Welcome to Maplestead for BVE4.

This route is an evolution of one I coded many years ago for BVE2, when I first started out route building.  This was initiated by my son continuously asking for more routes to drive and was quite quickly put together using objects copied from other routes. It was never intended for public release, being designed primarily to give more 'route miles' for driving rather than to be a 100% accurate representation of railway practice.

The route was initially inspired by a trip up the Midland mainline - a journey I thought was characterised by the 'ordinaryness' of the scenery.  Being an NSE diesel fan, I've set the ficticious location somewhere towards the west of the NSE region, giving the opportunity for diesel haulage.   

Many happy hours of driving followed until the inevitable hard drive failure.  Fortunately, backups survived although were lost for a while, hidden in a cupboard gathering dust for a couple of years.  When I stumbled across the CD, I loaded up the route in BVE4 and thought it's too good to bin and set about updating it.

This is very much 'work in progress' as more BVE4 functionality is added to the route and objects are upgraded and further detailing performed.  However, in a departure from normal BVE community practice, the route is being released into the public domain in an incomplete condition, the deficiencies being described in the accompanying release notes.  I accept that many of the objects are not of my own construction (and many have previously featured in 'Clarendon') - it is my intention, as part of the ongoing upgrade, to replace these over time.  Diagrams are being produced chronologically which allows a natural evolution of the route; just as in real life, trees will grow, buildings be modified and infrastructure be upgraded.

New diagrams will be released periodically with accompanying infrastructure upgrades; some might call this beta testing in public, but I prefer to think of it as getting the project out into the public domain before my interest wanes or I get sidetracked onto another project.

The route has been developed on a laptop, 1.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 running Windows XP and with 1Gb RAM, ATI Radeon Express 200M graphics card - no transparency issues are known and a solid 30FPS achieved along the entire route in 1024x768 full screen mode.  

Diagrams have enetered the public domain as ordered below;

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DIAGRAM 1 - Summer 1998; released 15/9/07

Presenting the first 39km of the route.  Set in 1988, when loco haulage was still common in the UK, this diagram sees an additional Class 47 hauled service inserted into the timetable to cater for increased demand associated with the Marton airshow. This comprises a shuttle service between Woodville and Willowbridge, following the normal timetabled DMU departure but calling at Marton (27km) only.  Some delays are encountered at the start of the diagram until the unit is passed at the first intermediate station.  At Marton, a full load needs time to disembark before running in service to Willowbridge where the train will call before entering the siding to run around and return.  The uncoupling, run around and return are not included.  

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DIAGRAM 2  - Summer 1998; released 16/9/07

The route is set at a time when TPWS was not even 'invented' so this feature is not included and the fitment of this in train cabs is unrealistic.  Additionally, the requirements for working AWS were (so I'm lead to believe) somewhat less stringent. For non-functional AWS and no TPWS, I have also included a DEMU diagram using the old BVE2 class 201, which remains available at TrainSimCentral and is a personal favourite of mine (both in real life and the BVE version).  This diagram is unchanged from #1 except the timings and traction.  Not the most exciting drive but I love the sounds.

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DIAGRAM 3 - Summer 1998; released 31/10/07

Light loco running non-stop to collect stock from Woodville siding - take care buffering up to the stock!  The train.dat file can be modified to better simulate light engine running through modification of the acceleration parameters.  Some further tidying up of the scenery and signalling has taken place along the route.  The carriages visible in this scenario have been significantly rebuilt, featuring 3d wheels - quite an improvement on the more usual 2d offerings.  Not sure of the origin of the buffering up sound - one I had on my HD; possibly from the BK route; if so credit to the orignal author.

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DIAGRAM 4 - Summer 1999; released 11/11/07

Sprinterisation has begun and this diagram represents an early Saturday morning turn, calling at all stops.  Significant additional vegetation has appeared and some detailing of the stations introduced together with other scenic adjustments.  The class 50 is the first item of rolling stock I have ever built from scratch - not the easiest choice because of the complex shapes around the cabs - more practice needed.  Textures for the trees added in this diagram have come from a variety of free texture sites; 99% of textures found on these are completely useless but the occasional gem can be found which makes the effort of looking worthwhile.     


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DIAGRAM 5 - Summer 1999; released 03/12/07

Another unit diagram, this time a Sundays only Pacer run - the background used in this diagram is in the form of an 8bit RGB image; large in size and showing little in the way of pixellation or banding although I haven't quite managed to match the hue of the sky at the edges (so giving a slight visible discontinuity).  Other than the change of background and retimiming, no real differences exist between this and the 156 run.



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DIAGRAM 5A - early autumn 1989; released 23/12/07

Foggy early morning run in the new class 142 - calling at all stations but clear signals all the way.


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DIAGRAM 5B - late summer 1989; released 24/12/07

This all stops diagram using the new class 144 feaures 24 bit backgrounds; blue windscreens may result with ssome systems but these are required for reproducing the thundery weather.  


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DIAGRAM 6 - Summer 1999; released 03/12/07

This diagram features class 50 haulage; some more detail improvements have been included for this turn but the main purpose of this diagram is to provide a real driving challenge.  Arriving at Marybank tunnel too early will result in a signal check at the bottom of the bank - with poor adhesion, the class 50 will barely make it to the top from a standing start; be warned!  This diagram also features the enhanced background - if the higher res background does not display correctly, substitute in the route file.....

texture.background(1) Maplestead for BVE4\Back_Mt_Fine3.bmp,

for

texture.background(1) Maplestead for BVE4\Back_Mt_Fine2.bmp,


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Diagram 7 - summer 1989; released 03/12/07

Some more loco haulage, this time the class 47 is employed on the Sundays only NSE service - this is calling additionally at Marton but terminating at Willowbridge due to engineering work further down the line (not far from the truth...it's still being built!).  This diagram also features a 24 bit beackround, change this as detailed above if problems are encountered.



