Well, it finally happened. I tried Train Sim and got hooked on piloting a train across the country. Now I'm looking for a sim of the narrow gauge railroads in the Rockies. Anybody know of any?

Nice to see you liked it ....I tried but didn't really enjoy it . There was an interesting forum called Elvas Tower ( I think ) and the guys somehow designed locos and stuff to use on their sims ...all copy written material , and I just didn't understand how to do all that sort of thing . Didn't really " float my boat " as it were .

T

Yeah I sorta agree with Terry. I tried Trainz and MS Train Simulator, I liked Trainz (where you can build your own layout and then get in your train and go) better. However as long as I can do real modeling I will stick with that instead of the sims. But if I were to have disabilities that prevented me from working on my layout these programs would be a good substitute. I don't know of any narrow gauge programs though.

It isn't a substitute for real modeling, but it was surprisingly engaging, and a good substitute for the military scenarios I usually play to fill in dead time late at night. When you begin actual operations, especially switching,your score suddenly becomes a matter of great concern, and you get scored on everything from operational ability to on-time record to speed control to passenger comfort (sudden stops and starts) to locomotive wheel slippage if you neglect to use the sanders on grades. I also discovered the hard way that you must check your own switch settings when leaving the yard to insure that they are set properly in order for you to depart by your assigned route, and this must be accomplished while you are lumbering through the yard at 15 mph. The cab is a very busy place.

I wish I had the skills to create these sims. I would love to do the Rockies narrow gauge railways, especially routes like Phantom Canyon, the Alpine Tunnel and the rest of the real high country gold mine servers. Taking the Argentine up to 11,000-pluis would be fun, and using the covered turntable to move ore cares would be a real challenge. After that, operating a geared loco on a steep mountain lumber operation would be even more challenging and interesting. Maybe the sim folks will wake up to that one of these days.

I have learned one very essential fact: drifting down the long grade from the Cajon pass with eighty loaded ore cars behind me and maintaining the speed and safety limits is a real attention getter. The dynamic brakes seem almost useless, and if you crest the pass at too high a speed, they aren't much use when you start down. 8-)

And do NOT get me started on the steam locomotives.

My son & I have Trainz (the Mac version) and have liked that. I don't use it a whole lot but my son goes through phases when he uses it. Is that the version you're using?

I enjoyed Microsoft TS for a few years off and on. Sometimes it had a glitch when throwing a turnout that was frustrating but for the most part I thought it was engaging too. Loved the sound effects of the locomotive powering up as the throttle notched up.

You can download plenty of narrow gauge stuff for Trainz, take a poke around the forum http://forums.auran.com/trainz/forum.php and this site http://www.steammachine.com/slugsmasher/
to get some ideas.

Cheers,

Kev

RobertInOntario Wrote:My son & I have Trainz (the Mac version) and have liked that. I don't use it a whole lot but my son goes through phases when he uses it. Is that the version you're using?

No...I'm using TrainSim for Windows. Probably pretty much the same, though.

I haven't tried TrainSim, but I do have Railway Simulator and Trainz.

Trainz is the standard for V-scale railroading...its on the 4th or 5th version. I did lay track on a decent chunk of the Silverton RR and then ran Baldwin 8-18Cs and a South Park mogul a fair bit. Frequently, a nice looking locomotive needs its engine configuration file fixed to be realistic.

There is a gentleman currently working on the Alpine Tunnel District in Trainz. I believe he has the track located and installed,and is working on the scenery/buildings.

If you have MSTS give OpenRails a try:

http://openrails.org/release.html

You are still stuck with the MSTS's dreadful editors but OpenRails brings MSTS into the 21st century.

Virtual railroading is a chance to operate railroads without a large layout.

Building models is fun in a different way:



Fun is fun

Harold

I just discovered a major failure in TrainSim - during switching ops there is no rear view for the engineer.

nkp_174 Wrote:I haven't tried TrainSim, but I do have Railway Simulator and Trainz.

Trainz is the standard for V-scale railroading...its on the 4th or 5th version. I did lay track on a decent chunk of the Silverton RR and then ran Baldwin 8-18Cs and a South Park mogul a fair bit. Frequently, a nice looking locomotive needs its engine configuration file fixed to be realistic.

There is a gentleman currently working on the Alpine Tunnel District in Trainz. I believe he has the track located and installed,and is working on the scenery/buildings.

That shouldn't be very hard. The number of structures at the Alpine pass is minimal. Telegraph office/depot - small shack. Stone engine house. Coal bunker. Covered turntable, also stone building.

In fact, since the pass itself is above tree line, there isn't any scenery at all except the bulk of the mountains.

I tried TrainSim a few years ago, but didn't get on with it. I found Trainz to be far more intuitive, especially when building routes. Older versions are available quite cheaply now, I picked up 'Trainz 2010' which is one behind the latest version (I think) for £12 through Amazon.

Cheers,

Kev

To really model the Alpine Tunnel District, you actually have to model much more than people realize...at least Pitkin to Hancock and probably Hortense.

nkp_174 Wrote:To really model the Alpine Tunnel District, you actually have to model much more than people realize...at least Pitkin to Hancock and probably Hortense.

Hancock is really the only viable town on the "eastern" side of the tunnel, and the Western side" has even lass. Pretty spares back in the day, and most of the trees were cut down by the railroads.

Modeling the Palisades would probably be the trickiest part. It's the trickiest part of four-wheeling up to the tunnel!