South Wales Route (massive)

[scorpio48]

Hi All,
First, if I have put this in the wrong section I apologize, perhaps the mods can re-direct it for me.

For many years I wanted to build a route covering South Wales, but until now I didn't have the computer power.

The route I have started covers an area from Llanelli to the Servern tunnel, via Swansea Terminal, and includes the Valley Lines.
I have used TransDem, compliments to GeoPhil, for the Topography, and the number of Baseboards is a staggering.
11,766 at start :::: 4,433 after filtering which contains 1,433, 5m grid boards. Maximum Elevation is 597 Metres.

I have used Google Earth as mapping tiles in TransDem, so I hope to get a pretty accurate layout.
I have also started 'Content Creation' for some important buildings along the route, although I'm a complete newbie at this and have received a lot of help from this forum (Content creation) for which I'm very grateful.
I am currently using TRS12.

What I would like are some passenger enabled trains with 'Arriva Wales colours', if anyone knows of a link to such a thing please let me know.
Also if there are some content creators who have done some work from the South Wales area, again a link would be very appreciated.
I have downloaded the coal trucks, Cardiff, Swansea, Etc,

I expect, to get the accuracy I need this is going to take me years, as a pensioner, I hope I have the time left. :hehe:

Any suggestions, help, or advice will be very welcomed, as long as its constructive.

Thanks for reading
Cheers
Pete

 

[sterrett]

Good luck Pete. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun building and testing your South Wales' lines. May I humbly suggest you do a section at a time, eg Llanelli to Swansea (Abertawe), then to Bridgend (Pen-Y-Bont) and release in stages please? The reaason is that, if you're at all like me, you'll find that the garden needs doing, the garage needs a clear out etc and weeks can go by without any appreciable route building being done......and sometimes, you just want to play with your railways without doing any building at all!

As for having enouigh time left to enjoy your new high powered computer, well - I'll leave you with the little gem my mother used to wish people who got something new -

"I wish you the health to wear it, the strenght to tear it and plenty of money to buy more!"

Oh, and I nearly forgot - search the Download Station for "marky7890" - he has a Class 150/2 in Arriva Wales colours (KUID2:179051:150002:3) and Arriva Wales Mk2f coaching stock. Hope that helps!

Ian

 

[scorpio48]

Good luck Pete. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun building and testing your South Wales' lines. May I humbly suggest you do a section at a time, eg Llanelli to Swansea (Abertawe), then to Bridgend (Pen-Y-Bont) and release in stages please? The reaason is that, if you're at all like me, you'll find that the garden needs doing, the garage needs a clear out etc and weeks can go by without any appreciable route building being done......and sometimes, you just want to play with your railways without doing any building at all!

As for having enouigh time left to enjoy your new high powered computer, well - I'll leave you with the little gem my mother used to wish people who got something new -

"I wish you the health to wear it, the strenght to tear it and plenty of money to buy more!"

Oh, and I nearly forgot - search the Download Station for "marky7890" - he has a Class 150/2 in Arriva Wales colours (KUID2:179051:150002:3) and Arriva Wales Mk2f coaching stock. Hope that helps!

Ian

Thanks Ian,
Excellent tip about the stages, I didn't even think about that.
Like you said, other chores spring up from time to time, funny what you said about the garage and garden. Have you been talking to my Mrs
Just been 'nagged' about the weeds invading the flower beds.

Also thanks for the link, I'll definitely look that one up.

This last few weeks I've been struggling with Blender, and content creation. Not much work done on the route itself.
Mostly experimenting at this stage (with Blender) but getting there slowly.
Thanks again for your valuable reply.
Cheers
Pete.

 

[bobsanders]

I wish you well with this hufe project Pete. It is evidently going to be outside my time period as I am into the 30s,40s, 50s & 60s. I live in Cardiff and have done for more years than I care to remember (ie all my life) and you can guess how long that is when I say that I was a loco spotter at Cardiff General Station and Cardiff Canton sheds in the 50s !

Bob
Trainz Carriage & Wagon Works UK

 

[scorpio48]

I wish you well with this hufe project Pete. It is evidently going to be outside my time period as I am into the 30s,40s, 50s & 60s. I live in Cardiff and have done for more years than I care to remember (ie all my life) and you can guess how long that is when I say that I was a loco spotter at Cardiff General Station and Cardiff Canton sheds in the 50s !

Bob
Trainz Carriage & Wagon Works UK

Hi Bob,
I've been wanting to do this for years.
One large route I did was a joint effort with Ish6, and Lornky5. Unfortunately, that was a few years ago and our joint computer power couldn't cope. It was an imaginary rail line through the Swiss Alps. I love a challenge LOL.

I have decided to follow Ian's (AKA sterrett) advice and do it in sections, although I will keep the original TransDem layout, past experience with 'merging' hasn't encouraged me to build three or four separate routes. Especially in mountainous terrain.
My first 'section' will be from Llanelli to Briton Ferry, that way I can include the back line running past the old refinery, and branching to Swansea Docks.

Perhaps you could change the settings to your time frame (I certainly wouldn't have any objections), I know our coal industry isn't what it use to be, although I plan to include some of our 'open cast mines'. Plus you would have to change the signals Etc.
I have filtered it too a couple of baseboards each side of the tracks, so the area should be included for any expansion you wish to undertake, IE, before the Beeching cuts.

As for spotting, I use to do mine at Cockett Railway Station. The highlight of those days was when a steam 0-6-0 driver give me and my brother a ride in his cab to the local yard.
I suppose in these days, Health and Safety, plus the thought of him being arrested on suspicion of being a pedophile, it wouldn't happen. Those were the days LOL.
Of course, Cockett Station, Blackpill and Victoria Station (Swansea) are long gone.

Anyway, thanks for the encouraging input,
Cheers
Pete

 

[bobsanders]

Thanks Pete. Yes I might change it to my time period. That would be interesting. I had three uncles who were railwaymen. Two express drivers and one shunter. I had a ride on an 0-6-0PT at Radyr Shed !

Bob

 

[ex-railwayman]

Good luck with your LITTLE project Pete, I was a bit staggered with the number of baseboards you'll have when it's all completed, I don't know if our computers will be able to cope with such numbers all in one route, it'll take you a while to finish it, maybe we'll be up to Trainz 16 by the time you're done......:hehe:

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[Vern]

Good luck with the project, but do heed the counsel of others and consider doing it in smaller more manageable chunks.

Having lived in South Wales for a while a few years ago (now back in Swindon) I became quite familiar with the abandoned railways around Cymer, Glyncorrwg etc. and keep meaning to put those in a little route. Probably wait for T:ANE now, though.

 

[scorpio48]

Thanks All,
I'm not sure if my computer will handle the full route. I'll just keep at it until it stops running LOL.
At the moment, besides the terrain I have quite a few High Detail aerial photographs embedded into the TransDem route, and so far things have gone without a hitch. These will be deleted once they are 'traced' over, I've also got several miles of track, sidings, and scenery, and a couple of test runs worked as they should. Its simply a case of hoping it will work out, if not I'll be disappointed, but will still enjoy the building process.

I have 16 gigs of RAM and 8 processors, up to now I haven't seen what its limit is, perhaps this will be it. The oldest component is my Graphic Card, which I changed over from my old computer.
My three remaining sons bought this one for me as a joint Retirement & Christmas present.

As some of you oldies may recall my third born (Lee) died from a massive Brain Hemorrhage just over three years ago. Leaving behind his wife and two children.
I can take this opportunity to thank everyone for the tributes and sympathy messages that were posted on this Forum. Ish6 posted the news.
I didn't bother much with my computer for a couple of years after that, except for essential work.

I will be doing this in sections, and hopefully, things will still be running well when I place that final Portal at the Servern Tunnel.
Once I remember my password to photoshed, I'll post some images there, and put a link here.

A huge thank you for all your comments and advice
Cheers
Pete

 

[JCitron]

Hi Pete,

I remember you and I am glad you're back in the fervor of route building, and I do remember that awful incident when it happened. As the winter approaches, this will be a higher priority, I'm sure than being outside in the cold damp weather.

I too have been working on some massive routes, although on the other side of the pond in New England. I have found that TransDEM can produce these giant land masses, but Trainz will croak later on as the route gets built on. The first few miles or so are fine, but as the details are added, thing get bogged down. Hopefully TANE will be better, being a 64-bit application. This brings up another point. Right now TS12 can only see 4GB of RAM of your 16GB on your system as TS12 is a 32-bit application, and this is all that can be allocated to a 32-bit system. The rest of your RAM isn't sitting there idle, but is being used partly by your operating system, if it's Windows 7 or Windows 8, and other background tasks. With 64-bit applications running on a system with lots of memory, the program can take a bigger share as needed, making them run more efficiently and faster.

Breaking up the route in smaller chunks is the way to go too for many reasons other than the system. I find that as a project it's less overwhelming and I can concentrate on the details on that sections without feeling like I'm sitting down and being force fed a giant Christmas turkey dinner! These smaller chunks to also give me a chance to perfect each section then once they're done, I then merge them together into much larger chunks.

John

 

[scorpio48]

Hi Pete,

I remember you and I am glad you're back in the fervor of route building, and I do remember that awful incident when it happened. As the winter approaches, this will be a higher priority, I'm sure than being outside in the cold damp weather.

I too have been working on some massive routes, although on the other side of the pond in New England. I have found that TransDEM can produce these giant land masses, but Trainz will croak later on as the route gets built on. The first few miles or so are fine, but as the details are added, thing get bogged down. Hopefully TANE will be better, being a 64-bit application. This brings up another point. Right now TS12 can only see 4GB of RAM of your 16GB on your system as TS12 is a 32-bit application, and this is all that can be allocated to a 32-bit system. The rest of your RAM isn't sitting there idle, but is being used partly by your operating system, if it's Windows 7 or Windows 8, and other background tasks. With 64-bit applications running on a system with lots of memory, the program can take a bigger share as needed, making them run more efficiently and faster.

Breaking up the route in smaller chunks is the way to go too for many reasons other than the system. I find that as a project it's less overwhelming and I can concentrate on the details on that sections without feeling like I'm sitting down and being force fed a giant Christmas turkey dinner! These smaller chunks to also give me a chance to perfect each section then once they're done, I then merge them together into much larger chunks.

John

Hi John,
I recognise your username, like other names in this thread. Its good to be back.
I totally forgot about the 4 gigs of Ram and TRS12 until you mentioned it, then I recalled reading about it somewhere.

I will be doing this in stages, but I've had some bad results with merging routes, especially with TransDem, and mountainous regions.
On my Trans Alps route. It took me many days to tidy up the peaks and troughs around the joining boards.

What I intend to do is build to a predefined point, building up each area as I proceed, then save it under a different name, reload it and delete the boards not used, before saving it again.
I will still have my original TransDem Layout, so I can repeat the process over and over again. Long way around, but I might get a better merging result. Hope you know what I mean.

I'm not sure, but I think I could also portal jump to another route. I haven't looked it up yet but I guess thats how the multi-user works. If that is correct, I could use my old computer and jump from one board to another.

One last point, I'm a bit behind with the latest news, What is TANE ??? I've come across the word a few times, been meaning to look it up but keep forgetting.

Anyway, thanks for the input, nice to chat again
Cheers
Pete

 

[JCitron]

Hi John,
I recognise your username, like other names in this thread. Its good to be back.
I totally forgot about the 4 gigs of Ram and TRS12 until you mentioned it, then I recalled reading about it somewhere.

I will be doing this in stages, but I've had some bad results with merging routes, especially with TransDem, and mountainous regions.
On my Trans Alps route. It took me many days to tidy up the peaks and troughs around the joining boards.

What I intend to do is build to a predefined point, building up each area as I proceed, then save it under a different name, reload it and delete the boards not used, before saving it again.
I will still have my original TransDem Layout, so I can repeat the process over and over again. Long way around, but I might get a better merging result. Hope you know what I mean.

I'm not sure, but I think I could also portal jump to another route. I haven't looked it up yet but I guess thats how the multi-user works. If that is correct, I could use my old computer and jump from one board to another.

One last point, I'm a bit behind with the latest news, What is TANE ??? I've come across the word a few times, been meaning to look it up but keep forgetting.

Anyway, thanks for the input, nice to chat again
Cheers
Pete

Hi Pete,

Merging with TransDEM created routes isn't too bad if you overlap a little bit. You need to figure out where to cut and what to keep but it does work so you don't get the edge drop-off that causes the gaps sometimes. Maybe the others here can help with more suggestions. I have also done exactly the same using your method and that does work well too in fact I find it a bit easier because I can then determine what is going to be blocked by scenery or leave a hole in the middle which I've done by mistake when trimming in the earlier stages. It's a bit more work, but it's safer, I think.

T:ANE, TANE, or how else we spell it here, is Trainz: A new Era. This is a brand new version which has been designed from the ground up internally, but will support our older content. According to the developers, if the content works in TS12, it should work in T:ANE. There will be all the modern things like real shadows, unlimited camera view, without that awful drop off of scenery on distant vistas as well as some new things like train tilt, automatically generated track points and frogs on junctions, a physics module to test engine specs, and working junction boxes. If you had been able to, if you had known about this earlier this year, you could have joined the Kick Starter and contributed some funds. With the KickStarter, some of the funding levels have allowed Alpha, and Pre-Beta and soon Beta testing of the new program. With over 1,000 very opinionated testers, this should be the best version coming out.

Yes, it's been nice chatting again. Good luck with your project.

John

 

[scorpio48]

Hi Pete,

Merging with TransDEM created routes isn't too bad if you overlap a little bit. You need to figure out where to cut and what to keep but it does work so you don't get the edge drop-off that causes the gaps sometimes. Maybe the others here can help with more suggestions. I have also done exactly the same using your method and that does work well too in fact I find it a bit easier because I can then determine what is going to be blocked by scenery or leave a hole in the middle which I've done by mistake when trimming in the earlier stages. It's a bit more work, but it's safer, I think.

T:ANE, TANE, or how else we spell it here, is Trainz: A new Era. This is a brand new version which has been designed from the ground up internally, but will support our older content. According to the developers, if the content works in TS12, it should work in T:ANE. There will be all the modern things like real shadows, unlimited camera view, without that awful drop off of scenery on distant vistas as well as some new things like train tilt, automatically generated track points and frogs on junctions, a physics module to test engine specs, and working junction boxes. If you had been able to, if you had known about this earlier this year, you could have joined the Kick Starter and contributed some funds. With the KickStarter, some of the funding levels have allowed Alpha, and Pre-Beta and soon Beta testing of the new program. With over 1,000 very opinionated testers, this should be the best version coming out.

Yes, it's been nice chatting again. Good luck with your project.

John

Hi John,
Thanks for the info on T:ane / Tane, I should have come back earlier, I would have definitely contributed.
If my memory serves me correctly I helped to develop one of the Trainz versions, I think it was 2006, which I have since given away to another pensioner to try out. I asked Auran to transfer the Registration and Code which they did.
That person is now well and truly hooked, and has since bought a couple of versions including TRS12.
He blames me for the frustration we have all had with Trainz .

Do you have any problems adding new tiles to an existing TransDem route ? Mine seems to be a bit of hit and miss. Sometimes they are placed perfectly, other times they are nowhere near where they should be, or wrongly oriented.
At one time, the tile was placed correctly, but it wiped out everything else, that could have been down to me, I rushed the export so I might have made a mistake and overwrote the entire route. Fortunately I had a backup.

Haven't done much with my route lately, been experimenting with Blender, decided to give 'Content Creation' a try.

OK, Thanks again for the info, looking forward to its release.
Cheers
Pete

 

[RRSignal]

Well, contrary to popular belief, Blender really isn't that hard. There are one or two "gotchas" but once you get to moving around and viewing the default cube from the angle you want, and you learn about a dozen or so basic commands and manipulations, it's pretty easy.

 

[scorpio48]

Well, contrary to popular belief, Blender really isn't that hard. There are one or two "gotchas" but once you get to moving around and viewing the default cube from the angle you want, and you learn about a dozen or so basic commands and manipulations, it's pretty easy.

Hi,
Yup, slowly getting to grips with it, thanks to the help I received from my thread in 'Content Creation'.
Still a few 'Gotchas' to master, but moving in the right direction.
Cheers
Pete