24/12/2001

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. A perfect route for the Christmas period is now available - Robert Glass has released the latest version of the great Sandymill-Balfearn series of routes, this time with a seasonal flavour! Head over to Scottish Rail Sim Files to download the Sandymill to Balfearn Seasonal Special, which includes more passing trains than you can shake a stick at, and some wonderful falling snow and blizzard effects using the technique developed by Paul Woozley in his stunning Richmond to Kurrajong route.

Apologies also to those who may have been awaiting the Class 47 loco by Robert Glass and Simon Townsend - due to 'unfortunate' circumstances surrounding it's release I can't say when or where the loco will be hosted at the moment.

I haven't made much progress with the Cross-City South since the last update, a recent hard disk 'disaster' hasn't helped matters either. However I'm pleased to say that I've received some additional route data which will allow the line to be more accurately portrayed - work will resume on the route very shortly!

And finally I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year! :o)

07/12/2001

Bryan Dudley, who gave us the stunning Sandymill to Invermay 'Late Train', the night-time version of Watford Junction to Milton Keynes, and the 'Rocky Mountains Express', has just launched a new website - Rail Tech - where his range of new 'Sidelines' 3D models and other graphics related files for BVE can be downloaded. The range already includes some great locomotive and rolling stock objects, and more 3D models are in the pipeline. Head over to http://railtech.topcities.com and download the files!

03/12/2001

It's certainly been a good week for fans of Underground routes for BVE! Robert Glass has just released his latest route - the superb Glasgow Underground "Rush Hour", which boasts great visuals, random signalling, randomly placed objects and new Glasgow Underground stock complete with animated panel. Head over to Scottish Rail Sim Files to download the route.

And if you don't already know... Two more excellent London Underground routes have just been released too - the Jubilee Line Extension by David R Coleman is now available, and this stunning route can be downloaded from Alan Lee's comprehensive Jubilee Line Website. And a second new LUL route has also been released, the excellent Bakerloo Line by Paul Jobber, complete with superb stations and details. The route can be downloaded from Train Sim Central.

I'm also pleased to announce the development of a new BVE route. Matthew Callaghan is currently building the route running from Motherwell to Anderston, via Hamilton and Glasgow Central Low Level. A new website as just been launched, where you can follow the development of this interesting route. Visit Matthew's new Inverness TMD site to follow his progress.

Now for the latest on the development of the Birmingham Cross-City South. I'm pleased to say, that I'm finally making some progress with New Street station, and the first screenshots showing just a glimpse of the complex trackwork involved, can now be seen on the X-City Screenshots Page. Some shots of Five Ways are also included, showing the complex multi-level layout of the station area. I wouldn't like to give a release date yet, as there's still work to do on lower detail route versions for slower machines, which will require further optimisation and 'tweaking'.

26/11/2001

I've been given permission to host the collection of BVE locos created by jointly by Paul Robins and myself, here at Rail Sim Routes UK. I've also taken this opportunity to update the 'Train.dat' files, to fix some wheel-slip problems which were evident in some routes under BVE2, as well as add a couple of new sounds. Head over to the new BVE Locomotive Page page to download them.

And there's more good news - Robert Glass has been busy creating some excellent animated panels for some of these locos, so head over to the 'Trains' section of the newly redesigned Scottish Rail Sim Files for the updates (Classes 37, 50 and 55 'Deltic'), or use the links on the new BVE Locomotive Page.

The Links page has also been updated, and progress with the Cross City continues to be made - it's being developed as quickly as possible. Birmingham New Street is 'getting there'... :o)

12/11/2001

Keith Hazleton has launched a new website - The Trainsim Gallery, where you can find out about some of the people who have been 'bitten by the trainsim bug'. Contributions to the gallery are welcomed, and you can find out how to submit your details on Keith's site.

Some new X-City South screenshots have been uploaded, head over to the X-City South Screenshots page for a look at some more details which have been added.

A major step forward in the development of the route has been accomplished - all the terrain along the route has now been completed, leaving just a variety of buildings to add; some of which can be seen in the screenshots. The route from Redditch to Selly Oak is now largely completed, and remaining tasks include some more station buildings, the structures at New Street station, and the conversion of the route to lower detail levels. All trackwork at New Street is also laid, which inlcudes complex pointwork, 12 platforms, 16 parallel tracks, and a small framerate hit... ;o) Work will start on the station structures shortly.

On another note, if anyone has sent an e-mail to my blueyonder address during the last week, and not received a reply yet, could you please re-send it, as I may not have received it due to some mail server problems during the last few days. Apologies for this.

01/11/2001

Anyone who is interested in learning or sharing knowledge of building routes for BVE might like to join the new 'BVE Route File Learners' Yahoo! Group which has just been set up by Tony Chung. Eventually, it is hoped that this will become a useful resource and meeting place for those who wish to learn how to build their own routes, with the help of more experienced route developers. Visit the group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BVEroute/

A patch has been released for the fantastic new Edgeware to Morden route, which corrects a couple of minor errors which a few people experienced; visit Train Sim Central for the update. A 'Special Edition' version of the route can also be obtained, which features more realistic signalling. Well worth aquiring!

31/10/2001

As promised, some new screenshots of the X-City have been uploaded. Head over to the Cross-City South Screenshots page to see how the route is progressing. The railway infrastructure is far more detailed than that featured in Watford Jn to Milton Keynes, and at the moment the route is performing well. The high detail route has successfully run on a PII 400, quite smoothly, at over 15 fps with a 400m drawing distance set! Work is now starting on building the complicated New St station itself, and half the necessary track work has been laid. More updates to follow...

And in other news - Steve Green and Keith Hazleton have completed their latest ultra-realistic LUL route - the Northern Line from Edgeware to Morden. Boasting randomly generated signalling delays, this route will never play exactly the same twice! Download the latest masterpiece from Train Sim Central

Please note, you need to be running the very latest version of BVE - v2.00.0031 for the random signalling commands to function - however there's also a non-randomised version of the route included, which should work in prior versions of BVE2.

28/10/2001

I'm pleased to announce that one of the best real UK routes for BVE has just been updated - Don Clarke has extended his Edinburgh route all the way to Dundee, and the scenery has also been enhanced and now looks even more stunning than it did before! The route is quite demanding graphically, so a decent PC will be needed to achieve good framerates. This great route can be downloaded from Don's website: http://www.gotopcs.net

Robert Glass' excellent Class 158 will be needed to drive along the route, and this has just been updated to included animated power and brake handles. If you haven't downloaded the updated 158 yet, visit Scottish Rail Sim Files and treat yourself!

Development here has been concentrated on the building of the Cross City South line, and as development is progressing steadily at the moment, I haven't had time to work on the 321 update for WJ-MKC. Sorry! The X-City South is shaping up to be more accurate and feature more lineside detail than Watford Junction to Milton Keynes; expect the finished route to feature more detailed permanent way infrastructure, more trees, better ambient sounds, more photo realistic bridges and smoothly curved rails. More screenshots of the route will follow soon...

02/10/2001

Good news for those who enjoy the High Detail version of Watford Junction to Milton Keynes Central - the man who brought us the stunning "Late Train" dusk to night-time conversion of Robert Glass' Sandymill to Invermay, Bryan Dudley; has converted the High Detail Class 87 Winter daytime version, to include dusk to night-time 'Graduated Light Effects'. You can download the new route file on the WJ-MKC Add-ons page. Note that you need the original WJ-MKC download, along with the High Detail add-on for the new route to work.

Many thanks to Bryan for all his hard work!

28/09/2001

Regular visitors will have noticed a new look and name for the site! I'd like to thank members of the BVE community for their kind words and support since the release of Watford Junction to Milton Keynes Central. In fact, seeing as WJ-MKC has proved to be such a success, another real UK route is now being built! :o)

As was mentioned on the Homepage, if you're using the old www.wj-mkc.cjb.net URL, please update your bookmarks. The new URL is http://railsimroutes-uk.cjb.net.

As may have been seen elsewhere recently, currently under development is the Birmingham Cross-City South route. This part of the line runs from Redditch to Birmingham New Street, and is operated by the Class 323 25kV AC EMU. The route will be very varied in terms of scenery, linespeeds, track types, and civil engineering features. The route starts as a single track branch at Redditch, before joining the Gloucester to Birmingham main line at Barnt Green, about a mile North of the infamous Lickey Incline summit at Blackwell. From here, a short period of high speed running is called for, on the fast lines along the 3 and 4 track sections as far as Longbridge. A switch is then made to the slow lines, for the run through the outer suburbs of Birmingham as far as Kings Norton. As the Camp Hill line diverges, it's then double track all the way to Five Ways, joined for much of the journey by the Worcester and Birmingham canal running parallel to the line. After Five Ways, a series of tunnels signal the approach to the busy Birmingham New Street station.

This route is being developed in CSV format, so will work only with BVE2. Development of the route is progressing well - track is laid as far as New Street itself (the station is yet to be built), lineside signs have been implemented, some scenery has been completed, fully working BVE signalling is installed and is near prototypical in operation, digital AWS sound effects have been added; and all tunnels are now built, complete with photo-realistic portals. Many bridges are also nearly finished, many being photo-realistic also; and the length of the route has been almost all fully electrified with accurate Mk3 catenary, to 'High Detail' standards. There's still work to do though...

For more information and some screenshots, go to the new Projects section of the site, and click the Birmingham X-City link.

Apologies to those who may be awaiting the Class 321 add-on for Watford Junction to Milton Keynes Central; when you've just worked on a route over a period of 8 months(!), you have to take a short break from it, once in a while... ;o)

23/08/2001

At long last, WJ-MKC is now available! The full route, including Class 87 and Class 310 diagrams, can now be downloaded. Please thoroughly read the information on the download page while downloading the route, which will hopefully answer any queries or problems which might be encountered. While the 'Standard Route' should work much better than the old demo, bear in mind that as BVE routes go, this is still a complex, demanding route which loads many objects, and the better the hardware it's used on, the better it will run. And remember to use BVE2!

Please re-read the information about the route(s) here, as there have been some changes. Then, proceed to the Downloads page and read the information while downloading the route.