Introduction to me and the route!

Hi All!,

I'm an Astrophysics student at Edinburgh University but when I'm not at uni, I design computer programs and games as well add-on content for games.

I'm not well known with the Railworks community, most people will know me as the guy who updates the fact page for Mully's Northern Lights route (http://mullys.webs.com/), but none the less, the blog will follow my first decent attempt to make route in Railworks.

The route concerns the state of affairs of the railways circa 1900 in the Mid and East Lothian areas of Scotland. The Gifford and Garvald Light railway is the branch line from Ormiston to Gifford. Even most die-hard railway fans will be scratching their heads here, so to give some ideas of just how remote it is, the line is the branch line of a branch line of a branch line! From Edinburgh Waverley to Gifford was a little over 21 miles. At its starting point, the Smeaton (Smeaton-Shaw Farm) branch branched off of the ECML at Monktonhall Junction and continued to Smeaton station. The route then branched off again, one line joining the Edinburgh and Dalkeith railway at Hardengreen, the other as the Ormiston branch line, which passed by Crossgatehalt (The village of Carberry) then passed several collieries and other works before stopping at Ormiston Station. The line then branched again, one to Macmerry, via Wintorn, then on to several collieries. The other branch line was the Gifford and Garvald Light Railway, which called at Pencaitland, Saltoun, Humbie, then Gifford. The line was supposed to go as far as Garvald (Hence the name) but the funds were unavailable.

The line was slow. Its designation as a Light railway meant that trains could go no faster than 25 miles per hour and there was a limit of 14 tons per pair of wheels. The many levels crossings along the route were always closed to the railway, so at each crossing, the train had to come to a complete halt and the fireman had to get off and open the gate, wait for the train to move by, then close them again. Thankfully this isn't represented in my Railworks route. But don't be fooled by the slow nature of the route! Despite a speed limit of 25 MPH, you'll still be running under full power most of the time as the extreme gradient changes provide a massive challenge to driving the route.

Looking back I'm glad I didn't say a "brief" introduction to the route! But that's the basics of the route, and practically everything about me! Hope you enjoyed it and I'll soon be posting updates about the route.