Seaboard Air Line (SAL) Florida Division route upgrade, Oncoming template Options

[dgionet]

Hi to all,

More than 10 years ago was released Carey Stevens' Seaboard Air Line (SAL) Florida Division route. Steve had done years ago an AG template, but only for AG3. A few weeks ago, in Trainsim, I had seen some screenshots using the route and decided to take a second look at the 2005 route. Some years ago, I ran the route but only partially and superficially but never went further with it.

I have reloaded the route recently and ran it completely and was impressed about how detailed it was, even with today's standard. I have asked Steve permission to upgrade the route template to AG4 and was happy to grant me that permission. With Steve, I was able to reach Carey, the route maker, to ask him permission, if required, to stretch some sidings. I have found out that for some years Carey has not only been enhancing the scenery from the original route but also extending the route with additional trackage. Carey and Steve have sent me the route, I have ran most of it and was very impressed with the upgrade.

By comparing both versions, there is a lot of new trackage and the scenery is completely done for most of it. Only a small section remains to be finished. Buildings are present but vegetation remains to be added. I am confident that Carey will eventually finish it in the future. The unfinished section is between Tampa and Bradenton on the ACL trackage (now CSX).

Steve has uploaded the route here in the skyline web site (see home page) and is now available for those interested to download it. On my side, I will start a new template project for the SAL. The timeframe will be around 1965, just before the 1967 merger of the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line to create the Seaboard Coast Line. The main player download will be the payware BLW Seaboard Air Line freight set plus 18 additional freeware downloads from Trainsim.com. That number may be subject to change as the project advances.

Will update later.

[dgionet]

Hello to all,

Just to confirm the template package is now complete and ready to be uploaded in the templates page, which includes a detailed readme file and template image for the templates page.

Before, I would like to say thanks to some individuals who has directly or indirectly contributed in making this template a reality:

To accomodate the present template, some updates to the route (mostly renaming of sidings) have been done with the permission of Carey Stevens, its route creator. Carey had also sent me some additional timetables to help me in creating specific templates inspired by true runs during the pre-SCL era. Thanks Carey, much appreciated!

To help with work selection, Craig Kawahara has updated his route map system to the latest route update and took into account the changes I have made made to accomodate the templates. The map is available in the Trainsim web site. Again thanks Craig for your excellent work!

I would like to say thanks, once again, to my long-time template tester Benny (bennycdn) for having helped me with testing the route templates and for any suggestions to improve the template package. Great job Benny!

Also thanks to Steve Davis, creator of the SAL template for AG3 and creator of the Activity Generator software. He gave me permission to have one created for AG4.Thanks again Steve!

Also thanks to Tyler Bundy, who has created phosphate cars of the era (available in Trainsim) for both the SAL and ACL to accommodate the present template. Well done Tyler and thanks for your time taken to create them!

Last in my list, a big thanks to Gaétan Bélanger, from Bélanger Locomotive works (BLW) for creating an extensive ACL freight pack to accomodate the present and oncoming updates to the SAL route as well as the template. Excellent work Gaétan!

Here is the image expected to be seen in the templates page once uploaded:



I will be sending to Steve the template set and will confirm it availability once uploaded.