I need an opion.

Beko_Train

Hobbiest
I know most here prefer seeing an actual route based off of a real one. Im not to skilled in doing that kind of stuff, and was wondering if anyone trys out made up routes? I made a small one for TRS couple years ago and got quite a few downloads, but I need to know if people are still into custom routes.
 
There are lots of custom (freelance) routes out there. That's the point of the game. Create your own world if you want and have fun.
 
There is a lot of free lance routes available and being built. Like leeferr said, "That's the point of the game." The only thing that can limit a route is your imagination.

Bill
 
I've downloaded a few, myself.

Some of the best routes I've found have been little model railroad layouts that only took up half a base board.

:cool: Claude
 
You can take many more liberties with a non prototypical route, and therefore make a route easier and more enjoyable to operate on.
Ed
 
Real trains travel miles and miles and miles on a prototypical route with virtually nothing in between to do and very little to see.:eek: So, why don't you compact the route into a smaller area and detail the 'in between' spots.:Y:
The most boring route I ever played was that horrible Maglev route.:n: It has miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Absolutely ridiculous route, to me. All the scenery is the same over and over and over again.:o
 
Ahh yes, I 'gree that the Maglev route is definitely boring, but you can't totally blame the creator. Surely you can't expect 1500 ton coal trains running on THAT line do you? What fascinated me a little is how he does the terrain (which means it's not actually just a line with hills on both sides. Perhaps it's me, but in comparism to my terrain-ing skills, his landscape is...amazing.

Really would like to learn some of that skill. =(
 
I'd say . . . Like an early 70s hit . . . "you can't please everyone . . . so you gotta please yourself"

The reality is . . . Routes are like artwork. A Picasso isn't for everyone . . . and neither is DaVincci. There are some that LOVES Elvis on velvet and some that loves Worhol. Everyones preferences are different.

Me, I'm into realism. I like super detailed. But with the limitations of computing power, I have to be inventive to create as much realism as possible within short "viewing range". I "track" my trains in driver mode about 10 to 20 feet above the roof of the train. If you zoom out too far and too high . . . you wil see where I took "artistic liberties". I rarely look out the cab windows and mostly drive using HUD. The Trainz Driver unit is definitely in my future. My next computer will be hooked up to a 42" 1080p HDTV and will run Trainz in 1440X900 . . . or higher if the video card can handle it. Sound will be through the Home theater system. When I blow the horn . . . my neighbor would think there is a train coming through their living room :eek: LOL !


My route is VERY LOOSELY based on the RR in my area . . . but what I've done so far can be ANYWHERE. I like long drives . . . not just 30 seconds to the next town but 30 minutes. Of course with LOTS of scenery, curves, grade change and speed changes. Huge yards . . . my main yard is 6000 ft with 18 tracks and lots of double slips. I like long sessions. What I've finished so far is 30 minute runs to next cities and a branch line serving industries . . . and only have two industries finished & running. A session to serve just the two industries should be a 4 to 5 hour session.

Not exactly prototype reality of hours of runs but all quite realistic and sensible operation.

But . . . the bottom line is, i'm doing it for me. If I share my route, some will hate it and some will love it. Whether THEY love it or not . . . IS NOT MY PROBLEM. Whats important is that I LOVE IT.

But . . . Thats just me.
 
Update, I'm not exactly fond of the way things are in the Maglev route, so I decided to tear up all the maglev trackage and lay my own--standard gauge steel rails, in what is now knows as "The Period Before Magnetic Levitation".

Lots of industries and small towns in between provide for interesting freight and local passenger operations. A standard run (estimate based on time taken from Lara to Dejan, the completed part of the rebuild) would take around four hours real time, just the thing for me!:D

ps. Hope edion likes this.
 
Ahh yes, I 'gree that the Maglev route is definitely boring, but you can't totally blame the creator. Surely you can't expect 1500 ton coal trains running on THAT line do you? What fascinated me a little is how he does the terrain (which means it's not actually just a line with hills on both sides. Perhaps it's me, but in comparism to my terrain-ing skills, his landscape is...amazing.

Really would like to learn some of that skill. =(


Because of the repetitiveness, I believe it's all modular.;)
 
My Preferences

I am a history buff, so I like to model a prototype railroad. I am starting with the first three miles of track that the railroad started with and over time, I will be expanding the line following the historical expansion of the railroad. This is obviously a multiple year project, but it is what I like. It gives me a chance to model various era's and upgrade my operations historically. I started with a Computer Generated Terrain map (DEM) that includes the terrain over which every mile of main and branchlines ever ran.

My prototype went through five primary name changes duringing its 70 yr history. I started last fall and am about to make the first name change. This process requires lots of research, but then there is the Web, which makes the research possible. I have found all the maps I need to lay the tracks where they belong, even for track that was abandon 90 years ago. I have found pictures of stations and rolling stock online. For me, it is a real adventure.

Is anyone else taking this approach to Virtual Modeling?
 
Trainz in my opinion is what you want it to be, and the others are right, some of the best routes are from your head not a map!

Lorin:wave:
 
Well DAP, I am (slowly)building the considerable tram (trolley) system that sadly went from my city of Glasgow in 1962. I was fortunate to get hold of a giant sheet of the whole trackage. Havin g lived her since i was born I could recall some if it but this helped. In addition I have been walking every single former route (I have done nearly 200 miles back and forth). In many places there have been motroways built and street alterations so part of the fun was trying to trace where lines were and tram depots. Getting some old pictures in libraries, taking to people, my own remembrances. I have been in areas I have not been in for literally decades and others I have never been in. It has been fascinating and at times having chats with people over a cup of tea getting further local info.

Having had a great love of the system as a boy it has encouraged me to a great living history project of my city which had the most extensive street tramway outside of London. Not being fictitious it has been something that has been a tremendous lot of fun and sheer en joyment tracing where everything went. It has also been good for my health doing the walking and giving me the impetus to cope with it. On the Trainz Forums have said I bought MTS but realised that then by chance came across Trainz. What a find and then realised I could do something to record the tramways of Glasgow I could have never done on MTS. Hopefully I might get the City Transport Museum interested when i finish this.
 
I'm a freelanced route person.:)

I'm making the Pokemon Route Series based off the games.
If it acts prototypical, looks real and is freelanced I'll get it! :p

I also like routes that have no errors or anything wrong with them.
I try to make all my routes function without a single error or missing dependience.

Thats my style.
I have a lot of routes, none of which have been completed, which I tinker with and edit. They will never be released.

Cheers,
Adam
TCS Route Builder
 
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