Covington - Update 61 "Chestnut Hills and South River Bend"

[bakerton]

Great work with FAR and good luck getting those tobacco farms. JKB

[dedgren]

Jon- A small package in plain brown wrapping will soon arrive... well, not actually.  I am working on FAR intersections over the next few days, and will try to get out an early beta, as we're probably a few months away from the next NAM update.  I have also bumped the diagonal road S-curve up the priority list, as it looks like you would put it to good use.

There's always great stuff going on here in Covington, and I apologize for lurking as much as I have.  I'll keep you posted on FAR/FARR developments as they happen.


David

[JBSimio]

Pat:  Thank you!  I'll try to do a little better with my writing so as not to cause any more confusion than absolutely necessary! 

Bat:  Thank you as always, my friend!

Vester:  Thank you!  Truth be told, David's rails and roads are quickly becoming a favorite new toy of mine.

Jon:  Thanks!

David:  Thank you so much for stopping in!  No apologies are necessary... goodness knows I've lurked in 3RR many times while neglecting to leave the comments that are so well deserved.  I'm a huge fan of packages and would be thrilled to try out any new beta pieces as you see fit.  Now that I've finally started playing with them, I find myself wondering how I managed without these great pieces.  I can only thank you (repeatedly!) for the work you've put into this aspect of the game.

Update Time!!!

For lack of anything better to do, why don't we just continue our little FAR replacement tour, shall we?  Tonight's update takes us along the Cone River into West Bend.  Some of you may remember this nice little town from earlier updates.  You may also notice that the meat packing plant survived the fire from a few months back.

34.01


This is what the town has always looked like... chock full of jagged roads just itching to be smoothed out.

34.02


These last couple of updates have all been highly dependant on the letter "R"  What better place to start the process than with the railroads serving this sleepy village?  Faithful readers will recall that this is just a spur off the main line from High Point to Ashboro.  As such, I thought it was due for an update using another "R" feature more commonly known as the STR.

34.03


I managed to replace the industrial spur with some nice single rails all smooth and pretty.  I left the passenger section as a double rail line simply because the station required it anyway.  Unfortunately, the fit was too tight for a smooth curve on this line, but I may still try to work with that and see if I can't come up with something a little better.  You'll notice that I didn't actually change the road through town at this point.  Given David's recent comment here, I decided to wait for the new pieces before I try to work out this section of town.  The road along the river was redone with minimal impact to town, but this particular road will need some special attention.

34.04


Another view of the FARR pieces where the West Bend spur meets the main line.  I'm pretty happy with the way this came out, actually.  It was a bit of a challenge to line up these new curves with a switch all while keeping two separate neighbor connections in place.

34.05


Once away from town a little more, I was able to smooth out all the roads again.  Much like my previous upgrades, there were a few houses to move, but things were pretty staight forward beyond that.

34.06


I still haven't managed to get any tobacco farms during these little visits, but I was very happy to see the Amish barn raising by Jmeyers here.  I just think this was such a great idea and I love the way this particular lot looks.

34.07


Just over the bridge to the east of West Bend is the first of a few random shots I took after using the FAR pieces on the roads.  I just thought this might be a good example of how much these pieces help the look of this area.  One road follows the Cone River to the south (right) while the other slowly veers off and ultimately turns east.  Still a little more smoothing to do on that road... waiting once again for the next generation of options. 

34.08


Here we see the same two roads as their different routes become a bit more pronounced.  The rails crossing this area make up the same main line from High Point to Ashboro.

34.09


Yet another view of the same road along the Cone River as it heads south over Pine Creek.

34.10


And I suppose it wouldn't be a proper Covington update without a nice little regional view of the farms.  It's nice to know that all these upgrades really don't effect the region shots that much.  The transportation map may be a little less smooth in places, but the farms still seem to look pretty decent.  I think that FAR and FARR and STR and any other R's we can come up with will be here to stay.  I'm honestly very happy with the results and will try not to bore you any further with these replacements.  I may do one more around Ashboro depending on how it turns out, but after that I'll just let the upgrades speak for themselves in future updates.   

Thanks for reading!!!

JB

[threestooges]

You certainly make those region pics look natural. Your use of the FAR/FARR/STR makes it seem like you've been using it for ages. The industrial siding in 34.03 looks really good. I can only wonder now what sorts of minor freight depots/loading docks might be possible... but there's time for that. Looking forward to what you have in store next. Also, the offer you mentioned, it goes the same if you're down here too.
-Matt

[Pat]

mmmm mmm simply stunning there Jon!!! believe it or not that is all I got say tonight lol... Been busy trying learn the auto installer beast 

[danielcote]

This town really hasnt had much change at all has it. 

[superhands]

glad you like str
and a station should come along shortly

always lurking,
dave

[warconstruct]

very beautiful work, countryside as well as the industrial park really are successful !

[kbieniu7]

Wow. Region shot looks incredible, I said truly 

[JBSimio]

Matt:  Thank you!  I think I've just been lucky with the "R" sets up to this point.  My original roads seem to follow paths similar to the angles that were chosen for FAR/FARR... it could have very easily been the other way around, in which case these upgrades would have become much more invasive to what I already had built.  Oddly enough, I will be closer to your area during the second half of next week... my usual visits to the valley (Sherman Way in the Van Nuys area, I believe) and Long Beach.  Not sure what the exact schedule is yet, but I'll keep you posted! 

Pat:  Thank you!  You're right... that was a surprisingly short response.    Let me know if you need any help with the installers... they're really not bad once you get the hang of it.

Danielcote:  No... West Bend hasn't really seen a lot of changes at all so far.  That may change as time goes on, but who knows?

Dave:  The STR pieces are quite handy, especially in smaller towns like this was.  I'm hoping to use them in other industrial areas around Covington proper, but some of them are quite crowded, so we'll have to see how well they fit in there.  I'll keep an eye out for some stations!

Warconstruct:  Thank you!

Kbieniu:  Thank you as well!

Alright... I have a confession to make.  Apparently, I'm a terrible father.  In the process of posting last night's update, I completely forgot about my baby's first birthday!!!     Covington actually made its debut on March 31, 2008... and I totally missed it!     I remember thinking about it a month or so ago and wanting to do some sort of special "anniversary update" but I've now missed my chance at that.  So, as a pitiful attempt to redeem myself and win back the love of my own creation, I just thought I'd offer a brief comparrison of just how much has changed during the last year.

• Covington has actually survived life on three different computers.  It began on an HP Pavilion desktop... saw significant growth on a Dell Inspiron laptop... and now resides on a Dell Studio desktop
• Covington began in a small house in Michigan with a view of the frozen lake outside my living room window.  It has also resided in a Detroit hotel room as well as a University of Michigan alumni camp in Petosky.  Since October, all my work in Covington has been done from my home office in northern California with a view of Salmon Creek winding through the redwood grove.
• When Covington began, I was working for a management company and assigned to a YMCA camp in Michigan.  I now work directly for Catholic Charities of San Francisco at their resident camp in Sonoma County.
• Since Covington began, I have travelled to England, purchased tickets to France for an upcoming visit, and entered the early planning stages of a trip to the Ukraine.  (Prior to Covington, I had never left the country except for going to Canada, which really doesn't count for people growing up in Michigan) 
• Covington has been viewed over 17,000 times and recieved over 500 comments.  It has also visited OSITM twice and won an MD Award here on the wonderful site I like to call home.
• Oddly enough, the very first post of this MD and the post made on its anniversary both featured the town of West Bend.

I've probably missed a few things, but those are just some examples I could think of off the top of my head.  Either way... thank you all for such a great year!

More to come next time,
JB

[danielcote]

Wow thats alot of views cant wait until next update.   

[bat]

Your city looks really nice! Very very very nice work there!

[Jmouse]

Looks like I've missed a lot this week. Your rural scenes just keep getting better and better – love the FARR mosaic. You have done a great job of showing off this marvelous new addition to the game. Like the way you've applied interesting shapes to the farms, too.

I've studied your work for some time now, and it continues to be an inspiration. My favorite is 34.10 – the overview could have come straight off of Google Earth. I'm hoping to catch up with Covington and several other favorite MDs in the days to come.

Later...
Joan

[EDGE4194]

jon- you've certainly had quite a year! congratulations on the anniversary  . I always look forward to and enjoy each update, even though I don't comment very often 

[TheTeaCat]

Jon

Its been way too long since I commented and I apologise.
But what amazing work you have achieved here with Covington.

Your use of the FAR/FARR/STR makes it seem like you've been using it for ages. it really sets the areas off so well 
I'm off to make another cuppa and go back for another read

Hopefully it won't be so long till the next visit from me
Till the next time

regards

Derry

[danielcote]

Im waiting Im waiting Im waitin waitin waitin. Like my song!? 

[art128]

Jon, The last update is just amazing my friend.
I like the way you placed the FARR/FAR - STR, very well thought.
Keep it up,

Arthur. 

[Sciurus]

It's very nice, and your country is very good realized, but I reproach you for your fields > there are too squarres . But it's my opinion

Guillaume

[calibanX]

Great region shot there Jon. I'm enjoying Covington very much. I love rural areas and you do them quite well.

Geoff

[Nardo69]

I haven't been here for a while - way too long I think.

The region view is really breathtaking.

Something about STR at the station: You can put the 3x1 Str2DTr conversion right in front of the station and then go on with STR. Prolong the railway line a bit behind the grey road and put another 3*1 conversion there and voila - you have a complete station where the engine of the incoming trains can pass the cars and put itself in front of them to leave the station without the need of another engine.

That is (was) a rather common layout for such a small terminal station at least here in Germany.

Take care

Bernhard