Berks and Hants to Bristol and Penzance V3
8th July 2021The Berks and Hants to Bristol and Penzance route (BHBP) merged High Speed Tracks’ The Railways of Devon and Cornwall (RDC) and Martin Masterson’s South Western Expressways to Reading (SWER), two well established TS routes. The route develops and vastly extends DTG’s ‘Riviera Line’ and Just Trains’ original ‘South Western Expressways’.
BHBP route has well over 300 miles of main, secondary and branch lines across southern and south west England:
• 219 miles of main line from Reading to Penzance along the Berks and Hants line via 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
BHBP will always be a work in progress. The aim is to reflect the up to date, contemporary railway. It will always need updating and will never be finished!
BHBP V3 has fully detailed scenery from
• Reading to just west of Bodmin Parkway
• Just east of Par to Burngullow (just west of St Austell)
• Just east of Truro to Penzance
• Taunton to Bristol, and from Bristol on to Westbury via Bath.
• Exeter to Honiton, Exmouth, Kingswear, Copplestone and Okehampton
• Plymouth to Gunnislake
• Liskeard to Looe
• St Erth to St Ives
• Totnes to Buckfastleigh
What’s new in V3:
• Scenery between Liskeard and Bodmin Parkway has been added in full.
• The South Devon Railway is now complete.
• The Dartmoor Line between Coleford Junction and Okehampton now has the correct new speed limits, and the revised foot crossings and GSMR equipment are now in place.
BHBP west of Whiteball Tunnel (Devon and Cornwall, basically) works with the AP track enhancement pack. UK Pro signals are used in large parts of the route and these will work with the AP signals enhancement pack if you own it. At present JT signals are also used in a number of areas and these will not work with the pack.
The future
The first priority is to complete the 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 complete the Falmouth and Barnstaple branches and the West of England Line to Axminster.
A first iteration of the line from Reading to Paddington has been completed and awaits merger with BHBP. Merging is a complex process and our merging expert is a very, very busy man! When he has time it will be done. The Reading to Paddington extension is based on Keith Ross’s 2011 improved version of Kuju’s original route from Paddington to Oxford. It has completely new scenery from Reading to Taplow and Old Oak to Paddington. In between it’s a wired version of Kuju’s original route and is really showing it’s age – we will steadily improve it to BHBP standards.
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 2020
DTG – The Riviera Line
DTG – The Riviera Line in the 50s
Just Trains – South Western Expressways (from the Aerosoft website – see important note below)
BHBP requires the first iteration of the South Western Expressways, NOT the current version on JT’s website that extends the route to Reading. The first iteration is still available at the Aerosoft website, here:
https://www.aerosoft.com/en/shop/train-bus-truck/dovetail-games-train-simulator/routes/2167/south-western-expressways
BHBP will not work with the later iteration 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)
Bristol to Cardiff
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 requirements are 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
I am very impressed with the merging routes. I have got all of the above to work with the BHBP route. In the past, I did purchase the DVD option of the Bristol to Exeter route via JustTrains and finally sold it on years ago, due to developers introducing the Western Mainlines and their extensions. I was wondering if the developers of BHBP had used assets from the original Bristol to Exeter route? The reason that I am asking is due to the fact, (“as mentioned the route is never finished”) and find that Tiverton Parkway is missing its building and platforms and just left with a floating woman figure I assume is on the footbridge and lamp posts that are missing the name plates of the station, some ‘milk bottles’ are in place. I did check my Train Simulator and according to the lists, I do have Bristol to Exeter installed, as well as other assets that are important to have. I decided to ‘repair’ this area via the World Editor using the assets available, for which they are. The downside is, when another update is available, I might have to repair it all again. Any other reason why Tiverton is missing its station scenery? Thanks in advance.
Hi, Again, I am very happy with the routes merging as BHBP! Excellent work from the creators!
Hi there, a brilliant and much-appreciated addition to Train Simulator but in the area that should be compatible with the AP track EP (south of Whiteball as far as I’m aware) seems to have some random patches of non-AP track, particularly around Exeter St Davids and Plymouth in a few platforms. Laira also has a few in the sidings. I’ve also found that Gunnislake and Barny/Oke branches seem to have AP track but remain with the Kuju ‘track bed rumble’ sound. Any help would be appreciated. Nonetheless, always fantastic to see my local area (Devon) in a more modern form in TS. Cheers