Positive Feedback - Razorback Railways

sprinterASC

New member
Hi all

I just wanted to let everyone know of the positives for Razorback Railway. As a newbie to the world of Trainz, RBR has been a godsend. Yes, I did subscribe as the efforts of the crew warrant recognition.

What I particularly love about RBR is the way that things are setup. When you download and install one of their activities, a helper app checks your assets and reports any missing. Those missing are then offered for download from the RBR website. Smooth, efficient and easy for someone in my position to understand.

Without getting anyones back up, I think more of this style of installation assistance is needed for new people. I have downloaded a number of routes that require spending days finding everything needed or need the user to create their own scenarios before using them. RBR has my vote for the way to do things.

Cheers
Bruce
a very satisfied RBR subscriber.
 
Thank you gentlemen, your very kind comments are greatly appreciated by the whole RBR crew.

Happy driving!

John
 
There's no questioning the great work done by John and the crew over at RBR.
I really liked it in the early days, and I also like the way they've stayed with the best version of Trainz (TRS2004 :wave: ), but I think the subscription is a bit steep.

You can get unlimited webspace and bandwidth for less than $200 a year, which at the current subscription price would only need 8 users to cover their costs. :D

Anybody heard from Greg lately?
How's he doing?

Smiley.
 
... but I think the subscription is a bit steep.

You can get unlimited webspace and bandwidth for less than $200 a year, which at the current subscription price would only need 8 users to cover their costs. :D
Hi Smileyman

I run a forum myself and also charge a subscription for premium content. Mine is AUD20.00 per year and yup, I get the same complaints :). I agree that you can get cheap webspace but in all things you get what you pay for. My site for instance uses 100Gb per month of bandwidth and I can get stuff installed on a whim amongst other things. The subscription charge also reflects the work put in by those behind the scenes keeping the flow of goodies going plus the upkeep of the site. I know myself it is no small task.

Like I said above, I have no problems subscribing to something I see as beneficial. In RBR's case it is 0.068 US cents per day to enjoy extra stuff not available anywhere else, what could be better value than that!
Oh, and I am not associated with RBR in anyway other than being a member and proud subscriber.

Cheers
Bruce
 
I too use web hosting in both a personal and a commercial capacity, and for less than $200 australian dollars a year you can get reliable and unlimited hosting, with all the bells and whistles you need.
Even if you went to $300 or $400 a year, you'd still have to say the subscription could be less.

Anyway, I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing RBR, because I know how much work goes into writing and testing scenarios (believe me, I know), and you can't fault the authors of the Scenarios for their work.

So when I say that I think £25 AUS is a bit steep, it's not a knee-jerk reaction to the price, but I know that it could be a lot less and still cover all their costs.

I think that if they reduced it say £10 AUS dollars a year, they'd have a lot more subscribers than they do, but while their current subscribers keep renewing their subscriptions, why should they take the risk?

Smiley.
 
I too use web hosting in both a personal and a commercial capacity, and for less than $200 australian dollars a year you can get reliable and unlimited hosting, with all the bells and whistles you need.
Even if you went to $300 or $400 a year, you'd still have to say the subscription could be less.

Anyway, I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing RBR, because I know how much work goes into writing and testing scenarios (believe me, I know), and you can't fault the authors of the Scenarios for their work.

So when I say that I think £25 AUS is a bit steep, it's not a knee-jerk reaction to the price, but I know that it could be a lot less and still cover all their costs.

I think that if they reduced it say £10 AUS dollars a year, they'd have a lot more subscribers than they do, but while their current subscribers keep renewing their subscriptions, why should they take the risk?

Smiley.
Yup, heard all that before myself. I even had one guy tell me he pays for his internet connection so why should he pay to use a website! Each to his own I suppose.
 
I'm not up-to-date with the latest figures but our bandwidth requirements are fairly gigantic. We have to use a dedicated server. Also, the web hosting costs are only part of the equation, there's also the cost of licences for the various items of software used in development and on the web site.

Deciding what price to charge subscribers is always extremely difficult but if you compare our current yearly rate of US$24.95 to things such as commercial computer games, audio CD's or restaurant meals I would suggest that it isn't too bad :)

Don't forget that our two large layouts, our asset management utilities, our essential files, all our rolling stock packs and a limited selection of our scripted interactive activities for both TRS2004 and TRS2006 are all totally freeware and we invite everyone to try them.

BTW we are still in regular contact with Greg Furlong ("Shutter") who built the original Razorback layout and first set up the web site. He's very busy with work and family these days. We keep reminding him how much pleasure his wonderful layout continues to give so many people.

John
 
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Sorry John

I didn't mean to cause grief...I am just a happy & satisfied user of RBR and wanted to shout it to the Trainz world...

Cheers
Bruce
 
Razorback Railway is great!!!

As a matter of fact, the Razorback Classic and Razorback Dual layouts are the only layouts I use :D

Marty
a very happy subscriber of The Razorback Railway
 
Sorry John

I didn't mean to cause grief...I am just a happy & satisfied user of RBR and wanted to shout it to the Trainz world...

Cheers
Bruce
Not a problem Bruce, everyone's being very friendly here so there's no grief at all and definitely no need for anyone to apologise.

We fully realise that our stuff doesn't appeal to everyone, it would be a very strange world if it did. Equally, some people may like what we do but not enough for them to consider the subscription payment worthwhile in their terms, fair enough, no worries. That's why we offer the free samples, so people can judge for themselves before deciding.

We'd love to be able to offer everything totally free of charge but it's just not possible until one of us wins the lottery :)

John
 
Yup, heard all that before myself. I even had one guy tell me he pays for his internet connection so why should he pay to use a website! Each to his own I suppose.
Well, there are always people who want everything for free, but there are also those who think everything should be charged for.

Some things are worth paying for, and some aren't.
The Razorback is definitely worth paying something for.
I can't speak for your site.

Thanks for taking my comments the correct way John.
No more than I would have expected.
And give Greg my best next time you speak to him.

Smiley.
 
I must point out that there a huge number of other Trainz fansites out there offering all sorts of excellent goodies, freeware, payware, subscriptionware and probably a clean change of underwear.

John
 
I must point out that there a huge number of other Trainz fansites out there offering all sorts of excellent goodies, freeware, payware, subscriptionware and probably a clean change of underwear.

John

Just as well. Never know might crash :eek:
 
The yearly subscription of A$25 seems reasonable. What sort of routes are there? The one included withTRS2006 seemed to go around in circles. But maybe not a good example? Any specifically Queensland routes?
 
willblunden,

The Razorback Railway has two major layouts available and both of them are completely free of charge.

Razorback Classic, also called Razorback V6.2, is the layout which is included as a built-in item in TRS2006. TRS2004 owners need to download it from our server. TRS2006 owners need to download a large patch file for it if they wish to run our activities on it. This layout has two main loops (the Western Loop and the Northern Loop), three lengthy branch lines (the Lewisham Branch, the Norris Green Branch and the electrified Port Hunter Branch), one short branch line to Apollo Bay, plus numerous short spurs and loops for industries. A schematic diagram of the layout is available on our server.

Razorback Dual. Both TRS2004 and TRS2006 owners need to download this new layout and its layout dependencies. This is a large and complex layout which requires a very powerful computer to do it justice. At the moment we don't have many activities available for this layout. We also have a schematic available for this layout.

In addition, we have a small shunting puzzle layout but that is only available to paying subscribers.

None of the layouts are prototypical but the Classic layout in particular is set vaguely in eastern Australia with a wide variety of landscapes.

All our rolling stock asset packs can be downloaded free of charge.

We have a large number of scripted interactive activities available. These will run on TRS2004 or TRS2006. Downloading and installing all the rolling stock dependencies needed for each activity from our server is handled by our free asset management utilities which aim to make the process as simple, rapid and reliable as possible. A selected number of our activities are free of charge.

On our home page there's a link to a free standalone slide show program which you can download. This will give you some idea of what we offer.

If you only want our layouts and/or rolling stock packs, and not our activities, that's no problem at all - but I'm of the opinion that you'd then be missing 90% of the fun!

We invite you to give us a go for free, and only decide about subscribing later after you've sampled our offerings. You'll find all the information you need in the Getting Started section of our FAQ.

John
 
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