More Curved Particles

Today I worked a bit on creating a more interesting particle system to convert into curves. The one to the right is quick result. The geometry is created by simply extruding a circle across the curve that traces the path the particle took over the course of 1000 frames.

The object on the right is created from the same curve, but this time I put particles back on the curve. To get the particles spaced more evenly I first had Maya "redraw" the curve. This is more in the direction of what I am looking for.

I want the particle system to split resulting in a branching of the curve. After yet another hour of tinkering (why are collisions events in Maya not object specific by default?) I think I may now have a particle system that could maybe yield an interesting result. So tomorrow (?) it is back to scripting. The script now traces a single particle, the new one needs to trace many.