Uploaded SMJ Passenger activity - "Shakespeare Special&

pdeee · Post by **pdeee** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 3:38 pm

I have just uploaded an activity for BigVerns the SMJ route, as follows.

There are three activities for the Vern Moorhouse Stratford on Avon & Midland Junction Railway [SMJ] route, using the rolling stock supplied with the Skipton to Carlisle 1920 CD.
I enjoy driving this route as I find it quite challenging using the manual fireman mode, to maintain the correct boiler water level, reaching the summit of some of the gradients the water level will drop a considerable amount and one can easily drop the fusible plug. The ideal fire mass for each engine is, the 1P 1150 lbs and 1400 lbs, although I expect many of you will have altered these readings.
In the pre-grouping era, the â€œShakespeare Specialâ€

41245 · Post by **41245** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 7:43 pm

Thank you, Pat, for devising and uploading this activity.
I particularly enjoy train sims as they give me the chance, as far as I can, to do what I always wanted. Drive a steam loco.
I soon realised that your 1920 Skipton to Carlisle route enabled me to take part in "living history" as, with not too much imagination, I could feel involved in a railway that, until then, I was able to only read about.
Now I have the chance to use another of my favourite routes in a particularly imaginative setting, with extra realism added through the additional documentation.
It adds another dimension to what has long been more than playing trains.
Cheers and many thanks
John

dforrest · Post by **dforrest** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 12:10 am

I don't see a timetable in the download.

pdeee · Post by **pdeee** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 8:48 am

Thank you David for pointing out the missing timetables, the activity has been modified to V 1.1 and timetables have been uploaded as a separate item.

My apologies to everyone who was inconvenienced.

Now back to the Blisworth â€“ Banbury passenger turn

Iluka · Post by **Iluka** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 1:05 am

Hi Pat

These are three wonderful Activities and ran with no problems whatsoever - I really enjoyed them especially sticking to the printed timetables - great to see all the A1 traffic as well.

Are you planning to do anymore for the SMJ Route using the Stock from your Skipton CD??

Kindest Regards

Mike

pdeee · Post by **pdeee** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:54 am

Hi Mike,

I have completed the Blisworth to Banbury and am working on the Banbury - Blisworth just now. The Midland Railway built an engine shed at Olney, to house an engine for the short lived Olney - Towcester run, so that will follow, also: -
Blisworth - Stratford and return.
Olney - Towcester - Blisworth and return.
At the time of these activities there were a number of turntables over the system, Towcester and Blisworth, so I am assuming when the engines went on shed they could be turned. One interesting one is that a turntable was installed at Stratford to allow GCR Atlantics to turn..........!!! whether they ever arrived at Stratford is another question.
I have used Dave Bran's L&Y stock to represent the the GC and MR for LNWR.

solentary · Post by **solentary** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 12:28 am

I had been holding my copy of the Shakespeare set of activities in readiness for the arrival of my CD-ROM for the Skipton to Carlisle. This has now arrived and is installed. What a SUPER Route. As someone said to me once about something else we were enjoying - Hey! This would be really good value - even if you had to pay!! Thanks for this Route.

However! Following the instructions for downloading the Skipton Route, I put those trains into the separate "Train_MR" file. So when I want to run THAT route, I do the label switch. Now, I have downloaded the Shakespeare Express activities on SMJ. I ran the Route Control program and identifed ONLY the trains and wagons to be copied from the "Trains_MR" to the "Trains" (i.e. default) folder. I got a clear report on that when I had finished. However, when I try to run the Shakespeare Express on SMJ, it works - so far as I can see - BUT only the controls appear, as well as the forward view. The CAB background is missing and shows up as just plain light brown. I suspect that all I need to do is to transfer from "Trains_MR" the file that carries the cabview that is aliased from the trains on the Shakespeare. Or maybe I need to tinker with the files of the No. 59 and the No. 518 on the Shakespeare. Can anyone help me to straighten this out, please? Bear in mind that I am a novice at this, so please do not just say "All you have to do is simply to......." Thanks!

pdeee · Post by **pdeee** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:46 am

Never having used Train Control, I have no idea what it does, but to select which items are needed for a specific Activity, it would need to look at cabs and sounds that are used, as well as the rolling stock.
All I do is use a second Skipton TRAINS folder and name it TRAINS.SMJ. I delete all the consists, then re-name to TRAINS and make it my Default Trains folder, then load any SMJ activities, which will place all the consists required into the Consists folder.
Rolling stock in Skipton are all aliased to various cabs and sounds, I should think this is now common practice on all routes, Blue Arrow TS being a prime example of this, in there SVR route and rolling stock issues.

solentary · Post by **solentary** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:01 pm

Thank you for that kindly message. I shall follow your suggestions. You have proposed a simple solution as an alternative to my (self-created) very complex one.

Thus, I am reminded of an unrelated business discourse in which I was engaged many years ago. Someone said "Why make things difficult, when with a little more effort, you can make them impossible!"

One small question arises from your excellent suggestion. If I create a "Trains_SMJ" file, will that hold all of the stock necessary to run the OTHER (default) SMJ trains. I suppose I could find that out myself, by trial and error - but I just thought that I would ask, in case there are any hidden glitches. Otherwise, I suppose that one would run the default SMJ activities with the "Trains_default" folder and use the "Trains_SMJ" one for the extras?

solentary · Post by **solentary** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:13 pm

Route Control is a useful utility for checking out missing consists and trains as well as for showing up potential glitches in activities. However, it operates - at least for me, so far - only globally. So a bit of fiddling is necessary to get it to run for special train files. For example, for my testing for the Shakespeare Express, I removed the Skipton Route, temporarily and then put it back. No doubt - consistent with my other ham-fisted methods, I have used the most complicated method to perform a simple task! Never mind - it is all a good learning exercise. No complaints!

Anyhow! Check out Route Control - should you wish - at "How in the World" <http://www.howintheworld.com/index.html>. They have a freeware version and a more extensive pay version. I have used the freeware one so far and it seems to work fine.