The 'Virtual'
St. Nicholas Mountain
3D drawing programs involve a very steep learning curve and there's a constant balance between the drawing's complexity and the ability of the hardware and software to keep up with what you are producing.
I chose one of GN's Mid-Century Empire Builder observation cars as my first 3D project because its unique structure and contours would be best presented in 3 dimensions. There are also two surviving cars of the six produced in 1950 that I have been fortunate to have access to — GN (CB&Q) 1291 - St. Nicholas Mountain, and GN 1292, the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain.
See a graphic showing the layers of construction»
I was also able to acquire original construction blueprints from the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, which has made making the components of the car in 3D much easier.
After nearly 3 years of "virtual" construction, here is where the project stands...
The history and many details of this car are fully documented by the car's owner, Ben Ringnalda, on his web site, www.stnicholasmountain.com.
Fortunately for me, the St. Nick ended up in Pennsylvania, close to my home, and Ben has been exceptionally generous in granting access to measure and photograph the car from every imaginable angle. (And get my hands dirty helping cleaning it up!)
Click to enlarge
I have also worked from original blueprints from the car's manufacturer, purchased from the archives housed at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, which have been a huge help in getting the details right.
The software I use for this project is Strata3D, a versatile 3D drawing and rendering program geared toward illustration and animation. Since the program is capable of handling an almost infinite ammount of detail, it's sometimes difficult to determine where to stop!
This is truly a work in progress, and I've posted here a few sample renderings of the model as I add details.
My interest in passenger cars, and the Great Northern, led me to Andy's Tukwilla Restaurant during a visit to Seattle in 1993. Andy's was a railroad-themed restaurant that used several rail cars as dining areas, including two Mid-Century Empire Builder observation cars, the St. Nick and Trepleau Mt. Andy's closed in 1995, and the St. Nicholas Mt. made its way to the Northern Central RR., a dinner train operation near York, PA.
York is much more convenient to my location in Philadelphia, so I was able to visit, photograph and measure the car. -->
Exterior after adding lettering
Current model stats:
Objects: 15,978
Polygons: 532,470
The interior - with details and furnishings to come!
The sample on the left is an animation of the vestibule doors that shows the sequence of opening the dutch doors and how the parts move in relation to each other.
It is also possible to make fly-through animations that can folow any path and viewpoint.
One of the great advantages of using a 3D program is you are able to get views of your subject from any angle, and animate moving parts.
December 15, 2009