Topic: Balkans & South East Europe rail network

[Carl]

Glad you like it - very kind of you to say!

[Carl]

Click below to watch:

Budapest to Vienna - first video of the Balkans/SE Europe map

Here's a new video for the first time in almost two years. This time it covers the Balkans/SE Europe map, taking a trip from Budapest to Vienna. I talk about the map as a whole and what it aims to do. Hope you enjoy - keen to hear any comments!

Here are a couple of screenshots from the video:

Farmland and wind turbines near the Austria/Hungary border


Komárom and surrounds

[NoMorePacers]

Great work getting another video out!

[Carl]

I've just returned from locations in the westernmost part of this map (Maribor and Ptuj in Slovenia - some rail-related pictures here, if you're interested). So I thought I would spend a bit of time on the map and re-upload the savegame. I've updated some rail and bus routes in Austria and Slovenia. The first trains into Albania have also been added since my last upload.

Here's the savegame and pak folder. As with the GB map, this is currently only suitable for legacy Simutrans Experimental builds rather than the new Extended builds.

Quick screenshot of Maribor:



One more thing - I was surprised to find that the trains 'drive' on the left in Slovenia. I was under the impression that they 'drove' on the right everywhere in Europe. Anybody know of a list on this?

[Vladki]

I think that Austrian trains drive on left as well. And the czech part of one of the oldest European rail lines from Břeclav to ostrava (KFNB) was left sided until few years ago, even though the rest of Czech railways is right sided.

[Ves]

In Sweden, trains also drive on left.
I read somewhere that if the railway was drive on left, the drivers seat would also be on the left side, so the driver would be further away from the other track, in case some cargo would be loose, or a cargodoor had opened etc. Likewise if it was right handed traffic, but I dont know if all that is actually true in general.

[Combuijs]

See here at the bottom:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic

Most surprising left driving countries for you might be France, Belgium and Switzerland...

[Carl]

Thanks - very interesting. My assumption that it would match the road behaviour in each country was very wrong!

[Lewis]

Once again the link is dead, could we possibly have a new one please?

[fam621]

Also Lewis, can you update the 80X model for the GB map so it can run overcrowded please?

[Carl]

Another victim of Dropbox's link changes. This should work:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7v65djybz08xu5/Balkans2017.rar?dl=0

[Lewis]

Thanks. 

[Carl]

I've made a new video based on this map! It's called To the Mountains, and features a journey from Bratislava, Slovakia's capital, to a town near the Low Tatras mountain range. Enjoy!

Link to video on Youtube

The journey starts in the country's urban centre, but gradually gets more and more rural until we reach the foot of the mountains. The postcard below gives an idea of this transition!



I'll upload a new savegame soon - for now there isn't too much change except the preparations made for this video.

[Carl]

Time for a new video, showing the mainline from route from Belgrade to Budapest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42wUpWt7jJ4



The video has some discussion of how the route compares to real life, and of how international border crossings are handled on the Balkans map.

Some images from the video. First, a map of the route:



Second, the departure board at Belgrade Stari Grad (Old Town) station at the time of our departure:



And finally, here's an updated savegame. As ever, you'll need Simutrans Experimental legacy exe to run this properly.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c5jijk6zsq79dsc/Balkans2018.rar?dl=0

[Carl]

After a long wait, I'm happy to present the first big update to this map for a while! To mark the occasion, here's a video teaser on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ae9-dfqCH_k

You can download the pak folder and savegame here. As ever you will need a legacy Simutrans Experimental exe to run this.

So what's changed?

TRAIN GRAPHICS UPDATE
All existing train graphics have been repainted. Some of them dated as far back as 2011.

Some new trains have been added, too. Inter-regional diesel services are now operated by new trains based on Stadtler Flirts. Some local and regional electric services have new trains based on the Civity model. And some suburban services are now run by new vehicles based on Aventras.

This screenshot of Satu Mare in Romania shows some of the new and updated trains....


...as does this one from Arad, also in Romania.


MAP EXPANSION AND NEW ROUTES
Meanwhile there have been many new train services added, expanding the map further into Romania. This screenshot of the network map gives an idea of how much is done, and how much is still to do...


Most notably, the capital city of Bucharest has received its first train services. It has four long-distance express lines:

1. Bucharest-Brasov-Sibiu-Arad
2. Bucharest-Brasov-Sighisoara-Cluj-Oradea
3. Bucharest-Craiova-Caransebes-Timisoara
4. Bucharest-Craiova-Pozarevac-Belgrade

Bucharest also has a metro line and a few suburban services, but is still incomplete.

This screenshot of Brașov shows two Bucharest-Arad services pausing to pick up passengers.


Other ares with new train routes include:

Northwest Romania: Satu Mare has new lines to Debrecen (Hungary), Khust (Ukraine), and additional local routes to Baia Mare and Bixad. Baia Mare has a new route to Sighetu Marmetiei on the Ukrainian border, which extends into a long distance inter-regional service to Košice in Slovakia, via Uzhhorod.

Transylvania: the city of Târgu Mureș has been added, with trains to Cluj-Napoca (Romania's 4th-largest city) and Sebeș (where it meets the mainline to Arad and Bucharest). Other local services have been added to serve major towns and cites like Hunedoara, Alba Iulia, Petroșani, and Sibiu.

This screenshot shows the River Tisza at Vyshkovo in Ukraine, on the line between Sighetu Marmetiei and Khust.


This screenshot shows the Jiu Valley in Romania, just west of Petroșani. This mining region has a direct train to Deva, where you can change for trains to Bucharest and Arad.


Other additional routes include: Belgrade metro; branch lines to Arad and Salonta in Romania; new international routes in Northeast Hungary (Miskolc-Mukachevo and Nyíregyháza-Humenné), and an overhaul of medium-distance services from Debrecen.

This screenshot shows Sebiș in Romania, which is the terminus of a branch line from Arad.


Finally, this screenshot shows Miskolc in Hungary, which has been on the map for a long time but has new services and - of course - overhauled train graphics.

[Carl]

Today's new video is in Western Romania, a journey from Baia Mare to Belgrade via Oradea, Arad and Timișoara. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_0CNcOx0-s


I learned a new technique for this video - animating the route map in QGIS. Here's the non-animated version.



The cross-border rail route from Romania to Serbia apparently doesn't exist in real life anymore. More on this, and other comparisons to real life, in the video...

[Carl]

Here is a new video taking a scenic rail trip through Bosnia & Herzegovina, from Sarajevo to the Adriatic Sea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-gjU6PqPOQ



To give you a flavour of the range of scenery on this trip, here are a few screenshots.

We travel from the capital, Sarajevo...


...through mountain passes...


...along a lake shore...


...through the historic city of Mostar...


...through a river valley and into a river delta...


...to a coastal resort on the Adriatic sea.


And finally, two maps from the video. I like maps!

[KneeOn]

High quality stuff as per usual Carl!

It was nice to see the progress through on this map from the very start. The UK one is a bit to long to read all the way through!