The Somerset and Dorset

Bath to Masbury the easy way .
In my opinion, my best route in respect of the experience of driving a steam loco.
Rick Gibbs continues to do wonders with tweaking engine files to get them to run more authentically, but still the majority of steam locos are easy to run when you know how.
The S & D throws that out of the window. The climb to Masbury from North or South needs total concentration and a real understanding of how to control a steam loco. Without using and understanding the F5 display, a grinding halt half way up is almost guaranteed.
Several instances of firemen having to be carried off the footplate after working this route are recorded. When making activities, things never got that bad but took its toll
As its impossible to make the climb without F5 showing and I'm trying to keep the videos tidy at the moment, I've used a Warship for this little video. So easy.
https://youtu.be/ZvbGA7nQhXk
Cheers,
Clive

Thanks Clive, another nice video .

Thanks for the Video,I've never managed to make it out of Bath to anywhere near the Summit,great video though,I love the Warship,is it from UKTS? Thought I spotted a Bedford CA van in the station car park-I learnt to drive in one of those,and passed my test first try.Regards

Hi Roger,

The best way to get Western Region diesels,is to get the Paddington-Penzance route,from the ukts CD ordering page,there are some western's\warships and hymek's  included in the stock.

If you down load them you will unfortunately find that you can no longer get the cabs or sounds for them,but if you get the CD they included,in the common.cab\common.sound folders.

You can get the CD for £4.80 and you also get a months premium membership as well,after wards you could also down load the rest of the western region diesels as they will now work.

I will tell you this if you struggle with a steam loco climbing out of Bath,even a Warship struggles I've tried it:)

Mike

Hello Mike,You must have read my mind,(if I had one)only the other day I was thinking along those same lines (pardon the pun)and asked whether I could do that and whether it would be legal,my problem is that I could not then find the Cd,but have already ordered another from UKTS.This proves the value of UKTS Community Cd's.The P2P Route is massive and I drove it to death before uninstalling it,due to the amount of space it took up.I especially love the Westerns & Warships.
As for the struggle to get a Steam Train over the climb out of Bath,well I've never managed it ,but feel confident a Western will do it,but then again I am biased.Many thanks for the info,best wishes Roger.

Hi Roger,
I tell you one route to get is MEP+ when it comes out which shouldn't be long,as it all tested and has been sent to UKTS to be put on a master disc and the to burnt to copy disc's,not sure how many copies Peter will make before he releases it.

You can drive the Mainline all the way to just past York,or a Merry go round coal train from mine to power station,or the Merry Cobler holiday train from Kings X to Skegness,or the Cambridge Buffet train from King X to Cambridge,or even part of the North London Line,it is even larger than P2P,and of course you get all the Loco's and stock as well + just to keep you busy over 100 activities.

It is virtually a new route as every thing is has been improved like Huntingdon and Peterborough and new routes added to it,it is set in the Blue\Grey era roughly 1968-to just before electrification,so unfortunately no electrics except for the North London Line.

Mike

Hi Mike,you can be sure that I will indeed be getting MEP+,I can't wait for it to come out,also on my shopping list is Dorset Coast 6 and NWEv3,I'm pretty sure that they will keep me busy for a while!!!!!.As for no Electrics that is not a real problem for me, as I love Diesels,it is a bit of a shame though

Hi Roger,

The trouble with East Coast Mainline it's mostly Emu's and just the Class 91's although for a time some class 90's were allocated to it, the East Coast has always played second fiddle to the West Coast Mainline and in my opinion even today it still does,even the what are so called new EMU's on the FCC from Peterborough to Kings X are cascaded stock.

The East Coast HST's date from the 1970's and the 91's from the 1980's,freight is all diesel hauled,so I don't think it really matters that MEP+ isn't electrified.
What would be nice is a updated Thames - Mersey,so you can give Tim Courts class 81-87 and stock a good run.

I like the transition era roughly from 1955-67 then you can run both steam and diesel,and 1st generation electric's.

Mike