UPY 588 (Released)

Well it took awhile, but I think the time was well spent. To recap a bit, several months ago while I was researching the CC I came across a fuzzy but quite spirited engine working in the Oakland yards around 2003, which happens to be the time period I am loosely basing my route on.

The picture that started it all

I showed the picture to MadMike since I knew he had his eye on repainting some GP15s based on David Brindley's excellent freeware model. Mike agreed to do the repaint but we were both disappointed that the modifications were not going to be a part of it. Fast forward to late October when I started to work on  modifying the SP Bay Window caboose Mike and I revisited this subject. At the time I was still working in SketchUp and came up with the strobes.

A rather ugly first attempt

The poly-count was through the roof. Some 10K+ which was completely unacceptable. It was a turning point for me, and at the suggestion of GreatNortherner I decided to redo the entire model in 3DC. As it turned out making the model only took me eight hours, but I was still lacking the knowledge of how to make the model light up and flash. Then SMMDigital posted a tutorial on how to make signals on RWA, and this helped me understand the steps I was missing in the model.

And the ploy-counts drop..
and the model is closer to the real thing

But the ditch lights came first. Yes, I changed gears. I needed to work on something less complicated which involved lighting before I could finish the strobe lights. This happen to be another project I started in SketchUp and completed redid in 3DC.

And there was light! Sorry I missed the strobes firing...

Not to prolong this story any further, I made up the rest of the child objects, and after near six months of researching, modeling, repainting, scripting, and testing. MadMike and I are proud to announce the release of the UPY-588. You can download it now at RWA.

Ditch lights, MU Can, Rear number board covers

Ditch lights, MU Can, Strobes

Remote control antenna array, strobes, coaxial antenna

My thanks goes out to MadMike, Mr. Brindley, GreatNortherner, SMMDigital, Kali, Machinist, and Mdurdan for helping out with this "super-detailed" model.

Whats next in the works? With a new baby coming any day now, I think I will be busy training a new engineer, but there are a few more models I want to get out before I get back to my route.