Wayward Junction 2: The Update

By Alfred Barten

Virginia City Passenger Depot is the new Wayward Junction station.

SHORTLY AFTER I RELEASED the original 30-inch gauge Wayward Junction route for Trainz 2006, I discovered that some of the trains were getting stuck in the portals. It took a lot of experimentation before I discovered that the portals were sloped inside and that the tiny Forneys and other small locos were having trouble gaining traction on the upgrade for their return journey from the portals. The result was that I substituted the Basic Portal (open track and level) for the Portal (tunnel and sloped). In two instances, because of space limitations, I placed the new Basic Portals on a second baseboard beyond the scenic backdrop. In the other instance I just let the track disappear behind a hill.

I also found there was a danger of inadvertently running two trains into each other near the portal entries, so I added a second track in two places.


Basic Portal lies beyond the scenic backdrop. A passing siding, leading to the tunnel through the backdrop/portal, gives an outbound train a chance to stop if the portal is at the same time releasing an inbound train.

Finally, I've come to accept the fact that some people simply have trouble with Elvenor's Central and Pitkin Stations, which I have used frequently. In these cases the station doesn't appear, regardless of what they do. So I replaced the station at Wayward Junction with the Virginia City Passenger Depot.

Just for fun I added two more sessions, though they are really nothing but variations in time of day and weather from the original Starter session.

The route and sessions are packaged in a single zip file at the VR Downloads page. They do not overwrite the original version, but rather stand alongside it. Keep or remove the original as you prefer. As is true of the original, the new version requires that TRS2006 and Service pack SP-1 be installed. If you get a message saying the map cannot be found, it's a dead give away that SP-1 is not installed.

I have not tested the route with TS2009. In theory it should work, but there is no guarantee. Often we find upgrade versions of Trainz are more strict when it comes to enforcing code compliance than their predecessors, which then breaks the original item which was created in an earlier version of Trainz. Since I have not created any of the locos or cars or buildings, etc., but only placed them in the route, I have no control over coding errors and am not in a position to correct them.

Be sure to read the original article for an understanding of the route concept and operation.

Cheers,

Al

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