The East Kent Coalfields & It's Railways Re-imagined [on Workshop Now]

Discussion in 'Content Developer's Area' started by deedee3382, Dec 16, 2020.

  1. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    You can find this work in progress route on the steam workshop here:
    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2243416265&searchtext=

    The East Kent Coalfields were only moderately successful and were served by the East Kent Light Railway which was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. The line ran from Shepherdswell to Wingham (Canterbury Road) Station with a branch from Eastry through Poison Cross to Richborough Port. Built primarily to serve colliery traffic, but also carried other freight and passengers too. The line had many spurs and branches to serve the mostly unsuccessful mines of the Kent coalfield and many more were proposed but never built.

    This version aims to reproduce the route in full but imagines that the colliery's and freight services were slightly more successful, meaning the line would have remained operational well into the 1980’s until the inevitable decline of coal production. This also paves the way for a heritage company to run services along the full length of the route. Hopefully this approach will will give the route a lot more playability.

    Length: 11.4 miles(18.9 Including Guilford Colliery branch & Eastry to Richborough Port) Also includes 6.13 miles Adisham to Lydden & 4.82 miles Minster to Sandwich SECR main line.

    I Hope you enjoy the route so far.

    Aylesham station:
    Aylesham.jpg
    Elvington station with Tilmanstone colliery in the background:
    Elvington.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2021
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  2. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    Almost finished on phase 2 now(Lydden to Adisham) and hope to get the update out in the next week. Here are some screenshots as a bit of a preview.
    Snowdown station and colliery at night.
    Snowdown at night.jpg
    Adisham station.
    Adisham station.jpg
     
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  3. atomicdanny

    atomicdanny Staff Member

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    Looking like a nice route so far :) (minor point though Aylesham didn't have a signal on P1 until 2011 :) (I lived there for 24 years - although have my own version not finished but set in modern-day :) )
     
  4. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    Thanks atomicdanny, that's really useful information. There are I'm sure plenty more inaccuracies on the main line section though such as gradients, but I honestly never intended to build further than Snowdown colliery when I started. I guess I got a bit carried away. :D
     
  5. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    Phase 2 updates now completed.
    I have noticed that even though I created scenarios for the route, it seems only the QD ones are added to the workshop item. As it may be a while yet before this is made final I have decided to add a link to the scenario pack here for anyone who wants to test them out.
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hdca4cDE2McbFJlk4MqsJC4A4CibUkIA/view?usp=sharing
    The DLC need to play the route and scenarios are all list in the workshop item description.

    Hope you enjoy!
     
  6. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    A little more progress to see on this route now. I've added a few pictures to show what's been added.

    Richborough Power station in the background and the fireworks factory to the left with the river Stour on both sides.
    20210503013224_1.jpg

    Another shot of the power station as a class33 passes by.
    20210503222507_1.jpg

    Richborough Roman Fort looking down the main line towards Sandwich. The bridges in the background carry the EKLR across the Main line and river Stour.
    20210503013651_1.jpg

    The approach from the north to Sandwich Canterbury road station with an elongated passing loop to allow for longer coal trains.
    20210503223913_1.jpg

    Sandwich Canterbury Road station from the south. There is a car park and waiting room at the station as this is as far as the heritage services are allowed to run.
    20210503224044_1.jpg
     
  7. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    Updated on Steam workshop late yesterday to include all of the Richborough areas shown above.
    updates were:
    Completed Scenery around Richborough port, power station and all stations to Poison Cross.
    completed all trackwork, markers and signalling.
    Added dependancy Chatham Main & Medway Valley, mainly for LCDR station signsalthough a few buildings have been used too.
    Added QD scenario from Minster (incomplete scenery at Minster).

    Here's some pictures too.
    20210520225857_1.jpg
    20210525192815_1.jpg

    Hopefully the Minster and Sandwich areas shouldn't take as long to do. I'll keep this updated with my progress.
     
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  8. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    A few more pictures of the latest sections.
    The Workshop version has been updated to version 1.4.0 to include all the new sections shown.

    Minster station.
    20210621013755_1.jpg

    Minster station and junction looking towards Ramsgate.
    20210621014412_1.jpg

    Leaving Minster junction on the Deal branch.
    20210621015117_1.jpg

    Sandwich station.
    20210621020202_1.jpg

    Sandwich level crossing.
    20210621020539_1.jpg


    It really is very close to being complete now, so if you find any problems or bugs please let me know as it's quite a large complicated route and I must have overlooked a thing or two.
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2021
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  9. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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  10. deedee3382

    deedee3382 Member

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    Just did some quick reskins to see how they would look on the line.
    No9 worked Snowdown for many years, whilst No12 spent time at Betteshanger.

    Here's a few shots:
    20210724203449_1.jpg 20210724204011_1.jpg 20210724204222_1.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2021
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