Me Again

*Sneaks in hoping no-one notices*

Wow... Its been a while.

I could lie and say I spent the last couple of years in Japan, but where's the fun in that? The truth is, having some time off, away from my computers got me thinking about other things, and my priorities kind of changed for a while.

This project has always been in the back of my mind, but several factors stopped me from getting back to it. The 'priorities' mentioned before, troubles with my job - hearing that Auran went bankrupt didn't help either - for a long time, I thought, "Well.. thats the end of Trainz". I was also wrestling with texturing the Tangara Control trailer, and in the end, it became too hard, and I put it off for a while. With everything else in combination, that "while" got longer and longer.

In the last couple of years several things have changed for me. I still love electric trains, that much hasn't changed (especially the Tangara and the 86 Class of New South Wales, but increasingly also the Shinkansen (Bullet Trains) of Japan, as I got to know them more) but there are a few issues that are still keeping me away from this project.

In recent months Ive been yearning to do some more work on the 86 Class locomotive, and see it running in Trainz, as I envisioned it (Did I mention it would be fully operational, including the awkward way its driven? (ie: 1-2-3-2-3-2.. etc, for those that know). I'd even like to finish the Tangara, which isnt really that far away from loading up and running - the motor car, and variations (G Sets) wont take a lot of work, although the scripting I had planned for it will take some time).

The issues keeping me away right now, are firstly that my PC died (along with all of the Gmax files on it) and has been out of comission for probably over 18 months now. In fact, since it died, 5 other computers have died as well (I have a lot of computers on a big network). All of these are still dead, and right now, I'm on the oldest, slowest machine I have (excluding the unix systems, which run web services and other work for clients) and it just wont handle Gmax.

Originally, the problem that caused the demise of my PC was hard to diagnose. It was a hardware failure, but I didnt want to replace working components, and I didnt have any good way of figuring out which part was broken, so I just used another computer for a while. Finally (just recently as it happens) that other computer also died, and I had a chance to swap components. The good news is I narrowed the problem (on both machines) down to the motherboard. The bad news is, with 2 dead motherboards, I still cant make one working good machine.

The other big issue thats affecting me right now is that I left my job mid last year (it was long overdue), and so far, havnt found another. I dont have the money to repair the machines at the moment, so Im stuck on this slow one for now.

I heard about Trainz 2009 being released, and that gave me some hope that all this work wasnt wasted. Its re-kindled my interest in finishing what Ive started, as it seems that there is a future. The other good news is, as partial payment for building and maintaining a web site for my wife's business, she has agreed to pay for repairs to all of the dead computers, though that will depend on when she can afford to do that, and is conditional on me getting a job again.

So, the upshot is that things are slowly coming full circle, and I'm beginning to think more and more about this project. I said to myself at the beginning of this post, that I wouldnt apologise for being away so long, and I hope that you understand that we (content creators) do this because we want to, and have the resources. We are not obligated to do it. For a while I wasnt able to spend the time, or didnt have the resources (or both), but in the near future, that should be changing, so consider this post the first buds of spring :p

Another thing that helped keep me away, was the disapointment I felt about the way Railcorp approaches heritage issues in New South Wales. I touched apon it in previous posts, but since then time has shown that the token gesutres made thus far have had little real benefit (if any). They seem to have no interest in "Heritage", other than generating goodwill with a few well composed press releases. Unfortunately that goodwill on the part of the public, doesnt seem to be balanced by any real advances in rail heritage. Despite their words I can cite many examples where Railcorp's own actions could be viewed as having little concern for rail heritage. Private groups are doing far more, but its Railcorp's bat and ball (its even their ballpark), and they dont seem to want to play - they just leave the lights on so that it looks like they're interested, and when someone else kicks the ball around, they can say that by leaving the lights on they enabled them to do that! Perhaps in future posts, I'll give a few examples.

Even more future posts will probably also talk about the N Scale layout I'm planning to build in a spare room (Another thing that has got me thinking about this project). I'm hoping to capture aspects of Japan's rail system, including Shinkansen, regular passenger, freight end even metro systems.

As you can see, I have a lot to write about. I guess in a way this post is designed to put leverage on myself. Much of what I want to do, requires me to get a job, and with you lot knowing that Im still here, its even more pressure on me to get on with it, rebuild my systems, and get these models finished and uploaded to the DLS!

Update: 9 Feb 2009 - Ive just spent several hours tweaking this blog, adding tags, gadgets etc. I cant access Gmax for a while so I do what I can. I also replied to a lot of old comments, so that the answers are on the same archive page. Its been tough going because this old machine is so slow. Something is chewing up all the CPU, but it isnt as simple as a worm or spyware or anything obvious like that. Im a geek, but so far, its eluded me. Im still working on it.

Looking back over old posts I realised how much I have forgotten about Gmax, but Im sure it will come back to me when I get started again, and I have lots of notes. The hard drives in my machine are still ok, and mirrored just in case, so once its fixed, everything will be right where I left it.

A quick one about comments

I found a couple of old comments from May that somehow did not get published, so I published them today. I dont know if Blogger sends an email to posters when comments are published or rejected (to those non-anonymous ones whose email address is known), but if it does, that would be why a couple of you might have gotten emails today.

To answer a couple of questions in those comments, yes, Im doing the T set, and the G set and also Melbourne's Tangara test train, the 4D. I think I recall answering that one before. Yes, Im also doing a trailer - in fact there will be 9 carriages all together to cover the variations of the three trains. The other models will be created once the control car model is finalised, to take advantage of it having already been textured and set up for export.

I got a couple of comments on the previous post about Central Station's 100th Birthday, but I decided not to publish one anonymous comment which contained some names and details. I was trying to make the article a little generic, and avoided naming names where possible. To Dave, I'll just say thanks for the comment, and that I try to make my own mind up on things, and often that means listening to several different versions of the same story and then deciding which one sounds more reasonable. I still havnt quite heard all the versions yet, so it may have been premature of me to give my opinion. I think the issue with the drivers may have been more clerical than availability. I dont often see Barry, as we tend to go on different days, but I will have a chat and pass on your regards when I see him next.

I havnt done a lot of work on Trainz models (either the Tangara, the 86 class, or the side project) in the last week or so. Im hoping to spend some time on it tomorrow (I have Mondays off, but I also have some errands to run). The Tangara has become a little bogged down in the texturing stage, but Im hoping to remedy that the next time I can get a few uninterupted hours on it. Ive tried a few experiments, which havnt worked as well as I would have liked, so Im planning to hit it with a bit of force this time, and just do what works in order to get it to a point where I can show a different looking screen shot than what Ive previously posted.

Central Station's 100th Birthday Party

I have to say I was very dissapointed when I walked down to Central Station on Saturday to take part in the 100th aniversary celebrations.

This week has been an important one for rail heritage in New South Wales, with the state government using the 100th aniversary of the opening of Central Station to announce its future rail heritage plans, but the event itself clearly demonstarted to me that Railcorp is more concerned with the future than celebrating a century of transportation at one of Sydney's oldest stations.

The impression I was left with, after spending several hours wandering around the station, looking at the trains on display, was the the whole thing was a combined childrens birthday party and promotional exhibition for EDI Rail, the manufacturer of the Millenium train - one of the newest trains in the fleet.

The even newer Outer Suburban Cars (also known as OSCAR) (pictured) was also on display, but if its manufacturer, the United Group, was present, I really didnt notice them, except perhaps for one small banner which I can recall.

EDI on the other hand had at least two stalls handing out promotional material on platform one, and another in the main hall, and people on the trains answering questions.

There were a couple of guys in futuristic yet cartoonish jetpack styled outfits, acting like robots, there was also face paining, temporary tattoos, and at least 2 brightly coloured girls, making balloon anmals as they wandered up and down the platform entertaining the kiddies.

There was one old rail motor (CPH 18), a 45 class diesel (4520), idling in the escape road between platforms 3 and 4, and two steam trains running shuttle trips to Hurstville and back (3801, 3830). I got the distinct impression that the "Heritage" part of the display was the steam trains arriving and departing from platform 3 every few minutes.

Where was the electric heritage fleet? Where were the red rattlers which graced Central Station with their presence daily for over 75 years? I have no idea, and am at a loss to explain their absence, considering that Railcorp itself owns two complete and working red rattler sets, which I know were ready for the day, because I have spent one weekend a month for the last 7 months cleaning them!! I cant understand why Railcorp did not have them on show beside the Oscar and Millenium trains - there was definately enough room left on platform one for at least one, or perhaps both heritage sets.

As recently as two weeks ago I was told that at least one of them would be at Central on the day - perhaps both. and I was asked to come along to help guide people through them and answer their questions. The next time I go to Redfern Workshops, I will have a few questions of my own to ask - namely, What happened?.

A recent tour by one of the red rattler sets was postponed because Railcorp could not find drivers qualified to opertate their own heritage fleet, and I have previously been told that they apparently think that the public has little interest in these aging trains - a statement proven wrong by the popularity of the W set when it ran shuttles to Olympic Park last year.

I dont have all the answers yet, but I often get the impression that when it comes to heritage rail, Railcorp and the state government are not really trying, and as was shown today, to them, celebrating 100 years of Central Station history means promoting the two newest trains in its fleet (one of which is so new that it has not even started revenue service yet), and putting on a couple of steam trains to keep the heritage crowd quiet.

I'll post more when I find out why the red rattlers never made it to the party.

The Real Redfern Workshops

I mentioned that I joined HET recently. Having been approved and recieved my members card, I wandered off down to the Redfern Workshops to meet the people. It was a quiet day so I basically just met the General Manager and a few other regular people (a couple of directors and members) and they were all really cool.

I had the grand tour, and was surprised at exactly what they have stored down there... I think its one of RailCorp's greatest secrets, but unfortunately with the site under threat of redevelopment, its a secret that is not doing rail fans any service. People should know whats down there, otherwise the assumption is that its just a bunch of empty old buildings, taking up space. Its far from it - In the 15 track, two building workshop facility there is not a single space where another carriage could be parked. The place is completely full of antique trains in varying states of restoration. They even have a couple of Tangara's in there (well... models of Tangaras anyway hehe).

I think its a big problem. Developers see what looks like an empty site and come up with a big plan. The councils and government representatives assume the place is abandoned and are keen to do something to make use of the empty space. Its not empty! My personal opinion is that it should be turned into a rail museam. It certainly has enough exhibits inside!!

Its the home of W3 and F1, the last two working red rattler sets in Sydney. I got to sit in the cabs of both so that they could show me the differences between them. The W set cab is slightly similar to the S set cabs. (it seems SRA carries designs over from one model to the next - indeed, many of the physical features of the Tangara interior can be traced back to the original Tulloch double deck cars)

Theres a few other red rattler carriages - including one that was part of the first train across the Harbour Bridge in 1932, and some of the earlier wooden electric carriages with spoked wheels. They have the first ever Tulloch Double Deck car that was built. Theres a U-boat (the old silver interurban trains before the V sets) and a 900 series rail car, as well as several decomissioned passenger carriages from more recent diesel hauled services on the Broken Hill line, and lots of other stuff as well, including a few maintenence trikes.

Im sure I will be down there a lot, and will try to get a few pictures to post here. My first job when I go back there will be to help restore some office space upstairs and set up a computer system for them. Later I will be working on other restoration projects, and helping to prepare the W and F sets for use occasionally.

Well, its about time!

I spent yesterday on Sydney Harbour, celebrating Australia Day. I even got a bit of a tan. Last week, I attended a friends wedding, and entertained some other friends that my wife invited over for dinner. It would have been rude of me to sit at the computer and ignore them. I have also been working late at my real job to catch up on some things that are a bit behind, and will still need to work late from time to time over the next couple of months, but hopefully the weddings and national holidays are over, for a while anyway.

Over the last couple of weeks, besides all of the other things that have distracted me, I have been doing a bit of research, and finishing up the Train Stop. I uploaded it to the DLS last night, but am just waiting on some last minute formalities before I release it from the preview area so that you can download it. I was so excited that I uploaded it before I had checked it properly, and ended up having to upload it again after removing some debugging code that I had left in the script.

I also realised that I should probably ask permission to modify one of Natvander's scripts. I had not thought about it since there was nothing in the license or in the script itself that said I couldn't, so I just presumed that it was ok. Then, after had I uploaded the Train Stop, my better judgement convinced me that I should at least ask, out of courtesy. I will be delaying the release. until I get this cleared up.

Last week, I also had an idea for a really quick and small model... the NSW Track Flag. It took me just a few hours to knock it out, and script it (ok... it took about 8 hours - but that included 4 hours of tearing out my hair trying to figure out TrainzScript :) The flag was uploaded a few days ago, but I currently have an update awaiting Auran approval, so if you havnt downloaded it already, you should probably wait until mid next week. If you have, download it again once the update is available.

Recently I signed up with HET (Historic Electric Traction) - probably the first of many organisations I will be supporting. They are a group of volunteers who contract their services to Railcorp, to restore and maintain Railcorp's historic fleet of electric passenger trains. They work out of the old Redfern Workshops, which is just a few blocks from here, and I hope to go down there occasionally and help them maintain the red rattlers and other historic trains that they have there. I have a bit of an alterior motive as well - I hope to get some photographs of the buildings and particularly Traverser No 1, and model them for Trainz.

A couple of other Trainz projects have shown up on the horizon. Im very interested in the Cityrail project (recreating the Sydney Cityrail network in Trainz) and have offered to help build any models that the guys might need to support that. Naturally the Tangara is going to be a part of it, but I have my eye on a few stations and buildings around the place as well.

Next week, I plan to work on the Tangara some more. I havnt done much over the last 2 weeks, and hope to make that up next week. I spotted a few glitches that will need looking at, but nothing major. I should have the gangway finished very soon, and will probably then work on the glitches. Now that the Train Stop is out of the way, I hope to finish the buffer, and start on the catenary splines and related static bits and pieces.

Oh, and my other task for this weekend, is to set up a website for Redfern Workshopz to allow me to add a few features that cant be done on this blog. More on that, as it progresses.

Redfern Workshopz

I put a banner together to use in the forums. Its true, Im new to Trainz, and I havn't uploaded any content yet, but as they say good things are worth the wait. Im a geek, and I pick up new stuff fast. Ive only been using Gmax a few weeks, and Im progressing well. Ive read the Content Creation Guide and it makes sense and I understand the key concepts, and know what I need to do to build models that will work, and work as I have promised below.

Trainz is a great program, and if we all get together and fill it with some good content, we all win. Im concentrating on my corner of the world, and I plan to see it through, over time. The banner is to show that Im serious about that.

There is (or was) a huge group of people who were inspired enough to start building almost the whole Sydney Cityrail network. Alas one by one they seem to have found other interests, many of them (according to forum posts) frustrated by the lack of suitable Sydney or NSW content, which they needed to model our rail network. The guys from Cardiff Workshops have been a tremendous help, giving us some high quality local content, but more can be done. Hopefully as more NSW based assets are created, some of the Cityrail route creators may return and complete what they have started.

About the name
Sydney's electric suburban passenger network began in the early 1900's. As the railway grew, a large workshop sprang up at Eveleigh, in the inner city, and the existing Redfern platorm (it wasnt even a station at that stage) was relocated from where the Eveleigh workshops are now, to its present location. The original electric passenger trains, affectionately known later in life as "Red Rattlers" were built during the 20's and 30's in the Redfern Suburban Carriage Workshops, a part of the Eveleigh Workshops, located on the other side of the line, near the present Redfern Station.

Sadly the Redfern workshops were closed many years ago, and are now just derelict buildings. There are plans to redevelop the site and we may lose the heritage value of the buildings. The Eveleigh workshops across the line are still operating, though at a greatly reduced capacity. They are currently used to house and prepare the Milenium Train, and Endevour Explorers. A small section at Eveleigh houses 3801, the most well known heritage steam locomotive in NSW, which is still running tour trains from time to time (See the photo in the archive). Eveleigh is a shadow of its former self, and large sections have already been redeveloped. With the rise in price of inner city land, its only a matter of time until it is closed forever. That may happen sooner than we think as Railcorp have indicated that they will not be renewing the operators lease of 3801, when it expires next year. The future of the locomotive, and the facilities to maintain it at Eveleigh are in doubt.

All of this is just down the road from me, so when I was thinking of a name to tag my Trainz content creations with, living in Redfern, it was only natural to call it Redfern Workshopz.

Blah. I type too much, and I still didnt say half of what I was going to.