Route progress

A few days away at a family wedding in Clifden, Ireland, gave me the opportunity to assess route progress to date. Click on the map to the right and you'll see a diagrammatic map of how things are progressing.

As can be seen, the intermediate stations are largely done. The main points en route will be the foci for most of my efforts from now on. Then there's the Cowley branch, which will be tough - it runs through densely-populated neighbourhoods and I'd like to give it the same level of detail as I've been providing for the rest of the route so far. Finally there are the lengthy runs between stations, some of which can be created generically (for example fields, hedges and trees) but some of which will also require custom models (for example overbridges, canalside 'clutter'). RIght at the very end will be the 'interactives' - correct signalling, if I can get hold of current or near-to-current plans (I'm working on it) and road traffic, among other things.

Much to work on, then, and much to keep me busy. I can see now why something such as the newly-released Manchester Metrolink route can be several years in gestation!

20 years apart

One of the fun things with MSTS is that you can run activities set in different time periods. Although the route scenery cannot be altered, the rolling stock and service patterns can be; so, for example, on the 'Dorset Coast' route activities have been created for anything from the 1940s through to the present day - and with some excellent rolling stock in the public domain this means driving anything from (steam aside) CORs and EPBs to VEPs and Desiros. Third-rail heaven!
Although my Oxfordshire route is very much set in 2007, I've played around on it with rolling stock from the days of sectorisation through to the present. So, for example, here are two shots of Culham 20 years apart.
First up is 47406, 'Rail Riders' (which I only ever saw once - at Banbury - particularly disappointing to me as a member of the 'Rail Riders' club), racing north with an InterCity cross-country service:



And next we have the latest release from the Making Tracks stable, SuperVoyager 'David Livingstone':



Anyone with any taste would, of course, opt to be riding behind 47406 rather than in one of those rather dull multiple units.

The cost of trespassing on the railways?

To all those would-be trespassers at Kings Sutton: if you are mad enough to wish to trespass, do be aware that it's cheaper to do so at the south end of the down platform than at the north end of the same platform. Only £200 fine at the south, against a hefty £1000 at the north end.

This is the south end:


Here's the north end:


Trespassing is of course often infinitely more costly than the payment of a mere several hundred pounds, as a number of fatalities - particularly, sadly, of younger people - over the past months have emphasised only too well.
The folly of trespassing aside, however, it's odd that, while busily decomissioning the foot crossing at the north end of the station and installing a rather smart and grandiose (at least for the size of station) modular footbridge, Network Rail didn't see fit to make the two signs consistent. The least of their concerns, no doubt.

Random jottings

The highlight of the past few days with the route-building has been some construction work on Heyford. I've decided to migrate north and add some features to the Oxford-Banbury section: partly to add some variety to the route-building experience, partly also to make running up and down this section of line more interesting than it has been to date.
Heyford was selected because I had the opportunity to do a site visit on Saturday - 'Duchess of Sutherland' was passing through so, along with my two daughters and another dozen photographers, we waited patiently for the late-running service to breeze through.
It turns out to be a rather tricky location to model. The station is at the foot of a hill with the Oxford Canal adjacent to it and road and foot bridges crossing both railway and canal. There's lots of what I would call non-generic clutter - distinctive structures and features - which make it peculiarly 'Heyford' and a little more complicated to replicate in MSTS. But there's the fun of it. What I've now got to model are the canalside buildings and more vegetation (plenty of the latter on this section of line!). Meanwhile, 'Dorset Voyager' powers north in this magpie's eye view.


Looking at the wider MSTS scene, watch out for an excellent LT R49 stock cab likely to be released shortly - especially if you remember and appreciate London Transport (as opposed to LUL, TfL, etc.) rolling stock. More news on this available here.
Finally, some pleasing news from the Making Tracks team in today's newsletter, just delivered to me: exciting forthcoming stock pack releases and more progress on the Evesham route. MSTS aint dead just yet.