Thursday 29 January 2015

The Wycombe Railway and Joint Line Pushes Onwards

  PROGRESS continues on the Wycombe Railway and Joint Line at a steady pace. The main line has reached a point just north of Bicester North, as Peter edges towards Banbury.

Above are two shots at Bicester North with the excellent Hawksworth carriages by Matrix Trains
  Some exciting progress has occurred on the Thame branch. The line has been extended northwards from Wheatley, up the 1in84 gradient to the 524 yard long Horspath tunnel. Shortly after the tunnel, comes Horspath Halt, opened in 1933.
  Horspath Halt(as well as Towersey, near Thame) was planned to have a 150ft long platform. However, when it came to building, the decision was taken to make the platform only 100ft. Horspath Halt came under the care of the Morris Cowley station master. 

  Morris Cowley started life as Garsington Bridge Halt. However, next door to the halt, the Morris Cowley car factory was beginning to grow. After the first world war, William Morris was struggling to sell his cars, to to the high inflation and industrial unrest which existed after the war. In 1921, he decided to cut his prices and the cars then sold very well. This enable huge growth and expansion, with export of cars becoming the main thing carried out at the Cowley sight. With great foresight, he GWR recognized that there would be a need to improve the freight and passenger facilities in order to serve this fast-growing factory. The halt was taken away and replaced by a much longer single platform station, and named Morris Cowley. It opened to passengers in 1928, as did the much expanded freight facilities. For operational flexibility, the long token section between Kennington Junction(Nr. Oxford) and Wheatley, was split in two. he long section did remain though, for when the Morris Cowley signal box was 'switched out'.  
  The layout of Morris Cowley's extensive yards changed many times over the years, so choosing a layout for the sight was difficult. What Peter has gone for is a representation of how the sight would have looked pre-second world war
  As you can no doubt see, it's an extensive sight and Peter has done an excellent job representing it as it once looked.

More Soon...............................

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Lets Take a Look Inside the Workshop

  THERE are many projects in progress here at Steam Sounds Supreme. Read on to find out about progress with various projects. Pictures can't be supplied with for all these items, but at least you will be better informed:

Severn Valley Railway

  MANY of you are asking about the progress being made with the SVR. We appreciate your interest, and it is a source of frustration that we are unable to get the route out to you quicker. However, the route will be free and therefore has to be prioritized behind our sound and other payware packs - our 'bread and butter'. We can tell you though, that the route reached a milestone a few months ago with the completion(baring one of two details) of the Hampton Loade to Cottage Crossing section. Here are a few pictures:


Hampton Loade


Eardington Halt


Eardington Bank


Arley Station

  The main items awaiting completion now are the Arley station models. Lots of the small details are complete, like this delightful lamp, and the below railings.
Another detail recently completed is this lovely set of fire buckets and fire equipment. Now we await the completion of the main building and platforms, which are the next items to be exported into the game. Watch this space!


GWSR for TS2015

  COMING soon to Steam Sounds Supreme is the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway. This route is an update of the brilliant route made by Richard Evans over 3 years ago. Since that release, the real-world line has extended 2 miles and the technology within Train Simulator has advanced. So, this version gives you the 2 mile extension to Laverton and the addition of features not available when the route was built. For example, you will now be able to enjoy super-elevation; A very dark tunnel; Atmospheric lighting; A new audio environment; New track and more. The details of the release package are being finalised, but we hope to include 3 sets of GWSR carriages, Dinmore Manor(taken from the Manor Expansion Pack by Seb Welsh) and scenarios. The creation of scenarios for the route package is being outsourced to any who would like to contribute. We have received a number of Emails and messages from interested persons. We want variety, so please feel free to contact us if you have scenario creation experience and would like to get involved.

GWSR Scenario Packs

  WE ARE also pleased to announce that there will be a series of scenario packs produced for the route as separate addons. These are to be produced by Mark Walker. He has vast scenario creation experience. We look forward to seeing these packs develop, as I'm sure do you, dear reader!

4MT Tank Enhancement Pack

  THE 4MT Tank Enhancement pack is making progress. We now have the full collection, Ashley having completed his part of the pack. Here are some pictures:

What's Next?

  TO complete the 4MT Tank Enhancement Pack, we have a number of features to add:
  1. Reworked sounds
  2. CJB scripted particles
  3. Lamps(new model) and Discs scripted into the above repaints
Chris is very kindly helping out by producing a script to combine working his particles along with a new set of lamps and the SR discs. You will be able to change from lamps to discs in-game.

LMS Jubilee Sound Pack

  THANKS to the Jamie Ringwood, we have recordings of Jubilee Galatea. This enables us to create the LMS Jubilee Sound Pack. It's at an advanced stage, however, we are having problems with the script. We will share some video as soon as we have sorted this:

The angle of the above shot is hiding the script issue. The shot to the left illustrates what is occurring, with all the lamps stuck on, and the particles not responding to the script. This is very likely to be because of a small error made when I added the controls and children to the Jubilee engine.bin file. Myself and Chris are trying to work out where the error is. It's not easy to spot. Once we can get over this, you find a much more immersive experience driving the Jubilee with new sounds, CJB particles, steam chest simulation and more.

Flying Scotsman Sound Pack - Double-Chimney Edition

  AFTER the enforced splitting of the Flying Scotsman Sound Pack into two parts, we are pleased to tell you that the issues with the air brakes have been resolved and the second part is well on the way now

Spam-Can News

  ANOTHER question we are asked regularly is what has happened to the Spam-Can Enhancement Pack. Well, unfortunately for reasons unknown to us, our repainter has not followed through on completing the agreed locos. What we plan to do is release what we do have - 257 Squadron, Swanage(only if we can remove the crest) and a small selection of steam-age examples - as part of a pack, with the modified particles added to all the available locos. It is our understanding that DT will be returning the Spam-Cans to Steam this year. So, we'll get our work out the way so as not to get in the way of DT's plans.

New-builds - Scot, Ivatt and More

  THE MUCH anticipated Rebuilt Royal Scot addon has dragged it's heels over the past few months. Some progress has been made over the holiday though. Tom has been on a steep learning curve with various aspects of exporting the model, in particular the animation of the valve gear. It seems that TS2015 doesn't support certain animating techniques that TS2014 did and that's what has thrown us! Chris sought advice from Meshtools and JT. We are grateful to them for pointing Tom in the right direction. We will hopefully have a fully exported and animated model very soon!

The Ivatt 4MT is progressing gradually as well. This is what Tom had to say yesterday:
"4MT - spent a day mapping the cab which is 75% done now. This then leaves the valve gear to texture and animate. Also the cab variants between BR and preservation need to be done as well but I will do this after the mapping is done."
GWR 28xx - The cab is complete as far as we know. We are awaiting a status report from DT.

Midland/LMS 2P - All research done. Waiting for a slot to complete a full set of paint schemes for the loco.  


No Longer In Production

IT IS with regret that we announce the following packs are no longer in production by us or for us. The reasons are varied.
  • USATC S160 - Unfortunately Will has been unable to progress this model. If things change in the future, we'll let you know
  • Patriot Sound Pack - Sounds not up to scratch and not allowed to use CJB particles
  • GCR Steam Sound Showcase Gala - We are no longer in a position to complete this pack. Look out for GCR scenario pack announcements in the future, as a scenario author has taken up the challenge of producing GCR scenarios.
This concludes your look inside the workshop today. There's more going on at the back of the shed, but that'll have to wait for another visit. Please close the doors behind you on your way out!