Trainz - an inspiration to the LEGO Central Florida Project

Since 2010, which has led a preliminary version of what I am about to talk about, I have been working on a rail route in Trainz Simulator 12, which carries forth modern rail operations out of Tampa, FL.

It should be no surprise that it is the inspiration for me to model key parts of Central Florida, some to the inch (Plant City Depot) and some very improvised (Bypass Canal).

GFLUG themselves has been at it building the downtown Tampa skyline with tens of thousands, and lately have taken to improvising Polk St. and making it double track and run-through grade.

One interesting thing about working on two things at the same time is this... Your research and photos, videos, and whatnot kill two birds with one stone. This means photo and video of the 78th St. bridge have helped my LEGO and Train efforts. I'd say it's efficient.

But one idea I just developed today while doing Rockport in Trainz Simulator is this. I want one of the dueling yards to BE Rockport! Dueling yards, a 2010 concept, is where trains get stationed in two polar ends of the layout, then sent in various channels of trackage through the layout, allowing 5-6 to run simultaneously.

After a bulk purchase helps me finish parts of Plant City, I'll be planning for Rockport. Perhaps my work on there will be simple. I am looking for these gems:

• The rock conveyors... this will be a fairly complicated construction using technic parts and whatnot. They don't have to be that large in retrospect. 
• The BIG shed that holds all of the wet rock shipped in on trains like O842, O843, the works. I'll be looking at 40x90 studs for this one; it's a large structure and cannot be mistaken aerially with the CSX logo on top. I'll be looking for a 2013 purchase to include the grounds for a "curve the 1x2" technique to happen for the roof
• 4 yard tracks on the opposite end of the conveyor/rock transload. I guess this can hold the trains that are waiting while an outside track that passes the chute holds the mainline trains, passenger and freight. Remember, compromise. 1 chute, 1 mainline track, 3 yard tracks on the emptying side.
• a little loading dock to Tampa Bay. This can accomodate the tug from the 2011 harbor, 4644, provided minor modification.
• US 41 crossing - I guess if space is out like candy, lol

If positioned right, Rockport can give the north view a gaze of Downtown Tampa in the close distance. Because this area is only best known by railfans, I best recommend any fruition that comes of this to be in the Tampa or Plant City big-league shows. It will make a terminal point very interesting just to gaze at, making the layout space much more efficient, while it is known it's green table cloth and 9v track as it is. Also, at its finest, I can run a wet rock train into the rotary facility and have a little fun. :) It'll be nice to have a PF controlled engine pair pull the cars in and out slowly as they get "rotated" (either figuratively or literally, depending if I can get ahold of old magnets and technic hole brackets)

Let's see how it goes. Of course, it's all in the drawing board, but who knows.

Tropicana Juice Train Reefer Decaled

Just as I prepare the video, I'll blog the pic, but will flickr the pic later on as the video is finished.

Plant City Depot MOC Phase One - Completed!

It has finally happened - The depot is built!

The Plant City Depot was built at Drane and Collins in the namesake city around 1909... It served ACL and Plant System railroads until the SCL took over. Station duty was removed though the depot was preserved as a member of the National Register of Historic Places, namely in 1974.

The depot is now the City's Welcome Center and provides tourist info plus guides, magazines, timetables, and ATCS displays and model railroads for railbuffs who visit.

My replication project, for future inclusion in GFLUG and FLUG displays especially when Plant City gets to happen, was started on May 22, 2011 with the bare bones and has been halted days later, especially when I felt stumped with what are now the pneumatic elements you see on the facade. I reinstated work around the middle of June, with a faithful commitment date of June 30 for completion. Soon I learned and quickly realized that I did not have enough roof elements (slope bricks) to finish, in neither the prototype color (gray), the close to proto (dark gray), nor my best fit due to corner and end pieces, black. To maintain focal quality on the model black was primarily chosen because of the strength of the color, though at any time I can change it though such a move is costly. On July 7 filling the Pick-A-Brick cups at Orlando, I found two gracious pieces that told me "here you go, Tolga, now finish it"... the LIC, unlike the Miami store, boasted black 2x2 and 2x4 45º slopes, essential for this. Picking up 47 2x4s, and 295 2x2s (eyeballed, and unfortunately unneeded 2x2 bricks went in the cup), among many other interesting parts, it was finally seen phase one would be complete. Well, what is phase one? Let me show you...

The Project is divided into three phases:

• Phase one is simply maintaining that there is a building. External detail is not the priority here except for the dark red fence.
• Phase two is the inception of interior detail into the MOC. This is much simpler to do but I wanted to keep focusing on the first phase's roofing. I expect to finish this in about a week.
• Phase three is the exterior platform style roof that will box in the US&S signal that I did do (though it's hard to design a tricolor). It also includes landscaping and any other Depot structure that may be needed. This may be a laggy phase, with no commitment, but I know I'll be done by November at the latest.

I managed to crush the depot into about 1.5 baseplates by one, though the exterior is supposed to be longer. However, the depot is the focus of the Plant City diorama, and it needs to get enough attention to be recognizable as a LEGO Plant City, after all.