I finally managed to push through and get a route project finished, well at least to a point where I felt reasonably happy to release.
It's a quite obscure branch line in North West Russia, from Pinozero on the Murmansk main line to Kovdor on the Finnish border.
Abstract from the readme:
he Kovdor line is located in north west Russia and runs just under 120km off the Murmansk main line to Kovdor, just before the border with Finland. This is a remote route through lonely forested hills and lakes and was primarily conceived after discovering its existence by accident while browsing mapping sites. I decided it would be fascinating to create a resemblance of what a line few people outside Russia are likely to visit would look like and I’ve always had a fascination with wilderness railways.
It was quite hard to find much published information about the route, even on Russian sites (using Google Translate). From what I can gather at one time there was a daily passenger service in each direction but this no longer runs. Primary traffic appears to be mineral ore from the mines at the west of the line and I would suspect timber and forestry products too.
TANE VERSION
Please note you will need the Belezino to Mosti payware installed in order to run the route.
The following issues should also be heeded:
I decided to use Russian gauge track and where possible fixed track points. I had mixed success with these and in some locations had to revert to standard points. These are not built with procedural track so will not show points with frogs or crossings. Due to some severe optimisation issues I also omitted the overhead electrification at Pinozero on the “main” line.
I could not get my head round how the Russian signals from the Mosti route should be installed, so have used Swedish signalling and speed signs instead. The route has a very long block section in the middle – nearly 40km between crossing loops – which confounds the Trainz signalling logic (it cannot look that far ahead). Even breaking up the section with an intermediate signal failed to correct the issue. I regret therefore it will not be possible to instruct an AI train to travel the complete length of the route. It may also be necessary to pass the section signal at danger at some locations, having satisfied yourself it is in order to do so.
As originally built the route made extensive use of Speedtrees but these played havoc with frame rates so had to go, with a cull seeing most of them replaced by standard trees.
I have included a couple of industries along the line but the flow and functionality of these has not been tested. All stations are passenger enabled.
It will take around two and a half hours to drive from Pinozero to Kovdor depending on whether you maintain line speed and call at the intermediate stations. For informations stations/halts are as follows (some of these may not have existed or been exactly as depicted in real life):
Pinozero
4km
Chervas
19km
Pasma
Uplolksha
Kolyuzhny
Yona
Kuropta
105km
Kovdor
This route is provided for entertainment purposes only and is neither built nor intended to bear any close resemblance to the real location. Install and drive at your own risk and no responsibility can be accepted for the effect of sheer boredom setting in passing all those trees .
The route is freeware and can be freely modified for personal use only. I would ask however that the intellectual property of the author is respected and that no attempt is made to upload the route whether modified or not under another KUID unless agreed by myself. Under no circumstances may the route be sold for personal gain.
Thanks to all those whose assets have allowed me to populate the route and as always a special word of appreciation to Roland Ziegler for the Transdem programme, which allows the creation of accurate prototype routes in Trainz.
And some screenshots:
Route can be found on the N3V Download Station, KUID - KUID2:30024:20067:1 or just search for "Kovdor".