Atomic Systems

Following several repeated disasters with the Piddington Light Railway (see thread http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... &start=105 ) I am making the following announcement.

THE RIDDLECOMBE TRAMWAYS Co. Ltd.

The Riddlecombe Tramway is the start of a new MSTS narrow gauge route. Built to UK Truescale narrow gauge it will embody many features that I have been working on to date.

These are the rules that I have set myself,

1, The finished route will be of the smallest download size possible.

2, To keep the download size small, I will try to use as much default textures as practical. As most of the default shapes are not that brilliant I will take the opportunity to practise my new 3D model making skills and create whatever scenery necessary.

3. Due to limitations with MSTS, much of my new scenery will be clumped together as a single shape, in an effort to keep the world file population down. (A problem that I hit against with the P.Lt.Rly.)

4, The line will populate only four world tiles and these will not be added to or removed. (Another major fault with the P.Lt.Rly.)

5, The route has now been planed out on paper, with each tile receiving a far share of the object load and I will try to stick to this as best as possible. (Again the P.Lt.Rly. suffered very badly from repeated additions and subsequent removals to the world files.) Mike warned about this at the beginning of the P.Lt.Rly. and I believe that a high object load is a problem that all route builders using truescale narrow gauges will suffer from.

6, Regular posts here, with screen shots (thumbnails only), to show progress. I feel that it worked well with the P.Lt.Rly.

A history of the line will follow very shortly as I already have one penned!
To summarise, the Riddlecombe Tramway will be every thing that the P.Lt.Rly. had evolved into, but hopefully with none of its faults! I like the P.Lt.Rly. and wish to build the many features it embodies into this new route.
Bryan will (I assume) help me as usual, he is more of a player of the game than I and does most of my route testing.

A simple example of my intentions to build models using default textures, the water tower below (not yet finished) uses .ace file already in the default routes so adds to a download size by only 3KB! It also uses the water .ace files from the environment folder and, at the moment, the model has a poly count of only 56.

Click the image to zoom in

Wow! Sounds good! That model is GREAT!!

Just because the line is a small tramway does not mean it can’t have a little complex trackwork.
Below are two shots of Muddlebridge junction under construction. Muddlebridge was once the railway terminus, where stone from Riddlecombe Quarries (farther up river) was brought to be unloaded at Muddlebridge Wharf. It now, however, acts more of a turning point for traffic as it changes direction, continuing along the new line and on to the standard gauge transfer sidings at Much Pottering.
The route will have the Quarries, Riddlecombe station and Brewery, Lower Winding Halt, Muddlebridge Junction, Works and Wharf, Pludd station and Much Pottering station (standard and narrow gauge) with transfer sidings.
The first thumbnail below shows Muddlebridge Junction with the line departing to Riddlecombe, top left and to Much Pottering, top centre. The Railway Workshops will be in the foreground.
The second shot show the same but from the other direction.

Click the image to zoom in

Click the image to zoom in

Nice!

I still have a lot to learn, but I am coming to realise that I was only scratching the surface of route building.
A shot of a new embankment built today, I have built the embankments to the same length and radii as the track sections so that they fit together like a jigsaw!

Click the image to zoom in

3D modelling comes along slowly, I find myself spending more time with pen and paper than on the on the PC! However, although it has many faults, this loco shed is just the sort of narrow gauge scenery that I am look for, and again, only default textures have been used. So adding to the routes eventual download size by only 8KB.

Click the image to zoom in

Very neat little buildings there Andrew! Keep up the good work.

John