Hi All, In my opinion the Reading to Paddington Route is let down by the relatively empty timetable. Over the last few months I have been working on a new timetable based on the Railtrack 2002 WTT (when local services were operated by Thames Trains and express services by FGW). Whilst the TSW track layout isnt quite correct for 2002, particularly around Reading, this hasn't caused too many issues. To date I have added all of the mainline local and passenger services between London and Reading totaling circa 1076 services (circa 800 of which are playable), including the following: FGW Express Services: Paddington to Plymouth / Penzance / Taunton Paddington to Bristol / Weston Super Mare Paddington to Cardiff / Swansea / Carmarthen Paddington to Hereford / Worcester Thames Trains Thames Valley Services: Paddington to Oxford Paddington to Bedwyn / Newbury Paddington to Bourne End / Henley on Thames / Maidenhead Paddington to Banbury / Stratford / Great Malvern Thames Trains Local Services: Paddington to Reading Paddington to Slough Paddington to Ealing Broadway Paddington to Greenford ECS Moves: ECS to / from Reading including splitting services at Reading and Paddington ECS to / from Old Oak Common ECS and Power Car moves between Bristol St Phillips Marsh and Old Oak Common The above includes joining and splitting trains particularly in the morning when some 9 car ECS trains work from Reading TMD to Paddington and split to form 2 or 3 services from Paddington. All services currently use the default GWE stock and have been fully simulated / cooked and tested in game. Some screenshots below. I have started adding freight services however this is causing multiple issues at the moment, particularly trains entering Acton yard which appear to get randomly stuck entering the yard blocking the main lines. I will look at the freight issues again however in the meantime I have started reskinning stock to be more era appropriate. First up is a power car in early 2000s FGW livery: This is still very much WIP and rough around the edges. I also havent worked out how to add or move decals so the numbers and logos are displayed in proper locations (any ideas anyone?). My intention is to release with the following stock: HSTs in FGW green / gold as above, early 2000s FGW "Barbie" livery and Virgin Cross Country (for the small number of cross country services to / from Paddington). 166s in Thames Trains NSE and Blue / White. Thanks for looking!.
As a bit of a trial I have cooked the FGW power car which is now showing up in the game. Still a lot of work to do to the textures and something isn't quite right with the naming conventions - it defaults to the player power car in my cooked timetable which it shouldn't be doing yet as I haven't added it to the timetable formations. Haven't worked out how to move the decals yet either...
I have managed to add a few freight services and appear to have worked out the issues with Acton Yard which appear to be due to a signalling bug causing trains entering or leaving the yard to lock off if another service is active in the yard area (even if the paths don't conflict). Whilst the timetable is based on the 2002 WTT I have encountered some issues with re-skinning stock into 2002 liveries. The FGW "green and gold stripe" HST is OK however re-skinning the 166 into Thames Trains livery using the editor is impossible due to the way the textures (UV map?) is setup. I need to work out how to alter the existing model UV maps and decals so I can reskin the models properly (assuming this is even possible?). As a bit of a stop gap and to add some variety I have amended the formations so the passenger services are a mix of FGW Blue and FGW Green stock. The FGW Blue 166 is the standard DTG model whereas the FGW Blue HST is a reskin by myself using the original textures where possible as the original model has been removed by DTG. As its a reskin by myself the HST model suffers from a "reversed" logo on one side and numbers in the wrong location. Once I can amend decal locations on existing models hopefully I can correct this. The carriages also dont have any decals due to this issue. Some screenshots below: FGW Blue HST with "correct" logo: Other side with the "reversed" logo:
I have had a bit of a play around with the cooked timetable. A few screenshots below from a Bedwyn to London service departing Reading at 08:43. Waiting for departure time at Reading: Whilst waiting for my train to depart an HST arrives at Reading with a London bound service whilst another HST waits to head west: Passing a GWR Green 166 just outside Reading: In the platform at Maidenhead whilst a Reading local stops in the opposite platform: Waiting for an HST to pass just outside of Slough before my train crosses from the Slow to Fast lines for the rest of the journey to Paddington: continued below...
Passing a 66 unloading its trains at Hayes tarmac terminal: A 66 hauled enterprise freight stands in the Up Poplar Loop at Acton: Approaching Paddington whilst an HST runs ECS from Paddington to Old Oak Common: 166s stabled in the carriage sidings outside Paddington at the end of the morning peak (not sure if this is prototypical but needed to move them out of Paddington to free up platform space): continued below...
arriving at Paddington with a nice mixture of HSTs in the express platforms: HSTs "on the stops" at Paddington: 166s "on the stops" at Paddington: Currently there are 1150 driveable services (including freight, ECS and shunting moves). Once I have added the rest of the freight I will look to release the timetable.
The timetable is nearing completion subject to resolving and ironing out some issues. I have managed to resolve the pathing issues at Acton Yard and added freight services to the timetable (around 40 driveable freight services) and also the Gatwick Services at Reading and branch services at Twyford, Maidenhead and Slough. The freight services are taken from the 2002 WTT. Where the correct wagons are not available I have used the closest alternatives available. A few screenshots below from train 6O61 Washwood Heath to Dollands Moor which leaves Reading at around 10:00. Waiting to depart Reading. The station is busy with other services so we are held for a short time waiting for passenger services to leave: Two 166s depart before us at about the same time, one on the Up Slow and one on the Up Fast. Once the slow service has cleared we are able to proceed towards Acton: We run under caution for a short while however the passenger service we are following on the Up Slow soon pulls away from us and we are running under clear signals by Twyford: The lines are busy and a number of services pass us in both directions: We briefly catch up with the passenger service just before Slough where we are also held for a Paddington to Slough stopping service to cross in front of us and enter the bay platform: continued...
We soon depart Slough and are running under green signals again by Iver: Our run under green signals is short lived as we are signalled into the loop at Dawley. Whilst entering the loop a 66 on an aggregates service passes in the opposite direction: The timetable is based on the real WTT. We are therefore scheduled to wait in the loop at Dawley for over 20 minutes whilst a number of passenger services pass us. Time to get a cup of coffee: We are soon on our way again passing Southall Yard where a number of wagons are stabled in the sidings (some of which have been shunted to / from the Brentford branch as part of the timetable). Those HKA wagons don't look like they are the default ones... continued...
Nearing the journeys end we are held briefly outside Acton Yard as a 66 exits the yard on a aggregates working: Entering the yard two more of those strange HKA wagons are stabled in the sidings: Acton yard is busy. A 66 waits to depart the Down Goods Loop with another aggregates working whilst another stands in the sidings at the rear. Most of the wagons in the yard are associated with timetabled services and not static consists. There are a number of shunt moves, run around moves etc included as part of timetabled services: We end our journey in the Up Goods Loop. Another 66 stands next to us in the reception sidings with a aggregates train bound for Purfleet:
As referred to above, the timetable is almost ready to release as a test beta subject to ironing out the following issues (anyone have any ideas how these can be fixed): - HST isn't selectable - for some reason the HST isnt selectable in the front end despite the services being present. If you spawn on foot at either Paddington or Reading you can enter and drive the HST services just not select them in the menu. This only appears to happen when the .pak file includes the GWE HST and reskinned FGW HST. If I only use the original GWE HST it is selectable. Any ideas why this may be happening?. - Layers - I haven't worked out how to set these up correctly. Is it purely a case of cutting the layers from the master timetable and pasting as a separate layer with the correct plugin dependencies defined?. Do I need to leave the timetable in the master timetable for simulating the timetable or will the layers be automatically detected when I simulate the timetable?. I have also identified another minor bug which definitely wont be fixed (as I am not going to alter the timetable for all 1400+ services!). Unfortunately I have included the scheduled arrival time in the "stop at" instruction. This means that if you arrive before the scheduled arrival time the instruction wont be marked as complete until the scheduled time is reached at which point the load / unload instruction is triggered. You can still open the doors and load / unload will still happen as normal, you just wont get the prompt to do so until the scheduled arrival time.
1. All formations must be in your plugin, not in the original route gameplay plugin. If this is already the case, something is going on with the FGW HST, but using external formations is a common mistake that is hard to spot -- because some things work properly and others do not. This is also the solution to "spawn on foot" loading the default timetable. 2. Layers are detected automatically since they are part of the timetable definition. Personally, my master timetable is empty and everything is in layers with plugin dependencies, even the trains contained with the base route. 3. I would encourage you to fix the arrival time issue, as it's pretty annoying in-game. The correct pattern is for arrival and departure times to be in the Load/Unload instruction, with no times on Go To instructions. It is possible to batch-edit timetable nodes by selecting multiple instruction nodes. You can Click-and-hold to draw a rectangular selection, and/or hold either Shift or Ctrl (I forget) to add to your existing selection. You can only edit fields which are present in all selected nodes, so only select one type of node at a time. This is why it's very helpful to align nodes carefully allowing for rectangular selection to cover only one type of instruction. There are also some batch edit tools in the timetable toolbar, although I don't remember if any would be useful here.
Will there be Heathrow Express AI run by class 387s? It might be slightly inaccurate considering the time period but its better than nothing
Word of caution regarding layer names. Make sure there is no spaces. Use _ if you would like a space (same as plugin names, etc). For your HST reskin, make sure in the RVD Is Drivable and Is Selectable is checked. Also recommend adding a thumbnail to the RVD (you can create your own or use the default one) otherwise you will have a red X in the menu.
When you simulate your timetable after the message xxx started, xxx finished , xxx didn't start , xxx didn't complet , what text are you getting ? Does it apply to specific services not running on time ?? When you say the HSTs are not selectable, do they appear in your time table ??? Did you set up the service player drivable ????
Thanks - it does seem to be an issue with the FGW HST which is causing the HST to not appear in the front end, cant work out why as the RVD etc setup appears to be the same as the FGW 166. I have removed the FGW HST temporarily and the GWR HST is now selectable in the front end. Layers all setup and working now - thanks for the advise. I haven't attempted the arrival time issues yet. Unfortunately its not as simple as a bulk change as I will need to manually add the arrival times to each of the load / unload instructions!. Thanks, its definitely not an issue to do with start times (confirmed in the log). The HST services spawn on foot etc and can be driven when spawning on foot its just they dont appear as selectable services in the front end. As above I have removed the FGW blue HST which appears to have fixed the issue for now whilst I investigate further.
