Crossing the US Coast to Coast

[Ramjett53]

Brand new to Train Simulations and I currently have Train Simulator 2014 installed. Got it as a Christmas Gift and already a little disappointed by what I saw. I envisioned something along the longs of MS FlightSim where you could load up at Boston and fly to Seattle. Apparently not so in TS2014. I've gone through a lot of the forum postings while awaiting my account activation and from what I have read a Coast to Coast route is not possible by "linking" or merging existing routes with tracks created by me in between.

For instance, I have been looking at extending Sherman Hill from Cheyenne to Laramie (as it exists) on into Rawlins and then beyond over time, with a general heading toward San Francisco over Donner. Looks like I can't link Sherman to Donner according to what I read. Heck, right now I can't even get past the western portals at Laramie.

Just wanted to say hello and see what everyone thinks of my plan.

Randy

[NSrailfan6130]

That would be a nice feature for railworks but not possible sadly, if you wanted to you could create i giant route but that would take a very long time and probably a lot of experience... And hi welcome to Railworks America, I don't know y nobody has replied yet but just saying hi

[NSrailfan6130]

Might be possible I don't know... Ask someone with more experience with the game and all of its features and make sure you explore the site and its many forums

[arizonachris]

A coast to coast route has been talked about several times here, most say it's too long to be reasonable to make. Even relatively short routes can take a year. As for joining existing routes, I'll leave that for someone else, but I think the consensus is "No". Just too difficult if not impossible.

Plus the huge gap between coasts for the US, all the existing prototypical routes are West Coast (or close to it) and East Coast (or close to it). That's a lot of area to cover. Plus driving it end to end would be a week long affair, even at 8 hours a day. People might be interested in certain sections of that huge route, but not all of it.

Not trying to dash your thoughts or hopes about route creation, just my as a driver.

[Noel]

Even though it sounds like a great idea, I think it's just not possible yet. Railworks is just not built for that yet I don't think. Maybe in the future, maybe we'll get a cross country route, if we can get a more responsible simulator out of Railworks. Like Chris said, it would take a week, or even two weeks, to drive a route like that.

And even if someone did build a cross country route, after they build it, they then have to worry about scenarios. The scenario maker I think cant handle that big of an activity, such as going all the way across the country. Also, in the creation of a scenario, you would have to put in a lot of rolling stock, which could make even a stronger computer lag at times. I've had the Cheyenne yard full of rolling stock, and it lagged my computer so much it wasn't barely usable.

I just think it's not possible for Railworks yet. Maybe in the future though.

Just my as a thought.

[fraserm]

Ramjett53 - to the wild weird world of TS2014! You've joined the one of the two best forums (IMHO) for this sim.
To address, not answer, your question, many scenario writers write multi-part scenarios (MSTS called them "activities") that span different routes. That leaves the "connection" of routes in the imagination of the scenario writer and the player. For example, two excellent 3rd party routes are Michael Stephan's terrific Industrial Interactive Route (IIR) available here at RWA http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/download-library/route-collection?view=document&id=6:industrial-interactive-route&catid=20:route-collection, and Bob Artim's excellent NERW route available here:
http://www.vnerrforums.com/nerw/
(It's well worth registering for that forum as well, that's the other "best" forum...)
One of the scenario writers at NERW has created a multi-parter starting on the IIR and the first part ends leaving the player at the virtual junction of the two routes. The second part picks up on the NERW at the matching point on that route. It's pretty slick and it joins routes virtually instead of physically. Having driven several of these it's a pretty effective way of using multiple routes for drivers to try out.
All to suggest that it's the imagination of the writers and drivers that makes this sim so much fun. You'll find more to do here than you'll know what to do with. (Trust me on this... )
And don't be afraid to ask questions. There are folks here who can answer questions about many different aspects of simming, from routes to scenarios, to asset creation and usage.
Hope you find what you're looking for and most of all HAVE FUN!
Best regards,
Marc

[jamesphh]

Actually it is possible in a way. In MSTS I believe that Bob Wirth (?) created a series of routes from LA to New Mexico. He used the ending of one route as the start of the next (usually a major yard). This is also possible in TS xxxx. However a time period must be set the same for each section. And would need some group (such as NERW) to co-ordinate and also multiple route builders. Some variations from realiy would be needed to reduce custom objects. I have done this using the P&LE and the Connelsville- Baltimore routes and the old CSX Mainline. The worst point is that each route is in a different time frame.

[Bananarama]

The biggest hurdle is not so much in adding in scenery, but getting a giant track database to load and would exceed the capabilities of the best PCs.

[Chacal]

Also, driving coast to coast would not be a realistic way to operate a train.
Crews must stop after a number of hours and be relieved. They don't go very far away from their home location.
Trains usually don't cross the continent either: at every major yard they leave some cars and take new ones.

[davedingler]

IMHO,
I think that it could be done. It would probably take a completely new Simulator Program to do it and it would involve a considerable amount of standardization of components. Scenery design would probably have to be more in line with how it is done in Flight Simulator or capturing the scenery produced by Google Earth. Above all it would need to be user friendly!

RW is a neat program but there are portions of it that could be improved for those in the route building area. For instance, Asset components could be organized by product rather than developer. I spend too much time looking for the right component to place in the route. There is an over abundance of houses, trees shrubbery, etc. and all kind of structures for factories, businesses etc. that don't match the real world scene that you are trying to simulate, so you have to fudge it.

My vision of the United States Rail Road Simulator, would be one based on building routes and scenarios for those routes. As in RW they would be free ware and pay ware or share ware procurement. You choose what route you want to drive on and load that. Does that sound familiar?

I'm not a programmer (wish I was) or a professional engineer, so my opinion is based on the user standpoint.

Dave

[Ramjett53]

I appreciate everyones' responses and the warm welcomes. Looks like the smart thing as of now would be to build individual and, thus, separately loadable routes to achieve what I desire. It will be a vast learning experience for me, so be prepared for lots of posts. Going to be "stalking" to design topics...

Randy

[BNSFdude]

You were thinking of the Late MSTS2 that would have had 'World Of Rails' in where the whole world would have had a basic track layout.

[NorthernWarrior]

The only possible solution would be to create a map similar to those used in the trucking sims, where distances are massively compressed. However that wouldn't be easy given the real world positioning used by RW-TS. You probably couldn't use DEM so the terrain would need to be shaped by hand. As an experienced route builder I can tell you it takes around a month per 25 miles of route (and that's using DEM) working in spare time to bring it up to the minimum accepted standard for a freeware release. (And that bar is moving up all the time with the increasing quality of the routes from Dovetail and their associates). That works out at around 10 years to do a 3000 mile project.

There have been some posts at TS.com about merging routes but for starters each route needs to have the same Lat/Lon start point regardless of where the actual track origin and end points are located. I think there has been some limited results but in all honesty unless the whole core of the sim was restructured this is not a practical option. Would be great if it was, as for the UK we have three routes (soon to be four) all originating at Carlisle which could be joined into a massive network, but even then you would wander into the territory of different eras, slightly different track layout and heck knows what issues trying to resignal it.