North American Renewal Set - Ver. 1.0 Released! - 04/04/06

[krtaylor]

The NARS seems to use a lot of the newer Patch features, which makes sense since it's newer. It'd be nice to recode the US Set to catch up, and maybe someday that will be possible. Personally I prefer the real liveries of the US Set as opposed to the more company-colors style of the NARS, but that is definitely nothing more than a personal preference - and I seem to be in the minority here, since the Aviators set vs Planeset seems (in some ways) to have that distinction too.

[Railwaymodeler]

we're in the minority together then, as I prefer the US Set's real liveries myself. PLus the fact that there's Metra trains in it, like wha runs to Waukegan from Chicago. Yay!

[krtaylor]

Actually, there are some more Metra trains drawn, that'll be included if/when there's a recode. There's quite a lot of stuff in the coding queue.

[DanMacK]

When I started drawing, I preferred the Real Life stuff as well, and the Canadian Set's my pride and joy. Company colours have grown on me though, and they're more in style with TTD.

To each their own though.

[krtaylor]

Hmm, guess this means you won't be coming back to the US Set anytime soon?

[michael blunck]

When I started drawing, I preferred the Real Life stuff [real liveries, mb] [...] Company colours have grown on me though, and they're more in style with TTD.

That´s interesting, because for me its vice versa. When I started drawing for TTD years ago, company colours were usual and my move to "real liveries" was a real "breakthrough", only after a lot of discussion. Hehe.

Only with the move to OTTD and it´s MP over Interent and TTDPatch´s 2CC, TTD´s "classical player colour" concept got sort of a revival.

However, I´ll stick to real liveries because CC for my sets would be inadequate, both from historical/realistic as from artistic and personal reasons.

regards
Michael

[DanMacK]

Oh I love accurate liveries myself, I love drawing them too. There's just something to be said about the retro look of CC

[m3henry]

There's just something to be said about the retro look of CC

"You know its 2 of your trains that are going to crash"

[White Rabbit]

What happened to the Big Boy and GE turbine loco from this list? (What does 'FEEF' stand for by the way?)
I'd really like to see the 4-8-8-4 included, and the turbine loco could be a natural succession when it's retirement time for the Big Boys.

[DanMacK]

Well, that list is very outdated but I'm still thinking of including those. Esp. the big Veranda Turbine. The Big Boy will possibly be included as well (Only in Tropic). In answer to your other question, Union Pacific classed its steam locomotives by their Whyte notation. Hence a Big Boy, or 4-8-8-4 is classed as an "FEEF"

[White Rabbit]

Hm, but supposedly, there were inconsistencies, and I found out the Big Boys were simply known as 4-8-8-4s (with -1 or -2 sometimes added). It's probably best to just name them 'Big Boy 4-8-8-4', in the same manner as every other steam engine in the set.

http://steamlocomotive.com/bigboy/#cabmarkings

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... 10,1022977:

4-8-8-4-1 is the locomotive class (First order of 4-8-8-4's)
68 is the driver diameter
23 3/4 23 3/4 / 32 is the bore and stroke of the front and rear cylenders
540 is the weight on drivers in thousands of pounds
MB is the type of stoker

Does anyone have a good reason why a Big Boy wasn't a FEEF class, rather than 4-8-8-4? UP Challengers have the same mystery: they're 4-6-6-4 classes, rather than FSSF, but the Northerns are FEF and preserved 2-10-2 5511 is a TTT.

Looks like UP was a little inconsistent in their use of steam locomotive classes. Kratville's Motive Power of the Union Pacific has a drawing of a Pacific that is classed P-77 (for Pacific, 77" drivers, due to the SP influence in the Harriman days?), and a 2-10-2 that is indeed called a TTT.
...
Eureka, on page 178 is a tractive effort table, which lists these classes: 2-8-8-0, MC-57 (Mallet Compound?); 2-10-2, TTT-63; 4-8-2 MT-73; 2-8-2 MK-63; 2-8-0 C-57; 4-6-0, T-69; 4-4-2, A-81.

Admittedly, those forum posts are a rickety source, and I don't have access to the book that person cites from.

http://www.trainweb.org/jlsrr/bigboy/in ... rkings.htm has a relatively clear view of the cab.

[wallyweb]

We really need to get future stuffs in the set now... lol

This was posted in the Nars Valley Project section of my Wallyweb Productions thread over in the screenshots section. (What a sneaky way to spam the forums about my screenies, but look, you got a free bump out of the deal ).
Let me disclaim this first. With DanMack's very kind permission, I have been using a test version of the NARS forthcoming release. It is not available yet.
What I have noticed in the later years, post 2000, are the following:
1. Running costs are getting exceedingly high ... almost impossible to be profitable, especially with falling reliabilities.
2. No reliable cheap shorthaul engines. The SW1500 is still around, but its reliability is tumbling fast.
I hope these thoughts will be considered in the future stuffs.

[PikkaBird]

1. Running costs are getting exceedingly high ... almost impossible to be profitable, especially with falling reliabilities.

Most of the later engines (including the SD70MAC, GP60 and P42DC) haven't been updated with the variable running costs nonsense yet. Diesels are going to get more expensive to run towards 2050, but there will be more electric and alternative powered vehicles to compensate.

The most up to date vehicle list is here.

[wallyweb]

That list looks awesome.
A note to players ... keep an eye out for this one ... you'll not regret it.

[trainmaster611]

I was a tad dissapointed by the fact that you used modified versions of the Wills for v1.0 but the new steam engines are coming along great (along with all the other trains)!

In that last picture of the passenger train in the tropical setting, are those amfleet cars I see?

Also, I'd like to make two suggestions: the Hiawatha A-class Atlantic locomotive and the Colorado Railcar DMU.

The former is probably the closes equivalent America had to Britain in terms of high-speed steam. I was thinking of it as an American-like a counterpart to your Streamliner A4 locomotive in the UKRS: a high-speed steam locomotive regularly going above 100mph (it did do that afterall, and even to 120mph).

Now the Colorado Railcar DMU is like the modernday equivalent of the RDC or the DMUs in Britain, except its been redesigned for commuter service. Its expected to become a major innovation in the passenger rail transport industry and its starting to be used by commuter railroads all over the country.





Single-level



Double-level



Maybe for the Hiawatha, you could borrow it from the US Transition set and modify it so that its more generic looking.

Hope you can do that

[PikkaBird]

You do see Amfleet cars, although in the final version they won't appear in Tropic, only in Temp and Arctic. The A isn't and won't be included, although one of the streamlined variants of the Hudson is an F7. Some version of the Colorado Railcar or something similar may be included; we already have a generic modern EMU.

I realise there haven't been any updates here for quite a while, I have been quite busy with real life and/or other projects... maybe I should get focussed on this one again?

[trainmaster611]

Cool, F7 Hudson is fine. I just thought that my request would be a little more practical than an F7 since the A already existed. I was actually hoping there would be an F7 instead

[EDIT]

But about that DMU, I would strongly reccomend it

[PikkaBird]

The F7 already exists.. done ages ago.

[Aegir]

If I may ask though, Pikka, how far has the new version of NARS come along? I've not seen you or DanMacK on IRC lately to ask how things are going on my favorite trainset . I know you cheeky folks have a test version floating around, I've been out of that loop for a while now, though .

I'll have to get back into making .grf's so you sods will send me your test releases again .

[PikkaBird]

tbh not a lot has been done in the last few months. We have practically all the steam and diesel locomotives and rolling stock from 1920 to the present day completed; there's just the electric, futuristic, and pre-1920s vehicles to do.