Blog- Shipston-on-Stour Branch - Templot on the Mac

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Although I already have Peco track for Shipston, I am slowly but surely moving toward a better looking OO-SF look and design. Several years ago I used Templot for a while, working under a PC emulator on my Mac (I have been a Mac user since 1992), but the emulator was expensive to upgrade and really didn't seem to be that reliable. Templot fascinated me in that it appears to have a steep learning curve for those of us who have done a lot of CAD and vector based drawing on computers. This is because it has what could be called artificial intelligence based on the inherent design of points and switches. It controls the mouse rather than the other way round, might be one explanation for what it does. The ability to plot out accurate templates for building custom track is the end product.

 

Which means that Templot and self made track would be a very good option for Shipston. Back in the 1970s I made quite a lot of track using bullhead rail and PCB sleepers. So I asked a few questions on the track laying forum and got some strange answers. The reason for this was that I had asked the question of where I could source "PCB sleepers". The answer was that they are not called that, they are "copper clad sleepers". Well, so they may be today, but all those years ago they were made of printed circuit board, which, of course, happens to be copper clad fiberglass. The PCB term continues to be used in North America to this day.

 

So, where do we go from here, you might ask? I have a Mac, so how can I use Templot? Happily Martin Wynne came up with a solution which did not involve either me buying a Windows machine or him porting Templot over to OSX! I had never heard of WINE, WINEBOTTLER or CrossOver, but these are the inexpensive solutions for running some (not all) Windows software on a UNIX based operating system (Linux or OSX). I have downloaded a 14 day free trial from CrossOver and also have the updated Templot2. So far, so good, Templot runs very nicely under WINE. All I have to do now is climb the relatively steep learning curve and design the track layout in Templot. Retirement is proving to be a very busy time!

 

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