South West Trains Class 455s '455855' and '455862' form a double set 8 coach train starting at Hampton Court on the aptly named Hampton Court Branch Line in England of the United Kingdom operating westbound passenger service 2J60 to Waterloo during a late Summers evening. The train travels almost 3 miles from Hampton Court Branch Line stopping at Thames Ditton and then joining the South West Main Line at Hampton Court Junction before stopping again for passengers at Surbiton. After this stop; the train will be making its further stops along the South Wales Main Line traveling the 11 miles towards Waterloo with 7 stops in between at Berrylands, New Malden, Raynes Park, Wimbledon, Earlsfield, Clapham Junction and Vauxhall. Motive Power: British Rail Class 455 Route: Portsmouth Direct Line: London Waterloo - Portsmouth Scenario: [455] 04. 2J60 1854 Hampton Court to London Waterloo Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Track Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Vegetation Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Signal Enhancement Pack, ReShade
Installment 11 in a multipart series chronologically documenting a mid-Autumn morning stopping passenger service Heritage Rail Tour QuickDrive, from Crewe to Holyhead, on North Wales Coast Line, acquired during Steam's Winter 2023/24 sale. Having belonged to LNWR in pre-grouping days, I power the train with a favorite steam-era loco, Caledonia Works' LNWR "Greater Britain", No.3435 "Queen Empress" to be exact, seen in Lilac & Cream livery. Though Greater Britain looks to be a conventional 2-4-2 tendered locomotive it is, in actuality, a 2-2-2-2 compound loco. It pulls four LNWR coaches, the last of them an observation coach, which I fail to get a decent capture of. Somewhere within Prestatyn, where we stopped last installment: Stopped at Rhyl. I know not whom or what these fine toonish ladies await, except that it isn't us: Somewhere within Rhyl after having departed the station: Somewhere between Rhyl and our next stop, Abergele & Pensam: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds+Veggies TO BE CONTINUED . . .
An NJT ALP45-DP on it's way to Long Branch, NJ. Due to the bug with headlight flares in TSC, I have disabled the option to have headlight flares on.
Some recent comments about AP's Class 87 enhancement pack led to my re-discovering how great it is to drive. Via QDs on a combination of WCML South, WCML Trent Valley, WCML Midlands & NW, WCML Over Shap and WCML North, a run in real-time between London Euston and Glasgow Central was undertaken. Here are the results - screenshots commence at Crewe. The 16:45 London Euston-Glasgow Central makes its second booked stop at Crewe. Having started 8 mins late due to awaiting restaurant car staff, the deficit is now 6 mins. And screaming northward towards Winsford, taps fully open. It's a beautiful summer evening. Now only 5 minutes down, our 'Electric Scot' pauses at Wigan North Western, to the apparent confusion of a waiting passenger. Maybe she was trying to get to Liverpool? Some time later, the 1645 ex-Euston makes a rapid ascent of Shap incline, seen here approaching Scout Green... ... and then cresting the summit, 916ft above sea-level. An unplanned diversion via the Slow Lines at Euxton means we're still 6 minutes late (would have been more but for excellent work by the Preston platform staff.) (More to follow.)
Continued from previous post. Our 1645 from Euston to Glasgow is now north of the border as darkness descends - recovery time in the schedule meant we departed Carlisle at 1849hrs, exactly on-time. Unfortunately timekeeping was then hit again by extended TSRs just south of Lockerbie. Tackling the long 1:80 gradient from Beattock to Beattock Summit. The nearby A74(M) drones with traffic. Hard work by the driver pulled time back, only to be lost again with signal checks followed by a dead stand approaching Carstairs, as a late-running Intercity service from London Kings Cross was given priority. Several minutes later, our train stands at Motherwell, setting-down passengers only. And is then seen approaching Polmadie, on the final leg towards Glasgow Central. It's now after 2200hrs. The final furlong into Glasgow Central. Further recovery time meant the buffers on platform 10 were reached on-time at 2208hrs, almost to the second! After nearly 5.5 hours in the hot-seat my behind was a bit sore, but you really get a feeling of satisfaction from completing a long run. Whilst the 1645hrs is a figment of my imagination, the point-to-point timings (written down on paper beforehand) were taken from the 1994 WTTs (available online from the Network Rail Archive, under 'Railtrack PLC') and gave a sense of purpose and urgency to the driving task, particularly when the QD dispatcher took an unexpected routing! Routes shown: WCML Midlands & North West, WCML Over Shap, WCML North Locomotive: Armstrong Powerhouse Class 87 (IC-Mainline Livery) Stock: Armstrong Powerhouse Mark 3A/B Coaches, Mark 3 DVT (from the AP Class 90 packs) Enhancements: Various AP Sky & Weather, Track, Signalling and Lighting packs
IPPX Transfer Run by Elphaba (GWD279) is a scenario I recommend running. Takes you up the short UP line, offering slightly different views from what you normally see on a typical Soldier Summit end to end. You may have seen this one recently on New York to New Haven. In another New York to New Haven scene, on the line connecting from the Grand Central, an M8 travels in lovely conditions: Trackside scene #1 - garden on Settle-Carlisle with a 33 passing by: Trackside scene #2 - Containers round out the entire colour palette on London-Peterborough:
It's a cold Winters night in Aurora, Illinois in the United States of America with plenty of snow falling around. BNSF EMD GP38-2s '2253' and '2282' start in Eola yard and couple up to a mixed freight consist for a quick northern trip up the West Chicago Branch Line making multiple freight drop offs and pickups as the train trundles along through the suburbs traveling no more than 20 mph at max operating service R-CHI845 approximately 10 miles up to West Chicago yard on the Chicago Subdivision portion of the Northern Transcon. Motive Power: EMD GP38-2 Route: The Racetrack: Aurora - Chicago Scenario: [RT 1.05] BNSF R-CHI845 Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, ReShade, Searchlight Simulations EMD 16-645E Enhancement Pack
Prairie on the Moors - ready to tackle the long climb up Newtondale. Route: Steam Sounds Supreme - Pickering-Grosmont (NYMR) Locomotive: PLD GWR 'Large Prairie' Stock: Armstrong Powerhouse Mark 1 coaches Enhancements: Various AP Sky & Weather, Track, Signalling and Lighting packs
Installment 4 in a 5-installment depiction of an Autumn morning stopping passenger service, from Wycombe to Maidenhead, on Wycombe Branch Steam Workshop route. Our train is headed by a Caledonia Works GWR "Armstrong" class 4-4-0 tendered steam locomotive, seen in its 1894-1905 livery. It must be said that a route of this size, less than ten miles, would almost certainly never see a train this long, but more likely two-to-three coach trains. My excuse for running this configuration is that my original purpose was to test the Armstrong, which I'd not driven in ages, and additionally to gauge the route's screenshot potential. I got carried away, the results seen in this and one further installment. En route to Stop-4: Stop-4 station era detail. (As mentioned above, I failed to annotate station/halt names due to not originally conceiving this run as publication-worthy.): Departing stop-4: Departing stop-4, second view: I'm reasonably sure this cab lean-out was captured within the town/city that houses stop-4: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds TO BE CONTINUED . . .
Part 1 of 2 Northern Rail Class 158 '158859' forms a single set of 2 coaches waiting at Settle Junction in England of the United Kingdom waiting for southbound passenger service 2Y65 to pass before proceeding northbound on an irregular passenger service headed 12 miles to Ribblehead reporting as 2H98 as one of the last passenger train services of the day on the Settle-Carlisle Line with a beautiful Summer evenings sunset over the hills. The train will be stopping at 2 stations before reaching Ribblehead; these being Settle and Horton-in-Ribblesdale. After dropping off passengers on Platform 2 of Ribblehead the train will switch tracks to Platform 1 ready for a return southbound journey headed for Leeds. Motive Power: British Rail Class 158 Route: Settle to Carlisle Scenario: [SC04] The Final Run - Part 1 Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Track Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Vegetation Enhancement Pack, ReShade, Armstrong Powerhouse Class 158 (Perkins) Enhancement Pack
Train Trouble by tdot6ix posted Aug 19, 2024 at 10:18 PM Train Trouble 2 by tdot6ix posted Aug 19, 2024 at 10:18 PM
Part 2 of 2 Northern Rail Class 158 '158859' has now switched to Platform 1 of Ribblehead prepared for a southbound run to Leeds beginning by picking up passengers now reporting as service 2H09 with the run to Leeds being seen here headed 10 miles back to Settle with another stop at Horton-in-Ribblesdale in between. The sun now finally begins to fully set with darkness beginning to overcome the Settle-Carlisle Line as '158859' operates the last service on this line for the day. Motive Power: British Rail Class 158 Route: Settle to Carlisle Scenario: [SC04] The Final Run - Part 2 Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Track Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Vegetation Enhancement Pack, ReShade, Armstrong Powerhouse Class 158 (Perkins) Enhancement Pack
First ScotRail Class 170 '170401' forms a single set of 3 coaches operating a westbound passenger service to Glasgow Queen Street in Scotland of the United Kingdom begins at Edinburgh Waverley late into the evening with darkness consuming the journey over the 47 mile trip to Glasgow stopping 3 times in between for passengers at Haymarket, Falkirk High and Croy on the Glasgow-Edinburgh Line via Falkirk during a rainy Summers night. Motive Power: British Rail Class 170 Route: Edinburgh-Glasgow Scenario: E-G Westbound Night Express CS Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Vegetation Enhancement Pack, Alan Thomson Sim AP Track Patch for Thomson's Edinburgh to Glasgow Route, Alan Thomson Sim Edinburgh to Glasgow Signal EP Patch, ReShade
Installment 10 in a multipart chronological depiction of an Autumn morning stopping passenger QuickDrive on Golden Age Developments' freeware West of England Mainline, phase 2, which extends tracks further eastward to Yeovil Town. Our journey begins there, stopping at all stations until the drive terminates at Exeter. Our train is powered by Caledonia Works' rendering of the LSWR 415/0415 class 4-4-2T steam locomotive, commonly known as the Adams Radial Tank. It is seen in Adams Brown livery, pulling six LSWR coaches. The loco proves insufficient for the task, though we finish the run by means I'll divulge at the appropriate time. This installment begins with the train still stopped at Seaton Junction station: Remaining images depict the train traversing a rural countryside between Seaton Junction and Honiton, which takes us several more installments to reach: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds TO BE CONTINUED . . .
DB Regio Class 429.1s '429 621-6', '429 123-3', '429 624-0' and '429 126-6' of the Stadler FLIRT 3 model forms a double set of 10 coaches is seen operating eastbound SÜWEX passenger service RE2 where the train picks up passengers at Boppard Hbf in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany and travels 72 kilometres over the West Rhine Railway to Mainz Hbf stopping 4 times in between for passengers at Oberwesel, Bacharach, Bingen (Rhein) Hbf and Ingelheim am Rhein on a lovely late Summers morning. Motive Power: Stadler FLIRT 3 Route: Frankfurt - Koblenz Scenario: 04. On a Hot Summer Day Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, ReShade
I made an adjustment to the cab signal, now is fun. EMD SD70ACU - NS [Single Livery] Developer: Jointed Rail / Searchlight Simulations
Route: Frankfurt-Koblenz, North London & Goblin Lines, WCML South Train: DB BR 429, DB BR 232 Class 378, Class 350, Class 66 (Off-picture), DB BR 442, Vr DB BR 189. Random Picture Compilation! 1) Early risers! 2) Part of cool platform shots. 3) Awaiting... 4) Sidelined! 5) Piper!
Union Pacific Railroad EMD SD40-2s '7835', '8167', '7888' on the front with another on the rear work together to haul a 17 wagon manifest train on the steepest portion of the Cajon Subdivision on the Southern Transcon beginning at the yard in San Bernardino, California of the United States of America and embarking on a 39 mile northbound journey to the sidings at Hesperia where the train will be brought to a stop. There was only a single stop in between with the train halting about midway through the journey underneath the Mojave Freeway to await confirmation that a work crew ahead had finish clearing a landslide. All was well so afterwards the train proceeded as normal through the hills and onto Hesperia during this late Spring afternoon freight run during the mid-2000s. Motive Power: EMD SD40-2 Route: Cajon Pass Scenario: Cajon Pass Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, ReShade, Searchlight Simulations EMD 16-645E3 Enhancement Pack
This Dispolok BR 189 is about to change directions and pick up a short train. Nice little pack. Curiously all scenarios are spring, maybe because its blue skies look nice with the yellow. Or because released in March. Totally not replicating Blazin's profile pic with the Metronom 146. Scenic moment on the Canadian Mountain Passes: Class 158 from the BR regional times on Settle-Carlisle: ICE 1 on Köln-Koblenz: Old pic of an old warrior - a BR Blue Class 101 on Edinburgh-Glasgow:
Installment 5 in a multiset chronological depiction of a cloudy Autumn morning passenger run QD between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Picadilly (via Warrington Central). The train consists of Caledonia Works' LNWR Webb Coal Tank No. 1054, in preservation livery, pulling AP MK1 coaches. All images are manipulated to mimic old, sometimes damaged photos or film stills, via Paint.NET (freeware image editor), Wondershare Filmora (payware video creator/editor), or both. Somewhere between Hunts Cross and Halewood: Halted at Halewood: Halewood Halt platform detail. This image now graces my Windows Desktop Background folder: Between Halewood and Hough Green: Between Halewood and Hough Green: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds+Veggies, Paint.NET (image editor), Filmora (video editor) TO BE CONTINUED . . .
A run out in the 90 from Coatbridge tonight.... Leaving Coatbridge FLT Arriving at Carlisle we have a bi-directional working of a 66 with a stonetrain heading south too... We both stop for a chat at the south end of Carlisle station where my run comes to an end......
That last screenshot of the 90 at Carlisle a real photo mate? Such an incredibly realistic looking shot, well done.
InterCity Class 86 '86404' begins at Glasgow Central station in Scotland of the United Kingdom with 8 InterCity Mark 3 coaches; some still in British Rail blue & grey livery. It's bucketing rain during the evening and the train sets off for a southbound journey headed 28 miles southbound for Carstairs stopping once in between for passengers at Motherwell on this wet run during the Summer of 1990. Motive Power: British Rail Class 86 Route: West Coast Main Line North Scenario: Hand Over Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Track Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Signal Enhancement Pack, ReShade
Route: Koln-Koblenz, Chatham Main & Medway Valley Lines, North London and Goblin Lines Train: Class 59, Class 375, Class 170, DB BR 155, DB BR 425 Random Picture Compilation! 1) Found my parking spot! 2) A commuter's usual destination... 3) Curvy pass. 4) Non-tilting train tilting. 5) Down below.
Installment 4 in a chronological pictorial depiction of a stopping passenger service heritage rail-tour QuickDrive on AP's Wherry Lines - Norwich to Greater Yarmouth & Lowestoft, a somewhat recent purchase when these images were captured. To it is added AP's route enhancement pack, acquired during its most recent sale (as of Aug 2024). This is the most consistently visually appealing route in my possession. So pleasing that I drove and captured images of four passenger runs in rapid succession. This series showcases the first of those runs, from Norwich to Lowestoft. Motive power is Caledonia Works' "Single-Wheeler" GER P43 4-2-2 tendered steam loco, another recent acquisition, seen in its super-heated coal-burning variant. The train is, admittedly, not ideally suited for stopping passenger duty; the P43 primarily an express locomotive, the train overlong for the route's often small station/halt platforms. (Coach count is reduced for the remaining three runs.) This installment is devoted to Brundall station, where all images were captured. This first image was added to my Windows Desktop Background folder, an honorific reserved for what I consider my best captures: The final three images capture the train departing Brundall: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds+Veggies TO BE CONTINUED . . .
Something quick I threw together, as Norfolk Southern has ran their last Roadrailer trains this past weekend.
Deutsche Bahn Class 120.1 '120 105-2' in charge of service IC 26 consisting of 2 Deutsche Bahn Avmz, 1 Arkimbz and 8 Bmpz coaches forming 11 total begins at Ostseebad Binz station on the German island of Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mäkelborg-Vörpommern) during a lovely Summers evening in 2004. The train awaits stopping service RE 9 ahead to pull away before embarking on a 50 kilometre eastbound journey to Stralsund Hbf. The train will travel on the Lietzow-Binz railway until reaching Lietzow-Rügen where the train will join the Stralsund-Sassnitz Railway for the rest of the journey making a single stop at Bergan auf Rügen before continuing non-stop the rest of the way to Stralsund Hbf crossing the Rügendamm and Ziegeigraben Bridges over the Strela Sound of the Baltic Sea to access the German mainland for Sassnitz Hbf. Motive Power: DB Class 120.1 Route: Inselbahn: Stralsund - Sassnitz Scenario: [120] 4. Out of the Big Station Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, ReShade
A one-off image today, a Malachite Green Southern Railway M7 a short distance out of Southampton station en route to Salisbury. I auditioned several versions of Caledonia Works take on the M7 before committing to the run, ultimately settling on an LSWR lime-green striped variant. Looking at this image I say to myself, "Maybe I should have gone for the Malachite." Had I done so I might now be showing you the LSWR and saying to myself, "Maybe I should have gone for Lime Green." (In reality, I'm quite satisfied with my livery choice.) BTW, so far as I know, this is the current disk code for an LSWR train en route to Salisbury. I do not know the SR equivalent.
Thanks! Oddly, I know of this site and have its Loco Disc/Lamp codes printed out. Yet I somehow missed seeing an SR Salisbury disc/lamp code. Re-examining my printout after reading your reply, I spotted the code, which happens to be the same as the LSWR code. (I hoped for something more exotic, but it is what it is.) Through no fault of mine, my SR M7 screenshot is correctly coded.
Dual M8's at Harrison station along the New Haven line. The M8 on track 3 is the inbound local to Grand Central and the M8 on track 4 is the outbound local to Stamford
An Acela Express awaits the signal indication to proceed northeast towards Newark. While the Acela waits, an Amtrak Northeast Regional approaches, heading towards Washington DC.
Under the Moonlight - A pair of Dispolok BR 189s on Hamburg Hannover on a spring evening: Unsafe to Linger - An ICE 2 is ready to enter Hamburg after a brief stop to let a driver in training take over: Under local clouds, a Metro-North FL9 duo leads a service from Grand Central on the New Haven section of the NEC: The driver of Class 33 030 enjoys the mountainside scenery, on a Carlisle to Settle (and beyond) run: A short royal train, trailed by the executive unit now sporting a DB logo, pacing on vintage ECML:
Another one-off image captured a short distance beyond Southampton station en route to Salisbury. Here we see a PLD (Bossman) "Large Prairie" in Lined BR Black, my most recent TSC loco purchase (as of early September 2024). Even with Auto Fireman and "driver's assistant" enabled it's more complex to drive than I'm comfortable with, a situation I hope to rectify over time. Be that as it may, it's a fine-looking loco, with top-tier sounds: (I installed the GAD weathered-variant reskin add-on pack, but for some reason haven't yet been able to find them in-game.)
Part 1 of 2 After a year of testing the unique Aerotrain from General Motors with the Pennsylvania Railroad in the United States of America to hopefully provide an edge over automobile transport it just unfortunately won't cut it with the sets facing multiple issues over the years due to a low powered configuration and coaches based on bus designs with planned obselence in mind leading to absurdly poor performance. The big promises of this train "saving an industry" never came about and here we see it on a run back east to be handed over to other interested parties for testing. Pennsylvania Railroad EMD LWT12 '1000' leads this final Pennsy Aerotrain service eastbound hauling 9 of the Aerotrain coaches which has been rented by the PRR for $250 a day. The train begins by picking up passengers at Johnstown, Pennsylvania on a late 1957 Summers morning and travels 22 miles over the Pennsylvania Railroad Mainline to Cresson where afterwards the train will is planned to continue to Altoona. The low power EMD LWT12 essentially being a streamlined switcher locomotive was certainly felt with the train struggling to even reach the speed limit when traveling up gradients at or steeper than 1%. Motive Power: EMD LWT12 Route: Horseshoe Curve Scenario: 03. Aerotrain to Philadelphia Part 1 Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, ReShade
Its funny how we can obsess over details - with me its often creating super-accurate train formations, sometimes extending down to the vehicle numbers. I doubt anyone notices but me…
Totton station platform detail from an LSWR A12-headed stopping passenger service en route to Southampton. I ended up re-doctoring this as an old, damaged color still. Then again, I've such a huge backlog of lengthy TSC capture series that this one might not see the light of day here until I'm years in my grave, our now-younger members viewing it propped up in their nursing-home beds while gumming their breakfast porridge:
A mid-1960s scene in Dorset, soon to be forgotten. The last few months of BR(W) steam saw some hastily organised railtours, in particular the Stephenson Locomotive Society who's 'SLS Special' headboards have gone into folklore. A very decrepit GWR Castle, sans name and numberplates, makes a valiant effort to lift its seven BR standard coaches up the severe 1:51 incline from Upwey, through Bincombe Tunnels to the summit. The nursery gradients of 1:187, 1:74 commence almost from the platform end at Weymouth and so with a cold engine there is very little margin for error. Even today it remains a challenging climb for modern traction. Climbing away from Upwey... Barking through Wishing Well Halt, the fireman is clearly bending his back... And finally over the top at the northern end of Bincombe (Long) Tunnel. And now for something completely different. Routes: Southampton-Weymouth, Chatham & Medway Lines Locomotive: PLD 'Castle', AP Class 411/412 Stock: Armstrong Powerhouse Mark 1 coaches Enhancements: Various AP Sky & Weather, Track, Signalling and Lighting packs
Work continues on rebuilding the Pacific Surfliner route. Here is a sample shot of the rebuilt Solana Beach station.
