Welcome to the Trainz forums, David.
Before I recommend which version to start with, it would be helpful for us to know what your computer specifications are. This will determine whether you jump into the latest version T:ANE, aka Trainz: A New Era, or the older but still viable TS12. Having said this, and do keep in mind that anything that uses the built-in Intel graphics or some other very low end graphics chip will not work at all. This program needs the horsepower behind it no matter what version of Trainz you are going to run. I'm not saying this to discourage you, but instead to give you the heads up on this issue rather than disappoint you later as I've seen this way too many times in the nearly 13 years of using Trainz.
Where do you begin?
This is one of the toughest questions. Seriously! Some people try driver a bit, then eventually tip their toes into Surveyor, while others such as myself took a full dive into Surveyor which really is very easy to use.
Trainz is very much like a gigantic model railroad in some respects, and is divvied up into interacting modules. We have the Content Manager which is used to repair, upload, and download content, as well as create archives and compressed files of routes and assets. Content is downloaded and installed automatically from the Download Station, which presently has over 350,000 assets available. There is a caveat here... Some of these assets are not so great, having been made for the very earliest Trainz versions, and some are not full assets either, and are components such as bogies, pantographs, and other dependencies needed to make the program work.
Surveyor is the module, where I spend most of my time. This is where your world is created, modified, and expanded. I started here right off the bat back in December 2003 after I purchased TRS2004. I figured out how to download routes from the Download Station, affectionately called the "DLS". I then opened up one of these routes I found interesting to see how it was made, poked around, and gave it a try. Little did I know at the time, but I had downloaded a route from one of the greatest Trainz authors at the time, and his works mentored me in some of the best landscaping techniques out there. Sure my early route was quite crude, but it improved as I went along. Today I still operate and work on the same route I started in December 2003, yes, you can do this with Trainz! Over the years, the route and content have moved along from every Trainz version shown on my timeline, except for Android and Classics 1&2, which were diversions from the actual Trainz versions. Over this time, I have replaced baseboards as they are called, and rebuilt whole areas using the latest techniques and building methods, and it only gets better now with T:ANE with its shadows, lighting, and better performance, though the naysayers will jump in on that.
Then finally there is driver. Driver lets you drive your own creations, the built-in routes, or those you've downloaded. Personally I have no interest in the built-in routes. This is not a reflection on the quality of the routes; it's my personal preference to use my own works, or those I've downloaded elsewhere. There is, in all honesty, quite a thrill seeing the scenery you've built and created pass by alongside your cab as you drive through the countryside. Like the other parts of Trainz, there is so much to do here as well outside of just riding along in the front of the locomotive. Unlike the "other rail simulator" which will remain unnamed here, if the user no longer wants to drive a particular train, he can easily switch to another one and take over that operation. I have a couple of routes where I will have a parade of AI trains coming along at various times while I perform other tasks such as shunting freight cars (goods wagons) in the nearby yard. When I have my train ready for the main line, I will grab, meaning take over an AI train, disconnect the loco, and then have the AI driver couple on to my made up freight, and run that along the mainline to his destination while I take the train cars he left and sort those in the yard.
This barely covers what can be done. For those people that like to create models, there are programs, third-party ones such as Blender, are used for that. And then there are those people that like to script and create little programs to animate and automate whole routes. Yes, people have setup routes so there is no need to touch anything. This is all done with triggers, track marks, and other driver and session commands. To me this is akin to wiring up a model railroad and then watching everything run like clockwork.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this answered your question exactly. There is so much to the "simple" game that this will keep you busy for a decade.
Your other hobby sounds interesting. You should post some pictures for us to see. You will need to use an online picture source such as hostthenpost.org
www.hostthenpost.org to upload your photos to first.
Welcome to the new world where once you enter will become an obsession you will dream and think about forever.
John
