Hello from Hong Kong!

[lrt505]

Hello! I am 1010.505 (or formally LRT505), a 14y old rail-fan in Hong Kong. I bought Trainz Collector edition sharply after my public exam (I have 4 months of holiday to enjoy~~), at 7 May night and it comes today. There are only 2500 copies in the world and I probably own the only one in Hong Kong. Most others in HK are just playing with other games or illegal copies of Trainz.

↑ The air mail weighs 694g and charges 9.95AUD (HK$76.7, around the taxi fare from my home to school)

↑ I am born at Oct 97 (1097) but the number of the certificate is 1197, but, never mind.

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Here, I would like to share about the railways in Hong Kong.

MTR 港鐵 (merged from KCR 九鐵 and MTR 地鐵 in 2007) is the largest railway operator in Hong Kong. The oldest passenger rolling stock in use started service since 1979.

↑ The Metro Cammell EMU (DC) used in the four main routes. It started service since 1979 and had a mid-life refurbishment (MLR) in 1990s.

↑ The newest EMU train from China started service in 2011, for preparation of extension of existing rail lines.

↑ The 12-unit Metro Cammell EMU train (AC) on the oldest rail line, which started first service in 1910. The EMUs started service in 1982 together with the rail line electrification. Also, an MLR is done in the 1990s in order to change the regional service train to a commuter train.

↑ Japanese Kinki-Sharyo train on a line serving a new town in the New Territories.

 

[lrt505]

↑ The 68-stop light rail system which started service in 1988 and now serves 3 new towns, currently has 4 phases of train cars. Above shown are two Phase 2 cars coupling together.

↑ The newest Phase 4 train cars which entered service in 2009-2011. Also, MLRs of Phase 1 cars are in progress and their final look is similar to Phase 4 cars.

Other than the MTR, the Hong Kong Tramways (HKT) is probably another famous railway in Hong Kong. It started first service in 1904 and now has around 170 double decker trams. It is one of the few heritage tram and double deck tram systems in the world providing urban services.

↑ The most common tram cars currently

↑ One of the trams is built with old fashioned 1949-style body. #120 is also the first new tram after the second world war.

↑ The newest-built tram

None of the trains and trams in Hong Kong are currently available in Trainz. Hope somebody may help to develop.

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Now, I would like to talk about the communities in Hong Kong.

Due to the policies of the MTR company, information related to operation is relatively more hardly retrieved. Therefore, most local discussions between railfans are just about the promotions of the MTR, signs in the premises and even new railway projects. Also, railfans like forming "cliques" (small groups) for discussion to prevent leakage of information. This is why I feel quite negative to the communities in Hong Kong :'(. Seldom have foreign railfans formed such things to obstruct freedom to speech and to know.

For the games, railfans in Hong Kong usually play BVE (and its varients) and have been attempting to build new local routes. However, since building routes in the BVE is not easy, the production progress is always slow. Moreover, Railsim and Densha Go are also popular choices in Hong Kong.

However, the resources of the BVE games (routes, trains) are controlled by "cliques" that can hardly access, and I hate such "small groups", I turn around and think of the popular foreign game - Trainz. The community of Trainz is very open and I do not have to meet problems related to the "small groups". I do not mind playing with non-local trains.

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Here, I would also like to share about my first Trainz megaproject - a fictional urban light-mid rail system serving a new town of population ~550,000.

It is based on the Frankfurt u-bahn system (having characteristics of both light rail and metro) and uses its U2,U4 and U5 cars, with 2 to 3 pairs joining up to a consist. The map shown below has 97 stops, linking 5 stations of the regional railway.


Some are street running tracks (e.g. stops 038-043) and allows 75-metre long train running directly on the street. It is inspired from the Keihan Keishin line in Japan allowing 64-metre metro trains running on the street.

Moreover, stops 048-093 is a section of track on an uphill road to a sportsground. I have been imaginating if there are trains running through the uphill road under my home (HERE).

Site between 003 and 070 will be one of the world's largest university, serving around 150,000 students and staffs. The left island (023-026) is a highly populated island with hundreds of residential buildings.

Site between 066-069 is the industrial area. For 037, 073 and 074, there are tourist attractions like beaches and temples. Therefore, holiday service is important.

The train routes are assigned with numbers (initially 1-9), similar to the Toronto Streetcar (501-512) and the Hong Kong MTR Light Rail (505-761). Hence it shares some characteristics with the urban bus routes.

Since railway will be the major transport in the town and minimal bus services are available, the train routes will provide frequent train services to every 3 minutes. Among some busy sections, there may be 55 trains running at a direction per hour. Hence, some sections will have quadraple tracks (like the left circuit in the peninsula).

Suggestions to the first project are hoped. Thank you.:wave:

 

[oknotsen]

Hi and welcome to Trainz.

Congratz with your new game. Nice to see some pictures of the Hong Kong system.
You sound very enthausiastic, so I am currious about what you will make of your first project.

 

[lrt505]

However I don't know if I can complete the project within these four months, with 97 stops. There are more other games in the real university.

 

[jjanmarine3]

Hi lrt505 - thanks for sharing.

Jan

 

[RRSignal]

Hi, and welcome to the community!

Thanks for sharing the above. As for the fictional route, you may be able to do it in 4 months, though it'll be difficult. It seems a number of people have been able to build small- and medium-sized urban routes in a pretty short time span. I've even thought of creating a small, urban route, once I'm done with the routes I am working on now or have planned immediately after. Since yours seems to be a little large, possibly the best strategy is to lay your track first, then concentrate on detailing the city center, since you won't have to move around the map so much. Also, since it is a fictional route, consider scaling down distances, especially between the outer ends of lines, again, because it will require less time working out details over long distances, and if even you don't get to finish it in 4 months, you can return to it later. Regardless of how you decide you want to do it, enjoy it and take a little break if it starts to get really tedious. I hope to see how your route goes in 4 months, even if it's not finished!

 

[lrt505]

Hi, and welcome to the community!

Thanks for sharing the above. As for the fictional route, you may be able to do it in 4 months, though it'll be difficult. It seems a number of people have been able to build small- and medium-sized urban routes in a pretty short time span. I've even thought of creating a small, urban route, once I'm done with the routes I am working on now or have planned immediately after. Since yours seems to be a little large, possibly the best strategy is to lay your track first, then concentrate on detailing the city center, since you won't have to move around the map so much. Also, since it is a fictional route, consider scaling down distances, especially between the outer ends of lines, again, because it will require less time working out details over long distances, and if even you don't get to finish it in 4 months, you can return to it later. Regardless of how you decide you want to do it, enjoy it and take a little break if it starts to get really tedious. I hope to see how your route goes in 4 months, even if it's not finished!

The most difficult part is the urban part (the two circuits at the middle). The density of buildings and elevated tracks are the highest.

 

[Thai1On]

505 welcome to Trainz. It is good to see you have a clear idea of how your new route will look and operate, excellent. I know you want to finish the route quickly but try and take your time and enjoy the experience of watching it come together. Don't put the extra pressure on yourself of needing to finish the route by a certain time. When building your route you are going to learn many new skills and you will make many mistakes. I built a few small routes before starting my monster route and I learned a lot from these routes. In fact my first version of my big route became unusable due to an asset that I never found. This caused me to start again and the present route is starting off much better. So build your route, find what you don't like, and ask many questions, as you will find the members of this forum are very helpful and knowledgeable.

Dave

 

[Euphod]

Hi! LRT, welcome to the world of Trainz! I give you credit for buying an official version, and also wanted to let you know that I came across a backdrop of the Hong Kong skyline on the DLS the other day. Good luck, and thanks for the great photos!

 

[rjhowie]

Hello lrt505,

Good to hear from you.

Some interesting pictures of modern trams and trains in hong Kong. Both the up to date trams and trains would look good on Trainz!

 

[peghorse]

Hello!
Welcome! and congratulations on your purchase of Anniversary/TS12!
A most excellent post thank you very much.
It is very interesting to hear about and see pictures of any type of rail in Hong Kong.
Thanks again and enjoy TS12 Anniversary!

 

[davoaj]

That is very interesting. I have just recently been to Hong Kong and enjoyed travelling on the MTR. I hope these trains will be on the DLS soon. I hope you are ok after the terrible storm you had there. Thanks for showing us that and enjoy.
From davoaj

 

[mp202]

Those trams, they look so top heavy i could probably push them over.