|
1
February
-
I'll
be away for the next
5-6 days, so there will be no updates until
I get back. Until then, here are a few news
items to read while you wait for the next
issue. And there will be a new article from
Claude next week - I've read it, and it's a
beauty!
-
Tired of using the keyboard and mouse to
drive your trains? RailDriver no longer
enough for you?
Read
this thread
over at Train-Sim.com
to see what one guy built himself.
-
And
here
is a thread that
contains a series of screenshots from the
upcoming Trainmaster from PI Engineering.
The shots show a first run at testing the
terrain elevation and ground texturing.
-
Coal
to Newcastle
V5 - the upgraded Australian
route north from Sydney, the capital of New
South Wales, to Newcastle, a port on the
mouth of the Hunter River, has just been
released. The route is based on the 1950s
coal branch lines located in Newcastle and
the section of the main line to Sydney. It
now also includes the section to Maitland,
in the Hunter Valley, as well as Enfield
Goods and Darling Harbour Goods Yards. And
the route's developer says that he will add
more line to the route in the future. Version
5 route statistics: route length = 122 miles
(196 km); track pieces used = 15,818; track
length laid = 550 miles (886 km); road
pieces used = 10,888; road length laid = 776
miles (1248 km).
You can download the route from
this website.
It is a 98Mb single exe file download.
For operational information and documents,
try this website.
A quick review from one user:
"Track placement is much, much better. You
still need a beast of a machine to run it.
Even with my P4 2.6ghz, 1024Mb of DDR RAM
and a GeForce 6600GT 256mb with DDR3 RAM,
the game slowed right down at Wickham. Mind
you, I have the graphics levels maxed out in
both the card and the game. There seem
to be texture improvements through the
Hawkesbury River area, and the lighting
feature is sweet. I give it a 10/10. The
size of this route means that there are
many, many possibilities for activities. Not
only does it have the Short North main line,
but also Enfield Yards, Belmont Branch,
Toronto Branch, and Wangi Branch, plus
Maitland, Port Waratah, and a few other
branches into the coalfields around Wallsend."
|
Axe to fall on rail network
Dozens of lines may shut as
Ministers draw up action plan for
closures.
Document reveals scheme for cuts as
Treasury pushes for massive cash
savings
By
Christian Wolmar
Published: 29 January 2006
Ministers are preparing ways of
closing or "mothballing" large
sections of the railway network,
according to an official document
which was slipped out without
publicity last week.
Dozens of branch lines and secondary
routes could shut, in what would be
the biggest re-think of the network
since the Beeching report in the
1960s, which led to the closure of
4,000 miles of railway and nearly
half the nation's stations.
Loss-making services would be
transferred on to buses, as a means
of reducing the £6billion-a-year
subsidy.
An army of consultants will decide
whether lines should stay open or
close. A law passed last year has
reduced the right of passengers to
object to closures.
The 83-page consultation paper uses
a new kind of cost-benefit analysis,
which, experts say, will highlight
the economically fragile state of
the network. Such analysis often
penalises trains because it fails to
take into account that they are
environmentally friendly. As one
senior rail industry figure put it
last night: "The trouble with
consultants is they will do exactly
what ministers want them to do."
Chris Grayling, Conservative
transport spokesman, said: "This
will pave the way for closures.
There has been a lot of talk behind
the scenes that ministers are now
considering significant cutbacks.
For the first time they now have the
power."
Many of the most vulnerable lines
run through some of Britain's most
beautiful countryside. At risk could
be the lines to the seaside resorts
of Whitby in North Yorkshire, St
Ives and Newquay in Cornwall,
Sheringham in north Norfolk and
Skegness in Lincolnshire. But some
urban lines, such as Huddersfield to
Sheffield and Walsall to
Wolverhampton, could go too.
Rupert Brennan-Brown, chairman of
the Friends of the Derwent Valley
line, which runs between Derby and
Matlock, said: "It is services like
this, on which communities depend,
that are in the firing line."
Roger Ford, technical editor of
Modern Railways, said cutting branch
lines might not be enough. "If they
want to save serious money, they
would have to cut many regional
services, and possibly whole swaths
of lines."
The rail system is heading for a
financial crisis in the next few
years, as the Treasury has demanded
that current record levels of
subsidy be slashed. Passengers have
been forced to pay big fare
increases this year as ministers
hike up the premiums train companies
pay to run the service. The debt of
Network Rail, the not-for-profit
company that runs the track, will
soar to £20billion by 2008. It will
need £1billion a year just to
service this debt.
A separate consultants' review of
railways in the North, ordered by
the Department for Transport, is due
to report soon and is expected to
recommend saving millions in Leeds,
Manchester and Newcastle by
transferring subsidised rail
services to buses.
The crunch will come early next year
when ministers will set out a list
of lines the Government is no longer
prepared to subsidise, which will be
accompanied by a "statement of funds
available". This will mean the
Government will have to decide
precisely where and when the cuts
will take place.
Beeching cut the number of stations
from 5,000 to 2,700, and cut route
miles by 4,000 to 13,000. The
consultation paper revives the
Beeching idea of "mothballing"
lines. In practice nearly all
lines mothballed in the 1960s
decayed and never reopened.
|
|
One
of the most unusual files over at
If
you like steam locos, you will really like
this new loco in our roster. It's another
Big Boy, and this one's #2025. And here's
some information about the RW
The
most interesting addition to the files at
