What was your first railway/train simulator?

[Peter C]

Following a comment I made in this thread (https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/did-anyone-ever-have-rail3d.209119/#post-4795855):

="Peter C"
I'd never heard of Rail3D until I saw this thread and it looks quite interesting. Obviously, being an older sim, it's not going to be as technically-advanced as the likes of TS2021, but it still looks to have a charm to it. I started out playing Trainz 2009, which looks very similar - maybe that's why I find it quite charming?...

I was wondering what other people's first railway/train simulator (for sake of argument I'll just say railway-related simulator from now on) was? As mentioned above, I started off playing Trainz 2009, which I found in a cheap games bin at a local Maplin I think it was - now sadly closed. It was several years after the year it was released, and, being quite young at the time, I thought it was amazing. I could drive trains on a computer! I remember making routes and driving all sorts of basic engines around, including Mallard and Flying Scotsman (although the tender of the latter would never work, always being invisible). As far as I'm aware, you couldn't make an engine simulate realistic things like exploding when it ran out of water, and if you pressed "Space" to shovel coal too much, it broke the whole thing and you ended up with the firebox being filled with >100% coal or something silly!
There were loads of things available for Trainz, and I remember downloading quite a few things. Being a basic game, I did get bored of it from time to time, especially when I started hearing about Train Simulator 20xx. I bought the latter in 2016 and haven't looked back since (apart from when I received an email from the Trainz developer team saying they were making Trainz 2009 available for free for those who had already bought it, which I had, all those years ago now). Looking back on it, I wonder how I ever got by with the basic models and physics!

So - what was your first railway-related simulator/game? I'd be interested to hear what people have to say. I expect a lot of answers will be Railworks or even MSTS!

-Peter

 

[Iskra]

Mine was MSTS. I loved it, even though it wasn’t entirely accurate; the rolling stock that came with Settle-Carlisle for example. But, since it was the only sim of that quality at the time I played it to death, even some of the more exotic routes that I can afford to turn my nose up at due to the plethora of more local choice we have nowadays. Many happy hours were spent on Marias Pass and the Japanese routes. My favourite DLC however was the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, which also featured the Queensbury Triangle; meaning you could turn around there and drive straight back to Keighley. The KWVR is the heritage railway that I’ve visited most too.
A particular feature I liked about MSTS was the glossy leaflet that came in the box (yes, really- a box) that explained the signalling systems of each country you could drive in along with a map of the route.

 

[Peter C]

Mine was MSTS. I loved it, even though it wasn’t entirely accurate; the rolling stock that came with Settle-Carlisle for example. But, since it was the only sim of that quality at the time I played it to death, even some of the more exotic routes that I can afford to turn my nose up at due to the plethora of more local choice we have nowadays. Many happy hours were spent on Marias Pass and the Japanese routes. My favourite DLC however was the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, which also featured the Queensbury Triangle; meaning you could turn around there and drive straight back to Keighley. The KWVR is the heritage railway that I’ve visited most too.
A particular feature I liked about MSTS was the glossy leaflet that came in the box (yes, really- a box) that explained the signalling systems of each country you could drive in along with a map of the route.

I've heard a lot of people who liked MSTS. I've never actually played it, but it's on the list of games to play
I can relate to your anecdotes as when I played Trainz, I loved driving round on all sorts of routes (mostly Australian as I believe the developers were from Australia) and it was amazing. I've just been playing it for around 20mins and it still has a charm to it. Some of the American routes were also quite good, along with the two or three British routes.
The stock was good back then, but it's aged somewhat:

This screenshot is from the "British Midlands" route and features a 5-car HST which does 0-60 in 2 milliseconds on level ground and also makes next to no clag! Extra-environmentally-friendly train.
Playing the same routes over and over again was also a thing for me with TS2016 - I had the "Riviera Line in the Fifties" route, along with a German one and an American one. I played Riveria Line over and over, on full graphics settings on my rubbish laptop until I realised that was why I was getting around 2 FPS or something stupid! I then played on lowest graphic settings for a long time before I got a new laptop which I can now get some very good graphics out of in comparison. I played around with those original three routes and an extra couple of engines for months and months I seem to remember before buying more things like the old GWML and PDL routes and then newer releases. Good times!

-Peter

 

[JohnMcL7]

Microsoft train sim for me although I don't remember much about it apart from getting bored quickly with it and trying to see how far I could get the train off the rails. I was a lot younger then.

After that it was a Japanese train sim game on the PSP, then Trainz, Train Simulator and now Train Sim World.

 

[Cowley]

Mine was this!

Amazingly dated now, and I really don’t think that it would have helped if someone put me in a real locomotive and told me to drive to Brighton...

 

[Journeyman]

Mine was this!

Amazingly dated now, and I really don’t think that it would have helped if someone put me in a real locomotive and told me to drive to Brighton...

I had Evening Star, which was in the same series, and put you in charge of a 9F (supposedly!) on the S&D. Given how crude the Spectrum is, the graphics were lousy, but you could select various levels of control, and the game was actually pretty challenging. I always ended up with the thing going far too fast, and struggling to bring it back under control!

I still have a working Spectrum. Might have to give this another go!

 

[Cowley]

I had Evening Star, which was in the same series, and put you in charge of a 9F (supposedly!) on the S&D. Given how crude the Spectrum is, the graphics were lousy, but you could select various levels of control, and the game was actually pretty challenging. I always ended up with the thing going far too fast, and struggling to bring it back under control!

I still have a working Spectrum. Might have to give this another go!

Honestly @Journeyman when I heard that loading up Spectrum sound I was 13 again!

 

[Journeyman]

Honestly @Journeyman when I heard that loading up Spectrum sound I was 13 again!

There's something quite magical about it, isn't there?

 

[Cowley]

There's something quite magical about it, isn't there?

Definitely!

 

[Flange Squeal]

Mine was Microsoft Train Sim back when it was released in 2001, but I was a bit young and lost interest quite quickly. Not long later though, maybe 2003, I discovered BVE2. It was around this time That UKTrainSim had got going and the very basic default MSTS content was beginning to be “replaced” by third-party content. The UK BVE community was a very busy place back then, with BVE focusing on the more realistic in-cab driving experience with third-party train plugins creating AWS/TPWS functionality, while MSTS catered for those wanting a more all-round product with different camera angles and 3D world.

So I can probably say my first train sim experience was around 2001 with MSTS, but it was a mix of BVE and MSTS that really got me into simming around two years later.

 

[Iskra]

I've heard a lot of people who liked MSTS. I've never actually played it, but it's on the list of games to play
I can relate to your anecdotes as when I played Trainz, I loved driving round on all sorts of routes (mostly Australian as I believe the developers were from Australia) and it was amazing. I've just been playing it for around 20mins and it still has a charm to it. Some of the American routes were also quite good, along with the two or three British routes.
The stock was good back then, but it's aged somewhat:
View attachment 84081
This screenshot is from the "British Midlands" route and features a 5-car HST which does 0-60 in 2 milliseconds on level ground and also makes next to no clag! Extra-environmentally-friendly train.
Playing the same routes over and over again was also a thing for me with TS2016 - I had the "Riviera Line in the Fifties" route, along with a German one and an American one. I played Riveria Line over and over, on full graphics settings on my rubbish laptop until I realised that was why I was getting around 2 FPS or something stupid! I then played on lowest graphic settings for a long time before I got a new laptop which I can now get some very good graphics out of in comparison. I played around with those original three routes and an extra couple of engines for months and months I seem to remember before buying more things like the old GWML and PDL routes and then newer releases. Good times!

-Peter

MSTS was good at the time, but it's nowhere near modern standards.

Yes I did a lot of that in TS too, some routes just seem to capture your imagination and have an atmosphere about them that's just 'right' for what they are portraying. Riviera in the 50's was a cracking route, I particularly liked the branch down to Kingswear. There were some very high quality add ons for that route. Personally, my all time favourites were the Keith Ross routes; WCML North, WCML over Shap and Western Lines of Scotland. I did spend quite a bit of time on JT's Newcastle-York (modern) and the Scottish East Coast Mainline in the early days. More recently South Wales Coastal was the one that kept my interest but since TSW I've barely touched that game. As good as it is, it's quite frustrating and temperamental.

 

[Ianno87]

MSTS, which I purchased in 2003 once my computer power caught up with it.

 

[nlogax]

Bought MSTS on day of release and was impressed by it at the time, but it didn't take long for me to realise how kludgy it actually was and how uniform the sounds and objects were regardless of the route. Route building was painful..after some months and quite a few crashes I gave up.

Trainz was a mini revelation shortly afterwards. Spline editing, easy object placement and an altogether better UI made it much more intuitive to use. I've reverted to using it - well TRS2019 - on my newly built PC and it's like a proper nostalgia trip. While there's been a lot of development in the last couple of decades and the graphical engine is far more polished there are some elements that really haven't changed at all.

 

[Welly]

DK Software produced a text only train driving simulation for the BBC Micro (on tape!) back in the mid 1980s. The route was from KX to Doncaster and you had a choice of HST, Deltic, Class 47 or another one I cant' remember. Despite the lack of graphics and ambient sounds (I think there were AWS sounds) you really had to concentrate and it was a matter of luck what condition loco you got (ex-works, good, fair or run-down!) and the worst one to drive was a run down Deltic!! Even non-enthusiast boys at school liked that.

 

[hexagon789]

Trainz, forget which edition but likely 2009 though I think I only obtained my copy in about 2012/13. I soon progressed to Train Simulator in 2014 and other than sporadic plays of Trainz mostly for nostalgia I haven't really looked back at it.

I think it was the lack of realism with Trainz it sort of felt like a computerised train set more than a simulator.

 

[TheEdge]

Trainz UTC up until Trainz 2012, then I moved over to the first iteration of Train Simulator after it changed from Kuju Rail Simulator. Stuck with Train Sim until I moved onto the Greater Anglia training sims then kind of lost interest in train sim!

 

[nlogax]

For the ex Spectrum owners here, you can play Evening Star directly in a browser via JSSpeccy. Sadly it bypasses the loading screen sounds..often the best bit of certain Speccy games

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/playonline.php?eml=1&downid=10531

 

[talltim]

Mine was this!

Amazingly dated now, and I really don’t think that it would have helped if someone put me in a real locomotive and told me to drive to Brighton...

Me too, but on my Amstrad. In fully manual mode it was pretty hard. Always disappointed you couldn’t go full speed through the buffers at Brighton and end up in the sea. Also had Evening Star when it came out a bit later, but the route was a bit too long to hold my interest.
Edit: Having now watched the Spectrum video, the sound was much better on the Amstrad

 

[AlistairCowell]

Mine was MSTS in December 2002, just few days after Christmas. Remember driving the KIHA 31 along the S&C Line. That was the only British route until I joined UKTrainSim a year later.

Then I got Trainz 1.1 (one of the first version) in May 2003, followed by BVE2 in early 2004.

BVE2 was good at the time, it was a free train-sim program. I have driven Sandymill Electrics (a fictional Scottish electrified line), Milngavie to Springburn, Glasgow Subway and a number of London Underground routes.

Now I use Train Simulator 2021, but I have Train Sim World and Trainz 12 as well.

 

[malc-c]

CabView Driver, It came on DVD and the view from the cab was a video "cab ride" in a small window with controls similar to TS2020. You couldn't add any content, but the disk were around £18 and covered most major routes. I think it was developed by a guy as a part time venture rather than a large company. It was clever as the speed at which the video played was in relation to the settings... so where the stock footage was recorded at the true track speed, it would play the video faster if you exceeded the line speed..

 

[gswindale]

For driving trains, MSTS. Can't remember exactly when I got a copy though. Have dabbled with Railworks/ Rail Simulator 20xx, but never really got on with the scenario editor - finding it somewhat more clunky than the MSTS map based one. Particularly enjoyed the "community" routes like Dorset Coast and Bristol-Cardiff due to the network nature rather than the A-B nature of a lot of routes.

Prior to MSTS, I remember my Dad having a few SIAM signalling simulations including Bham New At in 93(?) Whilst the Cross City line was undergoing electrification.

 

[Flange Squeal]

CabView Driver, It came on DVD and the view from the cab was a video "cab ride" in a small window with controls similar to TS2020. You couldn't add any content, but the disk were around £18 and covered most major routes. I think it was developed by a guy as a part time venture rather than a large company. It was clever as the speed at which the video played was in relation to the settings... so where the stock footage was recorded at the true track speed, it would play the video faster if you exceeded the line speed..

I'd totally forgotten about these! The author was Ashley Greenup who had previously made some basic driving and signalling games for the Spectrum. I remember I had one of the Cab View Driver series that covered my local line. As you say they were good in so much as they were from video footage, but the downside was that if the diagram you chose stopped at a station that the train in the video didn't, your framerates would be pretty awful. That was a CD version though, and I think I read at the time that the later DVD versions worked a bit differently which improved this, but I never tried one. The other downside was that the route through my local station was filmed on a train using the fast line, so the stopper diagram that required you to call at my local station would see me have to stop on the fast line, with the passengers in theory then having to climb out and walk across the slow line and haul themselves up onto the platform Was an interesting concept though.

 

[malc-c]

I'd totally forgotten about these! The author was Ashley Greenup who had previously made some basic driving and signalling games for the Spectrum. I remember I had one of the Cab View Driver series that covered my local line. As you say they were good in so much as they were from video footage, but the downside was that if the diagram you chose stopped at a station that the train in the video didn't, your framerates would be pretty awful. That was a CD version though, and I think I read at the time that the later DVD versions worked a bit differently which improved this, but I never tried one. The other downside was that the route through my local station was filmed on a train using the fast line, so the stopper diagram that required you to call at my local station would see me have to stop on the fast line, with the passengers in theory then having to climb out and walk across the slow line and haul themselves up onto the platform Was an interesting concept though.

I think my copy was on CD.. From memory it ran OK, but I think I may have imaged it onto the hard drive so got better performance on a "virtual CD" than the physical one. Back in the day, having video playing on a PC, even if it was small by today's standards, was a fascinating achievement. One downside was that after a few runs you got board of the same video clip....

 

[Acc3lerat1on]

Newbie here, Train Sim World Collectors Edition. After years of watching videos and having a PC that could barely play Minecraft, when I saw that a good train sim was coming to console, I jumped at the chance!