Covington - Update 61 "Chestnut Hills and South River Bend"

[Pat]

Actualy Jon my eye for detail aint that much other then winging it lol    No I do take my time and I see you do the same    and by that list rather deep into details and that is what is making your MD a must Read!!!  I simply love your eye for details and the way you can make Covington come to life!!!!!! see you next update.....

btw welcome to page # 4

[ACEfanatic02]

Wow.  This is honestly one of the few cities that I can say definitely tops paletexan's work in its overall composition.  Great work, JB.

-ACE

[Simpson]

Hello JBSimio
Your region is very beautiful
I love your work continue   

David

[kbieniu7]

Great work! I live those farm fields and place out of towns 

[joncjon]

That has GOT to be the best region shot I have ever seen. Very nice work. 

[TheTeaCat]

Jon
Another great informative update.
Your region views are magnificent 

Btw which region transport mod do you use?

As always I shall return
next time I'll bring some tea for us


TTC

[Jmouse]

Another couple of fine-looking overviews, Jon! The likelihood of my ever grasping transport systems with any kind of useful perception is small, but I do enjoy watching the work of those talented in that area. So, I'm looking forward to more, and I love the ground texture of your region, BTW.

Until next time...
Joan

[bat]

The region overviews are so beautiful! Very nice rural area there, too!

[jaronamo70]

What a very nice looking region you've got going there! I like how everything just seems to flow. Very nice. 

And by the way, what terrain/tree mod are you using? I decided today that I was going to get back into SC4, and I'm looking for something nice to start my cities on.

[oldrogue]

Hola Jon, glad to see the latest update.....it's looking very nice and well done..... I'm envious of how you preplan your transport system.... I "kind of" preplan a cities start, but save the higways and rail for later  (in most cases) and then see how they will fit in and what has to be moved/replaced...kind of like many modern towns with the freeway system... I'll have to try your system next time...looks more fun

[JBSimio]

Dustin:  Thank you!

TopCliff:  Thanks!  I'm guessing you mean an extension to connect the two freeways and create a loop around downtown.  (Either that or maybe a beltway around the whole area?)  If it is the downtown idea, then there actually is a very valid (even if it is imagined) reason for the curve and lack of loop.  I won't go into it now... but it should become apparent when I get to some more close ups of the area.

Oyd:  Thank you!  Welcome to the thread!   

Pat:  Thanks!  I always like to have a backstory... it just helps me explain to myself what I'm doing.     And if it happens to be entertaining... then all the better!

ACE:  Wow!  That's a comparrison I honestly don't think I live up to... but thank you very much!

David:  Thank you!

Kbieniu:  Thank you!  Welcome to you as well!   

Joncjon:  Thanks!  And another warm welcome to you too!   

Derry:  Thanks!  Region transportation mod?  Ummm... I have the latest NAM... does that count?     I do have a couple smaller things (like those limited access lots by BRF) but beyond that, I'm not sure what you're asking for to be honest.  Sorry... 

Joan:  Thanks!  I'm not sure how well I've grasped it yet either, really.  We'll see how well it holds up when the city really starts to grow.

Bat:  Thank you!

Jaronamo:  Thanks!  Welcome to the thread.  I'm using the Columbus Terrain Mod and tree controllers.

Duane:  Thank you!  I've tried to do my transportation systems in a more realistic order with the freeways coming in later... but it always makes more of a mess than anything else.  So I cheat a little bit.  I build them all ahead of time while trying to create the feel that it was added later.

Just another small teaser tonight... especially since I should have been in bed a while ago already.  I started playing with the railyard ideas.  I did try the common suggestion on the southern side of Covington first... but I didn't like how it fit.  The big problem was that is was still too far into town... and I couldn't move it further out unless I wanted to straddle two city tiles (which I had no desire to do).  I left the borders turned on so you could see what I've been talking about there.  So... I ended up going with the Holden Road idea moving towards High Point.



The good news is that I managed to get the spur line in there... although it's also a little further north than I had hoped for.  But that's where it's going to stay and I'm alright with it.  As you can see, I just started the yard itself.  What I have in place is the southern edge... it will fill in most of that wedge between the main rail line and Holden Road.  The next update will be when I feel finished enough with it to show some closeups of how it turned out.  (It's my first attempt at a major yard like this... so it could take a while to fit everything together.)

JB

[metasmurf]

The realism of your transportation map is just breathtaking! I'm truly impressed  . 

[Yoman]

While it might not look as realistic up close, those highways from the region look stunning! Incredibly realistic, reminds me of areas of the eastern United States such as North Carolina & Virginia that I fly over alot.

[bat]

Fantastic new transportation map there! Great work on that region!

[Jmouse]

Nice! It will be interesting to see how much of it stays, and what (if anything) gets changed or goes. Hope you'll continue to keep us in the loop - no reference to transport layouts intended of course!

Later...
Joan

[alexr19]

Absolutely fantastic!! 

quick question: which tree mod and street tree mod are you using?

[threestooges]

Well the solution for the railyard makes sense. Straddling two tiles is fun and I can only imagine what throwing a railyard into the mix would mean. The little spur is nice and now the yard as a whole can serve the two areas as you mentioned. Plus, it should make a more scenic trip for whatever touring trains roll through site B. If it's going to fill that whole wedge, it'll be a sight to see when it's done. Until then, I'll wait for it to be perfected (knowing how you work, it shouldn't take too long) and I'll see you next update.
-Matt

[JBSimio]

Metasmurf:  Thank you so much for stopping in!

Yoman:  Thank you!  I consider that the ultimate compliment since a lot of the general layout was inspired by Greensboro, North Carolina.  It's not meant to be a copy of the city by any means... but that style of city arrangement was just fascinating to me when I first moved down there from the midwest.

Bat:  Thank you!

Joan:  Thanks!     (for the "unintentional" pun)

Alexr:  Thank you!  The answer to your question was in the update you just commented on... 

Matt:  I figured that I was having enough trouble trying to grasp these pieces without trying to span two city tiles.  Maybe if I had built a couple of these (or if I was willing to make a bunch of custom lots) I would have stuck with the southern option... but I'm fairly happy with how this turned out.  The location makes sense to me and it had pretty well defined borders already built in... which actually helped define things for me.

Update Time!

I finished filling in the area that makes up the Holden Road freight facility.  It's far from perfect and there are a few things I'm still not quite happy with just yet, but I think it will do for now.  Just to get oriented again, let's start with a region shot:



I chose this view just because I thought it made for a pretty good size comparrison.  Eventually, I plan to expand this yard into a shipping type industrial park with other warehouses and similar things... but that will come later.  I generally don't like to plop any more than I absolutley have to, and I'm already past my comfort limit for plopping industrial jobs at the moment.  So I'll probably revisit and finish that idea once the growth has caught back up.

Anyway... back to the subject at hand.  Here are a couple overviews of the entire complex.  First is a closer view facing north.  The yard is bordered by I-85 to the south while Holden Road wraps around the north and east sides.  The main line between High Point and Covington runs along the northwestern side of the yard.



Here is another look from the east side.  I zoned some industrial to fill in some smaller areas.  I also still need to finish trimming out the embankments along Holden Road.  I'm also still trying to find a good way to enhance the grade changes between the main High Point - Covington line and the main spur into the yard.  Right now it doesn't look like there is much difference there, although the elevation change really is fairly significant in some spots.  So we'll see...



Time for a few close ups.  The yard is really divided into four sections (at least in my mind, it is!).  The first section is standard switching yard itself.  There is quite a bit of room here and most of the sections can be accessed from either of side by way of the main spur.  The main southern connecting spur also has an uninhibited run through the yard.



Just east of the main switching yard to the other side of the overpass is one of two loading areas.  This area has a fairly good sized switching and holding area but has the disadvantage of being a dead end yard.  The engine maintainence facilities can also be found in this area.



The second loading area is just north of the main switching yard.  Being right off the main spur line, these cranes are more easily accessible than the other area.  At the same time, the overflow yard for this area isn't as conveniently arranged.  So both areas have their good and bad points.



The northern most point of the facility is a sprawling refinery complex.  The land was originally slated for future expansion of the railyard as needed, until various oil interests promised economic stability by locating a major shipping terminal in Guilford County.  The refinery was able to build a facility for easy rail access along with storage tanks and all the other fun things that Newman, Inc provided.  So far, Holden township got a bunch of industrial jobs in return.  Time will tell if it was an even trade or not.



So that's what I managed to come up with so far.  Obviously, I still have some areas to trim out and fine tune... I haven't even unpaused the city yet. But I'd still be grateful for any suggestions that might improve this area.

JB

[TopCliff]

Awesome railyards. I'd never have the patience to do something on that grand a scale. Just one more way you have excelled where I have not. Keep up the good work dude.

[threestooges]

I haven't built one on quite this scale before so I don't know what to really suggest. It looks good and, though the effectiveness of some areas is slightly less than optimal, it seems to work well for the area and is only natural for any yard that has developed over time. I think that, once the surroundings are developed a bit, it will fit in a bit better. Right now, the lack of trees or anything makes it stick out a bit. Well done.
-Matt