Hello everyone, I’m excited to introduce my current project: the Escheltalbahn. It’s still a work in progress and not quite finished yet, but I’m excited to give you a sneak peek. This route is entirely fictional but set in Germany, with a special focus on nature and rural landscapes. My goal was to create an exciting alternative to the Niddertalbahn that highlights the charm of both passenger and freight operations. A standout feature of the route will be the Eschelingen wood factory, which requires regular wood deliveries – perfect for those who enjoy shunting and freight tasks! Features: Length: 60-70 kilometers Stops: 17 stations Speed limits: 20-60 km/h Current Locomotives: BR 628 – for passenger services BR 218 – for freight and special operations Required DLCs: ✔️ Niddertalbahn ✔️ Nahverkehr Dresden ✔️ Frankfurt – Fulda: Kinzigtalbahn ✔️ Bahnstrecke: Salzburg – Rosenheim ✔️ DB BR 218 Diesel Loco Add-On I look forward to your feedback, suggestions, and questions! Kind regards, Andrew (DrewK)
Looks great, Andrew. I think this is now the first project of fictional kind, primarily set in Germany, in such an advanced state. The route being fictional looses you from a lot of constraints and restrictions we have to abide by when creating real routes (these might even make the entire project unviable in some cases). As a suggestion, I would maybe limit the number of depending DLCs as much as you can. This is better for the players which want to play your route when you release it. Obviously, you need NID and the 218 for the rolling stock. Maybe you can limit the scenery elements you refer from FTF, DRA and SRM to only one or two of those? Many basic scenery elements do exist in all of these, and by making it to refer to only those in one, you can save some dependencies. I have a few questions: Do you had a real reference for the kml to generate the landscape and track? For longitude and lattitude, what values did you use? Did you use any DEM or just crafted the landscape by the Landscape tools? Good luck on proceeding.
Thank you for your feedback! Although the route is fictional, I want to build it as accurately as possible, following real-world guidelines for signaling and other aspects. I’ll definitely look into where I can save on DLCs. Unfortunately, some DLCs include unique objects that others don’t, and I’d prefer not to go without them. But I’ll review everything again and see what adjustments can be made. I started this project from scratch with flat terrain, which I shape and modify based on my preferences and how I envision the route. Thanks again, and I’m excited to share regular updates on the progress!
Great screenshots! You can tell straight away that someone has talent, not only for the detailed design of the landscape, but also the photographic eye to present things perfectly. Railway branch lines with scenic components offer a lot of relaxation when driving. Wooded low mountain ranges with embedded lakes are very suitable here. It's always great to see what you can conjure up graphically with the Unreal Engine.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I know fictional routes aren’t everyone’s thing, but for me, designing and planning them is such a relaxing process. I’m excited to share more screenshots soon—maybe even a video!
Here is some information about the stops along the route. As already mentioned, there are 17 stops accessible on the route. These include small stops as well as "larger" train stations. Most of the stops are located in smaller towns. Stops marked with * will have two or more platforms. Overview of the Stops Behsa* Hohenbühl Poldenberg* Hoggersdorf Eschelhof Stachsdorf* Oderslauen Eschelburg Niederföhlheim* Mäckersfeld Mäckersfeld-Industriepark Holzbonnenstein Butkenheim Godenburg* Dernes Eschelingen Holzfabrik Eschelingen Hbf* The "Holzfabrik" in Eschelingen is more than just a stop... it’s a company site with its own rail connection. Players will be able to deliver wood using a shunting locomotive. Additionally, a service with the BR218 locomotive will transport several freight cars loaded with wood all the way from Behsa to Eschelingen. Kind regards, Andrew (DrewK)
Local freight delivery and shunting? I missed that resembled good in a route since Ruhr-Sieg nord. The route itself looks really great. can't wait to see more of this!
Exactly right! However, it’s worth noting that there will be more shunting operations than actual deliveries, as the route is single-track and can only be operated at very low speeds. In reality, freight traffic likely wouldn’t run here, but I still want to include one or two services for variety! Thanks for the kind words! I’m excited to share more updates soon!
Hello everyone, Today, I’d like to explain why I decided to build a fictional route instead of recreating an existing real-world one. I know that many of you prefer real routes – and I enjoy driving on real-world routes as well. It’s fun to discover familiar places and experience the details of the real world in a simulation. However, for me, creating a fictional route has a special appeal. I get to explore things that don’t exist in reality – and that’s what makes it so exciting. It might sound a bit strange, but to me, it feels like creating a unique place that I’ll never see or discover in real life. A world that exists only in my imagination, which I can shape and design according to my own vision. This gives me the freedom to be creative, experiment with new ideas, and build things that would never be possible in the real world. It’s a kind of escape into another reality, where I set the rules and bring a completely new world to life. To make my fictional route feel authentic, I watch a lot of cab ride videos. These videos help me draw inspiration from many different places by letting me observe the landscape, track layouts, and the atmosphere of real routes. I integrate various impressions into my own world and try to combine the best elements from different regions. Additionally, I’m a perfectionist. I want everything to feel as cohesive and realistic as possible. However, I’m quite limited in my ability to create detailed 3D models, and due to these limitations, I could never replicate a real-world route with all its details. The effort and precision required would simply be unachievable for me. That’s why I chose to build a fictional route, where I can let my creativity flow… I hope this gives you a bit of insight into why I’ve chosen this path, and maybe some of you feel the same way. Sometimes it’s just nice to create something entirely new! Kind regards, Andrew (DrewK)
Today, I’d like to share some more screenshots with you. While the image quality isn’t the best, they should still give you a good idea of the project’s direction. The vegetation and overall design will definitely change as the project progresses. For now, the current setup is mainly to help with planning and to serve as a foundation for more detailed work later on. How do you like the progress so far? I’d love to hear your feedback! Kind regards, Andrew (DrewK)
Today, I want to share a quick look at one of the stations I’m working on. The platforms are still placeholders and not fully detailed yet, but it’s coming together! What do you think?
This route looks really good! I love the Detail and everything about it! Hope you have good success with making the fictional route
Hey everyone, It's been a while since my last update! Unfortunately, my map got completely messed up, so I couldn’t work on it for a while. After trying (and failing) to fix it, I’ve decided to just start over from scratch. Annoying, but hey... fresh start, fresh ideas! On the bright side, I actually made some progress today! I managed to export a tiny part as a mod and got it running in-game. Seeing it work was a huge relief... at least I know everything is working so far! Excited to get back into it, and I’ll keep you posted with more updates soon. Kind regards, Andrew (DrewK)
Backup, backup, backup is all I can say. But if you're starting from scratch now, I wish you every success. It looked very good and you can tell you can do it. Don't let the setback swallow you up now! Looking forward for any new updates!
Yeah, that's true! I did make backups, but somehow, I ended up overwriting them... so that didn’t help much. It actually motivates me to start from scratch + I’ll shorten the route a bit so it’s not too much for the first one.
That's sad to hear. Do you know what exactly caused the issue? I'm always interested to know what break things. 2 months ago we had another route creator whose project got unusable because they copied files to another plugin while having the map open. Best thing you could do to be completely safe is 1.) make regular backups and 2.) store them on a different drive and 3.) acquire several hard drives to do step 2). I'm doing this after a bad experience over 10 years ago.
Unfortunately, I don't know what happened. The day before, it worked fine. Maybe something went wrong while saving the project.
