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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own?

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 10:49 #108488
axmh
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Fascinating games of London Bridge and Waterloo (old) and Wimbledon (with Waterloo) and yet I can't see to run it myself without having too many messages popping of trains coming in and being held up at red lights wherever it is running and phones ringing for normal blahblah messages of waiting !!!

Seems that this games really is for 2+ players but not for 1 player on own.

Can you really, I mean REALLy run the sim yourself on own as I don't think anyone of you can get pass 5 mins with all that hassle from phone calls and routings and messages popping up.

Are you honest enough????

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 10:53 #108489
JamesN
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London Bridge and Wimbledon both have ARS - with ARS both are very manageable.

Without ARS they’re tricky; but again once you know the train service and area they’re not impossible solo, without ARS.

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 10:58 #108490
headshot119
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It depends on your level of experience, your knowledge of the local area, and how well you know the timetable.

Learning to methodically scan from left to right can help with keeping on top of movements.

Don't forget both simulations are equipped with ARS to assist you in route setting.

You can also play any simulation in multiplayer and split the work load.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 11:06 #108491
Guts
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I can run Wimbledon on my own with minor Difficulty, mainly remembering the level crossings.

Man Picc is almost as hard.

London Bridge, I think is extremely difficult without ARS.

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 11:07 #108492
Andrew G
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JamesN in post 108489 said:
London Bridge and Wimbledon both have ARS - with ARS both are very manageable.

Without ARS they’re tricky; but again once you know the train service and area they’re not impossible solo, without ARS.
I am looking forward to the London Bridge (no ARS) Solo Masterclass :-)

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 11:14 #108493
JamesN
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Andrew G in post 108492 said:
JamesN in post 108489 said:
London Bridge and Wimbledon both have ARS - with ARS both are very manageable.

Without ARS they’re tricky; but again once you know the train service and area they’re not impossible solo, without ARS.
I am looking forward to the London Bridge (no ARS) Solo Masterclass :-)
I didn’t say I could do it, just with enough knowledge it’d be possible!

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 12:13 #108494
Meld
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JamesN in post 108493 said:
Andrew G in post 108492 said:
JamesN in post 108489 said:
London Bridge and Wimbledon both have ARS - with ARS both are very manageable.

Without ARS they’re tricky; but again once you know the train service and area they’re not impossible solo, without ARS.
I am looking forward to the London Bridge (no ARS) Solo Masterclass :-)
I didn’t say I could do it, just with enough knowledge it’d be possible!
Go on then set a server up all ARS off the rest of us will sit back and enjoy the ensuing chaos

Passed the age to be doing 'Spoon Feeding' !!!
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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 13:08 #108496
slatteryc
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As I have limited time I am up to 0400 on an ARS off London Bridge. I will report back.
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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 14:47 #108498
Dick
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Wimbledon is ok as a single player without ARS, but I'm struggling a bit with London Bridge without ARS as I don't know the service patterns and its much more complicated than Wimbledon with a lot of choke points. I've got to about 8.45AM so far and hoping it will soon quieten down a bit, its too manic to play more than about 30 minutes at a time without my head exploding though!!
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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 08/06/2018 at 17:02 #108503
Gwasanaethau
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I can just about hold my own on the Victorias, Wimbledon and Feltham at half-speed, even with failures on. London Bridge is just too large for me to handle without trains grinding to a halt somewhere. Although I know the area really well, the service patterns are very unpredictable, with many changing lines in different places or taking different routes compared to previous trains running the same service. I have yet to use ARS on a sim – this may well be the one I have to try it out on! :)

You’ve just got to be concentrating very hard all the time. And local knowledge really is essential! Keep at it, you’ll get there eventually!

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 09/06/2018 at 20:55 #108532
Trainfan344
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Apart from the odd wrong route, I'm not doing too badly on London Bridge solo, up to 09:39:20 have uploaded my save for anyone interested.
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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 09/06/2018 at 22:48 #108533
58050
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Obviously the million dollar question is really what era you are takjing about & then whether you have the ARS on or not? At the moment in time another fellow Sim-Sigger has taken over finishing off my Wimbledon 1981-1982 timetable as I've been busy writing/testing timetables for developers that have asked me to write timetables for there forth-coming sims. I've sent all the documentation across to this person incl. CWNs & loco diagrams for that period. He updated me about a week ago stating that there were now over 1200 trains in the timetable & he hadn't yet done the Windsor line traffic. Once that's all done I'll only have the freight traffic to add which hasn't already been added along with the movements from the BR SR SW Division light locomotive WTT for 1981-1982, plus the various stock moves in the CWN for trips between depots & Unit/Loco Works. But I'd say that when finished it would be incredibly difficult to naintain control with no ARS & even with it switched it would be a struggle with regards to all the addtional shunt movements around Waterloo with all the loco hauled traffic & at Clapham Yard & Wimbledon T&RSMD. I would guess that the total number of trains in that timetable would be nearly 2000 or even more.
I'm not knocking the London Bridge sim or timetable & London Bridge ASC is no doubt busy, but if womeone did a BR era timetable pre April 1994, then you'll have a completely different level altogether & would no doubt make the modern era seem simple in comparison. Most modern era timetables are all units, very few loco hauled services & alot less freight than back then. When the 1981-1982 timetable gets released those of you that feel you can manage Wimbledon on your own will get quite a big eye operner if you think that it will be a piece of cake. I don't play modern era timetables as I find them too boring, whereas with BR era timetables you need to regulate traffic flows accordingly & it's alot more complex with the high number of associated movements on the same railway with shunt movements light loco or otherwise & pretty much a high intensity of services. Not forgetting the mail, postal, parcels & newspaper traffic that ran back then.

Last edited: 10/06/2018 at 12:27 by 58050
Reason: None given

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 10/06/2018 at 19:39 #108552
GeoffM
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58050 in post 108533 said:
I would guess that the total number of trains in that timetable would be nearly 2000 or even more.
I'm not knocking the London Bridge sim or timetable & London Bridge ASC is no doubt busy, but if womeone did a BR era timetable pre April 1994, then you'll have a completely different level altogether & would no doubt make the modern era seem simple in comparison.
London Bridge has 2338 schedules in the 2009 timetable, of which about about 80 are freights (not all run). Seeing as rush hour is pretty much at saturation, I doubt 1994 would be any busier.

58050 in post 108533 said:
Most modern era timetables are all units
Surely that was the same for London Bridge back in 1994?

58050 in post 108533 said:
, very few loco hauled services & alot less freight than back then. When the 1981-1982 timetable gets released those of you that feel you can manage Wimbledon on your own will get quite a big eye operner if you think that it will be a piece of cake. I don't play modern era timetables as I find them too boring, whereas with BR era timetables you need to regulate traffic flows accordingly & it's alot more complex with the high number of associated movements on the same railway with shunt movements light loco or otherwise & pretty much a high intensity of services. Not forgetting the mail, postal, parcels & newspaper traffic that ran back then.
You ought to give London Bridge a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

SimSig Boss
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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 10/06/2018 at 22:58 #108562
58050
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Geoff the Wimbledon timetable is 1981-1982 not 1994(1994 is the LTS timetable I'm doing). During the late 1990s I used to go to London Bridge to catch the remaining thumper units toEridge. But in earlier years there were oco hauled services from London bridge/Cannon Street albeit with Cl.3/1 locos & TC sets. During the early 1990s I used to go visit a mate of mine who worked in the control room at Londfon Bridge over-looking Met Junction & I attended the London Bridge Open Day in the early 1990s after arranging for 31165 'Stratford Major Depot' which had just been unveiled in BR green livery & named to stand in front of the Cl.31 preservation group stand. I've got a photo of it some where. But today's railway isn't my era. The intensity of the number of trains isn't really the 'hook' factor it's the regualting decisions you have to make with all the additional movements associated with it that draws me to play a sim. You take the new version of the Carlisle 1979-1980 timetable which users will see when it is re-released on loader. The total number of trains is alot less than London bridge, but I dare almost 100% of users that will run it will struggle & will no doubt have tyo use the enigmatic set of notes detailing the 3 station pilot workings im detail because of the complexity of what occurred at that location at that time. I hadn't played the timetable for a number of years& recently I thought I'd give it a bash & I got the MONDAY timetable. Now OK that starts off fairly quiet, so far I'm up to 82% on the 'F5' screen & there are 27 trains om the panel & I'd say that timetable is probably more challenging than London Bridge. There's no ARS, you;ve got to activate a myraid of ground frames for the various trip pilots from Kingmoor yard which serve all the local freight terminasls & yards, some services changing traction from eletriuc to diesel to eletric & so on which was common place on the railways during that time. But sadlytoday is missing from the railway. The main reason I don't play modern era is that it isn't my era & I wouldn't be at all surprised if those who are younger than me & have only experienced the modern railway would no doubt find the older era I like somewhat alien as alot of the movemenyts that ran then don't exist today. Yes virtually all over the network the number o trains have increased & the freight traffic today is almost all block trains thus removing the need for extensive marshalling yards when there was alot of wagonload traffic & the trip workings no longer run because that traffic no lomnger exists.
I take my partners son trainspotting to Bedford station when he's off school a couple of imes a week ^ he likes Cl.700 EMUs & Cl.222 Meridians units as well as the HSTs & he also likes seeing freight trains worked by Cl.60, Cl.66 or Cl.70s(he hasn't seen any of the other yet). Now for me I find the whole thing boring. I'd rather go back to the days of loco hauled travel with Cl.45, Cl.46 ^ Cl.47 on the midland mainline & Cl.25 locos working the local trip freights & the Cl.127 Rolls Royce DMUs so it's a case of what era you grew up in, I know some users ioon here would prefer to go back even further too steam traction. If a BR era timetable was done for London Bridge then I'd certainly give it a go as that would mean something to me, but playing the modern era I'd have no idea what all the units were or what they even looked like. When I play a timetable & route a train I like to get a picture in my m,inds eye of how the driver would be controlling the traiun be it on full power hauling a loaded MGR train or coasting to a stop, but with the mdern ra I can;t really do that as it's a different world of trains I don't know anything about.

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 10/06/2018 at 23:32 #108565
broodje
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Oh, I do enjoy older timetables a lot, especially yours 58050. But when you look at the almost balet like weaving of trains acros spa road, new cross, st johns and lewisham I can only admire the timetable writers work and enjoy the sim.

I do have the start of a summer 1978 tt, from a former release of London bridge which also had the option to play the area the way it was when the box first opened. It has been 9 years since I last tested the tt, but it was rather hectic with Bricklayers' Arms still in use and some loco hauled trains into LB-low level and even into Cannon street if I'm not mistaken. I can not open the tt anymore unfortunately and it was only finished until around midday but it had already well over a 1000 trains in it.

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Can you REALLY run London Bridge or Wimbledon/Waterloo on own? 11/06/2018 at 00:43 #108566
58050
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Sounds very interesting Broodje, pity it can't be converted onto the current sim, but who knows maybe one day the developer may get the chance to do a BR era for it.. I've got some 1970s era signalling notices covering Bticklayers Arms. I remember the place being quite a large location for mail & parcel vans with ED locos there whenever we drove past it. The signalbox verlooked the road at one end & there were usually ED locos stabled in front of the box back in the 1970s. All that kind of traffic has since left the railways. That's what dissapoints me most about the modern era, it's not the case that there are more trains running in terms of passenger services it's the fact of what else no longer runs such as trip freights, mail/parcels or newspaper services. London Bridge had a newspaper train back in the 1980s, I've seen photos of it with a Cl.47 hauling 3 vans * the train went towards Dover IIRC, but maybe other places like Gillingham too. I do have a 1988 London Bridge A&D book, but it's the only one I have & there are 8 altogether in the complete set.
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