Amen to that, Jan. Like you, Trainz has proven an adequate replacement of the model RR I have neither space or money or time to build. It is unstable enough to recreate frustration levels of the hobby, like when your benchwork looks like something out of Tim Burton film. And yet, it allows us to do more than we could with scale models. I am currently building a line that runs from Aurora IL east into Chicago, then follows the C&NW line along Lake Michigan into Milwaukee WI. To do that, even in N scale, would require an auditorium!
And like you said, we can do whatever we choose in Trainz, whether it's laying track, creating a new building or scenery piece, or drive a train. And with the latter option, we can choose to run on any of hundreds of routes available to us. Even modelers involved in RR clubs don't have THOSE kinds of options.
For many of us, we may never get to that operating part of things. Between Trainz meltdowns (I lost the aforementioned route after almost a year of work) and constantly new content by masters like davesnow and Euphod, some routes will never be finished. That is why to me Trainz is nowhere close to a game. And I growl at anyone who calls it such, just as I would do when someone called my model trains "toys" or "cute." It is a part of a hobby, one that never fades with time like so other trivial pursuits.
Ron
