Northern Illawara v2, template on the works Options

[dgionet]

Hi to all,

I have started a while ago working on a template for the Northern Illawara route, which constitutes my second australian route template. Released last December, I have taken some time to examine it before considering any template making. Brian Bere-Streeter, its conceptor had deliberately tagged the sidings to encourage activity making in this route. When he discovered I was making a template for the route, he was very excited about the idea and will assist in any information, since the fact that there has not been many activities created for the route at the time of my conversation with him. I believe this route has potential for those who love working with AG.

The route is located beteween Sydney and Wollongong in the New South Wales,Australia along the ocean. With 20 collieries along the route, it has an australian "Pocahontas" taste, for those using Austin Yoder's Pokey route, which makes coal the main carrier along most of the 55 mile route. Wonderful scenery too, some areas located along the ocean.

The timeframe will be around the early to mid sixties as dieselization was phazing out gradually steam in the region. This is my first template that will include some steamers among the AI traffic, here the class 59 steam engines. Those were used to haul heavy loads of goods along the route. The main player engines will be the Alco 40 class engines, which looks like RS-2 engines. There will be also some passenger traffic as Brian has included with the route extensive documentation about the operations of freight and passenger trains in the New South Wales Governement Railways (NSWGR) during this timeframe.

One major concern here (and giving me a headache during the process) was selection of the rolling stock due to the coupling issues in the NSWGR. I'll let Brian explain:

One of the constant annoyances that the NSWGR had during the steam era was the problem of using different coupling systems over a long time period. This required that stock be marshalled in specific ways to ensure the safe and correct coupling together of all goods wagons.

Initially, goods wagons on the NSWGR used the standard English style ‘hook’ type couplings with buffers on each wagon – there were two types – the three-link type, which allowed an amount of slack between vehicles, and the screw-coupling type, which allowed the wagons to be drawn-up tight with no slack between the buffers.

As wagons and loads got heavier, the standard American style ‘knuckle’ or automatic type coupler was introduced. As the majority of auto-coupler fitted wagons did not have buffers, the two coupling systems were incompatible.

Therefore, a number of wagon types were fitted with a special ‘transition’ coupler set – this was arranged so that the vehicle had normal buffers at both ends, but had a special type of automatic coupling, which also had provision to fit a three-link coupling to a special casting fitted to the top of the automatic coupler.

The way this was used, was to couple the three-link coupling at one end of the wagon to the hook on the locomotive tender, which was protected from damage by the buffers on the wagon and on the tender. At the other end of the wagon, the automatic coupler would then connect with other standard bufferless automatic coupler wagons. When used in this way, the ‘transition coupled’ wagon was often any suitable empty wagon to hand, and was referred to as a ‘match’ wagon.

In normal traffic use, the train would be marshalled with all the automatic coupler stock at the front of the train, an appropriate ‘match’ wagon interposed, then all the ‘hook’ coupler stock at the rear of the train. Pickup and trip goods trains which had to shunt at intermediate yards, often had a very varied consist, comprising several block sections of ‘hook’ coupled wagons and ‘auto’ coupled wagons separated by extra match wagons throughout the train. The common S-truck, and LCH or CCH hopper wagon was the most frequently used ‘match’ truck.

I have finished putting markers on the 330 serviceable sidings the route has. There will be NB, SB and East-West templates, the last one for the Sydney area which includes two major ports (Rozelle and Darling), a major yard (Enfield) and some industries along the Botany Good lines. The Sydney terminal has no less that 23 platforms, quite impressive to see!

I am including some pictures of the area to give you some ideas of this route.

Will update its progress

[dgionet]

Hi to all,

I have finally finished the Northern Illawara template package and will start testing. There have been some change of plans since my last post. Here are some numbers about the template; 2 templates (NB & SB), 21 different paths, around 20 AI trains throughout the entire network for each template. Prior to this template, steam and electric engines were never included among the engines. In this one, you will see both in addition to diesel. At the time in Sydney, electric B-set electric railcars were used for suburban passengers, Steam engines were still existent and diesel was taking gradually its place to finally eliminate steam years later. Quite a change from my previous works.

As mentioned earlier, 40-class engines are the player engines for the template. However,in the readme file, I am highly recommending use of the NSWGR 44-class diesel to replace the NSWGR 40-class. The reason is these 44-class engines are more powerful and have dynamic braking which handles loads better in downhill areas. The 44 class has been inaugurated in 1957 and pending release soon in MSTS Australian sites in 2008.

The reason it is not available now is best explained by Brian, the route conceptor: "in early 2007 we had a significant 'Copyright scare', which resulted in most post 1957 stock being withdrawn, as most could have been construed as infringing the 50 year copyright ruling with respect to rolling stock designs and operating company logos, etc. Slowly some of these items are coming back into the various downloads sites, as the original authors seek and get copyright clearance for their MSTS creations. However, anything designed or made prior to the '50 year Rule' is generally free of copyright problems."

For those who are familiar with the Austrlian Alcos, a temporary replacement, pending release, can be the South Australian railways (SAR) 930 class ALCO's which are similar to the 44-class and would do an excellent job.They are available at the steam4me site.

Once the 44 class become available, I may consider updating the template to replace the 40-class with 44-class.

Here are a couple shots of the route from activities generated by AG including the Rozelle wharf areas in Sydney

More to come later