Reviews

Southern Belle is a train driving simulation, from the era of mainline steam on the Southern Region - the 1930s. The railway line in the game is from London Victoria to Brighton, and users of this route today will recognise many of the station names, including some which show the passage of time - it was once Gatwick Racecourse, not Gatwick Airport.

The simulation itself allows you to control all the primary controls of the steam locomotive, the regulator, the cut-off and brake, as well as the fireman's task - stoking the fire, the fire doors. The simulation allows you to control the injectors and blowers. Different skill levels allow you to control more or less of these - allowing the new player to get to grips with the train with just the regulator, cut-off and brake, with the computer looking after the rest, before getting into the complexities of managing the rest of the firebreathing dragon of machinery. It then grades you on your performance - timekeeping (you don't want to be early or late), safety - did you stick to speed limits? Did you let the train roll back on a hill start? While to the casual observer, the line from London to Brighton looks flat, to a heavy train there are plenty of gradients, and the driver must anticipate them so the train doesn't lose time going uphill, and doesn't break the speed limit going downhill. Additionally, you have to make the run without running out of fuel or without running out of water. Driving the engine inefficiently will result in one or the other running out.

Like many simulations, the graphics have not aged well, although due to the detail of the rest of the simulation this can be overlooked - much of the game's playability was always in running the train efficiently and to time, rather than the eye candy. Simulations from the 8 bit era generally suffer from this, since in a simulation, good graphics often really does add to the "suspension of disbelief" that's not required in other game types (such as a platform game). However, there are few modern simulations that deal with driving a steam train with the technical attention to detail of Southern Belle, graphics notwithstanding.

Very interesting game from the point of view of the history of simulators.

Trains are not chosen that often as the main vehicles in this kind of software , especially steam-engines ones ...

All in all this simulation game was very seductive for me back in the day and although I never played it to the full , my memories concerning Southern Belle couldn´t be more positive .

4,5 out of 5 for me ... :D


Ps - And I agree with The Dean of Games : playing Southern Belle is a very relaxing experience ... an antidote against stress .

1985 Hewson Consultants (UK)
by Bob Hillyer and Mike Male

I always enjoyed the relaxing mood in which I dived playing this.
The game is quite well done, from the vector graphics to everything else.
Any train enthusiast will love this one.
The best train simulator around.