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...............................

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!

More Freebies In Production

There's nothing quite like a freebie! We know that, which is why we try to give you some free products from time to time. There are a few different reasons why some products are given away for free. (1)Some products have to be given free due to the EULA attached to the associated DLC. The Jacobite being a classic example of that. (2)We get help from some very kind individuals with the understanding that the product they assist on will be freeware. (3)We make a payware sound pack that is required to use the free pack. Not everyone agrees that that's free, however, we like to view it as a 'buy one get one free' kind of arrangement. Here are some examples of free products that have been downloaded over 1000 times since release:

An accurate depiction of the preserved Great Central Railway, running between the the Leicestershire town of Loughborough and the outskirts of Leicester. Custom buildings feature heavily, giving you the opportunity to 'recreate the experience' of running on this popular preserved railway.

Quite possibly the most reliable steam locomotives running today, Ian Riley's Black Fives can be seen taking on main line work all over the country. We present here all 3 of those locos. Repaints, particles and script by Chris Barnes, finished off with SSS sounds

When the West Somerset Railway DLC was released, it met with a lukewarm reaction. Although the station models and basic scenery was good, there was a serious lack of detail. Started by real-life WSR guard David Seward, adding of a lot of missing detail began. We came on board and transformed the look of many parts of the line, taking out overdone tree lines; adding embankments, cuttings, signal cables, point rods, the missing Minehead water treatment plant and much much more! We even managed to get a locomotive to be published with the route as well - WSR Mogul 9351 - courtesy of Kris Harding. It is with great satisfaction that we see many using the route, as evidenced in published screenshots. I'm sure it is satisfying to David and Kris as well!

Our most recent freeware pack was exclusive to newsletter subscribers, but the next two will be made available to all.

Castle Over Shap Scenario

This scenario, created by Mitchel Thomas, takes Nunney Castle over shap. It's a challenge. Can you get your train over the summit without loosing too much time? This scenario is to be made available later today.

Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway for TS2015

  Way back in 2011, Richard Evans released the fantastic Honeybourne Line for then Railworks. The route was very well received. However, technology has advanced a awful lot since then. In that time we've seen the introduction of the TSX game engine; Shadows(not the band!); Super-elevation; Tunnel occlusions and much more. With Richards kind permission - granted over 2 years ago(!!) - we present a new version of the route taking advantage of these new features, and an extension of the line to Laverton. Not much has had to change scenery-wise, Richard having made such a fine job of it. We just present a new version which looks better with the new technology. 

  The Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway is a 12 mile preserved railway which runs from the Cotswold town of Cheltenham to Laverton, via Gotherington, Winchcombe and Toddington. Find out all about the real GWSR HERE. We are slowly gathering a collection of appropriate locomotives to run on the line. What will come with the route? The plan is to release the route with Dinmore Manor and a set of maroon mark ones included. A set of scenarios are also in development. Enjoy the following screenshots showing off a section of the route between Laverton and Gotherington.

Very soon now you'll be able to enjoy an exciting day out in the Cotswolds on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway for TS2015!

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