The Santa Fe remaster is here!
It's been over 2 years (almost 3!) since I made the Santa Fe map, so it's become pretty out-dated.
There's been so many new features added to Rolling Line since then, so this update finally brings it up to the modern standard.
This includes:
- Full skyboxes! (extended scenery in miniature mode)
- Switchboards
- Working signals
- Powerlines
- Entirely re-laid track
- Tunnel regions
- Level crossings
But best of all, I've extended the map to include whole new areas!
These new locations are:
- Goffs, California
- Two Guns, Arizona
- Twin Arrows, Arizona
- Mojave desert
Here's a map showing the newly extended version of the map:
Here is an HD version (click to view):
A tour of the Santa Fe layout
The Santa Fe layout is inspired by the route of the famous "Super Chief" streamliner, and crosses from Pasadena in Los Angeles, through the Mojave desert, and through old Route 66 towns.
The map exits through the red desert canyons of Arizona.
Pasadena, Los Angeles
In the outskirts of Los Angeles, Pasadena is one of the iconic stops of the Santa Fe’s flagship passenger train, the "Super Chief".
The Super Chief is a streamliner that ran end-to-end from Chicago to Los Angeles and wore the famous red, yellow and silver “Warbonnet” livery.
Railway timetables called Pasadena the "gateway" to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley.
Goffs, California
Goffs was a classic western mining town on the edge of the Mojave desert with the Santa Fe railway passing straight through.
Route 66 use to pass through Goffs, but was later re-routed to bypass the area, which led to the towns slow degradation into a ghost town.
This section of the map serves as a classic "wild west" style American town, and also borders on the vast Mojave desert.
Two Guns, Arizona
Due to its dark history and multiple large fires, the small settlement of Two Guns is considered to be cursed, and sits today as another ghost town along the old Route 66.
Two Guns was the site of a grim conflict between the Apache and Navajo tribes in 1878.
Apaches were hiding in a cave but were discovered by the Navajo, which then lit fires at the cave entrance to draw the Apaches out. The smoke suffocated 42 Apaches, which led to the Cave being forever known as the “Death Cave”.
In the 1920s the land at Two guns was purchased and turned into a roadside tourist stop. Despite the areas real history, the land owner brought in lots of fake relics and even painted fake cave drawings to entertain tourists.
One of the other attractions for tourists was a Zoo. It housed mountain lions, cougars, snakes, birds and more. There was also a gift shop, which even sold Apache skulls found in the Death Cave. Selling these skulls is what is believed to be the source of the towns curse.
Twin Arrows, Arizona
Twin Arrows is just a simple trading post which lived and died alongside Route 66.
It was originally called “Canyon Padre Trading Post” but the name was later changed to mimic the nearby town of “Two Guns”.
Two giant arrows were built as the icon for the trading post, and business actually vastly improved.
Canyon Diablo, Arizona
Canyon Diablo (aka “Devil's Canyon”) is a steep gorge crossed by the Santa Fe railway.
The original trestle was built in 1882, then In 1946 a steel arch bridge replaced the old trestle.
You can actually see both versions of the bridge on the layout, with the modern steel arch bridge on one side, and the old trestle on the other.
Skyboxes
Out of this whole remaster, the most important new addition to the map is full skyboxes!
Unlike the old map, there is now scenery filling up your surroundings when in miniature mode.
Here are some examples:
A view of Pasadena:
A view of the whole canyon area:
Other details
The newly remastered layout also makes use of all the modern editing features in the game.
This means things like dynamic powerlines:
Switchboards to control turnouts (which you can use inside the trains):
Tunnel effects, custom audio, ambience, etc (all the new miscellaneous map features):
Working signals, which actually detect trains.
(the original Santa Fe was so old it didn't even have real working signals!)
And the whole map now has infographics!
Which means text and real-life photos around the layout with info about the real locations the map is based on:
And of course:
Easter eggs!
The new version of the Santa Fe now includes a whole bunch of easter eggs (and even some props you can unlock in the "unlocks" drawer from finding them).
New props
This update also adds a few new props.
These are:
- An RV (made by microcosmologist!)
- The "Mountain lions" zoo building from Two Guns
- A couple of snapable clay wall props
- Plus a bunch of props hidden behind easter egg unlocks!
Accessing the new map
You can play the new version of the Santa Fe by simply starting a new game on the Santa Fe map! The "new game" menu now also has "Updated" flares to show which maps have been recently changed.
Other new features & fixes
Here are a bunch of other small fixes included in this update:
- Added a "None" ambient audio option (which mutes ambience)
- Fixed the audio for the "desert 2" ambient option
- Level crossings now only trigger for trains that are moving. which means that a stationary train will not activate the level crossing
- Fixed an issue with trains not being hidden when leaving the skybox if the player is standing still
And that's everything!
It was tons of fun finally getting the chance to extend the Santa Fe layout, since I've always wanted to do more with the American desert scenery. The new locations were interesting to research and I'm really happy with how they turned out.
I hope you have fun with the new map too!
(Also, here's some bonus HD screenshots)
https://imgur.com/gallery/LXLQol8