Laying some bushes

Not had much time to do much over the holidays, but the rest was nice too!

I did however manage to find 1950's maps of my entire route, and I now know where the turntable was at Wearhead!
(My wife is not really impressed at my findings!)
Here I have been using the map to lay hedges around the South Church area.


While getting the detail how i want it is time consuming it is rather enjoyable and very much like oil painting. I look forward to getting some time to complete the route.

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Permanent way

The Permanent way building that use to be opposite the Station (just off Escomb rd).

We use to call it the 'blue' building because in the 80's all doors were blue, creative stuff!

I have to hold my hands up, I smashed a few windows in that building in the 80's (and more besides, but we will not talk about that!)

Doing my best to rebuild it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

regards

Derek

Tornado Edition

It is always nice when you come to the end of a mini project, there is a great sense of accomplishment!

The Tornado was started many months ago but could only really move on once we had been on the resource trip.

The guys have worked hard on this loco and the beta team have all been key to the quality.

So on the eve of launch of a limited addition run of RailWorks which includes the Tornado addon the team are due a little Rand R for a couple of weeks. (after a few beers!)

It's been a long and hard year for the guys, but RW's is going from strength to strength and I am very proud of the team and what we have all managed to achieve.

On a personal note I'm glad the class 37 made it out, and it looks like the 101 and 03 are well on the way too.

Hopefully further progress will be made on the WVR, that and the grand plans we have at RS.com we will have another busy and creative year.

There have been some wonderful works by the able talent from the community too, great projects going on around the world and more to come next year.

I'm looking forward to 2010 more than ever and it may well be open season on the dinner nannies.

derek

A1 and Bishop Auckland North Signal Box

Just a little fictional scene with the Bishop Auckland North Signal Box.

Twister hits Bishop!

Just doing some testing on my WVR line. I think the Tornado will be here many times in the future.

tangent

North signal box

There are not many images of the North signal box at Bishop Auckland, this one however is one is a beauty. Will get cracking on this over the weekend.

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Looking over to the Bishop's Park

looking across at the Cemetery

Just playing around with foliage

open air ride

just enjoying the fresh air.

A full weekend!

First stop, Shildon and THE DELTIC.

I was allowed to get into the cab and walk down through the engine compartment into the no2 cab too.

A walk along the line to the top of the damnhead, this view looking back towards Bishop Station.

Nice straight lines there....

I poped out for some potatoes and ended up at my old school, here is a shot of middle school, not the same without the prefabs where I had most of my lessons in the 3rd and 4th year.

Headed to South church and to the spot of the old South Church station, it closed before the Second World war.

Early doors I set off back south, stopping in to see a friend (who passed on some of the fine stuff) and take some pictures of the locos and shed.

Class 07 was a welcome surprise.

Also got in and around the 1F.

A great trip, tho one my car may never recover from.

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Heading north in the morning

I'm away home for the weekend, I have a trip to Shildon on my agenda, a couple of bridges to research and a visit to Barrow and a friend on the way back down.

Back with some images on Sunday.

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Tornado cab WIP

Tom started the model, and now I'm on the unwrapping and getting the finer details correct, not sure where to start first!

lunch time tree feast

Wet Tunnel

Just laying some foliage down, working my way back to the station from Shildon tunnel.

I just liked the colours

Just checking the clock hands were working...
I just liked the lighting in this shot.

wagon wheels

A sneak peek at the wagons that come with the upcoming Class 37 pack.

It's a twister!

I've been hanging onto this for a few weeks...

A wonderful northern loco!

Once around bishop

Came across this on one of my many searches, the movies starts off near Toronto, then heads off over the viaduct and follows the route of the Durham line back to Bishop Station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEADeU5C47w

regards

Derek

J21 - Start

Blocked out the shape, tender shape next to the same starndard to make sure all looks correct before pushing on with details.

Class 02 modelling done

6 hours 30 minutes.Modelling complete (made up/best guess on bits I did not know)

Back on topic

My brother finally got round to scanning in the Northern Echo article on the station, nothing in it that I did not know but 2 nice images.

First image of platform one by the ticket office.



Second image is how I remember the station. 1975, most of the tracks all lifted and rosebay willow growing everywhere!



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3 hours 15 minutes

Some details took longer than I thought they would.

Class 02

Ok, it has nothing to do with the WVR, however since Sly and I are going head to head I thought I'd get some 'war mup'

Class 02,
Only got 10 images of loco and cab.

Plan is to model/texture loco in 12 hours and the cab in another 12 hours, spread over a week or so.

2 hours 15 minutes into build.



Stop the clock

Wear Valley Steam

On many occassions I have been asked what rolling stock will run on this route.

I've never really had an answer till now, I just kinda thought the 37/101 and maybe the 03 and 08.

However, the more I researched the more I want to make a few steam locos for this route, so going back through my refference material I picked out 3 locos that cropped up in almost every image.

The K4 - Great Marquess
J21 0-6-0
G5 0-4-4
I have gathered the plans and am in the process of gathering the ref images and info.
Here is the G5 I started late last night.



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Leaf blindness!

Yes I know I have made loads of grasses/bushes and ferns but I was out in Richmond Park and gathered a load more, just want more variety.

Almost got back to where I was with the foliage on the WVR route, thankfully!
Soon I can start to replant now that some of the dead wood has been cleared away.
It may look a little bare but the terrain is still painted so I can see where I need to place the assets, so it will be quicker the second time around.

Also been blocking out a few structures, nothing to look at yet but the start of the bridge over Princess St and the outline of the Wesley church.



Had some great personal news this week too, the futures bright!

derek

Tree Lofts

Just a few tree/bush lofts for the route.

5 in the scene below, I think I need 2 more and that'll do.

I use various methods for cutting the outline, however most of it is with the selection tool.

If you cut the shape out when the image is large then you don't have to be so clinical. I often cut the shape I want out rather than the actual outline of the tree or bush.

derek

Bridges and Rosebay

These Fridays are coming around quick!

Ok. This week I have made more progress on the station complex. The approach bridgeover the tracks has been created (though not shadow baked yet ) as well as the curved wall sections.

Looking south(ish)



The underside of the bridge is not straight, it angles up into the middle slightly, counted the pannels but not the rivots. :)



I felt the need to make more Rosebay, my last lot was not great and the source image was a bit of a let down. still got to get the lighting values right but the detail is there.

Lastly the Jubilee got released today, next up the Hall then V2!

Edit, any comments about RS.com addons please email support, updating the products on steam is so very easy.
I don't mind beef, but not here please.

thanks.

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Back up!

Normally I am pretty good at saving work.
At home I have 4 x 500gig and 2 x 200gig hard drives that I save to, mostly over night. The smaller drives are used to ferry work to and from the office and as short term back ups.
A couple of weeks ago I modelled an alternative PGA wagon, mapped it and saved it. Then, through a comedy of errors I managed to delete the file from 2 places on my work pc.

Now I know I rendered it so it meant it would be in a lighting rig file.
When I bring a max model into a lighting rig for render I always save the max file, just change the name, _131 to _132 for example.

These files get back up on various drives so it was only a matter of time before I found it but it had me concerned for a short while.

It is now in Source control not to be lost again.

It was not alot of work to go missing but still enough for me not to want to do it again.

Back up your work to more than 1 place.

The Station Passageway

I've spent a few hours modelling the details around the covered passageway that links the road over the track to platform 2.
This passage way was curved to follow the track, this I'll apply once I am happy with the structure/mapping and texturing.



It is still missing the canopy but the overall shape and scale feels about right.
I have also modelled this structure so that it can be seen from the inside, it does mean more polygons but I think the extra detail will be worth it once the whole structure comes together.
The inside will always be lit/illuminated so it will have to be textured/shadowed accordingly.



The glass in the roof will use the glass effect shader, now there maybe Zfighting in RWs (where you get multiply layers of glass) because of it's simple Z calulations, but I'm not sure anyone would even notice.

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Red Red Wine

Friday night and after a long day I find myself on the red wine.

The 8F is out to buy on Steam now, the guys have done well and I think users will like the loco and the scenarios.

Paul (Sly) has come on a storm from last year, his models get better and better.
Of course others were involved with scenarios/rollingstock and set up, the whole team chipped in.
Not forgetting the information from the beta testers too, thanks to you all for your feed back and assistance.

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DMU - update

I got asked about the 101 this week, sad to say it's not moved on a great deal.

However it is due to be started during work hours in a couple of weeks time.
I do bits and bobs to it when I have a spare half an hour.
(This morning I mapped the basic shape)
Now once I have completed the quadrilogy (08/37/101/03)
who knows whats next.



Derek

Bishop Auckland Station

Ok, I'll stop posting tree images!
So, this weekend I'm turning my attention back to the station.
As it stands things are blocked out and to the right scale.
The slopping tunnel is straight right now but I'll add the bend later once it is all mapped and textured.
The footbridge over the platform needs to be added as does the canopies.
I have a good detailed plan of the station layout I got by emailing the NRM at York. cost a few quid but well worth it and from that I know where the doors and windows are on the platforms.

The station approach wall and platform edges are blocky and not final.
The platform edge will be done in the game engine with an offset loft to make sure I get a wonderful curve that hugs the rails.



Looking West from high about Cocton Hill Road towards the station rec.



Looking East down the line to Darlington



Looking South.

Foliage

Foliage Pack free to all!
I'm glad it has now gone to all RailWorks users as bonus content.
The little project was started because I watched the way people were using assets and thought there was something I could do to help.
3 weeks hard toil and leaf cutting was spent on the pack.

Anyway now that it's out there I'm afraid I've scraped all the foliage that was in my route (lots in I just did not need) and started from scratch.
I have been out and about over the past few weeks gathering more reference material while the sun has been behind clouds.
Enough now, I think it's time to leave the camera at home instead of stopping every 2 minutes to take a photo of a tree because the lighting was right.

So here are the first 12 new trees for the WVR.



Derek