PFX wrote:...I need to have a play with some English data to see what the results are like. Are there any interesting routes roughly equivalent to Edinburgh Glasgow?
If you want a route of that sort of length with some spectacular scenery I'd say something like Sheffield to Manchester via Dore and Totley and over the Hope Valley Line. It's just short of 40 miles (37 or 38, I believe) whereas Glasgow to Edinburgh is closer to about 45, I think. It would test the terrain making abilities of TransDEM anyway but it's an absolutely beautiful route in reality if you ever get the chance to travel over it. I bet it would look spectacular in Trainz too. The old Trans-Pennine stock used to run over there as well as loco and stock but I suppose it's probably dog boxes in multiple (153's) or something equally as crap nowadays.
I've been trying to mess with something a just little further south, funnily enough. The old and largely derelict Midland Mainline from Derby to Manchester via Matlock. Ironically, it has a very large but strange loop line for a quarry in the Buxton area branching off it that actually joins up with the route I've just suggested to you at a place called Chinley. The routes themselves, though, don't join but my Derby - Manchester interest runs pretty much paralell to that Sheffield - Manchester route (a few miles apart) in their later stages from Whaley Bridge onwards. If only I could sort out bloody TransDEM and that LIDAR stuff I'd be really interested in giving it a go.
It would be very scenic too. A lovely project, but at a distance of nearly 80 miles it would be a big one. Most of it through the Derbyshire Peaks though so that's surely easier than building a trillion houses.
If you do decide on giving Sheffield - Manchester a whirl, I'd love to see the terrain when you get it into Surveyor. It'd be breathtaking, I bet.
Cheers
Dave