Need some advice - attempting to model Birmingham New Street

S

shaneturner12

Tutorial Creator
Moderators - if this is in the wrong place, please let me know before moving it, as I cannot access certain forums.

Hi Trainzers,

I'm in need of some modelling advice here. I'm trying to model Birmingham New Street station using AJS Invisible stations (or similar).

What would be the best way of doing it? I can sort out things like the overhead wiring after, and I already have the line layout either side of Birmingham New Street worked out.

Any suggestions are welcome. (I know that the roof is going to be a hard job to do).

I will be checking this thread in a few hours to see what suggestions are given.

Shane
 
It depends whether you are going for 100% accuracy or a representation. The biggest challenge using interactive station kits is the fact that most of the platforms at New Street are on a gentle curve, they are also quite wide but with a taper out at either end. Then there's the A & B to consider on most platforms. Modelling the complex junctions at either end in the prototypical space may also prove challenging.

I believe there's some AJS island platform kits which might be better than using the standard one or two platform stations. Best thing is to sketch it out in Surveyor first and see how it looks!

Otherwise it's something where you might have to think about building a complete custom structure, including the platforms and spline attachment points.
 
Hi Vern,

Thankyou for your response.

I'm attempting to get a pretty accurate representation of the station, as I may use it as one of my screenshot locations.

Shane
 
Hi Shane
on my rail journeys up and down the country I regularly use or pass through Birmingham new Street station. The train I am on now stopped there approximately 45 min ago. If you would like any photographs taken I would only be too glad to take them for you on a future journey and then Pm them to you. Having said that, I cannot think of a more difficult station to undertake in trainz but best of luck with it as I admire your spirit in the venture.

Bill
posted from the 18:05 Manchester to Plymouth HST service.
 
If you have (wash my mouth out) MSTS installed, it might be worth obtaining the Bristol to Birmingham route from (again wash my mouth out) UK Trainsim. This has a reasonably good re-creation of New Street, albeit in its older guise and could provide a guide for how to tackle the job in Trainz.
 
Hi shane, hope your well and many thanks for your help in the past, it was very much appreciated.

Regarding Birmingham New Street, I have noticed in the Screenshots part of this forum, Nexusdj (Dave) shows pictures of his Birmingham New Street station layout there, I don't know if you can access that part of the forum, but you might be able to contact him through his website, to ask for advice on how to build your version, or better still, he might pass his version onto you.

Here is his website link... http://skodatrainz.blogspot.co.uk/

I have asked Nexusdj in the screenshots thread to pass by this post, hopefully, if he is not too busy, you might get a reply message from him soon.

Hope the above helps

Joe Airtime
 
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I've used the AJS invisible stations on my version of New street which is built to scale using using basemaps .
Due to the curvature of the platforms I've used mostly Andy's "AJS Station 1x50s" (kuid2:122285:3330:10) which will fit in most spaces as long as your not bothered about having a small straight section in the curve .

Each end (A and B) have passenger enabled sections (except 11 and 12 due to the curvature )

You can see the AJS positions where the elongated white diamond shapes are on the platforms.

A : (This is the 1980's track layout with the main building raised up out of view)

NewstreetAx800.jpg


B:

newstreetBx800.jpg
 
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Thankyou very much for your input Dave, it's given me plenty of ideas on how to proceed.

Shane

P.S. Have you had any issues with trains loading at the AJS stations?
 
shaneturner12 said:
Thankyou very much for your input Dave, it's given me plenty of ideas on how to proceed.

Shane

P.S. Have you had any issues with trains loading at the AJS stations?
Click to expand...

I definitely have had problems with trains loading at AJS stations. Each attempt is a hit-and-miss for each station. Doesn't matter what the orientation of the cars is - doesn't work for EMUs (alternating front/backwards) or hauled (all forwards) trains.
 
I'm glad I'm not alone with that. I'm currently attempting to contact andi06 about it, as I believe it's also linked to a buffer overflow issue I'm having.

Shane
 
While a bit of a rought workaround, I've found that stopping trains will load/unload correctly at AJS stations using trackmarks. I usually have 3 for each direction, ensuring the middle of the train will stop at the actual AJS station.

For example, on an up line if I use the 1x50s, the first track mark will be named Stationtown Up 2 car, then Stationtown Up 3 4 car and finally a Stationtown Up HST to cover loco hauled stock. Obviously you can add in extra trackmarks if common consists aren't covered by just 3.
 
Hi pfx,

I will bear your workaround in mind, although I'm not 100% sure how it will work with pguy's navigatetotrackmarklist V2 command and dual-direction running.

In it's current form, it's NavigateToStation V2 I'm using.

Shane

P.S. I've just found that one of the dependencies for the AJS Invisible stations is faulty - AJS Track Eraser.
 
Just to yet you all know, my Birmingham New Street rebuild project is on hold due to issues with the AJS Stations.

You will have probably seen the thread about it in this forum.

Shane
 
I use the same method as PFX as I've found that sending a train direct to an AJS station results in slow running on the approach with the train actually speeding up as it arrives onto the station section.

The trackmarks haven't been placed yet on my latest version of BNS but I have them in place on my Stafford route and the system works perfectly .

The train is set up to navigate to the trackmark which it will find and as long as a section of the train is over the AJS station then it will lock onto the train , open the doors and go through the cycle of unloading and loading dependent on how you have the station set up .
 
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Same as I've noticed. Just out of interest, how would it work with random trackmark allocations using pguy's driver commands?

Shane
 
I used AJS stations on my recent Swindon to Cirencester route (Trainz 12) and noticed on driving or sending a train AI the pickup wasn't working.

Hopefully if Andi reads this he will look at what's wrong and try to sort out a fix. Without checking, I think it was the 1 x 110 straight platform version.
 
I do hope so, as he is the only one with an unencrypted version of the AJS Station Library script file, which all his stations use.

Shane
 
Hi Shane

One thing that I would advise is to add all your trackmarks before putting the OHL equipment up. I recently spent three days trying to get a train to navigate to a trackmark without success before I realised that the trackmark was attached to the OHL spline. When I checked the rest of the route I found another three that were the same.

I don't know if such things interest you but five station working books for Birmingham New Street have appeared on e-bay this afternoon. Search for working timetables if you are interested.

Regards

Brian
 
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