Utter Lies

Ok, so after my post yesterday, I must have somehow guilt tripped myself - I spend the whole day looking out all the information (I've not lost anything, yay!). And then in a few short house, I added over 1.6 square km of new detailed area to the route. As usual Some pics below;

Some of the new scenery along the route. The railway line is just before the line of trees in the center

A touched up area of scenery as well as new scenery off to the right.

Noticing the complexity of the features below, I find it amusing that this picture as actually a good representation of the actual area as it was back then.

A close up of the picture above: We see the railway cross a river then a road then another river. Not well visible here, but the road actually fords the river on each side of the track!

(Ignoring the marker billboards) This is looking down the line, showing the new stretch of the railway added.

Life on the back burner

As you all will probably have figured, things aren't exactly moving anywhere quickly with the route. A busy semester at uni as well as moving house has left me with little extra time. That and I fear I may have gone and lost the gradient information for the route, so while I can still do small tweeks to the scenery, I cant make any changes to the track until I either find it, or get the information again.

Unfortunately Uni is about to start again, I hopefully things will pick up during the summer breaks.!

More Updates

Hi all,

Don't worry; no more useless videos from me for now! Just a quick note on the latest updates for the route. With the original Gifford area now pretty much finished, today's work was entirely on new areas. The countryside between Gifford and Humbie is just under half way done, with about 2 miles of countryside now completed. Still a few more days of work before I can start thinking about Humbie station and preview releases.

As usual, here's some pictures of the latest updates.

The far end of the completed area; mostly just fields and general countryside, but with several interesting features throughout. (Just noticed the roads on the fields on the left. These roads are only there to help in the placement of the fields, for once the decals were removed)

Looking back towards Gifford with the new updates in view

The occasional pools that lie along side the burns are now included.

A picturesque view of a burn passing underneath the railway just after Inglsfield

Another production shot of the route. Unlike with dealing with scenery near the track, where you can use the gradient to accurately maniputlate the surroundings, far into the distance , all I can use is several spot heights as well as extrapolations from contours. Since this only works for small areas, I placed roads from each height, to every other height and then used the embankment tool to take an average of the heights. After further tweeking with the smooth tool, the end result (see the first picture) is realistic and accurate hill that is not generic.

Video Time

Hi Everyone.

Just a video I tried to get uploaded for the last post but it wouldn't let me. It's Derek's Class 101 descending into Gifford station, as it appears now. Word of warning though: I'm utterly rubbish at making videos, so I hope this goes well.

Just some notes about the video.

Firstly, thanks to going over the video, I've noticed a fault with the river (namely, it jumps into the air before it disappears into the forest)

Secondly, the trees as you head into Gifford need to be reworked, or there's going to be many a virtual engineer missing eyes.

Some of you will notice billboards along the route, not befitting the time period. There's a good reason for that. I use billboards as sort of markers along the route. They'll probably still be there on alpha releases. Basically, 1 billboard in the middle of the track is just to help me with navigation and distancing. 2 on either side of the tracks denotes the point of gradient change.

A final note on the Class 101. The Class 101 did actually see service on lines near to the Gifford and Garvald railway as railtours, visiting the area. Unfortunately, by the time that particular railtour arrived at Smeaton, the line from Gifford and Macmerry, all the way to Smeaton, had been lifted. In a similar situation, a railtour woked by a Class 24 also arrived at Smeaton. In the long run, I intend to include both as scenarios, however, you will need the respective addons, to run them (Derek's Class 101, Mesh's Class 24).

Hope you enjoy the video.

Major Updates

Hi again all!

Sorry for the lack of posts of late (seems to be a bad habit of mines). I've still been keeping busy with the route tough. Now, all of the decals between Gifford and Ormiston have been created (backing up the route now takes over 2 hours, but don't worry, there will be no decals in the release!).

Necessity, being the mother of invention and all (as well as RW not being able to utilize my 8GB RAM), has forced me to start removing decals from the route: My idea was to lay the decals between 2 stations, get the track laying and basic landscaping done, then go back and go over the intricacies and remove the decals. However after around 20 decals, RW just crashes when I try to place more decals, so I've now started lifting some of the decals around Gifford. Still a WIP but it now looks a lot closer to how it will in the final release. Here's some more pictures of updates

Flaunting Derek's Class 101 at Gifford

And again, towards Edinburgh. The Class 101 did actually see use on the lines near here in railtours, although the Gifford and Garvald railway had been lifted.

The real deal - barring minor custom work, this is the finished Gifford station and area.

The finished hills and farms near Gifford

Remember those blasted pillars from the last post? Well, they're back, and making my life difficult in decal laying.

Hi again,

Heres some pics of the latest update. I'm now past the point (In less that 12 hours) that it took me several months to get to before. Probably no more this weekend though, work! Pah!

The view looking up the hills away from Gifford. The hills look more gentle and rolling than before, but this one still hides a nasty 1 in 53 gradient!

As a desperate attempt to get a large farmhouse with a courtyard in the middle, I stapled 4 of the same building together. After adding a conservatory, an allotment and greenhouses, I feel the result isn't actually bad.

Doing a dummy run without decals, this is Gifford station, which is actually now almost complete. It seems a bit empty, but more clutter will be added.

View looking away from Gifford station again with the decals off. The results aren't bad but more work still needs done on the background here.

The real Gifford station was built up so that the station could be level, a fact I neglected before because it made things too awkward, but shown here as a fairly good representation. The eagle-eyed of you will notice that the old 5-compartment carriage isn't present anymore. That's because i can't figure how on earth whoever put it there managed to keep it there without having to build another platform for it!

View looking towards Gifford from the fields.

Miles away from everything, I discovered the results of a furious contest of wits between me and the RW height tool. I had thought I had won, but evedently it got its own back - these pillars extend for many miles in both directions!

Gradients and Giggles

Hi all!

Firstly, my route's been saved by the grace of RW tech support, only downside is that all the track gradients are jumbled. The main line is easy to fix but at Gifford station the track is quite complicated and I don't fancy my chances of being able to re-lay it again, so since the gradients are menial (1 in 85,000!), I'm just leaving it be. Above is the latest development picture, there's not much change, but the run round loop has been completed.

Anyway, all this talk of gradients brings me neatly the article on heights and gradients I wanted to do. My problem with the route is, first and foremost, the fact it no longer exists. Secondly, even in its prime, the route was very obscure (In one of my first posts, I described it as a branch line of a branch line of a branch line of the ECML) and so there's not much information availible on it. All I have to go on, is Google Earth, following the scars in the landscape, and OS map, the railway plans and a book on the railways of Midlothian. This may seem a lot, but theres pro's and cons to each resource. For example, the OS maps offer high detailing of railways, yards, infrastructure and surroundings, but lacks information on signaling and gradients. The railway plans weirdly lack information on the railway (It only covers the main line and not yards or stations) but has excellent gradient information.

With all my resources, I have a good idea of what the surroundings are and where the lines and yards should be. My problem is gradients. The OS maps show spot heights on roads and rivers but not railways as well as contour lines, making accurate gradients difficult. The plans for the railway show excellent gradient information, but only for what was expected of the route, so the actual gradient information is lacking. In the book (The Haddington, Macmerry and Gifford Branch Lines by A.M. Hajducki) there is a gradient diagram from after the construction of the line, the only issue is that the diagram is rather wonkily drawn and so I doubt its accuracy.

The issue list extents when you use all the information together! For example, the hill just outside Gifford is shown as 1 in 50 on the diagram, but only 1 in 53 on the plans. Also, the plans show the whole railway, which was originally supposed to run from Ormiston to Garvald, on which Gifford station is on a 1 in 50 hill, however the line only completed as far as Gifford, there the gradient was leveled to accommodate the terminus.

My solution, is to use the gradient from the plans, then compare it with the information from the OS maps. If the railway ends up 10m above the ground or is otherwise unreasonable, try switching to less accurate diagram and compare results. If it is favourable then use that instead. If it is still unacceptable, then you just have to use a combination of the plans and the diagram, validating it with the OS information, to create an in-between that works. For example, the problem on the hill outside Gifford, I originally tried the 1 in 50 gradient, but this left the railway mid-air, so i tried again with 1 in 53 gradient and it fit rather well!

Well somewhat pointless, but thats my article on why conflicting 110-year-old records are somewhat of a headache to use. More updates soon!

A racing start into brick wall

Thanks to my many maps and other resources, I pretty much got the point I was at with the first run after several months, in a little under 2 hours! Alas, its not all good news, when I ran a scenario to see how much room I had in a run around, it CTD! All other attempts to load the route, in editor or play mode also CTD. It was bad enough having to start it again so I'm hoping someone can help me with the error so I can save my work! Incidently, for whoever wants to take a bash at it, the error message is shown below.

Cheers all!

That dreaded error message

Blocky, but a decent start on the terrain.

Forming Gifford station (billboards and track to aid placement)

An amusing side effect of the way I'm using the height tool is that far away from the track, there are massive plunging cliffs!! The massive cliff is just basic height detail but note the small cliff on top marking the outer edge of the finer detailed height mapping.

A depressing, but nessecary way to go

After buying all the OS maps and spending several hours in the national archives taking measurements, I've decided to restart the route from scratch. The way I've been designing the route so far would cause unnecessary work for me to continue it accurately, and since I didn't get too far with the first run, its not too bad.

The good news is that I now have all the resources I need and I'm also now on my holidays from university (after my exam tomorrow, of course), so I should have good time to work on the route. The picture above shows the very start of my work at Gifford. With the new height information, I now have a base height to use, hence the massive cliffs visible in the top of the picture. These cliffs and other height features will be made to look normal once development continues. Just as a brief thing, I want to do an article about the problems I currently face in terms of gradients on the route, but more on that in the coming days!

Long time no post

Yeah sorry about that.....
The good news that I've just gone from £29.15 to -£23.84 getting a hold of high detail maps for the route (NOT cheap) and will soon be paying a visit to the national library to get a high detailed gradient profile of the line. The only bad news is that I've just remembered that my uni exams start in less than a week, so I can't quite get back onto route building.

Soon, I promise!

Haha...Driving Test

Hi all,

As a little aside from the normal excuses for not doing update, just letting you know of the busied week of my life so far!

Firstly, last week of uni, so exams and coursework deadlines hitting me like an airbag.

Speaking of violent car crashes, its my driving practical test tomorrow and I'm dreading it, but not for the usual reasons: just cam back from a driving lesson this minute - visibility, less than 20m. And my test's at 8:40 in the morning so there's no chance for it to burn off, so fun for all!!

Anyway small aside there. I'm planning on getting all nessicary maps for the route, and be continuing work as of next week.

Доброй ночи все!

Moneys!!

Hi all,

Just an update on the money for the maps. With donations and advertising, there is now £21.15 towards the £45 needed for the maps, so just under halfway there! And moreover, I now have a decent job, I should be able to start putting money towards the maps as well!

Again, sorry for the lack of updates on the route but I've decided to wait until I can get the maps to complete the route accurately. Also, I should be getting a hold of 3Dmax soon so I'll be adding custom content to the route, including custom buildings, rolling stock, locomotives and railway infrastructure.

Updates soon!!!

Late night posting

...... Have to stop staying up this late....

Anyway, just thought I'd let all interested know whats going on. Unfortunately, there hasn't been too much done to the route, just minor tweeks here and there. I'm complete bogged down by uni work and I have only 3 weeks left to do about 7 weeks worth of work! Not fun. Until the uni work is out of the way, I cant see that I'll have time to do any significant updates (Unless I snap and eat all my work again). But after that I'll get on thick and fast.

As for the monetary situation, I've recieved around £4 in donations, so thank you to all the kind contributors. And when it gets round to paying me, my advertisements will give me around £3, so not too much but every penny helps! Only £38 more until I can afford the maps I need to complete the route, but I may have set myself up a job or two so that will make things considerably easier.

So appologies all, for the lack of updates for the moment, but I'll get on it as soon as I can! Oh, and I may also be aquiring some design software so I'll be able to make custom content for the route. Woo!!!

Night......*its morning*......Morning all,
Hibblejaybob

Minor Updates and my Stupidity!

Hi all,

Just done some minor updates at Gifford station. The bungalow that sits at the entrance to the station has been added (might get updated if I can get the 3D modeling software I need, as will the station building). The Goods platform has been reworked so that it no longer spawns passengers, still missing the crane though, again, if I can get a hold of the software, I'll make it.

Had a stupid incident with the old carriage that sits next to the station building at Gifford. A photograph of Gifford station after construction in 1901 showed that the station was very bland; no benches, no lamps, nothing other than the station building. A picture from 1910 shows the addition of benches, bins, bushes, lamps, and most notably, a 5-compartment carriage sitting next to the station building. To my surprise, I then found a picture of the station from 1952, 4 years after the station closed (due to a bridge near Humbie being destroyed because of floods), which shows a brick shelter (like the many already scattered around Gifford station) where the old carriage used to be.

So after removing the carriage and adding the brick shelter, I went back and looked at the 1910 photograph, thinking I was mistaken about the carriage only to find that I wasn't! And I had to add the carriage back in again.

Things that still need added at Gifford the goods crane, the water tank, and the platform bushes. When I can, I also hope add new building for the station bungalow and the station building, for upmost accuracy! Outside of Gifford, the Inglisfield level crossing still needs reworked to fit correctly, and Phase 2 still needs to be continued.

Phase 2 begins!

Right, That's me officially started phase 2 - between Gifford and Humbie!

Here's what I've done;
Update 5 (15/2/10) - still no release
Phase 1 (92%)
-Update
--Added mileposts
--Fixed issues with roads disappearing underground in several places
Phase 2 (50%)
[/] Decal Capturing and Laying
[/] Track Laying
[P] Elevation Mapping
[P] Roads and Rivers
[] Buildings and Landmarks
[] Trees, Foliage and Miscellaneous
[P] Railway Infrastructure
[X] Lineside Infrastructure
- More fun with level crossings, this time, it wont fit (See images)!
[/] Industries
[] Decal Removal and Landscape Texturing
[] Final Iterations

Image time:

And it all starts again!

More LC issues...

The almost finished Gifford terminus

Gifford-Waverley train in action - Leaving Gifford

Gifford-Waverley train in action - Looking back, towards Gifford


Remember to click on the images for clarity! Any feedback is appreciated.

Oh!

Oops, almost forgot,
In my latest update, I'm now finishing with phase 1 of the grand masterplan.

Update 4 (15/2/10) - still no release
Phase 1 (92%)
[/] Decal Capturing and Laying
[/] Track Laying
[/] Platforms
[/] Elevation Mapping
[/] Roads and Rivers
[/] Buildings and Landmarks
Need to find an appropriate 1 story white bungalow
[/] Station Scenery
Individual bushes for station platform
[/] Trees, Foliage and Miscellaneous
[/] Railway Infrastructure
[X] Lineside Infrastructure
Fix level crossing issue
Found better water tank! Need supports.
[/] Industries
[-] Decal Removal and Landscape Texturing
[-] Final Iterations

Im now laying the set for Phase 2! Anyone, wondering when a release will be available, I plan to release a beta once Phase 3 is complete! Also when there is an indented list such as;
[X] Lineside Infrastructure
Fix level crossing issue
Found better water tank! Need supports.
The list is a listing of all the errors with that section and if anyone thinks they can help out with an error, do feel free to comment or email me (dannymckean@hotmail.co.uk). Also, any feedback is welcomed at the same pages.

Cheers all!

Advertising

As you may have noticed, there are now advertisements on the right and at the bottom of the page as well as a donations button on the right. As so many other route developers have mentioned before, getting the resources in order to create an accurate route costs alot of money. I've now realised that I'm going to have to spend money on maps long before I thought I would.

In making my route, I use a book of small map extracts from the time, as well as Google Earth decals (Thank you sooo much RWDecal!) to crate my route. The only issue with that is that between Humbie and Pencaitland, the areal photography is replaced by satalite imagry, which is much lower quality. This is particularly unfortunate since that strech of railway is the most detailed, with the Humbie viaduct spanning one of the many valleys of the area.

My map extracts only show the stations, and when I was viewing records at the NLS, the 1912 OS Maps, dont show the whole length of the line from Smeaton outwards, despite the railway being in existence for around 20 years prior!

My only alternative is to purchase the Bound plans and sections c1900 for the railway, but since the document is over 100 years old, it'll cost around £50 to obtain a copy. The benefits are twofold, firstly, there will be increased accuracy as it mas the whole route in detail, and secondly, it also has a highly detailed gradient profile for the railway, which is important since the gradiant is one of the major characteristics of the line.

It should be noted that I am planning to release the route as freeware (May change that once the route expands) and there is no obligation to give a donation once a release is available. I only have the ads and donations in order to help me along with the route as I'm currently unemployed and at university (not a fun mix). The donations will only be used for supplementing the route and not for any other purpose. I will try to keep you all updated on the balance as I get on.

Anyway, pointless mumble, back to route building!
P.S. sorry for the quality of the ads, not exactly on-topic material!

Back!

Been about a week since the last post. Not done all too much with the route since then, uni work bogging me down as usual! been trying to learn to make things work in RW but my skills leave much to be desired in RW and cant get anything to work quite yet. As such, I'm wrapping up phase 1 of my scheme and continuing the journey down the line towards Humbie!

Hope to get that up and running before the middle of next week so at least theres something to look forward to!

Getting on...

Hi again,

Update 3 (8/2/10) - still no release
[/] Decal Capturing and Laying
[/] Track Laying
[/] Platforms
[/] Elevation Mapping
[/] Roads and Rivers
[/] Buildings and Landmarks
- Need to find an appropriate 1 story white bungalow
[/] Station Scenery
- individual bushes for station platform
[/] Trees, Foliage and Miscellaneous
[/] Railway Infrastructure
[X] Lineside Infrastructure
- Fix level crossing issue
- Found better water tank! Need supports.
[/] Industries
[] Decal Removal and Landscape Texturing
[] Final Iterations

Day 3 of route building here and Phase 1 is almost out the way! I've had to completely reroute the "Speedy Burn" because I got it all wrong. I've also extended the scenery around the railway to give a more accurate feel of the area. Looked at the map and forgot exactly how much still needs done on the other sections! Anyway, take a look at the updates;

Gifford c.1907

Farming at Gifford

View from the rails from Gifford to the West

"Speedy Burn" with the Gifford line on the right

Looking towards Gifford

New station scenery at Gifford station

The updated station building

North view from Gifford platform (See why I need support for the water tank?)

North view from Gifford goods platform

Gifford at night.

Once again, I hope you all enjoy. This phase is pretty much done now so I'll be moving down the line towards Humbie soon. I want to try and iron out the issue with the level crossings before I move on, since there's quite a few of them on the way! As such, I might be a while with the next update. Anyone up to helping?

See you's soon!

Grumble.....Sleep.....

So, stayed up for a bit and got one last update for the route in before bed, heres some of the updates;

Update 2 (8/2/10) - No release
[/] Decal Capturing and Laying
[/] Track Laying
[/] Platforms
[/] Elevation Mapping
[/] Roads and Rivers
[P] Buildings and Landmarks
- Need to add Gifford Village and surrounding farms
[P] Station Scenery
- Benches, car park and lights
[P] Trees, Foliage and Miscellaneous
- Farms and hedges
[/] Railway Infrastructure
[X] Lineside Infrastructure
- Fix level crossing issue
- Find better water tank
[/] Industries
[] Decal Removal and Landscape Texturing
[] Final Iterations

The Photos;

The new fencing and height mapping at Gifford Station

New improved roads and fences at the start of the station

Fencing at the back of the station

New height mapping outside of Gifford

Same again...

Railway cutting through the forest

Phase 1 Progres

Hello again,

Update 1 (7/2/10) - No release
[/] Decal Capturing and Laying
[/] Track Laying
[/] Platforms
[] Elevation Mapping
[P] Roads and Rivers
[P] Buildings and Landmarks
[P] Station Scenery
[P] Trees, Foliage and Miscellaneous
[/] Railway Infrastructure
[X] Lineside Infrastructure
[/] Industries
[] Decal Removal and Landscape Texturing
[] Final Iterations

Finally to the good stuff; the pretty pictures!

In-Game Gifford from the sky: 1900 station with 2000 Decals!

"Speedy Burn" with Gifford Station in the background

Gifford Station from the road

Water filling and the infinite abyss

The view from Gifford platform

Gifford Station with the goods platform on the left (shouldn't be people there) and the passenger platform on the right

Top-Down view of Gifford station

Road bridge over the "Speedy Burn"

View from the railway looking South, away from Gifford

View looking towards Gifford station from the railway

A Level-Crossing on the approach to Gifford.


I should take the time to thank Karma99 for his work on the automated level crossings, and to Mully for his kind offer to let me use his site for hosting the route, and also to the guys at RWDecal without whom this route would be very innacurate, so cheers all!

Hope you enjoyed the pics, do feel free to comment!