Route Creation q for '19

[valbridge]

Has anyone constructed a route that includes Westbury in the UK.
Considering making it [Westbury to Weymouth] if no-one has done this in TRS19.

Thanks in anticipation,
Val.

 

[Stonegate]

The only route I know of is Paddington - Westbury 117948:100197 created by nawlins / Angelah. This was made for TANE SP1, I believe, but it does include Westbury and junctions. I seem to recall that it used layers to change the features, depending on the year.

Regards Mike

 

[valbridge]

Cheers Mike.
Might just take a look at that. Westbury is an interesting area for rail.

 

[Yorkshire]

Just to add to this, I downloaded Westbury into TS2019, as a result of reading this thread, and all the mainline tracks showed white dashes, in other words, the procedural track was missing in TS2019. I downloaded it again into a copy of TANE that I still have on my computer, the tracks were present. Investigation showed that the track used was Jarrah but this has been changed in TS2019 to 2019 Jarrah, obviously some form of update.


I went into TANE and saved the Jarrah as a cdp file, then imported it into TS2019. Went into the Westbury route and used the Bulk Item Update/replace tool to change the Jarrah to another procedural track and it worked. Would add that the original jarrah track showed as 'red' in the tracklist so is obviously not compatible with 2019, however, the replace tool still worked.

 

[valbridge]

Yes Yorkshire I noticed that in TRS19 as well.
Unlike your solution I decided to replace those white dashes with other procedural track manually. Did this b/c basically I'm not interested in anything north of Westbury rather want to take the route to Weymouth and include Frome and Quarries in the area. Bit laborious, but hey, we love creating hey!

 

[Stonegate]

I apologize for not mentioning that modifications would be necessary to get it into TRS2019. I have so many routes that originated in TS12 and TANE and which I have had to spend ages updating for all the reported faults from one version to the next that I forget that they ever needed modification. I also have to admit that it is a very long time since I last looked at that route. However, I hope that the area around Westbury is what you were looking for.

Regards

Mike

 

[valbridge]

I hope that the area around Westbury is what you were looking for.

Regards

Mike

Yes Mike it is.
Although I will probably contact the original creators to seek their approval to use Westbury for anything additional I might do before any upload to dls.

 

[Yorkshire]

Good luck Val with your future development of the line. I must say that I think Angelah & Nawlins did a brilliant job with the original. I've encountered this issue Mike with updating my YMRz layouts to 2019/22 compatability - a nightmare now with so many versions!

 

[valbridge]

Good luck Val with your future development of the line. I must say that I think Angelah & Nawlins did a brilliant job with the original. I've encountered this issue Mike with updating my YMRz layouts to 2019/22 compatability - a nightmare now with so many versions!

Cheers Yorkshire from a Lancastrian now in Oz.
That route is pretty special and since getting it into '19 now inspires me to electrify it into Paddington. I have no idea what YMRz is so cannot make any comment. I have dropped Nawlins a note seeking his approval to use the route [basically Westbury] for the purpose of extension to Weymouth. I am particularly keen on getting Frome included and also a couple of quarries in that area.

The Brighton route I made took ages so know the challenges these type of routes promise. Once I get underway I'll make a forum thread to show progress, albeit a slow progress is expected.
Thanks for taking the time to comment....appreciated.
Val.

 

[wilts747]

I live about 5 miles from Westbury and perhaps 7 miles from Frome (pronounced Froom). Over the years Westbury has changed quite a bit with fewer sidings in the yard, less rolling stock maintenance and little hustle and bustle of only 20 or so years ago. Most passenger traffic is through traffic although DMU's are parked there over night for the early morning services to Bristol and South Wales, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth Harbour, and to Weymouth. Probably 90% of freight traffic is split between ballast for the construction industry and ballast for railway maintenance all supplied from the local quarries. The yard also gets used for the recycling of old track and sleepers etc. Frome these days is little more than a loop but does provide the route out to the quarries which will require quite a bit of digging when you get to model them. Good luck, Peter

 

[valbridge]

Thanks Peter, local knowledge is important when taking on such tasks. It's always a pity when places such as Westbury experience a decline in operations. I am keen to include Frome and its quarries Merehead and Whatley. I am currently researching the project using SimSig for timetable guide, Raildar and Open Railway Map for some general layout guidance. Also the net and YouTube. I do want to make it at modern times rather than historical.

From what I have seen so far the Paddington - Westbury route is quite accurate in layout terms. Naturally over time things change. Have you downloaded this route?

Once I get past the research stage and into construction it would be useful to gain some insights from you. Thoughts?
Regards,
Val.

 

[wilts747]

Hi, Val. I'm not particularly into driving trains and hence have seldom downloaded any route as my interest is more to do with the technical side of railways and keeping 40 plus trains on my own creation from bumping into each other. I think in the UK the romance has long gone from the railways and although they are likely cleaner and more comfortable journey times are not that much better and punctuality still a lot to be desired.

Until 10 years ago at Westbury you would likely have seen 6-7 different passenger units and again similar for freight. Today its 2 passenger types and 3 for freight, 66, 70, and the odd 60. Yoeman do operate a 59 and on occasions a 08 can be spotted. Unfortunately the main London to the SW traffic bye-passes Westbury on a loop unless its scheduled to stop. That said until Covid struck Westbury did get its fair share of steam visitors and hosted a steam weekend most years which hopefully will return soon.

The following link is for Westbury Station and from that you can link into the whole GWR network. Using Google Maps and zooming in close Google Earth etc. can give you some very good detail much of which is likely no more than three years old for this area.

https://www.gwr.com/stations-and-destinations/stations/westbury

You can also email the owners of anything along your route looking for any of their publicity information, pictures and so forth. Tell them who and where you are and what you are doing, the worst case is that they ignore you but equally they may really come up trumps and by all means ask me. Take care, Peter