Hey guys, another total novice here - I used to muck around with a few Trainz games many many years ago but in the last month have been seized bodily by an interest in Japanese railways and their operations, so I picked up T:ANE during the Christmas sales along with the Chiyoda Line and have immediately found myself looking for more. I must admit I'm not confident yet with using either the download station or this forum to find Japanese content bar some very well-made rolling stock, and indeed have totally failed to find any Japanese routes outside of Chiyoda yet. I've started learning Surveyor mode to try my hand at making a route myself, but I'm sure you're all familiar with the desire to just jump into operating trains sometimes rather than building!
I apologise as such then for asking what I imagine are very regular questions, but are there any Japanese routes that are available anywhere to simply pop into the game and play out of the box? I currently don't have a first-class ticket either but I would certainly consider it if it's needed for a good experience.
I hope it's not a bother to ask this; I'm admittedly not of the most outstanding competence when it comes to learning usage of these sorts of things :hehe:
Welcome. I have made
2 Japanese fictional routes. One is on the DLS called
Electro Island and the other is I
carus Shinkansen. Use the search for keyword function in content manager and/or search for my author name: pagroove to find it.
->
Electro Island is currently fairly finished and is in version 4.0. It is currently available up until Trainz 19 and you can find versions for older Trainz versions on the DLS too. The route features Shinkansen, a large Japan 1083mm network and a normal network and even a maglev. And besides that also European rail like a TGV line and normal Euro Lines. This is a very large route network that should keep you busy.
I really recommend this route if you are somewhat more confident with content manager and the Download Station.
->Icarus Shinkansen is a Work in progress route. You can find version 1.0 on the Download Station but in this thread I post monthly or bi-montly building snapshots often at the end of the month (if I have the time and energy). Those building snapshots include a link with a .cdp on my Google Drive. A cdp (Content Dispatcher Package) is a file that you can drag and drop in content manager and then you have the route. But then you have to download all the dependencies. With the Icarus Shinkansen there are more dependencies needed (+3000 assets I think) and on top of it you should have some standard routes pre-installed. I really recommend this route if you are somewhat more confident with content manager.
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There is also on the DLS available:
Kiha Japan by
Keimei (nice small route)
Otaku street by
Keimei (nice city board and route)
Winter in Japan by
wbbk (haven't downloaded yet but I will soon as I love a winter themed layout)
HitsuYo Line by
GTRITS ( haven't tried this myself)
Tokyo Model Trains by
Morten16c (This is a model railway layout. haven't tried it myself but looks nice)
Sorry if I forgot someones routes.
Outside of the DLS I can recommend routes by
JIRC but indeed that site is currently down for maintanance
Treinspotter Jeffery (look a few posts above this post for the site link) has some nice routes including a currently unfinished but nice section of the Keihin Tohoku Line and he is working with other forum members on a new route so stay tuned.
I can very much recommend
https://www.socimi.it the site by
AlexMaria for al sorts of trains and rolling stock. You can find some real gems. But a little warning some are repaints so you still need the DLS.
The simply best
prototypical route that you can get is the
Hanwa Line by
Kurotrick. This is a real route and it is very realistic. It runs from Wakayama to Hineno Station in the South of Osaka. Hineno Station is also the station where the Kansai Airport Express branches of to Kansai Airport. In my free time I am currently building that section.
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Firs class Ticket>
But in general you certainly need a First Class Ticket to download it as there are thousands of assets. In my opinion Trainz in general is worthless without a First Class ticket. Even some pay ware stuff requires sometimes to download items of the Download Station. Good news is that a Download Station is really cheap and worth it. I always buy a yearly ticket.