Burton-Derby template Options

[dgionet]

Hi to all,

I have finally decided to back down from building a template for the Cannock Chase route for the time being. I have turned my attention instead to the UK’s Burton Derby V2 route because for those having the route CD, plenty of rolling stock is included with the route and greatly simplifies its selection . So for those who will be using the template, the only download required is the route CD available by purchase at UKTrainSim. And thanks to Moe Smith who suggested on the forum this great route, which I have ordered the CD version. It took only three days from the U.K. to get it here after notification it was sent by mail. It costs about 5£ or about $10 dollars.

I had started installing markers on the sidings, not being aware of exactly how many sidings were present, I knew that there were many. I actually thought the number to be around 400 or less. As work progressed, I was about to find out…

Well I have finished earlier today putting markers on the 765 sidings (yes, you did read 765!) of the route. A massive undertaking! And I had to stop there, I may have reached a limit in the number of loose consists because MSTS wouldn't load beyond that limit. I had to scrap about thirty markers to save it. It is estimated that Burton-Derby has about 850 sidings. Most of the remaining sidings are off the main line and I was able to link the last stretch of route undone as of today.

Yet this first step has been well planned and carefully monitored; lots of paperwork in order to keep track of about 20 regions and especially the consists numbers. This will be key to tackling the next step to assign regions (using letters of the alphabet, not numbers).

This will be a major task because of the many identical siding names present in the route and re-calculating the siding cars capacity as specified on the Steyning template topic. If everything goes as planned, I hope to have in this package 4 templates; EB, NB, SB and WB, each having from 5 to 10 paths each template and plenty of traffic since most of the tracks are double tracks.

I will be sending Steve a request to send me the TDB file taking into account the sidings car capacity based on 8 meters per car. Here's a map of the route to give you an idea of its complexity. This is one route I would like to have it reached completion. Much to go ahead!

Denis

[sgdavis]

...

I will be sending Steve a request to send me the TDB file taking into account the sidings car capacity based on 8 meters per car. Here's a map of the route to give you an idea of its complexity. This is one route I would like to have it reached completion. Much to go ahead!

Denis

This is a massive, complex track database! In creating the TDB CSV file, I found that there were actually 2400 siding markers (there are 2 for every track). This exceeded the limits of Activity Generator, which had a capacity of 2000 sidings. So I have increased the limit to 4000. I generated the file and it seems to work. I won't post this as an official AG update though until Denis has generated some activities and let me know if there are also other errors. I will probably end up purchasing this route so I can double-check this since I had to enhance AG to handle it.

My compliments to Denis for pushing the envelope!

--Steve

[nbeveridge]

This is a massive, complex track database! In creating the TDB CSV file, I found that there were actually 2400 siding markers (there are 2 for every track). This exceeded the limits of Activity Generator, which had a capacity of 2000 sidings. So I have increased the limit to 4000. I generated the file and it seems to work. I won't post this as an official AG update though until Denis has generated some activities and let me know if there are also other errors. I will probably end up purchasing this route so I can double-check this since I had to enhance AG to handle it.

My compliments to Denis for pushing the envelope!

--Steve

No way I can keep up with this! Maybe it's time for me to retire from template development.

I doubt that anyone would have attempted a route of this size prior to AG3. The old SLG was a great, ground breaking program, but at that time car placement for a route and then revision of that placement was painful even when the route had only 70 tracks. This is 30 times that number!

Not only should Denis be applauded, but so should Steve, for developing AG4 to the point where a template designer can get his arms around a route of this magnitude.