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

[bat]

Welcome to page 2!

You have there a fantastic traffic map!! Great work on the city! Nice new pictures!

Looking forward to the next...

[Starmanw402007]

Covington is looking great JB, and the map of covington is a great also.

[TopCliff]

Welcome to Page Two!!! WOOT!!!

Looks great dude, and I can't wait for another update. I really can't. Seriously, this has me addicted. Maybe there should be rehab centers for things like this . . .

[JBSimio]

Pat:  Thank you!  Those developers have been given a very stern lecture, I can assure you.  One more mess like that and there will be several monkeys... um, people... looking for new jobs!

Matt:  Thanks!  Most of these are all early beginnings type of pictures, so there will be development over time.  (As this update will probably show quite well.)  I never really thought about your comment on the water treatment plant and its location.  I honestly don't know if that would be common or not... you may very well have a point there.

Robin:  Thank you!

Bat:  Thanks!

Starmanw:  Thank you!

TopCliff:  WOOT indeed!  Thank you... I'll try to keep your fix coming as much as time allows. 

Update Time

With all the confusion yesterday, I decided to play the game some more.  Before we start looking at Covington, I thought we'd stick to the rural areas for another update.  Here's an overview of some of the areas we'll be looking at today:

3.01


As you can see, I have in fact been working on the main city, but it's mostly a mess at the moment.  My commercial demand is also in the tank over the whole region right now, so I figured I would fill in the rest of the southern portions of the region while I sort that out.  Today, we'll head north east out of Ashboro along North Ridge Road.  Weaving amongst the hills we come to the little cluster for which the route was named.

3.02


North Ridge is a little more than a crossroads tucked into the surrounding hills.  The village probably wouldn't even warrant a name, although it has grown up since the days when it was a gas station on the corner.  The major reason for this is that North Ridge serves as the one stop for all a farmer's needs.  Here you can find supplies for the tractor, the livestock veteranarian, a small chapel, and a pub to visit after the service.  The gas station has even added a 7-11 since the place has grown so big!

Moving along North Ridge Road, we eventually come out the hills and descend into Raleigh.  The farms begin to thicken as the terrain smooths out, and then thin right back out as we drive past Raleigh's second industrial park.

3.03


It's not pretty, but the town council is looking into some ways to change that.  Raleigh also serves the railroads with some shipping and maintainence facilities.

3.04


The town itself is larger than Ashboro, but nowhere near the size of High Point.  It sits inside of a rather unusual bend in Coldwater Creek.  The town is still growing and the people in charge are really hoping that the grand train station they voted to build will bring prosperity to the area.  As it is right now, the rest of the town has some catching up to do if it hopes to live up to the station.

3.05


We'll leave Raleigh for now headed south on US 311.  It is also worth noting that the State Fair calls Raleigh home.  It looks like most of the crowds decided to walk today.  With all these things the town has going for it, I'm sure we'll be coming back as time goes by to see how things are progressing.

3.06


The land south of Raleigh is pretty flat compared to most of the region.  Running basically parallel to the railroad, we pass through Fayetteville, which is an unincorporated township full of farms.  It does have a grain elevator and the main intersection is beginning to show some signs of life, so another small village could pop up here in time.  The road we cross here actually goes back to North Ridge... in case you're curious.  Eventually, we find our way into Durham.

3.07


This is another small vilage about the size of West Bend, although not nearly as nice to be honest.  US 52 meets 311 here and two rail lines cross paths, giving the village a purpose along Stoney Creek.

3.08


A closer look shows that the village does have a little bit of industry, but it's mostly a farming town again.  The town layout of the town is bit strange as the main commercial area is all to the north (right in this shot) of the village.  The train station is well situated to get people to either Ashboro or Raleigh, so there may be hope for this area in the future.

3.09


As the shops illustrate, this is a fairly poor community.  There are plans to entice some nicer merchants here in the hopes of building a tourist base, but for now Durham is just another back-woods dot on the map.

3.10


Just another look at where we've been...  Thanks for stopping by!

JB

[TopCliff]

What a nice little town. Small town, big train station. I bet with your Smalltown and SHUR projects, if you made just a few more buildings, you could probably create an entire region out of your stuff alone. Now that would be monumental.

[threestooges]

Have those lawyers in Monkey Around Productions use their down time to talk to the morons... I mean High Point town council about, oh I don't know, public nuisance, endangering riparian rights, legal stuff like that (yay, finals are coming up). But in all seriousness, great update. You manage to give an individual personality to even the small little 'dot on the map' towns. North Ridge is a nice little town and so is Durham, but I think one of the best pics of this update is the overview at the end. The part below the river could pass for a photo. What's the terrain mod you're using? As far as Durham's tourist generating ideas, if it wouldn't interfere with commuter traffic too much they might consider offering a scenic rail tour of the area, or maybe that's something North Ridge would do to take advantage of their new station. It'll be great to watch this continue to develop. Take it easy.
-Matt

[Pat]

Jon very great update here and I do echo what matt said about giving even the dot a real feel to it!!! I just have to wonder what is that on the road in Durham?

[Jasoncw]

Looking good so far.  I'd like to see how a bigger city would be done by you, but I have a feeling these cities won't be getting very big.   

[thundercrack83]

Looking wonderful, here, Jon!

Sorry I missed the last update--I was meaning to post but didn't get around to it, then the outage happened, etc. But, enough with my excuses!

North Ridge looks great, and I love all your farmland, especially! You're doing some great work here, my friend! I will definitely be around to see what you've got next!

Take care,

Dustin

[Yoman]

Incredible, really. Theres a few MDs / CJs I know that create some of the most convincing region views you'll see, they nearly look like high altitude shots from an aircraft. And I must say this is one of them. The layout of the transit network is spectacular. And those farms just look incredible nestled into the hills.

I just can't stop looking at that last picture! Perfect!

[squidi]

wow i just can agree with the others, the traffic layout is fantastic.
i love how the roads go along the river, just great 

[figui]

lovely rural areas and awesome region views again!

mauricio.

[Howling]

I love to see how everything snakes their way around through trees, forests, around towns, farms et cetera. Looking good JB!

[bat]

Wonderful overviews there! And also great pictures of this region!!

Looking forward to another new update...

[JBSimio]

TopCliff:  Thank you!  I don't think my collections are nearly big enough for something like that just yet.  (I wouldn't have a single industrial building either!)  Right now I seem to be getting a rather nice mix of Spa, Jestarr, SimGoober, CP's 19th century sets, and then my own.  It seems to all fit together pretty well so far.

Matt:  Thanks!  The lawyers have served several summons, so we'll see how High Point responds.     I'm using CP's standard Columbus Terrain Mod.  I beleive I also have Jeronij's modified BRF Tunnel and Slope mod installed, although I'd have to check that to be sure.  I like the idea of a touring train.  It would make a nice ride from Durham along the foothills on the way up into Ashboro.

Pat:  Thank you!  I think you're referring to the Freight Truck blockers on the side streets.  I've had them forever, and don't remember who made them anymore... but I use them a lot to limit trucks to the main roads and keep them out of the residential areas.

Jason:  Thanks!  Good to see you around!  The urban area for Covington will get fairly large, but probably not more than 500,000 or so.  I'm shooting for a total region of around a million (at the beginning) but who knows?

Dustin:  Thank you!  Glad the power came back on 

Yoman:  Thank you very much!  I like to build for the region shots, which sometimes makes the close ups a little "less perfect"... but it's a trade off I'm fine with.

Squidi:  Thanks!  I do tend to spend a lot of time on the road layouts, so I'm glad to hear that the end result is worth it.

Mauricio:  Thank you!

Howling:  Thanks!

Bat:  Thank you!

I had a bit of a setback yesterday or the day before... they're all starting to run together lately.     I had emptied my plugins to do a bit of lot work and test a couple other upcoming projects.  Then (much later), I thought I'd play a little... but forgot to replace the proper plugin folder.  On top of that, I accidently hit "Save and Exit" instead of "Exit without Save" once I opened the first city and realized there was nothing left!       The long and short of it is that I basically lost the tile that contains downtown Covington.  I've done this before and come back with the proper plugin folder and everything just fixed itself... but not this time for some reason.  My best backup was only four days old, but that was enough to be missing quite a bit.  So, the next update may be delayed a few more days while I put things back together.  Perhaps Sunday night will be a good goal... we'll see.

Thanks again!
JB

[Pat]

Hey Jon, OK I gotcha's on that no freight truck blocker, I think that is kinda cool.... Also no problem at all and get downtown restored!!! I cant wait till Sunday....

[rooker1]

Damn Jon, that has to hurt.  Oh well, things are usually better done the second time around. 
Robin 

[thundercrack83]

Sorry to hear about your setback, my friend! I hope you won't have too much trouble rebuilding downtown Covington, and I look forward to seeing it!

Take care!

Dustin

[dragonshardz]

Ouch that stinks I'm so sorry Jon.

Best of luck in rebuilding downtown Covington!

~~Dragonshardz~~

[threestooges]

Sorry to hear about the set back, but as has been said already, the second time around is easier (and perhaps some better ideas will show up). At least it was only one tile too. While it's a shame to lose any work (I'm a particular fan of the TE hovering crash to desktop... though fortunately that hasn't happened for a while), we'll certainly be happy to wait, and we'll look forward to seeing what's in store.
-Matt