Well here we are and Spring appears to have sprung, along with the need to hit the garden and outside whenever possible – alfresco modelling here we come!

There are loads of things in RailWorks land to update you on this month, so let’s try a slightly different format with a section for each rather than the usual ramble.

102t Bogie Tanks

These went live early on in March, they seem to have been pretty popular and are on track to meet our projections to make this endeavour worthwhile. It’s been great to receive some really positive emails from a number of customers about the models, the scenarios and things in general which really makes the toil and late nights worthwhile.

Don’t forget though that the reskinning packs are available for download for you to create your own versions of the tanks and you’re free to upload your new textures to any website you wish, just don’t include the original shape files.

There has been one disappointment, finding a copy of the tanks available to download on another website. Fortunately we were able to step in fairly quickly to get the file removed and it was great to see some community support at the same time. If you do see any of our files being distributed in a way they shouldn’t please let us know, there’s the success or failure of a venture at stake and we might even show our gratitude.

VDA Vans

All three of the current shapes have been off to the testers and came back with a clean bill of health save a few little issues to pick up on and sort before completing the unwrapping and baking. Before that can happen there’s a couple of extra details to add to the standard suspension versions and a bit of a temptation to do what’s needed to create the clasp braked lot too.

The big push on the VDA pack this month has been work on a TOPS code CAR, through vacuum and air piped, dia. 1/507 brake van to accompany the vans. It was always planned to produce a brake van in the future but we decided to push this forward as one of the scenarios being created really needed a suitable van. At the present time the van shape is complete, into RailWorks and has been through a bashing from the beta testers with only a couple of things to attend to before unwrapping and baking too. A 360° render of the brake van should appear on YouTube in the next couple of days.

Scenarios for the VDA vans are taking shape nicely and all four of them, one for each season, have had a first test of the player and AI interaction using the test shapes for the vans.

Routes

There’s still steady progress with FenRail having been re terra-formed to remove a bit of an error that saw Ely about 100m above sea level. Track laying has been happening a pace with most track now complete as far as Ely.

Research and planning is virtually complete on the second of our routes under construction and we should be able to let you know more details about the route during June.

There is also a third route under construction as a bit of a trial which we may let you start to see some glimpses of in the future. Whether the route stays in its current form or expands/develops only time will tell, but what I’ve seen so far looks very good.

Website

There are a few subtle changes going on at the moment. We’ve added an extra link to the shop menu for rapid access to the order download page and have changed some link text to hopefully make things a little more intuitive.

At the same time we’ve added an FAQ page that starts to cover the questions we’re being asked most of the time and will hopefully speed up your problem solving and save us a bit of development time.

The user downloads section is now available and waiting for your scenarios, if you’ve not seen what’s going on take a look at the downloads section and perhaps consider contributing something.

Various articles have been updated and amended as details of projects change through the development process and FenRail has now gained its own article in the future section.

The next day or so should see an updating of the vacancies page as we cast the net out for some extra team members, not only to take an active part in developing our current portfolio but to broaden the product base in a diverse, and hopefully imaginative, manner.