VAN? Believe it or not.

[tube_dude]

If we have all these wonderful things, e.g, Helicopter, blimp etc...

Why dont we make somesort of car, in the REAL railway infastucture they have those MAINTAINANCE VANS with modifacations to run on the railways.

Idea?

Cheers (we live in hope:))

[retro_kid]

There was a huge discussion once about this. We came up with another idea of having a road vehicle as the train, but instead of tracks we could have a road, and bus stops. You wouldnt be able to stear the thing (obviously) but still it could be fun :D.

..::Retro Kid::..

[D2UK JLE Line]

Yeah, that would be a great Idea! Also a bus would be cool. I might be able to get some passenger views of inside one of the london united double deckers but i'm not sure. You really need a bus driver to take photos of the cab.

[Wulf_9]

Go for it, the more innovation and variety the better :)

Ciao

Saxon Locomotive Works - "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer"

http://www.zodiac-infosystems.co.uk/rail/bve

[ChristopherT]

>Why dont we make somesort of car, in the REAL railway
>infastucture they have those MAINTAINANCE VANS with
>modifacations to run on the railways.
>
>Idea?
>Cheers (we live in hope:))

My next purchase will be a tram car/trolley encyclopedia, but I
destinctly recall reading about busses that ran on trolley tracks
in various cities around the US. I think that or some other light
utility vehicle would be an excellent idea.

Christopher

[tof63]

>
> My next purchase will be a tram car/trolley encyclopedia,
>but I
>destinctly recall reading about busses that ran on trolley
>tracks
>in various cities around the US. I think that or some other
>light
>utility vehicle would be an excellent idea.
>

Not only around the US, Cristopher!

http://www.photorail.com/phr0/tram/filobus/583vleisonz-.jpg

Luigi Cartello
http://web.tiscali.it/lcartello/

[JulieADriver]

These are called trackless trolleys. They're electric buses that use catenary for power. They cannot use rails.

[ChristopherT]

That's gorgeous, Luigi! I hadn't even consider those. I know so
little about my native Italy! I assume that trackless trolley is
running in a dedicated lane, correct? :)

Here's what I was thinking of...

http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/phoenixflightserv/images/53layover.jpg


Christopher

[JulieADriver]

These are known as a PCC - Presidential Conference Car. They're called that because an American president once held a conference aboard one. They're at least 50 years old. They're not buses, though older buses do resemble them. Some of these cars are still in service.

[ChristopherT]

A president, huh? Must have been cleaning the White House that
day! :)

Christopher

[Downunder Tom]

Trolley Buses, gee that would be fun, check out The British Trolleybus Database CD, an't rember the Internet address but easy to find using yahoo, Reaaly good details.

Tom

[Stooopid_person]

>I assume that trackless
>trolley is
>running in a dedicated lane, correct? :)

I remember, in Beijing, China, the trolleys there run in all lanes of the road.
There is a few PCCs for MSTS.

[smace]

A trolley or standard bus would make a nice alternate time line update to the Net tram series.
The different history might read: The Mayor, ever mindful of his own concerns, has decided that normal bus lines are too noisy and dirty. He has decided to upgrade the city lines to electric trolley buses.
Or It is 10 years later and the mayor, still in power, and with the steet still under repair, has finally ordered the conversion of the city routes to standard buses.
Either would give a different look to the route.

[Routemaster J]

I guess I will do the Oxford street bus route for BVE (Marble Arch to Holborn perhaps?)

[smile2evan]

Well about the trolley busses

In Athens, where I live, there is a big network of trolley busses (like the ones shown in dearest Luigi's picture above. They came as replacement of the trams in late '50s,following the general anti tram mania of the period, because they were believed to be more flexible (i.e.THEY DONT RUN ON TRACKS) and made less noise compared to the pre-war tram fleet of Athens (nowadays, due to the terrible traffic conditions, the only reason that are still kept is because they are polution free - A new tram network is under construction with two lines that will be ready for the Olympics). Actually, the troley busses are just ordinary busses but they use electricity as motive power, collected from overhead wires with trolley poles. Just to have a look see http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/trolley1.htm#athens in Mr Steve Hayes's page.

In some cities like Nancy a "guided trolley bus system" was developed (trolley busses running on a concrete corridor) , but after some "derailments" it was abandoned and replaced by ordinary busses (see http://www.lrta.org/news/news0244.html).

Smile2evan :)

[smile2evan]

>These are known as a PCC - Presidential Conference Car.
>They're called that because an American president once held
>a conference aboard one. They're at least 50 years old.
>They're not buses, though older buses do resemble them. Some
>of these cars are still in service.

About the PCC (Presidents Conference Committee) cars like above,

I quote from http://transit.toronto.on.ca/transit.cfm?tt=streetcar&id=4502

"The effects of the automobile were being felt by the public transit companies as early as the 1930s. Already, the Interurbans were largely abandoned, and ridership was down across the board. Wishing to reverse this trend, the presidents of various transportation companies across the United States (such as Omaha, New York, etc) formed a committee to examine the problem and find a solution. The solution they came up with was a modern, lightweight, inexpensive streetcar design that would be available to transportation agencies across North America. The new streetcar would be fast, comfortable and attractive and would entice customers back to transit. The name of this new vehicle was the Presidents Conference Committee Car (PCC). Design work began in the mid 1930s, and the first production PCCs began operation in 1936 in Pittsburgh, Brooklyn and Boston.

The car was an unqualified success. Sleek and elegant, it took the public by storm and it became THE standard streetcar for cities across North America. Nowhere was this more true, however, than in the city of Toronto. Toronto embraced the PCC in 1938, and by the 1950s, it boasted the largest PCC fleet in the world."

Just to be accurate

Smile2evan :)

[alex_farlie]

>I have already done this, I have made a Routemaster! (as the
>name suggests?! I like these old buses!)
>
>I have made a RM bus for BVE together with a route, It has a
>high street and residential area I was going to do one for
>OXFORD STREET when then I decided to use it as a Train sim
>and I started the DLR.
>
>I found BVE whilst looking for Bus driving sims?!
>
>So anyway, Maybe I should do the Oxford street thing after
>all, I was quite good, just need a few touches though it was
>when I was still a novice in BVE coding!
>
>Below is one of the better object used in the route, If you
>want I can finish the route off?!

Yes Please...

BTW if it's possible to make a 'trolleybus' version of the route...

(You will need to read up on this though, I think there are quite
a few books on the London transpot Trolleybus examples..)

Alex

[alex_farlie]

>I guess I will do the Oxford street bus route for BVE
>(Marble Arch to Holborn perhaps?)

Go ahead..

BTW You might also want to look at one of the Bus Routes that
goes from Kings-X to Waterloo because there likley to be replaced
by Trams if the Cross River transit gets the go-ahead..

Of course you could do a POD(Point of Universre) route
in which the GLC replaced terunk bus routes with trolley buses
following the 1973 oil crisis.

This could tie in with your idea of doing Marble Arch-Holborn
and the route could be modfed to tram-operation if you wanted.


If you do a genuine BUS route then I would suggest doing some
background reading about the congestion charge and plans
for Bus priority olanes in that part of London..

Route varinats could be a mid 90-s using an RM and an ultra-modern
(post congestion charge route) using on the new bendi-buses.

BTW the bendi buses IMO could be quite easily converted
to trolleybus style operation (now called Rapid transit on Tyres
by some :-) )


Other possibilites for routes..

- 'The Elephant never Forgets' - London Tram route...
- Croydon Tramlink - (under devlopment i hear)
- Cross River Transit
- Greenwhich Waterfont Tranist ( see Clive's Undergound Line Guides)
- Uxbridge Road Transit.
- 'Green Lane's' - London Tram route but non-central.
- 'Kingsway'- research on the name!


Alex

[Routemaster J]

Hey I live in LONDON and i am a huge BUS fan! I go on all new route on their first day!

no bendy buses go on oxford street yet, only park lane, and regent street. don't worry I am sure we can make things up!

just let me get the DLR out of the way!

[Wulf_9]

Hehe that looks cool! One question... what to do about the steering wheel not moving in sync with the turns in the road? Will it just be static? Having no hand controls like a loco should free up all those other train features, surely there is a way to use them to good effect? I mean, why not use the handle animation for the indicators and wiper controls for instance? *INSERTION EDIT* No I just realised how silly that suggestion was, ignore it :) *ENDEDIT* This is starting to fascinate me.... could we actually make a convincingly-driveable road vehicle? Hmmmm.... as for the engine/gear changing sounds, leave that to me :)

(These buses have an auto gearbox IIRC, so the sounds will be quite easy actually)

Ciao

Saxon Locomotive Works - "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer"

http://www.zodiac-infosystems.co.uk/rail/bve

[ChristopherT]

Smace, that's excellent!

Christopher

[Downunder Tom]

There is some like a couple in Dayton that are Both Trooley and Diesal so they an continue aster the electric ends. Others do have APU Aux Power unit and can go small disances with overhead lines.

Wellington N.Z. is planing in replacing there trolleys that llok like the New service for london but can run on reserve batteries to contine past the end of the lines.

Hope I'm not getting to far off the subject.

Tom

[smace]

We could start a new thread. A duel mode would be possible. Give it 6 power notches. First 3 electric last 3 diesel. Sync Motor1 to electric and Motor2 to diesel.

[Routemaster J]

I have already done this, I have made a Routemaster! (as the name suggests?! I like these old buses!)

I have made a RM bus for BVE together with a route, It has a high street and residential area I was going to do one for OXFORD STREET when then I decided to use it as a Train sim and I started the DLR.

I found BVE whilst looking for Bus driving sims?!

So anyway, Maybe I should do the Oxford street thing after all, I was quite good, just need a few touches though it was when I was still a novice in BVE coding!

Below is one of the better object used in the route, If you want I can finish the route off?!

[smace]

This was done mostly to prove to myself that it could, in fact, be done. A VERY early draft of a bus ( diesel or electric, depending on the sounds) and a duel wire overhead with no supports. Now all I need is a route and sounds and a good drivers view and .... :)

[smace]

Well, a well done animation for the panel would be amps for the electric and engine rpm for the diesel (sort of like your NVTA panels)., The steering wheel just sits there :( . Can not quite figure anything else. Door close and open could be a handle by the driver, or many something better than a red / green light. As I said, a very first draft kind of thing. The panel is copied, somewhat, from a NYCTA bus picture I found on line. It was off center, so I could not use the real picture.
This version has 4 gears or power settings 10 20 40 and 55 mph on flat surface.
BTW I asked permision to upload this picture from a modification I made to the NeTram route to run this bus. Speeding through High Street about to clip a blue van. I have actually run this Bus down the whole route, and it is not bad.
There really is a bus driving game. See http://www.neoseeker.com/Companies/profiles/FORTYFIVE