Somerset and Dorset add on?

[stuart666]

Thank you for posting that film Stuart. I've not seen that one before.

I remember the big open space where the railway used to be, although I didn't know what it was at that time. I also remember the ramp, although I can't remember it having the rails in it. My Dad had a small boat with an outboard. He used to launch it from the ramp. I looked on Google Earth yesterday and see that the trackbed is now a road! We left Burnham in 1973 or 74.

It would be nice if the RW version could be extended to Burnham-on-Sea.

Glad you like it Gary. I really must get this burned on DVD, it would be a shame to lose it.


windberg, did you do it as a stand alone route or as an extension to the existing route? If the latter, if you got permission from Railsimulator.com, I suspect they wouldnt mind it being upped if it doesnt overwrite the original route. You can do that by copying it in RW tools.

As for bits being wrong, personally with my route Ive taken for the most part existing assets and used them in lieu of the real buildings. Quite often you can find something that looks similar or can be squeezed to fit. Lets be fair, much of the existing route is already like that, and nobody seems to mind too much. As for signalling and speed limits, these are a problem that can only be solved by going back to the books. Speed limits usually turn up in good books on a particular railway (and quite often you find on single lines you find they werent cleared for much more than 30 anyway). Signaling is a problem as you dont often find signaling diagrams in books, and quite often you fall back on photography to find where and what type of signals were emplaced.
On the postive side, I think due to Ivo Peters, the S and D is possibly the most photographed railway around.

My best advice to you then is, dont give up on it.

[windberg]

@stuart666

I do the Highbridge branch as an extension to the existing route. But it is my first route and progress is slow. Today I fight with the different tracks I used (main line and yard). It is nearly impossible to get the right speed at the edges of this two track types. Everytime there is an inch which has 70 mph or 15 mph and not the right speed.-( It could be I have to lay the complete track a second time.

I use existing assets but there are a few buildings which are a must have, i.e. at Glastonbury.

I collect a few books and DVDs abaut the S&D in the last years but there is no one which shows the speed limits an all the gradients. Signalling is also a big problem. I do not understand all the semaphore signals in RW. Which one is the right at this point of the route?

But it is fun and I fight with all the stuff!

[stuart666]

Signaling is a bind its true (as are slip point, which ive utterly learned to loathe and avoid. Ive found the signaling guide very useful as a primer, but it doesnt really cover all permutation. There is always something out there that is incredibly awkward.

Speed limits are also a problem. You cant even look speed signs up in photos, as they were largely non existent on the national network prior to nationalization. I cant see Ivo Peters letting one clutter up a photograph if he could help it.

[SouthernElectric]

I'm interested in extending the line from Bath to Mangotsfield and maybe beyond just so I can drive a Green Peak out of Bath Green Park Station. I've ordered the "Bath to Bristol" book which I'm hoping will contain a Gradient profile, I've got the SRS Vol 18 signalling layouts book for the section and I've got some Green Peaks..........
Simon

[maddog989]

was going to try this route myself, but couldn't get the route copied maintaining it's coordinates. so gave up. also my aim was more of a general network of the 50s, but that would need temple meads, which is far too complicated for my liking! i've been struggling to recreate Weston station with the locking road and goods station and the tracklayout there, and with the just trains route due out 'late this year' those assets will be essential!

two good books covering the section are S&D then and now as said above, pretty sure it has a gradient profile in it for all lines, including the branches to wells and bridgwater
also Somerset Railway stations by Mike Oakley which describes station buildings and changes, and even details yards in most cases.

[mendipman319]

Hello all
I havent really bothered to read through all the replys but i live in glastonbury (hint hint). There is a great website of our ex-mayors which he took pictures of the branch when he was young http://www.asgq57.dsl.pipex.com/3218/s& ... /index.htm All i have to say about the railway is that it is painfully flat and the trains had one of the hardest runs in britain because on the glastonbury levels there is no downhill only uphill because the trains sank in the peat so they where always going upwards. There is still a train in the river from when it fell of the tracks it is now under a metre or so of mud. I have cycled from glastonbury to highbridge on the old trackbed and there are two lumps in the both are bridges over rivers. I know a lot about the railway in my area not a lot of interesting stuff though but if any of you are mad enough to go to glastonbury festival you que outside west pennards old station complete with level crossing gates!
MM319

[antonyperks]

but if any of you are mad enough to go to glastonbury festival you que outside west pennards old station complete with level crossing gates!
MM319[/quote]

Ah but they are not the original gate these got removed by festival goers some time in the 70's and burned so the organisers had to get some newer one and replace them!!

[stuart666]

Its a pity the line isnt still there. You could wait till they were half stoned, then drive 'Hogwarts Castle' past them. They would be convinced they were having a bad trip, and never touch drugs again.

Nice sight mendipman. I went to Burnham on sea about a month ago, and was surprised how much of the old line was still identifiable. The bit where there was a level crossing in Burham is all built on now, but you can still recognise from photographs where the line went.

Maybe it was inevitable that it was going to be shut, particularly when there was a station on the GWR line not far away. But I think Betjemen was right, Burnham lost something when that line was shut that went far beyond a form of transport. Particularly when the best thing they could think of to replace the station was a supermarket.

[mendipman319]

Its a pity the line isnt still there. You could wait till they were half stoned, then drive 'Hogwarts Castle' past them. They would be convinced they were having a bad trip, and never touch drugs again.

Nice sight mendipman. I went to Burnham on sea about a month ago, and was surprised how much of the old line was still identifiable. The bit where there was a level crossing in Burham is all built on now, but you can still recognise from photographs where the line went.

Maybe it was inevitable that it was going to be shut, particularly when there was a station on the GWR line not far away. But I think Betjemen was right, Burnham lost something when that line was shut that went far beyond a form of transport. Particularly when the best thing they could think of to replace the station was a supermarket.

Well yes but the problem was with the S&D was the GWR was very well established unlike the S&D but you have to remember the GWR had to pay the S&D to use wells station which was busy with freight trains. We have a similair 'supermarket' problem at the East Somerset Railway (ex-strawberry line frome-wells-cheddar) a house has been built on the track bed but we hae a sureyor plan a route for us but it will be expensive. Wells Priory road and Wells station (2 of the 3 stations there!) are now called wells bypass as it has a big road on top of it! Wells goods shed is now the station building at cranmore (ESR).

mm319