Challenge - Edenderry Branch Line

[keithmross]

Lovely stuff Brendan, some stunning scenes there.
All the best,
Keith

[RSderek]

good stuff indeed.
1 day left...quick!

[moranb]

So back to work for the final session. I have just calculated that I have spent more than 55 hours since 7.00 pm last Friday on this route. We all must be mad!! Just as well my wife is currently away or as someone has said to me this week would have been a cause for divorce!

I still have some two miles of scenery to do, so it will be touch and go if I can complete it in time.

BFM

[moranb]

OK. I'm done. Me, that is, not the route! My head is going boggled with tree lines, bush lines and messy hedges. Not to speak of grey stone cottages of various varieties. However, the route is reasonably complete. Of course, I could spend weeks more adding additional scenery - I suppose it is true to say that a route is never complete. After I submit this for the challenge, I will over the coming months, gradually replace the default buildings with more typically Irish style buildings and bridges, some of which I will be able to borrow from Dublin - Cork. I'm afraid I am not very good with scenarios - I generally drive mostly in free mode, so the scenario for the route is very basic - a passenger service from Edenderry to Enfield. But I think there is good scope for a variety of freight and cattle train movements, which in fact was the basic revenue earner of the line. I hope others will see what they can do with the route when it is eventually available in the library.

The last screenshot is of the Nesbitt Junction, named after the local landowner who paid almost half of the cost of building the line. The branch comes in from the right to meet the main Dublin-Galway/Sligo line. (That line is a single line to-day but when built by the Midland and Great Western Railway was a double line).

Best of luck to all the 'challengers'

BFM


Click the image to zoom in

[karma99]

Excellent work, truly excellent

[irishrail123]

I am really looking forward to drive on this route. Great Job!
Lukas

[NO4472]

Super stuff, Brendan

[moranb]

While going over the route to fill in some of the areas that I had not managed to complete by the deadline for the route challenge, I came across this in one of the fields. It appears to be the cab of a Class 166. But how did three of them come to be in the field? I certainly did not put them there and as far as I know there is no such asset that can be separately placed. I wonder if any of the judges noticed if they were in the up-loaded route?

BFM


Click the image to zoom in

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Brendan

I did find those. I thought it was a tease for the judges I was in the cab of a loco at the time and happened to look across the fields. A great thing for users of the route to try and find.

I cannot check at this moment but I think you will find these cabs in the mixed bag section amongst some other odd assets.

EDIT - I think these are Class 47 Engine assets that were in the Rail Simulator mixed bag grouping but do not seem to be in the RailWorks mixed bag grouping. As these do not appear to have been transferred by me from RS to RW, in theory this asset is not on my computer and therefore should not appear . Some Irish magic at work here I think.

[moranb]

Its still a bit of a mystery to me. I have no recollection of placing these cabs and cannot understand how they got there. I did discover that I had copied all of the RS assets to RW. They seem to have somehow materialized out of no-where.

I have just returned from almost a week in Greece (work - not vacation) and I have now filled in the areas just before the junction and coming into Enfield which I had not had time to finish before the end of the challenge. I stuck with the rules and only used default assets. I have also tried to fix a couple of signals which did not seem to be working correctly and added Portals at both ends of the mainline so that some mainline traffic can be generated.

I suppose the judges will have noted that there is no passing loop on the branch line. I have checked the original OS map and that is in fact correct for the route - which shows how sparse traffic on this branch-line was. However, if it would make scenarios more interesting, I could add a passing loop at Carbury station so that there could be some on-coming traffic. What do people think?

Should I up-load the completed route in the normal way or wait until the judging is completed?

BFM

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Brendan

I think all of the Challenge Routes are very playable as they are but they also show the limitations of having to work fast and the lack of time to refine some aspects. It might be best to wait until all of the routes are uploaded first and then improved routes could follow a little later, but there is no 'official' policy on this so you can make your own decision as you wish.

[moranb]

OK. Thanks Geoff. I'll hold fire for the present. While waiting, I will see if I can come up with a more interesting scenario than the simple one I submitted for the challenge.

BFM

[moranb]

The version of the Edenderry route for RailSimulator is now available in the library. This is the completed V.2 of the route which I will shortly up-load for RailWorks. It uses only RailSimulator default assets and the foliage pack.

BFM

[RudolfJan]

I love this route. Wrote a small sceanrio for it. I have one problem with the route.

I wanted to create AI traffic starting east of Ensfield, then heading west, crossing the branch line. I created sceariomarkers for this purpose, but it seems only a valid path can be found till Ensfield platform 1. Maybe some track is not connected properly?

Few minor comments:

The signal at Edenderry platform is floating above the platform.
No platform marker at Ensfield platform 2
No portals on the main line.

A confusing point: On UKTS you entered UK for country, in your description you say "Ireland" For my scenario I placed in UK, following this convention and to avoid further confusion. It doesn't bother me very much, both UK and Ireland are oversee non-continental

[nmoran]

Thanks for those comments. I'm in the US at present but will check out the issues you raised when I return to the Netherlands. I thought I did place portals on the mainline. The route is set in Ireland, but I think it was categorised as UK for the purposes of the challenge.

BFM