North Tahoe Narrow Gauge

[NormHart]

Hey Curtis et all.

Have you seen this?



Found here http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthre ... i-s-Models

trainboi1 apparently has several more Mason Bogies in work!

[ferroequine]

I sent a message to him yesterday about helping to get the Bogie schemes right. No one gets them right online..
I also have all the drawings for these things (beyond the MasterClass stuff).

Turns out, I know trainboi from elsewhere.

That Bogie looks mighty nice! I will have to test it out later today.

[NormHart]

Sadly it is missing things like fuel, sounds, etc. although he did come up with a great solution for the front drag bar.

Still it is the only Mason engine in trainz that I know of and I believe it is the only US Bogie type engine too.

[Trainboi]

I'll work on getting fuel and sounds working on my current project, which is a little closer to home here.

For anyone who doesn't recognize this, it's a model of the later V&T Moguls(Truckee, Tahoe, Santiago & Merrimac). I have since corrected the arched doors & windows in the cab, and hopefully I can get the light looking more Baldwin-esque.

[Pencil]

Looking really nice! I'm presuming you've seen the SMR http://www.smrtrains.com/sold_out_page.htm paint schemes? I believe there will also be a presentation on the paint schemes of those locomotives by Randy Hees and Jim Wilke at the V&T RR History Conference in October.

Curtis

[Trainboi]

I have seen those models, and I must say I wish I had the space to get one and run it straight into late August. They look fabulous!
I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend the V&TRRHS conference items that would be most useful(and interesting) to me; the website doesn't list the time, though if it's before 2:45 I may not make it and if it's before 2:30 I definitely won't make it as I have high school that day. I'd love to be able to meet some of you in person. The best drawings I've been able to access are those at http://www.virginiaandtruckee.com/ and, of course, Ferroequine is also being of great help, linking me to all the latest and most accurate paints. His research and effort are extremely helpful, not to mention that of his colleagues at the PacificNG site.

[ferroequine]

The SMR models are very nice, though their paint is a bit goofy. That is to say: there should be no black! Baldwin standards call for everything to be painted the base color, that includes the frame, cylinder body and everything in between. Otherwise, the striping and lettering is spot on. Unlike the earlier moguls, we know for certain what the larger ones looked like. They'd be painted and finished nearly identical to the narrow gauge locomotive "Eureka" excepting the lettering style.

I will add this class of mogul to my list of Baldwin e-specs to do. I can work on a Mason version if you like.

Thanks for the kind words. A lot of this information comes from a variety of sources including other friends of mine and PacificNG contributors. I also have access to most of the Baldwin paint records which helps in putting this all together.

With all of these projects going on, I think we'll have an interesting Trainz demonstration at the conference this year!

[Trainboi]

Hopefully you'll have at least 4(I hope to do the #s 1-3 as well) new moguls to show.
About the Baldwin standards... does that mean that the air compressor and reservoirs should be wine too on the Truckee & Tahoe and lake on the Santiago & Merrimac? I know I can't trust Ames to have his paint design correct as it isn't fully striped and the cylinders are definitely incorrect. Of course, looking at the Eureka I see the compressor is black with brass trim, but I still think it's worth the question.
Here's a shot of Tahoe minus her bell, handrails, wheels & motion to give a checking point:

[Pencil]

There were some plans for the larger moguls published in the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette in 1987. Mike Collins likely has something unpublished, as well.

As to the conference, I'll ping Tom and see if he has a detailed schedule yet. I suspect most presentations will be before 2:30, though.

[ferroequine]

The air-compressors would very well be black, but they could be painted. "Inyo" has a painted compressor in her restored form. This is a pretty minor detail so you can make the call. I should also point out that the part of the compressor with brass trim, is a russia iron wrapper. This was the common way to wrap them so make sure you texture it appropriately. The reservoirs themselves would have been painted to match the rest of the overall locomotive.

I am not certain if the large moguls were delivered with air-brakes. The spec indicates they didn't get driver brakes until around 1901. I would imagine they got some sort of air before then. I know "Inyo" received air-brakes in 1877, as I believe the passenger locomotives got them first. I will dig into my notes more this evening.

[Trainboi]

The '87 plans would only help me at this point if they have paint; the mesh will be done as soon as I get the valve gear done, so I'll probably send you the .blend file to you to see what I missed.
Maybe I'll just have to miss some of school for that conference-many students will be gone anyway because that's the weekend before October Break, so it won't be out-of-order and I probably won't miss anything very important. My sister will be jealous-last time she wanted to go to a convention she wasn't able to-but I can deal with that.
Perhaps the moguls had "some sort of air" in the 1880's? I just wasted quite a bit of time looking for photos of the Tahoe and failed to find any that have a date in the 1880's, only undated photos and one from 1877. In any case, I can pretty easily move the air pump, reservoirs and right running board to a different layer if it turns out they weren't installed in the 1880's. It's just a pain that Google doesn't show what you want no matter how specific or vague you make your search options. I guess it's just the "Any publicity is good" tactic.

[Pencil]

Most of the V&T freight equipment didn't have air until the turn of the century; I *suspect* these moguls were the same.
From the notes I have:
#23 got an air compressor and driver brakes as part of her sale to Boca and Loyalton in 1901
#24 is reported to never have had air or locomotive brakes added - which is odd, because it also went to the Boca and Loyalton (just after #23, in 1902), and was used there probably into the '20s.

[Trainboi]

The mesh is done:

The cab is on a separate layer so that I can toggle whether the lining should be round or square(Truckee & Tahoe or Santiago & Merrimac) and the bell and coupling bar are animated.
Speaking of that, is there something special I need to do to get the bell swinging on command? I figure it's probably achieved by scripting, something I have no idea how to do.

[Pencil]

Very nice!!

Yeah, the animated bell is a script. Make your bell and rope as a separate mesh, animated through 1-2 cycles, and I can help you with the rest. Or, you can rip the script from one of my moguls on the DLS.

Curtis

[Trainboi]

Textures are proceeding:

Now the details of the cab, domes, headlight and headlight bracket are next. Animation is complete, including a bell with separately animated clapper(absolutely critical to make it look good), but I think the detail will take some time, especially due to some large family events coming up soon.