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We’re delighted to announce a new simulation, Isle of Wight (East) 1932, which is available immediately for those requesting delivery by email. It will be available for delivery on CD or floppy disk as soon as the printed instructions are available, probably about Wednesday 12 December. Brian has been working on this one for the best part of two years, and I think it’s been worth the wait.

Given the inevitable delays in postal services at this time of year, we do strongly recommend that you ask for delivery by email. If you do, though, please make sure that your ISP or company allows executable attachments (GoogleMail does not, for example), and that your software is set up to allow a zip file attachment containing executable files.

There’s nothing else visible in the near future, but other projects are under way, and will be announced when they’re ready.

We’ve restored an old feature of this site: the ability to follow links directly to Amazon to order some of the books we’ve found most useful as background for these simulations. We hope you’ll find this useful. See the Books page of this site for more details.

Please watch this web site for further announcements and special offers.

Tim Bourne.

NEW this year!

Gold Series: Isle of Wight (East) 1932 - Covering the whole working day, this is set in the summer of 1932, perhaps the high point of operations on the island. Your control area covers the whole of the line from Ryde to Ventnor, including the Bembridge branch and parts of the lines from Smallbrook Junction and Sandown to Newport - seven screens in all. Increasing difficulty levels give you a choice of Sunday, weekday or Saturday schedules. The single lines on the island were some of the most intensively worked in the country, and you will have to be alert to avoid causing delays. For this reason most freight traffic is early or late in the day, and can require some careful shunting in the limited siding space. You have control of the shed at St John’s Road, and also have to ensure engines receive water as necessary. As usual bonus points are available for allocation of locos of the correct type, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty ###) Price £36

Platinum Series: Exeter 1955 - Covering the full 24-hour period, this is set in the summer of 1955. Everything is steam, and your control area covers the whole of the Exeter area from just north of Cowley Bridge Junction to just south of City Basin Junction on the Western and to Exmouth Junction on the Southern - eleven screens in all. Both weekday and Saturday schedules are provided; effectively this gives you two rather different simulations. A major feature on Saturdays is the congestion at St Davids, where the heavy holiday traffic has to be handled in just five through platforms. Most Southern trains need banking from St Davids up to Central, and in both directions an engine change is normally necessary at either Central Station or Exmouth Junction Yard. Freight marshalling is split between Riverside and Exmouth Junction Yards, with local traffic handled at sidings in the St Davids area and at Central and Alphington Road Yards. In addition, there are a power station and gas works at City Basin and a Concrete Works and Wagon Works at Exmouth Junction, each generating traffic. There are two engine sheds to manage, the major Southern one at Exmouth Junction (72A) and the smaller Western one (83C). As usual bonus points are available for allocation of locos of the correct type, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty #####) Price £45

NEW in recent years

Gold Series: Torbay 1955 - Covering the period from 3.30 am to midnight to cover almost all traffic, this is set in the summer of 1955. Everything is steam, and your control area covers the whole of the line from the terminus at Kingswear to just short of Aller Junction, including the Brixham branch - seven screens in all. Both weekday and Saturday schedules are provided; effectively this gives you two rather different simulations. A major feature on Saturdays is the congestion at Paignton, where the heavy holiday traffic has to be handled in just two platforms and with limited siding space; to add further interest, some heavier trains need banking from Torquay up to Torre. At this period the gas works at Torquay was supplied with coal by sea, delivered to the docks at Kingswear, so you may need to handle extra weekday coal trains at higher difficulty levels. As usual bonus points are available for allocation of locos of the correct type, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty ####) Price £36

Whitby Town 1914 - Small but interesting, set in NER days, with choice of day Monday—Saturday. Two screens, Whitby Town (including shed) and Bog Hall Junction. Includes services to Saltburn & Scarborough as well as those via Grosmont to Malton and Battersby. Many local services are push-pull using BTP class tanks. Bonus points are available for allocation of locos of the correct type and shed, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty ###) Price £18

Whitby Town 1935 - Small but interesting, set in LNER days, with choice of day Monday—Saturday. Two screens, Whitby Town (including shed) and Bog Hall Junction. Includes services to Saltburn & Scarborough as well as those via Grosmont to Malton and Battersby. Many local services are operated by Sentinel steam railcars. Bonus points are available for allocation of locos of the correct type and shed, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty ###) Price £18

Whitby Town 1954 - Small but interesting, set in BR days, before diesels arrived, with choice of day Monday—Saturday. Two screens, Whitby Town (including shed) and Bog Hall Junction. Includes services to Saltburn & Scarborough as well as those via Grosmont to Malton and Battersby. All services are loco-hauled, most using class A8 tanks. Bonus points are available for allocation of locos of the correct type and shed, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty ###) Price £18

Save £18! Buy all three versions of Whitby Town (1914, 1935 and 1954) for just £36.

Gold Series - Reading 1972 - This has eight track screens, and includes West and General stations, the DMU sidings that host most of the London area units, and the diesel depot and engineers’ sidings on the site of the old steam shed. All trace of the Southern station, shed and yard have gone, and Southern trains mostly use platform 4A at the east end of platform 4. There is still substantial freight traffic at West Junction Yard, and as well as the former GWR main line from London to Didcot for Swindon and Oxford there are the Berks and Hants line towards Newbury and Westbury, the line to the Southern at Basingstoke, and the Southern Region lines to Waterloo and to Guildford and Redhill. Some passenger and freight services still require an engine change at Reading. (Difficulty #####) Price £36

SPECIAL OFFER NOW PERMANENT!

Order any four games for delivery at the same time on the same disk(s) (or email) and pay only for the more expensive three. E.g. for four games priced at £18 each, you pay only £54; for two games priced at £18 and two at £12, you pay only £48. The “Three Whitbys” package counts as one purchase. To avoid confusion, please ask for this discount.

This offer now applies until further notice.

To avoid embarrassment, please do not ask for this special offer to be applied retrospectively, or when asking for separate disks. The free simulation may NOT be one of those mentioned above. Full details of all our products are here on our web site. If you’d like a current complete price list, please ask.

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