Railsimroutes.net

Update on Watford Junction to Rugby project

I’m pleased to say that I resumed development of the Watford Junction to Rugby project recently. Currently I’m working on implementing new .Beacon commands which support the UkTrainSys plugin’s advanced safety system functionality.

Night lighting
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Signalling along the entire 66.5 mile / 107.1 km route has been updated, with all aspects now comprised of animated objects with ground night lighting.

Sections and axle counters, and TPWS induction loop beacons
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All Automatic Warning System (AWS) magnets are now comprised of beacons simulating the permanent magnets and electro-magnets of the real life system, and sections are now aligned with track circuit breaks and axle counter head locations.

TPWS induction loop beacons
[Click to enlarge]

All Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) induction loops are now simulated with beacons emulating the real life system in terms of induction loop spacing and frequencies.

APC beacons and OHLE neutral section
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There are four OHLE neutral sections modelled on the route, and all of these are now updated with UkTrainSys compatible beacons for the Automatic Power Control (APC) permanent magnets both before and after the neutral section, as well as denoting the start and end of the dead section of contact wire itself.

New signals awaiting commissioning (note the out-of-use covers), and modular AWS magnet objects [Click to enlarge]

Collaborative development

The other significant development, is that the project is now open to third party contributions, to speed up development and bring the release date closer. Ben Leahy is the first developer to contribute to the project by building objects, and I’d be more than happy to hear from you, if you think you’d be able to contribute some more high quality, efficiently coded 3D models for the route, leaving me free to concentrate on the systems and permanent way infrastructure.

Currently there’s a list of objects which need to be created and added to the route. These include:

• Station buildings from Kings Langley through to Rugby inclusive;
• A few lineside buildings, such as houses, warehouses and the like, to be positioned at various locations along the route, but especially at Roade, Weedon, and Rugby;
• A few road overbridges for the Weedon Line, as well as retaining walls at Weedon;
• Road vehicles for road bridges, and the section of M1 motorway at Watford Gap;
• Passing train objects.

If you think you can contribute any of the above, please get in touch and we can discuss options, and I’ll draw up an effective collaboration plan. Thanks 🙂

Blisworth pointwork and REBs – can you help by creating a new overbridge object for the site? [Click to enlarge]

For more information about these ongoing projects:

Watford Junction to Rugby Project

UK Train System (UkTrainSys) Cross-platform .NET Plugin