I've been searching now for a month or so for some decent (read realistic) railroad cars.  I have 2 that are okay for distance, but not close up (a boxcar and flatcar).  What I'm looking for mostly is a good realistic steel boxcar, tank car, hopper and old (1880s-1920s) passenger car.  Does anyone know a good location for this?  I've even pestered some of the MSTS type of sites but have never gotten a response back so, I dunno  Suggestions on other sites to try?

My search continues on.

mdb

A while back, as a Truespace learning experience, I modeled some of my N-gauge railroad cars and textured and rendered them in Bryce.  They are too clean looking to be realistic.  Here's an example of one car multi-replicated (I made this quick scene to explain the Bryce multi-replicate function.)

Actually those would be really good to use..  Right now online there is a derth of good railroad models for those of us who can't or won't spend 10+ dollars a model or are stuck with dialup.  These are good enough to be used at medium distance believably with proper textures.

mdb

... and here s a closer look.

Those look really good jfike. Using a model as a pattern is a real good idea. I may have some of my old N-guage rolling stock around here somewhere. I might give it a shot as well. Mboncher is correct; there really is a lack of good railroad equipment as far as freeware models.

I'll send the rest of the cars I modeled in a little while (I'm on dial-up too, so it takes a while.)

As I mentioned, these are copies of my N-gauge set, so a lot of the accuracy is what the manufacturer (Backman) gave the actual cars.  To save costs, they made all the couplers the same (and probably a lot of other parts too.)

I have a locomotive too, but it's on my desktop computer, so I'll have to send it tomorrow.

If you have more and are interested in putting them up as freebies, I can guarantee you, there will be a lot of very happy railfan artists out there. :c)  I can guarantee you, you'd see me using them for a while, that's for sure.  What you have there is a good modern car, meaning post 1930 steel car.  I've 2 locomotives that I have been sitting on for the most part because I had no good rolling stock to go with them.  So these would be a major boon for me if you are so inclined.

mdb

Very nice work indeed!

and me, I'd be in Addams Family/Lawrence of Arabia mod, blowing up train trestles..;) great modeling, I think you might even have something marketable there..

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

Thanks for the nice comments.  These are very high poly (higher than they need to be because I made no effort to reduce poly's -- just wanted to try to duplicate my N-gauge set.)  No UV mapping -- all the lettering is 2D "decals" made in Photoshop.

Here's the last two.

Oh man... Yes I'm interested if you wish to offer any of these models for download, textured or not. :c)  And having a WS2000 switcher to boot is a little treasure nugget for any railroad modeler to be sure.  Now you actually inspired me to try and find my old HO set, and start trying to learn Wings again to do what you did so I can actually add to the fun and maybe make some freebies myself.

mdb

Extremely nice looking models, I would be honored to host them for you if you wish to release them to the community as freebies (I'm a railfan as well and can UV them for industrial decay and graffitti), just let me know....=)

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

I even have a bridge to contribute for Pakled "Addams" to blow-up,lol. It's modeled after one of the shorter spans of the **Cape** Girardeau, MO hiway bridge over the Mississippi River. The design is also very similar to the old Railroad bridge across the Columbia River at Vancouver,WA, so I figure I can make it so it could be kit-bashed into either use. I could offer it with a roadbed for hiway use, and a panel-girder trackbed with track. Any parts that aren't needed can be deleted. It comes with piers and with Handrails as well. 

That would be awesome to see what Zhann could come up for "weathering" your "rolling-stock". She's a veritable goddess of rust and decay!  She'd make 'em look very used and real-world. Your cars the way they look now would be almost perfect for depicting what they were originally modeled after; N-gauge cars, though your trucks and couplers look more scale than many of the cars I remember.

Just as a curiosity for JFike and Zhann, should I be holding my breath in happy anticipation of these models being made available?

To Danamo:  >Gooey eyed blinking oh so cute<  that bridge is available?  >blinkblinkblink<  Is it possible for me to download it from somewhere?  >blink<

;c)

mdb

Sure MDB. I don't currently have a web-site, or host. The basic bridge file without piers, roadbed, tracks, handrails etc, is around(uncompressed) 2.5 meg. What can I say? I added more geometry and poly-detail to this bridge than most of my models.  How fast is your connection? I might be able to squeeze it into a zip file and email it to you,lol. If someone wants to host it let me know. I might be able to rig up a FTP proggie to send and recieve files.

I've got dial up.  But I have a lot of patience too. Conniekat8 used a service to send a file to me that temporarily hosted the file for a short period.  Worked really well.  I just can't remember the name of it cause I accidentally deleted that email.  Maybe she can tip you off to that. :c)

mdb

I can host your file if you'd like, just need it zipped and a thumb included, and I'll put it up in free stuff......as for the rail cars, I haven't heard any more than what was in the original thread......

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Zhann,

I sent you a site mail message a couple weeks back but didn't receive a reply.

Jerry

Excellent! Thank you Zhann. :)

Whoops, okay, my bad, send all messages/zips to 

zhannsartwerx@msn.com

I forgot I switched hosts and didn't set up the mail.......=|

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

Lol, that's all right Zhann, even goddesses have rough days occasionally. ;-) What size thumb would you like? I just thought I'd spare you having to resize it since I already appreciate you offering to host the model file. At least this way MDB and whoever else might find it useful will have a chance to D/L it. Thanks again.

Thumb size around 128x98....should be good, or I can resize it, no problem.

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...

These are fabulous models. Shame you don't have any Brit stuff.

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader

All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

oh I dunno..you'd think with all the Trainspotters out there..;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

They're not called 'Train Spotters' anymore..........we call 'em 'Anoraks'.

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader

All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

like the Parkas?..;) There was a movie called 'Trainspotting', saw bits of it..;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

Yup! Like parkas.

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader

All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

Actually, I've heard Amtrak has spawned a new (originally derogatory) term for railfans and trainspotters : Foamers.  This was due to their near rabid tracking and interest in Amtrak equipment.  And the name has taken off through many railroad employees, and like "Yankee", many railfans in the US have taken up that term with a bit of pride. 

I knew it was catching on when I saw a news story about the BNSF has enlisted the help of "Foamers" to help monitor their tracks of suspicious activities.  IIRC, they're giving away free trips on freight trains for individual foamers to help out with monitoring their system.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  So finally a good side effect from increased awareness by Homeland Security instead of picking on Foamers, they're helping em out.

Actually before I forget, there's a very good mystery written by the same name too that deals with trainwrecks.  Written by Jon Berson.  Would make a good movie IMHO.

mdb

we've had people who get free rides on freight trains for nigh on a century; they're called hobos..;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)