Large irish project but wondering if should continue

[rjhowie]

Some time ago I started doing a project on Northern Ireland Railways for three main reasons. One was that I had went there when a boy on family holidays and secondly in adult years taking youth organisation camps over annually. Third and more strident was that the Province is the worst home country in GB on railway closures. I even went over by plane from here in Glasgow to go about the system and take notes (bet very few Trainzers do that!) and although I thought was I ever to finish it I did! Included a line between two main routes that is temporarily suspended although NIR keeps it for the future). My real effort was getting all the way from Belfast to Londonderry over 90 miles all told. Then I mused on maybe using the completion as a base of pretending a couple of long gone routes have been brought back and include them later (!). Instead when I got just beyond Newry at the Border it irritated that that was the end so pushed myself and laid track into the IRail all the way to Dublin Connolly.

Thought doing that would mean that the Enterprise Express between Belfast-Dublin could eventually be run but I found I was really pushing things with so much extra scenery and so on. So south of the Border I did something Irish and instead of continuing the extra scenery from the Border stop I built a rough centre of Dublin and Connolly Statio and scenery all the way up north to Drogheda - also did the branch to Howth and scenery. From Drogheda scenery only a few miles north and the same around Dundalk. All the extra put me off for a while along with interrupting health issues but what I have done so far on the island of Ireland from distant Glasgow is the largest and most modern for over there. Wondering if I should try and get back to it and often see positive comments on much smaller things like I am doing and with so much detail that is as near the real as can be. What I would also need to do is try and get back to the scenery in-between Drogheda and Dundalk and there to the Border which is a big challenge so perhaps some folk might like to drift to my website below and have a look at the screen-shots of each of the Ulster lines and some of what has been done south on Irish Rail.

It took ages to do the NIR but did have a routine and if I think there is any real interest I will try to get back to the pile of scenery need in the gaps to Dublin so have a squint (!) and it will depend on me trying to get back to it or giving up on the IR work and go back to the original. Would be leaning towards the IR and try and cope with the lots of scenery so have a look and I will be practically noting any positives and the numbers looking at the site. This is a big Emerald isle modern thing so will depend on support.

Over to you from a struggling Glaswegian!

www.northernirelandrailwaysim.moonfruit.com

Bobby

ps. If supportive I will seriously consider changing the name to include the IR

 

[Roy3b3]

Bobby,

I'm more into short, but highly detailed layouts, mainly because I like to see plenty of train-traffic activity happening each way I look.

However, I did have a close look at your screenshots from your website.

AND,... mate, you are an artist !! Your attention to detail in all your shots, is quite incredible, beautiful and something you should be really proud of.

If you are considering whether to continue your project or not,... ask yourself, why you started building it in the first place.

It's obvious from the detail you have created, that you have a major passion for this hobby, something you really love doing.

I've put literally years of my own life into creating a route that I have a deep passion for. A route which I had scrapped several times, but came back again and re-built it better to make it function for continuous running. It was as good as I could do it at the time. Today, I am in the process of rebuilding the same route again, this time with DVA5 in-train and platform announcements for selected sessions. Previously, I knew nothing about adding audio to my layout, but I found out how to include a little more realism and enjoyment. I do it for my own enjoyment; and then, if I can enjoy it, I'll share that with others.

So Bobby, unless you've got another project with greater priority, do it for yourself mate,... then when you are having fun, share that with a few others. I visited Ireland and Scotland just once in my life (7 years ago) and I have great memories of that. I most certainly would be interested in your route.

Cheers mate,
Roy

 

[bolivar]

Don t stop. What you have created so far is excellent.

 

[Christopherd18]

Post Deleted.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

If you need to ask that question, it probably means you are getting burned out so it might be a good idea to put it down for a while. Wait for the energy to come back in its own good time.

 

[Vern]

Why not clone the route and delete sections as necessary in order to release a version of what is complete? Another consideration Bobbie is how big the "grand" Irish project has become and whether it's viable both in terms of file size or actually getting it on the DLS (500Mb limit as a cdp).

One of the reasons I'm looking to do model/miniature railways for the foreseeable future is that I'm totally fed up of the relatively easy task of placing 50 - 60 miles of track then the absolutely daunting task of adding scenery to it, particularly in urban areas. Not to mention at one time you could reasonably get away with a scattering of houses and maybe a pub, shop or two and a church to represent a town. These days people are expecting a more accurate depiction which if going out to 2km either side of the track could take days just to do a 1km strip across the track.

More than ever we need a decent autogen system to take the tedium out of endless placement, which has precious little to do with the railway infrastructure.

 

[phimat]

What might help fuel your enthusiasm would be if you released part of the work you have done to date, say the Belfast-Derry/Londonderry section. I would be curious to see what the Dublin-Belfast section is like - I have many memories of it, especially watching from the beach at Balbriggan the puffing smoke of an approaching steamer from Dublin as it came out onto the viaduct. The rail lines here can be wonderful to travel if you have the time, but the small dense scale of the environment might be difficult to capture on a Trainz route. I was tempted once upon a time to do the Dublin-Galway line, but the sheer detail overwhelmed me.

But you should try to complete your project, you have obviously put a lot into it already.

 

[clam1952]

Carry on please! Do what I do when I get fed up, find something else to do for a couple of weeks.

 

[MTH_ELECTRIC_TRAINS]

I would continue, you have so much already! The only criticism that I have with the route is the track. It is rather old track and it really shows. There is a ton of good looking track out there and I think the route would look even better with it! Otherwise, this project is amazing! I have one question though, how are you building this? Are you using TransDEM or a mapping program with a ruler, etc?

 

[rjhowie]

Think you have a pont there Dinorius_Redundicous! Got the knackering thing when building the giant Glasgow tramway I mentioned on my other thread and paused then went back to each area of the city and wondering if had aimed too much (!). The Norther Ireland Rly thing had the same situ although not quite so heavy. Did wonder if I would ever get the Londonderry route ever done due to length and scenery but did it and as seen each of my northern routes are there. If there was a farm a village, farmer crossing boards they went in hence the detail.

When I mused folks on continuing from Newry station near the Border I mused for a while then started extending the track. As I said instead of doing scenery from there south I oddly started at the other end in Dublin! So complete scenery from Dublin all the way north to just few miles beyond beyond Drogheda and including the DART branch mentioned to Howth which like elsewhere is very much a representation of the actual when you look at my Dublin Line slides. Then a big scenery gap beyond Drogheda to just before Dundalk followed by scenic gap to the Border. Think I was trying to keep myself aiming.

That I am Glasgow based and flew over to do Trainz (my friends would confirm my eccentric side!) it was a very big labour of love. I will of course watch Vern that I keep within the size limit and in passing the junction at Drogheda has a branch to Navan (passenger services gone and goods only now) but have not extended that one into the west. Giving a break but the efforts on the IR as heavily put in as on the NIR scene and I did give myself another mountain to climb.

What I must in furtherance do is thank you folks for the support and the compliments of what I am doing so far away from where I live and my efforts to get places to roughly look as they are in reality is paramount to me. Will have more disciplined breaks so i do not slack on the backgrounds ( the old track was AJS contribution). To do this big thing without having reasonable scenery would have put me off so the feelings on that is very appreciated. and will even if a bit more paced out continue with the breaks to complete a large modern scene of rail in NI and in Ireland and that will continue. At the same time I am only including the start of lines radiating from Dublin and keep within my remit. One trainz fan over near Belfast has been in contact for a while and is most keen to meet me so think I will aim to get back over the water to my favourite belfast hotel meet him for a meal (he has a copy of my build!).

Thanks very much for the support and compliments and helps me put modern rail things over the water into Trainz and that my efforts are being pumped up by you all here. Should also be a health boost too as been nowhere for a year. Here in Scotland there is a monument to my family of centuries ago for what they did in a difficult time who did not give in so in view of that (which I have visited) I cannot give in on this project health or whatever!!

Bobby

 

[wilts747]

I have relatives in NI and have traveled much of the network. While the network is not that inspiring the routes and scenery are, so in many respects what you have started is quite daunting, however if you can rekindle your enthusiasm it's a worth challenge. As others have suggested we all at some point get a degree of burnout when we seem to spending hours getting nowhere. What I do is break projects up into small sections and place temporary portals at either ends producing suitable trains at appropriate intervals. As I complete 80-90% of a particular section I add the baseboards and track for the next and move the appropriate portal to the end of that. While you are not going to see the overall results of your labors for months perhaps even years and probable have to contend with quite a few Trainz updates along the way completing individual sections provides the lift and encouragement to take on the next. Peter

 

[rjhowie]

Peter,

What you say I can fully go along with. Each of my NIR lines was a challenge - the longer Londonderry and to Newry ones especially. Did began to wonder if I would ever get each done. The mothballed from past Lisburn to Antrim via Crumlin another challenge. I took a train to Lisburn then a bus to near the first station to take notes the waited a while for the bus to near each station to Crumlin where I had something to eat. From there felt needed a break and a taxi to Antrim junction! One station I could not get near at all due to a high fence but solved that one as I will next confirm. Later on a train journey elsewhere got into a chat with a rail person who had met me before and gave me a link and through that a man who had retired from Queen's University, Belfast who got permission to do a film in a cab of a passenger train on the Crumlin branch in 2001. Contacted him and he kindly sent a copy on the provision that it was not commercial which I verified. Kind of shows my NIR determination! Oh and my years of holidays and camps taken there for young people made me not give in(do hope that the NIR gets the Crumlin one re-opened as they want that).

In hind sight having done my aim in Ulster because of the terrible way railways were done in there should have been it. Maybe if I can get over the exhaustion and as you indicate do progressive bits at a time Trainz will have the Enterprise Express running just as Microsoft did on their limited simulator! So much extra scenery but as you and others will have seen on my slideshows I did try to tackle that matter. Given myself another mountain but being hopeful folks and ensure I keep within a limit so the total can be got and eventually downloaded. That there is genuine interest in what I have done for the NIR and a long part of a part of the IRail. Must now try and get motivation back to fill the gaps south of the Border. Good to see a general interest and backing.

 

[rjhowie]

Yep, Dinorius_Redundicus , I would say burn out did it! I sepnd an awful long time building well over a hundred miles of the Glasgow tram system (shut 1962) then had a go at across the Irish Sea. Phimat I would say to you that there is a slideshow for each of the Ulster routes so you would have seen that there is a slideshow for the line to the Maiden City on the Foyle! That should have surely given you an idea, eh?! i travelled each one of them and as indicated managed to get a contact through two people for a driver view of the presently 18 miles or so of the Crumlin Line that NIR wants to eventually bring back (track still there). That was my only big challenge as there were two stations I could get to be near enough to see on two bridges beside them and the otherno access hence the cd was a great help even though it took through two separate people.

There cannot be many people who would fly to another place just for Trainz and in turn made my burn out even more irritating. Had passingly thought there may have been more comments but to those of you who answered my deep thanks and your interest and obvious support is a help. To one supporter who lives over in NI and very taken on with my effort (and keen to meet me, I will get to that). Anyway, now I . Although i have built and the scenery on the am pushing myself to get back to the lots of scenery still to fill in between the Border and north of Dundalk and the scenery north of Drogheda to Dundalk, The passnger branch off the Enterprise Express mainline as I said is done but not sure i will bother with the branch at Drogheda Junction which no longer has passenger but only odd freight trains. if I get the project back in harness with what I have done in the centre of Dublin it leaves open to extensions though maybe
not by me. Next time i am at my doctor's re my regular health issues will double check on a medicine for coping with Trainz projects......:hehe: