Hello all,
Been playing around with Planet Coaster for a few months now. The game's locomotive models are actually what led me to purchase the game and try it out, and one of my core park design philosophies is to create railroad infrastructure and buildings as accurately as possible to actual standards and practices. Narrow gauge railroads in California and Colorado have been the leading source of material to build, and below are some works in progress:
First up is a beast of a project, a work-in-progress of a stone roundhouse and turntable. It is a 4-stall version of the Colorado & Southern Railroad's roundhouse in Como, Colorado. The tracks radiating from the center were carefully laid, deleted, and relaid using 14m track sections and angle snap to line up the approach tracks and the tracks for each stall. The turntable pit itself uses the inside rail of the mine train coaster to model the ring rail with supports the outside edges of the turntable.
Next is something very simple but often overlooked, a switch with proper ties, guard rails, frog, and switch stand. The no-collision feature must be enabled for both rides and terrain. The track itself is manipulated using 14m sections and the angle snap to lay one line into another so that the rails match up near the points. Then the ties are buried under terrain and new ties are laid, always perpendicular to the straight rail.
Third is a work-in-progress that's closer to finished, a recreation of the Denver & Rio Grande Western's depot at Crested Butte, Colorado. This one is particularly special in that it will have a modeled interior and the entrance/exit/control items are integrated into the building itself, so the basic planet coaster assets do not detract from the looks.
This one is a bit less complete, but getting there. It's based on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad's depot at Ouray, Colorado. It has a similar floorplan to the Crested Butte depot, but the roof has angular cuts to the gable that required a LOT of tinkering with smaller veranda roof pieces, as the normal corner roof pieces were too large to fit. I plan on making many more D&RGW/RGS standard depots like this in the future, such as the depots at Silverton, Placerville, Rico, Telluride, Ridgway, Mancos, Dolores, and/or Ophir.
This depot was built for a friend who is more into California narrow gauge, and it is based on the South Pacific Coast Railroad's depot at Agnew, CA. A new feature that I experimented with was creating the semaphore signal from scratch using metal signs and basic shapes. You can see the other side of the Ouray depot in the background, too.
Another overlooked feature: tunnel portals, this one made of wood.
Another large set piece, and another piece of Californian history: the Hotel Marre, which sat at the foot of the Harford Wharf at the end of the Pacific Coast Railway.
And the last ones for this photoset, some experimentation with different bridges to give some variety to the standard trestle that the game defaults to. Top image is a Howe Truss bridge, middle is the start of a Deck Girder bridge, bottom is the completed deck girder.
I'll be updating these projects periodically and eventually uploading some of them to the Steam Workshop for the benefit of other railroading folks. If you have been making your own railroad creations based on real items or practices, if you have questions regarding the creation of specific items, or if there's something you'd like to see added to the steam workshop, then feel free to post your own works and join the discussion!
--Wings & Strings
wings-and-strings.tumblr.com
Been playing around with Planet Coaster for a few months now. The game's locomotive models are actually what led me to purchase the game and try it out, and one of my core park design philosophies is to create railroad infrastructure and buildings as accurately as possible to actual standards and practices. Narrow gauge railroads in California and Colorado have been the leading source of material to build, and below are some works in progress:
First up is a beast of a project, a work-in-progress of a stone roundhouse and turntable. It is a 4-stall version of the Colorado & Southern Railroad's roundhouse in Como, Colorado. The tracks radiating from the center were carefully laid, deleted, and relaid using 14m track sections and angle snap to line up the approach tracks and the tracks for each stall. The turntable pit itself uses the inside rail of the mine train coaster to model the ring rail with supports the outside edges of the turntable.
Next is something very simple but often overlooked, a switch with proper ties, guard rails, frog, and switch stand. The no-collision feature must be enabled for both rides and terrain. The track itself is manipulated using 14m sections and the angle snap to lay one line into another so that the rails match up near the points. Then the ties are buried under terrain and new ties are laid, always perpendicular to the straight rail.
Third is a work-in-progress that's closer to finished, a recreation of the Denver & Rio Grande Western's depot at Crested Butte, Colorado. This one is particularly special in that it will have a modeled interior and the entrance/exit/control items are integrated into the building itself, so the basic planet coaster assets do not detract from the looks.
This one is a bit less complete, but getting there. It's based on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad's depot at Ouray, Colorado. It has a similar floorplan to the Crested Butte depot, but the roof has angular cuts to the gable that required a LOT of tinkering with smaller veranda roof pieces, as the normal corner roof pieces were too large to fit. I plan on making many more D&RGW/RGS standard depots like this in the future, such as the depots at Silverton, Placerville, Rico, Telluride, Ridgway, Mancos, Dolores, and/or Ophir.
This depot was built for a friend who is more into California narrow gauge, and it is based on the South Pacific Coast Railroad's depot at Agnew, CA. A new feature that I experimented with was creating the semaphore signal from scratch using metal signs and basic shapes. You can see the other side of the Ouray depot in the background, too.
Another overlooked feature: tunnel portals, this one made of wood.
Another large set piece, and another piece of Californian history: the Hotel Marre, which sat at the foot of the Harford Wharf at the end of the Pacific Coast Railway.
And the last ones for this photoset, some experimentation with different bridges to give some variety to the standard trestle that the game defaults to. Top image is a Howe Truss bridge, middle is the start of a Deck Girder bridge, bottom is the completed deck girder.
I'll be updating these projects periodically and eventually uploading some of them to the Steam Workshop for the benefit of other railroading folks. If you have been making your own railroad creations based on real items or practices, if you have questions regarding the creation of specific items, or if there's something you'd like to see added to the steam workshop, then feel free to post your own works and join the discussion!
--Wings & Strings
wings-and-strings.tumblr.com
