Atomic Systems

May I step forward to introduce myself & my route project.

My name is Matthew Dawson, and I live in Shirley, Solihull, in the West Midlands. I had downloaded a demo of Rail Simulator and thought 'it's worthwhile, but not for me at the moment'. Fast forward 4 years or so, to about 6 months ago, and I bought Railworks (DVD boxset) purely out of impulse. I think I need treatment, don't you?

I then played around with it for a bit, then left it alone for a while. The main family computer then got upgraded 4 months ago (Railworks was on the external hard drive to it) and Railworks was grpahically flawless. Such smooth operation at 60fps, I replayed the game. Then, as a christmas treat to myself, I downloaded the 8F pack from STEAM. Then I sought to create a new route - the 'Western Valleys' route itself.

Many of you, no doubt, have seen the 'Western Valleys' route in the newest files section for RailWorks. May I say for a extremely early Beta release (the current download is at 0.03!) to have 222 (no, I'm not making it up!) downloads (though including the earlier releases) is very touching. The route is going to be a fictitious route to re-create the 'golden era' of summer holidays on train such as the Atlantic Coast Express for BR - before airlines and car ownership became common, but far enough after the war for everything to get back to normal.

It is, would you believe, the third route called 'Western Valleys'. The first was going very well, but I wanted to modify the track around the station area and do a few other things. So I created a second version to correct the first's problems. The second route then crashed. The third one (the one you can download) has been worked on very slowly so as not to create problems. The packager tool with RailWorks has been very busy...

As you can no doubt read/work out, it'll be a very long time until the final 'as finished' - 1.00 - version is released. Until it is, happy route testing from the 'Western Valleys' creator!

If you haven't downloaded it yet, click here!

The current route is currently version 0.04 - I know the image (see link above) says 0.05....

The main area to have had work done is the road overbridge next to the station. I have also added a bridge to the lake section, so the track isn't suspended in mid-air. Took me half an hour to realise it's easier if you delete the track and relay after the bridge has been done first...

Anyway, there's been a few more downloads (Blagdon Forum, Digital Traction 61xx) and these have been added to the 'explore route' activity.

And the delay? Star Trek Online Open Beta. But I won't be spending any money on it - it's too expensive for me. Besides, the subscription cost for a month will buy me a wagon for my model railway...

My apologies in the delay. In the end, I did become a Lifetime subber to Star Trek Online...

But anyway. In the intervening months (or should that be years!?) I stopped doing my routebuilding, and became interested in other persuits - continuing with my model railways, for example. Then Railworks upgraded to Railworks 3. And I got ymself a nice, shiny, hex core computer than knocks the socks off the old dual core I was using.

Therefore, I am both saddened (but pleased) to announce thus;
1. The original (Railworks 2) route stopped development, actually with the last upload for everyone to download. It is therefore unsupported, and as I never locked it, please feel free, not only to mod, add to, etc. but to also upload to UKTS, PROVIDED you reference the old file and this thread, either in the README or on the acutal download page.
2. I am creating an entirely new route using the "Western Valleys" title..however, you will need "The Falmouth Branch" as the route uses stock & assets from this DLC.

The new route is currently V0.01 and is in the process of being accepted for download. Thank you for all the download stats and my apologies if you thought more was coming.

Well, it's been a while since the last post. (looky, new avatar too!)

Since V0.06 (released last month) there's been various flurries of activity:

• > Cole Junction - this has been re-laid (again) and the scenery has been completely adjusted to suit the new track layout, meaning there's no hovering track. The river/canal has also been re-created at the 'foot' of the junction and signalling has been replaced
  > Cole station - this has had a partial siding relay due to that point being stuck in the 'siding' position as default.
  > Various flurries of scenic work to smooth and enhance the scenic aspect
  > Near completion on the second station. This has taken me about 3 to 4 hours (including a complete restart of the entire station!) and includes a carraige siding, substantial goods yard and no less than 4 platforms.
  > Trackwork extensions/minor adjustments to a few places.

There's still plenty I want to do before I even think about releasing it on UKTS, including adding some more mainline track beyond station #2 and some more scenic work.

There's also videos on Youtube of various aspects.

Just thought I'd share a sneak preview of the 0.08 additions on the 'south' end...

http://www.youtube.com/embed/s8bm0pM2ab0