New website published

www.trainsignals.homestead.com

Signing out,
CTA

Website renovation preview ONE

This is hard work. I think I could create a new website faster, because at least a new website doesn't include deleting everything on the home page. :l 

The new design is complex, but all I will say is it gives the site more of a desert feel to it. I will save pictures for the day it is opened. ;)

I have taken down a few pages, most significantly being the updates and the my signal page. Updates being because I will put those on the home page. My signal because I never seem to go to Riverside anymore.

Most old pages still will exist, and those will be given the same renovations.

Here are some never asked questions!

Will the publish date be pushed back?
Yes, probably back even as far as mid June.

Will the web address be changed?
Likely no, unless I can find a way to...

Will the name of the site be changed?
Yes, to National Railfan.

Will there be pictures of real trains and Trainz there?
Yes.

Will you quit updating your blogs once it is complete?
Likely, but I will see if there is a way people can comment on the site.

Malfunctioning crossing and road closure hurts businesses in Orello

BREAKING NEWS- A few days ago the Moran Blvd. grade crossing in Orello began malfunctioning in spells of two minutes on, one off. After witnesses saw the crossing not activate for an AWVR train until after it began crossing, AWVR rushed to the crossing and shut down Moran Blvd. between Rafael St. and Boone Rd.

"It was scary seeing the crossing not working. I honked my horn as many times as I could praying that I wouldn't hit someone," said conductor of the train Fakey McFakerson.

Local resident Jessica McHuman was at the Shell station by the crossing when it happened. "The crossing had just gone up after malfunctioning like it had the past day or so. Next thing I knew, I heard the horn of a train. Not until after the train was blocking the crossing did the signals go off. It was scary".

This is also putting businesses in a bad spot.One of those businesses is MaxDoughnuts. Owner Sweet Brown said "I went outside to the parking lot to get me my lunch, and I heard a horn. I thought someone cut someone off. Then I said 'Oh lord Jesus it's a train'. I ran inside and grabbed my phone. I got two kids. Aint nobody got time fo' that!"

AWVR workers are working around the clock to get this solved.

______________________________________________________________________
This is actually happening in the game. The crossing won't stop malfunctioning, and the crossing not going off for the train did too. Usually it worked, but it was the moment the train came at, which is right when the crossing turned off, that caused it to not work.

Z-train on the Emerald Desert

Led by AWVR 7934

Crossing Bison Creek

Near Bison Creek:

Moran Blvd. grade crossing, Orello

Ship humor

BREAKING NEWS:

The Carnival Fascination has lost course and is now stuck in the middle of the Emerald Desert:

This is the third Carnival ship paralysis in this decade, following the one of the Carnival Splendor in 2010, and the Carnival Triumph in January...

I know I'm not funny...

Emerald Pass touch-up

I have spent all evening so far working on the scenery:

How do you think it is going so far? Most of the 3D trees are Pofig Trees (His website has since been removed, I got them from Jointed Rail while downloading the Midwest Grain route, as they are a dependency). Pofig trees are very realistic, and I highly recommend them for any route, desert, forest, or winter! Best part, they don't hurt FPS, either!

Not only did I touch up the parts where no vegetation has been added yet, I began touching up and putting buildings in for the city of Orello.

This will NOT become vaporware. Stay tuned for next weekend, a 3-dayer...

Route reviews, starting this week!

Route reviews will be when I will judge other people's routes. Here are a few main points.

1. I will be 100% honest and fair. I am not going to rant and rave about how wonderful a single-texture route is. However, I am not going to complain about how a creator of a prototype route missed adding in a tree.
2. I will criticize. And some of those criticisms may be a bit rude. Read #3 for more detail on that.
3. I am not here to bash the route or creator of the route. I am 100% against trolling or flaming. I won't use the words stupid, dumb, stop, or say the name real name of the creator unless it pertains to a certain object in a screenshot. I won't say derogatory phrases to potentially put down the creator of the route.
4. I will grade the route by using a points and a star system. The system will go by 10 categories. The average of the 10 star ratings will be the overall star rating. The total of the points will be the overall points. There will be a maximum total of 100 points.  

What I can't do + Emerald Pass

Today, while I was working on the BNSF Mojave Sub, I realized that I don't like building prototypical routes. I like doing what I want to. This is why I decided to revive Emerald Pass for TS12. Today I finished one baseboard. I plan to make the route close to 110 miles long, with Emerald City having a major yard, and the summit will be there also. You ever seen the movie "Unstoppable"? If you have, you know about the fictional railroad AWVR. Yes, it stands for "Allegheny West Virginia Railroad", but it just fits well in the desert. I decided to do that after I didn't want just BNSF signals, BNSF containers, etc. The locomotives courtesy of Blawnox Locomotive Works. I expanded the Automatic Numbering system, so the numbers weren't so cramped. Here are some WIP shots of the baseboard I completed:

The overview

Down low

Where the tracks cross over Bison Creek

Looking to the West at the MP 31.4 signal bridge

Looking East at the MP 31.4 signal bridge

Daggett-Mojave!

Just began a new route today, Daggett-Mojave. It will feature the last few miles of the BNSF Needles Sub, and all of the BNSF Mojave Sub. The route will begin just a bit east of the Hidden Springs Rd. just east of Daggett, which is part of the transcon, and go into Barstow Yard, where the Cajon Sub goes south, and the Mojave Sub goes East. Here are some screenshots!

The signals at MP 733

Looking down on Hidden Springs Rd.

Looking East, towards where the texturing begins

Looking West, towards where the city of Daggett will soon be. Yes, there will eventually be vegetation there, also.

Obviously no one is going to bother to vote.

So I'm going to take down the poll. I am tired of seeing a poll running for more than 5 days, and only seeing two guesses. It is humiliating, especially considering the last poll in July only had 4 guesses. There will be no more polls on this blog for a while...

The quiz poll is up!

Yes, as I promised last week, it is up. Hope you studied!

My re-creation of Lane-Seaside

Long-term readers of my Crossing Talk blog know that one of the more popular routes from back in the day(2010) was my Lane-Seaside route on the fictional Kingston Island. Yes, it was the one with Bernard. People who have been reading it since at the latest January 2011 know that Lane-Seaside was deleted with Trainz 2009. Well, I have decided to re-create it on TS2010!!! Like the TS2009 route, I started in Downtown Lane. However, with the assets on the Download Station, and help from trusted third-party Trainz sites, this route will be much better!!!

Here is a sneak peak:

Acacia Rd., Stadium District, Downtown Lane, KI:

More screenshots are to come soon, but I need to say one more thing. I will add in a quiz poll. If you read Crossing Talk regularly before October 2010, you may disregard the following message. To all people who began reading Crossing talk after October 2010, then there are a lot of posts saying Kingston Island, or the state abbreviation, KI (example: Lane, KI). If you want to go back in time on Crossing Talk, a lot of the posts regarding Trainz before 2011 are Kingston Island(or KI). I know I took pictures of the screen back then. Those were the old days.

Kingston Island Alt Hwy. 37 fictional grade separation project

First of all, I know there is no Kingston Island, and I know that there is no alt I-37 grade separation project in real life, so don't go yappin' about that.

And the grade separation continues on the second crossing.

In 2009, there were 5 crossings on the 90-mile long alt I-37. In 2010, there were four, the one in Bernard had been converted. Soon, by August, there will be three as seen here. This is all part of a major grade separation project. Every grade crossing owned by either Sounder or BNSF that crosses the alt I-37 is to be converted to  a grade separated crossover by 2016. Let's give you some more details about this crossing shown here:

• It is the busiest alt I-37 crossing around, with around 50 daily Sounder trains, 16 daily Amtraks, 41 daily BNSF, and 2 daily KILS (Kingston Island Local Services) on weekdays.
• The four lane road is expected to be closed in May. At that time, while the four lane road is being torn up, a temporary two-lane crossing will take its place.
• The overpass will be open in August or September.
• The crossing is located at MP 2.4, near Eastern.

The KILS Eastern local crosses both the still open four lane crossing, and the temporary two lane.

Cajon Pass so Far (again)

After Trainz deleted my old Cajon route, I started a new one, from the other side. Hidden Springs Rd. at Daggett:

Yeah, it's not much yet.

1000 page views!!!!!!

As of today, this blog has reached 1,000 page views!

BNSF stacktrain (again)

The same stacktrain as from the last post at Caliente approaches Tunnel 1:

Sasquatch

While a BNSF intermodal struggles upgrade at Caliente, sasquatch watches happily:

New Cajon Pass route

With the old one being deleted, I decided to start north instead of south this time. It will cover about five miles of the Needles Sub, starting at Hidden Springs and going West to Daggett and Barstow, Then it will go south on the Cajon Sub down to Colton. Here is a pic. from Hidden Springs:

As with all pictures, you may click it to enlarge it.

In-n-Out

Weird, huh?

The biggest screw job?

Okay, my computer just gave me the biggest screw job I have ever encountered. No, not on TS2010, where they usually happen, but on TS12. For some reason, it deleted BOTH Cajon Sub and Daggett-Edwards. AND the DEMs that I put them on. For some reason, it deleted every DEM and routes placed on DEMs in the entire game! I will just stick with Kingston Island...