CP_SW1200RS Model

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

Thought I'd post a shot of the SW1200RS model I've been working on... since Tuesday. The model has over 10700 polygons, will be in three paint schemes to cover the ten units assigned to the DAR.

Paul

[stem]

Hands down the best SW1200RS in the MSTS world. Expect a flood of repaints after you post this to Train-Sim!!!

Are you doing the Tuscan Roman and Script and the first Action Red PacMan style? Are those the 3?

8136 was script but the rest except for 8139 were roman until the Action Red. I suspect most were roman until the Action Red and that 8136 & 8139 are the only scripts. We only have seen photos of 8136 & 8139 in script that I'm aware of.

I want it first .. heh heh

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Yes I plan to do all the original "DAR" assigned units, what I have noted for paint schemes for about 1973 are:

8131 Block lettering
8132 Action Red
8133 Action Red
8134 Action Red
8135 Action Red
8136 Action Red
8137 Block lettering
8138 Block lettering
8139 Script lettering
8140 Block lettering

8139 might have been the last "DAR" SW in script, there's a 1974 shot in the Wiki in Action Red. 8140 I'm only guessing about being in Block lettering in 1973, only seen shots of this unit in 1977 and later in Action Red.

Today I finished drawing 8131 and am in the middle of dividing the unit into two parts to get it two work with the cabview (Dwight Mitchell's work) I'll be using.

Once I get this to run and tweak the lights and smoke it will be easy to change the numbers for the other three block lettering units, then a bit of work to get the script unit out of this. The Action red units will be a bit of work but will be easy enough to get on the road after the repaint. Total polygon count ended up at 11012.

Paul

[stem]

I think the DAR shops painted the first 5 Action Red pretty quick and then let the last 5 languish in their CPR Tuscan livery. That would be a good split for 1973 too. 5 in Action Red, 5 in Tuscan and of those, 2 in scriprt and the other 3 in Roman. Nice.

Considering all we have is a 72 photo of 8126 in Tuscan and a 74 photo in action red, 1973 is a toss-up anyway.

This SW1200 looks totally cool. The SW series were always my favourite switchers and light road locos next to the RS3s.

So the only thing I can notice is that the number boards on the front need to increase in height and the numbers need to get higher and fatter too. Can the radiator louvers be more distinct too?

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

OK, 8136 is script works for me!

Would that make 8140 in action red to balance the maroon and action red schemes... I'm game for this as I have no shots of this unit in the early '70s.

Paul

[stem]

Exactly! Take a little license anyway. It's your game!!

By the way.. I did find another photo of 8140 in 1973 after I orginally typed this in:
http://www.mountainrailway.com/Roster%2 ... 8140-2.jpg
Think it was here in St. Luc for a paint job?
8138 is in St. Luc in 1975 in this photo:
http://www.mountainrailway.com/Roster%2 ... 8138-4.jpg

Go for the 5 and 5 split anyway!

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the link, only thing I'll have to look for is a stencil font for the numberboards.

Another shot of the same unit a few years later shows they applied the odd show shield used years earlier on 8131 when it was in script in 1970, photo appears in Rail Canada vol 3, page 92.

http://www.mountainrailway.com/Roster%2 ... 8140-1.jpg

Paul

[stem]

http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... an1985.jpg

There's a shroud on 8132 in this photo in Jan 1985:
http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... an1985.jpg

Notice as well from all the photos that the lead unit is always nose forward (except when returning from the Steam Mill spur) and the lowest number of however many units are connected together.

[stem]

Any chance you could also include different flags AND the yellow handrail but make it configurable on or off? I saw that done for different flags or no flags at all on one of my 3D-Trains F3 units and thought that was pretty tricky (the flags were even animated!).

The handrail is yellow in this shot:
http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... R8131c.jpg

[stem]

I've got 4 fonts on my system that are very close to the Block style CP used:
Dutch 801 Roman Bold
Georgia Bold
MS Reference Serif Bold
Century Schoolbook Bold (this is my favourite)

None have quite the right "8" or "1" but all the letters look good to me. You can use the lower case "L" to represent the correct number 1 though.

As for stencil fonts, all I have is Cargo.
Maybe you'll find something here that will help narrow it down:
http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/SearchPa ... mit=Search

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

Well... no and no... but maybe for the first one...

You'd need to change the side handrails and add the handrail along the side of the carbody, nothing serious, but it would have to be done in TS Modeler and then create a new set of files. I'd like to finish the set I'm working on before doing a pre-1970 version, something that can happen a little later.

Extra flags I thought of but there's no way to tuen them on and off so a train coming down from Truro would look odd or any units paired up like the two (or three) on the gypsum train or freight to and from Halifax would look a little strange, especially with the flap flapping into the wind... better off leaving them off.

I have the first unit running in the sim, 8131. I want to run it for a while tomorrow to see if I notice anything wrong I need to correct, then I can renumber a few, then do the pair of script units before a new set of textures need to be created for action red units.

Paul

[stem]

I was just going nuts. But I wanted to pop up the ideas for future consideration anyway.

8131 is looking very good!

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

Didn't have a bad day today, now have four units in Roman lettering and two in Script, all roadworthy.

Start Action Red units tomorrow.

Paul

[stem]

They look awesome Paul.

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

Now have 8132-35 in Action Red. Just want to do some testing tomorrow before packaging the ten and posting them.

Paul