Hello all,
You may know me as the author of website http://www.londonserail.co.uk/ (thats the plug done!!)
And as some of you may know I work at Clapham Junction, at the moment so anyone who wants to make LBE route activities I am the person to talk to!!
Can I suggest (suggest seeing as I am not anywhere near good enough at creation to do it myself) some late night routes?
Here are things to consider:-
1) Most times on nights (my nights anyway!!) the fast lines get closed down after the 23:32 Victoria to Brighton has gone so any night Gatwick Express trains and other traffic use the slows from the crossover at the london end of the station. worth remembering as it adds delay whilst waiting for other traffic to clear out the way.
2) There are trains all through the night, the 01:00 Victoria to Brighton, 02:00, 03:00 Victoria to Three Bridges all being examples, so maybe a 02:00 on a Friday night from Victoria to Three Bridges with longish stops at Clapham and East Croydon to pick up the drunks!
3) Maybe for a real challenge: All traffic is using the slow lines, you are driving the 00:11 Worthing/Eastbourne (split H Heath - worthing section via Platform 3 at Brighton) and are routed behind the late running 23:58 Victoria to Sutton via W. Croydon all the way along the slow lines from Victoria to Selhurst where the Sutton train diverges away. You are now late but need to make up as much time as you can safely This is helped by getting the Down Fast after East Croydon. There is still plenty of Thameslinks around and several up services, and with the delay from the slow line divergence its to be seen whether you get stuck behind the 23:38 stopper to Brighton!
4) I realise this is very tricky but anyone ready to attempt the 17:07 or 18:07 Victoria to Brighton?
5) After the evening peak Brighton expresses are scheduled to call at C. Jnc, E. Croydon, H.Heath and Brighton. And on Sundays they are C. Jnc, E. Croydon, Gatwick and Brighton. And you also have the delights of Sunday engineering to play with!!
These are only ideas, I have no idea how tricky they would be to implement!
I dont even have LBE yet, should get it next week! Hope this helps someone!! If you need more email me alrispoli@hotmail.com I am happy to help with any Southern Region questions, although probably best to email them to me!
That's it!
Tony
An LBE activity suggestion from a newbie!!
Moderator: Moderators
I've done 2 late night activities, the 0014 London Victoria-Gatwick Airport and the 0030 Gatwick Express service. They were easy to do as it didn't involve creating much real timetabled A1 traffic. I plan to do some more of these at a later date.
Also, there is a problem if you start your activities at say 2338, because in Activity Editor there is only the option of including A1 trains before midnight. So if your activity starts before midnight then it is impossible to to start A1 traffic after midnight. Hopefully when MSTS 2 finally gets released then this will be possible.
Also, there is a problem if you start your activities at say 2338, because in Activity Editor there is only the option of including A1 trains before midnight. So if your activity starts before midnight then it is impossible to to start A1 traffic after midnight. Hopefully when MSTS 2 finally gets released then this will be possible.
Ive also done several night activities and one late night activity.
Your request at 3 is interesting and I will give it a go over the next couple of weeks.
Ive got around the time spanning across midnight problem for AI trains by just starting them further down the track at wherever they should be at 00:01. Not totally realistic I know, but a workable alternative if you dont encounter that train until further on in the run.
It should be possible therefore to write the 00:11 service with the 23:58 service starting a little way outside Victoria at 00:01 and still achieve the delaying affect. You can alter the times at Clapham Jct to get it back onto schedule.
Can someone post a link to the timetable for that service so I can download it. Ive got the Brighton timetables. Is the Eastbourne section the rear section of the train or the front section? If its the rear section should be easy enough to do.
Watch this space !!!
Your request at 3 is interesting and I will give it a go over the next couple of weeks.
Ive got around the time spanning across midnight problem for AI trains by just starting them further down the track at wherever they should be at 00:01. Not totally realistic I know, but a workable alternative if you dont encounter that train until further on in the run.
It should be possible therefore to write the 00:11 service with the 23:58 service starting a little way outside Victoria at 00:01 and still achieve the delaying affect. You can alter the times at Clapham Jct to get it back onto schedule.
Can someone post a link to the timetable for that service so I can download it. Ive got the Brighton timetables. Is the Eastbourne section the rear section of the train or the front section? If its the rear section should be easy enough to do.
Watch this space !!!
Just to let you know that ive started work on the 00:05 Victoria to Brighton/Eastbourne activity asked for at (3) above. Unfortunately because its not possible to split the 377 stock, Ive been forced to using the thameslink 319 stock. Closest I can get for the time being. Ive asked Europeanbahn if its possible to make the 377 splitable but thats not likely to be available (if they can do it ) until the Add pack is ready.
The player service and path is done with correct timings, and has been tested ok. The real timings have a lot of slack in them (except for the first leg to clapham jct which ive never hit on time yet ) and can be easily achieved and beaten. Ive set it in the spring and raining which makes visibility really poor and the whole thing harder. Next step is to add the AI traffic in both directions (shouldn't be too hard since at that time of night the service is pretty slack).
Watch this space for further updates.
Laurie
The player service and path is done with correct timings, and has been tested ok. The real timings have a lot of slack in them (except for the first leg to clapham jct which ive never hit on time yet ) and can be easily achieved and beaten. Ive set it in the spring and raining which makes visibility really poor and the whole thing harder. Next step is to add the AI traffic in both directions (shouldn't be too hard since at that time of night the service is pretty slack).
Watch this space for further updates.
Laurie
Studying the timetable this morning before work I could only see 3 trains would would have a likely effect on this activity. These are :
23:02 Horsham - Victoria arriving 0017
23:02 Brighton - Victoria arriving 00:39
23:37 Brighton - Kings Cross - arriving East Croydon 00:34
I'll include the 23:58 Victoria - Sutton (even though I cant find the timetable for it ) as it will have a delaying effect on the Player service. In the absence of real times I'll use the MSTS calculated ones.
I cant include any Gatwick Express trains as these are not included in the default pack and all my activities have to run without any additional stock downloads for compatability reasons.
So unless anyone can let me have details of any local services which might impact upon the run, either directly or indirectly, its going to be a pretty uninspiring activity with just 4 AI trains. Are there any Waterloo services due at Clapham Jct at about 00:11? Or any other local services from Victoria at around this time?
23:02 Horsham - Victoria arriving 0017
23:02 Brighton - Victoria arriving 00:39
23:37 Brighton - Kings Cross - arriving East Croydon 00:34
I'll include the 23:58 Victoria - Sutton (even though I cant find the timetable for it ) as it will have a delaying effect on the Player service. In the absence of real times I'll use the MSTS calculated ones.
I cant include any Gatwick Express trains as these are not included in the default pack and all my activities have to run without any additional stock downloads for compatability reasons.
So unless anyone can let me have details of any local services which might impact upon the run, either directly or indirectly, its going to be a pretty uninspiring activity with just 4 AI trains. Are there any Waterloo services due at Clapham Jct at about 00:11? Or any other local services from Victoria at around this time?
I've done a night shift starting at brighton and ending there with trips to Gatwick and Three Bridges in between from the real timetable. Tried to put in plenty of freight and ECS workings so its not too boring, and there are a few suprises. Also closed the quarry line with engineering work so that causes congestion. I'll upload them later.