Belgian Trainset

[mauro]

These forums have been down for some time... But the Belgian Trainset hasn't! Here is the AM62 (and its successors). More than 300 were built during the sixties and seventies.
I'm planning on painting the green and the silver livery another time, which are the old and the modern colors of these trains.

The site's going to need an update too, so it will be more clear what has to be done.

cheers,
BERT

[mauro]

augh, i had to search for this topic on the second page and no replies on my last post. hope that there's still interest in this Belgian trainset...

Well, here's the work from this week: the AM80 "break" in it's old bordaux livery.

[PJayTycy]

It's really nice!!

It's just a pitty all those different trains in bordeaux livery look a bit the same in TTD. Although I used to ride those trains everyday, I won't be able to tell easily which tain is which when playing TTD.

And certainly for those not familiar with our trains, all bordeaux-passenger-trains do look the same...

[meuu]

augh, i had to search for this topic on the second page and no replies on my last post. hope that there's still interest in this Belgian trainset...

Yes, very much interest

Nice job on the AM62 and 80... Don't stop

[mauro]

It's just a pitty all those different trains in bordeaux livery look a bit the same in TTD. Although I used to ride those trains everyday, I won't be able to tell easily which tain is which when playing TTD.

And certainly for those not familiar with our trains, all bordeaux-passenger-trains do look the same...

you're right... but what would you expect when you can only use 16x20 pixels and 3 shades of bordeaux-red? hopefully it wouldn't keep people from exploring the belgian trains. I always found the bordeaux colors quite charming, and was really fascinated by those trains. but i was only a child back then.

I did a quick overpaint with the silver livery... but it isn't finished, the windows look really ugly i think.

[krtaylor]

I'm looking forward to the release of this set. Don't worry, it will be well received.

[spaceman-spiff]

augh, i had to search for this topic on the second page and no replies on my last post. hope that there's still interest in this Belgian trainset...

Well, here's the work from this week: the AM80 "break" in it's old bordaux livery.

Sorry, if I give too many oohs and aahs they will suspect me of spamming

Off-course there is still interest
But my knowledge of trains prohibits me of giving specific comments

[Endre]

I agree with Spiff. I also don't know much about Belgian and Nederlandse (Dutch) trains, so, what I can say is: GREAT!

[krtaylor]

I know you aren't going to want to hear this, but in order to have a fully useful set, I think it is going to be necessary to have a LOT more trains. Your set is heavily loaded in the 1980s. You have a few in the 50s and 60s, and then the steamer which I suppose would be the 30s. I think you are going to need a total of at LEAST 36 trains, maybe more. The US set I think provides a good example of a worthy operating spread, considering that you have to support both electrified and non-electrified, in both freight and passenger. The US set is a bit heavier on the diesel locos than it absolutely has to be, but then it has 42 locos, so you could have somewhat less than that and be OK. The DBset has 36 I believe.

[spaceman-spiff]

Belgium is a small country, perhaps we only built so many trains

[krtaylor]

Belgium only ever had 2 steam locos?

[spaceman-spiff]

I'm not that old, perhaps only two types, where could you find information ?
I'll jnust stop my useless contribution

[Endre]

Belgium only ever had 2 steam locos?

No, but maybe there are 2 which were good. Hungary also had dozens of steam engines, yet there's only 2-3 which are remembered.

[gryvix]

oh they are great!

btw could you make some like these ? http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/pix/be/die ... 0/pix.html

I saw them a lot when I went to uni at Gent, and they had funky names like Polka and such ^,^

[krtaylor]

Belgium only ever had 2 steam locos?

No, but maybe there are 2 which were good. Hungary also had dozens of steam engines, yet there's only 2-3 which are remembered.

At least half, if not more, of the locos in the US set are ones which only a train buff would have ever heard of, but we included them for operating variety.

If nothing else, I would think that Belgium would have used German locos, so some of the DB steamers would not be out of place.

[Endre]

True, because varietas delectat, there can be more in a set than the ones you think are good.

[mauro]

I've made a small timetable to make it easy to see which period isn't well covered: http://users.pandora.be/jwijnants/ttd/timeline.html

As you can see there's a huge gap in the 60's and 70's. During that period the NMBS/SNCB has been buying 300 trainsets of the AM62 (or its successors), so no new trainsets were introduced during that period. For the game this would be really boring... luckily there is a huge livery change during that period (diesels from green to yellow, wagons and trainsets from green to bordeaux).
gryvix, that shunter is introduced around 1965, which is perfect to fill the gap a little. I'll add it to the list!

The same gap (but smaller) is present in the beginning of the 90's. During that period the liveries were changed from bordeaux to silver.

Concerning the steamers, i was thinking about letting the game start in 1950. You'll have 5 years to play with these exclusively until the first diesel and electric locomotive are introduced in 1955.

2 steamers should be enough i feel, it's quite impossible for me to draw 36 trains, it would take more than a year to finish this set which is way to long to keep myself motivated to work on this. I'll be leaving to sweden for 4 months in august, so it really should be finished by then.
Krtaylor, comparing this set to the american transition set is out of the order i think. I'm working on this set on my own you know... As you look at how 4 to 5 people are putting lots of time in drawing the trains, and how you manage to motivate them and coördinate the whole project. respect! The only thing i can do is draw the trains i love

[krtaylor]

OK. If you decide that 1950 is the beginning of the game I can respect that. Maybe someday you or others will backfill the first 30 years, but if you have a cohesive set starting from 1950 that will be a great thing. And I do appreciate you are by yourself, if I could I would help you.

[mauro]

Or we can start thinking of a benelux-set again? This way it would be easy to get to 36 trains.

Some time ago i read that the patch-team was working on a way to let you use more than one company and trains can run over the rails of all those companies. (now the trains can only run on their own tracks) This would be a way you could avoid the station limit...
This station limit could be a problem for games with lots of passenger stations and commuter trains running between them (the belgian set is a bit focused on this kind of games i think)

This could also be an interesting feature for playing one game with two railway companies and letting international trains run between the 2 networks. Or even a multiplayer game!! (thanks to those who made stable multiplayer possible!)

[krtaylor]

I don't think the patch-team is going to get that working. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't count on it. In any case, the AI isn't smart enough to play one side properly, this would only be useful for multiplayer.

But, having one unified Benelux set would I think be best, esp. considering there is no longer the 36-locos limit anymore. You would add a code (B, N) to each loco name, and you could do a custom map showing the border between the countries.