Simulation Of The Woodhead Route

[Killamarshian]

If anyone is interest, you can now purchase a simulation of driving the electric trains on the Woodhead Route. The route is from Manchester Picadilly (know as LOndon Road in the 50's) to Sheffield Victoria.

The simulation is called Train Simulator 2012

Here is a video of the whole route. It has been sped up 5x

I have them both and they are brilliant.

[History dude]

Somebody got me a copy of the Train simulator as a Christmas present. Its' not bad, but it's not very realistic in places. On that one shown in the video. The speed limit of those 4 wheeled mineral wagons shown at the back of the loco is only 45 mph, so by going faster than that would be wrong. I have noticed to that the acceleration of some of the trains is very slow. Not realistic at all. For example the HST 125 takes ages to get up to that speed, so much so that the speed limits on the track, were just not realistic, since even one of these HST couldn't get up to 70 mph in the section before the speed changed. I also noticed that there is a lot of two way working on double and quad track, with signals going both ways on the same tracks. Something I doubt would happen on British Railways. It certainly doesn't happen in the Sheffield area. Another thing wrong as on some simulations all the signals are given the same numbers. So you always passing EN448!

I checked some real cab footage of trains on YouTube and the acceleration is much quicker. There a good one of a Brighton speed run, with the driver saying the train speed. It shows that the train can quickly get up to the 90 mph speed limit. It shows to that the driver knows the route, down to when to slow down and where.

Mind you the simulator is good fun. I was driving a train trying make up for lost time and had to stop at a station, but I slammed the brakes on to late and I went past the station doing 40 mph!

[madannie77]

Somebody got me a copy of the Train simulator as a Christmas present. Its' not bad, but it's not very realistic in places. On that one shown in the video. The speed limit of those 4 wheeled mineral wagons shown at the back of the loco is only 45 mph, so by going faster than that would be wrong.

There is nothing unrealistic about the simulator allowing travel faster than the rolling stock's permitted maximum speed. It is the responsibility of the driver to drive at the correct speed for that motive power and rolling stock.

I have noticed to that the acceleration of some of the trains is very slow. Not realistic at all. For example the HST 125 takes ages to get up to that speed, so much so that the speed limits on the track, were just not realistic, since even one of these HST couldn't get up to 70 mph in the section before the speed changed. I also noticed that there is a lot of two way working on double and quad track, with signals going both ways on the same tracks. Something I doubt would happen on British Railways. It certainly doesn't happen in the Sheffield area. Another thing wrong as on some simulations all the signals are given the same numbers. So you always passing EN448!

It is not uncommon for speed limits on certain sections of track to be unattainable by many trains due to lower limits elsewhere. I would think that the speed limits in the simulator are the actual ones on the line. That is certainly the case on other simulations that I have seen.

A lot of lines are bi-directionally signalled. It has been common in and around large stations and freight yards for many years. Platform roads 1, 2 & 5 at Sheffield are certainly bi-directional as are the through roads.

I checked some real cab footage of trains on YouTube and the acceleration is much quicker. There a good one of a Brighton speed run, with the driver saying the train speed. It shows that the train can quickly get up to the 90 mph speed limit. It shows too that the driver knows the route, down to when to slow down and where.

The acceleration on the Brighton line will be fast as it is electrified. Electric trains acceleration is so much better than diesel that it can make a considerable difference to journey times.

The driver will know the route intimately. He or she would not be allowed to drive over the route without having learned it, and this can take some time. Similarly a driver has to be trained on each different class of locomotive or multiple unit they drive, as each has different handling characteristics.

Mind you the simulator is good fun. I was driving a train trying make up for lost time and had to stop at a station, but I slammed the brakes on to late and I went past the station doing 40 mph!

So true. When I messed around with simulators I had numerous examples of overshooting the platform or pulling up short. I guess I just hadn't learned the route and traction properly.

[History dude]

Hey the train simulator is a game and it should tell the driver not to travel faster than the maximum speed of the engine or stock it's pulling.

While I do already know that certain lines and certain single lines are by-directional these are for function only. In train simulator the main lines are by-directional, which would be a highly dangerous practice and bearing in mind the high speeds involved would lead to terrible crashes due to signal failures and driver error. I would be surprised if any main double track railway in this country has that sort of working!

In TS, you actually can go on the same section of line as the Brighton one in the video and in the same electric train and it's still slower than that train!