CEMEX Industryz in the making...

Ever since working on the "Lake Worth" area, I decided to become more involved with the area, especially the cement industry to begin with. Now it is obvious that this industry has a completely different color scheme than its original color scheme that is seen in the real Lake Worth CEMEX.

The process...
To start off with the texturing, I noticed that the silos have a very different type of material that is not just the original concrete wall texture that the Cement Industry placed in the route has.

Silos being the main focus

So a little bit of editing and playing with different materials can make somewhat of a look alike. To begin, I first changed the color of the concrete yellowish wall to a light yellowish close to white colored layer, with a dirty concrete texture from Google Images (I will change the concrete texture when I get a real photo of one)

 

Closest matches to CEMEX wall...

The two textures were a closer match to the walls, except the one on the left would have to be clone-stamped fro left to right (since the lines are on the left), while on the right, the lines make up the ones that are on the real image. 

So choosing the right wall for the work,a little bit of Photoshop work would be used on this 128x128 wall. To begin off, a duplicate of the Background layer would be added and the original off. Next, using the blending options, the color of the yellow-ish texture would be given a solid grey color to change it.

Next, the texture comes into play...

Since the texture is a 1024x1024, it is  minimized to 128x128 to make it fit. Then I would apply the Normal beland with an opacity around 70% to make the solid grey color pop out a bit (even though they are both the same color, a little lighter than the other). Once that is done, I merged them together.

Knowing that the 1024x1024 concrete wall is diminished, the image would look blurry. So a little sharpening tool called Smart Sharpen would be used to make the image looking more sharper and more like how it was to make it stand out. The amount used to sharpen would be its defaults.

Default values:

Amount: 100%

Radius: 1.0

Remove: Gaussian blur

Once that is done, time to merge the unseen Background layer with our new texture.

512x512 Zoom

I decided to blur it out a little bit since it looked a little too sharp...

The result...

After changing the roof of the silos with the same texture and the roofs of the other parts of the industry with a corrugated metal roof texture and a little bit of Photoshop work...

The industry is ready to be shown...

Even though it looks alike, the dimensions of the wall texture might have to be more increased in order to show more of the grid in a smaller, but bigger scale. This will be tried as they are more things that still need to be changed along with CEMEX sign that will be another topic...

Anthony Reyes (Train Hunters)

Bringing a Rock Plant back to life in Trainz...

While doing Trainz today, I decided to leave my "Okeechobee" area today (no name yet) and work on a different area that would be known as a CYDX Rock industry. Just looking at one of the industries that used to be one of the busiest rock industries in rail transportation in WPB was this Cemex plant.

View Larger Map - CEMEX Lake Worth

Now known for its truck transportation, this Cemex in Lake Worth used to carry around 10-12 CYDX Hoppers on a daily basis before it was abandoned. So I decided to make a sort of a similar industry like it.

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The beginning...

Taking a look at the main entrance of the CEMEX plant in Google Maps, it is obviously a gated entrance, but has no type of concrete wall that goes by the main line. Instead it has a fence that goes right by with some shrubs and foliage.

View Larger Map - Main area of focus

Since the Cement industry is not exactly like the one in real life, I used a similar cement plant that is similar to the way the silos and the loading area look like. Even though they may have a different color scheme, looking at it from the ground view looks almost alike in the way in which the industry track goes off the line and into the plant. A lot of grass was used and shrubs to cover up some of the grass that may look the same to make it more of a dense shrub area.

Since the cement industry consists of different types of commodities, a little bit of ballast hills would be added to give a similar type of ballast piles that are seen in the cement plant. I also noticed that there was a CAT unloader, so that would be added as well to give it a more realistic perspective as seen in the street view image. 

I know that palm trees would have been added, but didn't think about it at the moment since I thought that it would not be compatible with the foliage. Some Chinese fan palm trees and the Tree Palm 2 trees would have given a more realistic look to the area, so they will be added.

At first, I thought a corrugated wall would fit with the industry, but that would not show much of the industry when seen from this street...

Industries soon to be opened...

Even thought it does not match with the way the real image looks, I can play with it and make it look exactly like the real area by changing the topography of the area and giving it a double track instead of the single track that is currently in its place. But as for these industries, these will be soon open as it is still a WIP since the cement plant is the big focus.

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The result...

After giving it more shrubs, foliage, and other assets, the result of this industry turned out to be a look-alike. A lot of shrubs would be attached in between the grass and consist would be placed for the replacement of CYDX hoppers. Even though these hoppers are used for pellets, these contain commodities of cement and sand, which matches with the commodities that are seen in this industry.

I would really like to see some CYDX Hoppers in this industry as these CITX hoppers are taking their place. The industry does need some scheming to do and its commodities.


Anthony Reyes (Train Hunters)

Local switcher CSX O717 arrives at Deerfield Beach

Local switcher CSX O717 arrives at Deerfield Beach, a photo by Alcanman1 on Flickr.

Loving the details given credit by a great Modeler...