United Kingdom by L1ONHEART

[L1ONHEART]

Today I recieved my copy of Trainz Simulator 2010 and now I officially announce the start of creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. I will not be creating Northern Ireland.

I will be using http://www.streetmap.co.uk to help map out this thing on TS2010. Also other resources will be used e.g. Google Maps.

The plan is to start work at Land's End in England. Working my way up to John O'Groats at the very top of Scotland.

Of course this map would take some considerate time to create, but this project has been in my mind for around 2 years now. I'm 20 years old now, god knows how old I will be when this is complete!

I will post pictures, maybe videos throughout the progress of this here on the Trainz Forum.

 

[glbotu]

I feel obliged to give you a sense of perspective here, given my spectacular failure at building the whole of London. Late last year, you'll see that I uploaded a route called London RV, which is the culmination of about 5 years' work (on and off). If you look at the route, you'll realise that it isn't finished, some of it isn't very good and most of it is just trackwork.

Even if I spent more time in Trainz and consistently only worked on that route, I feel that still would have been at least 2 years' work. Can I suggest (with the aim of having complete routes) that you work in small, manageable chunks (my current approach to London is doing it one line at a time) so that you feel as if you're getting somewhere. It can get pretty demoralising when you realise that having spent a large amount of time building some trackwork, you've only just done a small portion of your map.

The other problem lies in your gradual route-building improvement. As you get better at route-building over time, you'll realise that the first few things you've built just aren't quite good enough, so you'll go back and re-do those.

I'll wish you good luck, because this would be epic, but I'd still like to warn you of the perils of attempting such a huge task.

 

[pfx]

Essentially, what you're saying is this http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=70943 again?

You don't say if you are doing a scale version or not and while I in no way wish to put a dampener on your project, I would suggest you heed all the advice you have been given in the original thread.

Remember, the ECML route has been years in the making and it is still on-going. I wish you best of luck.

Regards,
PFX

 

[Vern]

Isn't there already a thread running on this?

Anyhow from my own experience of route building, unless a very cut down and abridged version of the UK (perhaps similar to those 18 WOS Truck games) is intended my view - harsh though it may be - is that ambition outstrips practicality here.

Just consider how long it will take to do the lines around South London, or parts of Birmingham. The trackwork alone would be an immense undertaking, then it all has to be convincingly sceneried and signalled so that the route works properly.

Have you purchased Quail Atlases to give you the correct track plan? Have you purchased the Ian Allan gradient profile book and researched where you can get gradient data for the routes not covered in there?

As a route builder in all three of the big sims on and off for the last 10 years, my honest advice is to pick something far more modest, maybe a branch line or a 15 - 20 mile stretch of main line and see how you get on with that.

At the risk of sounding like Alberte... The Bubble Bursting Side Of Vern.

 

[L1ONHEART]

Thanks for the advice.

I was on TS2010 not long ago, starting to build my map, I half finished the first board and it must have taken me an hour, now I'm starting to realise how long this thing is going to take, now I'm thinking whether I should bother to continue or not?

 

[geophil]

I will be using http://www.streetmap.co.uk to help map out this thing on TS2010.

That's a good idea. The reason why I pointed to this resource is map scale. Referring to my football stadium example (http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showpost.php?p=772676&postcount=17), England plus Wales minus Cornwall in 1:50,000 (streetmap.co.uk) will fill the entire football pitch. And each Trainz baseboard will be only 1.44 cm high and wide. Just imagine this enormous amount of work.

As I understand you are a young lad with no previous experience in route building. That's fine. Everybody has to start somewhere. To avoid frustration I urgently recommend a more manageable project first. A short route segment connecting two small stations, less than five miles apart, to be roughly built to scale. If you finish this in a reasonable amount of time and don't give up due to frustration or fading interest then you may want to tackle a bigger project. You will have developed a much better understanding of project dimension by the time you successfully completed a first project.

 

[clam1952]

The thing is as already said is to start small.

If you really intend to finish this massive undertaking, divide it up into small manageable sections and treat each one as a separate project to be done one at a time, future "bits" can be added on as you finish one part.

I'd also be inclined to use dem's otherwise when you get to the mountainous parts you are going to spend hours trying to get it correct manually. Still have to do a fair bit of sculpting with a dem but it's a heck of a lot easier!

I've been there and decided to scrap about 4 weeks of work and after a quick search on the web decided go for using dem's.
I used Microdem + Hog, first thing I cam across, sorry Phil, I didn't know Transdem even existed when I started my route. A couple of years down the track I realise that Transdem would be an easier, less stressful or confusing method and when I finish my current project I will swap to it, although I've got Microdem pretty much sussed now.

 

[geophil]

In this case I would not (yet) recommend TransDEM. It's an investment and before you know you really like this kind of route building I would go without a DEM and all the more sophisticated stuff. Look at Basemaps instead: http://www.g0akh.f2s.com/Trainz/Basemap_tutorial.html

And why not start with your home town? Build to Warwick.



You get two stations, a junction, bridges, even an aqueduct (or two if you model the Grand Union Canal as well).

 

[L1ONHEART]

In this case I would not (yet) recommend TransDEM. It's an investment and before you know you really like this kind of route building I would go without a DEM and all the more sophisticated stuff. Look at Basemaps instead: http://www.g0akh.f2s.com/Trainz/Basemap_tutorial.html

And why not start with your home town? Build to Warwick.



You get two stations, a junction, bridges, even an aqueduct (or two if you model the Grand Union Canal as well).

Yeah perhaps, I should really make 'routes' not 'countries' lol. But yeah your right, practice makes perfect I guess..

 

[L1ONHEART]

Thanks for the email geophil, do you reckon that I should create all the railways in the country first (as you said do Leamington to Warwick, then at another time expand to another place like Coventry) then expand once done creating the countryside then eventually the whole island would be created..

 

[airtime]

I believe building the entire United Kingdom is a huge task, and you will need a super computer from NASA to run the entire country, think about once you have built the United Kingdom, how many trains will be running all at once from where-ever to where-ever, this I believe will grind a lot of high powered computers to a crawl...

I think you should start off with a small section of your favourite route, add the stations and junctions and build up from there, that way you can test the route at various times to see how your doing...

Keep your routes small, and then if you decide to upload them to the DLS, they will be easier to upload instead of one huge chunk, then people can decide what part of the country they want to drive, and what route they want to drive on...

For example...
Paddington to Reading - GWR Part One
Reading to Didcot - GWR Part Two
Didcot to Bristol - GWR Part Three
Didcot to Oxford - GWR Part Four

Hope this helps and good luck with your super route...

Joe Airtime

 

[Wessex_Electric_Nutter]

The thing is as already said is to start small.

And imagine how long its taken me to reach only just 30 miles of the route I know well.. I.e. Barnham to Havant. 5 years later.. still Barnham to Havant.

The only real way to represent the UK accurately, as I pointed out already, is to have a load of contributers working on a small part, then merge everyones layout. If I wanted to do the South of England, it would be nice for someone for a start to:

• Do the Portsmouth Direct line (Woking to Havant)
• Solent Link (Southampton/Eastleigh to Cosham/Portcreek Jn.)
• Mid Sussex line (Aurndel North Jn. to Horsham/Three Bridges)
• London to Brighton line (West Coastway Jn - yes, its at platform 3, Brighton to London Victoria)
• East Coastway line (Brighton to Eastbourne/Hastings).

And thats all the lines attached to the one I've started.

 

[geophil]

Thanks for the email geophil, do you reckon that I should create all the railways in the country first (as you said do Leamington to Warwick, then at another time expand to another place like Coventry) then expand once done creating the countryside then eventually the whole island would be created..

A first route project will most often be a throw-away route project. The main purpose to build it is to get the hang of things. You don't have to get to the last detail, but your route should at least show the trackwork, the stations, platforms, station buildings, yard tracks if any, the junction half way etc. You can indicate the built-up and industrial areas by placing a few typical buildings.

Also show some of the "landmarks" of the prototype, e.g. the bridge across the River Avon, the G.U.C aqueduct, possibly a Warwick Castle look-alike in the background.

Once you are happy with this route you can start anew, this time in earnest.

And if you still think to be able to build a larger chunk of the network you should consider using digital height data (DEM) and also strictly stick to coordinates. Observing coordinates will enable you to seamless merge route modules later, even if they are not adjacent to each other in the moment.

 

[pfx]

Heed geophil's very wise words!

 

[L1ONHEART]

The only real way to represent the UK accurately, as I pointed out already, is to have a load of contributers working on a small part, then merge everyones layout.

Well if anyone wants to take part then feel free to just let me know, I can work on my town plus Warwick and Kenilworth and the surrounding areas. Whilst others work on a place where it's familiar to them or something so we can get pure realism..