You start by building something simple, like a house, to learn how to work with a 3D tool. I personally prefer Blender, but there are a bunch of tools out there.
Once you get the hang of it you start creating larger stuff, like rolling stock.
Be prepared to spend a lot of time learning; good stuff can take many months. Don't give up and you will succeed!
Most usefull "tutorial" video (in 2 parts) I could find, coincidently about a train related topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sROnLfkPgzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyJQ99I5yUw
Not for Blender 2.6, but really usefull: key-combinations needed are shown in the video which ha!
Tip: Put it on pause and rewind a lot after you have seen the movie in total.
Specifically the moving house tutorial will get you something that runs along the track, after that its a matter of adjusting the config.txt file to make it a loco etc. There is a steep learning curve but to get something that works well in Trainz there aren't really any short cuts like taking something from a Blender warehouse, Trainz renders in real time so to give it a reasonable chance you need to keep the polys down.
Which region are you thinking of creating for? Oh and start by recycling someone else's bogies, animated bogeys are not the simplest of things to tackle on your first day.
I would suggest using Sketchup if you really want to get basic. You'll need either the Pro version, or the Free version, though with the free version, you need the external OBJ Exporter.
I would suggest using Sketchup if you really want to get basic. You'll need either the Pro version, or the Free version, though with the free version, you need the external OBJ Exporter.
If at all possible, I would steer free of Sketchup because the tools are very basic, and if you end up really liking content creation, you have to learn all over again in Blender or 3DSmax. If you are looking for something free, I would try Blender, unless you are a student. If you are a student, you can also get 3DSmax free from here: http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/all If I were in your shoes I would get both free programs if possible and try each one out and see which one you like better.
Note that you can not export from Max unless you have old one (2012 or older), I have heard you can get it if you buy full license for $4,000US, do not know if this is true or not, do know student one will only work for 3 years.
