Monday 23 December 2019

Train Simulator - Green Man Gaming Sale





Do you have all of the requirements for North East England? Or do you still need some of them?

Green Man Gaming currently has a Christmas sale on Train Simulator content and much of it is cheaper than on Steam! Unfortunately not all requirements for North East England are sold at GMG, but these should go some way to building your collection!

Weardale & Teesdale Network - £6.00 

Liverpool to Manchester - £4.80 

ECML: London to Peterborough - £4.80 

Yes! That's three quality routes for £15.60!

Train Sim TV Stream Tonight - Northern Lines Electric


 
Train Sim TV will be live tonight at 19:45 with a special stream featuring the all new Northern Lines Electric route which will also be released at some point during the broadcast.
 
This is the modern representation to the original route that was released on Vulcan Productions. Production on the route has taken place over the last year. Starting off as a clone of the original route all the new track layouts have been added at Blackpool, Poulton and Kirkham. Many new custom assets have been added to this route such as custom stations at Blackpool, Poulton, Kirkham and Salwick. There are also plans to add a custom model of Preston in the near future. This is pending a research trip.
 
The route comes with 24 standard scenarios. "Please note that reading manual first is recommended to check you have correct stock" Free roam is also available to place your own stock in and there are basic quick drives for easy jump in and driving of your own consists.
 
The route will be released during the stream which will begin this evening at 1945GMT "23/12/19", you can find the Train Sim TV Twitch channel by clicking here.

The website is partially live for the routes release where you can download the manual prior to release of the route, this can be found by clicking here.
 





 
 
 

Friday 20 December 2019

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from DPSimulation




Wednesday 18 December 2019

1G70 - 1713 Whitby to Ealing Broadway

I have uploaded a new scenario to the DPSimulation website as part of the 'ECML Collection'. This collection features a range of scenarios that utilise the various routes available for Train Simulator that cover the East Coast Main Line.

This scenario is set in 1997 on the North East England route using a Great Western 'Merlin' liveried HST on the return portion of a Hertfordshire Railtours excursion from Whitby to Ealing Broadway. You will drive between Nunthorpe and York.
 
You can view more information about the scenario and requirements by clicking here.
 
 
 

Monday 16 December 2019

1Z26 - 1626 York to Sunderland

I have uploaded a new scenario to the DPSimulation website as part of the 'ECML Collection'. This collection features a range of scenarios that utilise the various routes available for Train Simulator that cover the East Coast Main Line.

This scenario is set in 2008 on the North East England route using a Class 47 locomotive working for Grand Central when they had issues with the unavailability of Class 43 powercars. You will drive between York and Hartlepool where another driver is booked to take over.
 
You can view more information about the scenario and requirements by clicking here.
 
 
 

Sunday 15 December 2019

2D26 - 1029 Bishop Auckland to Saltburn

I have uploaded a new scenario to the DPSimulation website as part of the 'ECML Collection'. This collection features a range of scenarios that utilise the various routes available for Train Simulator that cover the East Coast Main Line.

This scenario is set in 2005 on the North East England route using a Class 142 DMU working for Northern Rail in unbranded Arriva livery. You will drive between Bishop Auckland and Middlesbrough where a crew change will take place.
 
You can view more information about the scenario and requirements by clicking here.
 
 
 

2N08 - 0544 Carlisle to Nunthorpe

I have uploaded a new scenario to the DPSimulation website as part of the 'ECML Collection'. This collection features a range of scenarios that utilise the various routes available for Train Simulator that cover the East Coast Main Line.

This scenario is set in 2019 on the North East England route using a Class 158 DMU in unbranded Northern livery. Your train is working a Carlisle to Nunthorpe service.

You can view more information about the scenario and requirements by clicking here.
 
 
 

Saturday 14 December 2019

Scenarios Fixed

Following the issue noted this morning with the Class 142 Northern Unbranded and the inability to install using Utilities.exe, i've now found out that all scenarios released since August suffered from the same problem!

I've now fixed all of these scenarios so if you had an issue with Utilities.exe and couldn't play any of the scenarios, please download and install again.


 

Northern Class 142 Unbranded Fix

It was brought to my attention this morning that the Northern Class 142 Unbranded repaint required for one of the North East England scenarios might not work when installing with Utilities.exe. It could be installed manually, but some users are unsure about doing this.

I've now replaced the file with one that now appears to work okay, simply download again from this page. Apologies for the inconvenience.





Friday 13 December 2019

North East England - V2 Released

I'm pleased to announce that North East England V2 has now been released. To view the route page, click here.



North East England - V2 Overview

With V2 of the North East England route nearing release, I thought it would be good to explain what exactly is in this new version.

First up is a small part of the Esk Valley Line  comprising of the section between Middlesbrough and Nunthorpe, although it's debatable that this section is actually part of the Esk Valley, it depends who you ask.

I chose to add this section simply because it's a natural end point for services originating in the Hartlepool direction, a typical weekday now sees around 17 services either starting or terminating at the station. 

Nunthorpe
James Cook



Heading from Nunthorpe towards Middlesbrough, you will see stations at Gypsy Lane, Marton and James Cook. In the case of the latter, if you are driving any scenario set before 2014 then you will have to shut your eyes when passing, it didn't exist!

We then also have the Tees Valley Line between Middlesbrough and Bishop Auckland, the centre part of this section was already included in the first release of the route. Naming conventions cause disagreement again here, some people don't regard all of it as the Tees Valley Line and prefer to split it into two different sections. The Bishop Line from Darlington to Bishop Auckland and the Saltburn Line between Darlington and Saltburn.

Middlesbrough

Heading from Middlesbrough to Darlington  you will pass Tees Yard and Thornaby station before joining the section of the route already built. After Darlington you will pass North Road (home to the Head of Steam museum) before climbing up towards the new Hitachi plant at Newton Ayclifffe.

North Road
 
Hitachi, Newton Aycliffe

Before Shildon you will pass the newer 'Locomotion' museum before passing Shildon station itself and entering Shildon tunnel, a 1220yd structure opened in 1842. It's then a steady drop down to Bishop Auckland where passenger services on the line terminate.


Bishop Auckland

Along with these new areas, several improvements and fixes have been made following community feedback. This includes scenery added to the avoiding lines at York and scenery added around Holgate Yard to allow freight services to start from there. York Yard itself hasn't had all track added as yet for reasons previously explained, Tees Yard is the same. Some scenery has been added along with markers at appropriate locations for users to start/end their own scenarios, areas without track have been strategically hidden by temporary static wagons. Although not perfect, there is a perfectly acceptable amount of scenery for you to create scenarios and not see huge bear swathes of land.


Holgate Jcn
 
Holgate Yard

Like the previous version, basic Quick Drive is included for the new locations added to the route and two further scenarios have been added alongside the ones included with V1. Further scenarios will be added to the ECML Collection on the DPSimulation website in due course, I also imagine that other third party creators will start creating and publishing their content soon enough.

Friday 6 December 2019

1Q20 - 0750 Crewe CS to Derby RTC

I have just uploaded a new scenario to the DPSimulation website as part of the 'Welsh Collection'. This collection features a range of scenarios that use the various available routes that cover lines in and around Wales.

This scenario is set in 2016 and will see you drive part of a Crewe to Derby Network Rail New Measurement Train service on the all new Welsh Marches route.

You can view more information about the scenario and requirements by clicking here.


Tuesday 3 December 2019

North East England - An Update

I haven't posted updates on this blog recently about the North East England route so it's probably time to get caught up. As it happens I now post regularly on Twitter so you keep up with what is happening even if you don't have an account there. If you do have an account then head over here and give me a follow!

Version 2 of the North East England route is now approaching a release and if you have been monitoring Twitter you will now have an idea of which areas are to be included, these are shown in the provisional map below.


I've also posted various screenshots of various locations in recent weeks, here are a few below and hopefully you like what you see and are looking forward to the release. 

Nunthorpe

Newton Aycliffe

Marton

Locomotion, Shildon