Railworks America

Look at Ooovees latest addition to Railworks:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUgHYriYpCk

Watch the whole video. Why don't they do American stuff (I know they did the sounds for Dash9 and SW1500)?

RW just keeps getting better and better. Hopefully they'll realize there is a US market they can develop for.

It's enormously immersive despite it being an overgrown bus. The Russians showed there's no reason you can't do that level of detail in freeware though, it's just fantastically time-consuming - and this is in the same ballpark for detail and suspension of disbelief. ( I am testing it but I'm not employed there, so I'm not trying to advertise :P ).

Lack of familiarity with the subject is a bit of an issue for UK developers. You can make something reasonable from photos & numbers, but you can't really get the soul of the subject without having people who're intimate with it.

The American crowd is still a rough crowd as far as Railworks development goes. RSC have done an impressive job building us beautiful locomotives lately with the limited resources they have. Oovee have also done a beautiful job providing some of the more recent audio packages for said locomotives and can't thank them enough for taking the time out from their already busy schedule of UK projects to pay attention to us.

Fortunately though on this side of the pond the high tide of negativity, snippy remarks, and MSTS users acting like someone just stole their girlfriend that swept in at the release of Railworks has recently started receding. This site has picked up in activity a lot in the past 6 months and I commend Hawk for sticking with it. The other place is getting more and more empty and stagnant, and believe it or not RSC's Facebook page has been a great success in my eyes for communicating with the masses. Most on there are pretty pleasant, enthusiastic and positive.

I do commend RSC though for pushing on and not letting the loudest minority get in the way of their development for us. Before you know it a ground up American developer will jump on board and you'll be cruising down the tracks in your freshly made PRR k4 Pacific and wondering what to spend your money on next.

But as Kali said, it will take someone who was born and raised breathing American diesel fumes, steamer exhaust. Until then, I'm more than pleased with RSC's efforts at the moment.

Besides, I don't want Oovee making American stuff, that would take away from them making more UK stuff which I'm admittedly more a fan of than American stuff. *ducks*

Bill, don't take this the wrong way, but my 4 yr old is big fan of European engines and rolling stock. He insists on mixing it with US power on his route.

And honestly, its nice to take a jaunt through the villages once in awhile

PapaXpress wrote:Bill, don't take this the wrong way, but my 4 yr old is big fan of European engines and rolling stock. He insists on mixing it with US power on his route.

And honestly, its nice to take a jaunt through the villages once in awhile

Egads! Mixing UK / European and US engines and stock together in a Train-Sim? Wuhdda-ya teaching that boy?
Next thing ya know, someone will be making routes that mix different regional assets together, and then dogs and cats will be getting along. Blasphemy!

But yeah, I too sometimes enjoying "mixing" the various locos and stock together too.
Wish more people in the Train-Simming world could be like the young-ones, lighten up a bit, not be so a-retentive about some details, and "have fun" with it.

Cheers!

Plenty of history for running UK stock in the US anyway :P. Well, celebrity steamers at least.

During WWII we sent a lot of Steamers to the UK. Pretty neat really. I still need to look up if they converted the coupling systems on the engines or converted a wagon to have US and UK ends.

If I wasn't on my phone I would dig out a year old screen cap of the Challenger running on IOW for LoneWolfdon.

Right up front, yeah, I'm lazy. I have a problem having to learn two or three, much less half a dozen or more, different driving requirements/techniques. I don't spend enough time on just one route to get that familar with how to drive an engine well. I spend 90%+ on US routes but I did invest in the WCML. The Class 86 is really a bear and I'm sure I could get used to it, but do I want to do all that? Someone (sorry, I can't remember who) put out a US engine with more driving details than the default. However, he also made a version of the same engine using the default "expert" driver controls. That would be great if a developer would put out the two versions. It would satisfy the simulation purist who likes to flip every switch and tweak the brake handle as well as those who are more interested in satisfying the requirements of the scenario at hand, enjoy the passing scenery, and don't really want to have his head down in the cab reading pressure gauges and such. I've run all the scenarios in the WCML that use default engine controls but I just can't apply myself to the extent required to do the 86. Hey, I may be the only one of this persuasion, but at least I got my two cents worth in.

Oh, by the way, I spent my entire career designing and developing flight simulators for the DoD and NASA, so I understand the need for all the bells and whistles. I use RailWorks and MSTS as a diversion and for the enjoyment of trains. Perhaps this is a surrogate for the model railroad I no longer have.

Don

PapaXpress wrote:During WWII we sent a lot of Steamers to the UK. Pretty neat really. I still need to look up if they converted the coupling systems on the engines or converted a wagon to have US and UK ends.

Mostly intended for use in Europe, the UK companies borrowed some S160s before they got shipped out, but they did keep some S100s. Europe uses buffers & screw couplers too, so everything ended up fitted like that originally ( which doesn't mean they didn't get retrofitted with centre couplers again later ). S100s bought by the SR post-war I think were about all that stayed along with some for industrial use, the UK built hundreds of it's own austerity classes which ended up being pretty popular nationally.

There's not a hope in hell of running US loading gauge stock pretty much anywhere over here, there's only a few places to run the smallest continental gauge...

LoneWolfDon wrote:Egads! Mixing UK / European and US engines and stock together in a Train-Sim?
Next thing ya know, someone will be making routes that mix different regional assets together, and then dogs and cats will be getting along. Blasphemy!
But yeah, I too sometimes enjoying "mixing" the various locos and stock together too.
Cheers!

Hey, wait a minute. Didn't I say that about a certain route a while back?

PapaXpress wrote:During WWII we sent a lot of Steamers to the UK. Pretty neat really. I still need to look up if they converted the coupling systems on the engines or converted a wagon to have US and UK ends.

Two S160's are preserved here in the UK on the Churnet Valley Railway. As far as I know they were fitted with British couplings while they ran here, before they were shipped to Europe after D day. Have a look at the link for more information http://www.cvr-extra.wanadoo.co.uk/5197.htm .