Tag your there

I have been out tagging train places. I am using a new HUD that lets people tag SL sites and put tags on the web. The website is
http://www.sloog.org/

Anyone can go to that page and search on rail or train. Try that and see the SL locations you find. The locations work like slurls. If you are in SL, you get the map, location marked, with an offer of TP. If you are not in SL, the system will open your browser and take you to the place.

You can get the HUD to make these tags at Hobo Village in Calleta. If you want your places visible on the web, with google search working on them, you want this HUD. You want to tag. I believe this will become the predominant way to search for place in SL. No doubt the fans of Linden search technology will disagree... both of them.

Rail Graphics 3.2

I have done some refinements on the graphic I made to mark rail stations on the SL map. I put a white background behind it. That would not add a prim if you put it on a white roof, as might be reasonable for a rail station. If you put it directly on a roof, it will be visible to flyers as well as from the map.

You can see the graphic by looking at Thinkerer Quest on the map. You can take a copy from that location. Or IM me and I will send you one. I hope this will serve as common indicator of rail service.

SLFlyer Update

I have a useable (for stills) version of the SLFlyer. Prims: 10. The tradi drive uses only 1 prim. I am still working on the images it lofts. I have put in a few images of the flyer in the air over places in Calleta. I don't see them yet, but that may be a DB problem. I have given a copy of the the SLFlyer to Paddy.

Rail graphics 3.1

Objective: Develop common mark to identify railroad and rail stations on the SL map.

I have not been able to find any recognizable graphic for rail lines. Textures aren't captured on the SL map, so all we have to work with is color and prim shape.

I have found what I think is a good graphic to mark train statons. It is derived (thanks to Zimmy Zuhal) from the symbol on the Monopoly card. I made one and tested it on Thinkerer Quests. It is small, but clearly recognizable on the map (I think). Only 6 prims. To use it, you could put it on the roof or put it out of the way at 200 meters. I have sent one to Paddy for testing.

Update from Grand Calleta

I have bought more land from Zimmy Zuhal.
This gives Grand Calleta a wide frontage on the GSLR and opens possibilities for a second connected rail line.
Zimmy knows I am constantly on the lookout for land, so perhaps we will have more news later.
We should arrange for a regular Train service on GSLR to call at Grand Calleta.
Perhaps Qu Qi could coordinate with Athos since she has the technical experience and personal contact?
I do feel that movement is of course the essence of rail travel. It would be attractive to visitors to witness moving trains.
I need to speak to Aserion Coen about Train designs for the rail museum.
People are interested in the Sirkeci building and the big poster teases the imagination.
We need retailers / hoster posters in the Rail Mall building as well as 'operating' SLFlyers.
I will be getting 'camping' chairs in the Station Bar, which I understand encourages visitors.
Thinkerer has challenged me to make the business case for the direct involvement of Linden Labs in developing a more coordianted rail strategy for SL. This I will be doing in the coming weeks as RL allows (we all have busy RL lives!); the task is now easier than it was some weeks ago since I have learnt more about SL.
Comments welcomed!

NEWS from Grand Calleta

NEWS from Grand Calleta

Asterion Coen has agreed to help in the development of the SL Rail Museum at Grand Calleta Terminal.
Asty specialises in loco and rail car construction, and has recently completed the British Castle Class steam engine, Olton Hall. This locomotive is used in the Harry Potter films.
His current project is an ICE3 high speed Train as operated by German railways Deutsche Bahn.
Olton Hall is currently beside the Rail Mall.
Rail Museum developments to follow on this blog!

SLFlyer upgrade

I have been working on the drive for the SLFlyer. I think I will use a Transdimensional (tradi) drive, though I may call it the slipstream drive for cover. Most people won't notice the difference.

I reworked my protype for the new drive. Took off the undercarriage and replaced it with a test version of the tradi drive. That is over Thinkerer Studio. I put image floater inside, so you can see the prototype as dreaming of itself. Later, I will get several pix of the Flyer in the air as if taking off. Then I will put all the pix in the Flyer with an image floater. Then the Flyer will constantly send off promotional images.

I think the drives look good. They take 6 prims now, but I will try out bigger drives with smaller prim counts. I am also working on proper sound for transdimensional drives in ready state. I think i will also prepare an audio checklist -- "infinite improbability generator on... phase modulators operating...inertial dampers online...Shroedinger's catalyst on and off... Quantum tunnel open..."

I am still planning on the special effects for flying the Flyer. This is not your father's old rocket ship.

SLFlyer, first air

Paddy and I decided to adopt Qu Qi's prototype for the initial version of the SLFlyer. Qu Qi has made copies available. I am working on special effects to be used in stills and later in videos of the SLFlyer

As of now, I simply have it levitated (on antigrav jacks) over my place in Calleta. A little eye catcher there, and the hobos can follow the progress. I will be experimenting with various ways to show its levitation and propulsion.

From Mocha to Purple

GSLR was working well on this route when I tried it. I went to the Mocha station. A rail car came shortly. I rode it all the way to Purple (at the ferry slip). On one trip, I noted a little problem at a sim-crossing. The car coped by backing up and tryng over. Got thru after a few tries.

SLFlyer, Station Road and Place du Train

We have bought more land in Calleta!
We have laid Station Road.
SLFlyer will have its Travel Agency with Hoster Posters next door to Station Bar & SL Orient Express VIP Lounge.
SLFlyer will be on the other side of the road and will rez/de-rez (technology permitted) to creat impression of travel.
Place du Train (or Piazza del Treno / Zugplatz / Train Square) will lie between Station Road and Sirkeci / Grand Calleta Terminal. Needs landscaping.
Rail Mall is now visible from all over Grand Calleta.
Invite friends to view - we will 'formally' open Station Bar & Orient Express VIP Lounge in a couple of weeks with some SL PR pizzazz!

Station Bar & Orient Express VIP Lounge

We are now decorating and furnishing the Station Bar & Orient Express VIP Lounge in Grand Calleta.
The Station Bar is a PG bar and dance club specially for friends and newbies to hang out close to the trains.
The Orient Express VIP Lounge is a venue for discussing rail business in SL with other rail companies, train owners, developers and corporate sim owners.
We have two managers for the venues.
When all is ready, we will be promoting the venues through SL newspapers and other PR channels.
Footfall is important to Grand Calleta and the subsequent success of ventures such as SLFlyer. Station Bar & Orient Express VIP Lounge will encourage visitors.

SLFlyer prototype

Qu Qi has built a prototype of a one-car SLFlyer. Here is a link to the picture.
http://www.thinkerer.org/Travels/TravSLFlyer.htm

This looks very good and prim-light. I would like to see us develop this. We could use it as is for stills. Could get pix of it on ground waiting and in air ascending. Might use smoke (partcles) instead of wheels. Is now floating w/o wheels. Fyer does not need wheels.

What color smoke? I favor blue. We can talk later about scripting it so it flies. Still a promotion, not transportation. We can't compete with teleport system. But we might later simulate flying to other RR stations if they will host a copy of the flyer. Just use that as the destination of the LM.

Return of rail graphics

I have been exploring ways to make railways show up on the Linden map. (See previous post on this topic.) Textures don't show. Zimmy Zuhal has worked out one scheme with prims. Look at the south side of Calleta for a sign with his name and a train engine.

We might want to borrow that scheme for train stations. I don't think it takes many prims. I will talk to to him about the the details and see if we can propose a standard rail station symbol to be floated over rail stations. Objective: Make it easy for newcomers to find rail stations.

Lighting

Paddy still thinks the Calleta terminal needs more lighting. Two ways to do that:

Put out more local lights. Street lights, for example. Disadvantage: take more prims. (The changes Qu Qi made so far did not add prims, just features to existing prims.)

Set more things to full bright. I have set my platform segments (Thinkerer Studios) to full bright. Improves things a litttle. Later today, I will put out a piece of track and set it to full bright as a test.

Trainspotting in SL

Summary of our trainspotting in SL, so far:

Big Builds
GSLR. Athos Murphy. In Calleta, Cecropia, Purple, Perriwinkle and points south.
Caledon National Railway. Desmond Shang. In many Caledon sims.
SLRR. Nigel Linden. Find it at Hobo Rail Infohub. Exends both ways from there.

Smaller builds and facilities
Grand Calleta Terminal, Rail Museum, Rail Mall. Paddy Padderborn. In Calleta.
Boomslang Express (I made up the name). Barney Boomslang. In Lummerland.
Intercontinental Ferry. Qu Qi. From Purple to Cecropia, with stop and ANWR.

Toy Trains, for riding
Elf Train. Kitto Flora. About 50 copies in various sims.
PrimWorx. Zomax Delorian. Sold at Orwood.

There is more info on the blog. Probably some of these people will post additional info. Search the blog or contact the people if you need more info.
Trainspotting in SL

Want to post here?

Paddy Padderborn owns this blog. If you want to be authorized as a contibutor, contact him. He is sending out invites to people he knows about. You will need to give him an e-mail address. You can make a new address for your av if you want.

You will get an invite from Blogspot with instructions. If you don't get it, check your spam folder.

You will need a google account.

Why go to blogging?

Good. We are getting more people on this blog. Time to talk about objectives and how to hunt them.

The main goal in going to a blog is that it is open web and Google searched. Open web means:
you can send anybody a link to it,
you can put a link to it on your website (I did that),
everybody interested in railroads can read it (without joining SL).

Google searched means
people searching on railroads could discover it,
everbody interested in railroads in SL can easily find it,
anybody can easily search this blog for particular subtopics (such as model railroads).

A few things to know:
Better to make an original post as a contributor. Comments tend to get lost.
Use relevant words in the title and text. Easier to find on search.
You can go back and edit your posts at any time. So you don't have to get it right the first time.
Blogspot does not include an editor. A convenient online editor is available from Google. (See Google mail, top.)
There are no threads, just topics gathered by Google search.
It works better to focus on one thing in one post. For several things, use several posts.

Some main topics for now and immediate future:
Trainspotting in SL -- Fnd all the rail-related activities in Sl.
Sim-sim transfer -- How can trains transfer from one sim to another without all those interesting results?
SLFlyer -- Continue to develop and popularize the SLFlyer travel service.
Vidoes -- Make videos of those rail-related activities we have spotted.
Interoperation -- Develop methods to run trains on available tracks.
Promotion -- Promote available and potential SL train facilities to the public.
Lindenology -- Get the attention of the Lindens. Get them to listen to our needs. Maybe even get them beyond the point of explaining why they can't do what we want. (OK, I do think big.)

Train, Rail & Rail Accessory Retailers

I invite all retailers & developers of train or rail products, accessories, clothing etc to IM me to discuss setting up shops / stalls in Rail Mall, Grand Calleta Station or area. I am offering extended rent-free space until further notice if the products / services fit our vision for Grand Calleta.

Model (toy) trains

Greetings! I'm in the SL model-sized train business since about 2 years, my shop is PrimWorx (in Orwood sim). I like open-source, but I need some income to finance my land tiers, and my train business about covers that. My trains use sensors to find the tracks, so you can lay them any way you'd like, no real limits (only prim count). One big limitation is that my train script currently only supports one car attached, this is mostly because the multi-car script is not stable enough, cars wouldn't follow each other precisely, sometimes bump into each other, or wiggle. I've been hoping for a new, faster script engine (Mono for SL) for 2 years, but no such luck yet :-) I also have an experimental shop/stall at the Grand Calleta Terminal (thanks to Paddy), though I'll be still trimming and beautifying it.

Light in the Darkness

Paddy asked about lighting the Grand Calleta Terminal. I tweeked the basic platform that Qu Qi put out free to copy. Put local lighting in the glass door. Sent copies to Qu Qi and Paddy. Looked to me like a good fix.