Let's Ride the Rails

A bit of an irresistible title I'm afraid!

A few weeks ago we were contacted by an experienced reskinner who expressed an interest in creating some reskins to form part of the scenarios we include with our Train Simulator expansions. With the scenarios for the Bullion Carriers under way the chance was taken to recreate one of Gateshead's allocation of Class 47s in the form of 47406 'Rail Riders' in original InterCity livery to use as the player locomotive.

The locomotive uses the class 47 included in the European Assets Pack/original routes and has a new texture, 3D nameplates and crest plus added ETH jumpers.

Although forming part of the scenario within the expansion pack the reskin will also be available to download from our website once the Bullion Carriers have been released. Don't take the screenshot as an example of the scenario though - it looks much different and you may have struggled to see the loco ....

Bullion Carriers: Also in white

With the light application of  grime complete the opportunity has been taken to create alternative versions of the bullion flat with white containers.

The few photographs of the bullion flats in traffic shows them with either blue or white containers in a number of different positions. It's hard to say if this is chance or an era defined choice as there are so few pictures of the flats in service.

Bullion Carriers: Bullion Flat in Need of Grime

The bullion flat is now in the condition where it's really looking the part. The texturing is now complete and all of the lettering has been added.

All that's now left is to add a little bit of grime here and then and get the testers to give the bullion flat and bullion van a once over before the LODs are created.

Once these master shapes are finished there's a little bit of minor tweaking needed to add a little more variation to the pack.

Bullion Carriers: Flat Completed

It's always good to get back to grips with projects and see them make tangible progress, especially after the trials of the previous few weeks.

The shape for the Bullion flat is now complete along with the containers for it to carry.

Built at Derby in 1971 the flats usually worked with the Bullion Vans converted in the mid 1960's from Mk1 BSK vehicles. Descriptions of the flats varies from reference to reference with some likening the to Frightliner flats but with buffers and B5 bogies and others to Mk1 underframes. Through the modelling process it would appear that the second description is much closer to the reality.