To my knowledge, the original East Coast Mainline has never been brought up to date without also setting it in the modern period. I've decided to give it a bit of love and keep it in the 1970s. I've already changed the track to the track from the Just Trains Common Library (which I personally quite like). I plan on re-signalling the whole route and improving the scenery using period pictures as reference where possible. I've not been working on this long, but I've been spending most of the initial time around Newcastle. This first screenshot shows part of Newcastle East Junction (once the biggest railway junction in the world). I've had to relay some of it, mainly to accommodate the extra platform and siding seen on the right of the left-hand screenshot, but also to make it a little more accurate to the prototype. Forgive the gaps in scenery, this is far from finished, but I've started on adding Gateshead station, which was inexplicably not on the original, despite Gateshead East being open until 1981 (demolished in the 1990s after a fire), and Gateshead West's platforms were closed in 1964, but still stand to this day. They were also used as a secondary exit for Gateshead East. As and when I complete more areas of scenery I'll post them here.
Gateshead station area has been done (for now at least - biggest issue at the moment is the lack of footbridge which will be addressed but for a base version, that'll do) The Class 105 in the platform would've carried on to Sunderland. By the 1970s and 1980s it was pretty much only served by trains going to Sunderland or South Shields. The station closed in 1981 after passenger numbers fell due to the opening of the Tyne & Wear Metro the previous year. By 1982, the line to South Shields had been converted for Metro and in 2002, the Newcastle-Sunderland service was taken over by Metro too. If you'd like to see real images of the real one, then have a look here: - http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/g/gateshead_east/index2.shtml - http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/g/gateshead_west/index.shtml
You've done very good work there, well done. But did you know of the DPSimulations ECML revamp in the Workshop? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=269482608
Thanks. I do (it's very nice), but that's set in the modern period. I wanted to keep it set in the 1970s.
Of course I'll be putting the first iteration on Workshop when it's done - it's basically re-signalling and a few scenery improvements that I need to make before it'll be good to go for now. I am wanting to extend it to include either the North Tyneside Loop or the line to South Shields, but if that actually happens - dunno.
Keep going as this looks very good, however, there are some parts of the ECML that have been re-modelled and backdated for the 1960s/70s/80s already on various websites. On Steam workshop is BRs ECML London Kings Cross to Peterborough, and York to Newcastle BR Blue, then there is the old Creative Rail's Peterborough to York pre-electrification, Joe Whittaker has done a marvelous freeware route around the Newcastle area, https://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info.php?form_fileid=40173 and there is room for more backdating right up to Edinburgh and beyond, if you feel like it..... Cheerz. Steve.
Thanks for letting me know. I personally would rather do Newcastle-York as I'm more familiar with that area.
Heading south working on the track and signalling. This is the curve just before Durham, and I've finally persuaded it to do superelevation! I'll only be applying it to a few curves, others will simply have their speed limit reduced, and/or be relaid to be gentler, as it was a nightmare to do this curve.
Thanks I've only just managed tog et it working - it's rather simple once you get the hang of it IMO. The trouble is getting it to line up with either existing track, or with real world track because you have to use the Easements feature for it to work properly. I'm still a novice when it comes to se. By the way, first release will just be track and signals upgraded (plus the scenery upgrades I've already done), I'll then go back and start upgrading all the scenery.
Some shots of the new platform and siding in Newcastle station. I believe in reality there were two sidings, or possibly two platforms and a siding, however, I can't find any reference images for it, and either way, it wouldn't fit using the base model.
Well, I don't know how, so asking around. I think it may literally be easier to jsut delete the whole route and start again. It's happened a few times but just closing the game without saving fixed it - not this time, which means it happened without me realising and I saved the route, thus saved the changes the game made because it hates me.
I'm at a loss as to what to suggest. But it does seem odd that closing the game without saving fixes something. How often did you save while editing? I save every couple of minutes.
The reason it fixes it is because it doesn't save the change, so it undos everything I'd done since the previous save. I've obviously this time saved the route without realising this had happened. I do semi-frequently save in case of crashes.
Alright, well I'm told replacing some files with the originals will revert the track to the original, while preserving the scenery changes I'd made (yay!). Mildly annoyed it'll mean I'll have to redo the track edits I'd done but i will also (hopefully) get the benefit of not having to replace the signalling - I just need to place the new signals.
So for those following this thread, I'd like to apologise for going quiet about it. The track situation really demotivated me so i've not bothered loading the map up since (other than to take a screenshot for another thread). I'm currently doing University assignments but once they're done I shall have another crack at doing this.
That's ok, no need to apologise, real life has to be lived. And don't skimp on those assignments, otherwise it's detention and 100 lines.
So, amnaged to get the track back to the same track set it was using - now to re align it, and make all the track round Newcastle wooden again.
Don't know why I didn't do this before. Decided to completely rip up Newcastle East Junction and start again. Hopefully I'll get it closer to the prototype: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Castle_geograph-3950092-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
I know nothing about route building (yet?!), but how do you get from this: to this: In terms of the track layout, meaning the crossings - do you have to add in diamond crossings, or if you lay one track over another, does it do it for you automatically? Can you recreate the full complexity of prototype lines, or do you have to compromise by chosing from a set of "prebuilds" like a railway modeller?
Laying two tracks on top of each other for a crossing, you get this Clicking on the weld tool, you'll get a grey box over where two tracks intersect. It will then try and draw a crossing. If the two tracks are at the right angles, the grey box will stay and clicking it again will try to draw a slip point, however in most cases Ctrl+Z will be your friend The magnet with track under it on the bottom left menu (be default these are flyouts, I keep them pinned open for ease) will try to snap the track you're drawing to nearby track - I have it off because it just gets in the way, plus holding Ctrl temporarily turns it on. Putting the yellow arrow onto an existing piece of track, then drawing a new track away from it will create a set of points. Simalarly, magnetising a track you're drawing to an existing track will create a junction This playlist has a bunch of tutorials on the editor so it should get you started if you want to start route building. It si a relatively old tutorial series so there are some things that have since been added - possibly the biggest being the scale tool added in TS2015, and it does omit some things. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc0tSG1qrcPAkOLwWMeaYiyR7P2F9B38U Track is layed like string with the mouse - once you get the hang of it you can do rather complex things like the above pretty quickly. Also, do not try to draw a crossing over a red triangle - it doesn't draw properly and so looks rather silly. Hope that helps
You could do the small attatchments (3 of them are of Waverley aren't they?) as they're just slip points* and crossovers. As for the other one with the steamer, you could do an approximation, but not exactly replicate it - unless there's something in the editor I don't know about. In TS, there's lots of slip points at King's Cross on London-Peterborough if you have that route. This is perhaps the best you could do for that junction: *slip points only draw if the game wants to, and it's often rather fussy, so you could do it but perhaps not entirely geographically accurate (ie takes longer in game than irl), not sure though. You'll notice there's a couple of similar crossings at Newcastle that I've had to omit https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Castle_geograph-3950092-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Is there any way at all to “scratch build” a complex arrangement as in the steam engine photo, or you have to use presets?
I don't understand your question - there's no set pieces like a model railway (well there can be but they'd be non-functional) if that's what you're asking?
Added a signal box and High Street Junction, immediately south-east of Gateshead. I've done it purely from OS maps (see below) so no idea what it was really like. This does open up an opportunity to extend south from here to Pelaw if I manage to gather the courage to tackle Park Lane Yard. I'm using https://www.old-maps.co.uk/ to assist with trackwork and roads, along with images and our good friend - the Google Maps overlay.
Once again, apologies for the lack of updates. I've fixed a few issues with the tracks.bin file that wa hampering progress. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things. I've done a littel bit of work to the junction south of Gateshead station, addign a siding to serve a building (where the vans are) and allowing reversal from the sheds, this means you can now access the mainline from all of the sidings within the yard, with a bit of reversal. Looking at period maps, however, the yard may need to be rebuilt. FUN!
I appreciate it's perhaps a bit too subtle in these images, but we can has tilt again. These being just north and just south of Tyne Yard respectively.
Wow. From what I can see, it looks great, evidently a lot of work has gone into it. Any idea of a rough ETA of the first version onto the workshop? I realise that may be quite difficult, as there are a lot of things that could delay that, but this is a project I am very interested in following and looking forward to, especially if it eventually gets extended to South Shields. I have scenario ideas already!
Thanks I do hope to at least get the track and signals redone (along with fixing some glaring scenery issues) over the coming summer months as I'll be away from uni, so you'll hopefully see the first edition by September or October - the main challenge for me is not getting "burnt out" and disinterested so extensions may still be a long while away.
Just to further that - extensions are going to be rather difficult as the route itself predates the in-game google maps overlay, so is all offset, so I'm not going to go mad with them, they'll only be short-ish branches (I'm currently thinking east to Shields, west to Prudhoe to allow scenarios involving coal to Stella North, Stella South and Dunston power stations and north to Heaton Depot - I think doing the Tyneside loop, in hindsight, may be a bit much)
Well - any extension would satisfy me, I'd just love to see some first gen DMU local services on some lines pre-Tyne and Wear Metro. I am prepared to wait!
The track around Newcastle & Gateshead looks good apart from the type of Bullhead rail used looks Rusty. And the Kuju signals - EN444 on every plate - are so out of date.
I must admit I'd never actually noticed how rusty the track used is. Doesn't really look used. I'll see if there's a version with track that isn't quite as rusty within. I'll be replacing the signals once I'm done with the track (and adding proper plates). I agree, they don't really have a place in a new release. On the note of signals, does anyone know where I can find resources regarding what should be on the identification plates? The photographs I've found don't show them clearly.
The Info on the Signal plate varies depending on the region and the period. The general rule for the Eastern Region would be a one or two letters to indicate which Signal Box controlled it and its number underneath. Sometimes the Letters used relate to the Line I think this might help to work out what the letters should be http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/signal/signal_boxes0.shtm Peter
There were three stations between Newcastle and Chester-le-Street to serve the suburbs south of Gateshead, all closed in the 1950s. This is one, Low Fell. It closed in the early 1950s with the platforms demolished by the 1960s. The derelict station building survived apparently until the 1980s - presumably it was demolished to make way for electrification. Photographs of the real one: https://i2-prod.chroniclelive.co.uk...TERNATES/s615b/1_DMR_NEC_180521lowfell_02.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3d/24/a6/3d24a65617d2533f3068a1bbb0c054a4.jpg https://davidheyscollection-static.myshopblocks.com/images/cm/02818efce3d57fbe7d5904b82401508c.jpg and a little article on it: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/gatesheads-leafy-low-fell-once-20621443
Not finished, but here's Birtley, closed in 1955. By the 1960s it was a private residence, although it's since been demolished too. It's now part of some industrial unit by the looks of it. Here's a picture of the real one, from 1965: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2228937 The third station was Lamesley, which was demolished in the 1960s to make way for Tyne Marshalling Yard, and therefore won't be modelled.
