Atomic Systems

Personally I think it's the best all round compromise to set a route in the modern scene. A modern route can pretty much pass for anything 1970 onwards and if you squint a little maybe even steam era too! Good examples are Bristol to Exeter, WCMLN, Edinburgh to Glasgow, Portsmouth Direct. All of these look as perfectly fine in BR blue as they do in 2012 plastic mode. If you set a route in steam era then you're hard pushed to make it feel even remotely modern. It all depends on the route in question, Woodhead was a resounding success and immensely popular to fans of all genres because it catered for both steam fans and diesel/elec fans and was set in the routes heyday. If a route is still in use today then it makes sense to me to model it on recent detail as it will be of at least some appeal to everyone. If you make it based in the 1930's then it will only appeal to kettle fans and modern folk wouldn't touch it. As far as Brighton to London is concerned, not really my cup of tea but I will still definitely buy it, mostly because the modern scene will be flexible enough to capture my favourite era, BR blue!

Darpor wrote:Which still holds no relevance to the sniping back and forth about WCML North and therefore means there were no facts to argue about.

I am going to harness this negative energy though, there must be a scientific way to turn it all into something useful.

I have your answer, Wormholes and warp drives;

The construction of worm holes and warp drive would require a very unusual form of energy however, the same laws of physics that allow the existence of this "negative energy" also appear to limit its behavior. Although on here the theory could be proved wrong.
If a wormhole could exist, it would appear as a spherical opening to an otherwise distant part of the cosmos, a bit like a TS2012 Portal! The wormhole (portal) allows trainsimmers to produce content with a single click rather than spending months on the PC in a 3D environment that they don't like much.

Although such a wormhole does not break any known laws of physics, it would require the production of unrealistic amounts of negative energy... Do we have enough in this thread yet?

Hopefully we'll see Thomson modify their 455 into a 319 at some point too.

Anyway, back on topic.... (Edit: whoops, not aimed at you gypbrc!)

AndyM77 wrote:If it's the "Same" Alan Thomson then i'd take his word for it. HUGE ASSUMPTION Alan Thomson on Facebook = Alan Thomson of http://www.thomsoninteractive.com/

I'm pretty certain that assumption can be quietly put to bed, for three reasons:

- "Please put it on fb as well as I don't have twitter" doesn't come across as the style of someone who has a commercial relationship with RSC.
- "Aws ramps in pic so modern" again doesn't look like someone with a commercial image to look after.
- Profile picture of that person looks nothing like the Alan Thomson on the TI website

Obviously that doesn't rule out the idea that this could be a Thomson Interactive product (which would indeed be nice), but I get the feeling it's an RSC in-house job.

JB

gypbrc wrote:Hopefully we'll see Thomson modify their 455 into a 319 at some point too.

My wish is for them to modify their 455 to create a 455/8 pre-refurb (gangway) and post-refurb (gangway removed) to make it look just right on the Southern network!

As for TAD's version...as far as I'm concerned, I have until the next Steam Summer Sale to decide!

Coming back to the RSC version, who is actually responsible for London - Brighton? Is Thomson creating the route on behalf of RSC? Is he creating the 377? Is he creating both? Or is it an in-house RSC project? My trust for in-house RSC projects has worn extremely thin. Unless Woodhead with its extremely high satisfaction rate was made in-house!

I am about to go broke. JT's releasing their route and I still need IOW for a certain someone's B&W Lines when it comes out...

Inthernet wrote:Coming back to the RSC version, who is actually responsible for London - Brighton? Is Thomson creating the route on behalf of RSC? Is he creating the 377? Is he creating both? Or is it an in-house RSC project? My trust for in-house RSC projects has worn extremely thin. Unless Woodhead with its extremely high satisfaction rate was made in-house!

As per my post (you were probably writing yours as I posted), it's likely to be an in-house RSC job. Woodhead was indeed an in-house route and I'd say it's pretty indicative of what we can expect from RSC. Donner Pass and NEC however were outsourced and it would seem RSC may have given up on going down that route...

JB

jimmyshand wrote:Personally I think it's the best all round compromise to set a route in the modern scene. A modern route can pretty much pass for anything 1970 onwards and if you squint a little maybe even steam era too! Good examples are Bristol to Exeter, WCMLN, Edinburgh to Glasgow, Portsmouth Direct. All of these look as perfectly fine in BR blue as they do in 2012 plastic mode. If you set a route in steam era then you're hard pushed to make it feel even remotely modern. It all depends on the route in question, Woodhead was a resounding success and immensely popular to fans of all genres because it catered for both steam fans and diesel/elec fans and was set in the routes heyday. If a route is still in use today then it makes sense to me to model it on recent detail as it will be of at least some appeal to everyone. If you make it based in the 1930's then it will only appeal to kettle fans and modern folk wouldn't touch it. As far as Brighton to London is concerned, not really my cup of tea but I will still definitely buy it, mostly because the modern scene will be flexible enough to capture my favourite era, BR blue!

I don't know, to me it seems that those interested in the modern era are more open to try out a route set in other eras, than vice versa... (My main interest is from ca 1990 onwards, but I don't mind running steam or older diesel/electrics at times).

Will probably wait for reviews before buying. My preferred era would be early 80's which would allow CIG's, VEP's, various suburban units and maybe a Thumper, in BR Blue Blue/Grey.

The thread is/was the London Brighton route. why don't we keep to that theme. Why do we have to add 444's, 377's,455's ? Isnt the route enough to talk about?

Who really gives a about any top ten, I might have done when Brian Matthew and co. were involved.

To Marleyman : Beam me up Sooty.

keith

bigvern wrote:Will probably wait for reviews before buying. My preferred era would be early 80's which would allow CIG's, VEP's, various suburban units and maybe a Thumper, in BR Blue Blue/Grey.

Ironically, my preferred year is 2004 because of the exact same reason!

CIGs, VEPs in NSE, partial Connex, full Connex liveries. Not too far off the year when Southern painted one as well. You get both Thumpers and Class 170s. Then you have the 319s, 377, 455 and 456s! The 455 would be a mix of non-refurbed NSE and refurbed Southerns! Class 73s were still doing GatEx Services with 460s coming online. The scenery shouldn't have changed too much so it wouldn't feel strange running 442s if ever anyone makes one.

Sorry about the stars, I meant to say something about flipping a coin or something akin to that.

keith

Interesting.

Looks like something else to possibly add to the wishlist.

It will be interesting to see if it is only London to Brighton or if they've incorporated any of the East/West coastway lines and connections?

As for era, modern is good for me. I like to drive what I know.

Would be good to see a 460 model created as well to go with this

Sent by Androids

USRailFan wrote:I don't know, to me it seems that those interested in the modern era are more open to try out a route set in other eras, than vice versa... (My main interest is from ca 1990 onwards, but I don't mind running steam or older diesel/electrics at times).

The problem for us steam age enthusiast is that modern/contemporary routes with there rationalised track layouts and minimal industry infrastructure ie: station goods yards, private sidings, coaling, watering etc missing don't provide the necessary scenario facilities for steam working.

Gordon

Wow the amount of times i have been bast Battersea Power Station, would love to give it a go in the game

Would be interesting to know what percentage of RW users prefer which era. I know steam era still has a big cult following around the UK but at a guess I would imagine that number to be mostly made up of 50-60 plus year old men and I can't really see too many of that age group owning powerful gaming rigs required to run Railworks. I fall into the BR blue/classic diesel & leccy camp but we seem to actually be quite a minority. That just leaves the modern plastic crew who are seemingly the most vocal on forums and on Facebook and I would hazard a guess these people might make up most of the RW userbase? Da yoof are probably also the most likely to own gaming rigs and so for that reason alone could account for their seemingly large number. Almost impossible to accurately gauge which era has the most followers as any UKTS or other Internet poll would only capture a fraction of the truth.