Urland - a (mostly) rural Coastline

[tooheys]

Well that was a great month Bernhard, you can probably cut back on the coffee now 

I recognise some of my favourite layouts here, especially pic 6 in the last update 

Cheers

Dave

[Pikatchoum]

Hi my friend !!

First, just let me apologize become i didn't come here earlier .. i'm trully sorry and i don't have any good reason to explain that big mistake ...

But as i can see your city is still great and looking to your pics just makes me wanting to launch SC4 and play and develope my railway system. I think that's a true masterpiece in your city : your rail lay out. It's trully impressive even if, as i saw your though on raywail planning, i can easily understand why your planing is so perfect.

Keep it, and i promise i'll keep a look here. 

[Nardo69]

Hello to All!

It took some but here I am with the second half of the regular update that was waiting due to my second OSITM period here.

A big THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the stuff for this great honour!!!

But again before we start:

@bat: Thanks for the compliment, my friend! Couldn't do the Special 5 in time, but if there is enough interest in case I didn't bore you too much ...

@Rooker1: Thanks for the compliment, Robin, and congratulation for becoming moderator - you really do deserve it! 
Yes, making railway lines with all that beta stuff from the SFBT plus my embankment project is really fun. Hope I can show you some progress on them in May

@Simpson: Thanks for the compliment! Well PEG's kanal is more for industrial areas, but on that map I liked it most - I did try the BSC kanals there, too! 

@RickD: Thanks for the compliment, my friend!
Actual that was how I was staring to use them but this is only a second best solution. Maybe there will be T21-puzzlepieces but at the moment I am working on a set of embankment lots that should be working for at least 70% of all possible sitation. Problem however is there will be more than 120 lots of those ...

@thundercrack83 Thanks for the compliment my friend!
And hey no need to apalogize - these OSITM frequency was rather spectacular for me - as you can see in the waiting time for this update ... 

@jmyers2043: Now I am really curious what will come - especially since I love your farms!

@paroch: Thanks for the compliment! And I guess it is only a question of when and not whether we will see West End as OSITMN ... espeically with these wonderful Kanals 

@tooheys: Hi Dave! As you can see I bought some coffee lately ... 
Yeah, Petersberg was / is a good source for the competition ...

@Pikatchoum: You are here and that's important.
I must confess I was really glad when I saw you were back again. And the railway, well, I love them, saw a lot of them and it makes me happy to do them. I guess this can be seen in the pictures ...

Okay, let's go in medias res: This is

Update 18.2: Wolfenstein

Wolfenstein has nothing to do with the Egoshooter but is in fact one of the oldest settlements in Urland with roman sedlements (a Villa Rustica) from the 2nd century AD. It was mentioned first time in 873 AD when it was given together with the land and a nameless castle to the Ritter Wulf von Stein (that's where the name comes from).

For your Orientation here are two overviews:





The castle was regarded as a fairytale until the two wind power plants have been built where the basement of an old burgus and the remains of wooden palisades made between the 9th and 11th century AD were found during the excavations.

The "Von Stein" - Dynastie didn't last very long, the last male died in 1009 AD and the village went under a lot of reigns. The land was divided around 1350 and for more than 500 years there was a border between Wolfenstein and Silberstein. 1889 Urland became part of Prussia, and that was time the border disappeared for good.







However during the planning an d construction of the railway line the border still existed which had the consequence that each of the small village got their own railway station even though they were situated so close to each other. Technically both railway stations belong together, the exit signals of Silberstein are the entry signals of Wolfenstein, and there are no Exit signals in Wolfenstein toward Silberstein. The Signals in Wolfenstein are only served when the freight station is used, otherwise they always show approach to cut back personal expenses.





Overview and closeup of Wolfenstein. Parts of the Walls of the church St. Hubertus are roman wall as the preceding building was built directly in the old Villa Rustica.

Interesting thing is that the railway is still the shortest connection between the two villages, due to more than 500 years of separated by a border no one ever thought of connecting the villages directly with a street ...





Not far away from Wolfenstein you can find this small nameless settlement which belongs to Wolfenstein. The remains old castle are next to the wind wheels, after the archaeological excavation the area was secured under earth, if you don't know where to look for you won't find anything at all.

That's it for today, have fun and don't forget to make backups!

Bernhard 

PS: If you are interested in how I do my railway stations have a click in my sig ...

[nedalezz]

Great update! The rail king of Simcity! I must admit Im an avid lurker here, but I have my own MD so I know what its like. Regardless, this MD deserves every comment left here, and it is no embelishment when I see it is one of the best on this site.

[bat]

Update 18.2 is another wonderful update, Nardo69! And that area with the station is looking really beautiful!
Looking forward to the next...

[Pat]

Bernhard wow wonderful UPDATE!!! my jaw is hitting the floor to much today and I think Im going to need a brace before the weekend is over lol....  You have done a such a wonderful job on the farms and the Wolfstein station!!!  Will see you next update for sure!!  Also from the past update that i missed I loved the rail bridge crossing there with the trains passing each other...

[Nardo69]

Hmmm ... not much response ... maybe it was not enough railway in my last update ... OK, no problem, I'm going to change this with the following

Mini Update: A Little Bit of Railway Signals

But as always before we start:

@nedalezz: Woah - Rail King of Simcity - what a compliment ...
So I hope you'll like the following, too ....
I must confess though that I only lurked a bit into yours ... so much great CJs, so little time ...  but be warned that I may come soon!!   

@bat: Thank You Very Much my friened!
And this time you don't have to wait too long ...

@Pat I have bad news for you: you may have to pick your up jaws from the ground again this weekend ... 
The pictures from this mini update come from the same map as your favourite picture with the trains on the bridge. The map is far from being finished but bears some nice places as you can see today!





A station on a electrified two track main line that serve a small suburb of a big town with some commerce, industry and some houses (almost) in the green.
The above picture shows the first try of signalizing, the latter the final try with a special TE Lot for both catenaries and signals.
I would like to focus you attention to the different kind of signals:
- at the freight station the outside track has only a shunting signals as now train is allowed to enter that track from outside
- both platfrom track have exit signals
- the main track has only exit signals on the right side as trains in Germany (and in the German version of SC4 ) usually use the right track

More of this is coming soon in my "Thoughts" - thread





"Further on upon the (rail)road" - dedicated to one of the best guitar gods ever - Eric Clapton - you find that automatic block signal.
The first pic your joy, the latter for analysing it
The block signal shows green (= HP1 = approach) most of the time, it switches to red (=HP0 = stop) after a train passed and until the train reached the next signal then turns to green again. However, this is only allowed if the following block of the railway line is secure, i.e. no open level crossing!
If there are level crossings the block signal shows = stop red until an approaching train first closes the automatic(!) level crossing(s), then the signal turns green = approach.

The approach signal on the other side belongs to the entrance signal of the railway station shown above.



A small station at a secondary railway line in an industrial area. The next station where the small railway line splits from the above shown main land isn't far away so that the exit signals are combined with the approach signals of the following entrance signals





The entrance signals of the above signal from different vews. The approach signal belongs to the next station wihich is locatred on the next map.

And a last picture - this time without railway ...



Have fun!

Bernhard 

[bat]

Some more great pictures of the railways and rail there, Bernhard! 
And the (mini-)update is wonderful! Also like the picture without the railway!!

Looking forward to more...

[nedalezz]

AMAZING update! My railroad skills are weak, therefore I dont utilize it much, but you have it down to an art. The last picture was great, even though it didnt include any railroad tracks; it reminds me so much of Africa! Picture 3 is my favorite in this update, but all the pics were great.

[Pat]

oooooh my wow!!! yuppers I do need that brace Bernhard!! Man you would shoot me if you seen some of my railyards or even my rails lol....  But I am getting some real good ideas here from you in designing a freight station and try and duplicate that one you have!!! WOW I cant wait till the next update that is for sure.....

[Q-Tips]

You have a good touch on your hands for building those small communities. The way you put together those row house, blocks, rails and industires are all very inspiring. But i cant i say i much fan of those palmtrees-farms. And yes, by the way, your region shot is a real breath taking.

[rooker1]

I have to agree with everyone.  You do know how to build small rural communities and railways very well, like no other.  Maybe you could lay out my rail lines for me and I'll work around them.    Now that would be an interesting play.  Just kidding.  I'm going to try to follow that guide you made on railways.  Good thing the linkie is in your sig.
Anyways, great pics and awesome layout.  I can never get enough of your city.
Robin 

[thundercrack83]

Missed a few updates again, my friend, and I do apologize!

You're always doing some splendid things here, it's great that you share them with us! As usual, your railroads are second to none.

Keep up the good work!

Dustin

[Ennedi]

As always I like your pictures very much, and all this railroad stuff looks just fantastic, little details are very important everywhere - along roads, on sidewalks and plazas, airports and seaports, and of course railroads 

But... one question: will these signals be functional ie will they do everything you explain here? 
No problem if not, they are still fantastic and I hope you will release them one day (but I know it's a lot of work )
I'm just curious...

[Darmok]

Hey Bernhard,
You never cease to amaze me with your railway setups!
So much details in such a cramped space, and yet it has a real feeling to it!
I really like Wolfenstein, especially pics 18.8 and 18.14 (village center)

That mini update on track signals was very good, and I didn't know that you liked Clapton! If so, two suggestions, I just finished reading his autobiography, very good book.... and also bought the 2 DVD special of Crossroads 2007 guitar festival... if you like guitar it's a must, lot's of good stuff in there!

Anyhow, great work, as always... 

Take care my friend

-John

[Andreas]

But... one question: will these signals be functional ie will they do everything you explain here? 

The signals are pure eye-candy, unfortunately, since the game doesn't provide the needed functionality. But hey, it looks great, so what do we need more?

[warszawa]

Hey Nardo! Good to see you and your exhilarating CJ! Brilliant zoning, especially on the industrial and agricultral areas.
You have done the most amazing usage of rail network, I can even smell the smoke from the trains, Oh, wait - that's from the smoke from the air outside... , but seriously, awesome work. . Can't wait to see more.

[paroch]

Hi Bernhard,

I see I've missed two update - many apologies.

As usual your updates are of the highest quality.  Some great rural shots and the village of Wolfenstein is just beautiful.  The church with its small graveyard as centrepiece of the village is a great choice.  And a very nice choice of houses within the village - Gascooker and Haarlemergold are some of my faves.

And the railways in the most recent update are done with your usual skill and detail.  Particularly like the steam train puffing along.

[TheTeaCat]

What a wonderful "mini" update.

It really shows all the care and attention you put in to create such wonderful scenes.
I think there is just one rock out of place in all those pics  

I always enjoy visiting here as I have learned so much about railways (thanks to your tutorials )
and hope to be able to put all that info to good use some day.

Looking forward to your next update

regards
Derry

[sebes]

Bernard - I just LOVE the way how you combine the rail tracks and the sloped  fruitplantations!