I have been busy for about a week working on ths second South African route, that is the Western Province route, released about two weeks ago at TS by Joppie Saayman, its creator.
If you remember in late March was released the Western Province Metro route, which covered two areas, to the south from Capetown to Simonstown, 22 miles to the South and from Capetown to Kraaifontein , 20 miles to the East.
Bellville, a yard located in between both Capetown and Kraaifontein, is the starting point of the newly released route and goes to Worcester, 110 miles further East. It has both single and double track mainlines. The sidings are well marked and has close to 100 serviceable sidings and are very well spreaded throughout the route. Many small yards (9) are present and will increase the number of paths in the route. That will make this route very interesting to use, also that will be good for those with older computers, since yards are smaller and greater in numbers. In my own case, my 3.2Ghz PC has some trouble handling routes with large yards. So, this one will be a great compromise.
Except for the brake van used in the previous South African route, The rolling stock will be exactly the same and five additional downloads will be required. As for the previous South African route, AI traffic will be present, including this time South Africa's famous Blue train.
What is South Africa without the Blue Train? The Blue Train is considered the most luxurious train in the world. It covers the Capetown-Pretoria line (1000 miles) and is a 27 hour trip, usually from Early morning to around noon, the following day. Depending on the type of accomodation and season, rates can go from R8600 to R18500, the Rand ® being South Africa's main currency. In US dollars it goes from US$1200 to US$2600 for the 27 hour trip. The Blue Train is composed of 15 to 18 cars and can accomodate up to 85 passengers. Just 85 passengers for all that many cars! It is worth to have a look at the presentation available in the Blue Train website that is
http://www.bluetrain.co.za/default.htm
Give me your feedback!
AI Traffic has been a complex task in this route, due to the presence of both double and single track main lines. During testing, I have found that in some areas the train has stalled. Careful path making of AI traffic made sure no path crossed the problem areas. It has many points of departures and have made sure that during testing in the AE no AI trains would stall. In the total there are about close to 25 AI trains that will travel in both the EB and WB templates.
At the time of writing the topic, The template package is finished and will prepare a readme file. The templates will include maps for the 21 regions with the marker's orientation to help determine the work to be done.
Here are some shots of the route and some of the AG-generated activities already done.
Will write later as it gets close to the finish.
Enjoy
EB leaving Bellville.
Handling container cars at Daljosafat
An EB mixed meeting the world-famous Blue Train
A WB leaving Tulbaghweg through a mountainous area.
A WB waiting for an EB AI train to clear at Gouda.
