(UKTS should be all capitals, but the forum is set to not allow this. This needs to be changed. Second time in two days necessary capitals have been truncated.) So it turns out the people behind the payware African route "Outeniqua Choo Tjoe" are also responsible for many freeware African routes on UKTS, including a Rosmead to Graaff-Reinet route that was abandoned in 2013, but has reopened as of 2015 and, to my understanding, runs today. There is only one issue: many of the routes require the Phorum Peninsula assets, and Phorum Peninsula is no longer there. Per this thread, Phorum Peninsula is provided in some part within the London Transport Heritage Collection. Conveniently, I have downloaded a scenario pack where half the scenarios require that specific pack, so I am probably going to download that anyway if I don't have it already. However, I do not know whether all of the Phorum assets are included in this (i.e. the Phorum asset pack has been fully copied over, or only a part of it). According to the Railworks Wiki, Phorum Peninsula comes with an E1 Class Tram (now on UKTS) as well as a Class 07 and, strangely, an SW1500 Switcher. Several Steam engines also bundled with it in Corris 3, Little John, and Sir Derek, among others, plus passenger and freight stock. The LTHC meanwhile includes 1938 tube stock, the GWR 5700, and a Class 20. So the train assets, clearly, differ greatly. But what about the route assets? Does the fictional London Transport Heritage Route provide most, or perhaps all, of the assets from Phorum Peninsula? Or would I be better off trying to replace certain assets and changing the route, thus possibly updating it? Here are examples of routes I am trying to make work: - Kakamas to Upington, an 80 km journey (499 mi is a typo) - Alicedale to Port Alfred, a 78 mile (126 km) ride - Calitzdorp to Oudtshoorn, an abandoned 35 mile rail route - Rosmead to Graaff Reinet, the since-reopened route If I can find these missing assets, I can surely install the remaining missing items and explore these. Meanwhile, if the assets are actually part of the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe, I may very well just need to point them there. Any intel would be helpful.
The LT Heritage route comes with Narrow Gauge Track but it does not feature in the Phorum route for what I could see There is not stock to use the track even if there was a section It installs to assets\DTG\Phorum and has 2'3" gauge track which seems narrow for an African route I laid a short section so you can see it - it is similar to the track in the Corris Railway Route The Outeniqua Choo Tjoe has standard SAR track which is 3' 6" - Cape Gauge as it is known HTH Peter
In the Readme for for another of their routes it says "As no authentic scenery exists for Southern Africa, I used mainly default scenery and rolling stock" IE Kuju Assets and stock as most of the routes are from 2013
This is very interesting. One of the things that is quoted in the various Readmes as a requirement, and I'll quote this from the Calitzdorp to Oudtshoorn Readme: "www.3DTrains.com - RW Rural Landscapes, Scalerail and Roadnetwork. SR-ATSF and SR-SP needed. Free downloads but registration needed." This begs the question of what exactly these were used for. Here's information for their ScaleRail product; clearly not a free product. Rural Landscapes; nope, not that either. RoadNetwork? Nope. And seemingly the Santa Fe is also needed, quite easily replaced. So I would be most interested in where these come in on these African routes. If default track is used, then it seems like there is little use for Phorum Peninsula other than scenery elements, which is quite interesting. That said, the routes released on UKTS, and Phorum Peninsula started at UKTS as a 24 hour DLC creation challenge. So it's not a shock to see it used as a basis for the routes.
Some more South African routes would be great - would be a welcome change from the big 3. (UK, US, Germany) I wouldn't mind seeing part of the Garden Route from Mossel bay to George and onto Oudtshoorn. If the route was created with the same origin points from the Worcester - Mossel bay line and Oueteniqua Choo Tjoe line from George to Knysna, you could technically drive all the way from Worcester to Knysna or Outshoorn on the one route, assuming they could be merged.
The same team created both routes so it is possible they might have the same origin points But you don't need the same origin point to merge routes - otherwise the KX - PBO - YRK - NCL - EDB would not exist
Both lines existed on UKTS in freeware form since 2013, posted by Hermann, part of the team behind the payware routes. Though I agree, having these routes with proper trains and rolling stock, and with proper scenery and textures, would be great as well. Just don't count on it happening.
