March 5th, 2005

I was rereading the first post and wondering if that was "good journalism". With my preference for fallen flags and older equipment I certainly can't be totally objective when it comes to the modern railroad scene. I still prefer mixed freights pulled by steam, cab units or early hoods trailing cabeese. The modern passenger trains also lack attraction for me, despite the fact that they look fast standing still. I apologize for being and old stick in the mud, and I'll try to do better. Of course since I'm not really a journalist, maybe I don't have to be objective...

Lately I've been visiting the Trains.com forums, trying to scare up some interest in train simming. At the very least I was hoping to get a feel for how our hobby is viewed by other model railroaders. I didn't start a pole or anything. I just posted a few links in the Train Simulation forum and started a thread on virtual modeling in the Model Railroader section. In that message I asked if it were possible to see more items related to train simming in the magazine. The results were disappointing, but enlightening.

Some replies admonished me for fooling with computers and encouraged me to "try the real thing". Some thought it was a waste of paper to print such rubbish. One reported that there was so much negative feedback from the articles already published that there was little chance of anything else forthcomng. Many replies mentioned the earlier version of MSTS and a lot of disappointment in the software packages in general. Things like broken couplers, "running out of smoke" on the grades of Marias and basic dissatisfaction with the default packages. I tried to make it known that things had changed radically. The coupler issue and other problems had been all but banished by Microsoft updates and user enhancements. I mentioned that a new version of Marias (as well as other routes) was available with more prototype grades and other improvements. It didn't seem to matter much.

The screen shot links, one to my own site, the other to Train-Sims new Screenshot archive, have been  viewed. Mine got 117 hits but Train-Sim only 37. There were very few comments either way.

Now I'm not suggesting that one can get any definitive feel for the pulse of anything on the Internet. Only a small fraction of the people who visit any forum actually ever post a message. Of those that do, another smaller segment posts regularly. Still it does speak for the impact that train simming has on the rest of the hobby. Don't know if we can change that. I just know that I enjoy simming more than any other aspect of the hobby and I'd like to see it become a more acceptable part of model railroading.

While surfing through 3D Trains site I found that Rich Garber is working on a model of a cement plant for what may be a addition to his Canton route. The thing is huge! It looks to be the same high standard that All Aboard has become known for. Looking forward to the finished product. I was surprised to learn that Rich uses TSM. Yet another master modeler getting awesome results from what most people consider "beginners software".

Also at 3D Trains,  Sacramento Locomotive Works showed some previews of the Cal-P route under development. Although the screen shots show more modern equipment, it looks like the route will be set in the 1950's...More fallen flags! Dekasoft is still working on their new Burlington Northern set. They've also been posting screenies of Crawford Hill with Scale Rail...

I also stopped by Paul Fowlers GM&O site for the first time in a while. I've seen many "critiques" of Paul's creations but I've never understood the issue. Aside from the big CSX (BNSF, NS, etc) on the side of some units the locomotives look beautiful to me. The prices seem competitive with other payware publishers. Maybe there are rivets missing?

Thinking about it, I have to confess I have not purchased a whole lot from any of the payware publishers I've mentioned. A loss on my part because there is some great stuff out there. I don't have any problem with the pricing. As a freeware developer I can certainly appreciate the amount of effort represented by these products. They are well worth the charge of admission. It's just that the part of the hobby I enjoy most is building my own models. Any spare money I have ends up going into research for my own modeling projects. I'm either buying books and magazines related to railroading or software for creating and enhancing my own models. The largest recent expenditures were for a more powerful computer and 3D Canvas Pro software. While the computer has really helped in many ways, I'm still struggling with 3DC. All my current work is still being done in Train Sim Modeler. The plug-ins available for 3DC are a strong incentive to learn this software and switch over. Being able to animate the running gear for steam engines would allow me to create models I've dreamed of since childhood. At the same time, TSM has some peculiarities that make it easy for me to develop the complex shapes I need for things like the M10000 and AeroTrain. Most of the steamers I like are just as streamlined so I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.

There's a thread at Train-Sim (Route Design topic 73414) about using the gantry function to place things along the right of way, including track!. The cool thing is that multiple gantry files can be used along the same route. Have to try this on the "Agony Eastern"...There are a few new downloads available too. Ron Picardi has uploaded a set of High tension towers in both hi and low resolution. Mike Sinclair has created still more trees, this time sets of Blue Spruce and Brewer Spruce that include snow textures. There's also two sets of 40 foot box car reskins by Don Karch in Denver & Salt Lake and Denver Northwestern & Pacific. The cars look to be done the way I like 'em, with roof walks and full height ladders. Dwight Mitchell has provided a reskin kit for the GP38 cab to use with Paint Shop Pro.

There are a couple of fixes posted yesterday by Hugh Reilly for his photorealistic textures on the Dash 9-44CW sets. Which reminds me...I've seen several examples of Photo Textures and I like them a lot. Oftimes they are very hard to distinguish from the real thing. My only reservation is the surrealistic look that results from mixing photos with artwork. I've seen some cases where everything in a shot is done with photo-skins and it works. It's only when the two methods get mixed that it looks strange to me...As for the way artwork by itself looks? I like the fact that MSTS can look like a painting that moves.

Anyway, Rick Franzosa has uploaded a fictionalized New Haven C30-7 repaint based on a Paul Watson repaint of the John Peterson model. It's another of several that use physics by Bob Boudin and Peter Baker with Kelley Ellison lighting.  I didn't know there this many GE loco's in the library...Wonder if they have any skinned for Nashville & Eastern? Another repaint of a repaint is the GNBC 100 ton hopper uploaded by Eric Sipes. It's based on a model by Roger Von Ahrens with physics by Chris Lee and paint by Cliff Timm. Finally, John Stephens offers a repaint of SCL 3223, a GE slug also done by John Peterson. The lighting is Kelley Ellison's.

For other news about what's available on the international scene, I always check Bernie Halpins WebDotTrainSim site. I suggest his site if you want to keep up with most, if not all that's happening in the train simming community. Among a host of other great stuff, I think he has the most complete set of MSTS links in existence.

There is one final comment. I was pretty happy to see some of my own work make it to Obo's MSTS Catalog. Both Seaboard 4500 and 4513 are now listed under S in the US section.

Well that's about all for now...See ya' next time.