How many layouts/routes are you building?

I am curious to know if, like me, you have several routes under construction.
If I had only one route on the go, I would get bored with it, I have tried but gave up
So I have several 'projects' on the go to keep me busy and creative.
I have a mixture of routes on the go from a massive rangierbahnhof similar to Maschen that kills my graphics card to a one board narrow gauge route, but there is a common theme...European

How abou you?

When you have 6 routes sometimes that is overwhelming, especially when they are monstrous DEM's, that you may never finish in your whole lifetime ...You should have a fun little route on the side that is a pass time ... And when you get overwhelmed you should take a break from Trainz for days, weeks, or several months

euromodeller said:

I am curious to know if, like me, you have several routes under construction.
If I had only one route on the go, I would get bored with it, I have tried but gave up

Click to expand...

I don't know what that criteria would say about me, but I have only one route (but with 10 sessions) currently under construction. I had a look back through its history and I started the route on TS2010 back in Feb 2010. So it has been 7 years in the "making"!!!

It has had a number of DLS releases in that time

• as a TS12 route (using standard gauge track) back in Feb 2011.
• re-released as an update with several historical corrections in Jan 2012.
• Released again but highly modified as part of an SWO (Safeworking) Project (with human "locomotive" switch men, authority tokens, etc) in Oct 2015

In its current incarnation it has been updated to TANE SP1 standards with narrow gauge procedural track, navigation points and other new features but without most of the SWO features of the 2015 version. I am planning to unleash it after the release of SP2.

Just the one here, the Lynton and Barnstaple full version 2ft NG just for a change. probably around a third done but on hold at present waiting for SP2. I also create most of my own content for scenery so I tend to spend a few weeks doing that and them move back to the route.

I have a couple routes in the works, and I jump from one to the other. One of my routes is the original route I started in Dec 2003 in TRS2004. This route is going through a major rebuild with large portions being replaced and or upgraded with much, much better building techniques and large sections being replaced with actual DEMs as these look better than my rather poor hand sculpting, which was the only way back then.

Another route I have had in the works for a few years now is my Cape Anne Transit route, and is a rework of George Fisher's idea of a small short line in and around the Gloucester and Rockport area in Massachusetts. George's original route focused on serving the docks in and around Gloucester Harbor. I took his route a number of years ago and electrified it, and in the process turned it from a freight short line into an electrified passenger route with diesel freights. My Gloucester Terminal Electric route, this modified version of George's route, has since been frozen with no new changes. I still enjoy driving the session I created for it with the rather unusually long portal freights going between Rockport and Boston, the MBTA commuter trains, and then the ongoing trolley and local freight operations. There are days when I've spent many hours switching freight cars with the AI busily driving their trams along the electrified route.

But continuing that theme, my now new version is based 100% on a DEM of the Cape Anne Peninsula. On this route I have worked tracks along the back road (MA Rt. 127 and 127a) towards Annisquam, Wingersheek Beach, as the line serves these little communities on the north, as well as branches to Magnolia via Ravenscroft Woods, West Gloucester, and lines to Eastern Point, and Rockport including the actual Rockport branch of the MBTA, except I'll run freights too because I can. During my building, and aerial photo searching, I have discovered the ROWs of old disconnected quarry railroads which once dotted the peninsula. On my route, I have connected these together in the rail system and made some of them are active since in real life they have become reservoirs and large wooded parks as they've long lived out their usefulness as a quarries.

I have one route. It is the Great Northern Railroad from Wenatchee Wa to Everett Wa 141 miles, but in 3 different routes, from 1893-1900 with all the switchbacks and snow sheds, the Tumwater canyon and Reiter Wa route deviations. 1900-1929 that eliminates the switchbacks with a 2.6 mile tunnel and a relocations of Tumwater canyon and Reiter Wa. 1929- to present that has a 7.8 mile tunnel from Berne Wa to Scenic Wa. I work on one at a time it is 1893 to 1900. I created the basic route with TransDEM and open street map. I have a lot of the original Profiles from 1893 to 1929 and a time table from 1897. And a whole bunch of photos. I am thinking of releasing it when I get all the tracks and track side done. thanks funnnyfarm

I am working on 1 route. However I just started into Surveyor about 6 weeks ago so I am using this route as a learning tool and boy am I learning. Between this forum and youtube I have gotten quite an education. I built 2 routes in Railworks, each one took over 2 years to complete. So far I have 38 miles of track laid, several towns and a lot of interactive industries as well as pax stations. I like Surveyor a lot.

RJArtim said:

I am working on 1 route. However I just started into Surveyor about 6 weeks ago so I am using this route as a learning tool and boy am I learning. Between this forum and youtube I have gotten quite an education. I built 2 routes in Railworks, each one took over 2 years to complete. So far I have 38 miles of track laid, several towns and a lot of interactive industries as well as pax stations. I like Surveyor a lot.

Click to expand...

My first route was supposed to be a learning tool as well, but going on 14 years later it's still very close to my heart and I don't want to lose it either.

Surveyor really is the best part of Trainz, I think. I too spend 99% of my time in Surveyor myself. The problem is when I go to drive a session I forget the controls, and sometimes there's so much detail that the route doesn't run well so it's back to Surveyor to do some gleaning and cleaning up to make the route drivable.

Hi

It's a stand-alone airport layout, but the surround areas will have yards, freight, and passenger service coming back and forth, including the Airport Tram System I just finished creating!

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/entry.php?1242-THE-quot-SELECTIVE-ROUTES-quot-BLOG/page2#comments

Ish

NONE "Hooray" at long last I finished working on routes that were on the drawing board far too long !

Brisbane City Tramway lasted 12 years.
Helensvale to Nobby Beach was only a short one, 2 yrs, but it was a large expansion of the Gold Coast LRT .
I still have one of "Portland to Heywood" Vic. on the backup disc. about 10 Yrs work, but don't feel inclined to work on it.

Now I just sit back and review a few routes off other peoples work from the DLS.
The only problem is that I go too sleep watching trains go by, I can do that watching the Telly but on a more comfortable chair !.

NormP.

I'm gonna sound over confident or some sort of weird thing when I say this, but I have seven routes and two diaramas that I am building. I want to get them all done soon so that I can take a quick break from Trainz to focus on some other things. (Doesn't mean im not gonna put in all the effort.) I will only be uploading 3 of the routes onto my website. The rest are MINE. Mwahaha. xD

I have two routes, one is the Widened Lines part of ECML and the other is Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace on the LNER. I've been working on this since Trainz UTC and it still isn't finished!

The Widened Lines I became completely dissatisfied with, and have re-done it. Sadly as ECML is DRM, my improvements can't be shared.

Mick

Well, I started with a 2 baseboard Route called Brazilian Wilds, from an unknown author on my IPad 2yrs ago changing to what I like in design.

Then moved to TS-12, and now to T:ANE, in the course:

Merged 5x small routes, Canadian and Steam themes
Merged 10x Australian, British with US routes.

And as of week ago added Narrow Gauge to the conundrum, of which I no little about, but wanted some diversion into different gauge as I think it's amazing what the Narrow Gauges could do in tight mountainous areas where a Standard couldn't be put or was financially out of the picture.

Downloaded "Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland 2014 TANE" fantastic route and some other smaller NG Routes.

What set me back a lot was moving from TS-12 to T:ANE where error correction is much harder to deal with.

Bottom line I'm glad I have T:ANE it's forced me to learn a lot more about Assets issues, and I can do more with 64 Bit than 32 as far as Route size. And I have several things to play with, so getting bored is not an option, will I finish all these projects whose to say?

But I am sure going to give it a good shot.

I have one primary project on the go which is a 120km route, plus two or three secondary's. My problem is that Transdem makes it so easy to set up a route, I often get the notion after watching a YouTube clip or reading on line about a particular stretch of railway that it would be an interesting project. Very easy to end up with 6+ routes on the go, none of which get progressed for ages as you get distracted by other possibilities. There is so much information now available thanks to hi-res mapping of most of the world and Google Translate, that the painstaking research of years gone by that stimulated the determination to actually finish the project, is no longer there.

In addition to the projects lying dormant in Surveyor I have a spreadsheet full of other potential projects and that's without looking at the projects I have started in MSTS and TS2017.

With an average route taking 3 - 4 months to complete it's patently obvious I already have far more "work" than could reasonably be completed in the rest of my lifetime. Even when I retire in two or three years and have more spare time, still not enough to do all my desired projects. Not to mention I want to do more with my retirement than stare at a laptop screen and by then I might need to start thinking more closely about the effects of long term VDU usage.

Thank you everyone for your input

It's interesting to read that a lot of you are working on representations of actual routes, maybe I should try this transdem thingy that some of you are using.
I would also like to try making my own assets, but I fear I would be glued to my PC for the rest of my retired life.

I have a large (freelance) route in the making, my method of work is this..I am making fairly detailed modules with the intent of re-using any of them again in future routes in any combination.
My Anaheim DE route has at the heart of it a large rangierbahnhof (marshalling yard). Then I have a hauptbahnhof module (main station) and another module of an aussbesserungswerk (engine repair facility).
The rest of the route will based on the supply chain of goods and passengers, from farmers field or a branchline terminus to each of the main modules.
You can see some screenshots of parts of it in different threads in the forum, my Zellern model is one of the branchline temini.

I need to upgrade my graphics card before I join all the modules into a complete route, my old R9 290 Gamer struggles with the rangierbahnhof, so I am saving my £££ whilst building the modules.

Should keep me occupied for a while

I'm encouraged by this thread - I thought it was a problem I had.
As a relative newcomer (2.5 years), I found I started by biting off more than I could chew, being a builder rather than a driver (from a fine scale modelling background). I then needed to try something smaller, and embarked on my Chathill to Seahouses journey which is getting closer to actual completion. Along th way, I had a go at modifying (seriously) part of the ECML south of Durham. This, I was quite pleased with, but found it was too big to operate, which sent me back to Chathill again. I have two other flights of fancy; that is, railways I would love to build. These are the Stainmore Line over the Pennines, and the Wansbeck Line in Northumberland for which I have made Transdem / Google earth maps for TANE - enough to provide many months of enjoyment. I hope sometime to release Chathill, as I so much enjoy using the work of other creators, it would be nice to put something back.
Ian

Just thought I would post for interest, the full current list of my potential route projects (as opposed to the ones that got away):

Kovdor (in progress)

Pachacayo Branch

Chiloe Island

Glasgow Underground

Camden to North Woolwich

Wemyss to Gouock

Garve to Ullapool

Ohrid

Kresna

Allikarti

Lendery

Nikel

Minomachi

Pett Level Tramway (Winchelsea)

Liskeard and Caradon + extension to Rushyford (see Rail Map UK)

Exton Park (Cottesmore, East Midlands).

Cannock Chase

Isle of Skye (fictional)

Marsden Colliery

Weston, Clevedon, Portishead

Lauder Light Railway

Sheppey Light Railway

Kelvedon & Tollesbury

Axholme Light Railway

Derwent Valley Railway (Foss Island to Cliffe Common)

Ashover Light Railway (ng)

Southern Heights Light Railway.

Bere Alston to Callington

Burry Port & Gwendreath

Llanelli to Cross Hands

Shropshire (Shrewsbury West) and Montgomeryshire

Snailbeach District Railways

Gower Light (Swansea & Mumbles extension)

Central Essex Railway

East Kent Railway Extensions

East Sussex Railway

Gower Light Railway

Hadlow Railway

Headcorn and Maidstone Junction Railway

Hedingham and Long Melford Railway

Kelvedon, Coggeshall and Halstead Railway

Lands End, St Just and Great Western Junction Railway

Long Melford and Hadleigh Railway

Maidstone and Faversham Junction Railway

Maidstone and Sittingbourne Railway

Newport and Four Ashes Railway

Shropshire Railways ( Shrewsbury and Market Drayton Extension)

Surrey and Sussex Railway

Worcester and Broome Railway
　
Irish

Clifden Branch

Aran link.

Wish me luck with that lot!

With a list like that, Vern at least you won't become bored working on any one project.

Well there might be some in the list that inspire others to have a go!

Given that I have on DLS (for TANE) a GWR Route (Tristyn); an LNER Route (Rosworth vale variation), and on LMS Route (Leeds to Sheffield... it is probably no revelation that I am currently working on an SR Route. I also have (as secondary projects) a CPR/CNR Route and I am giving Rivendell a make-over. Also in the background are plans to bring those pre-nat Routes up to the 50's & 60's "decor", and finally to take them into the BritRail years! I don't know about you guys, but my Routes take around 300-400 hours to create so I think that I am going to be busy for a few years yet!