Trans Pennine Route (TPR)

[Nobkins]

Introduction
The Trans Pennine Route (TPR) was started back in 2010 and is still on-going (yes and nothing has ever been released!). It started off as just me but I realised I was good at track laying but not much good at adding in all the scenery. So I put an appeal out on UKTS for people to come and join in the development of the route and over the years we have had lots of people and companies pitch in with their support.

The thread on UKTS was locked some time ago so I thought it a good idea to start a new one here on TrainSimDev.com.

I have uploaded all the images that have been posted over the years which document the progress of TPR.

Progress So Far
Well progress is unfortunately slow. As is often the case with freeware projects. The cause is the usual one. Myself and the team of people who work on the route all have jobs, family and lives outside of Train Simulator (hard to believe I know!). We have the scenery complete for the Harrogate Loop (Leeds - Harrogate - York) but I am in the process of doing the final pass on the scenery before release. However.... I have managed to source some truly amazing signals for the route (more about these another time) so I re-signalling the whole route. I also am very concerned about the asset count in certain complex areas (Leeds has over 3000 per tile in places). I believe that the high asset count particularly at Leeds is caused by the overhead supports. An awful lot of them are needed for the 6 tracks leaving Leeds to the West and 2 tracks to the East. I therefore want to make some new overhead supports using the new system introduced with the release of TS2014. My plan is to document the development of the overhead supports on these forums and of course they will be released for everyone to use for free.

These three steps are taking a long time (tidying the route, resignalling, overheads) hence the lack of a release.

The Route
Relatively recently I took the decision to be brutal with the track in TPR. The amount of track was ridiculous and we were never going to be able to finish. It is something many of you who have followed the development of TPR over the years had probably though for yourselves. So.... TPR is no longer goes across the Pennines to Manchester and beyond. I realise that therefore the name "Trans Pennine Route" is now not very accurate. We have kept most of the track from Leeds to the East and also down to Doncaster which still leaves a huge scope for scenarios etc.

I am not sure if we will release the route as TPR or under a different name. At the moment I have not thought that far ahead. I hope the news does not disappoint too many but it was the right decision.

The Future
The route is still being developed when time permits and I hope to have a few screenshots and maybe even a video or two to show off on here in the coming months.

Thanks

Jim

[ashgray]

Thanks for the update Jim - it's looking great!

Ash

[tomhas2]

Im sure everybody will enjoy this route once it is released for a v1 state. And i do appologise for the massive amount of assets used in Leeds
although i blame jim for the ohle

Regards, Tom

[Nobkins]

It is the OHLE not your assets Tom

It adds about 1500 items alone!

[hertsbob]

Bit extreme to pull out half of the route!

Reading about the development of the TPR is like an old friend. I almost don't want to see it released.

[Chris89]

As many other am looking very forward to the route. Also have loved seeing it progress along as well.

Chris

[Nobkins]

Bit extreme to pull out half of the route!

Yeh it was a bit brutal. Still leaves a ridiculous amount of track and as none of the existing track had easements I was relaying it as we went.

Removing a big chunk made save games a lot quicker. When ever I worked on the track I had to wait 2 mins for my computer to save the track database!

[hertsbob]

It definitely breaks up the flow when you have to wait an age each time you save! You'd have the additional burden of scenery and signals etc. in the route, which all quite a lot to.

Anyway, more power to your elbow to getting the route finished eventually.

[AndiS]

You should call it Trans Pennine East or West or (most likely) Central, whatever is left now. We got too used to the name over the years. And it is still a great vision.

[callum112233]

Well that is certainly a blow for me. I was looking forward to driving Manchester Victoria-Huddersfield via Stalybridge.
Nice to see an update on the route though

P.S If you still have a copy of the route with the trackwork from Manchester-Huddersfield, I'm sure someone would like a bash at doing the scenery, hint hint, nudge nudge.