British Railways 6000 (King) Class '6023 King Edward II' is with a long and heavy 11 coach railtour train with West Coast Railways Class 47 '47030' at the back of the train which will be only there to provide electrical assistance for the coaches and will not be helping with pushing the train. The train will do the full journey on the Settle to Carlisle line during the afternoon on a day with occasional light amounts of rain. It will start and pick up passengers at Carlisle and will only stop at Appleby for water and then continue on to Settle where it's journey will end. Locos: GWR 6000 (King) Class, LMS Jubilee Class, British Rail Class 47 Route: Settle to Carlisle
Wow, these are yummy captures! Is this RW Enhancer 2 (with AP Sky&Weather), Reshade, or a combo of both? Whichever it is, I need to get off my rump and up my (already not bad) graphics quality. (Then again, I've postponed a graphics update since the release of RWE2 (I use RWEpro). There's every chance I'll keep procrastinating.) ADDENDUM: After posting the above, I recalled that you kindly gave me advice on setting up RWE2 some time ago. I have a printout of your info housed in my TS binder. Being the lazy good-for-nothing bum that I am, I've not yet acted on it.)
Thank you, my RW Enhancer 2 settings since I have told you have not changed but I did install ReShade and my ReShade settings are what Pookeyhead has his settings set to, he has put the config settings file in a couple threads if I remember correctly. If you can't find them I can link you the thread where he has put a folder with his RW Enhancer settings and ReShade settings in. Or you can ask him directly.
Union Pacific EMD SW10 '96' shunts at the yard at Cheyenne during the morning to break apart the manifest train that came in the previous night and will assemble a new train of freight for another train to take out later. Locos: EMD SW10, EMD SD40-2 Route: Sherman Hill
In contrast to the colorful images seen in recent posts, I offer visual documentation of the standard scenario Tebay Coal, one of a series of scenarios created by GAD for Caledonia Works' GNR K1 class 0-8-0 steam locomotive on Steam Sound Supreme's Stainmore, Shap and Eden Valley route. The run takes place during a foggy Autumn late-afternoon. Short in distance, it took me some 45min to complete, thanks to the scenario's imposed 25mph max speed and lengthy inclines, which the train struggled with despite having an assist loco at train-rear: The historically correct premise of these scenarios is that, during WWI, GNR loaned the NER a number of K1s to replace locos NER shipped across the channel to support the war effort. That said, it is unlikely that a K1 participated in this particular run in real life.
Route: Fife Circle Line Train: Class 170, Class 158. One of the scenarios for the route in action from Durfemline to Edinburgh. Pretty fun.
At the time of WW1 the LNER did not exist (formed in 1923), the NER might have borrowed locos as all the railways were under government control during the war and until 1921. Locos were moved from their own companies to help out where needed so the concept is sound.
Oops. Yeah, that's a brain-fart mistake on my end. I'll edit my post accordingly. Thanks for the catch!
I recently read book ten in Edward Marston’s The Railway Detective series, set during the early years of British railroading. In it, one series regular, who drove for the LNWR for some years, mentions having once driven the Royal Train as far as Carlisle (from Euston, I assume). He later mentions having driven the “Cornwall”. This reminded me that I hadn’t driven CW’s Cornwall in quite some time. This I resolved to rectify posthaste. Euston to Carlisle was right out, me not owning any portion of that run in TSC. I do have two routes that include Carlisle; Settle to Carlisle and West of Scotland Lines. The latter is a no-go, I’ve not been able to launch QD’s on it in months. With the route chosen by default, I had to admit that I also don’t own the Cornwall referenced in the book, which had to have been the 4-2-2 original. The story occurs a few years prior to the loco’s 2-2-2 rebuild. It is the rebuild Caledonia Works chose to model. All that said, the long drive from Carlisle to Settle was enjoyable from start to finish. Below is the first of several installments documenting it:
Route: West Rhine Koln-Koblenz Train: DB BR 120/ DB BR 294. While we wait for the competition to be announced i will just post something here for reasons :/
Decided to flip again and start with newest first. I took the blue-beige E18 last week to a photo charter. I didn't research but based on the comments through the E18 scenarios about the livery, I assumed this is one for fast trains, so I took the matching UIC-X coaches to a cross-border hike. 1) BR 151 in oceanblue-beige with fitting UIC-X coaches on the Semmeringbahn 2) Siemens ACS-64 in Amtrak Phase 5 with Amfleets with the 66 Northeast Regional from New York to New Haven 3) EMD F7 in Southern Pacific (passenger lines) livery with a string of boxes during a historic climb of Donner Pass 4) Class 33 in EWS Maroon with a short Mk1 railtour on Settle-Carlisle 5) Class 33 in NSE revised livery takes a Toothpaste Railtour from Portsmouth towards Woking
Regional Railways Class 158 '158773' leads a mid day express service out of Liverpool Lime Street headed for Manchester Piccadilly with only 4 station stops in between which are at Liverpool South Parkway, Widnes, Warrington Central and Manchester Oxford Road. Loco: British Rail Class 158 Route: Liverpool-Manchester
Second set of captures from a recent stopping passenger run from Carlisle to Settle on Settle to Carlisle DTG route, featuring Caledonia Works' LNWR "Cornwall" 2-2-2 steam loco. I forgot to mention last time that LNWR carriages are from UKTS:
Route: West Rhine Koln- Koblenz Train: DB BR 156, DB R 152, DB BR 232, DB BR 187, DB BR 155, DB BR 101, DB BR 146.2. Random trains that arent from DTG.
Final set of captures devoted to a stopping passenger service from Carlisle to Settle on Settle to Carlisle DTG route, the train consisting of Caledonia Works LNWR "Cornwall" 2-2-2 pulling LNWR carriages from UKTS. I believe it was during this portion of the run when the train battled an incline-from-hell while departing a station. (As CW points out in its user manual, the Cornwall is not an overly powerful loco.) It proved doable, but was touch and go until I found a combination of reverser and regulator plus sander that allowed the train to inch forward, gaining speed at a snell's pace until enough momentum was attained to close the sander and move reverser/regulator to more-or-less "normal" positions yet increase speed at a satisfactory rate:
DB Regio Bombardier Talent 2 '2442 222' pulls an 8 car long passenger service through the Austrian Alps starting at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and ending at Innsbruck in Austria with 11 station stops in between during the last hours of the morning on a beautiful cloudy day. Loco: Bombardier Talent 2 Route: Mittenwaldbahn: Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Innsbruck
Awesome screenshots, and I must say I agree with the "incline-from-hell". The hills on the route are quite difficult to drive on, I was even struggling with a GWR King Class! Once I even got completely stuck and started rolling back slightly and that was with a British Rail Class 37.
Route: Dresden-Leipzig Train: DB BR 152, DB BR 1442. This loco should be made by DTG next time because I'm done with the same old every time. Virtual railroads to the rescue like always. .
A London Transport 5700 Class pulls an unusual freight train with a London Transport Class 20 assisting at the rear. The train will be doing an island-wide tour starting at Vindelis and doing the full loop around the island and will come back to Vindelis with 4 stops in between. When it gets back to Vindelis, it will continue down a branch line and end the run at Stoney Point with one station in between. The passenger coach has been added to the consist to allow passengers to come along for the heritage ride. Locos: GWR 5700 Class, British Rail Class 20, London Underground 1938 Stock Route: London Transport Heritage Collection
Route: West Rhine Koln- Koblenz Trains: DB BR 146.2, DB BR 155, DB BR 294, DB BR 101. After some trainspotting I decided to put the best shots here.
Captures from a recent a gaming-slump, when I was unable to play more than 15 minutes before losing interest. On new Portsmouth Line Direct, driving a Caledonia Works SR L1: A CW LSWR T9 hauls passengers on West of England Mainline: Back on new Portsmouth, showing off the reflective properties of the CW SR Class U:
1) Double Class 421 runs down towards Portsmouth 2) Cab Forward with a Pacific Fruit Express climbs from Colfax eastbound 3) A blue Class 33 sprints out of London with some maroon-cream GWR coaches 4) Class 43 passing through Welwyn North towards Peterborough a few years later 5) Acela 1 enters a temple of concrete named Newark Penn under moody skies and lights
Route: ECML London- Peterborough, Chatham Mainline and MWV, GEML. Train; Class 321, Class 465, Class 317,Class 319, Class 365, Class 360. Armstrong powerhouse compilation!
Glad to be back. Had lots of stuff happen in my life recently, but rest assured I'm fine and my health is ok. And well, an autumnal Isle of Wight edit:
Close But No Cigar An early-daylight semi-express passenger run from Penrith to Castle Douglas on Stainmore, Shap and Eden Valley SSS payware route. Our train is pulled by a GNR 9N 4-6-2T steam loco, seen in weathered BR plumage. The 9N has the dubious honor of being the first Caledonia Works product I acquired, quite possibly my first third-party TS purchase. In hindsight, it wasn't the best introduction for someone still learning the basics of steam loco driving. Even nowadays I consider it a challenging drive, a fuel guzzler hard to coax adequate power from in adverse conditions. This run's server inclines, including one super-long incline-from-hell, provided more adversity than I was prepared to cope with. That said, unrecoverable failure did not rear its ugly head until seven minutes out from Castle Douglas. Adding insult to injuring, the fault is mine and could have been avoided, as will be detailed at the appropriate time. Not far into the run, sun low above the horizon: Spoiler Alert: I should have topped off tank-water here. I intended. In fact I tried, twice, repositioning the loco between attempts. When the second fill attempt failed, I foolishly continued on my way, reasoning that the 9N's tanks likely had enough water to see me to the Castle: A second filling location. For whatever reason it didn't occur to me to back the train and replenish the tanks here: TO BE CONTINUED . . .
This engine is a bit too big for the Isle of Wight route. But I wanted to check it out as Caledonia Works (3rd part that built it) made an update. And there's not too many decent Southern Railway routes. Not from the steam era at least.
Nice captures! Is this the T9? T3? I wasn't aware either has been updated, not recently in any case. As to Southern Railway steam-era routes, GAD will soon release its freeware Dorset Coast, an expanded version of its old Purbeck route. There are a couple of YouTube videos previewing it. Looks yummy. ADDENDUM: I just visited CW's Facebook Page, to be greeted with a T3 update announcement. Very nice. Alas, at the moment I own the T9 but not the T3. That'll likely change at some point. Hmm... with the A12 and now T3 updated, is the T9 far behind? <crosses fingers>
Caledonia T3. It was updated yesterday. If you own it, you can re-download it from CW website. T9... I guess it is next in line for the update. Would be grand. I love my LNER stuff, but I think there is a visible gap in terms of more high quality and updated SR routes. Especially in terms of larger engines. I'll be looking forward to taking the maunsell coaches out for a spin, perhaps with a CW N class once it is released.
Just visited GAD Discord channel. Victorian Lad (CW's Kris) is showing captures of improvements to the T9, including a new tender! Yup, it looks to be next on the list, or at least soon. Speaking of which, here's the only presentable capture from a recent T9 pulled passenger run on Lenton-on-Sea Branch Line Steam Workshop route that ended prematurely due to crash (game, not train):
Conclusion of captures from a recent early-daylight semi-express passenger run from Penrith to Castle Douglas on Stainmore, Shap and Eden Valley SSS payware route. Our train is pulled by a GNR 9N 4-6-2T steam loco, seen in weathered BR plumage. Same location as seen in the final image in my earlier capture post. Only the camera position has changed: At one point during the climb-from-hell, the train had gradually slowed to 1.7mph, with PSI dropped to roughly 124 and far too much incline yet to traverse. There was nothing for it but to close the regulator, apply train and hand brakes, bring the train to a stop, rebuild PSI and hope for the best. It worked. I was eventually able to resume the climb, never attaining more than around 13-14mph, often running at about half that or less. I do not recall if the below image is from before or after that necessary halt: Still climbing. Were this RL, at the train's then speed of travel, the fireman could have left the cab and jogged to the camera position for this capture. Or rather, I could have. In this situation, with reverser and regulator perpetually pegged, the driver was superfluous. The fireman, on the other hand, was constantly busy, rotating between replenishing boiler water and feeding the firebox, all the while insuring that PSI remained at a healthy level. Quite a chore considering what a guzzler the 9N is: My one post-climb image. Tank water is all but gone. Not enough remains to attempt another boiler-water refill. I've been driving with regular closed and reverser at about +14 since the decline began, beyond the climb-from-hell's summit. These measured do not save me. Not long following this capture, the expected OUT OF WATER message appears, bringing the session to a close seven minutes short of terminus:
British Railways Class A4 60009 'Union of South Africa' pulls a 10 coach long rail tour passenger train from Edinburgh Waverly to Kirkcaldy. Locos: LNER Class A4, British Rail Class 170 Route: Fife Circle Line: Edinburgh - Dunfermline
British Railways 5700 Class '5709' leads a 4 coach long empty passenger train from Kingswear to the sidings at Goodrington. Locos: GWR 5700 Class, GWR 4073 / Castle Class Route: Riviera Line in the Fifties: Exeter - Kingswear