FIFE/EDINBURGH ROUTE?

[steamnut44]

This route is still one of my favourite short routes, mainly because it has the beautiful Forth Bridge included. This has been modelled as realistic as it gets, and is a joy to see two A4s passing each other. (providing you can gett the timings right when making up an activity).

It is a pity it ends at Dunfermline and would be great if it ran all the way to Aberdeen, or even Dundee. This would then incorporate the splendid Tay Bridge and even the old bridge piers could be modelled alongside the existing bridge.

Has anyone thought of extending this route. It would certainly make theis one of the best routes available?

And before anyone suggests ME! The Route Editor is definately uncharted territory, at my fingertips!
Geoff

[nwallace]

Well Kerr (cobos) has been quite quiet recently on the route...

Not sure how far the next stage will go

[GaryL]

Fife has been renamed to Scottish Central and will include the ECML from Edinburgh to Oxwellmains cement and Dunbar, including North Berwick branch. It will include the whole Fife Circle (also to Dundee), Edinburgh to Glasgow Central via Shotts and also the E&G (via Falkirk High). I'm sure the 'sub' to Newcraighall is being done too.
I'm not 100% sure on this but I think Greenhill Lower, Carmuirs, Larbert, Stirling and Grangemouth are being done too.
Cobos will have better knowledge than anyone.

P.S SC Stage 1 will have all the trackwork and signalling but only Edinburgh and the Fife Circle scenerised. I don't know what stage 2 will comprise off.

Gary

[Cobos]

Gary is more or less spot on. The only minor difference is that the whole Fife Circle won't have scenery at this stage. Only as far as Rosyth for the moment. Maybe I'm just being too picky with the scenery.

Geoff, you are correct, the Forth Bridge is brilliant. However, I now have a different version, thanks to Ron supplying me with the source files. As the bridge was made for default track, the catch rails don't line up correctly when using UKFS. I've deleted them totally, and created a new decking. I've also removed the piers and built new ones as per the real thing. Also the entrance arches. Each end of the bridge has the 5 and 3 arch sections now also. It's still Ron's model though. The new bits are seperate shapes, not part of Ron's model.

The Tay Bridge is built and placed in the route. There's a couple of walls at Dundee station, and the platforms. The rest of the station models will be later.

I nearly blew the whole thing last night when I replaced the feathers at Eastfield, then decided to alter a crossover position. RE didn't like it and some track pieces disappeared. The dreaded vector and end on end errors appeared, and I knew that a TDB rebuild would expose another vector error that was strangely accepted in the past. Deleting the TDB this time was a no go. I wasn't about to lose all the signals and platforms again. So after taking little bits of track out and getting through with no vector errors, I ripped a little section of the E&G up and replaced those horrible long curves with shorter pieces to rid the error for good.

Ian has asked me if this stage will be finished before the Hawick show, so I'm using this as a deadline. It won't be a small download, that's a definate. There's so many custom models and textures. I would expect between 100mb - 130mb. This time a cd will be made also.

Kerr

[steamnut44]

Thank you Cobos, for explaining what is happening to the route. it all sounds very exciting, especially the new Forth Bridge model. I have crossed it many times when I was in the Navy, based at Rosyth during the early sixties.
I will now let you all into a secret.

When they were cable spinning the main cable, for the then new road bridge, my mate and I one night, missed the ferry back from South Queensferry to Rosyth, so we decided to go across one of the catwalks, used by the workmen. These hung below the main cable during construction.
However, we were caught in a broad searchlight beam, from a launch far below, as we were almost three quarters way across. We were greeted at the other side by the police, and arrested.
We were each fined £50 and we also got 7 days stoppage of leave, dished out by our Captain. We even made the newspapers, the following day

" SAILORS AIREL ESCAPADE!"

At least we can honesly claim, we were the first members of the public to cross The Forth Road Bridge.

Please keep us updated with your progress on this route, with some screen shots if possible. Good luck with it, I look forward to it's release.
But I agree, it would be worth putting a version on CD, if it's going to be a 100 plus MB download.
Geoff

[Cobos]

I thought for a minute you were going to say you crossed the rail bridge. Now that would be an eerie experience in the dark.

Kerr

[nwallace]

Well whether its true or not there are apparently many older residents of wormit who will claim to have crossed the bridge having mised the last train/ferry/bus from Dundee.

Apparently the trick was that if you got caught by a pump trolley, you would notice them before they saw you so start walking back to Dundee, and you would be returned to Wormit supposedly where you had just been.

I did once walk the Road Bridge home... never again the 8 pound taxi is well worth it, its only 1 hour 20mins shorter and 40 degrees warmer.

[ianmacmillan]

I spend a night on a ballast train on the bridge.
There was a howling gale and I had to hold on to the wagons to do a brake test.

Scarey.

[NickBrad]

Ok, I was going to post here and say I'm having issues installing the route, ie it doesn't show up in the game, but seeing as it has become the Scottish Central route and I've already ordered it, we can forget the issue and i'll promptly delete it.

[ashgray]

Hi Nick

The Scottish Central route currently in development at Making Tracks is significantly different from the currently available freeware version - whilst MT's route will have scenery throughout, it won't feature the Forth Bridge as it will run solely between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street.

This may cause you to reconsider deleting SC (I know I'll keep mine even when MT's version is released). If so, let us know precisely what problems you're having and we'll do our best to assist.

Ashley

[NickBrad]

I was refering to the stage 1 route available on the CD ordering site, is this different to the MT/Fife route?

I'm not sure what the issue is with it, I'm also having the same problem with the Carlisle and Northeastern route. It's has been installed, but when I go into the game, they're not listed in the routes list for some reason.

[ashgray]

Yes, MT's forthcoming route will be very different to the Stage 1 CD currently available. Assuming you've downloaded/installed the SC route correctly, the problem could be that you have no paths specified in the route yet (in which case it won't show up as being available). If that's the case, you can either create your own using the MSTS editors or download an activity from the download library. Also, check that you ran the install batch file that copies files over from the default routes.

Ashley

[NickBrad]

I hadn't considered that to be a problem, all routes that come complete have paths added already and it's piecework downloads that seem to cause problems. I'll go create some paths and see if that solves the issue.

[rwaceyw]

Ok, I was going to post here and say I'm having issues installing the route, ie it doesn't show up in the game, but seeing as it has become the Scottish Central route and I've already ordered it, we can forget the issue and i'll promptly delete it.

Why revive a 3 year old thread to say what, in effect, is nothing?

Dave

[Easilyconfused]

Aw - don't be like that Dave - it shows somebody used the search function we all keep on about

The moderators could put the thread out of it's misery if that is the kindest thing to do but let's keep it going until the replies get read

Kindest regards

John