Jolly Good Fun ... Narrow Gauge rails in North Wales

[spontin]

DLG at the moment struggles across the Cob!! I am no expert in the physics dept. so I have "subcontracted" this one to Richard Maxted, who kindly offered to have a go at this unique loco type. Hopefully will get a progress report soon.
Again, many thanks Richard.

The plan is to remodel to provide "Merddyn Emrys" & "Earl of Meirionydd", with all the subtle differences, once I get DLG up and away!!

[thephantomphish]

Haha! Don't try taking it from the Coal Hole out of Minffordd Yard just yet then, that climb is lethal!
I'm sure that with you guys on the case it will be a masterpiece when finished, especially based on previous work I have seen. I wonder if looking at the Portuguese mallett might help with the articulation, it's out of gauge for the route but the bogie swivel looks spot on whenever I've played about with it. But then again, I have no clue about the physics so that may not help at all!!

As promised earlier, some screenshots of the 'short' extension are now up on Steam, the little extension that has now doubled the length of driveable route...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =632794965

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =632795439

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =632795848

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =632796206

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =632797011

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =632797338

Still a few little issues to resolve but I hope to knock up a few scenarios and get it packaged for further testing soon, and see where we go from there. As always, comments and feedback welcome!

ThePhantomPhish

[spontin]

OK - having made progress on the loco & the physics, thanks to Richard, I have taken DLG on a trip up to Blaenau!!

Some screens of the journey.
On the Cob

Click the image to zoom in

Leaving Garnedd Tunnel

Click the image to zoom in

On the Spiral

Click the image to zoom in

On the Deviation towards Tanygrisau

Click the image to zoom in

On the approaches to Blaenau

Click the image to zoom in


Blaenua Ffestiniog Station

Click the image to zoom in


Looking good but still much to do.

One problem at Blaenau!! Couldn't use the run around line as there is no point switch at the Portmadog end to get back on the running line

Anyway - onward & upwards!!

Steve

[thephantomphish]

That is looking really good! Well done indeed!

Master craftsmanship on display - I'm glad it made it up to Blaenau and also looks to have been hauling a respectable and realistic load of coaches whilst doing it!

Seeing the route through the fresh eyes of a different photographer has prompted me to make a couple of scenic tweaks - the slightly floating shrub above Garnedd has been tipped to look better from that camera angle (and in general), and some weeds have been added to the empty looking embankment by Dolrhedyn and a few other places along the top mile. I don't get the stripe on the tile boundary in the distance behind the shot at Dduallt though, so can't do much about that issue.
The points at Blaenau have also been fixed, for some reason they wouldn't work with g or shift-g, but did work on the 2D map. I've split and welded where necessary and added the point levers so it should work fine on the updated version. I'd probably never even have noticed that problem until after the route goes public!

The updated version including the WHR is now ready for packaging (I think), after numerous runs to test the scenarios I created for the new section. Route knowledge and driving skills are both essential to cope with the steep gradients and tight curves above Beddgelert, especially the famous 'S' bends! It's also given me a lot of testing time as one of the scenarios clocks in at around 125 minutes in total, which is quite epic for what is relatively such a short route.

I've also been thinking more and more about how to release this for general consumption, the news that the Corris route is being worked on is encouraging in many ways but hasn't yet cured the PP asset issue, although it should once that route is out... I'm working on how best to proceed and will update when there is progress in whatever direction.

Meanwhile I'm really looking forward to seeing more DLG progress and one day taking it out for a spin!

As always, more news on the route as and when!!

ThePhantomPhish

[xguerra]

Played the update today Steve, and I must say it's beautiful!

Ran from Port using the L&M Kitson but only made it as far as Beddgelert due to the loco not wanting to take on water. I think that's down to the loco rather than the route.

Still, it's really got me yearning for a loco like Moel Tryfan or even K1. One day, one day.........

[xguerra]

Deputising for the lack of a 2ft Garratt, here we have a rather oversized Metre-gauge Mallet.

[maxtedrw]

This chap will also be ready in a bit. Need to finish the cab and detais yet

[thephantomphish]

Lovely screenshots!
It's really nice to see someone giving the route a spin! And it is interesting to see shots of it from another systems graphics setup - maybe the distant hills might be something I can change with a grass moor texture (if they aren't already) so they don't look so vivid/greengrassy...?

The water tower at Beddgelert caused me no end of grief, so I'd be inclined to think it was a route issue rather than the loco. I struggled to get it working as it is two assets overlaid, one for each line, and I'll be looking at that again. I may have to change it for another less visually-similar-to-prototype sort and sacrifice looks for functionality (just like all the WHR signalling). Was that loco ever publicly released? I found an old thread when it was in development but nothing more recent.

I hope you enjoy more 'testing' and keep me updated with any feedback, screenshots, and observations! It is all much appreciated!

And I have just seen that we have another addition to the stable on the way, excellent news and something I will be keenly following!!

ThePhantomPhish

[xguerra]

The water point seemed to work fine for the Mallet but not for the Kitson. Strange.

The Kitson was released a while ago but was sadly withdrawn from the UKTS library shortly afterwards, with the author saying he wasn't very happy with his initial effort and would take it away to do some more work on it.
Though I think it is a brilliant effort.

Luckily it seems there will be a lot more choice soon with Steve Pontin's DLG, Richard's C&MLR "Atlantic", and hopefully Chris Barnes will soon be able to continue with Prince.

[thephantomphish]

I've only had time to do a little fiddling since Sunday, with the following observations...

First, the water tower is definately not reliable as it should be. Even if I get lucky enough to get it to work, the arm swings out over the opposite track! So I need to play with that and maybe use a different asset. I wonder if different water towers have different sizes of track marker, making some require more precise positioning than others?

I also looked at the distant hills and painted them with grass moor rather than whatever grass they were before. I think though that the bright green hills are a result of either different graphics settings or maybe weather settings, maybe like the white hills phenomenon. Whenever I run the route, even with clear summer weather, they show a nice hazy grey colour on my setup. That may be something that will have to be written of as un-fixable, as everyone has different settings and it actually doesn't affect the performance of the route.

So far though, no-one who has trialled the route has mentioned any howling errors or major functional mis-haps, which is reassuring!! (Especially as I know that there is one right-left curve which should be left-right!).

Cheers,
ThePhantomPhish

[maxtedrw]

You can "fix" the weather by creating your own ( or copying ) weather files into an assets directory for the route. Probably a good idea to have one anyway as it can also be used to set up the named locations for the route. Feel free to copy my weather files ( i'll send them if you don't have them ) from the current LMVLR.

Actaully thinking about it I will do an experiment with putting weather files into the routes directory itself and see if it works - if it does I will post a how to do it here.

[thephantomphish]

It would be great to limit the weather types available because currently I have the choice of several 'weathers' from the many various routes currently used for assets, and I normally just use the standard ones. Having all those options has allowed me to do some testing though:

And I'm now also certain that the 3D weather is what causes the bright green distant hills, after a couple of quick checks. With 3D weather the distant terrain looks far brighter and in different colours much lighter than without it, switching back to the standard weather the grey silhouettes return and all looks Welsh again. I'm very happy to have found the cause of that issue - at least it wasn't my route-building that gave those bright green hills!!

ThePhantomPhish

[spontin]

Hi
Thought I would pass on a tip that I used on the Talyllyn for a single water tower serving two tracks.
I built the tower and one arm as one asset and the built only the arm for the second simply lining them up on placement. Each was controlled by their own track link
Don't whether you have done this but worked fine for me.

Cheers
Steve

[thephantomphish]

Hi everyone,

After a few days playing around and driving a variety of routes, for 'comparison' reasons, of course, I finally got around to having another look at the Beddgelert water tower.
The issue is definitely related to the asset - placing the two over each other seems to make clicking on the right 'footprint' or whatever it is called tricky. And then the crane swings out over the wrong track, maybe it is only designed to turn 90 degrees to the right? I tried with another type of water tower and it all worked fine but looks a bit poor.

I also noticed that when trying to create scenarios, only some of the water towers and coal points show up in the editor when choosing 'pick up fuel from' instruction, which is strange as they have all been installed in the same way. Now that I know about this it is just annoying, but not a route-breaker, but if anyone has any thoughts on this mystery it would be good to get that sorted out and keep it consistent.

Meanwhile, purely in the spirit of testing (because I'm thorough like that), here's a shot of another visiting loco:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =651633483

It ploughs (or should it be plows?) through the scenery on the FfR section as you would expect, but seems very much at home on the WHR line! I thought it would derail on the tighter curves but hasn't so far, even getting over the points at Pen Cob without falling over. And there is something special about hearing that whistle echoing around the Aberglaslyn Pass!

More as and when (discussions continue slowly behind the scenes regarding release...)


ThePhantomPhish

[spontin]

Hi
A few new pictures of DLG on the Narrow Gauge forum at the bottom of this topic....

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 7&t=142753

Steve