Hello everyone, we hope everyone is doing well these last few months of absence and without any significant updates from our team. Our last official post here was on January 3rd and we announce all the projects we are working on in the coming months/years. And as many already know, Machine Rail is working on three major commissions that assemble the ICRR Lima Mikados, Pere Marquette N-1 Class and the FRISCO T-54 Class. Finally, we are halfway through May and getting close to completing the first of these commissions:
I.C.R.R. 1923 LIMA MIKADO SERIES
We have been working on this project since the beginning of January and only now is the locomotive close to completion. This Commission request includes not only the locomotive but also 7 other ICRR Freight Cars that correspond to the era of the locomotive, which we are currently working on.
It has been a great challenge to understand the history of these beautiful Mikados in ICRR, as there were many units and many of them went through numerous changes throughout their careers. Initially, we thought to run the job over the entire 1500 series, but later we found out that these Mikados made by Baldwin and Lima were renumbered, mixing it up! So it was decided at the last minute to represent the series built in 1923 by Lima after they were renumbered, so we have 189 units in total, but numbered in series only from #1396 to #1470 and #1908 to #1982. The remaining units correspond to 15XX, 16XX, 17XX, and 18XX in smaller quantities. These are the 1923 ICRR Lima Mikados renumbered. (The internal folders of this TSC product are named "Illinois Central 1500 Class" created in January. As we recently discovered the numbering history there is no more time to change these folders, we would spend at least weeks changing these names, but the good news is that none of these names will be visible in TSC, they are just folders that make up the product and will only be visible in the Editor mode in the Machine Rail product list.)
This model required a little more time and skill from our 3D artist especially when it comes to creating the textures. Using the same technique as always, but with a touch of small additional details to achieve a slightly more realistic result on the surface of certain parts, such as cast iron, wrought iron, smooth or porous plates, among countless texture files created to achieve such a result.
Screenshots in real time in Train Simulator Classic. Time adjusted to 07:00AM in Summer
This locomotive presents new features thanks to the help of our partner and friend DSGDDR with a new application of scripts developed especially for our current locomotives. These new features mainly employ new visual, particle and sound effects which also made the simulation of our locomotives even more enjoyable; but not that complicated to operate. This is one of the main characteristics of our locomotives.
White Class Lights
Green Class Lights
Red Class Lights
You can turn on the ranking lights via a switch in the cab or by pressing Y on your keyboard. To switch colors you will always use U and SHIFT+U on your keyboard. In the cab you will find switches to operate all of the locomotive lights: Headlights, Tender Lights, Class Lights, Cab Lights, Task Lights and Gauge lights. In the locomotive's Operation Manual you will find all these functionalities and many others, in addition to the available keyboard shortcuts.
Task Lights on the sides of the locomotive
Task Lights on the back of cab
Cab Lights
Tender Headlight
We are very proud to be close to completing yet another Commission project. We will be back with a new post about this product with more images soon when all the ICRR freight cars are finished. For now we would like to thank our friend and client Daniel, the official commissioner of the ICRR 1923 Lima Mikados Series. Thank you very much for trusting your time in our work.
OTHER WORKS IN PROGRESS
With the completion of this major ICRR project, we are preparing to start work on the Pere Marquette N-1 Class:
All our projects start the same way: With a lot of research on all the structural dimensions of the locomotive (those red boxes show these dimensions) and some values require several calculations until arriving at the exact measurement and with that done, a 2D drawing of a from the sides of the locomotive is created; within the measure of what we call the "1:1 Digital World Scale", where our 3D software is configured according to TSC's needs. Yes, this is a lot of work! If something goes wrong at this stage, the end result will be devastating and frustrating for everyone, to say the least. At the moment we don't have any significant 3D progress on the construction of the PM N-1 Class, but we will soon and will post more frequently on our Facebook Page. We only use this Blog for updates and an overview of what's going on.
The same applies to the FRISCO T-54 Class, this project is waiting for its turn according to the order of acceptance of our commissions, but it is already a project that we have everything in hand to start! And it shouldn't be long before we see the 2D design at the same stage as the PM N-1 Class.
Another project that is on hold for now is our Western Maryland I-2 Class:
The locomotive looks the same as it has since it was last run in December 2022. The exterior work looks complete, just missing a good detailed look at all the exposed parts and adding those small, finer details.
But the WM I-2 Class still needs many hours of 3D modeling inside the cab. We try to work on this in parallel with another project but it's impossible; when we start a project, our focus needs to be on it from start to finish. And we also have a life outside the computer screen. So we're certainly going to get serious about the WM I-2 Class when we finalize the remaining commissions which are the Pere Marquette N-1 Class and FRISCO T-54 Class. With those finished, we can turn our eyes entirely to the WM I-2 Class. (we'll talk about future commissions in a dedicated post).
We'll be back with a new post soon to announce the ICRR 1923 Lima Mikado Series release date, and any new updates.
Thank's for your time.
Best regards,
Carlos.