District Line - progress pics

[johncas]

TRAMLINK ROUTE FOR MSTS

(John Falls of his chair)

CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT MORE THAN I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE DISTRICT LINE ROUTE

2 great routes in production well what can I say

[kimdurose]

These look fantastic !!!
Very atmospheric. You've captured the feel of the area perfectly.
Looking forward to the release!

[stevesherratt]

I have to agree johncas

looks very good you falling off your chair you silly person !

only kidding !

theres atmosphere alright in the pics , and thats what its all about .


cheers

steve in ozz

[Stooopidperson]

Will there be an update to the D stock train and will it be released in small stages or when it's finished.

There isn't a D stock train so there can't possibly be an update!

[johncas]

Thsta the R Stock

[drjimi]

I'm discovering that a seemingly simple job - say, building and placing a bridge - can take a while longer then anticipated. It's what I' m starting to think of as the "while I'm in the area..." syndrome. As in "...and while I'm here I should also do/fix...".

The initial goal for the week was to create the bridges between EBDY and ECMN - 3 in all. I had good videos and other photos so building a close approximation of each bridge was straight forward. It's when you come to place them and look at the revised overall scene that the job starts to expand. Take the Hangar Lane Jcn bridge as an example. Nice girder structure allowing good visibility. Comparing to the video revealed I'd missed a detail - the walkway on the left side (heading west). Oops, and a small brick building on the far end. And some sectionalization boxes. Hmm, the fencing on the far side doesn't look quite right. And approaching the bridge I should be able to see the school across the Central roads, so I need to 'prune' the trees a bit and move the school to the right place. And of course the 20/25 speed limit signs on the bridge approach. All of that took 3 evenings, including creating the speed limit and terminate limit "T" signs. For those who are not aware, the speed signs are build as any other 3D object, but are special-cased in MSTS - needing a new data file to describe how to display their speed (xyz position, font, size, etc.). They also interact with the program track logic to actually set the track max speed for that section and are displayed in the track monitor. Exceeding the limit will be reported in your activity driving review summary. And at worst can result in a derailment. Advance warning - be very careful driving in the Ealing Common Depot

Hangar Lane bridge and Creffield Rd bridge each took an evening - just built it, placed it and pruned the trees. Oh, and extended the berms to match the adjacent terrain so functional roads with 'car spawners' can be added later.

Now having speed limit signs, I completed the scenery at Ealing Broadway by adding those where needed and adding the 1...6 car number signs. All done there now, I think.

That was my week - here's some in-sim pics of the results.

APPROACHING HANGAR LANE JUNCTION BRIDGE


HANGAR LANE JUNCTION


CREFFIELD ROAD BRIDGE


SLOWING TO 15 FOR THE TURNOUT AT EBDY


APPROACHING EBDY PLATFORM 7


I'm now building Acton Town station and applying any tweaks and additions to the area west of the station. Should be a few night's work -- but I bet it takes a week

Regards, Jimi

[Christopher125]

Hi DrJimi

That looks superb-i hope you have been backing-up every 20 minutes, because this is one route I really don't want to see abandoned.

Are you planning on releasing some of those buildings, fences etc, as they might inspire someone else to make another Underground line, such as the Metropolitan

And are you still planning on uploading V2 of the CO/CP train-I thought you were planning on uploading around this time.

Thanks for any reply
Chris

[Stooopidperson]

Hi DrJimi

That looks superb-i hope you have been backing-up every 20 minutes, because this is one route I really don't want to see abandoned.

Are you planning on releasing some of those buildings, fences etc, as they might inspire someone else to make another Underground line, such as the Metropolitan

And are you still planning on uploading V2 of the CO/CP train-I thought you were planning on uploading around this time.

Thanks for any reply
Chris

Maybe Dr Jimi will continue the Picc until Uxbridge and then at Uxbridge, he will continue the Met to Aldgate where it partially meets the District again...

[southcoasttrains]

could do the Hammersmith and City line from Aldgate to Hammersmith and do the circle line back to Aldgate and continue the District line to Upminster, then do the East London Line and you practically have all the Sub service lines completed.

[Stooopidperson]

could do the Hammersmith and City line from Aldgate to Hammersmith and do the circle line back to Aldgate and continue the District line to Upminster, then do the East London Line and you practically have all the Sub service lines completed.

And when you have donw the Met or District, you would have donw part of the Picc. And when you would have donw the Met, you would have done part of the Jubilee...

[tinsley]

Excellent...I lived in Ealing for a while and used the Broadway and Common stations quite a lot. You have got them really well.
I normally only drive steam but I'll definitly d/l that route and use it.

[drjimi]

Simulating the District roads and other related lines (Picc, Central, etc.) where they run close to the DR is as far as I plan on going right now - else I might never be finished I also suspect that building a route much larger (with this level of detail) might result in an unacceptably large route file size. I will happily make my scenery objects available to anyone who's interested in building LUL routes, if they'd be of use.

I will upload the CO/CP V2 train this week. The performance is about a close as I can get, although MSTS can't seem to model the series/parallel switching as good as I'd like. I just need to update the readme and re-write the 'how to drive' document to reflect control and performance changes, then I think it's ready. I will include both day and night consists (which will automatically load the day/night cabs), so activity designers can use the appropriate one depending upon time of day.

Thanks, Jimi

[southcoasttrains]

May I ask how you are going to do the stations under London itself or have you not got that far yet?

As your doing the overground section first, would you be doing the Wimbledon and Richmond branches at all?

[drjimi]

I haven't yet attempted an "underground" station, but I think I know how. Okrassa thoughtfully included some "subterranean" track sections in the latest Xtracks with this in mind. They act like tunnel sections (e.g. prevent outside views) but have no walls, meaning a fully enclosed station object can be built around them. The current rectangular tunnel sections should be usable and I've experimented with different floor/wall textures that look closer to LUL. In some cases I'll have to use the subterranean track and build my own 'tunnels'. The flyunder from High Street into ECT comes to mind. I plan on leaving the lines east of ECT until V2 to allow for some experiment time to figure it all out. The roads to Oly, Richmond and Wimbo will be in V1, although getting the detailed track/gradient/signal info for south of Gunnersbury and Putney Bridge is more difficult (Railtrack). My collaborators are working on it

[lateagain]

Firstly I'd like to say that the stock and screen shots are some of (if not) the best train sim models I've seen.

As an aged train sim fan my interest in the subject is as a life long user, usually unwillingly as a commuter, of trains rather than as an anorak (no offence guys, I love enthusiasts.. they preserve and record so much history at a detailed level). I took interest in the trains that transported me as a way of breaking the monotony of the journeys.

A sight that never ceases to impress is that of the trains bursting (on a good day - trundling on a bad one) from the tunnel into the station. It would be really good if, to break the monotony of tunnel shots, you could press 4 and witness your train arrive. Is that possible? It's really irritating when a good view switches to cab view for a tunnel.

A further piece of intelligence that may help the younger buffs. In the early 70's I used to commute from East Ham to Shepherds Bush. I'd often catch District line trains rather than wait for Hammersmith and City Line trains as waiting underground was preferable in bad weather. There were still some really ancient types of stock running in the rush hours even as late as the 70's and I remember observing (I didn't know the types - not an anorak as I've said before) that some of these trains had more than one type of car in their make up (consist). I only mention this as it would add interest to future models. Few, if any, other underground trains had this feature. Brief periods of running of entire trains of differing stock only occured, as far as I could see, when stock was being upgraded and replaced. There were cars of ancient stock running then that had interiors that todays commuter could only dream of. They were so much more comfortable even though well past their "sell by date".

One last point. Can the sliding doors be made selectable L or R ?

I've probably unwittingly asked for more in these few lines than those who've asked for the entire network to be added to your efforts so far?

Age brings patience. So I wait patiently for the routes release.

Lateagain