fastline simulation

NSM: Colliery Line

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Not content with yesterdays offering another sreenshot has appeared. This time of one of the many colliery lines in the route as it crosses a local road on the flat.

The rolling stock doesn't form part of the route and has been used to give a feeling for the area and its operations.

AOT-01: 6M79 1610 Tyneside CFD to Toton Speedlink

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0000

My inbox has also been filling up with up with screenshots from the testing of our first Ages of the Train scenario addon pack from RailWorks 3 Train Simulator 2012.

Here we see the player train from the second of the scenarios under development for the first pack at Ouston Junction with class 25/3 25308 and Class 31/1 31315 making full use of their blue star multiple working equipment as the ER do their best to return the Sulzer back to the LMR.

A double headed Class 37 hauled iron ore train is glimpsed crossing the bridge behind on its way to Consett.

NSM: Railway Terrace

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

A couple more WIP screenshots arrived in the inbox the other day. This time they're of the area around Railway Terrace, off Brown Lees Road, Knypersley, Biddulph.

Obviously there's still a bit more tweaking to go with these but they do start to show the atmosphere starting to be added to the route.

NSM: Stoke Wagon Repairs

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:39:00 +0000

First post of the New Year after things tailed off in 2011 as we prepared the ZCAs for release.

It's always nice to find a pleasant surprise in your inbox, and this was one of them from the builder of our North Staffs Minerals addon for Railworks Train Simulator.

He just sent me this picture of a Class 02 with a worn VDA van on the traverser outside of the Paint Shop at Stoke Wagon Repairs with a note to say that the track work there was now complete.

North Staffs Elevation

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:56:00 +0000

Sorry it's been a little quiet on the blog front just lately, lots of file editing doesn't really make for a blog post with eye candy!

However, I do have a WIP screenshot for North Staffs Minerals showing the newly re-laid mainline complete with a class 86 leaning into the super elevated curves, sorry that there's not much else going on in the picture.

In quite a bold move our route builder took a look at the new features in RailWorks 3 and decided he wanted to restart the track laying to ensure the route was to Train Simulator 2012 standards.

What has been created so far is definitely impressive and I'm confident that we made the correct choice on this one.

Brakes and Lights GUV?

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 06:30:00 +0000

It's been a surprisingly hard slog today to get the under frame and equipment underneath the generic GUV shape.

Sometimes you can have too much information and there even came a point where Pythagoras had to be used.

The under frame itself is complete now and all the equipment bits are there with the exception of the air tank, distributor and actuators to add.

Just bogies and the buffer beam detailing to add after that.

Mystery Parts of a New Model

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Here's a bit of a guessing game.

We've always hinted that there would be more to the 'Night Capitals' stock pack than the Newton Chambers Car Carrier and the GUV but we've never said what.

I started work on one of the other items today, can you guess what it is yet ...?

Painted Urchin

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:00:00 +0000

The majority of time since the release of the VDA vans has been spent (other than taking a bit of a break) getting the ZCA Sea Urchin completed and ready for master shapes to be given the once over by the testers.

The model shown is just about ready for a final check before the different versions are created, all that's needed is the magic to make that tail lamp flash!

Speaking of tail lamps, this is now the fourth different model we've created and all by chance for this one. An offhand comment from one of the team following the preview of the original lamp modelled set in motion a fortunate series of events.

The original comment was along the lines of "I hope we're going to include the BR flashing tail lamp" and received a reply of "That's what I've done". "Oh no", comes the reply, "They were bigger". Not a popular comment to make after the difficulty of finding enough references for (what's turned out to be) a mark 3 lamp!

By total chance in less than 24 hours an email arrived from the same team member that he'd got pictures and measurements of a BR lamp and everything that was needed to create the lamp in the screenshot. Now all that's needed is simulate the weight of the thing as he remarked "It was just as heavy as I remember them!"

Now, should we track down a mark 2 lamp just to complete the set ...?

It's good to talk

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:26:00 +0000

We've been having a look at the kinds of people who make contact with us and that we 'talk' to on a regular basis and it's thrown up a few gaps. As a result of this we've started to trial a couple of extra features to see if people want to take advantage of them to generally interact a bit more with us and each other.

We now have a (trial) forum which can be found at www.fastline-simulation.co.uk/forum it's all very quiet and empty at the moment as we'd really like you to be the people that form what you see there and how you use it - within all the usual boundaries!

The tone of the forum should really be about our products, RailWorks or Train Simulator 2012 (anyone get the feeling a subtle change of name is taking place?) and railways in general. Please do come along, sign up, make comment on what we've done so far, throw in your own suggestions and start a thread or two about something you want to get off your chest or fancy a discussion about.

As a companion or perhaps alternative to Facebook we're also having a look at Google+. If you've signed up you can track us down with a search or this link might even work: https://plus.google.com/117573473996055619592

Good luck with the big update that comes screaming through the ether tonight and don't forget to backup! We'll be checking out the bogie tanks in the morning and subjecting the VDAs to a final to test to make sure they're ok in the new version before building the installer.

Nice Body GUV

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The last couple of days have seen some time put in on the generic GUV shape.

The body is just about complete now, some solebar area detail to add then it's under-frame and bogies time.

NVX Car Carrier - The Final Bits

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:00:00 +0000

With the VDA vans out of bounds while the testers put the scenarios through their paces and the Sea Urchin shapes out for test too there's been time to put some finishing touches to the Newton Chambers Car Carrier that will feature in our Night Capitals addon for Railworks.

The master shape has now gained all the final fitments to allow the creation of the NVV version (Vacuum braked with through steam pipe) and the NVX version (as the NVV, plus air brakes and through ETH).

Next up is the NXV to keep these company ...

Temporary Slow Down

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Just a quick glimpse of a little something I've been playing with on and off this week. It's all flat textures at the moment so not looking too good but you get the idea

Brake Van Variety

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:37:00 +0000

The dia. 1/507 brake vans included in the VDA vans stock pack for Railworks were completed today and sent off to the testers.

This monster post shows all four variations to be included: bauxite and yellow clean; bauxite and yellow weathered; Railfreight red and grey clean and Railfreight red and grey weathered.

Each of these variants comes with 3 tail lamps (unfitted trains), 1 tail lamp (fully fitted trains) and without any lamps plus smoking and non smoking versions of the above.

Cool Van

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:03:00 +0000

The last of the lot 3890 VDA vans for RailWorks have been completed.

In this case it's the unique white painted van 200987 so painted for Rowntrees' chocolate traffic instead of just having a white roof like other vans in this traffic.

Slightly Worn

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:24:00 +0000

To finish off this little series of screen shots and almost complete the feel of what our VDA pack for RailWorks will contain, here's a flame red and grey van after it's seen a little bit of use.

There's still one more livery to show once we get the lot 3890 vans sorted and each of the variants of the other two lots to complete. The heavy work is done now though so they shouldn't be too much trouble ...

Red, Grey and a bit of Grime

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:55:00 +0000

Another lot 3855 version of the VDA van - this time a little later in life with some fairly recently applied Flame Red and grey paint.

You dirty old van!

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:12:00 +0000

After a slightly used example yesterday lets get downright filthy!

A once maroon VDA to lot 3855 - I might let you see the Flame Red and grey ones later ...

One slightly used van.

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:45:00 +0000

A busy day has been spent giving those pristine VDAs we've come to know a bit of a dirt.

This is the 'clean' version - well as clean as you're likely to see in the case of a VDA, unless you're sat by the doors of the paintshop at Ashford in 1976.

Time to get really dirty tomorrow.

Northern Lights?

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:59:00 +0000

A quick walk out at dusk last night found this standard dia 1/507 20T brake van with a full set of lamps for an unfittted train on the rear of a local trip working.

Taking a Railfreight Brake

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:13:00 +0000

Ok, the plan was to get Railfreight flame red and grey livery on the dia. 1/507 brake van for RailWorks and then get the models out to the testers.

What actually happened was the livery was applied and in the final stages of tweaking when an idea popped into my head - 'It might be a good idea to add side lamps for working trains without continuous brake'. The results can be seen above!

At the present time the side lamps have holding textures in place so the flat appearance and red lens will disappear in future along with the test coupling. The next modelling session should see the lamps baked and given proper textures and the coupling sorted too so these can go off to the testers while final versions of the VDAs are compiled.

Basically Bauxite Brake

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:21:00 +0000

Ok with a bit of yellow too!

The base textured dia 1/507 brake van with through air and vacuum pipes (TOPS code CAR) in bauxite livery with yellow patches is ready for a trip to the testers before a bit of dirtying up.

One thing that has become apparent while applying these textures is that no two examples were quite the same. What we see here is an aggregate version that captures the spirit of the vans.

First Coats of paint for the Brake Van

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:15:00 +0000

After a couple of entertaining sessions tweaking mapping and realising that no two prototypes are painted the same this freshly painted dia. 1/507 brake van was spotted slipping past Darlington.

The texture is still a layout version at the moment with generally flat colours and some needing a bit more tweaking, but it's always nice to see the model coming to life.

Car Carrier in game

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:32:00 +0000

With both the VDA vans and the CAR brake van off with the testers and out of bounds, the last couple of sessions have been devoted to making some more progress with the Newton Chambers Car Carrier which is now into RailWorks and being taken for a first spin.

Chocolate Box

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:16:00 +0000

A fairly large number of VDA vans gained white painted roofs when assigned to chocolate traffic for Rowntrees between their factories and depots. It's thought the coat of pain was applied to reflect some of the heat away in a similar way to refrigerated containers and meat vans in the past.

In this shot we can see a maroon liveried van from the lot fitted with experimental suspension. What has become apparent is the wide variations in the way each livery was applied to different vans, the maroon buffers being quite surprising.

This is still a quite flat textured version ready for testing to check everything is where it should be before the grime brushes come out!

Baked Brake

noreply@blogger.com (fastline simulation) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:14:00 +0000

By request here's a screenshot of the baked dia 1/507 Brake Van in game.

There are a few issues in evidence at the moment that need to be sorted along with the high vis coupling!