Must be 5 months since I started working on this route set in Australia. I had just bought A new Era with SP1, and now we are up to SP3, so this is my first so forgive any crudeness! I've tried to be as accurate with this route, which covers the old Zig-Zag line near Lithgow on the far side of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. As many would appreciate this is a steep learning curve which I am still working on. As I've set it in 1910, the year the Zig-Zag was closed and replaced by a 10 tunnel deviation to avoid the bottle-neck and reduce the grade from 1 in 42 to 1 in 90, I've found it hard to find suitable accessories and only one biplane to throw in although it wasn't built until the 1930's. Also a slight lack of rolling stock for the NSWGR (Government Railways) for the period, but enough to make it look reasonable. Lots of old items that just won't run with TANE, as I'm sure you know.
The line starts just outside Mt. Victoria, a station built after the line went through to Bowenfelds where my route ends (so far). The line itself through the Zig-Zag was built in 1869 with 2 tunnels and 3 stone viaducts on the rock face. With the use of contour maps I finally got more accurate, even if Lithgow is now 140 metres lower in altitude than it should be...! I laid the track to the actual grade, but I did have problems with the grade changing when I next worked on the route, and correcting that seemed damn fiddly. However it's done finally although I may yet tweak it. I have only just discovered PGibbons did a similar route in a very old version of Trainz. Mine is dare I say more accurate ( I work on the Zig-Zag from time to time and have lived many years in the Blue Mountains), although I don't have the route making experience of others. I am also working on numerous sessions, again another learning experience. I'm not fond of downloading routes, only to find they have no sessions. Give me a challenge I say!
Next I'll try to add some pictures, but my one previous attempt produced a tiny pic, not full size, so let's see what happens this time. When I finally upload it, I'll post here. As work keeps me busy and exhausted, it may not be soon but I hope within a week.
The line starts just outside Mt. Victoria, a station built after the line went through to Bowenfelds where my route ends (so far). The line itself through the Zig-Zag was built in 1869 with 2 tunnels and 3 stone viaducts on the rock face. With the use of contour maps I finally got more accurate, even if Lithgow is now 140 metres lower in altitude than it should be...! I laid the track to the actual grade, but I did have problems with the grade changing when I next worked on the route, and correcting that seemed damn fiddly. However it's done finally although I may yet tweak it. I have only just discovered PGibbons did a similar route in a very old version of Trainz. Mine is dare I say more accurate ( I work on the Zig-Zag from time to time and have lived many years in the Blue Mountains), although I don't have the route making experience of others. I am also working on numerous sessions, again another learning experience. I'm not fond of downloading routes, only to find they have no sessions. Give me a challenge I say!
Next I'll try to add some pictures, but my one previous attempt produced a tiny pic, not full size, so let's see what happens this time. When I finally upload it, I'll post here. As work keeps me busy and exhausted, it may not be soon but I hope within a week.
