15 years of Trainzing. Thoughts and reflections.

Congratulations to John and all who have "kept the faith", sometimes through some very testing times. Many of the stories told in this thread have echoed mine - the stress release, the island of stability and calm in a world seemingly filled with chaos, the support in these forums from fellow travellers who are never strangers (despite our sometimes disagreements).

It is easy to see why this franchise has endured, and survived its "Auran-Fury" disaster which would have killed off many similar sized enterprises, its supporters are so passionate about this hobby (sorry, "way of life").

Despite its many "hiccups", Trainz just gets better and better with age - like a good red wine. Have an extra glass this New Years Day.

Peter
 
and yet I think we probably owe more to John Banks than anyone else since it was he who managed to meld the community together which is a very important part of Trainz.


Cheerio John
 
I have just pulled out of storage all my Trainz Reciepts, and My first one is dated 4/12.2001.
And I could not wait for it to be posted so arranged to go and collect it from their office, in those days they were located in the Wool Stores (at Newstead I think).
Of course, since then I've had all the Versions along the way! now have just installed 2019 Ver.
How-ever I don't spend as much time on the PC now, I guess old age and Health issues have slowed me down.

So Cheers to you all and a Happy New Year.

NormP
 
I had also initially came across MSTS and bought it but was not that impressed with the way the thing was laid out and the limitations. Did use it for a while and bought a couple of routes as well as from a site here in GB. So thought I would have a searcg for others and by sheer chance discovered the then "Auran" Trainz. For my less than techy mind figured I would have something more ambitious and bought TRS04. Although not as long of course as John TRS6 was a big improvement on the MSTS thing. So got ambitious for a limited newbie and as they came along went up to 6 then 10 etc. It gave me the chance to do something I could not have done with Microsoft's clunky way of doing things. Got really hooked and off an on thought I would do a bit of Glasgow's long done away with tram system killed in 1962. Never thought would ever do the whole thing but Trainz had me hooked and off and on with gaps finally had 250 odd boards covering the 140 odd former miles (that is still to be uploaded!). One man just over the city boundary from me got quite taken on with my website and drove into the city to get a copy for himself.

N. Ireland was the next attempt as the Province had the most worst rail closures in the UK re the old Nationalisation there. Never thought I would get the 5 lines or the "temporarily" suspended routes done and the longest from Belfast-Londonderry made me wonder if I had got ambitious like king Canute who thought he could do in tides. My ambition continued when got to the Border and after arguing with myself decided to get more ambitious and extend into the IRail to Dublin and a passenger line of it. Still have a scenery gap to fill in between Dundalk and north of Drogheda but health and other things had put me off but now crawling back to try and compete the largest effort anyone has done for over the Irish Sea in a modern situation.

To me personally although had been a very active person in my last job and community efforts getting the opportunity of doing my city's long gone tramway (had been largest outside London) and a joy for me as a boy (even had an uncle who was a tram driver and a hero) had got a ginat sketch map from the annual Scottish Model Rail Show in the city as a great help. Ulster had been the base of many family holidays as a boy and as an adult taking BB camps there for years as well as distant relations to see so determined to get that part of Gt Britain on the Trainz world map! Could not have done either on MSTS and I am so happy to have searched for an alternative far wider and more brilliant train simulator.

It was in every day life even better than kissing a beautiful woman and done that a few times (lucky lassies in Glasgow and one in Ulster!). Now getting back to my Irish effort and well done to the creators of Trainz putting kissing into the right order............
:clap
 
I had MSTS and messed around with it for a while. I wasn't impressed at all. One day, I was in Wally World and picked up a copy of TRS2006. It sat on a shelf unopened for maybe six months. I was thinking this is probably just a MSTS clone. Then, one day I was bored so I installed it. The rest is history. It's been my favorite simulator ever since.
 
Congrats John. Great story.

Mine is very mundane in comparison. There was a small shop in the local mall that sold PC games and such. I was browsing and saw TRS2004 on the shelf. "Got to be better than MSTS", I thought.

So I grabbed it and the rest is history.

Cheers
 
I provided some material for Johns PhD. Thats back in the day when us old farts were really part of the Aurun team. It was a lot of fun.

Cheers,
John
 
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