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Realistic, Free UK Rail Simulater

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AdamF

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2 Jun 2016
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7
Hello

Apologies if this is in the wrong feed. I was wondering if there is any good quality, free UK train simulation games going around. I am looking for one similar to UKTrainSim, but, ideally free, if not, cheap.

Thanks
 
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gswindale

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1 Jun 2010
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Hi,

Slightly confused by your post as uktrainsim is a website not a simulator.

Have you taken a look at Openrails (www.openrails.org)? It isn't the prettiest simulator to look at, but is free and has a high level of compatibility with MSTS add-ons.
 

AdamF

Member
Joined
2 Jun 2016
Messages
7
Hi. Thanks for your reply.

I meant Microsoft Train Simulator, not UKTrainSim, sorry for the confusion.

Thank you for your recommedation, I'll check it out tomorrow
 

dgl

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5 Oct 2014
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2,391
Lots of free stuff for openBVE, needs some pc knowledge to get it going but apart from that is quite good.

A good range of free traction and routes (although most free routes are fictional).

AWS/DSD are implemented, gears for the 1st gen DMU's work as they should and on the TGV line/trains that I have got neutral sections and VCB are implemented.
 
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43021HST

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1,564
Location
Aldershot, Hampshire
Trainz is good (especially the versions with paintshed).

I really wouldn't recommend those as paintshed was taken out from from Trainz 2009 onwards, trust me I'd suggest getting Trainz 2012 or TANE.

It does get annoying when people ask for content for versions that have long since been outdated.
 

GrimsbyPacer

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13 Oct 2014
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Paintshed is the best part of the whole game!
Want a HST in Rubbish Railways livery? You can do it yourself without messing around with dodgy downloads. It hasn't been replaced by a similar easy to use editor so isn't outdated. I want to play with trains in Northern, TPE, East Midlands, etc colours, why would I make a Grimsby area map just to use Midland Mainline trains?

On the 2004 version it was very easy for me to convert carriages into engines so I could make 153s and such, I even created trams which looked reasonable. Newer versions crash every time I do the same and the SC Content thing is very annoying.
 
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fgwrich

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Joined
15 Apr 2009
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9,251
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Between Edinburgh and Exeter
Lots of free stuff for openBVE, needs some pc knowledge to get it going but apart from that is quite good.

A good range of free traction and routes (although most free routes are fictional).

AWS/DSD are implemented, gears for the 1st gen DMU's work as they should and on the TGV line/trains that I have got neutral sections and VCB are implemented.

If your looking at a high detailed free sim, I'd recommend Open BVE as well. The community may have had it's up and downs over the past few years, but take a look at this website as an example of some of the quality that goes into it!

https://sites.google.com/a/bve4trains.com/bve4trains/

Unlike some of the other sims as well, a good proportion of Open BVE stuff is properly photoreal - because a lot of it is made up from a lot of them!
 

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43021HST

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11 Sep 2008
Messages
1,564
Location
Aldershot, Hampshire
Paintshed is the best part of the whole game!
Want a HST in Rubbish Railways livery? You can do it yourself without messing around with dodgy downloads. It hasn't been replaced by a similar easy to use editor so isn't outdated. I want to play with trains in Northern, TPE, East Midlands, etc colours, why would I make a Grimsby area map just to use Midland Mainline trains?

On the 2004 version it was very easy for me to convert carriages into engines so I could make 153s and such, I even created trams which looked reasonable. Newer versions crash every time I do the same and the SC Content thing is very annoying.

Might I suggest learning to reskin? You can create skins in your favourite liveries that look good as well. Trust me it's not that difficult when you get into it.

Well officially paintshed is outdated as the versions of the game that contain it haven't been supported by N3V for a long time. As this page details: http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/Trainz_Life-Cycle_Policy

Trainz visually can look pretty good as well, these are some screenshots of my Central London Line route that can be downloaded for free. So long as you have trainz itself.
23645800692_83e2ed3452_c.jpg

21121691765_f457d16520_c.jpg

23498174976_b702b10675_c.jpg

For those of you wondering what a Class 313 is doing at Euston Square, it maybe worthwhile referring to this:http://forum.british-trainz.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2713 as I've used a principle called prototype freelancing.
 

Ayman Ilham

Member
Joined
2 Jul 2016
Messages
412
Location
Blackburn (Lancs)
If your looking at a high detailed free sim, I'd recommend Open BVE as well. The community may have had it's up and downs over the past few years, but take a look at this website as an example of some of the quality that goes into it!

https://sites.google.com/a/bve4trains.com/bve4trains/

Unlike some of the other sims as well, a good proportion of Open BVE stuff is properly photoreal - because a lot of it is made up from a lot of them!

OpenBVE is excellent, as everything (software, addons, etc.) is free and it's very easy to mod! Reskinning trains requires no special software, just p*ss about on paint! Likewise, you can also mod sounds very easily as they are kept in .wav format (if you wanna record train sounds) and train.dat can easily be edited on notepad or the built in train editing software. Making complex routes would be pretty tricky though, cos you need to code everything on Notepad.

Here are more links to other great content as well as the link given above:
http://pioneertrains.wixsite.com/pioneer-trains/downloads2 - detailed trains (350 is the most complete)
http://openbve.wixsite.com/openbve/routes-for-the-uk - plenty of British themed routes to check out
http://www.celtictrainsim.com/welsh.html - really detailed section of Welsh Marches line plus a fictional branch
http://www.gotopcs.net/openbve.htm - full Scottish ECML route Edinburgh to Aberdeen
http://trainspotteruk.webstarts.com/extras.html - my mods will be uploaded here

There are a lot of routes available but only Network West Midlands (fictional) and Cwm Twypsn (semi-fictional) are fully detailed and optimised for OpenBVE, as the others were made for older versions of BVE (particularly BVE2) so will have very low quality graphics and possibly be glitchy here and there.
 
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Ayman Ilham

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2 Jul 2016
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412
Location
Blackburn (Lancs)
The cross city line was my favorite route for BVE, the graphics were even reasonable good.

CrossCity is good! The Watford Junction to Rugby route by the same developer looked promising but there's still not a single update about it (except a blog update in 2014) and it was supposed to be released 6 YEARS AGO!!! I have a feeling he's just on and off it and forgets about it after a while and remembers every few years or so idk! Maybe he's just really busy, in which case, I understand :)
 
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Taffy Cross

Member
Joined
7 Nov 2012
Messages
44
Hi,

The very talent author / developer of the Cross City and Watford to Rugby route had at the time of producing them the time to commit to these projects.

Since releasing these fantastic routes for all to enjoy he has been very busy studying for his new career. He has since qualified and now has a very busy role designing infrastructure for the real railways.

As to his intentions of continuing the development of these and other routes for BVE they are unknown to me, so I cannot comment. Though the ones that are available through his website are amongst the best available for any railway sim platform. Plus they are free to all who wish to enjoy them.

Bye for now,

Stephen.
 

Ayman Ilham

Member
Joined
2 Jul 2016
Messages
412
Location
Blackburn (Lancs)
Hi,

The very talent author / developer of the Cross City and Watford to Rugby route had at the time of producing them the time to commit to these projects.

Since releasing these fantastic routes for all to enjoy he has been very busy studying for his new career. He has since qualified and now has a very busy role designing infrastructure for the real railways.

As to his intentions of continuing the development of these and other routes for BVE they are unknown to me, so I cannot comment. Though the ones that are available through his website are amongst the best available for any railway sim platform. Plus they are free to all who wish to enjoy them.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Okay, I see, I know what it's like to be that busy, you completely forget that you left many projects unfinished that you said you're working on! That how I'm like towards Scratch projects! I hope the WFJ to Rugby route gets completed soon though, would love to drive that 350/2 (the most detailed, complete and realistic train on OpenBVE there is) from Pioneer Trains on it!
 

Darandio

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Redcar
you completely forget that you left many projects unfinished that you said you're working on!

I really don't think it's the case of any freeware creator forgetting about a project, it's just the pressures of working life and doing far more important things in your spare time.

If it's something created for free, it makes no odds that they said they were creating it. They might never finish it which is fine too, they don't owe anyone anything.
 

Ayman Ilham

Member
Joined
2 Jul 2016
Messages
412
Location
Blackburn (Lancs)
I would love to have a go on the Cross city again but I can't get BVE to work on my new PC.

BVE 2 and 4 are not supported by anything above Windows XP, so OpenBVE is used instead, which can run all BVE 2 and 4 routes adequately, although some (especially BVE 2) routes can be a bit glitchy but nonetheless, still playable!
 

jonathan01n

Member
Joined
29 Apr 2017
Messages
103
Location
Lincoln
By the way other than UK routes you should try some from other countries. some Japanese routes and trains have very high quality. Also some Hong Kong routes are very detailed too!:D
 
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