Excellent scenario by John Dean 1M16 https://alanthomsonsim.com/downloads/rs-92044-1m16-2045-inverness-london-euston-2019/ 92044 departs Preston.... On the approach to Wigan.... Dutton Viaduct over the River Weaver.... Approaching Crewe P5 past the APT....
Many excellent shots this week. This thread never disappoints. My Soldier Summit journey got a little delayed (suspended), so this week is all about the memories.
Seventh / final set of images documenting a recent early-daylight semi-Express passenger QD from Edinburgh to Newcastle, on Just Trains - Newcastle to Edinburgh route. The train is headed by an NER Class R / LNER D20 4-4-0 tendered steam locomotive. According to Caledonia Works' manual, the D20 was assigned this run during its LNER days. We enter what I assume to be either Newcastle's outskirts, or a town/city abutting it: Newcastle proper: Approaching Newcastle Station: Our journey comes to a close: I enjoyed this first extended driving session with the CW NER Class R / LNER D20. It was fun to drive (I relied on CW's Auto Fireman the entire run) and has the ability to haul a decent number of coaches (and I assume freight wagons) for long distances. It handled the route's several long inclines with relative ease.
Some Union Pacific Big Boys have been sent out into Wyoming to help with freight. Here we see Union Pacific Big Boy '4004' being a part of these special duties. The train begins at Granite with clear skies and couples up to a rather short load of 4 gondolas before setting out for another pickup. Upon approaching Borie, the train reverses into a siding and collects a few refrigerator and boxcar wagons. The final pickup was next at Wycon where it was time to collect hoppers and tank wagons before making the final leg of the journey to Cheyenne Railway Yard and by then overcast weather conditions had set in. Loco: Union Pacific Big Boy Route: Sherman Hill
Just one shot today of 66623 working 6M91 11:08 Theale Lafarge - Hope Earles Sidings seen here at Totley Curve....
Southern Railway Q1 Class 'C9' begins duties at Evercreech Junction to deliver a war department train to Exeter. The train begins by shunting around Evercreech Junction and collects various wagons before setting out to Templecombe where the train will shunt into the platforms there to wait until further notice during the Summer of 1942. Loco: Southern Railway Q1 Class Route: Somerset & Dorset Railway
The third gondola is quite tilted. Did this scenario start with a long light run to pick it up? I know this bug from long scenarios, most typically free roams, some folks acknowledged, but didn't yet observe it with anyone else.
Avanti West Coast Class 390 forms the 17:30 London Euston to Glasgow Central service, seen at Cleghorn (Lanark):
The scenario started light engine but the gondolas won’t too far away, just right around a bend where I had to drive around a loop and then reverse to the gondolas. I don’t remember if it was already tilted before I coupled or after but I soon noticed the tilted gondola when I joined the nearby mainline to head to Cheyenne. This was actually my second go of the scenario as I messed up on my first attempt and the gondola was not tilted on the first attempt. The scenario is about 60 minutes long.
Weekly time. It ended up sort of a celebrational package: there is one from Christmas Eve, one from New Year's Eve, and one from our national holiday. I stopped adding descriptions a while ago because reasons. Did you like them, should I write those again? 1) Spynet capture of a Rio Grande SD40T-2 set climbing Soldier Summit 2) ICE 1 leaving München towards Augsburg 3) Southern Pacific bloody noses climb Donner Pass 4) Baldwin-built Southern Pacific Cab Forward sprinting on Cajon Pass 5) Another Rio Grande scene, here descending to Provo ps. FYI, this has become an exclusive club, unfortunately. With the new client I cannot manage my screenshots properly, neither the cherry picking part, nor the uploading part. Either I cancel my whole process and resort to dump identical sets right away, or I sit down to code new tools to support it, ideally I can also access Steam API although I highly doubt it. Either way, sad times.
Yes, I liked the descriptions and I wondered where they went as I like some good context to read about for screenshots. How do you manage your screenshots? I've always pressed F12 on my keyboard and they would go to Steam's automatically setup screenshot folder for the game. From there I would transport the ones I liked from there to my Windows background folder that I set up for the "Slideshow" option where I can see my screenshots cycle through on my computer background. So far this has been working as usual for me even with the new Steam client and I can upload my screenshots to this thread from there if I think they are good enough. I do agree with this "exclusive club" part though but in a different way. I feel this thread serves a niche interest in screenshotting moments in the game and sharing them like actual train photos with descriptions to make them feel authentic. I see a few people here in this thread that I see nowhere else on the forum. I feel the "club" used to be much bigger but many have moved off to other things now. I intend to keep posting to this thread myself as it's what I enjoy doing and no joke, screenshotting in this game has improved my real life train photography skills!
I play specific photo sessions with lots of exploration, trying angles, capturing a lot. Then I cherry pick those I save for myself, about 20-30 per scenario. Then further down, about 3 per scenario, that I intend to share over time. This last set ends up in a pool of roughly 443 pictures (4 each week out of 400 plus delay). The Steam UI was useful as a thumbnail collection for quick navigation, and discovering similar or outlying shots. Also, I would pick and upload from its folder ultimately. With the new version, not only did cherry picking become clumsy, but with uploaded stuff mixed in, I can't scroll back for old ones, and can't delete what I've shared. Of course, if I simply wanted to dump all pictures from the last week, I could still do that. As is, I'll just do the process outside Steam, and stop uploading there. True here. Things seem healthy on the Steam, judging by upvotes. Absolutely worth checking out once or twice a week. Some show up here now and then.
92018 passes Linhouse with the SuO 23:15 Edinburgh to Carstairs section of the London Euston Caledonian Sleeper train on 6th August 2023. The coaches on this service would then be attached to the back of the 23:15 service from Glasgow Central to form the 16-car train at Carstairs:
The Island Day Rover Ticket gives passengers unlimited travel over the Island Line and the Steam Railway on the Isle of Wight. After the passengers have spent an afternoon enjoying the seafront; Network SouthEast Class 483 '002' takes a large group of tourists on a trip from Ryde St Johns Road to Shanklin. Afterwards the train will head back to Smallbrook Junction where the passengers can switch trains onto the Isle of Wight Steam Railway on a bleak day in Spring. Locos: British Rail Class 483, Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Route: Isle of Wight
Bahnstrecke Strasbourg - Karlsruhe Route, Freight run — Part I. (I find European runs a little more relaxing.)
Regio DB FLIRT 3s '429 616', '429 103', '429 624' and '429 109' form a 10 coach long train travelling all the way from Koblenz Hbf to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf covering a distance of 131 kilometres with a journey time of around 1 hour and a half. The train will be stopping at 12 stops in between during a 2011 Autumn morning. Locos: ICE T, Stadler FLIRT 3 Route: Frankfurt - Koblenz
Looks like it's weekly day by everyone Nice Sunday hobby! My rolls / choices this week are a bit less awesome than yours but I hope you find them interesting or inspiring. One practical question. When I exit TSC, I notice the main menu screen getting a shade brighter. Is it possible that the default brightness / gamma is off? (Or the opposite, Win10 is high?) 1) Showcase - Four different Class 33 liveries sit near Fratton, ready to take on assignments (South by Southwest) 2) TransPennine Express extends a North Route service all the way to London 3) Grand Central bound Kawasaki M8 on the last leg of its journey 4) I really wanted to capture the spirit of the Zephyr visiting Reno at late night, with the 80s neon colors (Knight Rider flashbacks) 5) TEA time - On the Edinburgh-Glasgow line crossing a settlement
Over a couple of sessions I've taken the wandering S15 no.828 on an SRPS railtour from Inverness to Kyle. A selection of images:
Port Jervis express train leaving Hoboken with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Manhattan skyline in the background circa late 70s (and yes I am aware of the circa 2000s car passing under the train LOL)
ScotRail 156494 and 156511 arrives at Glasgow Central with the terminating 23:28 service from East Kilbride on 17/18th August 2023:
A few captures from non-completed Standard scenarios, all on West of Scotland Lines. The locomotive is Caledonia Works CR_812. The beginning of a lengthy passenger scenario captures the train as it departs Stanraer at 0800 on a cloudy morning. This and the second image are my first since installing AP's Cloud Pack: These final two captures are from an aborted recent fish delivery Standard Scenario: I've attempted this run a number of times, but always bail before completion. Not because the scenario is challenging. It's a simple delivery run with no stops ere the end. My problem is that the pre-dawn sky is pitch black, there are long stretches without artificial lighting in the landscape, being an older steam loco, the 812 has no beaming headlamps to brighten the track ahead, and CW not providing the 812 with a cab lantern (which they do with the majority of their more recent locos). Thus, for much of the time I'm staring at a totally black screen, the sound of the train and the F4 HUD my only indications that I'm playing the game. I tend to lose focus and/or nod off in short order. Which is what happened this time.
It's a bleak day in Radstock during the early 1940s with anti-air shells exploding above with air raid sirens going off. Southern Railway Q1 Class 'C18' leaves in a hurry from the yards in Radstock and heads to a nearby yard to pick up and move eight railguns from Braysdown to Bath. But all of a sudden halfway through the journey, a Junkers Ju 87 dives from the skies above and strikes the train resulting in a fire on the last railgun of the consist. The train travels as fast as it can to Midford to drop off the damaged wagon and continues the journey to Bath. However, I was too slow getting to Midford as upon dropping off the last railgun of the consist it kicked me out of the scenario for not getting there fast enough. Locos: LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0, Southern Railway Q1 Class Route: Somerset & Dorset Railway
Finishing off my Soldier Summit journey, there is a crazy winter run with thick fog. Not long before it descends, Rio Grande 5399 ascends from Helper between the snowy, cold rock faces. Quite possibly in the same year, under very different: lush, humid conditions, a Southern Pacific Office Car Special climbs on the section to Colfax, offering the most dense and mixed vegetation. North Jersey Transit F40PH on the outer section of the Coast Line. While the GP engines are still in active service including one in CNJ heritage paint, the F units are mostly gone, except for 4119-4120 used for freight and the very odd passenger service. Typical ÖBB Semmeringbahn shot, with some Bulls moving fight. Also, while the Hungarian state railways loco stock is gradually shrinking, these engines (often with a Rail Cargo Austria logo) are moving much of the freight to our capital. A Freightliner Class 66 exiting the Portsmouth line tunnel on the county border with containers quite possibly never happens in real life. Upon revisiting this loco, I wanted to take it somewhere else - a Fratton-Guildford section is plausible, and certainly nice.
Rain is pouring over the Chicago area as BNSF EMD GP38-2s '2036' and '2039' depart from Eola with freight service M-EOLBRC. The train is bound for the Belt Railway of Chicago's clearing yard but first makes a stop at Naperville to pick up some more freight wagons before setting off for Chicago once again. Locos: EMD F40PH, EMD GP38-2, GE ES44AC, GE ES44DC Route: The Racetrack: Aurora - Chicago
Loco: A1 (Peppercorn) - 60156 'Great Central' (A1 Tornado from the Settle & Carlilse Addon pack plus my A1 Enhancement pack) with a maroon passenger rake (possibly Kuju with UKTS FP addons?) Route: Cambridge Lines & the ECML (https://sites.google.com/site/cambridgelinesrailworks/home) Up Express ex-Edinburgh, departing Grantham for Kings Cross
