brooksy
12-27-2003, 07:57 AM
Name of route - Southrail - Gateway to Otago. Southrail.
By Neville Brook
Version and Release date. V1.0 released 26-12-03.
Description. Southrail is a simulation of a part of the South Island main trunk railway in New Zealand. Starting from Mihiwaka in the North and running through the City of Dunedin and onto Milton in the South. A feature of the route is the Taieri Gorge that is listed as one of the worlds great train rides.
Installation method. The route is an executable download compliled by routeriter. A batch file loads files needed from the default routes, this requires all 6 routes to be installed.
Size of download. 5 zip files are required for the complete route (approx 30megs each) plus a documents zip containing txt,doc and pdf versions with maps.
Size of installed route. A 780meg folder.
Southrail is a prototypical route.
Freight and passenger operations are both suitable for Southrail.
Genre. Southrail was designed to simulate the change over period from steam to diesel in New Zealand. This occured during the 1960's with final steam withdrawal in 1971.
Location. The route location simulated is the coastal area of Otago on the East coast of the South Island of New Zealand at lat 45 south.
Length of mainline. Approx 45 miles
Length of branches. Approx 47 miles from Dunedin to Middlemarch. 2 mile branch from mainline at Sawyers Bay into Port Chalmers. 2 mile branch from Milburn to the Milburn lime works.
Number of branches. 3 main branches.
Number of sidings. Numerous sidings that include passing and yards.
Number of yards. Large yards at Dunedin and Burnside. Support yards at Port Chalmers,Wingatui,Mosgiel,Milton and Middlemarch. Smaller yards at Sawyers Bay, Ravensbourne, Green Island, Henley, Milburn, Pukerangi and Sutton.
Mixture of Dual and Single track. The mainline from Sawyers Bay to Mosgiel is all dual track (15 miles) The rest of the route is single track.
Level of Trackside detail. Fully supported with signals, speed signs, platforms, siding markers, sound regions and sounds.
Amount of Scenery Completed. 100%.
FPS Specs. Built on an Athlon 1800XP,512 ram, GForce3TI video card. With detail sliders at maximum ( no shadows or specular lighting) lowest fps is in Dunedin at 10fps looking directly down the train. This is with approx 25000 poly consist. A sideview extends these fps to 20-30. Most mainline running is in the range 30-50.
Activities Provided. Several activities are listed which are only intended to provide start points on the route. A seperate activity is supplied ( Signal test 1), primarily to allow the user to acclimatise to the left hand running charactaristics of dual track NZ railways. This was chosen from several signal test activities written by me during tests of the route.
Consists. Activity consists are all default rolling stock but does require the installation of MSTS patch 2, SD40 locomotive.
No add in track sets are required.
This route is Freeware.
URL for more Information and screenshots, including NZR rolling stock.
http://groups.msn.com/MSTSFanSiteforNZ/
Known Problems. This route should install error free. Be aware that some tiles carry very heavy loads and this will cause the MSTS jitters or shuddering when loading into memory. If designing activities for the route be aware of the poly count of trains and the affect on loading into memory. This is particularly noticeable in the Dunedin tiles. A known 'black' spot is leaving the Dunedin tile at the north end of Dunedin station.
This route is available on cd within New Zealand and from train-sim.com in the USA.
By Neville Brook
Version and Release date. V1.0 released 26-12-03.
Description. Southrail is a simulation of a part of the South Island main trunk railway in New Zealand. Starting from Mihiwaka in the North and running through the City of Dunedin and onto Milton in the South. A feature of the route is the Taieri Gorge that is listed as one of the worlds great train rides.
Installation method. The route is an executable download compliled by routeriter. A batch file loads files needed from the default routes, this requires all 6 routes to be installed.
Size of download. 5 zip files are required for the complete route (approx 30megs each) plus a documents zip containing txt,doc and pdf versions with maps.
Size of installed route. A 780meg folder.
Southrail is a prototypical route.
Freight and passenger operations are both suitable for Southrail.
Genre. Southrail was designed to simulate the change over period from steam to diesel in New Zealand. This occured during the 1960's with final steam withdrawal in 1971.
Location. The route location simulated is the coastal area of Otago on the East coast of the South Island of New Zealand at lat 45 south.
Length of mainline. Approx 45 miles
Length of branches. Approx 47 miles from Dunedin to Middlemarch. 2 mile branch from mainline at Sawyers Bay into Port Chalmers. 2 mile branch from Milburn to the Milburn lime works.
Number of branches. 3 main branches.
Number of sidings. Numerous sidings that include passing and yards.
Number of yards. Large yards at Dunedin and Burnside. Support yards at Port Chalmers,Wingatui,Mosgiel,Milton and Middlemarch. Smaller yards at Sawyers Bay, Ravensbourne, Green Island, Henley, Milburn, Pukerangi and Sutton.
Mixture of Dual and Single track. The mainline from Sawyers Bay to Mosgiel is all dual track (15 miles) The rest of the route is single track.
Level of Trackside detail. Fully supported with signals, speed signs, platforms, siding markers, sound regions and sounds.
Amount of Scenery Completed. 100%.
FPS Specs. Built on an Athlon 1800XP,512 ram, GForce3TI video card. With detail sliders at maximum ( no shadows or specular lighting) lowest fps is in Dunedin at 10fps looking directly down the train. This is with approx 25000 poly consist. A sideview extends these fps to 20-30. Most mainline running is in the range 30-50.
Activities Provided. Several activities are listed which are only intended to provide start points on the route. A seperate activity is supplied ( Signal test 1), primarily to allow the user to acclimatise to the left hand running charactaristics of dual track NZ railways. This was chosen from several signal test activities written by me during tests of the route.
Consists. Activity consists are all default rolling stock but does require the installation of MSTS patch 2, SD40 locomotive.
No add in track sets are required.
This route is Freeware.
URL for more Information and screenshots, including NZR rolling stock.
http://groups.msn.com/MSTSFanSiteforNZ/
Known Problems. This route should install error free. Be aware that some tiles carry very heavy loads and this will cause the MSTS jitters or shuddering when loading into memory. If designing activities for the route be aware of the poly count of trains and the affect on loading into memory. This is particularly noticeable in the Dunedin tiles. A known 'black' spot is leaving the Dunedin tile at the north end of Dunedin station.
This route is available on cd within New Zealand and from train-sim.com in the USA.