Southern Smalltown Depot Project

[Pat]

OK now i just have to zero in on that texture and will do... about switchs i will have to discuss further with you later but im off and running to bed now but thank you again for your help on the M front its a total amazement to me thank you a karma for you - pat

[BigSlark]

As for my Eufaula lot, I'm having some problems. Two overlay textures are refusing to display in game. They're there in LE and SC4Tool and Reader before I load the game. They aren't there when I'm playing and when I open the lot in LE. This sounds like a problem BarbyW would know the answer to. I got hit by RLS last night and I have class and work from 9 until 5:30 today, so I'll have something to show later this evening.

Pat:Your new oil depot is looking good. I have one suggestion, though. I would add some scrub to the grass and have it mowed around the tanks and buildings. Across the tracks from the parking lot I would imagine to be pretty grown over.

Besides, I also I want to see what foliage you use! 

Cheers,
Kevin

[Pat]

Kevin lol my thought exactly here and its still a work in progress and that was on my list of minor details... I too had a problem with a conflict of texturing in LE to Tool to game and even a ctd...  i wonder if tweaked something to hard or even something from Eufaula i dunno but its hard to tell as we are testing the heck outta these for Frankie and he might know as well too?  the problem with my texture is i had key word had a gate... field gate by Jes and one gate was purrrrrfect and the other was blobbed up and uuuuugh... lol thats the only way i can describe it...

[Frankie]

threestooges: If only I had pictures of it - I did not think about it while I was in town. I was in a hurry and naturally did not remember it. The depot is rather rundown though, hasn't been as well maintained as the freight depot. It has enormous doors and windows on it though. I need to remind myself next time I'm in the area to get some pics of it.

bat & pat: Thanks!

patfirefghtr (at second comment) I like the lot so far, however I think it needs more details and a lighter more weathered asphalt texture (as filasimo suggested).

BigSlark: RLS has hit me as well, being on call is no fun at all. Kept me from working on any BAT projects yesterday.

patfirefghtr I cannot test these readily as my game does not load any more. However, the issue is most likely not the station model, although I could be mistaken. One of the other reasons I wanted to attach the individual files is that the game stopped loading early this week, and I cannot test, nor do I have the time to fix my game.


Anyway, in light of this, I have not been BATting today or yesterday. RLS has really taken its toll on me so far. I was planning on finishing up the Enterprise depot the other night, but that of course did not happen. There is a depot in Florida that is next on the list, if I finish the Enterprise one.

Depending on how much time I have, I may or may not BAT tonight. I'm still on call until about 10 p.m. EST. So there is still a good hour in which I can be called in to work until midnight or so...what fun.

Ok, I'll stop complaining now, and see what I can do with the BAT

[Gaston]

WOW
This is some really impressive work.    I hope all of these will be released to the community one day.    Very, Very impressive.


---Gaston

[BigSlark]

Thanks Gaston. Hopefully Frankie will still be churning out depots and Pat and I will putting them on different lots.

Frankie, it must be terrible to have a job where you're on call. My 8-5 drives me crazy some times! The 'rents are coming in town tomorrow so I'm cleaning the house like a madman tonight. When you put off mopping the hardwood floors for a month it becomes a much bigger project...

Cheers,
Kevin

[Pat]

Baaaaaaad Kevin waiting to the last minute to clean oh wait thats me.... on the other subject of on call it does suck speaking from my volunteering activities lol....  Im having a hard time finding grass props i wanna use... i have a wicked idea but uuugh....  i know i love coming up with a contrasted lot compared to your Kevin it gives a spectrum of goodies....

Frankie i think it was something i used and not related after all i changed the black ashpalt texture and redid the TE'ed road entrance and no CTD's or blurred gates.... I cant wait to see how you finish up enterprise and awaiting to tackle that bad boy... lol

[flame1396]

Wow. These look great. The lots are pretty good too.

[Chrisadams3997]

Wow, I'd looked at this a few weeks ago when I had some time, and the progress looks great.  I personally have a great appreciation for rural areas, so I am quite interested in what you're working on here, but I notice on the Eufaula station that the roof texture is very 'flat'.  The model on the whole is absolutely beautiful and I'm really looking forward to seeing it finished and released, but given the dimensions of the building and the low slope of the roof, the roof itself takes up a very large portion of what one sees on the final render which makes it very important for this particular model, and a gradient on that roof texture would make a night and day difference on the quality of it. 

I have some experience with this kind of thing and I'd be willing to rework the texture for you if you sent it to me, if you're interested(check my profile for my email), just let me know the dimensions on the roof and what tiling settings you have for that texture on each roof sections at present and I'll send the results back to you.

Really looking forward to this.

Chris

[Frankie]

Wow, I'd looked at this a few weeks ago when I had some time, and the progress looks great.  I personally have a great appreciation for rural areas, so I am quite interested in what you're working on here, but I notice on the Eufaula station that the roof texture is very 'flat'.  The model on the whole is absolutely beautiful and I'm really looking forward to seeing it finished and released, but given the dimensions of the building and the low slope of the roof, the roof itself takes up a very large portion of what one sees on the final render which makes it very important for this particular model, and a gradient on that roof texture would make a night and day difference on the quality of it. 

I have some experience with this kind of thing and I'd be willing to rework the texture for you if you sent it to me, if you're interested(check my profile for my email), just let me know the dimensions on the roof and what tiling settings you have for that texture on each roof sections at present and I'll send the results back to you.

Really looking forward to this.

Chris

Thanks! I do plan to change that roof texture, but first I need to find a decent texture for it.


As far as this project goes overall, I have taken a temporary stop to it. (which is why there have been no updates in a while). I plan to start back at this again in the coming days. I lost another model I was working on (the feed mill) and the loss of it killed my BAT morale.


I did, however happen to find a picture of Eufaula's other depot:



This one is located on the old Eufaula & Ozark mainline. Which belonged to the Central of Georgia, and eventually the Southern railroad. Its current owner is Norfolk Southern, which leases it to the Georgia Southwestern Railroad under the Thoroughbred Shortline Program.

I hope to have a formal update soon enough.


-Frankie

[Chrisadams3997]

I'm sorry to hear about the feed mill, I've been watching that over at ST.  As for the textures, unless you were planning something drastically different for the roof, I can work with the one you already have, that's nothing.  Only other thing I'd add is that if you sent me the model as well(don't worry about any of the other textures for it) it would help me with getting the scale right.

Chris

[Pat]

Ohh wow Frankie i didnt realize that there was 2 depots for Eufaula...

[BigSlark]

Pat,

Eufaula is a decent sized town, I'm not surprised at all.

Frankie,
I'm still figuring out what's wrong with the lot that I have made for the Eufaula freight station. I think I might have too many props, I went kind of crazy with tufts of grass. I'll look at it tonight and let you know from there.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Frankie]

Chrisadams3997: If you'd like to see what you can do with the roof, I will send you the model. Just PM me your email and I'll send it to you.

Pat: Eufaula had two different railroads, plus Eufaula has always been a very large town, and very influential in the area since its founding. Not really suprising that it would have 2 depots (I think it actually has 3). Dothan, AL (population 60,000) has 3 depots.

BigSlark: You can never have too many props


Well guys, sadly I seem to have totally lost my BATting motivation. I guess I'll have to re-inspire myself. In the mean time, for you train lovers out there, I have a couple of pictures ("scans") that are rather poor quality, but are very rare.





Most of these locomotives were cut up for scrap, or repainted and sent elsewhere. I will go in to detail if someone is interested, but I'll just leave it at that for now. (Still trying to get my BAT mojo back)

[threestooges]

Would you happen to know which railroads picked up these pieces of history?

Don't worry about the BATting feeling... inspiration will come. If nothing else, go sit by the tracks for a bit and wait for a freight train to come rumbling by (or passenger if you are lucky enough)... always helps me.

[Pat]

Frankie im very intrested in knowing more about them...

[Serkanner]

I like all railroads and engines, so would also like to know more about these Frankie. How about trying your hands on modeling one of these historical engines?

[BigSlark]

Frankie,

Great pics, from what I can tell the lead unit in the bottom pic is a Seaboard System geep. As for the top, is that a shortline locomotive?

Cheers,
Kevin

[Frankie]

Well, I'm glad there is general interest .

The railroad these were taken on is called the Wiregrass Central Railroad. It is owned by Pete Claussen (Gulf & Ohio Railways). The Wiregrass Central RR runs between a CSX connection at Waterford, AL (near Newton, AL) to Enterprise, AL. The line used to go to Clintonville, however, the tracks were taken off the very end to repair the Enterprise-Waterford route, and eventually they took so much from it that the line stopped outside of Enterprise.

Pete Claussen owns several railroads in the Southern states. Claussen quickly abandons or sells non-profitable rail lines. This makes his railroads have an extremely diverse roster, and locomotive storage was not uncommon.

Starting with the first picture. There are three visible locomotives in this shot. That red and white locomotive (GP9 I believe) came from the Laurinburg and Southern RR in North Carolina (Bought by Claussen in the early 1990's). The loco was moved to the AGLF in Southern Georgia where it went through extensive repairs and rebuilding. However, Claussen sold the AGLF to RailNet and 3 ex-Laurinburg and Southern locos were transfered. (among other things)

The other two units (the two black ones) are rather difficult to distinguish. Both of the black ones were eventually completely repainted and now serve Claussen's railroads.

In the second picture, BigSlark was right on the money with the SBD geep. ex-Seaboard System 3059 spent most of her life in the South. She served various railroads, including the Pinebelt Southern (now defunct) as well as a shortline based out of Troy, AL. Claussen bought the shortline in Troy, and the SBD unit came with it. However, it was tranfered to the Wiregrass Central. As of this posting, it was patched (so it no longer shows SBD paint) and is now a drifter on another railroad.

I believe the brown loco immediately behind it came from the AGLF. She was an organ donor for G&O Geeps. Her fate is unknown to me, she was either scrapped or re-painted.

The next one is a black G&O locomotive. It has "Georgia" written on the side. It was repainted in bright blue and now serves another shortline.

Behind it is another locomotive from the AGLF. It is no longer with us, she suffered the cruel fate of being scrapped. The next two red and white striped locos came from the L&S. They were sold, and their current locations are still un-known.

The next one is a red/oxide Wiregrass Central RR (The last WGCR loco to bear red paint). This one was transfered to another G&O property in Mississippi.

The last one is NREX 9424. ex-IC. It was the last one to leave, sold to another railroad. It came to the WGCR from the shortline in Troy.

Traffic on the Wiregrass Central, and need for the siding at Kelly have prompted the removal of ALL stored locomotives (most unfortunately). If I had known these locos were to disappear so quick, I would have taken many many more pictures, and with better quality. I might post some pictures of all these geeps if I can find some suitable enough. (which means they won't be mine, lol)

I like all railroads and engines, so would also like to know more about these Frankie. How about trying your hands on modeling one of these historical engines?

That is a definite possibility

[Pat]

frankie wow that was awsome to learn so much history and thank you soo very much for being detailed there.... I hope you find that batjo soo again cause man i do love your work...

btw welcome over to page 4