Welcome BrakemanJake to the Trainz forums.
There are lots and lots of people here like you. Many of us are older folks who can no longer afford a real model railroad, or no longer have the room in their basement or attic, or a spare room to put a layout. When you can build up a whole fleet of Merchant Class steam locos, either for a low cost, or for free, this is one of the the drivers behind this, plus you can build a layout/route that only dreams are made of. I once said I only wish I had something like this when I was eight.
Trainz shares some of the things in the other programs, but I think it's easier to use. Here's a quick run down:
Trainz: A New Era SP3 is the current published release in the Trainz Railway/Railroad simulator software. This will do all the above what you want to do and then some.
You can:
- Download nearly 500K assets available for free from the Download Station (DLS) with new ones being added every day.
- Install assets created by others and hosted on their own websites.
- Install DLC payware content available directly from N3V
- Use already available built-in content with about 7K assets already installed.
- Use all the content mentioned above in your own routes where you can:
- Merge together, non-built-in routes, though sometimes it takes a bit of extra baseboards and landscaping, a challenge, to get everything lined up but can be fun doing that too.
- Your world can be as big as your computer can handle with some routes being a least a few hundred miles or longer. I have one route which is 200 miles at least and that takes me 8-plus hours to drive.
We also have:
- Working signals
- Triggers for special events and operations
- Working level crossings.
- Portals, which represent off-map locations which will allow trains to move across the map. Once ejected from a portal and fully operational, these trains are similar to the regular AI driven trains and can be controlled by you.
Interactive industries and passenger stations
Driver is the other main component in the package:
- You setup driver schedules, which you assign to AI
- Configure industries and special assets for operation in the driver session
- You can take over any AI-controlled train and drive it yourself.
- Sit in the engine cab and view first person your own world, or stand on the side using the free camera, and watch the trains go by.
For other things, well if you're interested, you can learn the scripting and make your own special operations as needed. (I think of this as wiring)
Create your own content using Blender or some other package.
Reskin assets as needed - some of course are better than others for that, but if you can't find it, you can either modify something close.
- Lose a lot of time and interaction with family as you wile away your day working on your routes.