Fails 2 - The Ones That Got Away

[BigVern]

In an idle moment yesterday, I decided to sit down and tally up all the route projects I started but dropped or never got round to finishing, over the last few years. To qualify, a project must have been at least started to the point of terrain extraction and some track laying. Reproduced below is just the list for the British Isles and a few others, not including European or World routes - and even this list is by no means complete:-

Scotland:
Wick to Lybster - tried to be clever and run through via coast to Helmsdale, too ambitious.
The Mound to Dornoch - lost in angry RW uninstall.
Dingwall to Strathpeffer - distracted, seemed small and inconsequential.
Muir of Ord to Fortrose - not sure why this one failed.
Garve to Ullapool (proposed but never built in reality) - was looking good but victim of a Trainz uninstall.
Ballachulish Branch - only got terminus done, probably distraction.
Ayr to Girvan via Coast - track laid thruout in RW, possibly distracted.
Balloch to Stirling - great promise but chickened out at Stirling.
Lochty Railway - this must have been another uninstall victim.
Duchal Moor - gradients came out too steep but on list for further attempt.
Lochaber Narrow Gauge - this was quite advanced but think I bottled at prospect of Fort William "urban" scenery.
Riccarton Jn to Hexham (cross border) - an old casualty, victim of general burnout (at the time).
Campeltown & Machrihanish - several attempts to do this one, not sure why it keeps failing.
Lanark to GSW - possibly mapping or lack of information issue.
Ballinluig to Aberfeldy - mapping was out if I recall.
Ballater to Aberdeen - baulked at lenght and complex arrangements at Aberdeen.
Montrose to Inverbervie - creative block at scenery stage.
Talla Reservoir line - distraction.

Ireland
Howth Tramway - two attempts so far. Victim of Trainz spline frustration I think.
Farranfore to Valentia Harbour - put off by length.
Clifden Branch - length and at the time poor mapping.
Achill Branch - two attempts so far, creative block/
Athlone to Mullingar - creative block at urban ends.
Ballina branch - think this fell victim to a Trainz "whiteout" uninstall.
Burma Road - too long.
Rosslare to Waterford- distraction.
Shillelagh branch - another whiteout uninstall victim.
Portrush to Bushmills - thwarted by poor mapping.
Limerick - Nenagh - Ballybrophy - thwarted by poor mapping.

England (where to start)
Alston branch
Llandudno tramway
Sunderland tramway
Sand Hutton
Lincolnshire Wolds
East Lancs
Shipston on Stour branch
Worcester to Hereford
Bishops Castle branch
Coniston branch
Malmesbury branch
Kingsbridge branch
Bodmin/Padstow/Wenford
Princetown branch
Seaton Tramway
Paddy Waddell
Lyme Regis branch
Bridport branch
Selsey branch - lost interest/
Uckfield/Eridge/Tunbridge Wells - never really engaged with it.
Littlehampton to Bognor - RW anger/distraction.
Wimbledon to West Croydon (BR) - too complex & urban.
Northern Heights - several attempts but always seemed to fizzle out.
Dungeness Branch + RHDR - lost interest.
Ravenglass & Eskdale - RW crashing, not yet tried in Trainz (as 2ft gauge).
Great Central (Aylesbury to Rugby) - RW anger (someone else done in Trainz)
Northampton to Bedford - put off by complex track/urban scenery either end.
Northampton to Market Harborough - RW anger.
Nickey Line - distraction.
Bedford to Bletchley - put off by complex trackage at either end.
Wickford to Southminster - distraction/anger.
Norwich to Yarmouth/Sheringham - distraction/anger,
Southwold Railway - distraction/anger.
Aldeburgh - distraction.
Leek & Manifold - distraction + someone else now done in RW.
Cannock Chase Military - not happy with gradients, abandoned.
Catcleugh Reservoir branch - fizzled out.


Wales
Cambrian Coast (for Trainz) - lack of enthusiasm at repeating having done in MSTS.
Llangynog branch - fizzled out.
Plynlimon Tramway - fizzled out.
Grwyne Fawr Line - lost in angry Trainz uninstall.
R&SB/Glyncorrwg - DEM/mapping inconsistencies + distraction.
Vale of Rheidol (Trainz) - map and DEM out, loss of interest as done in RW.
Aberystwyth to Carmarthen - lost interest due to likely build time.
Whitland to Cardigan - no reason, just fizzled out.
Dean Forest/Wye Valley - decided too complex.

Other
Jersey and Alderney railways (Guernsey contemplated but not started)
Manx Electric
Malta - put off by urban scenery/lost patience with Trainz.
Bermuda - lost interest but high priority to revive.
St Kitts - Mapping poor quality


Reasons for abandonment are varied and many. Most common is distraction as a result of spotting something else that offers a more appealing basis for a project.
Then there's inertia - often a long project seems to be dragging on and on with no end in sight and when it becomes a chore you let it go, even at the risk of losing weeks or months of work. Converesly the opposite can set in on a short project which can sometimes appear a bit pointless against grander schemes lurking in the background.
Technical - this is often because what looks good on paper doesn't work in the sim. Most commonly in Trainz this is because splined track and roads don't look or behave as you really want. The mapping which looked okay at the planning stage does not measure up when incorporated on the route. The DEM is sometimes out or a gradient gets messed up and is too complex to fix. Tunnels are a source of frustration particularly in Trainz and where these don't or can't be made to look right, frequently lead to abandonment of the project.
Finally, sheer anger or frustration. There have been times in the past when a falling out on a forum has led to a huff and a summary uninstall of a particular sim. Although I now avoid such confrontational behaviours, there is still software failure that has also caused me to just uninstall a sim, taking any WIP routes along with it.

To finish on a positive note, at least I now have a list to go back over and re-consider key projects. There may also be some potential projects in their to pique the interest of fellow developers. Also demonstrates to our non-developer guests how difficult it can (sometimes) be to see things through and why there's not more routes coming out

[Pauls]

ADD ?

[BigVern]

Don't know about that, but when you tally up the wasted time (even if just a few days in some cases) that time could have built 25 - 30% of the actual list!

Edit: Had to resist the red mist again this evening. Set some items downloading in Trainz Content Manager while having tea, to find the process stalled after the first couple in the list. Trying to restart the process simply resulted in CMP freezing up and requiring a forced exit. I know it will take a minimum of 25' on starting Trainz next time for the mandatory database rebuild that triggers in these circumstances, time wasted that should be used for productive route building. Very tempted to hit the uninstall button and shred the DVD's so TS12 never darkens my hardware again, just the hope that T:ANE might do it better that prevents me doing so.

[spacedyemeerkat]

My jaw dropped just looking at that list - it really did! How you folks have the patience to actually complete anything, anything at all, is beyond me - but I'm incredibly grateful you do.

[Pauls]

I find my interest comes and goes - basically any railway project is hard work and you do need a rest from it - fortunately for me I keep going back to the same railway - I do this because the railway in question is important to me - I think if it wasn't I'd be like Vern and start on something different.

At the moment I'm working on Arley Station - sadly though it's lack of time rather than lack of interest that is slowing me up. Hopefully the experience gained with this will help me complete my own lines models a little bit quicker.

Cheers
Paul

[BigVern]

It's actually strange as in MSTS days I never suffered from this particular affliction. Other than breaking off mid-way through the Cambrian to do my first section of the West Highland (also came about because I was waiting for terrain textures and 3D models to materialise from the rest of the 3DTS gang) I would start a project and pretty much plug away at it until done. The original Far North must have taken me in excess of four months but I never recall losing interest or leaving it for another project, even when the RE messed up and trashed the track database. For my Swedish route, I actually spent the first month just tracing contours on scanned maps in TS Tools (or was it DCM Tools) to create the terrain, before even laying the first 100m straight section.

Maybe there was more of a challenge back then, there wasn't nearly so much information on the internet 10 years ago as there is now, AFAIR there was certainly no Wikipedia, not much online mapping or easy research. Maybe that is the crux - having spent considerable time researching a project, including buying various maps and books, I was more inclined to push on and not waste all that preparatory work and often considerable expense. These days I can fire up Transdem and in less than half an hour have a fully DEM'ed and mapped route template set up ready to build on, ditto RW with not much more work and the Google overlay is there ready to follow. So ironically making it easier has possibly made it harder where the overheads of setting up a project are so low it instantly becomes more disposable. That's not to say I want those old days back - having to plot reference points off an OS map and convert these manually or hand building the terrain from a few spot heights and 500m road sections.

[AndiS]

You are certainly right about the host of information bringing a host of distraction.

And laying track in RW and Trains is plain addictive, making the rest of the route building experience look pretty disappointing by comparison.

It's a pity that MS never came up with their World of Rails. However lame the initial version would have been, after those 5 or more updates that we would have seen by now (assuming they keep going), it should have become a decent aid to follow track with scenery.
Or it would have set a sober mind frame for our expectations of route building progress.

Re. T:ANE, it is such a pity that none of all these software developers ever have the courage to say "Give us $ XXX and we promise the loading sequence / database connection /other mundane base functionality will never freeze again." Many a software package suffers from such things and if they ever get fixed, then that fact is kept as a secret for fear of owing up to the past weakness.

[Pjt1974]

I find my interest comes and goes - basically any railway project is hard work and you do need a rest from it

I'm the same. Main reason why the Furness has taken just under 11 months to get to where it is so far. 21 miles done, 8 to go. I generally put on a spurt to finish to a chosen point then Railworks goes on the back burner for a month or so while I spend some time away from it.

[Antony Perks]

My list:
Yate to Tytherington (ukts route building competion) got to all but finished when i had a crash which wiped out all track and roads, and just coudnt face re doing it.
Bath GP to bristol and beyond ( this ones still a goer i do a bit more now and again, line goes Bath to Bristol both routes, and on to yate and the branch to thornbury, also the main gwr line from Chipping Sodbury to Patchway and left to bristol via Lawrence hill)
Midland lines around Gloucester ( still on going have track from yate to standish junction, with branchs to Dursley and Nailsworth in, also the severn bridge line to lydney, got a bit side tracked here and ended up going into the forest as far as Parkend, scenery 70% completed)
lyme regis branch and seaton branch with mainline between ( not much more than track with signalling and some scenery)
Hedborough North ( extended with extra stations with main station as worcester shrub hill steam era, got a bit lost with this one so may not finish it)
Southern S & D ( Bournemouth to Templecoombe, very much alive and kicking, and my first route ive managed to stick to the one track rule!, i would say it is 60% done scenery wise all track is layed, fully signalled, and a small extension to Hamwothy goods)
Hawkesbury upton branch ( already released as a freeware route but i have been adding a small extension and detailing with a quarry branch and a little more main line )
Painton and dartmouth Railway ( got this virtually finished but with the change from Ts 2012 to 2013 hada persistant crash every time i went anywhere near churston so it got deleted even back ups crashed!)

no where near as exhausted as Verns list but plenty still left to do