The Route Building Challenge was a great way to get a more accurate idea of exactly how long it takes to build a route. Using just default assets I would say that I spent about 70 hours in total to finish the very modest Denby to Boxford route with much of the final time spent on testing signals and creating one scenario. I have learned many things from this Challenge, one of which is that scenario writing can take a very long time and this is a craft that should not be underestimated in importance both in time and skill.
The Challenge route is about 5 miles from usable end to end but with absolutely no bespoke assets. In contrast, The Spa Valley Railway probably took about 500 hours when you take into account the research trips, modelling about 170 bespoke assets, thorough testing, etc, and that was only about 6 miles long.
I am therefore looking for about £10,000 K+
This does link to the thread topic though, in that RS.com have to be very careful about updates and improvements to any aspect of the program otherwise there is the danger that assets and routes already created may cease to work. It is vitally important, therefore, that all future updates are thoroughly tested before release and I for one much prefer fewer updates, but when they do come, they should be of high quality.
