I Finally Erased RailWorks

B

boleyd

Well-known member
Almost 40gb of disk space recovered in reaction to the latest attempt at jaw-dropping, world-class technology. For three years I had been accumulating stuff from sites all over the world and "improving" on existing routes. The promise held by the product finally evaporated with the latest release. You know, it is a relief. Using two different rail programs can be confusing at times. Trainz may be more complex (partly due to legacy things) but from complexity comes opportunity to enjoy particular areas of railroading. I already have stored over 58gb of goodies from the Trainz world. If I do not find a way to catalog them some of the gems may be lost to the bottom of the pile.

I was spending lots of time "on the other side" learning signal's peculiarities and lack of coherence in the AI trains. Here, in Trainz, the learning curve is not as steep to get a reasonably working set of AI trains running around in a plausible manner. Now when you start trying other things such a rules, different company signals and maybe some "real switches" it gets complex, but fun.

So, stress is reduced by not trying to keep things straight between two different programs. I am sure that enjoyment will go up through focus on one simulator (really the only one).

I would like to publicly mention that the routes that kept me interested in Trainz came from CheckRail. Rather than the routes that lay tracks and place decorations just to get a feel for the environment, the Checkrail products go the extra mile and give you a very real graphical environment. On so many routes I have tried they are loaded with old 2004 era assets and look poor in TS2012. I could spend weeks cleaning out the old fuzzy looking stuff. But Checkrails is an out of the box experience of reality of top quality assets that are placed in a believable manner.
 
Been reading the different reports since yesterday, about the new version of RW, and all the problems that people are running into trying to run it. Sounds like a trip to the Twilight Zone, dealing with Steam, and new stuff that won't work, etc..etc... I am so glad that I researched before buying TS12, and went to someone's home and tried two other Train sims, before deciding what to get. I have only been using Trainz less than two months, have around 60 GB's of Trainz stuff on my hard drive, and learned how to lay track, program AI, repair minor problems in routes, operate all kinds of trains, and looking at some great scenery with excellent frame rates. Doesn't get any better than that, as far as I am concerned. A friend of mine got RW3 on sale about the same time that I got TS12, and he is totally disappointed with it, and says he will probably remove it and get TS12.
 
I have RW2 and RW3 (de-Steamed, of course haha) and almost never play them. I play MSTS much more often. Doesn't that tell you something?
 
boleyd said:
Almost 40gb of disk space recovered in reaction to the latest attempt at jaw-dropping, world-class technology. For three years I had been accumulating stuff from sites all over the world and "improving" on existing routes. The promise held by the product finally evaporated with the latest release. You know, it is a relief. Using two different rail programs can be confusing at times. Trainz may be more complex (partly due to legacy things) but from complexity comes opportunity to enjoy particular areas of railroading. I already have stored over 58gb of goodies from the Trainz world. If I do not find a way to catalog them some of the gems may be lost to the bottom of the pile.

I was spending lots of time "on the other side" learning signal's peculiarities and lack of coherence in the AI trains. Here, in Trainz, the learning curve is not as steep to get a reasonably working set of AI trains running around in a plausible manner. Now when you start trying other things such a rules, different company signals and maybe some "real switches" it gets complex, but fun.

So, stress is reduced by not trying to keep things straight between two different programs. I am sure that enjoyment will go up through focus on one simulator (really the only one).

I would like to publicly mention that the routes that kept me interested in Trainz came from CheckRail. Rather than the routes that lay tracks and place decorations just to get a feel for the environment, the Checkrail products go the extra mile and give you a very real graphical environment. On so many routes I have tried they are loaded with old 2004 era assets and look poor in TS2012. I could spend weeks cleaning out the old fuzzy looking stuff. But Checkrails is an out of the box experience of reality of top quality assets that are placed in a believable manner.
Click to expand...

I have looked at Checkrails stuff, but none of it that I have seen states that it will work on TS12. Can you recommend routes of theirs that do?
 
The latest Kentucky route and Evansville do work on TS2012. Excellent routes that show what effort and talent can do.
 
R4ILW0RKZ IS TH3 B3ZT LOLZ !!!!!!111!!!

What, you're giving up on Scenery Simulator? Don't you know you can take AWESOME SCREENSHOTS or jump in a train and HAVE A RUN in Railworks? :hehe:

Seriously, my deepest sympathies, it showed such great promise five years ago and it was really disappointing to me they didn't develop it into an actual simulator.

The biscuits have hit the fan as usual on trainsim and UKtrainsim, but after a couple weeks they'll return to the regularly scheduled passenger trains on British commuter railways. :sleep:
 
Hi everybody.
With reference to the Railworks upgrade for me it downloaded and installed with no problems whatsoever and almost all the payware content continued to work exactly as it had done prior to the upgrade.

Only my class 142 DMU unit which I bought last week broke during the revamp which when opened had the driver sitting in an open air cab with no roof, sides or windscreen which made it a very cold journey when I drove it that way between the Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway (LOL). I contacted the producers who are Armstrong powerhouse/wagonz and they responded within the hour and the problem was solved. So for me the whole upgrade experience was not bad at all.

However I do not see that Railworks and trainz are really competing with one another these days. For me trainz is for the serious hobbyist who wishes to create routes and other content and not wishing for any great changes in the simulator that may ruin their work

Railworks in my view is for the person who I would describe as a light user. In that I would mean someone like myself does not get a great deal of free time but on an evening just likes to relax with and drive his favourite unit (at present my class 142 DMU) along a route he knows well which for me is the Just Trains produced Bristol and Avonmouth, just brilliant. Obviously virtually everything in Railworks is payware but that is the way you have to go if you want things easy.

If I did have more free time I would undoubtedly choose trainz as my only simulator and finish my North Devon branch lines route which I started in 2009 then upgraded it to 2010. However, with the amount of work I have on these days it will undoubtedly never get finished until I retire.

In conclusion, Railworks and trainz may both be train simulators but I feel they serve different markets and should not be compared these days.

Bill
 
Last edited:
I bought Railworks 3 Ts2012 + Horseshoe curve on steam for $3.99. I got it on one of there sales.
I am so glad that I did not spend more for it.
Dont get me wrong It is not bad for an occasional drive but I wound not want to try to edit a route.
(And yes I am biased after 10 years of trainZ)
Kenny
 
The occasional Railworks drive is not real. There is no other activity. Yes there are ghost trains passing on another system of track. I have a simple scenario of three trains on the Evansville Trainz route. One is on a siding and automatically waits for an oncoming train. In Railworks you have a good chance of a collision and that is why their precast scenarios are phony. For the occasional drive I recommend the TS2012 East Kentucky route from Checkrails. It is eerily real. On a hot simmer day you can almost smell the vegetation as you wend your way between towns in the hills of Kentucky. Try that for a nice drive on a Sunday morning. If you want an interesting drive take Google maps at street level and cruise through San Francisco over to Sausalito. Or explore the towns in the Napa Valley. Google streets offers far more than Railworks for a scenic drive.
 
I'm one of the hardcore Trainz fan myself. gave away all my MS railroad sim stuff, maybe I've should of kept those, and get an appraisal from the Antiques Road Show!:p
 
Hi everrybody
boleyd said:
snip~ If you want an interesting drive take Google maps at street level and cruise through San Francisco over to Sausalito. Or explore the towns in the Napa Valley. Google streets offers far more than Railworks for a scenic drive.
Click to expand...

Compare google street to a train Simulator ?...............Oh well each to his own.

Thanks for the tip.:confused:
Bill
 
He didn't compare it to a train simulator, he compared it to Railworks - which despite the label is NOT a train simulator and never will be.
 
Hi everyone.
sniper297 said:
He didn't compare it to a train simulator, he compared it to Railworks - which despite the label is NOT a train simulator and never will be.
Click to expand...

Everyone is entitled to their opinion on a forum such as this. Such is yours

Bill
 
I'm a little lost, Jeff, you downloaded and tried it out - and you're asking if they're better? Or do you mean this is your first time with RW? Got a few "first impressions" threads here;

http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/forumdisplay.php?98-RW-General

I gave up on RW back when it was still railworks 1 (AI traffic is hopeless for simulating US operations), but from what I read RW 2 (or 3, whichever one introduced the "new technology" with raindrops on the windows) trashed the framerates, consensus seems to be that they're better now.
 
I think Jeff is asking for a comparison of the earlier version which he does not have to the later version which he does have.
 
I already have RailWorks 2012 and I updated to RailWorks 2013. I thought that the graphics are better in RW2013 than in RW2012. Look at the trees on the NorthEast Corridor route. There are still graphics problems with the tracks where turnouts are formed.
 
I have read some this vs that threads for a while and won't say anything unless I owned both which I dont.
What I will say is that despite the lack of outhouses and with freezing winters about there is still a darn good argument
for Steam still actually having a purpose. It's ok I spose.
Thath all folkth! *cue music & curtain..
 
Hello.
I am not writting post to defend/compare one sim.over other. I spent close 1000 hours riding RW rails and maybe 100 hours riding TZ rails. New RW2013 much better and completely redesign. Two sims, ton,s of opinions. Niether TZ or RW are close to real sim. Game...,just a game.

Jack.:'(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Newbie Intro and Question
2
Replies
34
Views
4K
blueodessey
B
M
TransDEM Questions
2
Replies
23
Views
1K
Hot_Box_Detector
H
F
Question about Potteries Loop Line assets
Replies
4
Views
669
HPL
H
B
I am always surprised ...
Replies
2
Views
381
b9k9kiwi
B
A
I've been out of the loop a long time... TRS for a UK modeller in 2025.
Replies
1
Views
896
ColPrice2002
C
Back
Top