The Railway Operating Division - A Commemorative Train Simulator Project

Post copied from here: http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=361&t=150179
Hello all.

I was just talking to a friend of mine, and following my finding a rather nice ROD Black reskin for the DT GWR 4300, and we feel that it would be a nice thing to create a Railway Operating Division route, set in France or Belgium behind British lines towards the latter part of the conflict. Right now we have plenty of appropriate British rolling stock to get started with, but perhaps assets are lacking.

The first thing to do will be to identify a suitable date and location for the route. We have yet to do this, but I will be looking over some British trench maps in the next few days, and it would be fantastic if someone could suggest a suitable location, based on perhaps the availability of photographs or other information.

Another thing to do will be to identify appropriate assets, and potentially to ask if anyone would be willing to create some custom assets. Other things to consider are vehicles and troops - I can't think of any currently available assets for either, though perhaps some existing railwaymen can be reskinned into Khaki uniform. I am hoping that there may be some community support for this project, but I am determined to make a go of it regardless, as I think it would make an interesting, if perhaps morbid in the eyes of some, project and something different.

I hope to have more to post soon. The current plan is to be able to release the route completed and available on June 28th 2019, as although we cannot now realistically meet the Armistice centenary on the 11th of this month we can perhaps try and aim for the official ending of the war - the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th 1919.

- sem34090

 

The Robinson O4 would be another suitable loco'. IIRC, although some locomotives were requisitioned the ROD favoured a policy of standardisation. The O4's simplicity, reliability and surefootedness made it ideal for military use and it became the standard heavy freight locomotive- indeed most of the class were actually built for the ROD and only entered service with the LNER some time after the War.

 

Indeed! The GCR 8K, ROD, LNER O4 (Whatever your generation is!) will definitely be featuring - I intend to include a reskin for the DLC version, and possibly (if the right permissions are gained) to include the freeware version in a suitable livery.

 

An update on the project: http://sem34090.simplesite.com/441152081

"Update - Monday 28th January 2019
With only six months left until our self-imposed release date, to coincide with the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, it has been decided to put the prototypical Hazebrouck-based project on the back-burner for now as it requires a great deal more research than we anticipated.



Instead, attentions have turned to creating a fictional route representing the operations of the ROD and potentially also the WDLR. This route will use the Armstrong Powerhouse 'Wherry Llnes' route to provide basic geography and intial track layout, but it will be re-worked to represent ROD-Operated lines in Northern France and Belgium. Whether this route is to be publicly released will depend on permission being granted by Armstrong Powerhouse. Needless to say it will still require the payware edition of the Wherry Lines route in order to run."