Mike,
This is what I've done with many routes. Recently I rebuilt what I call the Great Northern Railway. I combined Jointed Rail's Legend of the BN 1 and 2 with the Eagle River, White Shore and the Dry Brook and Esopus. This gives me a combination of through freight and passenger service and extensive branch line operations. There is now a second branch added from what I call Keane Jct. that runs off the mainline to Keane which allows for some other freight and tourist passenger service from the mainline instead of via the Beaver Cove end of the line.
With the long mainline, the AI runs take about 1 hr., 45 min. to run the length of the route in either direction. There are various passing sidings to allow for meets along the way. The branch lines are serviced by me as I drive along switching industries at the end-points, or running tourist trains. This operation can take an hour or more as the branch line is quite slow even though the route is shorter. The operation overall can run for many hours, or basically until I get tired of it as is and I then see something to fiddle with or add in something else along the route.
I agree that even though the program has its faults and bugs, there are many virtues to it as well such as this. It was this reason that I got Trainz in the first place. I had found MSTS to be cumbersome to build routes for and was tired of being stuck in a single locomotive and not able to move about as we do.
This is what I've done with many routes. Recently I rebuilt what I call the Great Northern Railway. I combined Jointed Rail's Legend of the BN 1 and 2 with the Eagle River, White Shore and the Dry Brook and Esopus. This gives me a combination of through freight and passenger service and extensive branch line operations. There is now a second branch added from what I call Keane Jct. that runs off the mainline to Keane which allows for some other freight and tourist passenger service from the mainline instead of via the Beaver Cove end of the line.
With the long mainline, the AI runs take about 1 hr., 45 min. to run the length of the route in either direction. There are various passing sidings to allow for meets along the way. The branch lines are serviced by me as I drive along switching industries at the end-points, or running tourist trains. This operation can take an hour or more as the branch line is quite slow even though the route is shorter. The operation overall can run for many hours, or basically until I get tired of it as is and I then see something to fiddle with or add in something else along the route.
I agree that even though the program has its faults and bugs, there are many virtues to it as well such as this. It was this reason that I got Trainz in the first place. I had found MSTS to be cumbersome to build routes for and was tired of being stuck in a single locomotive and not able to move about as we do.