Hi everyone,
I have now tried the BVE4 HST on the Maybank Day & Night Routes, with Ezzypeezy's (Tom's) HST Divergence route and the Edinburgh-Aberdeen Rout. Congratulations to everyone involved with the new HST. The Cab looks good and the sounds very realistic and the train handles pretty well. There's been a few pieces of additional equipment since I last handled these trains during divergence work, but otherwise it looks great to me. It was worth waiting for.
I know you'll throw something at me, but, could a BVE4 47 and a class 60 be in the pipeline before long!!!! Ouch!!!!
I also downloaded Richards latest updates to the Richwell route. Again congratulations to Richard for putting so much into them. The evenining light graphics are very good and I appreciate very much Richard adding an EWS Depot and line up of EWS Loco's for me to feel at home with.
He has also done very well with the signalling changes that I mentioned and all but the 'single yellow, for Naughton, which is still green in most routes. I think I would prefer a single yellow inspite of the fact that you receive a Bell instead of a buzzer at that signal. A yellow follows through much easier and you can ignore the AWS bell, but jumping from a green to a red signal just doesn't sit right with me. Hopefully he will be able to get this signal correct before long. It is obvioulsy a limitation within BVE 4.
It looks good getting the subsidiary signal at Naughton to go onto the depot, which is the correct procedure and a much more realistic 5mph on the depot.
Likewise the 25 mph restriction board with the left facing arrow for the crossover at Fairfield looks right too and he has done away with the feather to go into the loop at Aston. BVE isn't perfect but there is a lot you can do yourselves to make the signalling work as with the real railway.
It looks like his v3 route is going be quite something too. A tip for those of you who plan to make a 125 mph route. Anything under 30 miles is completely uneconomical for such a train. It travels the second 16 miles twice as fast as the first 16 miles, therefore needs all of that space and more to make your BVE route realistic and the HST to get anywehre near to cruising at 125, rather than hammering up to the maximum, if it ever gets that far, only to start braking for a stop or a speed chack. It must have four aspect signals too, otherwise there isn't the brakling distance available.
My favourite loco was always the Class 47, they handled just about every type of train going and could work over the majority of routes. Never cared for the hydraulics, they should never have been built in the first place, but the Hymack and the Western's were pretty powerful machines and did well in the circumstances, just a pity that they chocked you to death with oil fumes. Of all the hydraulics I would say that the Hymack was my favourite.
The Class 60 is a fantastic machine and is what every new loco following should have been like, with the addition of the latest technical advanatges, but, Oh Dear, the Class 66 followed and the only thing you could say about them is that they were 'New' and very reliable. They only beat the 60 because of their 60 mph maximum, but a 60 will pull anything the railway throws at it. If it had been a 75 mph loco there would have need no need for ther 60's, probably!
Whatever, my thanks again to everyone involved with the new HST and all the great BVE4 routes that keep coming out and simply get better and better.
Regards.
Biill EWS.
I have now tried the BVE4 HST on the Maybank Day & Night Routes, with Ezzypeezy's (Tom's) HST Divergence route and the Edinburgh-Aberdeen Rout. Congratulations to everyone involved with the new HST. The Cab looks good and the sounds very realistic and the train handles pretty well. There's been a few pieces of additional equipment since I last handled these trains during divergence work, but otherwise it looks great to me. It was worth waiting for.
I know you'll throw something at me, but, could a BVE4 47 and a class 60 be in the pipeline before long!!!! Ouch!!!!
I also downloaded Richards latest updates to the Richwell route. Again congratulations to Richard for putting so much into them. The evenining light graphics are very good and I appreciate very much Richard adding an EWS Depot and line up of EWS Loco's for me to feel at home with.
He has also done very well with the signalling changes that I mentioned and all but the 'single yellow, for Naughton, which is still green in most routes. I think I would prefer a single yellow inspite of the fact that you receive a Bell instead of a buzzer at that signal. A yellow follows through much easier and you can ignore the AWS bell, but jumping from a green to a red signal just doesn't sit right with me. Hopefully he will be able to get this signal correct before long. It is obvioulsy a limitation within BVE 4.
It looks good getting the subsidiary signal at Naughton to go onto the depot, which is the correct procedure and a much more realistic 5mph on the depot.
Likewise the 25 mph restriction board with the left facing arrow for the crossover at Fairfield looks right too and he has done away with the feather to go into the loop at Aston. BVE isn't perfect but there is a lot you can do yourselves to make the signalling work as with the real railway.
It looks like his v3 route is going be quite something too. A tip for those of you who plan to make a 125 mph route. Anything under 30 miles is completely uneconomical for such a train. It travels the second 16 miles twice as fast as the first 16 miles, therefore needs all of that space and more to make your BVE route realistic and the HST to get anywehre near to cruising at 125, rather than hammering up to the maximum, if it ever gets that far, only to start braking for a stop or a speed chack. It must have four aspect signals too, otherwise there isn't the brakling distance available.
My favourite loco was always the Class 47, they handled just about every type of train going and could work over the majority of routes. Never cared for the hydraulics, they should never have been built in the first place, but the Hymack and the Western's were pretty powerful machines and did well in the circumstances, just a pity that they chocked you to death with oil fumes. Of all the hydraulics I would say that the Hymack was my favourite.
The Class 60 is a fantastic machine and is what every new loco following should have been like, with the addition of the latest technical advanatges, but, Oh Dear, the Class 66 followed and the only thing you could say about them is that they were 'New' and very reliable. They only beat the 60 because of their 60 mph maximum, but a 60 will pull anything the railway throws at it. If it had been a 75 mph loco there would have need no need for ther 60's, probably!
Whatever, my thanks again to everyone involved with the new HST and all the great BVE4 routes that keep coming out and simply get better and better.
Regards.
Biill EWS.