Modular train maintenance buildings? just a thought.

[cammo2003]

One of the things that has long bothered me is the lack of realism in the SC4 rail system. The tracks themselves are fine (I use rivit's recent rail upgrade mod which unifies the look of the network textures. Highly recommended, btw, and available on the STEX).

Now, we have rail sidings. These are fine for what they are. NCD's fantastic siding textures (and the lots) were something of a revolution (rivits mod doesn't touch them, but it's not uncommon for siding areas to have some grass growing as these textures display).

But there's still something missing.

Do SC4's trains get maintained in the aether? When I wanted to build a rail maintenance centre on Senatoria's east side, I realised there wasn't anything like what I was looking for.

There are, I'll concede a number of small rail sheds. But nothing *realistic*. Maintenance centres are quite large (I measured one example at approx. 350m, and I suspect that may have been on the smaller side of things). Fortunately however, after looking at a few of these things, I noticed a couple of things:

1. They tend to be highly modular.
2. They basically look like giant sheds.

Immediately the idea hit me: modular rail maintenance facilities! Problem is, I can't bat my way out of a paper bag. I also realised there would be a fair bit of lotwork involved (although that's not really a problem for me - quite familiar with LE).

These lots would not have to be pathed. Trains come into them and rest. Props (preferably ones like those used by the end user) could be used to complete the illusion (as well as perhaps some pathed normal railyard lots nearby - many of these maintenance facilities also have stabling yards at hand).

Essentially the idea I'm plugging would be similar to how one builds the modular airports - only a few lots would require road access (ditto for rail, although the rail lots would have to be long). One of these would be some sort of crewing area/staff room. any jobs for the facility could be tied to this. The rest would to the game be eye candy. Another such facility might be a train wash (yes, they do exist, and I believe they work similarly to a car wash, except obviously much bigger (and usually operated with any pantographs DOWN, with a diesel engine tugging the train to be cleaned through the wash).

As an aside, I do believe the sorts of places trains are constructed at are along the same line. Just make sure there's a lot somewhere with a lot of water cooler bottles*.

Anyway, this is just one of those hairbrained ideas I've had lately and thought that maybe someone might like the challenge. 

* Creatively used in ride quality and safety testing to both simulate loaded weight and get an idea of how much shaking's going on (lids off!)