Reference Material

[pjt1974]

I don't know if there has been a comprehensive list made of essential reference material needed for route builders so, with the help of the community, why don't we make one. If this list becomes a decent reference in itself, maybe it can be stickied.

I'll make a start

BR Mainline Gradient Profiles by Ian Allen (Amazon and ebay)
Quail Map Company British Rail Track Diagrams (Amazon and ebay)

[pjt1974]

Oops wrong part of the forum, could this be moved to Route building

[bigvern]

Old Maps: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html incredibly useful for checking old station track plans if you don't have a signalling diagram to hand.

SRS: http://www.s-r-s.org.uk/drawdiagrams.html If you search through there are quite a few signalling layouts, some are quite small as they really expect you to buy their CD but good enough to get an overview of the general layout.

Further afield (Australia) this is a massively wonderful site: http://www.victorianrailways.net/index.html All sorts of track plans and gradient information (just need some Oz structures and rolling stock for RW).

[pacerfan]

Old Maps: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html incredibly useful for checking old station track plans if you don't have a signalling diagram to hand.

SRS: http://www.s-r-s.org.uk/drawdiagrams.html If you search through there are quite a few signalling layouts, some are quite small as they really expect you to buy their CD but good enough to get an overview of the general layout.

Further afield (Australia) this is a massively wonderful site: http://www.victorianrailways.net/index.html All sorts of track plans and gradient information (just need some Oz structures and rolling stock for RW).

Well we do have the correct broad gauge track but the problem is at the moment we only have a broad gauge class 08 and nothing else to run on it, although one could try and crate broad gauge bogies and swap the standard gauge ones off a freeware model for them however that is easier said than done
that victoria railways site is massively usefull with the gradient information as that can be hard to come by especially for "foreign" railways that aren't British or American. might just make a aussie route out of it and use the American stock out of horseshoe curve and the defautlt american stuff as a stand-in

[Natvander]

Old Maps: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html incredibly useful for checking old station track plans if you don't have a signalling diagram to hand.

SRS: http://www.s-r-s.org.uk/drawdiagrams.html If you search through there are quite a few signalling layouts, some are quite small as they really expect you to buy their CD but good enough to get an overview of the general layout.

Further afield (Australia) this is a massively wonderful site: http://www.victorianrailways.net/index.html All sorts of track plans and gradient information (just need some Oz structures and rolling stock for RW).

I second the motion for Australian content. I have track and signal diagrams for almost every NSW station, curve and grad diagrams and plans for nearly every diesel and electric loco, DMU and rolling stock, along with plans for typical buildings and some of the larger individual country station buildings. What I unfortunately lack is the motivation to open 3DS after several years of modeling for what felt like more of a job than a hobby.

[nobkins]

Thread moved to route building area as requested.

I am wondering how best this might work. People could just post links etc up on this thread. However it would be hard to find what you wanted in the future. Can I suggest an alternative and sound you all out on it.

Here is an idea. Someone could subscribe to this thread and when new links / info arrives collate that info into a word document or whatever. They could then save that word document as a PDF and periodically upload that PDF to a sticky in the route building forum. What do we think?

I would be happy to provide a template if people wanted to do this in a similar style to the Freeware Pack manuals. I am afraid I am not keen on taking on the job myself though as I have enough to keep me busy already

What do we think?

[haddock1000]

There is a thread in the FAQ section. Once people have posted a link, it could go there.

Thanks,

Haddock1000