Is the O-Bahn possible?

[thingfishs]

In Adelaide we have a thing called the O-Bahn, and if the wiki page is right http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Bahn_Busway, it's the only one quite like it in the world, although there are similar setups in other countries.

   

Would it be possible to make a train network an o-bahn network by changing the train skins to bus skins and the rail textures to o-bahn tracks? This would be cool. If so, would such a network be able to co-exist with trains, or would it be one or the other?

[Jonathan]

Yes it is possible, just would need to someone to make the models and skins.

(just out of curiosity, how come the buses don't drive off the narrow "rails"?)

Jonathan

[thingfishs]

thanks jonathan,
I couldn't really tell you now you mention it, I think the tyres rest in grooves. They go very quickly and smoothly and when they get into the city they drive straight into the normal traffic. (But I know that won't be able to be emulated) I'm happy to have a go at making it, but still want to be able to have a regular train system as well... (in the same city) can this be done? (or would I have to choose?)

[Jonathan]

It could be done so that you can have both but this will require it to be part of the NAM and all the team members who could create it are very busy. If you can get the models and textures created to replace road it will be more likely that it can be made so they can both coexist.

Basically if you can make the models and give them to the NAM team it will be more likely to be made as a new network.


And it will be possible to have the buses use normal roads as well.

Jonathan

[thingfishs]

Well I'm intrigued by the possibility and am going to give it a go.
If anyone's interested in assisting me pm me.

[emgmod]

So it would be road puzzle pieces that look like the O-Bahn and have a bus only TE lot with the models and textures? It could work, and it would be an interesting alternative to GLR and BRT using roads/RHW.

[Jonathan]

I hoping that it can be based on rail with car paths on it (cars and buses share the same paths annoyingly) and then in the traffic simulator you can set a speed for buses on each network so maybe if the speed for cars on rail is set to 0 but with buses it is higher than 0 only buses will be able to use the rail based O Bahn.

If that doesnt work then it means you'll have to place car blocker te lots where the o bahn joins to roads

[nrmn67]

(just out of curiosity, how come the buses don't drive off the narrow "rails"?)

They have small weels on their sides guiding them. The track looks like that:

|___       ___|

The guiding wheels run on the vertical side walls.

Not many of these systems were built and I think only 1 or 2 are operational right now.

[alj]

I admit that I have no experience at all in modding and stuff but I thought of a quick-n-dirty way to do this: take the monorail network and reskin the monorail automata into a bus shaped automata. That wouldn´t solve the problem that the Adelaide o-bahn buses use roads in dwontown, of course. If that was an outright silly idea, feel free to tell so.

On a related note: that unique Adelaide system uses the German word "bahn" as in Autobahn, Eisenbahn, Untergrundbahn? That´s peculiar.

Kind regards

Alex

[joelyboy911]

I think this will be very cool.

@alj, I don't think its an outright silly idea, however I don't think monorail would be the right network to use, because monorails are so much faster than busses. About 'bahn', South Australia, the state that Adelaide is the capital of, was settled by a fair amount of Germans, among the British and Irish. Other examples of the German language can be found in some of South Australia's place names such as Klemzig and Hahndorf, which has surviving examples of traditional German architecture. Most German place names were changed to English or Aboriginal ones in the early 20th century (for the obvious reasons), and sadly (in my opinion) many were never changed back. Nice to see Adelaide now celebrating their heritage with the O-Bahn.

[thingfishs]

It's great to see some interest in this idea. 

Have you spent some time in Adelaide Joel? You're right, Adelaide historically has a large German population (if I'm not mistaken it is, or was at one time, the largest German settlement outside Germany). The idea came from Germany and was designed by a German company as well. And speaking of Klemzig, that happens to be one of the O-Bahn's three stops.

As for speed they have a maximum of 100kmh, whereas the maximum for street buses is 60 and for trains is 90. (Although from personal experience the O-Bahn maintains a higher speed for longer than trains and cover the same distance more than 1/10 faster).

It looks like the generic name for these is spurbus, this is from another wiki page...

"The biggest Spurbusstrecke is twelve kilometers in length on 2 March 1986 in the Australian city of Adelaide, opened in Adelaide O-Bahn.
Further installations are found in Britain, where there are in Edinburgh, Leeds, Bradford, Crawley and Ipswich Spurbusstrecken. A trial section of Birmingham, has since been abandoned, however, is located between Cambridge and St Ives in building a route that is planned for 2009 following its completion, with 25 kilometers to be the world's longest."

So their numbers are increasing, at least in England. I have had a first shot at the rail textures, but they still have ways to go...

[joelyboy911]

I'd like to revive this topic. I'm not getting the red message so I guess its only been 119 days so far. I've been a NAM Associate for a little while now, and I'm keen to learn some more about Transit Modding. I'm competent at modelling, so I might just give a go at making some models for the O-Bahn. If i can get an idea for how it should be (elevated/ground level?) I can probably have a crack at modelling the pieces necessary, before someone talks me through the pathing (if they can) and so forth.

[thingfishs]

that would be great Joel 

So many things I want to do, there's just not enough time. I can help you with anything you might need (including RL reference shots)

(I did actually make a test version of the tracks but they were hopeless )

[joelyboy911]

The biggest question on my lips at the moment is whether it should be elevated or ground-level. Then, should we go for a two-way system (easier because paths are probably pre-existing and modding for 2-way is probably easier than 1-way. In the long term we can probably do both, but I don't wanna get too far outside my level of skill and patience too quickly.

[thingfishs]

From a realism POV I'd prefer them to be ground rail (although they are raised, slightly. In RL there are two tracks so that isn't a problem.

[joelyboy911]

Ok good. I'll give it a try and report back to here. You know we can do "Raised slightly". The problem comes when we go through crossings with other networks (though i suppose intersection with road is one where buses can enter the regular road?) And then there's overpasses and underpasses etc etc etc. Let's not get in over our heads eh old mate. 

[superhands]

wow    South Australia always has something that you only hear about via the grape vine!

had a peek on the wiki and the various links and devised this photoshopped image of how it could look like ingame:




this is the texture version which is not including the raised sleepers.

-Dave

[jigsaw]

it doesnt have road crossings, only over and under passes. it's not as fast as it once was, they have slowed the speeds down these days.

[mightygoose]

road to rail conversion puzzle piece that also acts as a starter piece for draggable alternative rail texture?

[thingfishs]

cool shot superhands

You're right jigsaw, in RL there are no road crossings, just an entrance/exit to road. But for the game maybe some road crossings will be necessary...? Nevertheless I think overpasses are pretty important for the idea. As for the speed I didn't realise that, when and by approximately how much did they slow it down? Regardless, I think it's important in game that it's faster than trains to give it an advantage. Also it should have a reasonable park effect, although the system was designed to help movement to the poorer north-eastern suburbs, most of the land it passes through is pretty nice.

As for your suggestion mightygoose, I was/am fully expecting this to be a puzzle piece affair; if it could possible be draggable that would be a huge bonus.