S - Activities

Hi All,

Well, Actober is here and time to start uploading activities. Going on past experience something often goes wrong/doesn't work as intended with my activities - hence this topic. If you have any problems with my activities, please post them here and I, or others who are more experienced, will try and help.

Earlier this week I posted this on the UKTS forums :-

"So far I have 9 activities finished or nearly finished, plus 2 more under construction, all for the Scottish Central PLUS route. All use stock supplied on the cd with no modifications. I have tried to cater for all tastes so 3 are diesel and the rest steam - all passenger/parcels. I hope to create a freight activity as well to make up the round dozen. Like my activities for other routes they are fictitious - so please no complaints of inaccurate consists etc.
So as not to bombard the moderators with a mass of uploads at the beginning of October I shall upload mine throughout the month."

The first activity has now been uploaded and awaiting approval. I have never liked starting an activity at speed at the beginning of a route ( all the control settings are wrong ) and starting from a standstill is also not right, so I have tried something different. Your thoughts on what I have done will be most welcome - good or bad.

Regards,

Stephen

Hello Stephen,

I have just tried the Northbound sleeper,all went well until I got to Waverley,I got as far as the middle road shunt signal,which was at danger,I stopped at it and waited,tried the MSTS shuffle to see it would change but it didn't change,so I tried to tab past but got the dreaded past red signal message.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Sorry you had a problem with that ground signal - why I don't really know unless it is a timing issue. I am using Tsection38 as included in the cd but due to derailing issues at Kirkaldy I have used a more modern "Default" wagon.
I have just run this activity as far as Haymarket without any problems. As a timing guide - I met the double headed coal train just before it reached Millerhill Junction; the A4 had just passed St. Margaret's Station and I cruised gently into Waverly about 1min early.

Hope this helps,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
Probably me I'm hopeless with steam loco's the max speed I could get out of the loco was 50 mph,so was 8 mins late at Waverley
Mike

Hi Mike,

This loco ( like a lot of others ) needs to have the dampers fully opened to get maximum steam production - at the start of the activity press the "M" key until the dampers are at 100%. As a guide I start this loco with 50% regulator, 75% cut off, cylinder cocks open and small ejector closed. When up to 5mph I close the cylinder cocks and as speed increases I gradually decrease the cut off to 15-20% and open regulator as required to maintain desired speed. I'm no expert with steam but I find this works quite well for most locos.

Hope this is useful and not telling you anything you know better than I do,

Stephen

Stephen

I remembered the dampers but not the  injector  ,I thought it was only GWR loco's that you needed to  open and close

Mike

Hi all,

It was pointed out to me that S - Northbound Sleeper had various engine and consist errors. Since the correct sleeper coaches for this service aren't on the cd I shall leave this activity as it is. However future activities should now have the correct passenger consists ( but not necessarily the right formations ) but freight services will probably stay as they are - in the area covered it could easily happen that engines strayed onto other companies metals.

I have just uploaded 3 more activities for the SCP route and are now awaiting approval.
They are 1 Steam and 1 DMU going between Perth and Dundee, and 1 Steam Dundee to Perth.

More will follow when final checks are complete.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
Many thanks for the new activities,what I like about yours,you use the stock from the DVD unlike some that can have 10+ extra downloads,or worse still stock from other routes.
Mike

Hi all,

I have just completed my 11th upload for the Scottish Central Plus Route and, like all the others it only uses stock from the cd. My intension had been to have 12, the final one being a steam freight activity. This now won't happen this month as:-
a, I've gone a bit stale on what to do - I know the basic path, the loco, but not everything else
b, there's not enough time left to complete it in the remaining 4 days.
c, I need a short break from this route.

I have enjoyed making these activities and have tried to use a good variety of motive power and to cover most of the available mainlines..
I should like to thank all those who have made comments both here and on the UKTS forums.
I should also like to thank all who have uploaded anything this month, although Actober was directed at activities all other input is also always welcome.

There will be more from me soon, what, I don't yet know apart from the fact that it will be for MSTS - it's still very much alive as far as I am concerned.

Regards,

Stephen

Stephen
See my reply to Ben in the Actober thread. Remember MSTS should be a pleasure and not a chore. Relax, take your time and mainly enjoy!

Hi Stephen,

Many thanks for your excellent SCP+ activities they are very enjoyable,and the best part they all used stock from the CD and not reams of down loads,I'm afraid to say there was some activities for another route I really like, and was going to down load them,but there was so much  stock to down load I didn't bother.

Mike

Hi all,

I have now started making the long promised steam freight activity for SCP; as with all my others it will only use stock from the Cd and no modifications to the files. This has resulted in coupling issues where wagons have to be hit hard to make them couple. Time is being allowed in the activity for several coupling attempts to be made, if necessary. Motive power is a North British 2-10-0 which ends up pulling 48(?) wagons from Millerhill to Thornton Yard. I don't know if this loco would have used this route but it is the only one powerful enough for the final consist. Hopefully this will be completed before the end of the month.

At some point in the future I intend to make some mainly steam activities for the BriscardSS route. These ,obviously, will require downloads but I will make a group of downloads which will cover all activities - unless new stock is produced and needs to be included.

Unfortunately, I have found that most of my Hydraulic era activities don't work properly on the SS version, which is a shame as they are more suited to Semaphore Signals. Because of this I now have 2 versions of Briscard installed which saves having to change between the two versions, and I have also changed the road vehicles seen in the SS version to those more suitable to that era.

Thank you to all for your kind comments and constructive criticism for my activities. All feedback is much appreciated.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen

thanks for your activity up date they will bee well received I think,the WD's were mostly used on Grangemouth Oil Trains,but there are no suitable loco's on the CD unless there are some Crabs they were used on the Ayr Coal trains.

re Bris-Car SS route I have done exactly the same with the car spawner,I have Doc Martins excellent 1950\60's era road vehicles for the route.

Mike

Anyone feel like uploading a suitable car spawner file?

-----------
David

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the information - The total weight of my consist is 925T ( according to Convoi ) and I have just driven it up from N. Queensferry to beyond Cowdenbeath without a banker albeit slowly!

I too have used Doc. Martin's vehicles plus some from Clive Heard's BTB route.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi David,

If you have either SDJR or Thames-Trent use one of them as a basic car spawner,then just add any extra vehicles you want, unfortunately I can't post a copy of mine as they also use some of the vehicles on the bats southern region disc

Mike

Hi all,

I thought it was time to post an update on my freight activity.

The one activity has now turned into three. These were going to be uploaded for the Xmas event for day 3 as "Three Freight Activities". However circumstances have dictated otherwise and although the first 2 were completed in time the 3rd has turned into major headache.
I decided that using only one engine to haul that rake of wagons up towards Cowdenbeath was too slow for a main line so a pilot has been added. This caused problems as it was difficult to find another loco that would couple to the North British WD, eventually I settled on a K3 which first appeared on the Burton-Derby Cd.

The 2nd activity is a variation of the 1st but uses diesel power. It was originally going to take the "seaside" route from Millerhilll to Thornton Yard but I found it was impossible to get past a set of points at Kirkaldy - no matter what I tried the wagons derailed; so, regretfully, this way was abandoned.

The 3rd activity starts at Cockenzie Power Station and ends at Grangemouth. For this I have used something first seen in an S&D activity and a variation of it which I have never seen before or even tried - I'm not saying what, so you'll have to wait to find it when the activity is uploaded, hopefully soon.

All three activities involve coupling and uncoupling engines and wagons. My final choice of what rolling stock to use has been dictated by what will couple and not by what I wanted to use. During my experiments I tried all sorts of combinations mainly without success.I even tried coupling engines of the same class (and by the same Author) and failed miserably. This is a problem I've never encountered before - I have created many activities on other routes in which I can couple to any other engine/wagon effortlessly. So what is different about SCP that makes coupling very difficult and in some cases impossible? The only change to the route that I have done is to change the Default Wagon to that which is supplied with Route Riter and that was to make it possible to get a passenger train over that same set of points at Kirkaldy in "S - Seaside Special". Has anyone else had the same sorts of problems?

The Brief I gave myself when I started creating activities for the SCP was that all rolling stock was supplied on the Cd and that they had to work "Out of the Box" for those people who are unable or uwilling to alter eng. and wag. files. This I have stuck to even if has resulted in non-typical formations etc. "S - Northbound SLeeper", for example, had to use LMS Sleeper cars and go via Cowdenbeath and not Kirkaldy as originally intended.

I also have issues with the terrain on this route ( landslides and subsidence round the track )coupled with "flying" vegetation etc. This could be my computer, but I don't know. What ever it is, it's a shame as there is so much that is brilliant about this route.

Just when I thought activity 3 was ok, the final run through failed - it worked ok until I added all the ai traffic etc. so back to the drawing board.... again! Hopefully a small adjustment and all will be well. I am sticking to my original plan so all three activities will be uploaded at the same time.

Sorry if this is a long winded post but I had to get these things off my chest - so to speak. The frustrations of things not working as they should has been steadily building up inside me and stopping me from thinking clearly.

I apologise in advance if I have offended any of the rolling stock creators or anybody else - the models are fine, it's just the couplings with which I have an issue.

Finally A Happy New Year to you all.

Stephen

From a personal point of view there's no problem outlining your problems, in particular where your copy of a route appears to give problems. It may well be that others have encountered similar but have merely shrugged their shoulders and carried on. Certainly in my case a number of graphical oddities in various routes have been resolved when I changed from the motherboard graphics to a stand alone graphics card.

Never feel pressured into uploading things before they are ready, as I believe we are all happy to wait and very grateful for the hard work by others that gives us routes, stock and in your case activities.

Hi all,

Finally succeeded in getting S- Cockenzie_Grangemouth to work to my satisfaction - now it's time for others to prove me right or wrong.
The three activities have now been uploaded and waiting approval.

They are:-
File ID: 32161 Name:S - Cockenzie_Grangemouth
File ID: 32162 Name:S - Millerhill_Thornton Yard - Diesel
File ID: 32163 Name:S - Millerhill_Thornton Yard - Steam

Whether I produce any more activities for this route remains to be seen - it will partly depend on the success or otherwise of those already done. If I do they will be simpler than these three. If anyone wants any more please let me know and also any feedback on any of my activities - I do like to receive comments good or bad!

Alec - thank you for your kind comments, they are much appreciated.

Regards,

Stephen

Stephen, I for one, really enjoy your activities. I obviously have not seen these three yet.

Hi all

There is an error in my original briefing notes for both S - Millerhill to Thornton - Diesel and S - Millerhill to Thornton - Steam activities.
The wagons you want are in Siding 20 and not Siding 18 as stated.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The above part of the post also appears in the UKTS forum http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=238&t=135824

Alec, in response to one of your earlier replies, my computer is a home build ( helped by a very clever son-in-law ) containing 4 hard drives with a separate graphics card. MSTS has its own SSD which it shares with Open Rails and, of course, Trainstore. All other MSTS Utilities and back ups are on a separate drive. W7 is on C drive ( again an SSD ). Having once suffered a major computer crash with total data loss I'm hoping this set up will avoid a repeat episode. This might explain some of my graphics issues or maybe not - who knows?

Regards,

Stephen

Hi all,

Update to my earlier comments about coupling issues.

I recently tried running one of my activities on the Greater Eastern Route, "S - Delayed Mail Pt. 4" and part way through you have to couple one Class 302 to another ( as I'm sure some of you may know). During the original testing it worked fine so it was uploaded and no-one has complained that it didn't work for them. However now I found that coupling the units was impossible! I did some checking and found the Default Wagon in use was the Route Riter version ( I don't remember changing it ) as is also in use in SCP Route where I also have coupling issues. After a bit of searching I found the Default Wagon that I used before upgrading to W7. I put this in my main Trainset folder and then my "S - Delayed Mail Pt. 4" worked perfectly ( also a couple of other activities ). I then changed the Default Wagon in SCP to that originally supplied with the SCP Route and after a few quick checks this seems to have cured the coupling problem. I originally changed the Default Wagon because I couldn't get a passenger train over a certain set of points at Kirkaldy in "S - Seaside Special". Having got this passenger train over these points and into the siding I then found that no other train would cross them whilst staying on the main line. I shall have to do more tests soon.

Please note - I am NOT having a go at Mike Simpson and his Route Riter - it is an indispensable set of utilities that no-one should be without. I'm just saying his Default Wagon appears not to work for me.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi all,

Have just coupled the WD 90757 onto an ai 8f + 35 wagons and driven straight through Kirkaldy without any problems whatsoever!!!!!!!!!! Shouldn't have changed the supplied Default Wagon - I should know better!!

To make up I shall make 2 stopping services on that lovely seaside area - 1 steam and 1 diesel.

Now feeling 6 inches tall,

Stephen

Hi all,

Following on from last post the steam activity is now just about finished but unless specifically asked for earlier I will hold its release back for " For The Love Of MSTS".

As a request should the Diesel activity be loco hauled ( if so, by what? ) or a DMU? The only proviso is it must be on the SCP Cd. Although I originally said these 2 activities will take the seaside route with the diesel I am open to suggestions for other options if anyone has preferences.

Over to you!

Stephen

Hi all,

Having backed up all my SCP activities I uninstalled this route ( using Revo uninstaller to remove registry items ) and then re-installed using "Run as Administrator" option. This has resulted in a much better installation and, although still not as good as I would have liked, it has made running activities much more enjoyable.

The steam activity is complete - a stopping service from Edinburg Waverley to Dundee via Kirkaldy.
The diesel is in final testing and uses a Class 25 going from Glasgow Queen Street to Cameron Bridge via Stirling. As with all my activities this is a purely fictitious service and consist - Gresley coaches, probably retired by the time diesels were introduced, but they look good!

Both activities will be uploaded for "For The Love Of MSTS" and maybe a 3rd if I can get it done in time. This will follow straight on from the diesel one.

Over on UKTS dforrest has reported a problem with "S - Millerhill to Thornton Steam". He writes "In the steam version MSTS crashes immediately after I receive the "Right Away" message and I cannot find any way to make it continue." Has anyone else had this problem? I ran this activity several times ( as I do with all of them before release ) and had no problems. It is most important that the briefing is followed to the letter. When waiting for the "Right Away" at Millerhill you must be before the first ground signal otherwise you will not get the route and MSTS may crash.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
No problem with the steam activity at Millerhill. I think the key is to keep reversing until you're clear of the ground signal - as per your instructions!
I have had trouble getting to Inverkeithing on time, though - I coupled to the pilot at about 15:32!!

May I just say to the creators of this route, that the Forth Bridge is absolutely stunning when you're driving through it

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

I agree the Forth Bridge is an absolute masterpiece, probably one of the best items ever created for MSTS!!!!!!!!!! I also like watching the new road bridge being "built" as you cross the rail bridge. As an "Open Bridge" the Dee Bridge is another great bridge to drive across.

I think I found the best way to drive the WD was the similar to the real A4's - regulator 90% open and use the cut off to control the speed, as long as the steam pressure stays high this loco will go well.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

2 Activities for "For The Love Of MSTS" are now complete and the third has been started. Hopefully I can get it finished in time. This will probably be my last for this route. I have enjoyed the challenge of creating all these activities even when some of the problems I encountered were of my own making. This last activity is based on what is very popular on Heritage Railways - The Fish and Chip Dining Train, but given a twist. When finished I can go back to driving on other routes, creating more activities and installing the long waited for, and now arrived, Mideast Plus which is now sitting beside my computer.

Regards,

Stephen

Having just tried my first MEP activity - lets not talk about my ham fisted uncoupling!         

Looking forward to your next set of activities as I've started driving again!

Hi All,

The 2 activities are now uploaded. However the Fish and Chips proved a bit too greasy for the MSTS route programmer!! With reverse points in some positions coupled with the path selections the activity wouldn't work so a complete rethink was necessary. It should now work but I've had to use working practises that probably wouldn't have happened and has made the activity a little clumsy in places - so be warned.

If on your travels round SCP you haven't visited Newburgh Fish Dock then you've missed a real gem of a location; on my first visit I was so busy looking at the dock that I forgot my driving and sent the wagon I should have been collecting flying - literally.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

3rd activity now finished and uploaded, sitting waiting approval along with a lot of others.

This is probably my last activity for the SCP route.
The next thing is to install MEP and run those activities.

Regards,

Stephen

Hello Stephen,I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say "Thanks" for the many Activities you have done on SCP,and to say how much I'm looking forward to the remaining three.Especially loved the way you have used the Cd stock.
May I also say,"that I'm positive you'll be more than happy with MEP",I'm amazed that you have put making Activities for the "Old Girl"ahead of going for a ride on MEP,get comfy,your certainly going to enjoy yourself now.Regards Roger  

Hi Roger,

Thanks for your kind comments. The temptation to use MEP was great but I decided to finish the SCP activities before moving onto something else. Now I can sit back and enjoy driving what promises to be a really superb route.

Now doubt there will be more from me at some point in the future on some, as yet, undecided route.

Meanwhile I hope you continue to enjoy what I have produced.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi all,

I appear to have slipped up using D1705 for S - Fish and Chips. I had forgotten that I had added the reverse cabview and night cab to the Falcon class 47 cabview that I use. Alternative cabviews with reverse cabview are supplied with the Making Tracks Greater Eastern Cd and also Howard Payton's Class 47 UKTS Id. 18244.

Apologies to all those who are having problems changing cab ends with this loco.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

When I created S- Bin Diverted I forgot that I had created the Blue Binliners specifically for this activity. When Bristol's rubbish went to Calvert Blue Binliners were used so to try and have some authenticity these are what I used in my activity. The Blue Binliners are contained in the original download and during installation are placed in the Common.Loads/FCA Folder. There are also some green ones should you need them. For Route developers in the Common.Loads/FGA-FFA/Unaliased Folder there are single versions of each plus many other containers.

When you run the activity as I uploaded you get a "missing stock" message and the activity is, of course, unplayable. Out of the 144 people who have downloaded this activity (as of 23-03-2014) only Robmerlo has made any comment as to its failings. Hopefully since my brief note in the Comments Section of the activity other people wil now be able to run it as I intended. What did the other 143 people do? - throw it in the binliners or correct it themselves? Either way I would have liked to have known earlier than this of my error - it was uploaded 9 months ago!! As all activity writers know a lot of work goes into each activity and to have it fail by a simple, silly unnoticed oversight on the creators part is frustrating to say the least. The forums, pms are here for us all to pass comments good and bad, ask for help and point out errors amongst other things. If I get something wrong, PLEASE tell me, then I can correct it or others will if I can't.

Since last June I have created several activities for the SCP Route - these seem to have been received quite well and I have had various comments, etc. thank you.

Recently I have spent many happy hours with MEP. It has been a pleasure to drive this route and its activities and I still have many more to drive. Sometimes when driving other peoples activities I keep thinking how I would have improved it had I made it, but not in this case. Each activity is a pleasure to drive. This route has been well worth the long wait and I add my appreciation of its excellence to all those who have posted elsewhere.

I have now gone back to activity creation again on the Briscard Route SS version as well as starting to modify my Hydraulic Era Activities, where necessary, to work on the SS version. At the moment I have 3 steam activities nearly finished for the Rhymney Branch. These may be uploaded when finished or I might hold them back until The Easter Eggstragavanzer in which case there should be one or two more as well. Most of these will probably be based on the valleys branch lines. I realise that others have already produced steam era activities on these branches so my ones are aimed to complement theirs without, hopefully, treading on anybody's toes.

Regards,

Stephen

Excellent stuff Stephen, and I look forward to downloading your activities. Don't feel obliged to wait until Easter for uploading; just upload when you are ready.

Hi Stephen,
I must plead guilty to downloading your Binliner activity and archiving it for later use when I want to run the BrisCard route.

However, with respect, and as an activity tester, I must point out that nowhere in the readme is it mentioned that some file copying and editing is required.  OK, within the Common.Loads\FCA folder there is a readme, but that is confusing because the shape file mentioned doesn't exist!  Also, there are no blue or green BinLiners, and the FGA-FFA folder doesn't contain an Unaliased folder, only 3dBinlinerBox.s and .sd files.

I consider it essential to get another user to check out an activity AND readme before publishing it.

I apologise if I've missed something, but I've just downloaded the act and BinLiners to make sure modifications haven't been made to either.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

You wrote "However, with respect, and as an activity tester, I must point out that nowhere in the readme is it mentioned that some file copying and editing is required." Quite right, my point was that I had forgotten that I had done the necessary copying and editing to produce those wagons. Normally I try to use all stock as downloaded/route provided to avoid such issues. I also agree the readme in the FCA Folder is confusing but it does point you in the right direction.

The stock used for the activities currently being created should be as in the downloads, checked with Route Riter and referenced back to the original download. If I am still in doubt perhaps I should ask someone to check it first.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi all,

The three activities are still waiting final checking and run through. The delay has been caused by a realisation that some of the stock used has since been replaced by newer, improved versions. So I decided to create a new Stock Base for these and future steam Briscard activities. This is, as usual, taking longer than anticipated but I am now nearly there. It is surprising how hard it can sometimes be to find the source of a particular item in the Trainset Folder let alone its UKTS file number!

I was expecting that the better weather this weekend would mean less time on the computer, but having pulled a back muscle, the garden will have to wait. However, the dog won't so I go for a gentle stroll (stagger?) 3 times a day rather than brisk walks; SWMBO ( sometimes ) is away this weekend just to make thing harder! never mind, time now for some housework to stop the back seizing again, then back to MSTS activity work.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen
Thanks for thee update on your outstanding activities,I hope your back soon gets better
Mike

StephenRWells wrote:I was expecting that the better weather this weekend would mean less time on the computer, but having pulled a back muscle, the garden will have to wait. However, the dog won't so I go for a gentle stroll (stagger?) 3 times a day rather than brisk walks.

Tell me about it!          I'm just sitting at the computer with a mug of tea after finishing some more work in the garden, and also taking the dog for his walk - he was a bit reluctant due to the change to BST and its consequent effect on his routine!

Hope the back improves soon and that sitting at the computer isn't too uncomfortable.

Hi Alec & Mike,

Thanks for your best wishes, I did get a bit of easy gardening done as well and am now back on the computer chair - sitting on it is comfortable but can be painful leaving it - it reminds me of the signs found on some ancient double decker buses " Please lower your head when leaving your seat"

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

Progress has been slow on my Easter releases for various reasons, but they will be uploaded at some point this weekend. The three have now turned into four which would have meant one uploaded each day over the weekend. However family commitments now mean they will be done all in one go. The extra one is a fairly simple run from Cardiff Bay to Coryton and back using a Class14xx Autotrain. The others use the Rhymney Branch. I know others have also produced activities with some similarities on these branches and I apologise in advance if somehow, and quite unintentionally, I have trodden on anyone's toes.

These activities and and any future ones for the Briscard Route specifically use the SS version and have a slightly different form of title. There are quite a lot of downloads but, hopefully, most people should have most of them anyway. Most of them are stock packs to reduce the number of downloads and increase variety. With the exception of UKTS 12508 BR_D44_High everything should work "out of the box" and I have included instructions as to how to access the neccessary extra wagons. In my opinion the brakes release rate on two of the locos used is much too slow which makes timekeeping difficult. I have, however, tested these using the default settings to make sure that most times are achievable.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

These four activities are now finished and uploaded awaiting approval.

File ID: 32768 Name:S - SS Coryton Auto Train
File ID: 32769 Name:S - SS Cardiff_Rhymney
File ID: 32770 Name:S - SS Rhymney Plant
File ID: 32771 Name:S - SS Rhymney_Cardiff

Regards,

Stephen

Excellent news.

Hi Stephen,
I have just down loaded the four activities but I noticed one of them requires a Buenos Aires loco which a bit strange for Wales,so I thought I would just check with you.
They look like another fine set of activities,thanks for doing them.
Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for pointing that out to me. In fact there were TWO errors that I have found, both due to dyslexic fingers!!!!!!! At least I'm still on form - I normally get something wrong when uploading a batch of activities. The correct numbers were in the Consists and Stock Document. I will re-upload S - SS Coryton Auto Train ASAP.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

Time flies - it's 6 weeks or so since my last update. I now have 2 activities virtually finished ready for "June & July are MSTS months" - all that remains are finishing the bits and pieces that make up the text documents. One of the activities is one I made 2 or 3 years ago before I started uploading. This I has had to have a major rework as a lot of the stock came from other payware routes or made the download list way to big. There are still a lot of downloads required but most were used in my Rhymney Branch Activities so if have those then you should have most of the stock. A lot of the timings also had to be altered to reflect the consist changes and the slight signalling differences in the Briscard SS version which I am now using. A few extra services have added to provide extra interest. The 2nd activity is a completely new one whish was easier and quicker to create. As with the others they are pure fiction but do follow some possible operating procedures. For the time being any new activities for the Briscard SS version will be either be steam only or diesel only. Most of the stock used comes from Stock Packs to give maximum choice from minimum downloads - all are available from UKTS and should work "out of the box". The exception are the npv and newspaper vans which need a patch and the chain version - download numbers are provided. I am hoping to produce 1 or 2 more before the end of July but with the better weather?????????? I should have less time for MSTS and more time for other things. I am always open to requests if anybody has anything they particularly want.

Regards,

Stephen

There's always a need to take advantage of any good weather! Look forward to the acts.

Hi All,

Two activities complete and a third started. This is another freight activity with a lot of shunting at the end. The player path is complete and it works. That just leaves everything else including final testing. These will be uploaded at some time soon.

Some time ago I created a freight activity for The Bristol to Birmingham Route. It is long and quite complex but kept me on my toes - it takes about 3 hrs plus a change of engine near the end.
Three problems arose:- 1, timing is fairly critical although I did build in some leeway
2, because of the amount of ai traffic starting from a save results in the red light syndrome.
3, checking produced a vast amount of required downloads
Removing all the ai traffic results in lost interaction between player and ai ( some needed for timing purposes ) and lack of interest away from shunting areas. The end result was that I never fully completed this activity - the main part still to do is to type up the full briefing.
The only way I found of taking a break was to pause it and minimise using the windows button.

Does anyone fancy giving it a go to see if it is worth finishing properly and uploading?

Regards,

Stephen