Back on the rails.

I've been away from this for a while now. Just how life works for myself. With the madness of university work and i've just managed to nearly get my dream job (train driver!). So stuff is still quite busy but I had a craving to check out Dukey's Railway again.

Usually after such a time away I come back thinking ugh! But I actually opened it up to be quite happy with the work i'd achieved! So lets keep at it.

The route is pretty much finished in the first segment (Bowery - Hopkins End). So I was mainly working on schedules and paths before life took over. As i've been away from it I can look at it in a different eye and make some tweaks before continuing and making some activities :)

Here's some shots of me checking the railway out after a 2 month absence. Sometimes you just fancy a drive.
You may notice a new arrival!

Tornado choose Dukey's Railway as its location for trials.

End of the line! Part1

I've already mentioned that I reached the last station in the current phase of the railway, but now is the time to show it off properly as its in a 95% finished state!

From the Halt at the country park the line takes a steep gradient up before crossing a fine viaduct and going down again where it then enters Hopkins End.

Heres quite a few shots of the journey between Dallaston Halt and Hopkins End.

And this final shot, a new locomotive on the railway heads out from Hopkins End, heading up the grade towards the viaduct.

Fun but tedious.

Most of the hours spent on Trainz right now are testing schedules. I'm trying to write working timetables which give a good bass for activities to naturally exist. And of course its part of making it a believable realistic railway.

As well as watching two trains run over and over again, problem solving till it goes without a hitch, i've started doing a sortof quality control.

I ran a DMU from Brigden to the national park's halt and took note of any issues I could see. Taking note works much better than just looking for issues then forgetting to fix them..

In this run of only 3 or so minutes I noted at least 20 issues, which sounds a lot but most are fixable in a second or two.

Heres an example of the list written.

Brigden Station area

• Grass lacking at Brigden Station
• Floating benches
• Flickering posters
• Floating point rods
• Point wiring dodgy
• Dodgy garden hedges
• Sinking people on platform
• Wonky flatforms
• AOCL light flashing constantly
• Dukey on signal (he should be there but hes going to fall!)

Brigden - DH Halt

• Level Crossing broken
• Harsh embankments and hills
• Incorrect textures on harsh hills
• DH is generally a mess! 

I generally rushed Brigden to Dallaston park, so this is why I started here and not from Bowery.

Along with paths and schedules, next step is to touch up Bowery - Brigden in the same way as above.

One of the fixed things is the level crossing. I reskinned various assets  to make the wooden basis/boards . I think the effect works quite well. (Not that you can see them from this angle)

End of the line!

Horrah! I have laid all the track and junctions on this version of Dukey's Railway..  I reached Hopkins End!

All trackwork is done, well probably more like 98%, theres a few bits that need to be fixed up and some might be changed after testing how stuff runs.

To test the speed limits, junctions and just the routes length..  Oh and to bask in my glory so far.. I ran a DMU from the Hopkins End bay to Bowery..  The journey takes about 20-25 minutes and is somehow, exactly 10miles :\

I am currently working on paths and schedules as all the track work and (most) signalling is done. So I thought i'd have a break from scenery and try to see how things will run.

Its all very exciting!
I hope to get a cab view video from the Bowery Tunnel loop (where the last video ended) to Brigden. Then one from Brigden to Hopkins End.

To make this entry more interesting, a few shots from the testing so far.

Apologies for the darkness in most of them, my testing session uses whatever my system time is.. and I seem to mostly be working on it at night.

STOP!

Yeah! Did this reskin as it was something I needed to warn drivers who don't know where they are going... And to show the end of the preserved line, before reaching the national rail network..  Can't have steam locos and the like venturing onto the mainline eh?

On from Brigden!

Leaving Brigden, the line takes a relatively straight path through the former Brigden Woodland and heads toward the Dallaston National Park.

Heading out of Brigden

Brigden crossing, (Which needs a bit of fixing)

A short distance after crossing the main road to Brigden, the line passes through the Brigden County Golf Club before curving and descending into the National Park.

The main feature of passing through the national park is the beautiful Lake, which sits in an opening of the forest.

Route Requirements - Payware and System

So the chasing of yellows has stopped for a bit. In fact i'd say it was a single yellow and a lot of reds the past week or so, due to work and deadlines. Now its a double yellow and some greens.. With yellow and reds in the distance.

 Heres an update anyhow.
I have been thinking about how I would release this route. I have never released my work as it usually is never finished, however with this I can see the section finished and I know what I want to achieve. Thing is, theres a lot of content, some not easily findable. Some of it I can host and link to here without problems, but others i'd need permision. Also there is some content I have tailored for myself, which needs to be sorted out, uploaded to the Trainz Download station, or supplied here.. All after I have got permission from original creators.
 Now the other thing is. This route is a TS12 route only. I do not believe it can go into TS10 but correct me on that. It also needs the Settle & Carlisle add on route. It cannot work without it and the experience would be severely ruined without it. Don't even consider it. As a perfectionist, I want my creations to be enjoyed in the way I intended.. the S&C add on is the must have for fans of UK rolling stock, I rarely ever ever run the route, however the content supplied with it is invaluable to a UK route, especially a steam era one. Add to this, the 100s of FREE extra assets on the S&C site, its the best value Trainz add-on to date in my opinion..

At least 75% of the Dukey's Railway stock list is from the S&C addon/site. For one, the S&C addon comes with 10! Locomotives, plus 3 more available for download from the site free (if you own S&C). Thats the tip of the iceberg, there is also rolling stock and scenery. All of the signals on DR are from S&C.

I thank the S&C team greatly for their content..
 http://www.settleandcarlisle.co.uk/ 

So the S&C and TS12 are the main requirements for Dukey's Railway.

The first release will be Bowery - Hopkins End, which was the original railway, with 4 stations and lots of stuff to do. I will release it with at least 3 or 4 activities/scenarios, attempting to be as realistic and immersion as possible. Whats the point of a route made with such love,care, attention to detail and realism in mind.. If all you expect people to do is plonk a train down and run along it once or twice? This is one thing I find sad about Trainz, the lack of activities. That is why I am going to provide at least 3 with the route from the offset. There will be more added in time. Including those using addons/payware such as the Duchess class and Paul Hobbs locomotives (http://www.44090digitalmodels.co.uk/). These will be optional, so if you have the rolling stock you can run them. I will possibly do versions with alternative locos unless the scenario is about the specific stock.

Requirements:
TS12 =AUD 49.99
S&C =AUD 19.99
& a lot of downloadable content..(TBC, but I will make it as easy as possible to get).

Optional: 
Available from N3V

• Duchess add-on 
• Coronation add-on (when activities written) 

Available from 44090 Digital Models

• J94 
• SR Drummond J15 
• Y7 

 A word on performance.. This route is very detailed. Made primarily for myself. I am running a rather mid-high end system. The FPS is locked at 30fps and never drops.

•  i5 2500k @4.5GHZ 
• 8GB Ram 
• Nvidia 460GTX (now on 560ti but performance was perfect with the 460) 
• Windows 7 64bit 

(All Trainz sliders on full, full anti aliasing and still high FPS). 


I hope this is useful for anyone who has read this blog and wonders if they could ever try out the route, or beta test it. If there is anyone who would like to go down as a tester and has the requirements, feel free to leave a comment or contact me using the details in my Auran profile.

I hope to update shortly about activity ideas, mainly because I have so many and need to get them written down!

Sneak peek at the current terminus of Dukey's Railway.
Yes, thats a mannequin. Dukey was going to hire a man to stand there all day everyday, but I believe it wasn't allowed. 

Paths and Schedules..

As i'm not able to update as much as I would like, heres an interesting post which can be seen as rather useful for others.

I may have mentioned I use paths for AI and even human trains. I use these along with schedules and I will show you my ways.
Today we are going to create a schedule that enables any train to run around its consist ready to leave in the other direction.

So we're here at Brigden.

SHOT OF PATH BRIGDEN

I have opend the Path Rule, here you can create 'yards' which are basically a way of organising paths, much like folders. What I like to do is create a 'yard' for each station or yard, putting in paths for operations that remain in the statiion area. I then like to have a yard for between stations, for example BW-BD (Bowery - Brigden) this yard will contain paths like,  BW Plat1 - BD Plat 2.

So in the BD folder we have a few paths I have made previously. The Appr frm BW - Plat 1, simply means the path is from just outside Brigden from the direction of Bowery and will guide a train into Platform 1. We are going to set a path from the opposite direction, from Hopkins End, so if needed a train can run around at Brigden and head back to Hopkins End.

Here is the path, simple really, only two junctions are needed to be set to get a train off the mainline from HE and into Platform 2. The good thing about the path rule is when you add a junction it sets it to the state the junction is in Trainz, so really all you need to do is set out your junctions for a path in Trainz then just add them in the path rule and it will copy their states. You then need to add a 'release' which usually is the last junction in the path, this unlocks the path so those junctions can be moved by other paths.

Along with this path a few more will need to be created in the same way, one leading from Platform 2 onto the mainline at the other end, then one from that spot through Platform 1 to the end the train originally approached from so it can then set another path back into Platform 2 (in fact the same path we first created can be used again here!)

Onto Schedules..
This is how it fits together. A great feature! You can create preset schedules which can be used by trains, I like to create lots of little ones that can fit together to create a big schedule so you have many set pieces you can reuse, so you don't need lots of schedules for much similar trains.

Works the same as paths with the regard you can have yards or groups, keeping things organised.
So i've created a new path in the BD movements group with a name I can understand. I have to create a version for both tender locomotives and non tender as otherwise the tender locomotives would uncouple from their tender or the tanks would run around with one coach attached!

Heres how the schedule will look.
Wait for 10 seconds >> Uncouplez from 1 >> Set Path BD Plat2 - BD appr from BW >> Autodrive to BW Appr from BW >> Wait for 5 seconds >> Change Direction >> Set Path BD Appr from BW - BD plat 1 >> Set Path plat 1 - BD appr from HE - Plat 2 >> Change Direction >> DCC set throttle >> Approach to Train 10m >> Set DCC Throttle>> Couple Ahead  >> Wait for 10 seconds.

Looks complicated but it takes less than a few minutes to knock up as all the commands already exist. I've used the wait for command a few times to give the train a chance to stop before it continues to the next command and to also add realism. Also I use the DCC set throttle along with Approach to Train and couple ahead because with DCC the train does no obey signals so can couple without a hitch!
I've not noted the DCC throttle settings above because its down to seeing it work and knowing how fast each setting is..

Lets test this out.
The train is instructed to drive to Platform 2, load and then insert schedule.

A few things to notice from the video. I've sped it up at points otherwise it would last a bit and I set a really low DCC throttle so my train approached its coaches at 1kph. So I edited that out. Its like I said about DCC throttle, you have to try it out then adjust to get the right speeds.



With this now complete I just have to copy the schedule (Its one button click!) then change a few paths for it to work for Platform 1 also and change the uncouple command for tank locos. Easy! Plus those paths i've made can be used for many other schedules!

First train travels from Bowery to Brigden!!

The railways British Rail standard class, Black 5 45051 made the first complete journey from  Bowery to Brigden late in the day..

Pulling a set of Gresley coaches it was a great sight to see, especially pulling into the newly refurbished and rebuilt Brigden.

The journey of around 4 miles took just over 10 minutes with no stopping at loops.

To Brigden!

From the loop the railway takes a turn to the left through the remnants of a wood. From then on its along an embankment through farmland to Brigden!

I must admit I did skip ahead to Brigden to work on the station area a bit to test out some operation's but now I've filled in the scenery between.

Visitor, 4468 'Mallard' heading through the woodland

Museum Visitor  The Blue Pullman heading towards Bowery Tunnel Loop

Museum Visitor  The Blue Pullman heads past the public footpath on testing

45051 Leaves the loop and heads towards the woodland

45051 heads through the woods

45051 en route to Brigden

Brigden in sight!!!!!