Clovis 2

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CLOVIS 2

With the release of Clovis1 work commenced on Clovis2 on February 10 2008. Clovis2 will extend the route Eastwards from Willard to beyond the Union Pacific junction at Vaughn. The shot above was taken on June 3 2009. The cattle yards are located right at the eastern end of the route, the eastern portals are just a couple of hundred meters beyond the signals in the distance. Tracklaying and texturing are complete as of this date and the route was finally released in late August '09 - it is available from the Downloads Page.

First screenie off Clovis2 - this curve is on the Clovis1 route, but trains never get there, it is beyond the Eastern portals. But no more! A westbound trailer train descending from Silio rolls on towards Willard.

An Eastbound 'Q' climbs towards Silio.

Westbound Union pacific approaching Silio.

Back at it after a couple of months lay-off from Surveyor. An eastbound hog grinds past the western end of the Lucy siding. Despite my short sabbatical away from Trainz, Lucy is 10 miles into Clovis 2, so I have not exactly been idle...

Rock Island is not entirely appropriate, but these geeps are just about the best skin in Trainz. A lost westbound 'Rock' freight passes the eastern end of Lucy.

An eastbound 'Q' rolls past an abandoned service station near Lucy.

A ballast train grinds slowly past the signals protecting the crossover at the eastern end of the Lucy siding, The locos are Sp-Or-Bust's venerable Gp60s - old models, but still amongst the best of the best whether seen coming...

... or going.

Just west of Culebra a Greyhound coach waits as a westbound manifest thunders by.

Signal check

Near Culebra the new BNSF Transcon tracks leave the old single line ATSF main for a couple of miles. This Eastbound is on the new alignment, the old Santa Fe line forms a loop in the distance

Empty steel coil cars and slab flats make their way back eastwards. The coil cars and SD40-2 leasers are new content from RRMods - great stuff!

Speaking of new content, how about Maddy's new 'YARN' roads? Absolutely beautiful - great textures and very easy on framerates. Swapping them in was a pig though. I used TraizObjectz to swap out the main roads, but it still took near enough two full days to change the intersections and manually swap some of the minor roads. Near enough twenty saves (and one total TRS06 meltdown) later the job is done. Definitely worth the effort. Incidentally that train is just on 4,000 feet long, and it's all in view...

Not the highest point on the line, but at about milepost 819 the line reaches a height of 6,386 feet. This eastbound hopper train was stopped at the Culebra crossover and is working hard as it crests the summit.

Driver's eye view approaching Dunmoor...

...and a bird's eye view leaving. Still a lot of texturing and tweaking to do, but the basic arrangements at Dunmoor are sketched in. If anyone is interested this is around milepost 817 and the next release will end at about 780, so 35 or 40 miles to go. I have traditionally released a new route around Christmas time, but absolutely no chance this year. Maybe Easter???

There is only one major industry served by the railway over the entire length of the Clovis Sub, a granite quarry at West Pedernal. The quarry sells its entire output to just one customer - the BNSF railway! There are two loadouts at the quarry, on older loader alongside the main and a second newer unit train loader with a loop of track at the end of a mile-long spur. This shot shows a westbound on the main approaching...

... and passing the older loader.

A pair of geeps idle the morning away at the quarry loadout. Same camera position as the last shot but looking in the opposite direction (west).

This shot shows an empty ballast train entering the unit train loader loop and passing over a stone wall that dams a local river.

Another of those high long shots...

... and a long low one!

Westbound Union Pacific auto racks headed by the heritage Rio Grande SD70 grind up the 0.7% grade east of Negra... NM...

... and are caught again a few minutes later on the curves between Negra and Pedernal.

You gotta love TrainzTuner!

Eastbound near Encino NM.

The same train a mile or so farther east.

Encino NM,

This and the next three screenshots were taken near a grade crossing between Encino and Carnero...

Westbound UP manifest on the single track section between Vaughn and Carnero idles downgrade towards...

... an eastbound BNSF trailer train waiting for the green light at the end of the double track.

A few minutes later the BNSF trailer crests the 0.75% grade on the single track - hard work from a standing start. From here though it is a steep 4 mile downgrade switchback to Vaughn.

Another eastbound at almost the same place - great railfanning spot :-)

The following three show Frank's new UP SD70M on the curving single track section between West Trojan and Carnero...

Westbound hoppers roll through the passing loop at Trojan NM.

Eastbound BNSF Hog on the single track section between Trojan and Vaughn.

Speaking of 'HOG' - I am not big on untextured screenies, but I kinda like this one. It is taken at the end of the single track section west of Vaughn and shows one of the reasons for the track still being single - over a mile of high fill, followed by alternating fill and cut for another five miles of tight curves. The blue HOG track colour on the lower right indicates the position of the Union Pacific interchange.

Playing around with new skies from the good lads at IBerTrainz - love 'em!!

Hugely anachronistic, but these totally revamped F7's from Justin Cornell (NS37) are too beautiful to not run. The screenies are taken at Trojan, but the high poly track and grass were added as stage props for the shots. Absolutely beautiful modelling Justin, Thanks ;)

Vaughn NM, where the BNSF Transcon crosses the Union Pacific line from Kansas City to El Paso.

The span on the girder bridge above was too great - the thru truss is wrong, but looks better. The long span is the result of three issues (a) the 10 meter Trainz terrain grid; (b) the tracks cross at 45 degrees; and (c) the UP line is double track. The prototype is single, but in Trainz the proximity of the UP El Paso Portal would lead to serious issues if the line was single track.

Third time lucky!! The thru truss was overkill and the double track exceeded the warrant of my Modellers Licence! By juggling the angle of the tracks I got the bridge a better length, but that still leaves the problem of traffic on the single track UP line conflicting with portal emissions. The original plan was to have just a couple of miles of UP trackage south of Vaughn, but I will extend the line to beyond the town of Duran NM which will allow a long passing siding which should help sort things out. I hope!

Another bridge mistake :-( That has got to be a through bridge.

A not altogether successful attempt to get the slight track undulation so typical of the prototype. It is a heck of a lot of work and is barely noticeable either from the either cab or trackside. UP eastbound between Duran and Vaughn.

Westbound on the UP line....

.... and eastbound

One of the series of reverse curves between Vaughn and Duran.

An assortment of RRMods locos and box cars grind upgrade from Duran.

A quick trip back down the line to the ballast quarry at Pedernall to celebrate the release of Slave_Driver's new UP ballast hopper, a really beautiful model.

Speaking of great new content these EMD SD60 demo's from Jointed Rail are superb.

Grinding upgrade between Duran and Vaughn on the UP - lead unit is RRMods new SP/UP Patch SD50

Main Street, Duran NM.

Duran again with the local maintenance crew gearing up for a big day.

I am re-signalling the route with Safetrain Signals from JointedRail. They look fantastic and can be made to work in TRS04 with a little config tweaking. The grass is eye-candy for the screenshot and the BNSF SD70M is payware, but everything else is part of the route.

The UP line should be single track all the way, but single track allows only one portal for trains entering and leaving the route. With the 'random' sessions I prefer that leads to the possibility of a cornfield meet between a portal-generated train and one leaving the route, so the last mile or so of track at the south end of the UP line is double-tracked to allow for two portals. This eastbound is held at the signal at the north end of the double track section. Love that signal gantry!

Not the sexiest screenshot I ever composed, but it does represent a milestone of sorts - the portals are the southern end of that portion of the Union Pacific Tucumcari Line which is modelled on the route. The longest run possible on C2 will be an extremely unlikely routing from the southern UP Portals up to the junction at Vaughn, reverse the train at Vaughn and thence to the BNSF California Portals west of Belen. Any real train would simply run El Paso - Belen direct but what the heck, this is all just pretend anyway! I ran the full route and (Doh) didn't have an odometer running, but with just one train on the route (therefore no signal hold-ups) the run took exactly three hours with the AI driving at track speed the whole way. With a bit of traffic congestion the run could easily take four hours, maybe longer. And that's my sort of Trainz route :-)

In an effort to improve framerates I have been experimenting with shorter draw distances and a fair bit of 'good weather fog' to disguise the un-drawn baseboard edges. With a brighter sky it might pass for summer haze. It might - honest....

Back at Vaughn signal replacement has started. I am using Justin's (NorfolkSouthern_37's) Safetran Signals. The scripting works fine in TRS06 and later, and with a bit of tweaking I have them working in 04. Two of the cantilever gantries that come with the pack have here been juggled about to make a wider span. These beautifully made signals are available from JointedRail.

An eastbound hog sits at Belen fuel racks.

Re-signalling is complete between Belen and Jarales.

Back at Vaughn a BNSF intermodal passes above a UP hopper train as a switcher brings interchange cars down from the BNSF yard.

Union Pacific westbound at Vaughn.

An unlikely BNSF lash up eases down the steep grade from the BNSF yard to the UP yard at Vaughn as a Union Pacific manifest passes in the distance.

Eastbound UP trailer train north of Vaughn.

Passing the abandoned ex Southern Pacific depot at Vaughn.

An unlikely consist of headed by a Chinese export GE C36-7 heads an eastbound train of UP ballast hoppers.

Vaughn again.

Westbound UP at the eastern UP portal junction.

Westbound UP ballast train...

Something of a milestone! This shot will not be possible in normal operation on the completed route, the locos are standing midway along the Union Pacific eastern entry portal (representing Kansas City) and the train is posed along the scenic tail track beyond the portal with the 'edge of the world' just out of view. This shot represents the completion of work on a 35 mile section of the UP Tucumcarri Sub. Now back to Vaughn and about 30 miles of BNSF transcon and Clovis2 is finished....

Back at Vaughn an eastbound freight enters the yard.

Industry at Vaughn.

Four shots of BNSF L-BELCLO1-27 passing through an otherwise deserted Vaughn. As far as I know there is no BELCLO, but there should be ;)

Westbound trailers at Vaughn.

Westbound superphosphate empties on the UP south of Vaughn.

East of Vaughn the land gets seriously flat and dry.

Almost the same picture, but two miles apart! At about MP180 the two main lines swing apart. This eastbound grain empty is on M2 which is the new BNSF alignment, in the background is M1 the old ATSF line. The old alignment avoids two long deep cuts in exchange for a longer track length and sharper curves.

Westbound grinding upgrade after a signal halt at Joffre.

Eastbound coal empties.

EUREKA!!! I have looked forward to this shot for ages. Almost exactly two years after starting this project all the track is laid on Clovis2!!!! This is the Eastern 'Edge of the World', with the Eastern portals just visible in the distance. Texturing lags just three or four miles behind. Track laying and texturing on this route has become a total chore, but the end is at last in view. Clovis 2 finishes at Joffre, an anonymous crossing place at milepost 773. Will Clovis 3 take the route all the way to Clovis? Who knows, for the present I will be pleased to see the last of desert textures for a while - a long while :)

Eastbound hog about a couple of hundred yards short of the eastern portals.

One of my favourite railfanning spots - the grade crossing at Duran Nm on the UP Tucumcari Sub..

A BNSF empty ballast train drifts eastwards towards Pedernal on a splendid summers afternoon.

More re-signalling. You gotta love that tripple-head!

A couple from the unit train ballast loader at Pedernal. I am indebted to George Fisher for the original idea, from which I have derived this somewhat Heath Robinson-esque contraption. Yes, it is overly complex, but I love the thing. Thanks also to Maddy for the content which makes it possible.

South of Duran on the Tucumcari Sub.

Sunset...

Belen East fuel racks.

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