Introduce Yourself!

[shmbry]

Hello All
Many thanks to Jim for inviting me. I am a relative newcomer to train simulation have graduated from FSX and X-Plane. My history with railways, however, goes back to 1976 when my father, my brother and I were part of the small nucleus that was D&EG working on 7017 on The West Somerset. One of my first jobs being to help move the batteries from 'A' end to 'B' end in an attempt to meet the low axle weight criteria set by the council. Back in the days when there was a fierce anti diesel core on the railway. latterly I also worked on 9526 and particularly remember its move by a Wynn’s Scammel Amazon from Westbury cement works on my birthday, the 1st of April, in 1980 I think. As far as I know I am the only person to have ridden on a loco through the centre of Taunton, taking super 8 film as we went (whilst on the low loader)

Latterly I also helped DTG (Diesel Traction Group) working on 1015 and Greyhound whilst they were at Swindon in the 80's. After that I my interest turned to Tank Museum were I spend 9 years working on 131, 6 years as a volunteer and 3 full time.

Although my father and brother were both keen railway modellers, I was never that interested in 'OO' modelling. So my father was astounded when I took up Railworks in 2012 following a serious illness.

In terms of development, my biggest attempt thus far has been a model of the Bristol Freighter for FSX:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/bristol-freighter-for-fsx.7055/
http://nzff.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=7234

My problem however is that I have never got to grips with texturing which is why I haven't finished the Freighter. I should have textured it as I went, but didn't and so was faced (no pun intended) with texturing 150,000 polygons.

I moved to rail simulation because although flight sim is very enjoyable there is no interaction with other aircraft, unless you have a super computer to run the addons. With Railworks however I do enjoy meeting other trains and greatly enjoy the scenarios people take the trouble to create.

Having done some modelling with FSX and written some XML for the animations, I have thought about doing something for Railworks. I have big ideas of doing a new Somerset & Dorset route but got stuck trying to texture the road bridge at Bath, the one that spans the A36 to the West of the station. I would love to emulate the work of Keith Moss on the Western Lines of Scotland, no small ambition there then !!

Currently the only thing I working on in regards to Railworks are scripts for the Raildriver controller I just bought (between editing the MKIII Zephyr & Zodiac Owners Club magazine). Like a lot of other people I've found it isn't fully functional with some loco's. This mainly concerns the throttle and whether the loco has dynamic braking and therefore only utilises half the lever movement for the throttle. The support from Raildriver is very good and they have helped me alter the script to use the whole travel for the throttle. What I would like to do now is further alter the script to adapt it for different loco's using the little knowledge I gained from writing XML for FSX.

If possible I would like to start a thread on Raildriver scripting on this forum and get to grips with the Railworks variables and control blueprints.

So once again I would like to thank Jim for inviting me, and hope I can add something useful to the discussions.

Steve H

Dorset

[Dave Fennessy]

Welcome to the site, I'm relatively new myself and can vouch that its very supportive here, certainly the right place to be. I'm currently attempting texturing as well having slowly travelled through the process of asset creation - two steps forward but always one back is my motto Interesting to hear of your family railway connections.

[Widewanderer]

Greetings from Western Canada!

And thanks to Jim for allowing me in...

I'm Rob, an ex-pat Brit, currently living in Kamloops, BC (aka Widewanderer, as I am a "Wanderer who wanders widely"... Hmmmm...) My day job is that of a bus driver (although I am also a former teacher), "resting" at the moment as I search for a winter contract in this town; but I also have a little sideline business I am trying to develop, doing digital imaging, restoration, printing, picture framing and the like. Photography, especially photographing the railway scene, real, model and virtual alike, is a specialism. If the mood moves you, have a wee look at http://www.widewanderer.com

I've been quietly mad about trains since my earliest visits to Bristol Temple Meads, aged about 3 (my avatar celebrates my first days at BRTM!) - that's even before Bristol Panel came into being, which dates me as "quite old"! I'm marooned here in Canada right now (this is the Land of the Neverending Freight Train!) - but I long to be back on the British Railway, and rather than sitting here just pining for it, I've taken to modelling it in virtual instead.

I am a relative newcomer to the world of the train simulator, having started with TS2014 just over a year ago. But I am certainly already having fun, fiddling around under the bonnet, getting my hands dirty, with all the technical stuff there is to play with. Train sim-ing is not just about driving around on pre-built routes. My main interest, behind the scenes, is in the re-design of signalling on the various routes I have, and I am having some early success in building custom signals out of the various bits and pieces of signalling I already have by modifying the xml (thanks Mike Simpson for producing RW Tools!) and looking around for new snippets of signal script which might be out there (thanks particularly to AndiS for some of the best stuff and advice!). My biggest gripe about the "default" signalling on TS, both the original Kuju signals and the UK Pro offerings, is the manner in which they tend to clear automatically behind a train passing in a reverse direction, something which jars in my mind enormously, as I know that sort of thing just DOESN'T happen in the real world. Happily, I've come across some great semaphore signals (the sets designed by Anthony Brailsford and powered by scripts by Mark Brinton, for example), and the latest Just Trains Modern Signal set is just fantastic; early experiments with these, as supplied in JT's MARSDONSHIRE package, appear to suggest that these new models have cleared up just about all my lingering gripes I'd love to become expert in the art of scripting signals, and many hours have already been spent pouring over pages of code - usually with the result of my brain rapidly approaching the point of meltdown! I am a long way yet, though, from being in a position to "have a go" with scripting of my own.

So my development interests in TS have so far revolved around making a start resignalling Keith Ross' most excellent "Western Lines of Scotland" to remove all the "default" Kuju signals he seems to have had to go with (for whatever reason), as well as a resignalling job on the old Somerset & Dorset route from RS.com, and DTG's Riviera Line, a route I know very well from my days living and working in Devon & Somerset. My main aim is perhaps not to recreate absolute historical accuracy, but certainly to achieve the right authentic "feel" for what might have been if I had been the S&T Superintendent on any given route! I'm also interested in learning more about reskinning the rolling stock I already have, and perhaps one day getting into 3D modelling to produce new buildings and other scenic assets. Richard Fletcher, you are my inspiration for trying my hand at repaints.

As for personal projects this winter? I fully intend to make a start resignalling JT's TOTHAM route, now that I have the excellent JTMS set, and perhaps extend it somewhat - I have a possible idea of another seaside harbour town out to the west, which I might call "Westsyde" after the district of Kamloops where I currently live. And there will be further signalling work on WLOS, particularly in the Dumfries and Carlisle areas. Once all that is done, let's have a go at making some more quality "in-depth" scenarios for the remodelled routes, and art from doing some decent screenshots - it doesn't look like there will be much time for a day job this winter!

So, folks - thanks for having me in this little corner of the train sim world. This looks like a decent and safe place to exchange proper ideas and experiences with modellers whose approach is certainly very professional and talented. I promise to be a good boy in here! Do please get in touch any time the mood moves you

With best wishes,

[CobraOne]

Hi,
I'm yet another Chris, Some of you may know me as CobraOne on UKTS where for the past year I have been developing a Raildriver interface for TS2015.
I received my invite from Jim back in May and have been reading the daily digests with interest but have not got around to introducing myself as every spare minute I have has been spent on the Raildriver Interface. I am not a professional programmer so progress has been slow while I have taught myself the basics of Lua and C#.
I have been very close to abandoning the project a few times recently due to the inconsistency with the trains in TS2015, but I am pleased to say I have now finished it and once I have worked out how to upload the software I will.

Chris

[Nobkins]

Superb. That is great news. I hope I can finally dust of my RailDriver.

happy to do some testing for you Chris if you like.

Of course feel free to upload here on TSD.com. There is a "Misc" category or I could create a new Utilities category if you did not want it to go under Misc.

PM me if you need anything

Oh and welcome to the forums I nearly forgot that bit!


Jim

[spacedyemeerkat]

Hello!

Thank you for the invitation, Jim, I appreciate it.

To sound all Blind Date: I'm Paul, in my early 40s and living in Northampton! Actually, we're about to move to Long Buckby where my office (I call it my office but let's be honest, the presence of a flight yoke, steering wheel, pedals, X52 Pro etc don't really lend credence to its name...) will overlook the railway line. One of those splendid websites tells me I'll have the odd 86 to watch going past which will fill me with wild joy as I mull over various recycling statistics (I am a full-time Womble).

I'm not a developer, alas, although I did once create a few Flight Sim reskins in the mid-90s and I actually hosted/maintained/designed (I use that particular term very loosely) a website from Flight Sim aircraft in UK liveries once upon a time in the relatively formative days of the web. So why I am I here? Well, one to find an alternative Train Simulation community and, two, to enjoy some discussion about Elite: Dangerous since I noticed there's a dedicated sub-forum.

Interests include gaming, guitar playing, cycling (a real MAMiL and Strava addict), beer brewing and rock/metal/prog music listening. I am lucky enough to have a partner who never grumbles about my hobbies or the expense incurred so you'll never see SWMBO comments from me

For those curious - not many, I imagine - my username at UKTS is ihavenonamenoreallyidont, something that bugs me to this day. I'd been asked to change my original name at the time and, under a little influence of falling down juice, thought I'd jab the establishment in the eye. Silly me. Anyway, I usually go by spacedyemeerkat (space-dye meerkat, not a spaced meerkat!) so here I am.

[phutton]

Hello everybody.
I am Peter Hutton.
Been simming for many years Flight and Trains
Retire now for several years.
Created several routes for the TS communitys.
Some model railway type layouts which have proved to be popular.
Created the Coniston Branch available on the freeware packs.
Also some step by step guides created from my crib sheets I use while learning the ropes !
My present route is
Steam lines around Lancaster 1950's - 1960's
incorporating :-
Lancaster Castle
Lancaster Green ayre
Lancaster old staion
Scale hall
Morecambe Promenade
Morecambe Euston Road
Bare lane
Heysham Harbour
Hest Bank
Carnforth and shed
Glasson dock

It has taken about 4 years on and off
The route is well advanced, hope to finish this winter.

Will post some pictures ASAP

Peter Hutton

[mhuebner]

Hi Folks,

i'm Michael, 50 years old and living in Germany. I go along with TS since the first Version from Kuju. The main reason to switch from flightsimulator to railsimulator was the simplified and provided posibility to develop own content.
Starting with 3DC through 3Dmax and now Blender.

I think pictures paints a thousand words
If you want follow the Link to see some of my work

greetings
Michael

[RobertM]

Hi, names Robert (if you hadn't guessed already), 26, live in the NW of England. Am/was a member of the UKTSLive team and still do some smaller shows around the North West, and am an ex RSC/DTG employee.

I worked in the Stirling office for 12 months as a 'scenic artist & game play designer' aka route & scenario builder. During my time there, I worked on the Hamburg - Hannover route, Pacific Surfliner, New York to Newhaven, Munich - Garmish (a small section) and my greatest achievement, the ECML London - Peterborough, where I built Potters Bar through too Kings Cross (exceptionally pleased at this).

Currently I am back to my old profession as a mechanical fitter (had to give up the DTG job unfortunately due to family illness), but am still in the TS sector. Currently I am doing alot of scenario work but also dabble quite abit on the route editor on some smaller routes of mine.

Dunno what else too say really, I'm here to help I think is the best thing I can say, I obviously have alot of knowledge of the route editor so who knows what I may be able too help with

Rob

[Terrier060]

Hi All
This is a great site. For several years I have been constructing the railway line from Barry to Bridgend (Vale of Glamorgan Railway) - which is incidentally still in use today! I am also doing a bit of the Taff Vale Railway from Pleasant Harbour to the mainline at Llantrisant. I have been trying to make station signboards and have managed to do some simple ones which I will try and describe when I have time. My real thanks has to go to Jim/Nobkins and his two excellent videos on Blender. It has taken me many hours to get to grips with it, but listening to his tutorials on the forward-facing tree and OHLE, I have managed the simple signboard. I will attempt to put an image in the gallery.

I am in the process of building two 7.25 gauge live steam LBSCR 'Terriers and also dabble in 00 gauge DCC.
Yours

Ed