( PRIVATE and not for Publication)

fastline simulation

F.S. 10011/5

45t GLW COV CD VANS

TOPS CODE VCA

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE OF A

ROLLING STOCK PACK FOR TRAIN SIMULATOR 2015

This book is for the use of customers, and supersedes as from

3rd October, 2015, all previous instructions on the use of the above rolling stock expansion pack.

THORNTON

1st October 2015

I. P. FREELY

MOVEMENTS MANAGER

1

ORDER OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2

The Rolling Stock ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2

Rolling Stock Features .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5

File Naming . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

Compromises ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

Help and Support ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

More Information & Stay in Touch.. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

Thanks ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 8

Bibliography. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 8

Copyright ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 8

2

INTRODUCTION

This expansion is our fifth developed specifically for distribution via Steam Marketplace and builds on our range of independently distributed rolling stock packs.

This expansion features the third variation of air braked, long wheelbase wagon developed in 1971 by British Rail. Originallly given the telegraphic code of COV CD they were then given the TOPS code of VCA. The wagons are supplied in three different livery versions with clean and weathered variations which are further enhanced by loaded and empty versions of each with suitably modified physics to match the load state.

ThE ROLLING STOCK

In the 1960’s BR finally started to move away from the construction of vacuum braked stock and the first air braked covered merchandise design appeared in 1969, coded as COV AB (later coded as VAB/VAA or VBB/VBA) and fitted with a through vacuum pipe to allow them to work with existing stock. These vehicles had a 33 ½ ft long chassis, with a wheelbase of 20 ¾ ft. With a gross weight of 45 tonnes, they could carry a much greater load than the traditional 12t van and loading was easier too, with 2 sliding doors per side that took up the whole body length. They could run at a maximum of 75mph in a medium load condition, though they ended up normally working at a maximum of 60mph, which was their full load limit.

In 1971, a new design appeared from Ashford Works that had the same overall dimensions as the earlier vans, but they were fitted with 2 centrally mounted sliding doors per side and were Air-braked only. These 125 wagons to lot 3764 were coded as COV

CD and were painted Freight Brown with a large Double Arrow high on the left hand side. In the 2nd half of 1974, Shildon Works constructed a further 100 vans to lot 3832. It is these 2 lots of wagons that feature in this pack. After the change over to TOPS, these vans were coded as VCA, though the 2nd lot were incorrectly labelled as VBA when new (not featured in the pack). In time the first lot were repainted in Maroon livery with a boxed Double Arrow and Railfreight branding. Both lots later received Railfreight Flame

Red & Grey livery.

The VCAs seem to have been mainly used for Tinplate traffic from South Wales to various Metal Box Company factories around the country and export traffic. From the early 1980s many of the vans were transferred to departmental use or were used as the base for further wagon types, but these are outside the scope of this pack.

One of the later (and heavier) lot 3832 VCA vans in clean freight brown livery and carrying the early COV CD coding in the data panel.

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A van from the earlier lot 3764 in weathered freight brown livery and now carrying the VCA TOPS code.

A repainted van from the earlier lot 3764 in clean maroon livery and now carrying the VCA TOPS code.

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This lot 3764 van has seen a fair bit of traffic judging by the state of the maroon livery.

A pristine lot 3764 van in Railfreight flame red and grey. Note the differences in body side lettering compared to the weathered example opposite.

5

This Railfreight flame red and grey VCA has seen a fair bit of use in traffic and the paint appears to be suffering accordingly.

ROLLING STOCK FEATURES

We have developed some new features which are being introduced as appropriate with our range of Marketplace expansions.

Although they will happily work away and help to enhance your Train Simulator experience with no specific input some are still controllable via the scenario editor if you so wish.

The vans are presented in the 3 liveries described above, in both clean and dirty condition. There are separate empty and loaded physics versions for each livery variant. There are randomly selected variations to the positioning of the various body side labels, though these can be selected as required in the scenario editor. Tail lamps are also provided, which automatically appear should the vehicle be at the end of a consist. These too can be selected as required in the scenario editor.

RANDOM DATA PANELS

As was often the case, the VCAs gained a selection of different lettering layouts. We have enabled four of these variations to be randomly applied to vans when they are placed in game. However, should scenario authors want more control in the lettering displayed this is possible by adding an alphabetical prefix to the wagon number via the scenario editor.

Examples of four different versions for the freight brown wagons (the actual variations will differ depending on the van livery) complete with the override prefix digit and subsequent vehicle number are:

Override prefix a : a200361 Override prefix b : b200414

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Override prefix c : c200423 Override prefix d : d200483

VARIAbLE TARE LAbELLING

The vans built to the second lot (3832) at Shildon appear to have been more heavily constructed and as a consequence carried a higher tare weight on the data panel. Although this lot cannot not be specifically selected the tare weight displayed will change accordingly with the number of the van in question.

INTELLIGENT TAIL LAMP

Historically we have provided rear versions of our wagons fitted with a tail lamp as we felt that current solutions to automatically display a tail lamp didn’t really allow the control and versatility we desired. However, through some lateral thinking and perseverance we’ve finally come up with an automatically scripted solution which comes very close to the level of control we required.

The key features of our ‘intelligent’ tail lamp are:

◊ Player services will display a lamp at the rear end and this will move up and down the train as vehicles are coupled/ uncoupled.

◊

◊

◊

AI services will display a lamp at rear and this should move up and down as vehicles are added or removed in scenarios

Loose consists should not display any lamps - including portions detached from Player and AI services

◊

◊

Lamps can be prevented from showing by adding a N prefix to the vehicle number in the scenario editor either before or after the decal override if this is used

Lamps can be forced to appear in a similar manner by using a Y prefix.

◊

AI services with a Service Class of ‘Special’ will not display a lamp and this needs to be forced to appear with a prefix

Loose consists are treated by Train Simulator as ‘Special’, if you wish a tail lamp to appear on one end (or indeed both ends) of such a consist you will need to force it to appear by adding a Y prefix to the relevant wagon(s).

◊ In a free roam scenario, selecting a consist with a Special type to become the player service will enable the lamps as per a normal service.

In circumstances where the automatic display of a tail lamp is not desired, for example during shunting manoeuvres in a yard, adding a prefix of N to the vehicle number will prevent a tail lamp from being displayed on that vehicle.

Conversely, if a tail lamp is required to be displayed and this does not happen automatically, for example a loose consist left in a siding, adding a prefix of Y will force a tail lamp to be displayed on the outer end of that wagon.

Notes:

The order that prefixes are applied to the numbers in does not matter.

Due to the way that the script executes when you add prefixes the results will not be shown until you save and reload the scenario.

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FILE NAMING

FILE NAMING OVERVIEW

We have developed a naming structure for our rolling stock based around the following mask:

TOPS (Vehicle Type): LIVERY FLAGS

For example one van may be named VCA 45t Van: B.C.E

This means it’s a VCA with a clean freight brown texture, and ‘empty’ physics.

FILE NAME OPTIONS

The following is a list of the variable flags used in this pack:

TOPS:

VCA 45t Van

LIVERY:

B

M

Freight brown livery.

Maroon livery.

RF

FLAGS:

Railfreight flame red and grey livery.

C

E

L

‘Clean’ Textures

‘Empty’ physics

‘Loaded’ physics with random shape load plane displayed

W ‘Weathered’ Textures

COMPROMISES

With any project you always have to make some compromises and this one has been no exception. We’re not ashamed of the ones we’ve made and more than happy to tell you about them.

LIVERIES

With any wide ranging fleet of wagons there are always going to be variations brought about by development experiments and operational changes.

Bearing this in mind with the rolling stock we have supplied all the numbers used on vehicles as individuals were hard to pin down and no doubt changed throughout their operational lives.

The liveries applied are again a best fit as every picture shows a variation and the random lettering enabled on the models will help to create some of this variation.

hELP AND SUPPORT

GENERAL ISSUES WITh ThE ExPANSION

In the unfortunate event that you find a problem or things won’t work we really do want to hear from you.

Getting support is simple - all you need to do is send an e-mail to [email protected] and raise a support ticket about your issue and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Please don’t use Facebook, Twitter or the chat client etc as things are much more likely to be overlooked and more difficult to keep track of.

CORE TRAIN SIMULATOR PRObLEMS

Although we are more than happy to investigate issues you may be experiencing with our expansions more general Train

Simulator issues or observations should be directed to http://dovetailgames.kayako.com/ which is the location of the Dovetail Games

Support Library and help desk.

STEAM ISSUES

If the problem you are experiencing is related to a Steam purchase or download we will be unable to help you. The best course of action will be to take a look at the Steam Support pages which can be found here: https://support.steampowered.com/

MORE INFORMATION & STAY IN TOUCh

If you want to know more about what’s going on at fastline simulation there are a few things you can do.

WEbSITE

Our website can be found at www.fastline-simulation.co.uk and contains updates and information about all our present and future expansions. On the website you can also say hello via the chat client if it’s online if you’ve got a quick question to ask or drop us a line by emailing [email protected].

ThE bLOG

Our blog can be found at http://fastline-simulation.blogspot.com/ and is usually the place where in progress renders and screen shots appear along with little articles about other things that are going on.

TWITTER

If you really want to know the tasks of the day or what’s really getting on our nerves you can follow our tweets at http://www.

twitter.com/fastlinesim

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FACEbOOK

‘Liking’ us on Facebook is probably the best way to go if you want to really keep your finger on the pulse, updates to the blog and website are fed in, all the Tweets appear as status messages and we even post extra pictures now and then with the added bonus that you get to comment too. Our page can be found at www.facebook.com/FastlineSimulation

MAILING LIST

Possibly one of the best ways of ensuring that you don’t miss out on any important announcements is to sign up for our mailing list. We only use the list for important expansion information, really special messages and occasionally to ask your opinion about things.

We’ll never share your details with anyone else and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.

To join the list please fill in the little box on this page: http://www.fastline-simulation.co.uk/index.php/manage-mailing-list

ThANKS

The production of any product wouldn’t be possible without hard work, support and down right nagging.

This pack is no exception and as such it’s only fair to say a big thank you to the families that allow us the time to do this/enjoy the fact we’re distracted and out of their hair for a bit!

The other key element are the testers. It’s safe to say this is probably the best team of testers that’s been encountered for train simulation projects. They test thoroughly and speedily, communicate well, continually offer opinions and guidance and share the common aim to strive for quality.

We should also thank the guys at Dovetail Games for putting up with us, humouring our wild ‘Is this possible?’ ideas and allowing the opportunity to create ‘official’ expansions!

This is the tenth expansion we’ve managed to get to the point of no return, (ok, release as we’re sick of the sight of it and releasing is the only way to stop the constant tinkering) so a big thank you should go to our family and friends for their patience and support with our playing trains!

bIbLIOGRAPhY

BR Air-Braked Wagons In Colour. D Ratcliffe, Ian Allan Publishing Ltd, Hersham, 2014: P18

Wagons Of The Early British Rail Era. D Larkin, Kestrel Railway Books, Southampton, 2009: Pp 55-56

Wagons Of The Final British Rail Era. D Larkin, Kestrel Railway Books, Southampton, 2010: Pp 27-28

Bartlett, P. BR COV CD - VCA air brake vans, includes departmental use VCB ZRA ZYA ZYB, in Paul Bartlett’s Photographs, 22

June March 2012, viewed on 27 September 2015, http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/vca

COPYRIGhT

This manual and expansion contents are © Fastline Simulation Ltd. 2015 all rights reserved

The contents of the pack may not be modified, reverse engineered, uploaded or redistributed without the written consent of Fastline Simulation Ltd with the exception of reskins of the models in line with the reskinning policy which is available from our website at www.fastline-simulation.co.uk