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]

Hi to all,

A major change has been done to the entire SAL template project. From Belanger Locomotive Works (BLW), the extensive Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) freight pack, now officially released last week, has been fully integrated in the oncoming SAL route template for AG users. A lot of file editing has been done to realize this integration. Users of the oncoming SAL template will have the opportunity to use now both the SAL and ACL packs. At the same time freeware downloads from TrainSim has been reduced from 21 to now 15 downloads.

The ACL pack will be mostly used on the ACL trackage ( currently marked CSX) between the Uceta Yard and Bradenton.In the oncoming template set, there are three templates dedicated to the ACL trackage.

On his oncoming route update, Carey Stevens, the route's creator, has confirmed having rolled back the CSX trackage to ACL between Bradenton and Uceta Yard and expects this section and the rest of the route to reflect as possible the pre-SCL era. Most of the ACL trackage on this section is still to be rendered fully sceniced. Buildings are mostly there and work will be available along. The section still remaining to be fully sceniced is between MP 880 and MP 913 ( between Palm River and Memphis)

He also confirmed his intention to link the ACL trackage between the Tampa Union Station (TUS) and the Uceta Yard. Release date is not known for now and I expect it may take a while. The total of templates for this set is now 25. Only the Monon and the Buffalo routes have more templates.

I have started to prepare the template readme file. I hope to release the whole template package in a few weeks.

More later