After the loss of my 'Short West + Short South' route, I have in mind a number of other potential route projects, as follows, not necessarily in the order listed - where I mention extensions below, I'm only intending to run the extended track within that route - I'm NOT intending to merge them (far too much hassle, as I found out on SW+SS - ends of existing routes just don't seem to line up properly - MSTS track creep and all that) :

Main Illawarra - maybe do a minor V3.5 upgrade, by 'correcting' a few things that I'm not entirely happy with.

Main Illawarra and South Coast - maybe doing a part-real, part-fictional route, by extending across the Shoalhaven River into Nowra, and running 'somewhere' down the South Coast - it would at least include a junction at Tomerong, with a branch line to Huskisson and the Jervis Bay Naval Base (lots of scope for heaps of military traffic), the junction at Tomerong would also have a branch line (not sure how long) following the general line of the main road to Braidwood (and supposedly on to a junction a Bungendore with the Canberra-Cooma-Bombala line). I'm initially thinking of 'ending' the line at Ulladulla (for all the fishing and forestry traffic, as well as tourist and holiday traffic), but may extend even further south at some stage.

Tumulla Bank - I'm thinking of maybe extending eastwards through Bathurst to just west of Wallerawang (where my Blue Mountains - Steam Era V1.0 leaves off), and extending westwards through Blayney to where Chris Nelson's Central West leaves off just south of Orange East Fork (including a bit of the Cowra line, say ending at Carcoar).

Southern Highlands - I'm considering extending south to Goulburn (actually, just past it to Joppa Junction, where the Canberra-Cooma-Bombala line splits off the Main South). Maybe at some time I might be 'brave enough' to re-do the lost section from Maldon to Liverpool again, but I'm not at this stage intending it to continue on to Lidcombe (and Peter's CTN) like the lost route - I like the long fast flat lines between Campbelltown and Liverpool, as it will give good potential for the expresses to get up to speed.

Central West - maybe an extension west from Molong to Parkes and Forbes with a few kilometres of the Broken Hill and Peak Hill lines - maybe another extension north-west of Dubbo to Narromine (maybe even linking up with the Peak Hill line from Parkes) - maybe extending north-east from Dubbo to link up with the Merrygoen line in NSW-NW, with a few kilometres of the Coonamble line.

I'm also doing some work on Chris's 'long term' project, the NSW-North West (still far from finished, even after three years) - however this is so big that it cannot be released via downloads - it is currently 3.4GB, and so can only be distributed on DVD - we have to look at the logistics of how this can be distributed - Chris and I are certainly not going to carry the cost of making DVDs and postage for 'all and sundry', so we have to take all factors into consideration.

Sydney Tramways - whilst I got good reviews of the North Sydney Lines tramway route, there is not the number of tram enthusiasts as there are train enthusiasts - however, a few years back, I did an upgrade to Joseph's La-Perouse route, which was not released - I might get back together with Joseph and see if we can finish it off and 'get it out there'. I also have in the back of my mind maybe doing the Western Lines and South-Western Lines, either as separate routes (as shown in the tramways books) or as a single combined route - but these are long term projects if MSTS lasts that long !!!

As well as all that, I still have some NSWGR rolling stock that I want to build, as well as making a lot more buildings and structures. So, as far as I'm concerned, MSTS is not dead yet!!!

Regards, Brian

Hi, Brian.
Mate, whatever more touch ups your gonna do, After losing the awesome big project All of us were looking forward to. I'm gonna be right behind you for suppor all the way through.

Why?

Since We'd made a good Nagociation back when we'd made the NSW Ambulance train Pack last year or two. If you do decide to upgrade on a few routes, You've got my support mate. All the way through. Good Luck on it, Brian.

Hi Brian,
You show incredible fortitude in coming back to the grind this quickly after your devastating meltdown. Umm, could you leave perhaps some little part of NSW for some one else, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh.
You know where to get me if you need anything.
Cheers
Allan

Brian, I'd be quite happy to buy the NSW-Northwest route oin DVD. I studied in Armidale for three years. So I'd be very interested to see it.

An upgrade of the La Perouse route woulds be great. I went to High school at Marcellin College in Randwick and we used to play sport in Maroubra. A great advantage of tramway routes is that they enable younger persons like myself to experience tramway networks that were before our time.

Just over a week ago I went on a tour of the remnants of the North sydney and Manly tramway systems and walked through the Wynyard tram tunnels and the Balmoral and other tram cuttings. It's interesting to relate the tour back to your North sydney route.

Brian whichever way you go keep up the excellent work.

I like your idea I've thought about doing similar things. For instance I've thought about creating a version of my Tweed Heads route that extends to meet up with the NSWGR line at Murwillumbah line as was originally proposed.

I've also thought about attempting to build John Whitton's propsed extension from Sydney station to a terminal in Hyde Park.

That would certainly be an interesting model to make - totally fictional, but as it did not exist, all the 'rivet-counters' would have nothing to pick on !!! Best option would be to make it as it 'would have been' at say mid-50's to mid-60's, as all the required stock is available. If you made it as per the original pre-World War 1 era, there is virtually no suitable stock to use, you'd have to make the stock yourself !!!

There is some information about the various early proposals for extending the railway into the inner-city in an article "Putting the Spark in the Harbour City", in the current October copy of Australian Railway History.

Regards, Brian

quote="ShortNorth"]

That would certainly be an interesting model to make - totally fictional, but as it did not exist, all the 'rivet-counters' would have nothing to pick on !!! Best option would be to make it as it 'would have been' at say mid-50's to mid-60's, as all the required stock is available. If you made it as per the original pre-World War 1 era, there is virtually no suitable stock to use, you'd have to make the stock yourself !!!

There is some information about the various early proposals for extending the railway into the inner-city in an article "Putting the Spark in the Harbour City", in the current October copy of Australian Railway History.

Regards, Brian[/quote]

Brian thanks for telling me about the Australian Railway History article. I bought it today. I didn't know that there was a proposal to have a branch to Fort Macquarie. I understood that Whitton didn't want to go to Circular Quay as he thought it was unnecessary.

The first part of the route would be factual based on John Whitton's 1874? station as shown It was built as a through station so that the line could be extended to Hyde Park. It was built next to the cutting for the Darling Harbour goods line which would need to be included (some of the extra platforms wrapped around the cutting). The station reminds me of Ballarat but it only had two tracks.

I've also thought about including an eastern suburbs line to Bondi and Randwick via Darlinghurst but in cuttings rather than underground.

I'm yet to make any start but I do think that it's a shame that Sydney didn't get a steam era city railway.