Share Your Desktop – May 2024

A late ‘Delivery’ this month for Clare’s Share Your Desktop Challenge. This post became due at a most inconvenient time. You see, on the 14th, SCS Software released an update to Euro Truck Simulator 2 which included a major upgrade to the map of Switzerland and its surrounding area. This came with an Event for us to take part in – Trade Connections Switzerland. On the 15th, they released an update to American Truck Simulator which prepared the ground for the release on the 16th of the Nebraska map DLC. New maps always come with an event – in this case, Cruising Nebraska. All events come with personal and community rewards for completing certain tasks. For those not in the know, members of the virtual trucking community take these events seriously. Having 2 running simultaneously puts a strain on the community as a whole and we muck in to get our part of the job done and then some more to get the rest of the community job done too! So, I’ve been busy driving for much of the past week with little time to do much else. Hopefully that sets the scene and explains my absence for over a week from blogging.

Ok, on the gaming pc this month we have an image from American Truck Simulator of Smoky Bennett passing Amarillo in Texas with a low-boy trailer carrying a Crop-Sprayer…

…Smoky’s a Kenworth K100 based at our Idaho Falls garage. The truck’s name comes from a hunting area around Twin Falls. Unfortunately, as Smoky is a ‘Mod’, the game update makes her unusable until the mod author applies any required changes, so on the 15th she was retired from service temporarily and one of our in-game trucks took on the tasks for the event mentioned above.

On the photo pc we have a shot of 66588 passing through Canonbury Station…

…The loco is working a Chelmsford Reception to Wembley Receptions 1-7 train of hoppers. Canonbury Station has seen many changes over the years. These platforms, 3&4, were for a long time the freight platforms and fenced off from platforms 1&2 which handled the passenger services to and from Stratford. The upgrades associated with the London Overground and the introduction of services through Shoreditch to the East London Line saw platforms 1&2 adapted for that route and 3&4 reopened for the Stratford services, necessitating the footbridge seen in the photo to allow passenger access. The passenger services to and from Stratford have a pattern which sees trains travelling in small groups around 5 minutes apart and then with a longer 8-10 minute gap which allows for a freight slot. The route is a very important highway for freight. Whether enough slots are available is a matter of conjecture – perhaps it is fortunate that some freights are ‘run as required’ because there doesn’t seem to be much slack in the system!