Hey everyone;

My next project, back on the theme of railways, will be based on the train station in Greenwich, Connecticut, a town on CTs Southern coast on the border with New York State.

The reason this interests me is because I used to use the station sometimes as a teenager and I liked the station building itself, also the railway through there has/had some pretty interesting features and history. Specifically, the overhead wiring system used to deliver electricity to commuter and some long distance passenger service was very unusual and visually appealing, a triangular arrangement of wires.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the type of overhead wiring systems now taken for granted on many busy railways was unprecented. The New Haven Railroad would be the first railway company to try to use electric wiring to power trains over a long distance. Not knowing any better, they wanted rigid wires presumably to mirror the effect of overhead bars that had been in experimental use elsewhere. Work started around the turn of the century and they had built overhead wiring from the New York City boundary at Woodlawn/Mount Vernon to Stamford, CT by 1908.

It didn't work as they had planned though, being susceptible to expansion/contraction with changing temperatures leading invariably to wire breaks that today are preventable. New York State replaced its section with modern constant tension wiring in the early 1990s, with CT replacing its section only about 10 years ago.







The latticework towers that hold the wires (for the 1908 built section) were reused and are all still standing.

Question is though, how the heck am I going to model that in UrealEd? The towers I can do with transparent textures, but the wiring is another story. I don't see how I can simulate the wires with transparent textures, even if I could get a prism shaped brush. Laying down addition brushes for each wire part was what I considered initially, but even if I kept the nodes/polys ratio under control I can still imagine it being a nightmare of complexity with bazillions of small brushes

Here's a sketch of the plan.

I think I'm going to try using sheets (rotated, assuming that's possible) for the wires.

Sheets will work yup, although looking at your map layout it will need alot of cover for the players otherwise it's just another open style sniper oriented map.

Nice layout, but maybe you should place some trains on the tracks, enterable with supplies and derailed ones(derailed would be better for the end of the tracks, it will block the players' path, and they don't want to explore anything behind it)
And of course, you can use 2-sided sheets for the wires, but be careful with them, they can mess up the whole map

Quick update: I've done some work on this and got a quick update.



https://maps.google.com/?ll=41.021037,- ... 2,,0,-2.51



https://maps.google.com/?ll=41.021095,- ... ,,0,-10.28

I considered trying to model the trains but:
1) The tracks are too narrow, if I were going to put trains on I'd have to start the map again.
2) Even if I could, it would be very difficult to model any train, let alone the Cosmopolitan railcar sets, which while I would love to try it, I'd most likely butcher them. I do - on occasion - know when to quit. This is one of those times.

Sheets are out for the wiring because, well, I tried using translucent sheets and it looked like boiled over faeces.

Looking good Whiplash
Just a thought, why not use the dx train from the SP maps and link each train section together? You wont need an main drive train just the carriages on their own will look fine and a nice place for players to spawn in.

Two more pics, I sort of modelled a local office park on the far side of the station (spoiler, you will be able to play there, a change of plan from my first sketch).

Second, I've got some more work done on the 1908 New Haven RR style overhead wiring.

The only question is whether it will work when I lay down all the brushes or will I start tearing my hair out when it starts crashing everything in sight. Nodes/Polys is already around 2.90 something, thanks largely to the wiring.

i cannot wait to play this map it looks great

Looks great, what did you use for the triangles?

Somehow they look like made of brushes.

A train would be good, some extra cover and mixing the shooting distances, with action under and inbetween carriages.

I'm excited though to see a decent station, haven't really played one before...

Yahoo!

I just found a super slick way around a very severe technical problem I was having, so I'm certain I can release this map soon. Possibly this week, I have just a little tweaking left to do (I hope )

Anyways, here's a nice little teaser.

The front of the station

Why is there an american flag?

Looks very cool Whip, it now feels like a real place.