I think I may be getting this soon (just waiting to see how long I can hold out) so I want a few questions out of the way:

1. Will it work with TrackIR?
2. I seem to remember there was a train-setup control for sale before... you know, flight sims have hotas, racing sims have wheels, wasn't there something for trains before?
3. Mods -- I noticed 80-something mods for this game. Will I need any of them? Why should I buy any mod?
4. Trains -- can I drive my favorite train through [insert route name here] even if historically the engine never travelled along those tracks?
5. Is there anything resembling multiplayer for train sims? I know my son would love to drive one but I cannot imagine how we could both be playing this game.

Thanks!

TrackIR did work but is broken for the latest version but hopefully will be patched soon.

You can choose the track to run and there will be set trains on it or choose the train and there will be set tracks for it. But you can modify the files to add trains if you want to learn how to do it - I haven't.

Free roam just lets you pick a train that the sim puts in place and lets you drive around for as long as you like with no timetables etc.

No MP but they want to add it soon.

Lots of add on content like trains and routes but be careful as it can add up to a very expensive sim. I like the diesels because they are fast and easy to drive and pick long tracks as they off better value for money. I have recently bought a UK route which is 100 miles long for instance.

Thanks for the input, NineLives. I appreciate the warning on the costs of this sim, but I'm a flight simulator so I'm used to buying a hundred-dollar peripheral for a thrity-dollar game.

So, what are the "missions" like in this game then? Is there one which starts me with maybe a train, empty cargo cabs, then have me load them up and bring the load to another station? I just don't see how I will NOT be bored during the 15-30 minute commute between stations though. For instance, that 100-mile route you bought... how long from one end to the other? And aside from going up/down slopes and watching speeds on curves, what else is there to do? Are there AI trains that will force you to speed up/stop on intersections?

Looking forward to the MP segment... what do they have in mind?

The missions are pretty basic. With choices between running between 2 places and picking up passengers keeping to a timetable to a complicated shunt moving wagons around etc. There is a lot of choice but there is a limit to how exciting it can get !

It's a bit like FSX. What can you do apart from take of and land etc? And yet we play it because the actual sim itself keeps you coming back.

I play the train sim because it's quick and easy to fire up and start playing. It's a good unwinder after a day at work and you don't spend an hour setting everything up before actually playing it. Just load the sim, pick a scenario and go.

If you choose a simple passenger train then you do spend most of the run just looking at the secenery. You watch the lights and you watch the timetable and that's it. But somehow it's still enjoyable. If you want explosions and gore look elsewhere

I would just buy the basic sim and see how it grabs you but don't rush into a decision after 30 minutes. Give it time and you will grow to like it I am sure. Might be worth looking up some videos on Youtube as well.

I do agree that the missions are pretty "basic" compared to a combat flight sim mission, but I'm willing to give this a go. Loved trains when I was a kid and there's something trance-like about watching a long line of cars behind a powerful deisel.

Can I ask you how you control this sim? Surely not mouse-and-keyboard? I've seen references to Raildriver but I'm not that deep into this sim to warrant such a purchase. I wonder if my TM Warthog will work?

I do agree about FSX-Railworks comparison though. I love FSX for the ground-management and VFR flights (watching the scenery) and then making a perfect landing, but it does have some points of utter boredom in-between. But I still love the trusty Cessna!

£30 and this sim is mine!! HAhahahaha....

Good stuff Yes mouse and keyboard for me. Doesn't bother me. You don't have your hand on the controls like a flight sim. You just adjust stuff as and when needed. I can't justify yet another controller just for one train sim. Good luck

I use keyboard and mouse as well, if I want a bit more complexity I'll use the mouse to drag handles/push buttons in the cab, otherwise keyboard works well. There is a device, Raildriver, Link to Raildriver , however I believe it has functionality issues in Railworks (and for that reason I don't own one, although I have to admit it would be a nice-to-have) due to hard coding in the game vs. what the controller will do...I've read of some work-arounds but again, with RW3 just out I can't say definitively those problems have gone away or if the old work-arounds still work (the use of TIR was a mod that is broken for RW3- which is too bad as TIR in RW2 was very good).

The scenarios get as complicated as you want- they are rated Easy to Very Hard- which really is a statement about the complications presented- e.g., shunting numerous cars around to order a consist properly in a yard under a time limit while maintaining safety standards, to that all important passenger run that must stick to a timetable-- it's a lot harder than it seems and I have developed a HUGE respect for train operators and what they do since starting to play this sim back in the spring. Easy rated scenarios are usually just a here-to-there jaunt, and great for scenery gawking, and learning a route. The scenario editor is easy to jump into if you want to design scenarios that suit your style of play, and there are several really good tutorials out there. Don't overlook the freeware either- there is a lot of really well done routes (some easily better than payware), rolling stock and scenarios that the community has built up over time and because of backwards compatibility should still work fine.

Have fun, get stuck in, as train driving can be really addictive...I've logged more hours in RW over the past few months than any of the air sims I have...sounds crazy but it really is a lot of fun and a good challenge when you want one.

Kind regards

I use my Saitek throttle quad with the aid of this little proggie
http://ftp.uktrainsim.com/viewforum.php?f=318
Well that's not 100% true, I'me still using a much earlier version of it that's a bit more basic and needs more manual setting up, I just prefer it to the current version.

Makes the choo choo's much easier to control than with mouse or keyboard.

I still cant understand why they wont include native joystick or TiR support. seems like a no brainer to me.

Thanks for the input guys. Just finished downloading this from .torrent, erm, I mean Steam. Loved the tutorials and doing the PRR Campaign now. I need help with shunting and braking, but that's for another thread.

Can anyone confirm the RW2 TIR mod works with RW3?

Also looking to make it work with my TM Warthog dual-throttle. I'm thinking one for throttle, the other for brake, and maybe the joystick for the reverser.

I'll leave the DLC/mods for later

For diesels and electrics the reverser isn't important as its either forward, neutral or reverse so the keyboard is good enough, W and S keys BTW.

For the US diesels you really need 2 brakes, Train and Dynamic. I'm just starting to learn how to use the Dynamic brakes myself, essential for controlling your speed on those long downhill runs.

The reverser is essential for Steam trains but there a whole different challenge all together.

Sorry to break it to you Ice, but the Railworks series doesn't take controller axis inputs. If you're clever, you can create a controller profile that sends key strokes based on axis movement, but it's not the same.

I've also read that the third-party RW2 TIR mod does NOT work with RW3. I haven't tried it myself, though.

That's TIR crossed off for now then. Pity.

Isn't Mark's little mod above working for controllers? At the moment, I'm using the keyboard keys for "more accurate" controls, but I feel a slider would be a better controller than a keyboard, as keyboard commands works in increments, ie 0-13-25-50% throttle, I'd love to be able to set 15%, 20%, and so on.

Mark, care to throw in a crash course on the train vs dynamic braking?

No as stated TIR now doesn't work. This is a huge omission in my opinion as this game is all about the scenery. I hope they fix it soon.

I did say I was just starting to learn it LOL
I'm a bit hit and miss with it ATM, derailed a few long trains with it so far but I occasionally get it right.

As I understand it, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.
When your coasting downhill you shouldn't use the train brake to control your speed as you'll over heat them, besides keeping them applied you'll run out of brake pipe pressure and they wont work as well.

I don't fully understand it yet but I think the dynamic brake works by using the generator power via banks of resistors to apply a magnetic braking force or something like that. because there's no friction as with conventional brakes there's no heat build up so you can use them longer.
Problem is there's a delay to them applying and releasing so you cant use them instead of the train brake under normal circumstances.

To use them you have to first put the throttle to idle 0%, then wait for 10 seconds, then open the dynamic brake just a crack, you should here them spool up then you can start to apply them. That might not be dead accurate but I'm still experimenting with it. do a search on it at UKTrainSim, you might be able to make more sense of it than me.

Apparently there's a bug with the dynamic brake though, there much to powerful some say by a factor of 10 so be very gentle with them or your rake with try to overtake you.

Interesting... Still figuring out why my brakes take too long to decelerate from 25-20 but very easy to do 10-5.

New question: Anyone know how to re-map the keyboard controls to something different? Would like to make Q accelerate and A decelerate the train...

You cant remap the keyboard unfortunately.

Oh BTW its worth waiting before getting any DLC as they have big sales on it occasionally, sometimes up to 75% off
Also none of the DLC has been updated yet so some have problems like upside-down cabs and such and most don't have proper lights or rain on the windscreen yet.

No worries on the DLCs I think I got enough to keep me occupied for now.

Bummer on the keyboard remap though. Seriously? No TrackIR, no keyboard remap, no multiplayer...

Can I ask some stupid questions do's the sim have stuff like cows, horses and deer that you might see as you travel across the county. What about jets flying by way up high. How close to real is it.

I stand corrected on the Raildriver according to this recent post over on UKTrainsim Raildriver topic My appologies.

Navigator yes it has static cows and sheep but that's it. The only moving objects are people at the stations, cars, buses and the odd digger plus small flocks of birds.

I also think they should have planes as this would add an extra element of realism.

I would also prefer to see a wider range of vehicles. You see the same cars over and over and the buses are all the same colour. The people are all adults wearing about 3 different costumes so you will get several women all wearing the same outfit - unheard of !! No children, no prams, no luggage, no bikes etc etc

It's only a little thing and the idea is to give the impression of life as you whizz by but I think more effort should have been spent on widening the range of objects. I am impressed though by the many different buildings, bridges, trees and industrial objects that are in it.

As a final moan the moon is now way too big. I know this sounds negative and it's not meant to be as I really like the sim and play it a lot but it just needs a bit more to add the realism instead of just making more and more trains and routes.

I think this is a rail simulator and not a scenery simulator, so it does it's job quite well. Having said that, I'm guessing the market is wide open for third-party add-ons just like scenery or airport add-ons in FSX.

I'd say about 100 different "people" and maybe 300 different cars and 100 different trucks/buses and there'd be enough variation for you to barely notice it.

I've started a thread over at UKTrainSims regarding changing controls... I think it is do-able though probably not adviseably, but I cannot wrap my head around their reasoning why. Any help?

Well I kind of agree but surely half the sim is looking out of the window?

We mainly spend lots of money on FSX to make the scenery look better but that's a flight sim.

If the scenery was 16bit 32 colour we wouldn't play the sim no matter how good the controls are.

Lol, valid points. While the 16-bit scenery example may be a bit extreme, I do get what you're saying, but look at Falcon 4... IMHO terrain looks like crap but the game, in it's entirety, makes people come back.

Anyway, any insight into the controls problem?

Anyone know what the locomotive brake is used for?

Also yeah driving steam trains make no sense to me, I never really know when to adjust what. I did the tutorial but it left me with a lot of questions

I assume the two brakes were there because one is engine only and the other is the whole train. Obviously asking the engine to stop 20 wagons of coal by itself is asking a bit much of it

IIRC dynamic brakes even applied brakes on the rear first so that the rear car was effectively "pulling" the rest of the train to a stop, rather than having the front engine brake and have the rest of the consist slam into it. Locomotive brakes is for the loco only.

Steam engines make sense to me, it's how each control works with each other and how you were to "mix" them together that makes it interesting. To quote EinsteinEP from another thread:

Okay but what is the the point of a locomotive brake when you can just use the train brake even when you have no cars coupled. The locomotive brake just seems so unnecessary to me which is why I'm dying to know the reason it exists.

Remember the train is the whole thing and the engine is just the bit driving it.

I assume (and may easily be wrong) that 1 brake is engine only and the other is the whole train. In theory you should not be able to use the train brake when you have nothing attached to the engine!

I will be honest with you and don't even click the different brakes. I just use the brake leaver as it is and it always does the trick. I couldn't tell you if that's the train or the engine brake! I should know but I don't. It just works.

Maybe but at least in any train sim I've played the train brake has worked on the locomotive even it there are no cars attached

"It's not a bug, it's a feature!"

Lol, true, train brake should not work if it's just the engine... at least I think so. No real experience in trains so...

I was probably wrong saying you should not be able to use the train brake when it's just the engine. It will activate the engine brake and the connection to the train won't be complete so it will do nothing.

What I should have said is it's not good practice to use the train brake when it's just the engine. You would just use the engine brake only.

As a non-train driver these are only assumptions of course.

Makes perfect sense to me.

I only just realised there was a train brake

It might explain why on some scenarios I started with 4 passenger cars and when I halted at my destination there was just my engine. I was most surprised at the lack of train on my train.

No that was just a bug in the first release of TS2012, fixed now though.
Some peeps got what you had others had stretchy couplings.

Being childish I like to select a fast train then uncouple from what's behind and take off to see how fast I can go. 140mph is the fastest I can get out of this sim using UK stuff.

LOL, does that sim model damage?

I've always wondered what would happen if a train smashed into the buffers at the end of a track at full speed

No. The game just stops and all input is frozen with a message that you crashed etc.

Spoilsports

Lol, yeah. Would love to watch the destruction.

Yeah that would be a nice change.

Remember that old PC Indy500 game? In the game shop we used to demo it by starting races and turning around to ram all the oncoming cars. Spectacular crashes, everyone loved that. Probably sold more copies for that than actual racing.