Passing of Bill69
It is with sadness I advise of the passing of Bill Lapsley, or Bill 69 as he was known, a contributor to the Trainz forum for many years. Bill, who lived in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, was 86 and had suffered a short illness.
A marine engineer who later developed an IT bias, Bill was a long time and enthusiastic Trainz fan dating from its early days. Many will remember he was always a steam locomotive enthusiast however his skills were much wider and he solved many problems and contributed many answers to members questions. One important contribution in early years was the modification of the Billigulla spreadsheet used to set up e-specs for steam locomotive realism and his revised e-specs for many of the popular steam locos are on the Download station. That spreadsheet is still used today.
With Jango’s OK, he also revised all the 2006 TrainzItalia 2006 Challengers so that they ran in TANE and, and with permission from the Cowboy, revised the UP9000’s so that they also ran in TANE and Trs 19. He made them all freely available to those who requested them especially the 9000’s and I knew many took up his offer. He was a veritable goldmine of information on Trainz and its nuances and will be sadly missed.
