Hi guys,my first post.

BrakemanJake

New member
Hi all, I was not sure what train sim to buy as it is getting all too confusing. Microsoft and Dovetail games seem to be hi-res driver only with, buy add on's infinitum! I like the option of building your own railway, so I hope I have chosen the best sim in TANE. I am an old UK railwayana steamer dreamer, I am also a regular visitor to David Heys website and was so saddened to hear of his death recently. That man has left a fantastic legacy to future generations. I hope there are people like me on this site, who share the same interest in railways gone by! Thanks
 
Hi and welcome and T:ANE is the best choice. Dovetail is good too but you have to take a big loan from the bank
 
You will find allot of 3rd party payware in Trainz, but they are great ... But there is an immense amount of freeware on the DLS https://www.auran.com/DLS/ and 3rd party sites. https://www.auran.com/planetauran/portal.php is N3V's "MyTrainz" site and leads you to registration and your profile, and First Class Ticket (FCT) sales, as well as the N3V store

As Railworks was basically a predetermined session driver game where you had to complete predetermined tasks ... You will find that Trainz is a surveyor, build your own routes, easily ... There are allot of freeware already built routes and sessions, and some great payware routes on 3rd party sites
 
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. :)
 
Be aware something like GTX 1050 TI is the realistic minimum, a GTX 1060 is fairly nice and depending on what you like a GTX 1080 TI is not unrealistic.

nVidia are expected to announce a new series of cards shortly with better price performance so you may wish to hold off upgrading for a week or two.

http://www.trainz-carriage-wagon-works.com/ has a selection of UK assets available on the DLS. jatws.org has some 3,000 assets available for Trainz mainly UK stuff which will give you a good basic collection.

https://store.trainzportal.com/collections/best-sellers/products/trainz-a-new-era is $30 today for the download version remember to declare it on your tax return so you can pay the UK VAT.

https://store.trainzportal.com/products/trainz-a-new-era-platinum-edition is $40 but includes a 30 day FCT for the DLS and some reasonable UK payware. You can download 100 MB per day for free without the FCT but it is a bit on the slow side.

Other that that welcome to Trainz and if you have an interest in UK canals a few things seem to be happening at the moment.

Cheerio John
 
Welcome to Trainz. Before you will be allowed to download from the download station, you should do two things:

1) register your game. You can do this using the link at the top of the page and enter your registrations code. Use the same username/password you use on the forum. Once your game is registered, the DLS is open to you.

2) As John, says, if you wish decidedly faster download speeds and no 100Mb per day limit, you should purchase a First Class Ticket. It's an added expense, but well worth the moneyh.

Bill
 
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