Major Disaster On The CA&E

[CGW409]

Bad news everyone.
As of last night I'm apparenly back to square one, I installed the animated crossing signals and when I went to test my work just past the Maywood depot the sim locked and I got the send/don't send pop up of doom.
Unfortunatly I also get this if I jump to the end of track and it locks within view of the offending crossing.
at this point I'm assuming a corupted terrain tile as I deleted the signal markers,shapes, and ref file entries and I still get shut down
(guess what one of the few files I hadn't got around to backing up yet was?)two and a half weeks down the flusher.
On the plus side however, most of that time was learning route building and should be a bit faster on the rebuild, second it was only 3-4 miles out of Forest Park and not at either of the western terminals of the route.
Fate was kind and smacked me upside the head early rather than later.
(any tips on possible recovery methods would be appreciated)
On another plus, I hope to have a copy of Sunday River Productions CA&E video this weekend for better reference on the route.
Kicking myself
Gary

[tryagin]

Gary,
May I extend my sympathies to you as I know the anger, heartache, disgust, and general feelings of wanting to throw the computer out the window - feelings that pass -and then you get back on the horse and try again. May i give you a bit of advice? A lesson I learned the hard way, do not place any track objects in your route, no matter how tempting, like signals, markers, (some say roads, but I still do that without trouble*knock wood* ) crossing signals, etc, that are tied in with the Track Database somehow. Leave these items till last, after you have all your track layed, tuned and tested. Because even by highlighting a track section in the RE, (turning it red), you can corrupt the TDB. I've lost 3 routes by not heeding this advice way back in the dark days last year.

Now, it's my turn to go fix what I lost today: PEPCO Steeplecab in TSM got corrupted somehow. Not a good day for MSTS......

Take Care, good luck,

Tim

[henry3]

You might want to ask over in the Route Forum, the really knowledgeable types tend to lurk there.

One thing that I've figured out through reading these forums, you can't be too paranoid about back-ups when dealing with RE! And this is especially true when you're about to do something "dangerous"! (like opening RE :))

IMHO, even if you have to buy another harddrive or CD burner, the peace of mind alone is well worth the cost.

Henry

[CGW409]

Guys
taking all this advice to heart.
Finaly just deleted the orginal file last night and am starting from scratch(will give me a chance to redo some things I wasn't happy with from the get go)
I already have new base file done and have started laying track.

Once more into the breach
Gary

[tryagin]

Hi Gary,

Yup, I'm on my third Portland traction route. But all voluntary, due to unsatisfactory something or other. The latest, "Rose City Traction", was started because of the carbarns I made in TSM wouldn't fit the ladders and tracks I'd already painstakinly laid (before XTracks). So, in this new route, the first thing I did was place the carbarns in their correct compass position, then started laying track,-- and XTracks saved the day! Using the 6 degree turnout, which is so short, along with dyna-track, I was able to copy the tight turnouts leading to the south end of the barns, where the 30degree points were too sharp and the ten degree points too long.

By the way, Gary, would you be interested in beta-testing some line poles and a high-tension tower? Let me know, and I'll mail the set to yas...

Best wishes,

Tim

[CGW409]

Tim
The disaster may have been a blessing as in my orginal I had no car storage sidings near Forest Park(To any CA&E purist I am aware that FP actualy had a turning loop and if I can work past problems that MSTS has with closed loops it will be included)and have track laid to the river again now on to the fun of resculpting the river bed.(AHHHHGH)
Gonna have to DL your new steeplecab as the CA&E had a few of those, now if someone would just crank out one of the 4000 series motors I'd be set(Tim this is not intended as a hint or any thing you've helped considerably already,just wishful thinking)
gotta agree with you X Tracks is a blessing.

BTW sounds good good I'd be happy to beta those items
Gary