What about historical routes?

[SquidvT]

Ill make no bones about it, Im a steam fan. Infact MT's 50 will be the 1st Diesel Ill be buying (yeh it looked really good).

There is a plethora of either contemporary or modern routes about for RW though, and whilst you can obviously drive steam trains on them it would be nice to have dedicated routes set at the latest in the 60s preferably a bit earlier.

Id love to sweep down WCMLN in that era. With no modern buildings and suitibly oppressive 50s gloom about.

Are their any in the works? (Payware)

[bdy26]

My next route will be right up your street then

B

[darkdj]

And "Dark Railway 1960's" might be something you'd enjoy too, and uses mostly default assets!

[hertsbob]

...it would be nice to have dedicated routes set at the latest in the 60s preferably a bit earlier.

Id love to sweep down WCMLN in that era. With no modern buildings and suitibly oppressive 50s gloom about.

Are their any in the works? (Payware)

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 0#p1485292

Looks like it might fit the bill.

Cheers

Bob

[crumplezone]

It certainly wouldn't go a miss having a few more 1940s-60s routes available, while freeware does cover alot of kettle routes default and paid dlc there is well..only three thus far as far as my memory is holding out, ESR from meshtools, Bath templecombe and Falmouth.

Paul Jackson did hint as possibly a steam-era newcastle to york in the future but the project is not "green lit" yet, certainly ECML steam era wouldn't be a hard iss for popularity and it would have a considerable scope of rolling stock and would allow RS.com to expand the LNER ex-LNER kettle range beyond what we have now.

I think it would be nice to take a break away from all the modern era routes, Woodhead is a step in the right direction, that route will cover both steam and early electric but certainly be nice to see some big steam era routes, as well steam era would certainly benefit from super elevation quite abit built from the ground up.

But I also do understand the limitations when it comes down to steam era routes, accuracy wise its quite differcult due to routes of 50+ years ago no long existing at all, DEM data while can see where the tracks used to go also would have changed in that time, referencing for trackwork, signalling and operations can also play a part to bog down a steam era route completion, but that being said if the freeware side of the community has shown steam era routes to a very high standard can be achieved.

There is a few steam era routes from the community coming soon to, noticable bdy26's and a few shots of a GWR welsh route have been shown in the screenshot section, 92212 is also working on SVR which if GCR was anything to go by SVR will be equally good. I'd honestly kill for a payware North Yorkshire Moors Railway done in full, done right you got a hour and 20min ride end to end and if done through to Whitby then thats hour and 45mins with kettles, it certainly would have plenty of things to do on it.

[SquidvT]

Thanks for the replies guys, I have certainly been following those routes in the route thread and salivating over them.

But as crumple said a fully fledge payware route would be amazing, along the lines of the longer payware like WCML and Bristol to Exeter. I see from the blurbs in RWs a donner pass route is comming soon. Great if you like stuff over the pond, but there is such a wealth of railway heritage in these fair isles that I am surprised its not featured more. Perhaps its the difficulty of research or perhaps us kettleheads are in the minority?

That said of course I cant wait for your offerings with the bonus they are free (and look every bit payware quality).

[bdy26]

I've always wondered about this "payware quality" thing. Custom assets - great, but routebuilding is time intensive, particularly with anything historical of any distance. I don't see that detailed routes will ever have much commercial justification. If it's your own project, the detail and accuracy should be higher than payware as you have the time.

EG is an example of how I'd do payware route, but it's a cab experience to me. China Clay is probably my favourite, but the slow line speeds off the main is what makes the size of it work as a route.

B

[hertsbob]

The nail has been firmly hit on the head in the last couple of posts, in my opinion.

Taking Ben's own route as an example, there's absolutely no way that it would be commercially viable to put the amount of time and effort that he has into a professional effort. So in this case, paradoxically, 'freeware quality' would by far surpass 'pay-ware' quality.

Anyway, I'm a fully fledged, paid-up member of the "No Weeds in Yards" club.

Cheers

Bob

[bigvern]

Probably the biggest problem for freeware authors doing a period route is the abundance of modern assets as opposed to historical in both the built in/released payware routes and the kindly donated freeware items. I have mused on occasion about recreating my old MSTS "SMJ" route, or at least part of it, but have been put off by the sheer logistics involved.

Historical is, of course, a relative term. It is over 50 years since main line diesels like the Class 26 or indeed 47 along with the heritage DMU's appeared.

Even the Sprinter fleet is knocking on 25 years old, indeed they are as old now as some of the DMU's were that they originally replaced.

Blue/grey "modern image" BR has passed into history, with BR itself long gone and the TOC's/FOC's firmly established.

It would be quite in order to consider a BR route based in the early 70's as vintage or historical!

[Inthernet]

You should give The Port Road a try. Takes around an hour end-to-end if you stop at every station between from Dumfries to Kirkcudbright. It's made by the same author as the WCMLN and set in the 1960s.

Most importantly, it's freeware!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24079/

[hertsbob]

It would be quite in order to consider a BR route based in the early 70's as vintage or historical!

Thanks for that. I now feel completely old...

[mikesimpson]

It would be quite in order to consider a BR route based in the early 70's as vintage or historical!

Hi Vern,

So now you are saying that those of us left who were train spotting in the 40s-50s are virtually prehistoric

Actually I am in the process of building a large route based in the Scottish borders, but true accuracy is pretty near impossible. There is virtually no LNER rolling stock available, especially for the 0-6-0s like the J39, no goods locos like the K2 - K3s, The V2 is a bit big for the lines. Pictures of the stations in the area are like hens teeth to find, and working from a 71 year old memory has its limitations

Still it keeps me out of the night club scene..

Mike

[malkymackay]

You should give The Port Road a try. Takes around an hour end-to-end if you stop at every station between from Dumfries to Kirkcudbright. It's made by the same author as the WCMLN and set in the 1960s.

Most importantly, it's freeware!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24079/

The Port Road is well worth a look & also a new updated version is currently undergoing testing which is much bigger. Extensions are in place to Gretna & Longtown in th east and from Castle Douglas out towards Newton Stewart in the west - so about another 55 miles of mainline
Check out http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 2&t=120028 for screenshots.

[chrisiveson]

For the last few nights after I've put Railworks to bed I've been looking over a route I'd love to see built depicting the fifties and sixties up until its closure in 1969.
Was a double track main line in the Northern part of the UK, any ideas what it might be? ( might even be not a million miles from Mike's route? )

Chris.

[FoggyMorning]

The Waverley route?