Frograil Train Gif Scenes

Somewhere in Northern Virginia, ca 1996

There are lots of goodies in this scene, and it will replay over and over, with differing viewing effects, as the trains vary in length and speed.  So, a train completely obscured the first time thru may be completely open the next time.  Get a cold drink, relax, and let the trains come to you.

Credits

• Large Grain Facility -- Gregg Staley.   This is actually 3 separate gifs, layered, that allow the trains working the yard west of the scene to "pass thru" the steel supports of the main elevator.
• Small Grain Facility -- Erik Rasmussen
• Station -- Dave Hersrud
• Trackbed -- Dan Learn
• The Trains:
  
  
• CS-RF&P -- Chris Denbow and Dave Hersrud

As the final absorption of the RF&P took place in the early to mid 1980's, this was a typical consist, with the possible exception of the more modern Canadian grain and potash cars, which I threw in because they're neat.

• CSX Ameristeel job-- Chris Denbow, Dave Hersrud and Cullen McCormick

This train, dedicated to Joe Hinson, has been lifted from Lancaster, South Carolina, and is a short local which goes up to the Ameristeel plant north of town.  This plant makes railroad spikes, and is well known for the rather old, beaten up boxcars and gons that usually make up the consists in and out of the plant. 

• Northbound autoracks -- Chris Denbow
• Original Auto-Train -- Bryn Zellner
• The grain drills -- Chris Denbow and Dave Hersrud
• Juice Train -- Chris Denbow
• Southbound manifests -- Chris Denbow, Dave Hersrud, Matt Steinblock, and Matt Adams
• The northbound hi-railer is by Erik Rasmussen
• UPS hotshot southbound

The origin of the platforms is murky, with Cullen McCormick, Chris Denbow, Nick Wilson, and Dave Hersrud all having some (talented) fingerprints on them.  Whatever the origins of the various gifs, the results are great.  The pigs are from Nick Wilson and Chris Denbow (I think!). This type of train rates just behind Amtrak and VRE in priority.

• JavaScript platform.   Brian Clough wrote a series of tutorials and the scripting necessary to employ the methodology within the tutorials.  All train operation and object placement on the scene utilize Brian's script tutorials and back-up scripts.

About the scene

As with all of the Frograil train gifs scenes, there are 3 objectives to be met by this scene.  First and foremost is the desire to showcase the excellent train gif artwork that is available thru Frograil.  The artists credited with the creation of these gifs have given us a vast and varied collection of gifs from which to choose.  All gifs used in this scene can be found within Frograil. 

Secondly, this scene was developed as a lab to test the "placeStatic" function of Brian Clough's methodology.  This function allows three dimensional object positioning, in that you may specify the point where you want the object to display, as well as the "depth" in the scene you want it to occupy.  This is what allows the Ameristeel local, for example, to go between the legs of the large grain elevator.

Finally, there is a (very) loose effort to display trains that are prototypically correct for northern Virginia.  Even the Ameristeel train is typical of a short local to a metals facility, and the cars are certainly ones representative of the area.  What is non-prototypical is the mixture of eras, wherein we see paint schemes long gone intermixed with the newest GE AC's.  That's merely poetic license on my part, and I do it for variety and enjoyment.