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

[dgionet]

Hi to all,

Here's an update to the work on the Burton-Derby template. Work of assigning regions to all 765 sidings has gone extremely well and is now finished. Quite a surprise, and then it is not. Normally I believe it might have taken maybe a week more. The rapidity in assigning the more that 15 regions is principally due to, during marking of the sidings, tracking the consists numbers with each region on paper making screenshots of the different regions created. The first part was then longer but putting this on paper, region and corresponding consist number was to prepare for the second step.

But before, as you remembered on an earlier of my replies, I copied from the SWLACT file the Consist number column, making sure both SWLACT and SWLTDB files were sorted by track number. The exact match for both files before copying. I then pasted on the left creating a new column in the SWLTDB file. Therefore, when it was time to start assigning, I sorted the SWLTDB file by consist number and after start assigning. Finally, once done, all I had to do is deleting the consist number column to finish the work. Voila! It may be a bit complicated at first, but once understood, you can work it through very quickly.

This experience has been very conclusive. I may make a suggestion here to Steve. I believe that having the consist number column in the SWLTDB should be included too. It may be not as useful for smaller routes but extremely practical for massive routes like this one, as I have just experienced. Combined with good planning, this extra feature may open possibilities to accelerate and further work on much larger routes like the Burton-Derby route. The British have quite a few massive routes including Cannock Chase 5 and North West England 2.1. I believe some of our template designers will follow suit in challenging new frontiers in template making.

I have, as an experiment, put all regions in one single template to find out if AG would open the activity with all regions and its 765 sidings. AG handled it very well and generated an activity with more that 200 cars to work with! Looks good so far for AG. This route, however, takes a lot of muscle out of computers. My PC has a 2Ghz processor with 784MB RAM and a 256MB video card. I was unable to run any act so far when the railcar fill was at 3 or higher. I wish, in such circumstance to have a stronger PC to handle a heavier fill. But for the time being, I can get reasonable fill at one or two. But with it the template is working!

I will start soon with path making, AI traffic configuration, docs...

Quite happy with the outcome so far, getting more confident it will reach the templates page.

More updating to come as it progresses