Great Western Main Line: The Extension

[Kariban]

*shrug* custom scenery is good practice... 'specially when there's a sketchup model to use as a template I went looking for Paddington ( and Marylebone just in case ) but those are the two nobody's done yet.

One thing I like about the GWML is that it's *not* electrified.

[jivebunny]

Quick succession of shots of Windsor... kit-bashing elevated stations and their approaches = fun









JB

[rabid]

I know that short branch pretty well and it's looking great. It must have been one heck of an expensive piece of railway for the GWR to build though!

Forgive my ignorance but will this rather nice enhanced GWML be on general release at some point?

Cheers.

[Kariban]

I will go and look for a Windsor castle...

Maybe we ought to stick this in route building.

[jivebunny]

Thanks Rabid It'll be available for download eventually, although I'd like to have all the trackwork complete for each extension before releasing it, that way I don't end up breaking scenarios further down the line. You're right, it can't have been the cheapest line to build - the GWR must have had a pretty good business case

Kariban - I'll get a message over to a mod tomorrow to see if we can have the extension stuff split off from the main thread as it could really now do with one of its own

Windsor's getting there - I'm avoiding using shadow-casting lights as I'm conscious that they're quite a performance hit and not everyone has a Cray supercomputer (myself included). I'm finding that with careful placement you can deactivate shadow-casting without too many problems - in fact this entire scene only uses one shadow-casting light and that's the one under the viaduct arch (otherwise it shines through the viaduct loft and lights up the train...)



JB

[Kromaatikse]

Well, it's Windsor & Eton - nominally the home of the Royal Family *and* one of the most famous public schools. I think they were counting on some high-class (and therefore well-heeled) patronage - and they were not the only railway to do so.

[loverswalk]

Some top notch screenshots JB, this is the first thread i'll now check once I've logged on just to see where you've laid track to now. You've created some exciting new scenario options with these extensions and I'd just like to thank yourself, Keith Ross for his initial groundwork and Kariban for (the first of hopefuly many) custom models.
LW

[jivebunny]

Thanks for the comments guys, these extensions are my first proper attempts at route-building in Railworks so the encouragement is certainly welcome! I'm currently in the process of copying, pasting and tweaking all the marker file values from the original Ox-Padd route to a new list (so that it's not overwritten by Steam) and adding in the new locations including the Heathrow terminals so that they can be jumped to in the route / scenario editor rather than having to go to the nearest station and "fly" to where you need to be. I'm aware you can add marker data using RW Tools but I haven't found a way to simply import and edit existing marker data from core routes, so I'm having to chop bits out of the dcsv file to make my own. Fun times

I'm also adding in major locations such as Old Oak Common and Heathrow Junction - if anyone has any additional suggestions please feel free to post them here.

JB

[jivebunny]

Current list of location markers: I'll add more as and when the lines are extended but if there's anything missing then feel free to point it out.

JB

Code: Select all

LUL (Central) - Northolt
LUL (Central) - Greenford
LUL (Central) - Perivale
LUL (Central) - Hanger Lane
LUL (Central) - North Acton
LUL (Central) - East Acton
LUL (H&C) - Westbourne Park
LUL (H&C) - Royal Oak
LUL (H&C) - Paddington
LUL (H&C) - Edgware Road
London Paddington
Old Oak Common & North Pole
Acton Main Line
Ealing Broadway
West Ealing
Drayton Green
Castle Bar Park
South Greenford
Greenford
Hanwell
Southall
Hayes & Harlington
Heathrow Junction
Heathrow T1-3
Heathrow T5
West Drayton
Iver
Langley
Slough
Windsor & Eton Central
Burnham
Taplow
Maidenhead
Twyford
Reading
Reading Triangle & MPD
Reading West
Tilehurst
Pangbourne
Goring & Streatley
Cholsey
Didcot Parkway
Appleford
Culham
Radley
Oxford

[nike wass]

Hi JB
What about markers for the stone terminal on the Staines branch and Didcot power station
Regards
Mike wass

[DescendingSadly]

JB, I know we've discussed this before but I think i've deleted the PM. Would you recommend me buying NEC is anticipation for this route while I have the money?

[jivebunny]

Thanks Mike, added to the list. I'll respond to your PM here for the benefits of others: The Greenford branch is still advancing, albeit more slowly than Windsor due to the more complex trackwork and gradients, and the fact that I don't have the advantage of memories of the area to help me along. That said it is still getting attention and the photos you've provided have proved invaluable to give me a feel for the area (in fact I'm extending to Northolt so we can have through trains running past Greenford). I hope to post some more screenshots soon once other areas are in a presentable state.

DescendingSadly,

On Keith's route the Heathrow branch is the area which uses the NEC assets so you'll find track, tunnels and the Heathrow Junction flyover are either missing or incomplete if you don't have it. For the extensions I've restricted myself to using assets from the same products, i.e core RW, WCML-N and NEC. There won't be a dependency on any further routes so I would recommend NEC if you want to take full advantage of the extensions I'm working on. I can't see myself finishing the route before Christmas, at least not in its complete form, so if you're not particularly keen on NEC you may want to wait for the next Steam sale or keep an eye on GreenManGaming.com (who also have sales and who simply provide you with a code to submit to Steam to get your content). There are also a handful of assets which are missing from the route as they're included in the WCML North update but I think they're scenery assets and I haven't noticed that it makes anything obviously missing from the route, and in any case we'll have them in a few days once the update is out.

Cheers,

JB

[davejc64]

I was kind of hoping that the NEC route assets weren't going to be used as I don't have it and can't really afford to buy it unless it was to be on offer for less than £3, but that ain't going to happen.

[DescendingSadly]

Thanks JB, I shall wait for the sales

[jivebunny]

Two reasons for using NEC assets:

1) They are already a requirement of Keith's upgrade, which this is based on. Therefore I'm not adding any additional requirements to what you already need.

2) They do the job. If there were UKTS or core assets which we could have used then we would have done. Maybe in time someone will be kind enough to create or reskin the appropriate tunnels, flyovers, canopy lofts and bridges and upload them to UKTS, but until then we have to use what's available. If we ask nicely maybe RSC would even be willing to provide the update as a new free route on Steam (Port Road style) and package the relevant NEC assets with it - who knows?

It has to be said once again, nobody's forcing you to download the route.

JB