A U R A N . C O M

Trainz Community Express Archives

Hi everyone,

This week's Community Express focuses on a few of the great new layouts being released post Service Pack 3, particularly the longer and prototypical routes. I know that some of you have been working on these layouts for quite some time now and the commitment has definitely been worthwhile; the end results are quite simply superb! First stop is Lightrail's HeartBeat v2 featuring:

78 km of track between Scarborough and Saltburn
relatively accurate track alignment based on Ordnance Survey maps
relatively accurate terrain and track elevations based on Ordnance Survey Landranger maps
passing and reversing loops at many stations
locomotive turning available at Scarborough, Whitby Town and Saltburn
four tunnels
several viaducts
two industrial area - Carlin Works and Boulby mines
no custom content - all content used is default SP3

These screenshots from the layout are certainly drool inducing:

You can download the HeartBeat line from here.

What can I say, my hat is off to you lightrail.

You should also check out the latest version of Shutter's Razorback Railway (v3), a fictional Australian route covering some 100 km of Track. Greg has been working on this layout since November 2001 and the result certainly attests to a labour of love. Wonderful work Shutter! Download it directly from Greg's new Razorback Railway website. Greg comments on his website that if you gain extended enjoyment from the layout he would appreciate a donation to cover the costs of his bandwidth for making the download available.

Adding to the Razorback experience are a couple of excellent scenarios that Greg has put together. They can also be downloaded from his Razorback Railway website and I hear that there are more scenarios on the way ;)

If you're looking for scenarios you really should also check out tafweb's Proteus Yard 2 scenario, particularly if you're into shunting (switching). This scripted version of his earlier Proteus Yard layout, delivers random consists for you to sort and deliver; it can be downloaded from tafweb's very own TrainzObjectz website. Excellent work Terry!

You may be wondering why these larger layouts are not available from Download Station. Well, the 5 MB individual package limit has restricted the ability for us to offer the larger layouts and objects. However, in response to the many requests that we have received and the wonderful work of these gentlemen we are raising the limit to 20 MB. So you should see these two layouts and many others up on Download Station very soon :)

So, if you're working on a large or prototypical layout we are keen to hear from you and see your work up on Download Station for all of us to enjoy.

On the topic of Download Station, we are listening closely to your feedback and comments regarding the new features. The decision to lift the package size limit to 20MB is part of our response to this. New features will also be introduced soon, including the ability to download complete packs of content (if they are originally uploaded in a packaged set). The items from packages will continue to also be available as individual-item downloads.

Currently available from Download Station:

Animals 1

Buildings / Structures 173

Layouts 84

Locomotives 157

Miscellaneous 37

Road 19

Rolling Stock 431

Terrain Features 9

Textures 20

Track 15

Trackside Accessories 53

Vehicles 16

The Download Station current hit parade of top five all time downloads are:

1. Sagatukett
[Downloaded: 2891]

2. New River Rail
[Downloaded: 2717]

3. SAR Passenger Station 2 Tracks
[Downloaded: 1840]

4. Razorback Railway
[Downloaded: 1631]

5. Rail Ale
[Downloaded: 1569]

This Week's Top Five Downloads

1. BL National Rail
[Downloaded: 311]

2. RAI Release Candidate 3
[Downloaded: 285]

3. OCR Diesel Fueling Station
[Downloaded: 270]

4. BL National Rail SteelLink
[Downloaded: 258]

5. BL26 Bob Hawke
[Downloaded: 256]

The Current Top 5 Uploaderz are:

1. majekear 224

2. tafweb 49

3. gjvh 41

4. ericzadro 26

5. OverlordNZ 22

The Trainz forum waffle thread of the week goes to Chris_C for his "Hey Lightrail get in the Chat" effort. Both Lightrail and Chris received yellow card warnings. So in one edition of Community Express Lightrail experiences the high of special mention for his fantastic layout work to a waffle low ;)

Finally, we are in the process of expanding the Trainz Beta test group, so if you are interested in participating please email your expression of interest through to helpdesk@auran.com. Please include in the email details of your PC specification, what you believe that you can bring to the testing process, your experience and knowledge of Trainz and trains, any special technical knowledge or experience you may have that would contribute to the testing, etc.

Until next week ................................

Cheers,

--JB