Berks and Hants to Bristol and Penzance V4

Berks and Hants to Bristol and Penzance V4

8th July 2021 58 By Spoerers

V4 of the Berks and Hants to Bristol and Penzance route (BHBP) merges

• High Speed Tracks’ The Railways of Devon and Cornwall (RDC)
• Martin Masterson’s South Western Expressways to Reading (SWER)
• Keith Ross’s 2013 rework of the original Railworks Kuju route from Paddington to Oxford.

The route develops and vastly extends DTG’s ‘Riviera Line’, Just Trains’ original ‘South Western Expressways’ and Kuju’s Great Western Main Line.

BHBP route has well over 350 miles of main, secondary and branch lines across southern and south west England:
• 253 miles of main line from Paddington to Penzance along the Berks and Hants line via Reading, Newbury, Westbury, Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth and Truro.
• 37 miles of main line from Bristol to Taunton via Cogload Junction
• 21-miles of main and secondary line from Bristol to Bath and Westbury
• 28 miles of secondary line from Exeter to Axminster
• The secondary line from Newton Abbot to Paignton, and the Paignton and Dartmouth heritage railway onwards to Kingswear
• The Exeter to Exmouth branch
• The Exeter to Barnstaple branch, including the Dartmoor Railway from Coleford Junction to Okehampton and the currently disused line onwards to Meldon Quarry
• The Plymouth to Gunnislake branch
• The Liskeard to Looe branch
• The Totnes to Falmouth branch
• The St Erth to St Ives branch
• The South Devon Railway heritage line from Totnes to Buckfastleigh

What’s new in V4:

V4 includes Keith Ross’s 2011 update of the original Kuju route from Paddington to Oxford. The original route was included with Railworks, the very first iteration of what became Train Simulator Classic. The sections from Paddington to Old Oak Common and from Twyford to Reading are completely new. The section in between is mostly Kuju and very low quality by modern standards. It does now have simple OHLE throughout and new signalling, but will disappoint. It will be brought up to current scenery standards in due course.

Keith Ross’s Heathrow branch is included. It is based on the original branch track layout and is of low, original Kuju-like quality by modern standards. It will be completely replaced with the modern track layout in due course.

The section from Marsh Barton to Dawlish has been reworked with new trackside scenery and re-profiled cliffs. Dawlish Station has had its new completed sea wall and other improvements added.

The future

The first priority is to complete scenery on the Cornish Main Line. The next section to be completed will be Bodmin Parkway to Par. When the main line is finished, we will revamp the section from Totnes to Plymouth and completely rework the line from Old Oak to Twyford. The new Old Oak Common station currently under construction will also be included.

Required routes and assets

RDC and SWE-R used assets from a significant number of different sources between them, so BHBP’s required assets list is quite long. There’s no way around this for now, but the combined route offers hundreds of miles of main, secondary and branch line track, allowing lengthy, varied and totally immersive true to life scenarios.

BHBP just won’t work at all without your having:

Train Simulator Classic
DTG – The Riviera Line
DTG – The Riviera Line in the 50s
Just Trains – South Western Expressways

South Western Expressways is the first iteration of JT’s SWE, NOT the current version that extends the route to Reading. The first iteration is available at the Alan Thomson Simulation website. BHBP will not work with the later iteration that’s available on JT’s website.

BHBP may work – but only just in some cases – without your having the routes and assets shown below. BUT there will be milk bottles galore and big gaps in the scenery.

Payware:

Steam: Brighton Main Line
Town Scenery Pack
Platform Clutter Pack
West Somerset
North Somerset
WCML North
European Loco and Asset Pack (Not required if you had Train Simulator before Sept 2012)
South Wales Coastal

Just Trains: Western Main Lines (none of the route extensions are needed)
Bristol to Exeter
Newcastle to Edinburgh

Alan Thomson Simulation (ATS):
ATS OHLE Pack

Freeware:
DP Simulation: Barnstaple to Exeter
Chris Trains: NS Station and Object Scenery
Vulcan Productions: VP Grass Pack (Download V3 of the pack towards the bottom of this page)
Major Wales: IET/EMU Stop Sign Pack

UKTS assets required by the route are now all included in the installation zip.

We strongly recommend that you get hold of and install all of the above required routes and assets before you install BHBP. The vast majority of problems reported in requests for support are caused by failure to have required assets installed.