Accurate Railroad Creations with W&S

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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Another overlooked feature: tunnel portals, this one made of wood.

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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.

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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
 
Very nice representation of the Rio Grande and Colorado Railway buildings. I have these routes installed in my Microsoft Train Simulator set up that I use now and again, which is installed on an old XP desktop computer. Although Microsoft Train Simulator is now 15 years old, and has been replaced by the later Rail Simulator, it still has a dedicated community,who run it with the Open Rails project.
 
You are my idol.

I love the way Planet Coaster looks and the quality of the building. I have been trying to build a “Model Railroad” in digital form. (Non-theme park, just a Model Railroad). I have tried Trainz, Train Simulator and Train Fever, but my interest is not necessarily in operation (the same holds true to PC management). Everyone should be able to use the tools for the vision they desire. And I believe Planet Coaster is doing just that.

I look forward to seeing more of your work, and learning how you created your builds. Congratulations on your inspiration and work.
 
NEW BLUEPRINT!

Thanks, James. Another update: I'm turning my focus not only on railroad-specific buildings, but also other historic or quirky buildings from the small railroad towns in Colorado.

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This is my newly-finished rendition of the famous Silver Plume Bakery, now known as the "Bread Bar." While I was creating it, I not only experimented with a custom metal roof, but I also stumbled upon a new way to make infinitely-customizable windows and doors. The pane of glass is made with the shiny surface of a basic rectangular polygon, set to a dark blue-gray color to match the glass of default windows. Next, instead of using regular wood or polygon pieces, I used a combination of wooden signs, perpendicular to the walls, embedded into the buildings so that their edges form the window frames and sashes.

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The flat surfaces of wooden signs also gave various panel, crown molding, trim, and facade options, with the hilt of a small sword to add a doorknob to the custom doors. In the back of the building, the sideways sign trick was used to modify the stock pointed windows as well, and I even turned one stock window into a door. It's a bit finicky at first, but it really opened the game to new building possibilities, so it's worth a try.



In the meantime, the Silver Plume Bakery is also available on the workshop!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1081497140

--Wings & Strings
 
Really enjoying this thread.

Great stuff. I love railroads so can't wait what else you can come up with.

Chapeau![up][yesnod]:D
 
This is sooooooooooooo cute!!!! I love miniature trains, I can stand for hours in front of the ones in the museum near my home. This is so realistic, so detailed, so precise, I love your work.
 
Another New Blueprint!

Thanks again for tuning in. Another day, and another exciting announcement:

Fans of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad have a brand new reason to get Planet Coaster as I have just finished a crown jewel of the RGS, a replica of "Galloping Goose" Motor Car No. 2. Once my RGS depots are finished and uploaded to the workshop, you'll be able to pose the rail car at your station scenes next to the game's steam locomotives for that extra bit of detail and realism.

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You can find the Galloping Goose on the Steam Workshop here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1082691044
The blueprint comes with a short display track if you wish to have it displayed like a museum piece, or you can incorporate it into an existing park railroad by putting it on a siding or yard track.


--Wings & Strings
 
Once again your work is amazing. Are you planning on building a terrain for the railroad to run in. Perhaps like the Animas River Gorge? Or do you think the Georgetown loop could be modeled? Your work expands the possibilities. And thank you for the modeling explanations.
Thanks again!
 
Once again your work is amazing. Are you planning on building a terrain for the railroad to run in. Perhaps like the Animas River Gorge? Or do you think the Georgetown loop could be modeled? Your work expands the possibilities. And thank you for the modeling explanations.
Thanks again!

The current plan is to create a theme park with various samplings of the C&S, R&S, and D&RGW with various mine coaster, wooden coaster, flume, and rapids rides built into the terrain, though the specific locations have not been determined yet. The Georgetown Loop, Forks Creek, Clear Creek, Corkscrew Gulch, Alpine Tunnel, Crested Butte, Ouray, Ophir Loop, and other locations are being considered, but only a few will make it into this park.

In the meantime I am revising some errors in the Galloping Goose #2 blueprint. it should be updated today along with the creation of Goose #7.

--W&S
 
FOUR Galloping Geese in the Workshop!

Today has been extremely productive. In addition to upgrading the quality of Galloping Goose #2, I've created an entire gaggle of four unique Geese from the RGS! Motor Cars 2, 5, 6, and 7 have a wealth of individual character that has been painstakingly researched and modeled as closely as possible, and you can find all four of them in the Steam Workshop now. Pick and choose your personal favorites or display all of them together in your very own Goosefest!

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The motor car blueprints can be found here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1082691044
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1084283511
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1084286809
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1084290059

--Wings & Strings
 
Some of your work may come in handy for a future project of mine! I also note that the stations look very nice and similar to what I saw during my own train station research (and my somewhat failed attempt at making a Spanish version of them). Keep it up!
 
New STEAM LOCOMOTIVE in the workshop!

My most daunting, elaborate, and meticulous blueprint to date is here, and it finally puts that box lamp headlight to good use! I wasn't happy with the game's stock train scenery item, as it was oversized and not matched well to the narrow gauge transport rides. A quick browse through the steam workshop showed that nobody has really done much of making 3-foot narrow gauge locomotives yet, so I took up the task of making a display locomotive that is designed to perfectly complement the Iron Horse and Connie Express. This steam locomotive uses 525 shapes and is a replica of Denver, South Park & Pacific #191, a 2-8-0 which is currently housed at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Boulder, CO, along with a couple of Galloping Goose motor cars (which I put on the steam workshop in the prior post). The most difficult aspect of modeling this engine was the limited library of small and/or round shapes, so I had to get unorthodox with my item selections. For example, the only item that had the correct diameter for the driving wheels was the chocolate-peanut-butter-cup scenery item, so I used eight of them with new black centers made out of several smaller circle shapes in order to make the drivers. Furthermore, the smokestack required a truncated cone shape, but since none are available with stock items, I had to make the cone section using several small screen mount pieces.

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I am confident in saying that this is one of the most detailed and accurate custom steam engines on the workshop, and if there's enough demand, perhaps more locomotives and even some rolling stock might be made in the future! Workshop link to this item is here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1085622747

--Wings & Strings
 
Thanks again, all. I've broadened the thread once again, it seems.... now that the Munsters and BTTF DLC packs have expanded automotive possibilities, I decided to test the waters with a 1928 Ford Model A Coupe! Unfortunately both DLC packs are required to use it, but if you have them, it's your lucky day!

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You can find it here in the workshop, more colors and body styles coming soon!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1087838744&searchtext=vintage+car

--Wings & Strings
 
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