Friday 29 January 2016

The 81st Grange

  In 1998, a society was formed with the purpose of building a brand new GWR Grange Class. The number chosen was 6880 with the loco name of Betton Grange. Now, in 2016, the society - based at the Llangollen Railway - have now got a rolling chassis, with many new parts being added on a regular basis. With the cylinder block now in place, attention has very much turned to the boiler. This boiler has come from a GWR Hall, Willington Hall. An appeal is in place to raise funds for the boiler overhaul
  In association with Vulcan Productions, we are pleased to announce the soon-to-be-released 6880 Betton Grange Pack. 
  This is a repaints-only pack and requires the Riviera 1950's in order to successfully install and run the new Grange. The real 6880 Betton Grange will appear in BR Lined Green, with the later BR crest, initially. This version will be the focal point of the package. However, we will also supply 6880 in many other appropriate liveries, which the real one may run in during it's first stint in traffic.

Plain GWR Green with 1934-42 Shirtbutton
Lined GWR Green with 1942-47 G[Coat of Arms]W on Tender
British Railways Lined Black with the Early BR Crest
British Railways Plain Black with Early BR Crest

 







The pack will come with some scenario's on both main line and preserved line metals, as well as Quick Drive consists to help you jump straight into the cab. We are also pleased to announce that the first £150 from sales of this pack will be going towards the above mentioned boiler appeal.
Bring a BRAND NEW Grange to life on your PC!!

Monday 4 January 2016

A Look Inside the Workshop

Let us bring you up to date with what's going on here at Steam Sounds Supreme:

Severn Valley Railway

It's been a long, long time in coming, but finally our Severn Valley Railway route for Train Simulator is on the 'home straight'. The route is currently being fitted out with GWR signals, in an attempt to get as close to real life signalling as possible. Here are a couple of shots from Kidderminster:


Hawksworth Modified Hall Expansion

An almost complete set of preserved Modified Halls featuring 6960, 6984, 6990, 6998 and 7903 in BR and GWR liveries. Featured also is a brand new Hawksworth flat-sided tender. Each loco in the pack will have unique sounds, scripted lamps on engine and tender and 4 headboards. This pack is almost complete, with scenario production well under way. Below, 7903 Foremarke Hall is pictured(scene not from an included scenario) with the Cheltenham Spa Express headboard:


4MT Tank Expansion Pack

The 4MT Expansion Pack is to feature news sounds, various repaints - including weathered and ex-works - scripted lamps and more. Progress has stalled temporarily while we complete a few other projects. The pack isn't far away though. Some tweaks are required on the sounds. Take it from me, it's really difficult to get a satisfying BR Standard exhaust sound into Train Simulator, whilst maintaining it's unique characteristics!!

 
14xx Sound Pack

Due to be our next release, this sound pack features new sounds and a brand new repaint supplied by Victory Works themselves! A few pieces of feeedback have come back from testing. Once these have been addressed, the pack will be released!


Bulleid Light Pacific Pack 

A former Digital Traction product, the Bulleid Light Pacific Pack will soon be made available once more for Train Simulator. Not only will all the benefits of our 'Enhancement Pack' be added - new sounds and particles etc - but there will also be new locos to add to the 4 available in the original pack. 34105 Swanage and 34072 257 Squadron are coming over from the enhancement package, and Tangmere has also been given 'ex-works' treatment(see below). We also hope to add one more preserved Bulleid to the collection. We shall bring you more news soon.



News In Brief

Rebuilt Royal Scot - This project has once again stalled and I'm afraid I have no news about it. We have not heard from the loco builder for some time. I'm sure there are circumstances. Tom is a very busy man. We will of course offer updates on progress as soon as we have something significant to report.
Ivatt 4MT - No updates on this loco. It has been put to one side until the Rebuilt Scot is complete.
GWR 2800/2884 - This is another case of circumstances dictating progress. In Digital Traction's case, they are a man down, and the one left is having to nurse the other, who broke his leg. We wish Digital Traction our warmest regards and hope they can get back to full strength soon. The only news I can offer is that, with the help of James Littlewood, cab animations for the 28xx are basically complete. Included is a much more realistic cylinder drain cock operation, whereby the lever has the foot-operated lock added, as in real life. The Collett cab for the 2884 is coming along as well. This has a dual purpose. The initial use is for the Collett Goods, now to be sold on our website. Then, small modifications will make it good for the 2884 class.
Wycombe Railway Wagon Pack -  This pack is now largely complete. We will be holding back it's release to come out alongside our eagerly anticipated GWR 2800 loco pack.
Midland 2P Loco - No new news about this loco. Work is being done to reproduce all the appropriate liveries.
Stainmore Route - Lots of painstaking work carried out recently with the miles and miles of stone walling. Terrain painting has also been carried out on the Barnard Castle to Stainmore Summit stretch. The water troughs are in on the WCML and are fully operational. Look out for a new Stainmore Blog post soon. 
USATC S160 - We have been working with Victory Works in producing the sounds for their S160 Add-on. Pete is excited by our 'Dynamic Whistle'. I think it will be pretty special!! 

That's all for now folks! Look out on Facebook for an exciting announcement later today!!