking towards the depot from the parking lot - yet another bad pictures due to there being too many cars, light posts, etc.



The lone ranger of a locomotive that was parked near where the tornado went by. The Wiregrass Central Railroad (G&O Property) uses this locomotive for the sole purpose of switching - it rarely does road jobs.



Anyways, I'm going to start BATting this one now, should have some pics up later this evening or tomorrow afternoon.

As for the Eufuala Depot, 1980's Version, I will do a medium render and make it a prop, then attach it to this post for those of you wanting to be "beta testers" or scrutineers.

Ok, I attached it. Feel free to give it a try, let me know what you think. If you download it I expect either some good feedback or criticisms. When the depot set is finally released, you will be asked to delete them. (Although I won't force you to if you like them that much.. )

[Pat]

you gurantee im firing up LE right now to take me a peeksie... hell i might even through a lot together with it right away... let you know - pat

[Pat]

OK i finished lotting and testing it just now lol man im tired but i wanna show pics of what ive done and how i used
Eufaula Train Depot.... and i do have a list of only 4 dependency's also a generic readme lol if you are intrested in it Frankie and btw i did a little TE'ing too 











OK as Vester suggested and used flawlessly Infraviewed these newer images into Jpeg....

[BigSlark]

Frankie,

I took a much more "laid back" approach to lotting Eufaula station than Pat did.








I TE'd it along one side for passenger rail and did a single street entrance.  I TE'd it like I have so that any one plopping the station will know which side is supposed to face the tracks. I could just as well transit enable it like the standard Maxis station if you like. I need to fix the dirt parking lot texture and add a few more parked cars, overlay textures are always the hardest for me to get right. Also, is the little stoop at one end another door? I wasn't entirely sure what that door was used for. Should I enable this as a freight truck to freight train station as well? Or, there could be a freight version AND a passenger version. I have discovered that TE editing is very easy with SC4Tool! I also need to remove the taxi generator as I imagine you wouldn't find a line of taxis awaiting the arrival of the local from Montgomery...

In West Alabama, where I went to high school, Log Trucks would park in any area large enough to hold them if the driver wanted to stop for cigarettes or a flat tire or a beer, which is why I added the one by jestarr to the parking lot. I used all BSC props (okay, well, I used CP trees too), for ease finding dependancies and I figure that anyone who is a regular SC4D downloader probably has them.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Pat]

Kevin that is very good im impressed what you did compared to mine lol...

[vester]

Looks great.

Pat: Please convert your pictures from png to jpg. For this you can use IrfanView. Its free.
By converting the pictures you can cut down the filesize a lot. Lets take one of your pictures. This one is 1.08 mb. Converting it to a jpg the save quality set to 70 % its only 96 kb.

Or you could use IrfanView as a Screen Capture, straight into jpg without that irritating pop-up.

[Pat]

OK kewl thanks Vester