The Great Northern

[slider38]

This map is a bit of an experiment. It is designed as a 24 by 24 map, significantly larger than anything I have tried before. Time will tell if my pc will run it. It works ok in the terrain editor, but that's hardly a real test. I have got the first 2 engines ready.
First the Great Northern 4_6_0 number 911.

Second the Great Northern 2-8-8-0. My thanks to wingsofphoenix who I believe was the modeler of the 4-8-8-4 Bigboy. This engine is an offspring of that. A few tweaks to the body and wheels and a little shortening and the 2-8-8-0 was born.

[slider38]

Another engine rolls off the line - the Great Northern F3-A number 350-C.

[slider38]

I have also completed the Great Northern 4-6-2 number 1355.

[slider38]

I have finished another engine - the Great Northern 2-8-0 number 1147. Time to go work on some more industries and train cars.

[slider38]

Here are the Great Northern GP7s - numbers 606 and 635.

Now for more industry and train car work.

[slider38]

I found and interesting picture of a double deck pig car a while back so I decided to give it a try. The car I found looked like this:

Using that as inspiration, I came up with this one which will be in this map:

There are 4 doors on each side which required some work on most of the kf files. It was an interesting project.

[slider38]

I've finished another engine - the Great Northern 2-8-2 number 3059.

Now it's back to the industries and such.

[slider38]

Today I finished the Great Northern GP9 number 679. This engine has an interesting look with 3 lights on the rear rather than the typical 2.

My version:

[slider38]

The last engine for this map has rolled out of the shops - the Great Northern GP20 number 2040.

Everything is built and passed the first test. Now it's time to start moving things to the actual map and start re-testing. All part of the fun :>)

[slider38]

Well I learned a lesson while testing on the actual map. A 24 x 24 map is waaaay too big. A whole lot of dead space that can't possibly be filled given the limited number of industries that the game allows. I am in the process of re-working the map to get something in a size that is good for the game. I got about a third of the industries placed on the actual map and tested and it was a bit frustrating just because everything required so many miles of track. The good news is everything that has been created for the map and tested on my practice map will work fine on a smaller version. I just have to re-do the map itself. Still an interesting experiment - I learned what not to do

[slider38]

I have finished the second round of tests of all industries, train cars, etc. and have them set up on the new 17 x 17 map. Now it's on to playability testing - ugh. This will take some time as I have 5 starting points on this map and I need to make sure the map can be successfully played from each. So it goes - back to work.

[slider38]

Well I'm getting closer. I have finished testing, at least for now. The map looks good. Now I just have to get victory conditions into the Scenario.xml. And then there are the events - ugh. Many images to get together, but I am getting closer.