OT: Do you like trains?

[Gdavis101]

Colton and Northern & Rascal and Cottonwood are fictional US routes, but they are really good.. Also, the Raildriver unit works well with RW's and makes the whole thing much more realistic. Raildriver.com

[gajit]

Its all excellent. I have not been near FSX for 2 days - a record. But I still cant take off

[warchild]

spent pretty much the last 48 hours downloading, installing, and learning.. I sem to have found most of the payware.. looking for decent freeware now.. fortunately even the payware is inexpensive and dangerously affordable ( its only 10 bucks,, i cant get overdrawn on that can I ?/).. Sadly, the Payware DD-40 i bought isnt quite up to specs.. with a half mile train behind a double unit its only managing 35 mph on a 2.4% slope.. Thats a bit ridiculess..
Biggest drawback, i'm a flight simmer as well as rail fan, and i'm accustomed to there being a complete world out there in sim land.. not just pieces of one.. cant wait for this to get a couple years older so that theres more available for it.. would also like to se some U-boats, and 9 crossing fingers ) a veranda style gas turbine..

Steam really went out of their way to make sure you couldnt find the game files.. i've never seen a structure so kerfuggled in my life. its confusing as hell, but i'm glad it works.. some other things could be a bit more user friendly as well,, but for a version 2 package, i cant complain.. its tons of fun, and quite relaxing ( til you fall asleep and hit the junction at 70 mph ) Cant really aford any hardware. just wish there were a way for me to use the throttle and other niceties of my joystick.. till then, the keyboards ok i guess.. wish i could do scenery. then i could start laying out all the east west mainlines between new york and california, then the north south lines.. theres a couple i remember from my old days with N-Scale like the red rock and western that i'd love to do in railworks as well.. its simply gorgeous ( and tricky i might add ) very fun sim.. more than worth the 30 bucks they're charging for it, though i wish they would have included the challenger in this version instead of the other..

[empeck]

Biggest drawback, i'm a flight simmer as well as rail fan, and i'm accustomed to there being a complete world out there in sim land.. not just pieces of one..

That's why I can't forgive Microsoft that they axed Aces... MSTS2 was supposed to have whole planet already with default tracks from various vector data :(

Website is still live: http://www.tsinsider.com/ :/

[Snuffy]

Question folks ...

So what I'm reading here from WC and others ... the American Continent is there, its just flat and uninhabited? No lakes? No rivers? No mountains?

Has anyone seen any Baldwin 4-4-0s?

Any rolling stock from the US 1800s era?

[michael davies]

Question folks ...

So what I'm reading here from WC and others ... the American Continent is there, its just flat and uninhabited? No lakes? No rivers? No mountains?

Has anyone seen any Baldwin 4-4-0s?

1800 rolling stock from the US era?

Train sims unlike FS are modeled differently, the whole world is flat, everywhere, everything....except the bits with tracks in...obviously. In train sim you are given a blank canvas, you select your geographical area that you want to model, then you go and get the DEM data for that region, you import the DEM for your route and it generates the land mass from the base flat land. You dont need masses of DEM, just 15 miles each side of your route should suffice, ie you make a 'corridor' of terrain for your route.

Once you have that then you go in and begin laying tracks, there are tools that wil allow you to say map out your route in Google earth, placing way points are key locations or trace the route every 200m or so if you wish, you then import that into your terrain and it will place markers for you to follow when you lay your rails, as you lay your rails you set your gradient as you go along, to match your terrain or your gradient profile. Once thats all done you begin to add in your scenery and other structures.

Thats basically how MSTS 1 and partsof MSTS 2 worken, not sure if Railworks is exactly the same but it'll be something close to that from what I've read.

I've managed to avoid this with great restraint but it draws me ever closer as time passes LOL.

Best

Michael

[Henry]

I've managed to avoid this with great restraint but it draws me ever closer as time passes LOL.

Best

Michael

LOL
tempting aint it
H

[Snuffy]

... I've managed to avoid this with great restraint but it draws me ever closer as time passes LOL. ...

Thanks for all that info Michael. I guess that means I don't have to tear up a bunch of pre-existing terrain and other features. That's cool.

Pertaining to your quote above ... Yeah its getting harder ... I might be able to model that rail system I've always wanted to model and not take up 10,000 square fee to do it. LOL!

[warchild]

What theyve done is to try and find the balance between the best of two worlds. The world of the software simmer ( naturally ) and the world of the table top modeler. Thats why the world is flat to begin with.. it allows you to create your own layout in any way shape or form you want ( was just doing some sandbox playng in there.. havent used finger paints in nigh on 60 years ). its kinda cool, but it also means that if you want an accurate representation, you need to be more technically minded.. If you dont want to get too technical, you can still build a really nice layout. i thnk fantasy layouts make up almost 80% of all scale railroading. its by neccesity of course as no one has a mansion they can dedicate to nothing but a single rail layout.. Even in Z scale, it could take that big a barn ( and Z scale will fit in a small briefcase )

[michael davies]

LOL
tempting aint it
H

You HAVE NO IDEA !!.

Must resist !, actually its not too hard 'right' now as I'm cataloguing all my internet ship (35,000) and train (85,000) photos as well as my own photos (500 alone last month) and when I'm not doing that I'm out when ever the sun is out taking even more ship and train photos.

Quite what I'm ever going to do with all those images is beyond me, but I've enough ten times over for any Max project I ever wish to choose for !, just like taking and collect photos really, bit like stamps, only cheaper LOL.

Kindest

Michael

[empeck]

There is one tempting thing... To build SM-42 diesel locomotive for Railworks I have a certain aircraft to finish though.

[warchild]

Ok.. for those tempted::
yes, you can purchase railworks for 30 bucks right now and ya know, it aint bad.. I mean straight out of the box it aint bad.. If you like american style though you might want to get the american version as the mega bundle has mostly euro roads in it.. not much american at all.. ( gee, you can go between barstow and san bernadino.. great thrill there.. helllp.. we need scenery and routes )..
Heres the thing, or rather things..
Railworks is straight forward.. Valve has gone way out of their way to make sure no one can pirate any software you download from them ( you dont even know its downloaded till you run the sim ) BUT..
when searching for 3rd party freeware and payware, it gets confusing as all hell.. Theres trainsim, railsim1, zugu ( sp?) railworks, TPR, you name it, and they dont like to talk with each other.. The upshot is that the playground is even. its just as confusing no matter which sim you get, the downshot is that railworks is new, and there isnt much there 9 although thats changing ) and theres far far more available for MSTS than there is for railworks. the upshot is that most adons cost betwen 6 dollars and 20 dollars ( imagine owning a detailed 4-6-6-4 for 18 bucks ).
Quality of course varies with the skill of the modeler. i just deleted a semi nice little GP-7 because the xml code was so kerfuggled the whistle would never shut off and getting it to run was like pulling teeth while saying the rosary a hundred times.. Oh well. i keep searching..

Upshot number two.. i had a very peaceful sleep last night.. started in san bernadino and set the brake and throttle and let the train do its own thing at 15 mph. the hum of the diesel put me straight to sleep and i slept like a baby for the first time in fourty years..

[Snuffy]

Hey Pam, Can you post some screenies of the United States, particularly the Eastern seaboard? I'm curious as to what's there to start with.

Thanks.

[warchild]

The only thing with this program is there is nothing for it.. 98% of everything i've installed ( about a hundred packages ) fals to work. some packages require you have paintkits installed that dont exist anywhere but in a note on a page, and still other so called freeware sites limit your download speed to 5 k/s unless you want their premium package, and to make it worse they put you in a cue that doesnt ever move.. Theres only a couple extra routes available, and the pikes peak one consistantly blows up on me. That means make my own or go take a flying leap.. Amazon still wants 114 dollars for MSTS which is quite rediculess, but, theres a ton and a half of stuff out there for it.. Valave simply wants top money for everything and then your limited to their offering.. This is quickly getting frustrating and pathetic.. Sorry for the rant, but needed to blow off steam.. Thanks for being there for me ..
Pam

[N2056]

Trains are #2 in my book after things that fly. For many years I was an active member of the San Diego Society of "N" Scale. They are one of the groups that are part of the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. The Museum is billed as the largest in North America.

I was there the night the "pool shark" came to be

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