Summary, Feb 2016: This thread documents two separate attempts at the same project: recreating the British rail network using Simutrans Experimental. More recently, I've also been working on a detailed map of London's rail network (see
this post onwards).
UK map final download link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61716/uk2015-2.rar. Here's what the final map looks like:
There are also a series of
20 video diaries for the UK map produced between 2012 and 2014. The Youtube playlist is
here, and the first episode is below.
The first attempt was completed in 2011, and you can see the final results
here. You'll find that these savegames don't run especially well in up-to-date versions of Simutrans Experimental.
In 2012 I started a new version of this project from scratch, using a more detailed scale and with much more ambitious aims for accuracy, using the improved resources given by updates to Simutrans Experimental in the intervening year. You can track the progress of this new project at the end of the thread, starting
here.
The trains used in this project can be downloaded for pak64 - both standard and experimental -
here.
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ORIGINAL POST FROM MAY 2011:
This map is not finished, but I wanted to share a work-in-progress version in order to showcase some of the very powerful features of Experimental.Save-game file:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61716/UKrailmap.svePak folder (required):
http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/pak-baker.rarI recommend opening this map in Experimental 9.3, if you can find this version, since I have not yet optimized it for the deceleration changes implemented in 9.4 onwards.
Important notes/disclaimers
====================
This map is currently inaccurate in many ways. Some will be fixed later, and some are by design. Here are some explanatory notes:
1. This is intended as a simulation primarily of rail passenger flow. As such, other aspects take a back seat. I've cheated to a huge degree by extending stations with bus stops. Partly this is to avoid having to build too many bus lines -- and partly it's to simulate the fact that many people will travel to a rail station of their own accord before starting their journey. Buses are used only where there are no trains (and occasionally to provide extra links -- see the East Midlands). Once the rail network is complete, I plan to add more buses.
2. Vehicles are not intended to be accurate. There are few good UK trains for pak64. Almost all the trains I've used are electric, which means that many lines are electrified which would not be in real life. Also, since my main concern is to simulate accurate journey times, the top speeds of vehicles have been altered (and are not always true-to-life for the relevant routes). Costs are also artificially low in order to allow me to build the network without obstruction. I plan to raise them later.
3. Many large inner-city stations have underground sections which do not exist in real life. For example, Manchester Piccadilly is on three levels. This is for space reasons -- because of the scale, 18 platforms at Waterloo (for example) would require a station 4.5km wide...! Similarly, local metro systems (e.g. Manchester Metrolink) are often underground when they would normally run above ground. For similar space reasons, a few stations in London (and one or two elsewhere) are omitted.
4. Almost all routes run to a schedule, using Experimental's fantastic 'convoy spacing' system. Most routes run approximately half-hourly (7 convoys per month). I'd like to make this more realistic, but I'm stuck with a "passenger max wait" time which means that passengers will only wait for around half an hour before joining the "unhappy" pile. If anyone knows how to change this in-game (or by editing the save-game), I'd be very grateful! Because many services run more frequently than in real life, some areas have double-track where it should be single-track, and even four-track where it should be two-track. Also, some 'semi-fast' services are omitted. For example: there is no semi-fast Euston-Milton Keynes service. Instead, the stopping Euston-Watford Junction service is extended to call at all stations to Milton Keynes.
5. A note on cities. Each city has been built from scratch, building by building. Populations are not intended to be realistic, but population
ratios are. The population of each city is approximately 13.6 times smaller than its population in real life. Note that sometimes I've included surrounding areas as part of a larger city when they wouldn't normally be included in the population -- and some smaller cities are combined together. I already have over 700 cities and I'm worried that the game might have a limit at 999. Does anybody know?
6. The geographical aspects of the map are not perfect. I think it's a little wider than it should be, and some of the city placements are slightly out. Again, I plan to correct some of this later.
7. Not all stopping patterns are accurate. Partly that's because you can't vary stopping patterns in-game like you can in real life (e.g. some Euston-Manchester trains go via Crewe, some via Stoke). Partly it's to regulate passenger flow: each major station on the West Coast Main Line receives a call from only one express train, in order to avoid passengers changing where they shouldn't. Something similar happens on the ECML and the MML.
8. No freight yet; maybe later!
I've still got lots of work to do, but so far I'm really impressed with just how easy it is to accurately simluate passenger flow within Experimental. What's more, most of the journey times are within the margin of error of being correct!
I'd be very interested in your comments and feedback!
