2007 news:

Dec 28th, 2007

The 30" 0-4-0 Porter has been uploaded to the DLS, along with a variety of supporting equipment.  See this thread for more information.  In addition, a Christmas version is available.
And, some bad news - the V&T route for Trainz has been suspended.  Collin's system has crashed, and he's lost all his work on the route for a third time.  However, this means we'll be releasing the finishing up the V&T content and releasing it.  The first pieces are already available - Ben has released his set of three Baldwin V&T 4-4-0 locomotives; they are available at his site now!  The first set of rolling stock will be available on the DLS shortly after Auran returns from their vacation Jan 7th.

Dec 16th, 2007

Created yellow version of NG30 track & fills, retextured Shortline2's end pieces for use with fill and wall tracks, and created footings for use under trestle bents.
30" gauge locomotive and cars are also completed and in testing.

Dec 4th, 2007

Finished V&T cabooses 9 & 10.
Made minor additions to the Ghosts of the V&T pages - split into three sections in preparation of uploading Carson River Canyon pictures.  Also added pictures of the V&T passenger depot in Carson City, as well as a couple photos of the old Mint building.

Nov 19th, 2007

Completed quad water tower (used in Virginia City yards).
Started Crown Point Trestle.

Nov 14th, 2007

Completed the Virginia City bunkhouse (original passenger depot), and the early 1880's version of cabooses 9 and 10 are nearing completion.

Oct 31st, 2007

Completed the Virginia City sand house.
Started 1st Virginia City passenger depot (later, bunkhouse) and Caboose 9 & 10 versions w/o side doors.

Oct 25th, 2007

Finished UVWmapping the Porter, and texturing is about 1/2 done - still need to to the cab interior and running gear.
Finished the 1st draft of the Virginia City sand house.

Oct 8th, 2007

Added source files for W&A RR coach and combine, UP express car, and updated passenger depot to the passenger downloads page.

Oct 7th, 2007

Added link to Whecsailor's gallery; as well as a link to the current operating V&T in the links section.  Also fixed the broken link to the Lyon project.

Oct 4th, 2007

Slow progress continues on the 0-4-0 Porter - still UVW mapping it, but it's getting closer....

Sept 25th, 2007

Completed the 30" narrow gauge fill and retaining wall.  The profiles match Shortline2's end pieces, so you can use those to end the fill or wall.
Completed the 30" narrow gauge engine house - the scripting works properly, so the doors open as the locomotive approaches the shed, then close after it goes in.

Sept 16th, 2007

Created a tutorials section, starting with TheGrindre's reskinning tutorial.  Enjoy!
The 30" gauge trestles have been updated to smoothen out the rails on curves.  Started work on some 30" track variants - retaining walls and fills 

Sept 5th, 2007

Wood ricks, updated water towers, W&ARR passenger cars are now all on the DLS.
Found a minor script problem with the wood fuel shed, so that's been fixed and uploaded, as well.
Also, there's a set of wood-framed freight trucks now on the DLS, for use in creating Civil War era cars.

August 31st, 2007

The transfer dock is now (finally!!) on the DLS.
Work on the W&A RR coaches continue.  The cars are in beta testing, and *should* be ready to go soon(TM).
A scripting error was discovered on the water towers on the DLS, so fixed versions have been uploaded.  They should be available early next week.

July 30th, 2007

Wood ricks are complete with the exception of a minor script issue - under debug.....
W&ARR passenger cars are complete, but awaiting some documentation as to the lettering before they are released.
Curtis has started work on the water tank at Scales, Nevada for the V&T route.  First revision is in test.
Collin's progress on a demonstration route is coming along nicely - see the screenshots in the gallery!

July 18th, 2007

Uploaded a set of three Civil War ear water tanks to the DLS to go along with tbryson2's General locomotive.  In progress are a couple of W&ARR passenger cars and two wood ricks for refueling the locomotive.

July 11th, 2007

Mark is making great progress on the International Hotel!
The 'Ghosts' page has been updated with pictures of some old V&T turntables.
The Eureka Mill Porter is still under construction, and is being modified to match new information received. Some 30" gauge track, trestles, an ore car, a flat car and a small engine house (with automatic doors!) have also been created.

June 19th, 2007

A fourth locomotive has joined the V&T fleet - Ben's model of the Reno is now in-game and running!
Colin has put together a nice interview at www.virtualrailroader.com talking about some of the challenges of creating a large prototypical route - check it out at www.virtualrailroader.com/VT-1.html
Finally, Curtis has taken advantage of Narrowgauge's generous offer, and is modifying Narrowgauge's Merced Porter to match the locomotive used by the Eureka Mill along the Carson River.  It's now in-game and running, but has a bit of texture work to be done.

June 10th, 2007

Updated versions of the Gold Hill depot and the 1st Ophir trestle are now ingame, along with a second Mogul (No 4, the Virginia).
A new paint scheme has been applied to the mogul tender, along the lines of Baldwin style number 2. The tender now has a low level of detail, as well.
Linda has released some 18” mining track and locomotives to the DLS; and is working on a flat car and square set timber product.
Gizomat has created a really nice looking lantern, which should get all sorts of use!

June 3rd, 2007

Roads are currently being laid on both sides of the track in Virginia City.  Texturing is underway between Gold Hill and Virginia City; and track is being graded and laid between Gold Hill and the Scales depot.
CP and UP express and mail / baggage cars now available at the TrainzProRoutes Download Depot; and shortly on the DLS, as well.  Also available is an updated passenger depot to handle the new products.  A big thank you to Peter Dehnart for the scripting examples that made the depot possible!
The V&T turntable at Carson City (a 54 foot Sellers cast iron turntable) has also been completed, and has been placed on the route in it's new home.

May 24th, 2007

Lots of progress on the V&T route - Collin has been posting some work-in-progress shots of the Virginia City area, which is almost complete now, with the exception of a couple of mines and mills that have yet to be modeled.
Ben has posted pictures of a couple new locomotives in the gallery, including a reworked Inyo, the Reno, and a couple of small tank locomotives!
The updated passenger depot that supports baggage, mail, and express products is currently in testing, and Curtis is in the process of reworking all the combines with interactive baggage support.

May 2nd, 2007

Sent 3 ferns to the DLS - good underbrush for those Pacific Northwest logging routes :)
Posted a beta of the logging v-flume and an inspection boat on the beta page - any feedback is welcome!
Converted the passenger depot to support baggage, mail, and express products, in addition to passengers (thanks to a script from Peter Dehnert.  Now, to finish the products...

Apr 17th, 2007

Sent one of the blacksmith shops to the DLS - the other versions will be kept for the V&T route.
Posted source files for the CP combination boxcar and UP short passenger car - enjoy!
Started work on a flume-fed lumberyard, to generate lumber and cordwood loads

Apr 12th, 2007

Added links to the download pages for the new content uploaded to the DLS.
Started work on the Virginia City blacksmith shop.
Collin has been making great progress on the V&T route - check the gallery for some pictures!

Apr 7th, 2007

Added Google Maps links to the ghosts page - just click on the link to see a top-down satellite view of where the pictures were taken.
Sent Central Pacific and Union Pacific coaches and combination box cars, as well as an interactive industry to the DLS - they should be available early next week.
Started work on the Con-Virginia mine - the overall form is complete - just need to finish the detailing, scripts, and animations.
Making progress on the V&T freight depot in Virginia city - just scripting and animation remaining.

Mar 27th, 2007

4-stall roundhouse is now on the DLS, as well as updated versions of the dirt-ballasted track and rails only track.  The track now has higher resolution textures, and the profile and height have been edited to match Auran's default track.  Finally, there's now a chunky mesh version of the dirt ballasted track for perfectly smooth curves.

Mar 21th, 2007

Uploaded a 4-stall roundhouse, V&T cabooses 9 & 10, new versions of the V&T boxcars 1011 and 1013, and a new version of the fruit company to the beta page.  Also posted a new picture from Collin's V&T route in the gallery.

Mar 9th, 2007

V&T passenger cars 1-4 are now in-game - picture in the gallery.  Working on loads for the baggage / mail / express cars; hope to have them complete shortly and available for beta testing.

Mar 3rd, 2007

Started work on V&T passenger cars Nos 1-4.  No. 3 is ingame, although it still needs a little finish work.
Modified the boxcars to not always close the doors after unloading - sometimes the crews forget ;)
Investigating random brakemen on every 5th freight car or so - not sure I can make a person model that looks anything close to a person, though!

Feb 20th, 2007

Bdaneal has uploaded some pictures of a new narrow-gauge locomotive and cars he's working on - take a look in the gallery!
I've also made a minor adjustment to the gallery so it now shows who uploaded a picture - now you can better see who is doing what :)

Feb 8th, 2007

Posted versions of the combination boxcar and the fruit company to the beta page, as well as a new version of the ore car that has been fixed to work properly with LARS; feedback welcome!
Also uploaded new versions of the freight car bogeys to the DLS, with better wheel textures and a much smaller lowest LoD (approximately 10% of the previous version).

Feb 1st, 2007

The fruit company is now working, generating loads of oranges for the new combination box car.  The polycount has been cut almost in half, but I still need to do a couple levels of detail.  Cattle are also now working in the combination car, and have been tested with a couple industries on the DLS.
I found some errors in the LARS portion of the ore car, and I'm converting the V&T freight equipment to use Elvenor's link and pin couplers.
Finally, I've broken the download section into multiple pages; hopefully it's a little better organized than before.

Jan 27th, 2007

The doors are now scripted on the combination boxcar – solid doors close when carrying general goods and hay, and the ventilated doors close when carrying fruit (and probably livestock once I add the additional attachment points and queues). Bendorsey has graciously donated some of his buildings to be converted to industry interactive - I am coding factories to source old west general goods, old west fruit, old west hay, and Auran general goods.  I'm planning to release the new freight equipment as a set, with industries to supply the products, as well as places to drop them off at.  I also finished up a concrete road bridge, which should be on the DLS early next week.

Jan 19th, 2007

The combination boxcar is now in-game – I'm now working on scripting different skin for each car number, selectable through the properties interface. I'm also working on scripting the opening / closing the appropriate doors for each load.  The mogul tender is now skinned and coded, with visible wood and water loads (the water hatch now opens when re-filling).

Jan 13th, 2007

Sent the SP&P cars, the passenger depots, the car shed, and the car shops to the DLS - should be available after the weekend.  I've also posted the source files on the downloads page if anyone want to modify them.  Thanks to everyone who tested & offered feedback on these assets!!

Jan 7th, 2007

Uploaded what is hopefully the last version of the St. Paul & Pacific coaches to the beta page.
Also uploaded a small yard building (Old West Car Shops).

Jan 5th, 2007

Happy New Year!!
Between the holidays and some computer problems, I haven't got much done this last month.  However, progress should start picking up again.  I've completed another product (fresh fruit for the combination box cars).  I'm also working on baggage and mail to be loaded and unloaded at the passenger depot.