LBSCR Scenario Pack (Part 1)

We have just released a pack of 5 scenarios for the Great Western Levels (1902) route. These scenarios imagine that the route is run by the LB&SCR, using stock solely from this company. We have covered the different decades between the 1870s and 1910s.

These scenarios are a great way to get to know our latest coach pack, the LBSCR Stroudley 4/6 Wheelers, which feature heavily.

We also made sure to cover a lot of different operations, some of which haven't been done before with our existing scenarios on the route. We hope you will enjoy!

Download from the Stock Page.

LBSCR Stroudley Coaches Out Now!

Our latest stock pack is now available for purchase. This pack covers LBSCR 4/6 wheel main line diagrams built by Stroudley, recreated in Train Simulator in exquisite detail. Get your copy today.

The pack costs £9.99 and comes with lots of features and quick drive consists. In the near future there will also be scenario packs for various routes. We can't wait to see your lovely screenshots!

Stroudley Coaches Trailer & Manual

We are pleased to share that our LBSCR Stroudley Coach Pack 1 will be releasing on Friday 10th April in the evening for £9.99. You can now watch the trailer and read the manual:

Download the manual from the store page.

Stroudley Coaches Progress #3

Hi all, I'm sorry it's been so long since I made a post on these outside of Discord. Progress is good, and I'm very pleased with how they are coming along! Here are some highlights:

D45 Brake Third and D44 Third

Two coaches have been added to the arsenal, representing the ubiquitous D45 Brake Third and D44 Third, pictured below:

I am particularly pleased with the interior view from the Guard's duckett:

But there is also something to be said for the utilitarian third class compartments:

Destination Board and Set Numbers

Two styles of destination board have been created, with (up to) 64 destinations to cover real LBSCR destinations, Great Western Levels, and Portshaven branch. Information will be in the manual!

The earlier (pre-1900s) style we chose was the large boards above guard doors on the D45:

Which were later replaced by smaller boards in the central bolection:

For the convenience of the user, these features can be applied to the whole consist by adding a * at the end of the rail vehicle number flag. Again, the manual will tell all!

Set numbers are only covered for the 1900s livery and onwards:

Some Action Shots

Finally, here are a couple of pics of the coaches in action.

Please remember everything you see here is work in progress. -GAD Harry

Stroudley Coaches Progress #2

After a long break over Christmas... I'm back! Today showcasing the different liveries the carriages will come in. Then, I will talk about the fancy scripting I've done on the doors. With that, the D37 First is almost done, paving the way for other diagrams after some initial testing. Hopefully things will be smooth sailing from here, working on the coaches when I get the chance between work and other GAD duties.

Liveries

The plan is to represent the coaches in 6 liveries (or 'conditions'), corresponding roughly to decades of operation. For simplicity all coach diagrams are represented in all liveries, and some other details are left out for the sake of development time.

1. 1870s condition: Varnished mahogany with oil lighting, unflitched solebar, continuous lower footboard. This version is unbraked.

2. 1880s condition: Varnished mahogany with brakes, flitched solebar, conventional stepboard.

3. 1890s condition: Painted mahogany with gas lighting.

4. 1900s condition: Umber and white livery.

5. 1910s condition: Umber livery.

6. 1920s condition: Maunsell green with Southern decals and detailing.

Roof Variation

As I expounded upon last time, the roofs are randomly given different levels of weathering. The chance of getting a cleaner versus dirtier roof is dependent on the livery – earlier and short-lived liveries are assumed to have a higher chance of clean white canvas.

Additionally, for scenario creators' ease, you can set the roofs of the whole train by appending '*' to the railvehicle flag, for example ;RT=1* will give white roofs to the whole train.

Door Features

Overview

This pack introduces a number of special door behaviours which were not present in my last coach pack (the LSWR block sets):

• Door opening and closing is randomly timed to give variety
• Doors open a random amount, changing each time they open
• Droplights will be open by a random amount, depending on season, weather, and time
• More/fewer doors will open depending on the train type (see later)
• Droplights will only drop for early liveries without internal door clasps
• Doors can be set open upon scenario start/without a driver icon using ;DL=1 or ;DR=1 (for left and right, respectively)
• Individual door opening and closing has sounds

Doors Open in Scenario Editor/On Scenario Start

This is going to be useful for scenario creators, as they can have the doors be forced open without setting up any passenger instructions. Unfortunately, AI passengers won't get on and off, but I think it will be a helpful feature nonetheless. The amount of doors open depends on the train type (see later), and it is possible to get an idea of this in the scenario editor (although not the exact doors, due to randomisation of the random seed). It is necessary to specify ;DR=1 or ;DL=1 for each carriage, as otherwise a train could end up with doors opening on both sides along a consist! For gulley platforms, you can have both open. Finally, if you use this on a drivable train, simply hitting 'T' will cause the doors to close after a delay, but note this only works on valid platforms. It will require playing around.

Train Type Functionality

The train type controls how many doors open at stations. It can be set via the railvehicle number using ;TT=x where is from 1 to 5, and 0 is default. Alternatively, if you leave it blank (or default), the train type will be estimated from the consist type (e.g. 'express passenger', 'stopping passenger' etc). The aim for this feature is to have low priority trains simulate fewer passengers, and busy trains have lots of doors opening at every station. Please note: this won't affect the in-game platform characters.

The train types are as follows:

• 0 = default
• 1 = packed train, nearly all doors open
• 2 = busy train, many doors open
• 3 = quiet train, few doors open
• 4 = sparse train, hardly any doors open
• 5 = empty train, no doors open

Video of Doors

This video demonstrates a ;TT=2 door cycle on invisible platforms.

Please forgive the garbage compression quality! Hopefully this is clear – more videos coming soon.

Thanks for reading.

Stroudley Coaches Progress #1

I am making good progress on the LBSCR Stroudley coaches pack, after a long break due to other commitments. In a series of posts I will highlight some of the features I have added as the coaches are developed. 

Random Roof Variation

We often associate the pre-grouping period with fresh white canvas roofs, however photographs from the time reveal this isn't the case. For this pack, I have made 4 roof colour variations which will be randomly selected depending on the livery. Earlier liveries are more likely to have freshly-outshopped white roofs, whereas later ones will be greyer. 

 1. Outshopped but used in service:

2. Lightly weathered:

3. Weathered:

4. Heavily weathered:

As you can see, the weathering applies to the oil lamp chimney pots. It will also be applied to the gas lamps when these are developed.

The colours can be set via the railvehicle number (RVN), using ;RT=[1,2,3,4]. If you want to set the whole train, you can use ;RTA=[1,2,3,4] on one coach to set the whole continuous rake. Here, [x,y,z] means you select one of the numbers in square brackets.

Oil Lamps at Night

The early versions of these coaches, particularly in the 1870s and 1880s, were illuminated by oil lamps. This required a member of staff to climb onto the carriage roof, remove the bung, and place the oil lamp in the roof aperture. This form of lighting was rather dark and dingey according to contemporary accounts, an effect which I have tried to replicate.

1. Oil lamp in use

2. No oil lamp in daytime

To reproduce the lighting effects from an oil lamp, I have developed a script which simulates the flickering of the flame. Additionally, there is a small animated flame for added realism. Here is a short video demonstration of the carriage interior at night. 

Note how dark it is! Later developments in carriage lighting, such as gas lamps, will be included on later liveries, with adjusting lighting parameters to represent the differences between these modes.

Carriage lighting is automatically applied if the start time of the scenario meets certain criteria, depending on the season. It can be forced on/off in individual coaches using the RVN flag ;LI=[0,1]. As of right now, the lights won't come on at a certain time of day (as in reality the lights had to be manually lit and placed in the carriage).

It should be noted that the lights are not shadow-casting, but will still have a very small performance hit on older machines. No more so than yard lamps, for example. 

Thank you for reading. Please remember all content here is work-in-progress.