Spain pre-research tips

Some newbie driver · #71 Post by **Some newbie driver** » 13 Jul 2019 07:04

Spanish popular wisdom says that "if there's a lot of trucks parked, meal will be good there"

Could it be true, could it be not, but what's a fact is that restaurants directly next to the road are everywhere on Spain. From humble old places doing traditional familiar meals to more sophisticated ones. Lots of them have big yards where to park and they use to be related to fuel stations too. It will give A LOT more of atmosphere to the Spanish map that (at least some) of the fuel stations on secondary roads wouldn't be just the minimum presets they are now everywhere.

Here you could take some examples: https://www.elespanol.com/reportajes/20 ... 032_3.html

Madel · #72 Post by **Madel** » 15 Jul 2019 19:19

Madrid

Madrid have some orbital roads, the most importants; M-30, M-40, M-45 and M-50.
M-30: Trucks with more than 12t. can not drive on this road.

M-40: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopista ... 3%B3n_M-40
M-50: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-50_(Spain)

M-45: Connects the M-40 with the M-50 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-45_(Spain)
Map: https://www.google.es/maps/dir/40.35870 ... 85!1m0!3e0
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General map: On this map you can see that some of the most important routes in Spain start here (A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5 and A-6)
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General map: Subway style.
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Some interesting places:

Aeropuerto Madrid-Barajas
Location: https://www.google.es/maps/place/Aeropo ... -3.5675955
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Iveco Trucks
Location: https://www.google.es/maps/place/Iveco+ ... -3.5501853
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Madrid-Abroñigal Train Station(Cargo station)
Location: https://www.google.es/maps/place/Estaci ... -3.6764315
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Truck unload/load zone
Location: https://www.google.es/maps/@40.3906836, ... a=!3m1!1e3
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Wanda Metropolitano(can be seen from the M-40)
Location: https://www.google.es/maps/place/Wanda+ ... -3.5994674
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PSA factory
Location: https://www.google.es/maps/place/Madrid ... -3.7032992
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Desguaces la Torre(the biggest wrecking yard in Europe) https://echauncable.es/desguace-mas-gra ... a-en-dron/
Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Desgu ... -3.7920364
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Circuito de Jarama The main straight goes parallel with the A-1
Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Circu ... d-3.585286
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Madel · #73 Post by **Madel** » 19 Jul 2019 17:48

dahaka · #74 Post by **dahaka** » 19 Jul 2019 17:52

Since we dont have the bottom part of France, and it will almost certainly be added along with Spain, should i post some info i have about southwestern France here, or should i make a separate thread for that?

Some newbie driver · #75 Post by **Some newbie driver** » 19 Jul 2019 19:06

I think better to create a France thread. Otherwise, people that could be interested in France could miss the info due they will not search them here.

Also, it will be useful by itself if some day SCS needs to rework some parts or add something in France and wants our opinion.

It seems that Corsica has been teased too; I suppose we still are on time to give them info about it in case some detail could be important to have in mind.

Regards

PS: Nice collection of pics from landmark Madel, keep on it!

I suppose some people already knows it, but the Jarama Circuit you mentioned is where FIA ETRC is raced on Spain.

Madel · #76 Post by **Madel** » 19 Jul 2019 20:27

Some newbie driver · #77 Post by **Some newbie driver** » 23 Jul 2019 18:38

Let's talk a bit about Spanish trains:

"Cercanías" (literally: proximity) is the service of passenger trains to connect the biggest cities with their surroundings. Actually the most used train to do that service are the Civia 463/464/465 series, painted with the schema shown on this image.

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In Madrid and Barcelona, the "Cercanías" service is also complemented with the double-deck trains of 450/451 series for the lines with more passengers.

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And in the places where line isn't electrified (not so many for "Cercanías", the 592.2 series trains are used (though the one on the picture is not showing "Cercanías" painting schema):

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The service for mid-range distance travels, the service is called "Regionales". They actually use mostly the 449 series trains painted as in this photo:

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And where there's no electrified lines, the "Regionales" service is mostly done by the 599 series trains, with a look very similar to the 449 ones.

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Regarding long distance passenger trains, actually they are served mostly in two ways: high-speed trains called AVE (from "Alta Velocidad Española", aka Spanish High Speed) or conventional trains with the very unique Talgo Pendular coaches (the precursors of most actual high-speed trains everywhere in the world).

For regular trains with Talgo coaches on electrified lines, on Spain is mostly used the 252 series locomotives. This image shows one with the actual colors towing a Talgo train:

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On non electrified lines, the locomotives used are the 334 series.

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And for AVE specific lines, though there are several kinds of models of trains (including some double-decked SNCF ones that arrive to Barcelona), the most iconic ones are the 102/112 series, named "Patos" (ducks) for obvious reasons:

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Last but not least, for the cargo trains, on electrified lines the most used locomotives are the 253 series (they have been recently purchased only for this purpose).

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And on non-electrified lines, the veteran 333 series (on their overhaul version 333.4) are still used. Here on their actual colors and shape.

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There exist other iconic and relevant trains and locomotives that still are found around the country, like 447 series for "Cercanías" or the 251 series and 269 series locomotives (the first one with a look very unique in Europe, the others used massively here for more than 40 years). But the ones I explained are the most used actually and the ones that will be the immediate future; so the trains depicted on the game should take them as base models for better realism.

Regards

PS: All credits and thanks to the Ferropedia And Listadotren websites and the owners of the pictures hosted there that I used.

Madel · #78 Post by **Madel** » 24 Jul 2019 22:25

Wow! nice post some newbie driver!

Some newbie driver · #79 Post by **Some newbie driver** » 25 Jul 2019 09:35

Thanks Madel, yours are good too.

Let's keep burying SCS devs with Spanish data.

PS: And I fixed some links that were wrong on the previous post

Some newbie driver · #80 Post by **Some newbie driver** » 26 Jul 2019 14:41

To finish the info report related to Spanish railways, what it's left are to talk about train stations and railcross signaling.

Big cities train stations are, of course, big and diverse in their look. I'm not going tot alk about them as SCS could easily find info about them if they need to depict any one of them.

But small towns train station are a completely different history. I don't know the exact reasons, maybe it was due the fast and sudden spreading of the railway companies through all Spain at the second half of XIX century. Whatever it would be the reason, the fact is that thousands of small train stations on Spain use to share lots of common architectural traits. It's something so evident, even for those that doesn't have any interest on architecture, that almost anybody could identify an old train station building; even after obvious rehabilitation works to modernize them or even if its not a train station anymore (there are hundreds of old stations buildings abandoned or overhauled for other uses, as the railways lines they served exist no more).

With some images I think you could catch what I mean:

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Those last two aren't the same, but near one to the other.

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The small auxilliar building on the left of that last image used to be the toilets and are one of the common trait on those old stations

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Those last two still showing their original crude stone walls, without the cover applied later to lots of the stations walls.

I think it could give and extra point of realism to depict similar buildings on minor towns that had a railway line near. Or even, as I said, include some as independent buildings; either abandoned or used for other purposes. They were tough constructions that in general terms withstood well the past of time.

And about roads crossing railway lines, the first to be known is that a lot of effort has been made last 2 decades to eliminate most of the same level crosses of roads with railways around the country. Even on secondary roads, most of them have been changed by small bridges above or tunnels behind the rails. Same level crosses mostly still exist only on very tertiary roads (those out of scope of the game) or places that have no material space to do that kind of constructions, specially on towns and cities that growth surrounding the rails.

Before a road arrives a railway crossing, there will be this signal if there are no barriers:

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And this one if there are barriers:

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Both signals have to be together with this signal if there's only one rail line:

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Or this other signal if there are two or more rail lines:

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All railway crossings (except those on very tertiary roads and private paths) have just before enter them red warning lights mounted horizontally in pairs. When the train is near, they flash alternatively left-right. Also the letters PN one of each side of a white X use to be painted on the tarmac just before the crossing.

If the railway crossing has barriers too, those cover only half of the width of the pass (to allow a car already inside the crossing to get out of there). Barriers are always painted in diagonal red/white stripes and on last years had been getting also lights all along the barrier (those on more problematic zones with low visibility). Also a high-volume bell rings when the barriers are being lowered.

This video shows all those things in action:

Watch on YouTube

And as last info, here's a general resume of the most common railway signals on Spain, in case you want to add some very-extra detail to the models: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Se% ... spa%C3%B1a

Regards

PS: I see there's a problem with railway crossing signal images. They had to have white background painted inside them but the .png files I linked are configured as transparent.

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