Black Country 1930's

I have written an activity for the route Black Country 1930's. It is a passenger trip from Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street. It needs to be tested, so this is an invitation to all to give it a try. It is available from the following Dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p27yucmokph4yf2ulfgmj/Files-for-Activity-Morning-Commute-aa-mc.zip?rlkey=sinmaf4oiq99jld6fvi9j5oe5&dl=0

I'm not sure how it works, but I tried it out by copying and pasting the link to my browser.

This is my first go at an activity, and was written using TSRE5, manual editing of activity files, and Actman4.1.

I have avoided having it uploaded to TSSH so that if it is a dud I can withdraw it easily. If it turns out to be acceptable, then I'll ask Justin to put it on the site.

Feedback of any sort is welcome, the type of feedback I am soliciting is presented in the documentation.

This activity will only run in Open Rails - I haven't even attempted to run it in MSTS, simply because it uses features unique to Open Rails.

It is easily deleted by deleting all files beginning with the prefix aa-

Tony

Hi Tony,
The activity downloaded perfectly, I have driven the full act no hiccups at all, even coaled up at monument lane. Thanks for your efforts keep up the good work.
Regards KenH.
PS. If you are interested in this particular location may I recommend the following book which maybe available on line somewhere :- A Locomans,s Log 1937-85 by Bill Allcock. released by Silverlink Publishing Ltd. Peterborough. in 1996. as an old railwayman I found it an enjoyable and interesting read.

Hi Ken

Thanks for trying out the activity, and thanks also for the book recommendation. I'll keep a lookout for it, occasionally I'm lucky enough to find a vintage railway book either at an opshop or a second hand internet bookshop - if I had seen this one I would have remembered it (actually probably bought it!)

Kind Regards

Tony

PS Managed to find a copy, its arriving in "1 to 3 weeks". Looking forward to reading it.

Hi Tony

Thanks for the activity. It has been a while since anyone uploaded an activity, so this was most welcome.

I had no trouble downloading and installing the activity. The rolling stock list was very helpful, as I had a few items missing from my trainset.

I arrived at New Street on time, and proceeded to Monument Lane MPD with no mishaps.

The activity was most enjoyable, with an impressive sunrise as a bonus.

Thanks again.

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike

Thank you for trying out the activity. Your remarks are most encouraging - it is always difficult to evaluate one's own work.

Kind Regards

Tony

@Bronzino

Hi Ken

Well, the book by Bill Alcock arrived this afternoon, and I'm now well into it a couple of hours later. Not being a railwayman myself, I found it absolutely fascinating (although my grandfather was a railwayman on LMS and later BR - he would have been in his forties at the time that Bill Alcock started - he would have been contemporaneous with my mother and uncle), so I know what the home life of a railwayman was, but this is an eye opener about what working for the railways was like. So thank you for the recommendation, you did me a favour.

Also interesting is the setting - my great grand parents were from Dudley, and my grandparents used to go to Birmingham once a year to visit my grandmother's sister.

Again, thank you Ken.

Kind Regards

Tony

Hi Tony,
Thanks for update, I myself had not read the book for a few years and when you kindly uploaded your activity I was encouraged to dust it down and have a re-read being a retired footplateman myself I also thought that it was well written and really gave flavour of life was like working for British Railways at the time; may I be so bold as to encourage more of your excellent activities.
Best Regards KenH.