very low (on the ground) and slow.

[Splitpin]

I've moved (for now) to the dark side ...trains
I've had TS2017 for a while, but not long ago TSW17 appeared for steam, so I grabbed it . It is amazing ...the graphics , and dynamics are just ... as I said ..amazing.
There are some youtube docos about the software they use but in the meantime .....

[Aharon]

It looks like photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AMAZING

Regards,

Aharon

[Charl]

My goodness, Marty... amazing shots.
And what do you do with TS2017 other than make photosurreal pictures?
And if you kept reversing in pic #4, would there be an almighty Whumpf!

[Splitpin]

Charl and Aharon ...thanks for looking, I wasn't sure if this was the right place for them.

Charl, I've "driven" about 10 hours now on two types of U.S locomotives ... the dynamics in the Traimsim World package are about as real as it can get. I was put onto that one by a relation who teaches drivers here in NZ.
Its all about momentum, knowing when to apply or reduce power (much like flying) Breaking is the hard part Some of the scenarios use coal or freight trains over a km long, and to get brake pressure to the very last wagon takes good timing, very easy to damage stuff if you get it wrong.
Yesterday I got completely cast "driving" a huge freight train, with 45 flatbed wagons, each loaded with 2 forty foot shipping containers on top of each other.
I had been coasting for about 5 miles at 30mph and then started to climb a moderate incline ... I applied power, but too late, it got slower and slower even with the power lever at "notch 8 " (train speak)

Anyway, it stopped and it wasn't going anywhere, just lots of wheel slip and smoke ...scenario failed

The other sim TS2017 is pretty good but not as complex, but it has some great routes ... I thought of you when I took the glacier express over a 60km route through the Alps in Switzerland, amazing.
And then there is the French bullet train from Avignon to some other French place, where I was cruising at 300kph ! ... but I won't go on.
It's an enjoyable interlude

[Charl]

Ooh the Swiss again... I saw this thing at the Swiss Museum of Transport:



As a kid it was the one you wanted for the trainset, but could never ever afford
Essentially two locos on an articulated chassis, it's called The Crocodile.
It's a Monster.
Goes up hills, and pulls big trains.

EDIT:
Ah yes, the TGV.
Here's mine, you beat me by a whisker but the sim sounds pretty good!

[Splitpin]

Love that crocodile beast Charl
Did the fact you were doing almost 300k on the ground make you a little nervous ? ... and was it smooth ?

[Charl]

Academic, really... France moves by the window, smooth as a baby's

[toprob]

There's plenty in train sim which I'd love to see in our flight simulators!

Looks like things have come along a bit since I last fired up a train sim. I can certainly remember that it was quite hard, and more than a little frustrating to manage the power!

In the early days of scenery dev, I was very into model trains, putting together a N gauge setup with my kids. My daughter was a big rail fan, and my oldest son loved to paint the tiny little buildings etc which I built. Transferring to a PC simulator would have been the next step, but flightsim seemed a bit 'cooler'.

When Microsoft were working on the next sim after FSX, they had devised a 'world' system which included both the train sim and flightsim. I was really looking forward to that, the idea of having a single 'world' was breath-taking -- imagine being able to travel anywhere by air, road or rail, and take part in motor racing... all online, and all in the same simulator.

[Splitpin]

Academic, really... France moves by the window, smooth as a baby's

Charl ... It's hard to get my head around those kinds of speeds. My Japanese partner said the same, the shinkansen is the same ... you can stand a coin on its edge on the table at full speed and it sits there .... not sure about that.

[Splitpin]

Rob ... " imagine being able to travel anywhere by air, road or rail, and take part in motor racing... all online, and all in the same simulator." Oh yes
Im now looking at something even slower "shipsim17" had an older version of it years ago ... I might revisit Oh, the dark side indeed.

[Bugdani]

I remember I have loved "NASCAR" several years ago....