Taking advantage of these new improvements is the Network West Midlands route from the people at Trainsimcentral.co.uk. A fictional 25 kV route set in the Midlands, it features a multitude of electric units and diesel units with long stretches of super quick 125 mph sections running into several termini, all highly detailed.

For your viewing pleasure I have included some screenshots of its latest update that show how the route has come on

Old Signal

New Signal

And some new screenshots from the 2011 preview release.

[Screenshots from the 10.10 Maybank - Hobbs Cross 2008 Route diagram using the Class 323 from Trainsimcentral running OpenBVE 1.2.10.0]

New features include animated clocks, passing trains, moving traffic over bridges, a massive visual overhaul and support for new “random” features in OpenBVE allowing for sections of the route to be changed randomly to show maintenance workers and weather.

Here’s an video of me playing a version of the route from 2009 in OpenBVE:

Its a great update and really shows off some of OpenBVE’s new features.

Download

To download the latest release you will need the very latest edition of OpenBVE 1.2.10.0 and you can download the route from their site at BVE4.net [At the time of writing their site seems to be down]

An example of the animation capabilities of the new OpenBVE.

From Rail Sim Routes UK

The development of this program has been very swift indeed. In about 8 months, the developer has made leaps and bounds from the original, and very buggy alpha. OpenBVE now has more features than the current BVE and some of the routes look much better in OpenBVE than the old BVE.

Myself and DarkFire, have been following development of this program for a while and are pleased with how things are turning out. With regular updates from the developer, it really feels as if this program wont stagnate and become vapourware.

If you are interested in such things check out http://openbve.uuuq.com/en/ for the route player program and http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk for some routes and trains.

Yeah, this posting system works in IE8, but only with the compatibility mode on. I hope this beta is a long way from finished, as it struggles with image transparency on my blog. And no, it’s not that it doesn’t do  it – scrolling around and clicking seems to start and stop it from doing transparency. This leads to a sidebar with bits sticking out.

Anyway, Joe seems to be very busy at uni (playing openBVE, probably)  at the moment, doesn’t he? Somehow I am more busy, and yet I’m  randomly typing this post, while putting up with a headache, slight dizzyness and thoughts about what I’m going to have for dinner (luckily, I have already done my work for tomorrow).

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure how the flash insertion system here works (which reminds me that I need to put instructions on my blog, for the admins), so I’m going to try to share a video with you.

There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)