Railway simulations are fast becoming as popular on PCs as the, better known, Flight simulators. Microsoft's train simulator (of which more in a moment) is becoming one of the best selling computer games of all time. In the past, PC enthusiasts had simulations of planning or signalling operations or which were very basic graphically. Some of you may remember 'Evening Star' which simulated the whole S & D in 'wireframe' graphics about 10 years ago. Computer power has come on exponentially since then, of course, and it is now possible to create much more realistic simulations.

Previous to the release of the Microsoft product, we only had available programs which simulated the ride from the loco cab. These were often written by enthusiasts but often had the benefit of being free! One such program is BVE, which was written by a Japanese gentleman called Mackoy. Designed to simulate the Tokyo suburban electric and diesel routes, it is a brilliant piece of programming which challenges you to finish the route within its timetabled times. I discovered this program earlier this year and also discovered that, many people across the world were creating their own routes for this program.

It naturally occurred to me that I could make a Somerset and Dorset route to recreate the line I loved, but never travelled on. I decided to base my route on the area I live in, so Shillingstone to Templecombe was born. The stations are created reasonably accurately (although the fact that track geometry in the program is on the large size, means stations are slightly longer than they should be. The scenery is an impression of how it was, rather than a 'tree for tree' replica! I believe it does give an impression of what it was like to ride the S & D.

If you look at the following web page you can see screen shots of my route:

http://www.crotrainz.com/DownSts.html

This is also where you download the route from. Unfortunately, for those used to a simple double click to set up programs, it is not that easy. In addition to my route, you will require the original program which, being Japanese, needs some 'fiddling' to get it to work. This is a free download, but a little Windows knowledge will be very useful to get it to work. Rather than take up valuable Bulletin space with detailed descriptions, I am happy to e-mail a help sheet to anyone who wants to attempt to set up BVE. You could also look at these two web sites for support with the program.

http://www.crotrainz.com

http://members.aol.com/bvehelper

Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS)

This program came out in July of this year and, of course, I immediately thought of making my S & D route again, but in MSTS. In this program, not only do you ride in the cab, but you can 'fly' around the train in helicopter view. You can also stand at the trackside and watch the train go by, or even sit in the carriage and enjoy the view. Many people are already creating new objects for MSTS, including buildings, locos and coaches. Some are now starting to create their own routes, (the program comes with 6 world wide routes, the UK is represented by the Settle and Carlisle line). Unfortunately, it seems that route creation is not as simple as we hoped so I have not begun the S & D in MSTS yet. However, much as with model railways when you can't build the layout, you get on with scenery and stock. So I have begun creation of Somerset and Dorset objects.

If you look at the following website you can see lots of 'stuff' to download, completely free, for MSTS:

http://www.trainsimfiles.org.uk/

At the time of writing, my contributions are Stalbridge signal box, Shillingstone station building and an S & D 4 wheel coach in fully lined prussian blue livery. The picture shows an actual screen shot of this coach from the program. By the time you read this I should have an S & D bogie coach available, then its on to making a suitable loco - probably a Johnson 4-4-0. I hope to start on creating my route (probably Blandford to Templecombe) soon. However, the experience of others suggests this will be a long process.

We are about to see a new era of railway simulations for the PC. Another program from Australia, called Trainz, looks like it might be even better than MSTS and is out at the end of the year. Will these programs be the new 'model railways', only time will tell. What is sure is that the technology is at last at a stage when we can seriously consider simulations that let us know what it was actually like to ride on long gone lines. If you want help with BVE or want to know more, do e-mail me at the address below.

Richard Scott

richscott@rmplc.co.uk