Hi there, today I would like to introduce you to my project I'm currently working on: The Schwarzwaldbahn. First of all, this project is in a really early stage, I'm not yet able to show anything visual of the route as the availability (or rather non availablity) of Lidar data in Baden Württemberg (acurate terrain data) makes it quite hard to create the basic terrain shapes for the route. But never the less i have some quite exciting things to share with you (or at least I am really excited about them). The route project covers at least the entire RE2 journey from Karlsruhe to Konstanz promising 3 hours of stunning landscapes. The Schwarzwaldbahn is quite famous for its views and lots of tunnels. Lets take a closer look: The Schwarzwaldbahn First of all: I know that only the 150km part from Offenburg to Konstanz is officially called the Schwarzwaldbahn but to enjoy the full journey of the RE2 this route will also include the 100km part from Karlsruhe to Offenburg. As of now I unfortunatly can not really guess how that long of a route hurts the performance of TSW but I hope the level streaming keeps up to the route (at least ist does quite well in the editor). Anyways enough technical stuff let's get to what you can expect to see: RE2 Karlsruhe - Konstanz: DB BR 146.2 + Dosto (full timetable, drivable, 3:09h) S6 Engen - Konstanz: SBB-RABe-523 (full timetable, drivable, 0:47h) RE55 Donaueschingen - Immendingen - (Ulm): DB BR 612 (full timetable, partially drivable, 0:14h) RB20 (Bad Griesbach) - Appenweier - Hausach - (Freudenstadt): SWEG RS1 (depending on train) RB20 Offenburg - Hornberg (Schwarzw): SWEG RS1 (depending on train) RB24 Offenburg - Achern - (Ottenhöfen): SWEG RS1 (depending on train) RB25 Offenburg - Appenweier - (Straßburg): SWEG RS1 (depending on train) RB42 (Rottweil) - Villingen - Donaueschingen - (Bräunlingen): SWEG RS1 (depending on train) RB41 Karlsruhe - Rastatt - (Herrenberg): DB Coradia Continental (depending on train) RB44 Karlsruhe - Achern: DB Coradia Continental (depending on train) S10 Villigen - Donaueschingen - (Freiburg): DB Coradia Continental (depending on train) RE40 Karlsruhe - Rastatt - (Freudenstadt) DB Coradia Continental (depending on train) RE7 Karlsruhe - Offenburg - (Basel Bad): DB Desiro HC (depending on train) I have also fully planned out 3 possible extensions of the map that overlap with the Schwarzwaldbahn therefor adding much more possibilities. Unfortunatelly as you can seen above there are a lot of trains missing which would run on these extensions. These 3 extionsions would be: The Reintalbahn The Rheintalbahn would be mainly served by the RE7 which would require the Desiro HC. The Höllentalbahn The Höllentalbahn ist the stepest mainline in Germany and is part of the Breisgau-S-Bahn operated with the Coradia Continental spanning the connection between Freiburg on the Rheintalbahn and Donaueschingen on the Schwarzwaldbahn. The Dreiseenbahn The Dreiseenbahn extends from the Höllentalbahn starting at Titisee towards Seebrug at the Schluchsee. It is also operated as Part of the Breisgau-S-Bahn using Coradia Continental. Well, that's it fo today. I hope you are as excited for theese stunning routes. I'm excited for your feedback, suggestions and a looking forward to share more information with you all. Greetings from southern Germany, Alexander
A project that will keep you occupied for years - if not your whole life. Why not start with the scenic Murgtalbahn from Rastatt to Freudenstadt (exists in MSTS/OpenRails, and partially in Loksim3D)? Trains running there are the new Coradia (BR 1440), the AVG GT8-100 and a Prussian G-12 steam railtour.
I'm kind of in the same situation like you. For the most of my route in Rheinland-Pfalz, Lidar coverage is not there yet. However, take a look at this post of mine, where it says that due to the new form AdV-GR 4.0, Lidar might be available from 9th of June 2024 for us, too. So, maybe you should wait until then (at least for placing your scenery)? I guess I can't do so and will place some scenery nonetheless, but just saying that if you use SRTM now and place your scenery on, you high probably have to do a lot of adjustments to your route later on. That's just as tip 1. Tip 2: I maybe would start with a shorter route or only a section of one of those routes. It's really a lot of work to build a route and if you aren't on it almost every day, even a 30 km route will never see it's release. I don't want to scare you but I feel that your plans (at least for now) are a little too high. Start with a smaller portion of it (maybe 30 km of the route around the Lake constance) before you dive deeper into all of these projects.