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Cover page 

May-Jun 

2005 

v3n3 

The 'zine of 

small 

computer 

railroading

In this issue 

From the Publisher: Another Milestone 

Field Notes: Transitions 

The Long and Short: This ‘n That 

Personal: Meet Jeff Barr 

Trainz Operations: The Razorback Railway 

Trainz Feature: A Pair of Museum Routes 

Trainz Feature: Let’s Get That Waterfall Flowing! 

BVE Extra: Converting Older Trains to Use BVE 4 Timetables 

In Transit: Tramming in Amsterdam 

Narrow Gauge: Big Fun From a Small Route 

Basic Trainz: Using the Forum, Part 2 

Download Gold: Now For Something Completely Different! 

Reference: Train Sim Webfinder 

Credits 

Virtual Railroader - 2 - May – June 2005

From the Publisher 

Another Milestone 

By Alfred Barten 

W 

e did it! With this issue we have just completed a full year as Virtual Railroader. 

If you count our Virtual Model Railway Journal, we have just completed a year 

and a half. Either way, it’s something to be proud of. I have each issue of VR 

bound in a half-inch three-ring binder, lined up on the shelf behind my desk. I often reach 

back and grab an issue to see how we said something, or more importantly, how to do this 

or that thing. I sincerely hope you, our readers, are finding our efforts to be equally useful 

to your enjoyment of virtual railroading. 

Looking back, there are a lot of things we tried. Some worked well 

and continue to be a part of our present thinking. Others worked 

less well and may or may not reappear some day in revised format 

or re-energized approach. One thing you can count on is that we 

will continue to be on the lookout for ways to improve VR. 

In this issue 

In place of my usual editorial I added a Field Notes column. This 

column is aimed at looking carefully at the things we are modeling 

– landscape, buildings, trains, and people. It’s what modelers do. 

Steve Legge gives us a good idea of what life is like on the 

Razorback Railway, an online Trainz railway filled with scenarios 

and interesting driving. 

Eezypeazy, who prefers to keep his true identity a mystery, gives 

us some valuable information for working with the new BVE 4, in 

this installment converting older trains so they can use BVE 4 

timetables. 

Colin McKinney is back with the concluding part of his Basic Trainz 

article on using the Trainz Forum. Many of us take the Forum for 

granted, but Colin’s careful examination of the features may 

surprise even some old-timers. 

John D’Angelo brings us a bevy of articles, including “Meet Jeff 

Barr,” who many know as Magicland. Jeff has created numerous 

items for the Trainz Download Station (DLS), such as NYCTA 

subway cars, Budd RDC cars, and New York area class 1 

locomotives and railway cars. 

John also describes the technique for adding an animated waterfall 

to your route, and covers in his Download Gold article the terrific 

new rule by Sforget, “Emit Train Now.” This rule could forever 

change the way you use Trainz. Finally, John describes his 3 Mile 

Harbor & North Sea RR route, based on an article in the May 2005 

issue of Model Railroader. 

To round out the issue, I introduce two museum layouts for use in 

demonstrating Trainz and I review Jan Andree’s AmsterdamTram 4 


oute – a tram lover’s dream come true. I’ve also updated our 

Train Sim Web Finder and continued our odds and ends series in 

The Long and Short column. 

Well, that’s about it. We hope you enjoy it all and let us know what 

you would like to see more of (and less of). 

Cheers, 

Al 

Article ©2005 Alfred Barten. All rights reserved. 


Field Notes 

Transitions 


Spring in Western Massachusetts, a transition from Winter to Summer. Larger stones take their place 

along the river’s edge, the forest floor is rusty with last year’s fallen leaves, and larger trees along the 

bank will someday be undercut and felled by the river. 

I 

n my first (and only) year of studying mechanical engineering, I took a one-semester 

course in descriptive geometry. When I transferred to architecture I took another 

course in descriptive geometry, this one different, longer, and more inclusive. The 

first course was geared toward drawing the intersections of geometric shapes and then 

unrolling the forms as though they were made of sheet metal. The second course added 

shade, shadow, and perspective. One of the most challenging assignments we were given 

was to draw the shadow of a diamond-shaped pendant hanging in cylindrical shaped niche 

in a wall. The upper part of the niche was spherical shaped. I wince just thinking of that 

assignment. 


Intersections 

For any artist trying to draw three-dimensional shapes, 

intersections are an important factor in describing the forms. We 

can see this best in nature where crystalline forms are involved. 

There is one form, which if presented by itself in its entirety, has 

no intersections. That’s a sphere, and it requires the shading 

provided by light to define its surface. 

In the real world, not the abstract one of descriptive geometry, 

much more is at play than intersections. I’ve already alluded to 

one, light; but there are more. As 3D modelers we need to 

examine the things that make our renderings believable. I’m going 

to take the idea of intersections to a more realistic level and refer 

to that level as transitions. 

Transitions 

Transitions include intersections, but are more complex. They are 

also needed in nearly all cases if we want to present something 

realistically. Take a cube, for example. If the cube is all brown and 

placed with one face resting on a horizontal plane that’s all green, 

we can see that the cube is sitting on the plane or suspended 

above the plane or coming up through the plane. We can’t 

distinguish among the three unless we add light and shadow. 

(Moreover, if the plane were tipped and the cube were suspended 

above the plane, we would not know either condition.) Even adding 

light, and assuming the plane is level, we can’t tell whether the 

cube is sitting on the plane or coming up through it unless we 

know that we’re dealing with a cube. Then we would know by the 

proportions of the visible object. 

Buildings. In real life, say a house sitting on the ground, we have 

familiar clues that can help us determine the exact relationship of 

the house and the ground. A house is generally built on top of a 

foundation, and a bit of that foundation pokes up through the 

ground to keep the wood framing of the house away from the 

ground, where it is likely to wick up moisture. In America we are 

also accustomed to surrounding our foundations with bushes, 

though that would not be the case with a barn. 

Something else happens besides light, shadow, and shading (notice 

the side facing the sun is a lighter shade of its color than the side 

not facing the sun). The ground around the house may be different 

in the sense that it is more worn where people walk, and is 

probably greener where the lawn is maintained than where the 

lawn is allowed to become meadow. We may also notice that 

variations occur in paving that surrounds a building, especially if 

automobile traffic is involved. 


Note the variations in building wall colorations from shadows, weathering, and construction; the dark 

line along the walls just above the water; and the vegetation growing from crevices in the walls. 

Nature. The most interesting transitions occur in nature. Study the 

transition between land and water. There are many variations. The 

ocean is separated from grassy areas by a rocky shore or a beach. 

A forest is separated from a field by various bushes and shrubs 

that love the forest edge but can’t survive inside the forest. Moss 

grows over rocks, and trees and bushes grow out of crevices in 

rocks. 

Water. Lakes, rivers, streams, and marshes all have different 

transitions with the surrounding dry land and are worth studying in 

themselves. The streams where I live tend to handle runoff water 

from higher elevations. The streambeds are gravelly with plenty of 

small stones. The lager stones are more apt to be along the edges 

of the stream, though the exact locations of the edges vary 

according to the season and the current weather. The variations in 

stream activity and underlying ground produce pockets of deeper 

water and shallower eddies, which in turn produce variations in 

vegetation along the banks. Trees are apt to grow along the edges, 


only to be undermined and felled when the banks are cut away by 

the rushing waters. 

Note the demarcation of the water and the marshy grasses. The dead tree trunks are 

also examples of transition where bog meets forest. 

Mist is also a transition. 


Even a still pond has some sort of delineating edge between the 

water and dry ground. This could be shadow from overhanging 

growth or reflections in the water showing the underside of the 

vegetation or different vegetation exposed by a lower water level. 

Ground cover planted at tree base is a man-made transition. 

Trees. Trees, as they grow older, often raise the ground in their 

immediate surrounding as the spreading roots come closer to the 

surface. Trees with spreading roots also have the tendency to drain 

nutrients from the surrounding lawn, leaving a browner area at the 

tree’s base. The reverse can also happen. A tree can shade a 


portion of a lawn enough to keep that portion lush while other 

parts of the lawn dry out in August and turn brown. 

Groups or groves of trees change the ground beneath them as 

fallen leaves or pine needles change the ground to a rusty orange. 

Depending on the lighting, we may also see the ground as dark 

from the heavy shadows that a dense group of trees, especially 

conifers, can create. 

Note how the ground rises to meet the tree. 


Weather. Let’s not forget the effects of long-term exposure to the 

weather. Barns fade and often show a marked contrast in 

coloration from high to low. Wood telephone poles are uniformly 

colored only when new. After the sun gets to them the creosote or 

weather-resistant compounds they are treated with begin to bleach 

and wash out. Such poles are lighter at the top than at the bottom. 

Simulations 

Our simulations have a way to go before they provide us with all 

the tools we need to create perfect renditions of scenery; but 

armed with a recognition of the forces at work and the variations 

they produce, as well as having a willingness to carefully observe 

our surroundings, we can find ways to improve our scenery. 

Start by anchoring buildings with a dark or musty spray – very 

lightly – around their bases. Do the same with trees. Study 

waterways carefully and look for ways to make a distinguishing 

texture between land and water. One way is to use a different 

green along the water’s edge. Another way is to bring the dark 

water bottom up onto the ground. Add minor variations to 

uniformly textured surfaces. If handled with a light touch, textures 

can be applied in semi-transparent layers. 

Begin to observe nature and man-made structures whenever the 

opportunity arises. If you can, take plenty of pictures for reference. 

You may have to remember a location when passing by in a car 

(please keep your eyes on the road!) and then come back at some 

more opportune time. 

There are so many variations in real life scenes that it’s difficult to 

present the subject in a less-than-general way, but I’ll be looking 

for opportunities to describe single settings and present them in 

future Field Notes articles. 

Al 

Article and screen shots ©2005 Alfred Barten. All rights reserved. 


The Long and Short 

This ‘n That 


Multi-document 

text editor 

Every now and then I explore the shareware world for handy 

utilities. The one I turned up recently is called Super NoteTab. (I've 

since found others like it.) Super NoteTab lets you open a group of 

text files and places each one in a tab, much like the multiple 

worksheet idea with Excel. I mention this particularly with BVE 

in mind because I find that when I'm building routes I often have 

the route file and several object files open at the same time, going 

back and forth, tinkering with adjustments. Super NoteTab is 

perfect for this. You can find it free at most shareware sites. Super 

NoteTab has a payware sibling, NoteTab Pro, that sells for $5 at 

http://www.ideamarket.com . The latter is faster and has a 

number of added features. 

Features I'd like 

to see in Trainz 

There are plenty of things I'd like to see in Trainz, but here 

are two features that rise to the top. I'm not a programmer, so I 

may be asking for the moon without realizing it. Still, I can dream, 

can't I 

Fine line nozzle. Oh how I wish a could texture a finite portion of 

the landscape grid, making a point or a small circle or even a line. 


The texturing seems to work like a spray gun. So, by my 

reasoning, if a spray gun can be narrowed down, why can't we do 

it with our texturing 

Group and lock objects. How often have you placed two or more 

objects together to form a third Most graphics and page layout 

programs let you group these objects together so they act as one. 

In many cases you can even lock them together so they don't 

come apart inadvertently while being moved. This capability would 

be a great addition to Trainz Surveyor. 

Working with 

widescreen 

I recently had a look at a widescreen laptop. Its 17-inch 

display was phenomenal - smooth, grainless, sharp. All those 

building signs and rolling stock road names were clearly legible. 

The widescreen, as you might expect, has a different aspect ratio 

than the normal screen. DirectX and OpenGL don't pick up on this, 

with the result that your images are elongated. I did a little 

investigation and found a full fix for Trainz, a partial fix for BVE, 

and a hint of a fix for MSTS. 

Trainz. The key in Trainz is to add the width and height 

parameters to the trainzoptions.txt file. Follow these steps: 

1. Open TRS2004 folder 

2. Open trainzoptions.txt file using Notepad 

3. Add a line for the width and another for the height. The 

following is for a 17" widescreen with 1920x1200 

resolution: 

-width=1920 

-height=1200 

4. Save the file 

BVE. The only way to handle widescreen with BVE is to run BVE in 

windowed mode. This produces a disappointingly small, though 

sharp, image on a large screen. 

MSTS. I searched one forum for answers and found one person 

who claimed to have solved the problem by tinkering under the 

hood (along the lines of what you do with Trainz), but couldn't 

remember what he had done. I spent some time looking for things 

one might change in MSTS, but came up empty handed. 


Sample page from Rail Font catalog. 

Rail Fonts 

Benn Coifman's Rail Fonts have been around for a number of years 

now. I even contributed some artwork for his Transit font before I 

became involved in train simulation. The idea is that each font 

produces graphic images instead of a letters, numbers, or 

characters. Some of Benn's fonts, however, do produce letters, etc. 

These are fonts patterned after various railroads and are perfect 

for lettering rolling stock in Trainz, BVE, and MSTS (not to mention 

other simulators). The list of available railroads now includes 

Southern Pacific, Rio Grande, C&O, Western Maryland, New Haven, 

New York Central, Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley, Union Pacific, 

Seaboard, Atlantic, Nickel Plate, Burlington, Illinois Central, CSX, 

Conrail, and Great Western Railway (England). Some of Benn's 

picture fonts may be useful for creating signs along the right-ofway 

as well. And of course there are the railroad heralds, which 

could come in handy for rolling stock. Benn has a full catalog and 

online service at his web site, http://www.railfonts.com 

Al 



Personal 

Meet Jeff Barr 

By John D’Angelo with Jeff Barr 

W 

hen I started using Trainz, it had just been released and the availability of 

custom items were at their minimum. I remember going to Trainz-Luvr.com and 

the Trainz Download Station for any items that I could add to my Trainz 

Community Edition program. One item I hungered for was a good heavyweight Pullman car, 

and I also hoped to find passenger cars for other class one trains such as the 20 th Century 

Limited. It was Jeff Barr who came to the rescue. Under the screen name of Magicland, Jeff 

created beautiful examples of passenger rolling stock. As seen below, this is a series of 

screenshots of Jeff’s 20 th Century Limited running along the Hudson River on NYOW2000’s 

New York City Region Route. 


20 th Century Limited. 


Jeff also created beautiful sets of Pennsylvania Railroad 

heavyweight Pullmans, which I gladly added to my roster of rolling 

stock. Seen below is a screenshot of his Pennsylvania Railroad 

Pullman Observation at the tail end of the Broadway Limited. I 

added the people for this picture. 

Broadway Limited. 

Jeff Barr has continued to contribute rolling stock for Trainz users 

both as freeware and payware, and has over the years greatly 

added to our enjoyment of Trainz. I would like Jeff to tell us about 

his involvement with Trainz, so let’s meet Jeff Barr! 

Hi there! 

You’ll have to excuse the paint and plaster, you’ve caught me in the middle of 

restoring a train station that hasn’t existed in the “real world” for over 25 

years (Bayonne, NJ’s West 8 th Street). 

I’ve always been interested in trains, and I’d always dreamed of having a 

large train layout, but both space and finances always seemed to keep that 

from happening. I’d tried various “railroad software” previously, but most 

were just useless junk. Even Microsoft’s Train Simulator fell short of what I 

wanted. It was fine if you just wanted to drive a train, but next to impossible 


if you wanted to build a route of your 

own. Then one day a copy of Auran’s 

Trainz fell into my hands. It was 

amazing. Not only could you drive the 

trains, but you could create the world 

they ran in with amazing ease. 

I immediately purchased a copy of my 

own. Of course, in those early days 

(Trainz 1.1) the program wasn’t without 

its faults. I don’t know how many hours 

of route creation I lost due to sudden 

crashes, but it was still light years 

ahead of anything else out there. One of 

the early problems was lack of 

equipment. Other than what came with 

the program, there wasn’t a heck of a 

lot available. Reskinning was just 

starting, without any instructions or 

tutorials, and creating content from scratch was attempted by only a few 

brave individuals (notably Landrvr1 and JoshEH, along with a handful of 

others). 

Driven by a desire to have items that weren’t otherwise available, I plunged 

into the dark and icy waters of reskinning. After many attempts (and lots of 

plain white or simply missing equipment) I figured out most of the required 

naming conventions, and had some Pennsy equipment running at home. I 

tried reskinning some European passenger cars as CNJ equipment, which was 

fine for me at the time, but not anything I wanted to share with anyone else. 

Then one day Josh Harvey (JoshEH) uploaded the gmax file to a GP7 that he’d 

done. I figured it shouldn’t be too difficult to add the standard CNJ “box” 

which contained the coach light generators, and after a few tries, I managed 

to do it. I reskinned these in both CNJ green paint schemes, with and without 

stripes. I believe this is among my earliest pre-SP3 content on the download 

station. 

Around this time, I 

also reskinned Scott 

Struik’s (Landrvr1) old 

CSS&SB interurbans 

as Pennsy MP54’s. Not 

satisfied, I asked him 

if I could modify his 

meshes, and he 

graciously allowed it. 

After many attempts 

at forming a suitable 

clerestory roof, I 

finally had one I was 

satisfied with, and 

released them upon an 

unsuspecting public. 


Shortly thereafter, I realized that they were too long (the whole dimension 

thing of gmax was foreign at the time), and planned a re-release once I’d 

scaled them down to the proper length. 

During this time, JoshEH released his BN lightweight passenger cars, which I 

promptly reskinned to create the 20 th Century Limited, the Phoebe Snow, and 

the Panama Limited. Then SP3 came along and turned the world as we knew 

it on end. 

Many items created prior to this would no longer work. The current KUID 

system’s usage was started, and content creators had to modify previous 

releases, or even those that did work would stop shortly (and did, when UTC 

was released). There was a LOT of old content that never did get updated, 

including JoshEH’s passenger cars. Of course, this left me pretty much out of 

business as a reskinner, as most of the things I’d skinned were either now not 

functioning, or were about to become defunct. I had two choices, create or 

quit. During this time, I’d been working to modify my MP54’s into standard 

heavyweight equipment, and was nearly finished with an ambitious 15-car 

Pennsy package, so my content creation skills were improving. I figured it 

wasn’t much of a leap from heavyweight to lightweight equipment (in fact, 

the smooth roofs made it much easier), so I went ahead and created my own 

replacements for JoshEH’s now outdated passenger cars. They even used the 

same mapping, so skins from the earlier versions would work with only minor 

adjustments. 

This was the beginning 

of a long period of 

content creation. 

Some items I created 

because I wanted 

them, some to update 

previous versions, and 

some just because it 

seemed like a good 

idea at the time (my 

Erie-Lackawanna 

snowplow falls into 

this category). Many 

projects were thrust 

upon me. When 

LRV3400 was unable 

to complete his F40PH, I volunteered to host the mesh so others could finish 

it. When I didn’t see that happening, I finished it myself, patching together 

the skin from actual photos of Amtrak engines. After a lot of work (until now 

I’d primarily reskinned other’s textures, rather than created them on my 

own), I achieved what I thought was an adequate result, though if you 

compare that version against the recently released update, they’re like night 

and day. Upon completion of that, I realized there was nothing to run behind 

it, and set about making my most ambitious project to date, the Amfleet cars. 

Due to their uniquely curving bodies, they were a challenge to get correctly. 

Fortunately, I found a photo of one from the end, which detailed the curves 

fairly well. I used this as the basis for the end, and simply extruded the body 


from there. I also had to create the bogies from scratch, as there was nothing 

like the Pioneer 2 bogies they used then in existence for Trainz. One of the 

difficulties of creating for Trainz is that sooner or later you need to make 

something but don’t know how to make, and you have to spend a lot of trial 

and error learning. Somewhere in there I also took a crack at signaling, 

creating the old PRR style signals used on the NEC in the days prior to 

Amtrak’s taking it over. 

During this period, I spent so much time on content creation that I wasn’t 

doing anything else with Trainz. All the route creation that I loved I didn’t 

have time for, so I was determined to get back to it. I started on a project 

that allowed nice, long passenger runs. Creating the terminal for one end of 

the route, I decided that I’d like it to serve both long distance passengers and 

commuter rail, so I could run a few subway cars I’d recently created as well, 

even if they had to run on the surface. Of course, one thing led to another, 

and before I knew it I was neck deep in creating a subway system for Trainz. 

One of the problems with Trainz is that the technology keeps evolving. While 

this is great for the end users, it’s a huge headache for content creators. As I 

was nearing completion of my subways (by then labeled the “Subway 

Construction Set”), Auran came out with TRS2004, which promised passenger 

support. Around this time I was also finishing up my Budd RDC’s, which I 

made after getting tired of waiting several years for Auran to release theirs. 

That took priority over the “SCS,” as Auran was also about to release their 

content CD’s, which included their unfinished RDC’s, and as I’d put a lot of 

time into my own, I didn’t want to be finally eclipsed by what I built them to 

replace. SP2 finally 

came out with the 

promised passenger 

support, six months 

late. After a lot more 

trial and error figuring 

out how passengers 

and animated doors 

worked, I added these 

features to my RDC’s, 

and released them. 

Unfortunately, the 

“SCS” took another 

hit. 

I’d designed its stations as modular splines that you could simply snap 

together in any assortment you liked. There were start modules, exit 

modules, end modules, modules with girders, modules without girders, 

everything you’d need to build a large number of stations without them all 

looking alike. Unfortunately, you can’t load passengers from splines, so to 

make the subways passenger-interactive, it would take a complete redesign 

of the station methods, a task which is still ongoing, though nearing 

completion now. 

Often projects get sidelined for reasons that the average end user doesn’t 

know, or other things come along that rate a higher priority. Then, there are 

just some things that kick around the workshop even though they’ve been 


finished for quite a while, as the items they’re meant to support aren’t ready. 

I’ve had subway signals and switches completed for over a year, but haven’t 

released them yet. I just recently released the subway track that I made 

when I created my first subway car. Eventually, with any luck, most of it will 

see the light of day. 

Old projects need to be updated. New projects pop up. And I’m finally 

working on that route I wanted to build for so long. This time it’s a 

prototypical route, which is perhaps the most diverse in the entire country (if 

not the world). It’s seen steam, electric and diesel operation, passenger and 

freight, operated by 2 class 1 railroads at the same time (the CNJ and the 

PRR); heavyweight coaches, lightweight coaches, streamlined coaches, even 

old and new electric MU’s trod its rails, often all at the same time. 

Just about every engine owned by the CNJ, the PRR, and even some others (a 

few old Southern Railroad E8’s, once used on the Southern Crescent, called it 

home prior to their retirement). Cars painted for the CNJ, PRR, Great 

Northern (in both Empire Builder and Big Sky Blue), Burlington Northern, and 

even an old FEC observation car worked it regularly, in combinations on the 

same trains. It’s a labor of love, but not without its own challenges. At the 

moment, I need a 2-track swing bridge to cross the Raritan River, and 

wouldn’t you know it, one doesn’t exist for Trainz. Looks like I’m headed back 

to the ol’ drawing board once again… 

Thanks Jeff, I appreciate your taking the time to give us a good 

insight into all the effort that creators make when they bring new 

custom items for us users. Perhaps when we download something 

that took many hours to create, we’ll be able to not take it for 

granted, but say THANKS! 

John 

Article ©2005 John D’Angelo and Jeff Barr. 

Screen shots ©2005 John D’Angelo. All rights reserved. 


Trainz Operations 

The Razorback Railway 

By Steve Legge 

T 

he Razorback Railway is, in it’s own words, the “World’s First Virtual Railway for 

Trainz…” that is, put simply, a collection of scenarios that one can run with Auran’s 

Trainz. And yet, it is so much MORE than that. This is a web site built around a 

fictional Australian-themed layout spread over 230 kilometres of Australian landscape. 

Now, lets get one thing straight before we go much further. If you are as much a train sim 

fan as I am, you can expect to lose HUGE amounts of your free time travelling the many 

routes available on the Razorback. 

Schematic diagram of Version 6. 


Driving 

You can use this layout in one of two ways. 

You can download the layout and, using Trainz Surveyor, place 

your own consists and create your own activities using the interactive 

industries already there. Or… 

You can just run various scenarios available from the Razorback 

site as a driver. These activities place you in the cab of, say, an 

Endeavor passenger consist, with your task being to travel from 

Altona to Apollo Bay, keeping to the time-table, and travelling with 

the safety and comfort of the passengers in mind. Points are 

deducted from your overall score at the end of the scenario if any 

of these parameters are breached. 

Once you have completed that activity, you might find that your 

next “task” is to take a long-haul coal run from the Goldex mine to 

the Port Hunter terminal, running an 82 Class Diesel-Electric, or a 

couple of huge GP38’s heading a 30-truck consist loaded with 

export quality coal. Slow and steady on this one!!! 

The next job may have you hauling timber from Freidman Forest to 

Rutherton Mill, all in the pouring rain – and at night! 

All these activities, (and there are over fifty of them at last count, 

with more being added regularly) take between 20 minutes and a 

couple of hours real time. In most of the scenarios, the time clock 

is sped up to enable a realistic time frame. And it’s your choice of 

whether you drive in the cab with realistic controls and levers, or 

settle for the easier DCC mode, using your keyboard buttons. 

Obviously, cab control is much more difficult, but some drivers will 

use no other method. This is what driving a train is all about! 

Super Freighter cab. 


Dispatcher page 

Membership 

The “Dispatcher” page is where you are issued “tasks”, whereby 

you are given a unique starter code to enable to you begin each 

scenario. When you have completed the task, a finishing code is 

given; this is then submitted to the Dispatcher so that a record is 

kept of all your completed (or failed) tasks. You can have as many 

practice runs on each task as you like, until you are happy with 

your final result. 

The Razorback Railway is free to join; all that’s required is 

registration and preferably the latest version of TRS2004 on your 

computer. There is a range of forums available, ranging from 

FAQ’s, to in-depth discussions and help for the scenarios, and 

general Trainz chat. There’s also a “First Class Club Lounge”, 

available only to Razorback Access members. As I have mentioned, 

membership is free, however, purchasing an Access membership 

(available at the Shop) for a nominal fee enables you to get 

advanced access to the latest scenarios, plus priority help if you 

have a problem with your scenario. You simply go to the activity 

page and raise a “problem” ticket. Also at the shop are CD’s and 

membership renewals. 

Razorback Railway home page. 


So, if your thing is to design and create your own unique layouts, 

then Surveyor is for you. But if you want to just sit in the cab and 

drive, then the Razorback Railway is just the place for you! All this 

and more is available at http://www.razorbackrailway.com 

Steve 

Article and screen shots ©2005 Steve Legge. All rights reserved. 


Trainz Feature 

A Pair of Museum Routes 


Completion of the return run from Stockdale to Blantyre. 

H 

ave you ever tried to demonstrate the wonders of Trainz to someone only to realize 

that with a little better organization and preparation you could have made a killer 

presentation instead of just a good one (By the way - there are no bad 

presentations with Trainz.) 

I’ve wrestled with the question and finally decided to create a pair of layouts I could count 

on. One is for standard rail; the other for trolleys. Both are in a museum setting, which 

provides advantages in size, scope, operation, choice of rolling stock, and expansion. 

The layouts are the same, except the trolley route adds turning 

loops at each end. In essence, the museum run consists of two 

stops, about ¾-mile apart. Operation is out and back. For the Rail 

Museum route the locomotive disengages at each stop and runs 

around the train to be at the head end for the return trip. For the 

Trolley Museum route the trolley just runs around the loop. 


Stockdale 

Station 

Viaduct 

Expansion 

Rail Museum Route 

Blantyre 

Station 

Industry 

Flanking the museum in each case is a two-track viaduct with 

portals at each end. I use the viaduct to provide background trains 

running in AI mode. Adjoining the museum is a local branch line 

freight operation to serve the neighboring industries. The museum 

can be thought of as operating over a section of the branch line. 

Turning 

loop 

Expansion 

Trolley Museum Route 

Turning 

loop 


I’ve added a lot of little things to each layout that will become part 

of the demos. These include track markers for use as destinations, 

speed signs to keep automatic train moves at realistic speeds, and 

cameras to enable attractive hands-off viewing. I preset track 

switches to let automatic operation, especially with trolleys, follow 

a prescribed route. The trolleys will track through a trailing switch 

regardless of which way the switch is thrown, thus you only need 

to be concerned with divergent switches. I also turned off the 

online help. Now I don’t have to turn it off each time I go into 

Driver mode. 

Turning loops are perfect for automatic trolley running. 

Portals 

The portals at each end of the viaduct need to be programmed 

before you can use them. John D’Angelo has covered portals in 

detail in previous articles (see “Portals to fun” VMRJ 15 May 2004 

and “George’s Gorge Basic Edition for Virtual Railroader Readers” 

VR March-April 2005) so I’ll just give an outline here. 

Remember, portals are treated by Trainz as objects. Open the 

Objects palette in Surveyor, select the “Get object ‘G’ ” tool, and 

click on a portal. Now select the “Edit properties ‘N’ ” (question 

mark) tool on the palette and click the portal. The Properties sheet 

displays. 

You can experiment with different settings. For the portals with 

“In” as part of their names (right-hand tracks), all you need to do 


is select “Consume trains” and “Accept all trains”. (If you are 

programming for use in countries where it is normal to drive on the 

left, you can reverse my left-hand and right-hand comments.) 

For portals with “Out” as part of their names, you will want to 

select “Produce new trains” (I set 3-minute intervals in one 

direction and 4-minute intervals for the other direction. That way I 

avoid any obvious pattern as to meeting place on the viaduct.) You 

can have a random selection of different trains if you like. My rapid 

transit trains are all alike. 

I find it easiest to have previously created and saved consists for 

ready selection. You will also need to select a driver from the list in 

order to issue instructions. I just use the “Drive to South In” or 

“Drive to North In” command depending on which portal I’m 

programming. You can get fancy and have a train stop at some 

point and wait, but in order to do so will need to insert a track 

mark somewhere along the viaduct for each track. 

A museum theme provides a good excuse for running (left to right) a PCC car, a Peter Witt, a pair of 

British double deckers, and an articulated LRV. Note the rapid transit train on the viaduct. 


Operation 

Driver commands. Right-click the locomotive to bring up a list of 

commands. You can issue commands one at a time for execution 

or you can build a string of commands to be performed in 

sequence. When setting up a sequence, begin with the “Wait for >” 

command and select enough time to let you enter the remaining 

commands before the action begins. 

For the Rail Museum route you can use the following sequence: 

Wait for > 30 seconds 

Drive To Trackmark > Stockdale West 


Run Around Train 

Drive To Trackmark > Blantyre T1 M 


Run Around Train 


For the Trolley Museum route you can use the following sequence: 


Drive To Trackmark > Stockdale West 


Drive To Trackmark > Stockdale East 


Drive To Trackmark > Branch Line Jct 

Drive To Trackmark > Blantyre Loop 

Drive To Trackmark > Blantyre T1 M 

View points. Four views are available: Cab View, External View, 

Tracking View, and Free Roaming. I generally demonstrate the first 

three. For the Cab View, though, you will want to make sure your 

loco has a good cab interior. I find the GE 44T diesel switchers by 

Eric Stork are good. I also like the RDC’s by Magicland. I 

encountered a nonfatal stack dump error when using the RDC’s 

and the NYCTA Low-V subway cars (on the viaduct), which I “fixed” 

by removing the offending “lights” script. The procedure is 

described at the end of the article. 

Cab view from a GE 44 ton diesel switcher. 

Manual control. You can operate the museum trains in manual 

mode and even select different pieces of equipment to run. Another 


option is to set the museum trains running with a string of 

commands and then jump over to the freight operation and switch 

cars manually. With the Trolley Museum layout you can just set a 

car going and ignore it. The turning loops take care of everything 

else. 

Layout extension 

One thing I like to show is how easy it is to build routes. Both 

demo routes are designed to be extended by simply adding a new 

baseboard to the west side. You can extend the freight line track 

and the museum track at Stockdale, each in their own fashion, or 

you can join them for continuous running. In any case, the 

following are things I like to show when extending the route, which 

I save to a new name before extending: 

Switches 

Tunnel 

Water 

Cut and fill 

Portal 

Placing buildings and scenery 

Placing object splines 

Texturing 

Placing cameras 

If you expand your route you may want to consider running the 

freight line into a portal. You can send freight trains to the portal 

as you please, and have new ones appear as you please by using 

the “Emit Train Now” rule (see John D’Angelo’s Download Gold 

article in this issue entitled “Now For Something Completely 

Different!”) 

Dependencies 

The two layouts should be available at the Trainz Download Station 

(DLS) by the time you read this. All dependencies other than the 

ones built into Trainz TRS2004 are available from the DLS. 


Fixing some rolling 

stock problems 

In testing the routes, I discovered that two classes of train cars 

caused nonfatal stack dump errors. One group was the Budd RDC 

cars by Magicland; the other was the NYCTA Low-V subway car, 

also by Magicland. Both have a problem with a script involving 

lights. Specifically, the cars have red running lights at both car 

ends. The script turns the lights off at whichever end is considered 

front. (The end can be toggled in the cab-view mode by pressing 

the Alt-C key combination.) 

I solved the stack dump error problem by taking the script out of 

play. That means the red running lights now are on at both ends 

and at all times, but I find it preferable to being interrupted by 

error messages. Both cars are useful for the demo, especially the 

RDC’s since there is no suitable American substitute (British users 

can use the GWR AEC cars). 

Here’s how to modify the cars: 

Locate proper config.txt file 

1. Follow this path to open the Downloads folder: 

Auran\TRS2004\World\Dispatcher\Downloads\ 

2. Locate the folder of the car in question. These are the ones I’m 

concerned with: 

kuid 58843 150 (New York Central RDC) 

kuid 58843 151 (Central of New Jersey RDC) 

kuid 58843 155 (New Haven RDC) 

kuid 58843 310 1 (NYCTA Low-V) 

Modify config.txt file 

3. Open the folder and, using Notepad, open the config.txt file 

4. Locate the line: 

script “lights” 

Insert a semi-colon at the start of the line, turning the line into 

a comment: 

;script “lights” 

5. Save the file. 

Enjoy the ride! 

Al 



Trainz Feature 

Let’s Get That Waterfall Flowing! 

By John D’Angelo 

Animated waterfall at George’s Gorge. 

I 

n the March-April issue of Virtual Railroader we introduced a free route, called 

George’s Gorge, which could be downloaded from our site. The route was designed so 

that it would have no custom items, using only standard issue track and scenery 

items from the basic TRS2004 program. The route is still available. It is a minimalist route, 

although generous in size, to allow the person with the slowest running acceptable 

computer to run the program without frame rate problems. It is also a teaching tool. 

Our plan is to add scenery and other items to the route over time 

and to describe the process so that anyone who has the route can 

read the article, and then add the custom items themselves if they 

wish. For this issue of Virtual Railroader we will create an animated 

waterfall under the high trestle at George’s Gorge. 


Original cliff. 

The original cliff under the trestle only had texturing that came 

with TRS2004 and no waterfall animation. We will now redraw the 

textures with new textures that are available from the Trainz 

Download Station (DLS). After we are finished texturing the cliff we 

will then add the animated waterfall effect. For the waterfall 

texturing I chose the following textures created by atsfrr3000: 

Waterfall01 

Waterfall02 

Waterfall03 

KUID:89219:100026 

KUID:89219:100027 

KUID:89219:100028 

For the rock look I chose: 

Greystone Crack 

KUID -1:1007 (Standard Issue) 

The animated waterfall effect and the rowboat are by Vulcan: 

Waterfall Effects 

Rowboat 

KUID:60238:27146 

KUID:60238:26141 


OK, let’s get going! 

The George’s Gorge route came with standard issue sky and this is 

an excellent time to give that sky some extra spark. My favorite 

sky look is called Golden October by CAB (KUID: 60349:21004). 

After downloading it from the DLS you can select the sky using the 

world menu. 

Golden October sky. 

The very next thing to do is to clear some water from the bottom 

of the cliff. This will enable you to see better when you place the 

waterfall effect and the rowboat. 


Clearing away the water. 

OK, the water’s been pulled back, the sky looks good; it’s time to 

paint! 


Painting in the textures. 

Painting in textures is a subjective process, and you may decide to 

try things differently for your own pleasure. For this scene I first 

used the water texture with the striping and rotated it using the 

“direction” arrow so that the striping effect was vertical. I then 

“fogged in” the other two water textures until I felt I had a decent 

balance of water look. It’s a bit of a trial and error process. Finally I 

used the rock texture to darken the rocks in the front of the 

waterfall to give depth to the image. I used the smallest radius for 

my paintbrush to do my painting and I really hope that someday 

Auran can create a very sharp and narrow brush effect. 

Adding the 

waterfall effect 

The waterfall effect is one of my favorite devices for adding the 

illusion of falling water/mist. When you add it to the route it 

appears as an icy rock with a curved mist of water that moves 

down from above. It can be moved up or down using the height 

adjust tool, back and forth and rotated to any angle. This gives you 

complete freedom to adjust the stream to fit any area as you wish. 

It also includes a rushing water sound effect which makes it very 

effective. Nice job, Vulcan! 


All the waterfall units are added. 

As you can see from the above picture, I have added four 

individual waterfall units. I will now fit them into the scene by 

rotating them and lowering them for the effect I want. 


The first unit has been rotated. 

The units have been rotated, moved into the cliff and lowered. 


You need to move the units into the cliff so that the tops of the 

water spray look like they’re coming from the cliff. If you don’t 

move them far enough in, the spray will look like it is starting from 

mid-air, and this will hurt the illusion. Using a side view will help 

the process. When you lower the units into the ground to get the 

effect you want on the cliff, sometimes the base will be totally 

underground. I switch to wire frame mode at this point to make 

any further adjustments of the units’ bases. 

Wire frame mode. 

I placed three units against the cliff and the fourth unit directly in 

front of the second unit, but dropped down in order to give that 

stream a tumbling out effect. 


Adding the rowboat. 

To add the rowboat, I place it on the riverbed before I put back the 

water and, by using the height adjust tool, raise it above the level 

the water will be. I then add back the water. 


Lowering the boat to the water. 

I use the height adjust tool and lower the rowboat until I see water 

in the bottom of the boat, then raise it until the water disappears 

from the bottom. 


The gorge in winter. 

For this winter scene of the waterfall, I changed the water textures 

a bit to make the water look colder and changed the sky from 

October to January. A little light snow and we have a nice winter 

view. 

One important note: Don’t forget to save your route after doing 

your work! My wife called me as I finished building the scene in the 

article, and I exited the route without saving it! I’ll be going back 

to rebuild it and it will most probably be a little different when I get 

finished, but that’s the fun! 

John 

Article and screen shots ©2005 John D’Angelo. All rights reserved. 


BVE Extra 

Converting Older Trains to Use BVE 4 Timetables 

By eezypeazy 

Enlarged timetable. 

V 

ersion 4 of BVE, Mackoy’s superb freeware railway simulator, was released in 

January this year. There’s no doubt that it provides a superior driving experience 

compared to the earlier version. 

However, to take advantage of many of the improvements, the army of volunteer 

developers around the world will need to either develop new BVE 4 compatible trains or 

make significant amendments to their existing work. 

How it works 

Probably the feature that most simmers need is the BVE timetable. 

BVE 4 works differently from BVE 2. It uses a bitmap image of the 

timetable, which can only be displayed in compatible train cabs. So 

I delved into how BVE 4 works with existing trains, to see how I 

could resolve the problem to make trains display the timetable. 

I found that BVE 4 needs an extra file in the train folder, named 

panel2.cfg. This file, in fully compatible trains, contains all the 

statements needed to make not just the timetable, but also all the 

other features, such as AWS, work properly. I felt that all these 


extras were beyond my ability at the moment – all I wanted to do 

was get the timetable working! 

When you run BVE 4, if it fails to find a panel2.cfg file for your 

train, it creates a temporary one in a temporary folder. My 

machine runs Windows XP with SP2, so the temporary folder is 

created in c:\documents and setting\username\local……\bve. If you 

watch the text at the bottom of the window as BVE 4 loads, you’ll 

see where this folder is on your machine. As well as creating the 

panel2.cfg file, BVE 4 also creates the bitmaps it needs for the cab 

to work properly, and places these in the temporary folder as well. 

So, all you need to do is copy the contents of that folder, and paste 

them into your train folder. Beware – this will overwrite some of 

the cab bitmaps with new ones, which are also larger files. 

Tips 

Tip 1 Run BVE4 in windowed mode, so that while it’s running you 

can go to the temporary folder to get its contents. If you run full 

screen, when you exit BVE 4, the contents of the temporary folder 

gets deleted! 

Tip 2 Before you start, make a copy of your trains, so that if 

anything goes wrong, you can revert to them! 

Tip 3 This fix works for me in most routes. I don’t guarantee it to 

work at all, nor can I accept responsibility should it not work, or 

cause any damage of any kind… be warned! 

Next time you run BVE 4 it will use the panel2.cfg and bitmap files 

in your train folder, rather than making temporary ones. 

Next step 

The next thing to do is to modify the panel2.cfg file to enable your 

train to display BVE 4 timetables. You do this by adding a 

[timetable] statement, which should look something like this: 

[Timetable] 

Location = 300, 300 

Width = 128 

Height = 128 

Layer = 15 

Location is measured from top right. The example shown above 

draws the timetable starting at a point 300 down the screen and 

300 across. Precisely where you want the timetable to appear is a 

matter of personal choice. 

Width and Height are the dimensions in which the bitmap will be 

displayed. 

Layer is the picture layer in which the image will be displayed. 15 

is topmost, so it makes sense to use that number. 


And there you have it. The next time you run BVE 4, your train will 

be able to make use of the timetable, assuming you are using a 

BVE 4 compatible route, properly coded and including the timetable 

bitmap. 

Cab view without timetable modification. 

Timetable added 

to display 

Cab view with timetable modification. 

Copyright issues 

Next, I faced the problem of copyright. Obviously, the original 

authors retain all rights to their work, and this must be 

acknowledged and respected. There are some marvelous trains out 

there! By publishing this “how to”, I’m simply telling you how you 

can “switch on” BVE 4 timetables. However, to make it easier, I’ve 

added some “update” files to my web site. Here, you can download 

the extra files you will need that I’ve created as above – simply 

extract them into your train folders! But, YOU MUST DOWNLOAD 

THE ORIGINAL TRAINS FROM WHEREVER THE AUTHORS HAVE 


THEM HOSTED. If I were to distribute the original files, I would be 

most definitely breaching intellectual property rights, which I am 

not prepared to do. 

The trains I’ve produced extra files for so far are: 

Class 104 DMU 

Class 156 Sprinter DMU 

Class 43 HST 

Virgin Voyager class 

Class 87 

… and that’s merely because these are my favourite trains. 

Now, how about having a go yourself at doing other mods, such as 

working windscreen wipers, AWS, etc, etc…. 

Enjoy! 

eezypeazy 

Article and screen shots ©2005 eezypeazy. All rights reserved. 


In Transit 

Tramming in Amsterdam 


“T 

hat’s Centraal Station … This is the Red Light District … Next will be 

Rembrandtsplein.” 

A member of my audience was identifying – even anticipating – the locations 

along the route. I was showing a small group of museum representatives the 

potential of Trainz, and had chosen Jan Andree’s Amsterdam routes as samples because 

they had so much life and interest in them – a huge contrast with the Microsoft Train 

Simulator route I had just shown. 

I had been to Amsterdam for 5 days back in 1990 and had ridden 

the trams as much as I could during that time without missing the 

many other sights. Since I was curious about the accuracy of this 

person’s prediction I quickly pressed the M key to have a look at 

the map. 

Guess what He was right on the nose! 

And that’s what I would say about Jan’s routes: right on the nose. 

These are beautiful and great fun to drive. The streets are filled 

with vehicles, people, and sounds; and lined by small shops and 

apartments. At first I assumed the routes were an approximation, 

but when I checked Route 4 on my Amsterdam street map I 

realized that the routes were in accordance with the prototype. 

Routes and trams 

The two routes go by the names AmsterdamTram 4 and 

Amsterdam Tram 4 SP2. Both are available at the Trainz Download 

Station (DLS). 

AmsterdamTram 4 is the earlier of the two and a bit smaller. It 

comes as a basic route that you place trams on in Surveyor and 

then run in Driver. Amsterdam Tram 4 SP2, which I’ll cover in a 

second part of this article, comes as a route you run in Driver with 

sessions already set up. It takes advantage of Trainz’s ability to 

load and unload passengers. In order to run it properly you will 

need Max Moire’s Tram and Beiwagen trailer. In runs that I’ll 

illustrate later, I selected the nighttime run to contrast with the 

daytime run in the first route. 


For AmsterdamTram 4, I like to drive the PCC cars or Boston’s 

Type 7. The reason is that both have credible, though not quite 

correct (as another member of the audience pointed out), cab 

views. Both of these cars and their variations are available at the 

DLS. The same cab view that’s used for the PCC and Type 7 is also 

used by the Muni LRV. Unfortunately, the cab view and exterior in 

this case are clearly out of sync with each other. 

RAI 

Centraal 

Station 

AmsterdamTram 4 map. 

The PCC is not entirely out of place in a European setting. Though 

the European PCCs were typically narrower than the American 

ones, they at least had a family resemblance. 

The LHB69_Tram Gt6 1969 tram by Cosey is perfect for the 

setting, and has a full interior with driver; but I had trouble with 

the cab view. I also found that the cab view of the Max Moire’s 

tram doesn’t agree with the car’s exterior. I use both cars in AI 

mode since they fit the scene so well. 

As long as I’m being fussy, I should point out that the Boston PCCs 

are incorrectly named “Type 5.” Boston cars are given a “Type” 

designation only if they are unique to Boston. PCC cars were 

certainly not unique to Boston. Neither were the Boeing LRVs, 

which I’ve seen labeled in the MSTS world as Type 6. The real 

Boston Type 5 was a semi-convertible car produced from 1922 

through 1927 and the real Type 6 never made it to production, 

being preempted by Boston’s purchase of the Boeing cars. There is 

a front-end mockup of the planned Type 6 at the Seashore Trolley 

Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. From an appearance point of 

view, I’m sorry the Type 6 never came to fruition. 


If you have the payware route Modula City 2004, you can use the 

two trams that come with the route. The seven-section ultra low 

floor NF10 Silverline has a beautiful cab with working speedometer 

and full view of the road ahead. After purchasing Modula City 2004, 

the Silverline is my tram of choice for Amsterdam. 

For Amsterdam pictures and roster listing, see this page from the 

nycsubway.org web site. 

Available models 

Here are some route and rolling stock listings. 

AmsterdamTram 4 route and suggested trams 

Name Author KUID Source 

AmsterdamTram 4 Jan Andree 45977:100001 DLS 

LHB69_TramA Cosey 112820:100:1 www.bahnwerk.com 

LHB69_TramB Cosey 112820:101:1 www.bahnwerk.com 

TYPE5 MBTA Green 1 Damon Smith 32871:320 DLS 

TYPE5 MBTA Green 2 Damon Smith 32871:330 DLS 

TYPE5 MBTA Red 1 Damon Smith 32871:350 DLS 

TYPE7 MBTA Original A Damon Smith 32871:100 DLS 

TYPE7 MBTA Original B Damon Smith 32871:101 DLS 

TYPE7 MBTA Repaint A Damon Smith 32871:110 DLS 

TYPE7 MBTA Repaint B Damon Smith 32871:111 DLS 

For the Amsterdam Tram 4 SP2 route, you must have Max’s Tram 

and Beiwagen. 

Amsterdam Tram 4 SP2 route and required rolling stock 


Amsterdam Tram 4 SP2 Jan Andree 45977:101468 DLS 

Strab, mit 4,7 m hohem Lyra-Bügel 

(Tram) 

Max Moire 50861:12:0 www.bahnwerk.com 

Strab, Beiwagen Max Moire 50861:10006:0 DLS 

When you go to Max Moire’s super German web site, 

www.bahnwerk.com, select Deutsche Loks, then Elektrischer 

Antrieb. Scroll down till you find the section labeled 


Strassenbahnen. Here you will find a number of German trams, 

some payware and some freeware. 

The following table lists the many trams I’ve found available for 

TRS2004, but excludes those listed in the other tables. There’s no 

sure way of knowing whether or not I’ve got them all, so I 

apologize for any I may have missed. 

Other trams for TRS 


Peter Witt Streetcar John Hull 316:10 DLS 

LRV MUNI A Damon Smith 32871:220 DLS 

LRV MUNI B Damon Smith 32871:221 DLS 

Strab 1 (yellow) Max Moire 50861:1 DLS 

Strab 2 (blue) Max Moire 50861:2 DLS 

TRAM – 4Wheel ClBalcClCab Alan G Smith 62391:71 DLS 

TRAM - Balcony Bogie - Hudds #71 Stephen Brook 84912:71:2 DLS 





TRAM - Open Top Bogie - Hudds #1 Stephen Brook 84912:1:2 DLS 




TRAM - Short Top Bogie - Hudds #11 Stephen Brook 84912:11 DLS 






ICEMANTRAM db143 www.bahnwerk.com 

Brightsea Tramcar Graham Smith 129997:2 DLS 

Brown Tramcar Alan G Smith 62391:53 DLS 


City Tramcar Alan G Smith 62391:40 DLS 

Light Rail Tram 5016 Trainz.nl A KLM/ANGELUS12 79824:1 DLS 

Light Rail Tram 5016 Trainz.nl B KLM/ANGELUS12 79824:2 DLS 

Light Rail Tram 5016 Original A KLM/ANGELUS12 79824:568 DLS 

Light Rail Tram 5016 Original B KLM/ANGELUS12 79824:569 DLS 

Liverpool Tramcar Alan G Smith 62391:35 DLS 

Tramway de Caen - Gare Gregory Deryckère 61109:49 DLS 

Tramway de Caen - Maladrerie Gregory Deryckère 61109:47 DLS 

Tramway de Caen – St Martin Gregory Deryckère 61109:48 DLS 

Tramway de Caen – St Pierre Gregory Deryckère 61109:45 DLS 

Tramway de Caen - Venoix Gregory Deryckère 61109:46 DLS 

Tramlok 1 Max Moire 50861:3 www.bahnwerk.com 

There’s at least one payware tram route with rolling stock available 

and another on the way. 

Payware route and rolling stock (packaged as one download for 12.95 Euro) 

Name Author Source 

Modula City 2004 (route) Rolf Westphalen and Karsten Cornelsen http://www.trainzland.com/mf_mc2004.htm 

NF10 Silverline Phil Campbell http://www.trainzland.com/mf_mc2004.htm 

LHB GT6 Coerni http://www.trainzland.com/mf_mc2004.htm 

Operations 

Now let’s get down to the fun part – operating the routes. First is 

the Amsterdam4 Tram route in daylight. 


Centraal Station through the cab of a PCC car. 

Ferris wheel and calliope sounds brighten this scene. 


Double track at canal crossing; latticed track through narrow street beyond. 

Entering the turning loop at RAI. 


Two LHB Gt6 1969 trams running in multiple, turning onto Amstel. 

Bird’s eye view of Muntplein. 


Cab view from NF10 Silverline payware tram. 

I’m happy to report that the Silverline fits in the passing tracks. 


Part 2 next 

In part 2 (next issue) we’ll drive the Amsterdam 4 Tram SP2 route 

at night. Here’s a preview. 

Cheers, 

Al 



Narrow Gauge 

Big Fun From a Small Route 


Narrow gauge coal dock at 3 Mile Harbor. 

I 

guess you can just call me “Mr. Fidgety.” Almost as soon as I finish building a route I 

start thinking about building another one; sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, but 

always with the idea of trying out something new. I’ve been this way since my first 

American Flyer layout. When I played on the beach at the summer hotel where we stayed, 

my friends and I would build sand train tracks. We made sidings, stations, even tunnels; 

and by the end of the day, when the tide came rushing up to erase what we did, the layout 

would be all over the place! I haven’t stopped since. 

Route 

This little gem of a route is not my creation. I found it in the May 

2005 issue of Model Railroader. The layout is called the “Bay Point 

& Diablo” and was built by Bill Wilson. The original route is a near 

square, around-the-walls layout measuring 11’ x 12’ and built for 

an On2½ scale railway. After looking at the plan, I felt the track 

plan would be perfect for a single baseboard route in Trainz. I 


worked the track plan into a single baseboard and then made my 

changes. 

I decided to expand the scenery on all sides of the route by an 

additional baseboard to allow for a seascape and hills in the 

background, but the track remains only on the center baseboard. 

The original route was for a southwestern look, but being a guy 

who lives out on the edge of the eastern seaboard of the United 

States, I wanted to give it a coastal look. The center of the original 

route was open for the operator to stand in, but since we don’t 

need to do this in Trainz, I made the center into a boat harbor. I 

renamed my version of the route to the 3 Mile Harbor & North Sea 

RR. 

Here’s a screen shot of the Trainzmap image: 

3 Mile Harbor & North Sea RR. 


The History of the The 3 Mile Harbor & North Sea RR is a fictional route located on the 

3 Mile Harbor & east end of Long Island, New York, and is a 3’ narrow gauge 

North Sea RR 

railroad. There are some interesting things about this route, and 

sometimes a fictional story to go along with it can help the illusion. 

The 3 Mile Harbor & North Sea RR came about when the Sparks R 

Us power plant in Connecticut made a contract with the North Sea 

Coal Mine on Long Island. 

Rather than move coal along the Long island Railroad tracks southwest 

to New York City, then back up north-east along the 

Connecticut coast on the New Haven line, the company would have 

a ship at 3 Mile Harbor load up with coal and travel directly across 

Long Island Sound to deliver the coal. This would save time and 

transportation costs. Once the plan was agreed upon, the 3 Mile 

Harbor & North Sea RR looked about for the cheapest running gear 

they could find. They were able to lease old narrow gauge 

locomotives and rolling stock from the Denver & Rio Grande 

Western. The only requirement was that the D&RGW wanted them 

to leave the rolling stock lettered for the D&RGW. Before they 

could start laying track, the Long Island Railroad also contacted 

them and advised them that the LIRR would like to be able to 

move passengers and freight from the LIRR tracks into the 3 Mile 

Harbor area. After consulting with both railroads, the 3MH&NS 

railroad brass decided to make their track dual gauge throughout 

to accommodate both standard and narrow gauge traffic. 

This was how the route was configured; there was a coal loading 

dock facing Gardner’s Bay at Three Mile Harbor from which a coal 

ship would be loaded with the coal that was delivered there by the 

coal drag from the coal mine at North Sea. At Sammi’s Beach the 

Fish Factory would supply fresh fish to Long Island customers via 

the LIRR. There were freight depots at 3 Mile Harbor, Sammi’s 

Beach and North Sea for freight delivery and pickups. 

The dual gauge track would handle all the traffic that came down 

the rails, including freight and passenger trains from the LIRR. 


3 Mile Harbor. 

Loading coal at the North Sea Coal Mine. 


3 Mile Harbor Yard. 

The Fish Factory at Sammi’s Beach, 


LIRR GP 38 heading for the Fish Factory, reefer in hand. 

Add-ons used 

For the route I used MAN6 Four Rail Track (Single Track Dual 

Gauge) KUID 63290:38017 throughout. 

The coal dock used the Coal Unloader Super Basic 

KUID:86311:45052 

All of the other industry units were LARS operation units available 

from www.trainsproroutes.com . 

All of the freight cars are LARS capable, including the narrow gauge 

ore car KUID:8661:15040. 

The D&RGW narrow gauge locomotives are available from Prowler’s 

web site: http://steammachine.com/prowler/trainz/trainz.html . 

Operations 

The key to operating this single baseboard route is the use of the 

“Emit Train Now” rule combined with portals that resemble team 

tracks at 3 Mile Harbor and North Sea. Please read my article in 

this issue’s Download Gold for a complete description of how the 

“Emit Train Now” rule works. Using this rule lets you pop trains and 

rolling stock into the route any time you want them. 

A day’s activity would consist of an empty coal drag of three cars 

being sent out from 3 Mile Harbor to the mine at North Sea, 

loading the ore cars and then heading to the coal dock at 3 Mile 

Harbor and unloading the coal. A second engine at 3 Mile Harbor 

would pick up a freight car from the team track and deliver it to a 


freight depot at North Sea or Sammi’s Beach. At North Sea a LIRR 

GP would enter at the team track with either a passenger Pullman 

for 3 mile Harbor or a reefer for the Fish Factory at Sammi’s Beach. 

Sometimes the LIRR GP would be pulling a boxcar for the freight 

depots. The GP would leave the route via the team track at North 

Sea. 

Passenger station at 3 Mile Harbor. 

Although the route is very compact, using the portals and the “Emit 

Train Now” rule can give it a whole new dimension. I hope this 

article has given you enough ideas to create your own little gem. 

John 

Article and screen shots ©2005 John D’Angelo. All rights reserved. 


Basic Trainz 

Using the Forum, Part 2 

By Colin McKinney 

Part One looked at how to register with Auran, what the different parts of a posting mean, 

and how to save time when reading by viewing new messages only. Here in Part Two are 

detailed instructions for how to search the forum to find the answer to a query you may 

have (or find a posting you read at an earlier time), and how to submit (post) your own 

messages. A small number of slightly more advanced tips is also briefly considered. 

Figure 1:The main forum page, showing where to click to open the Search page. 

S 

imply reading forum messages will certainly teach you things you didn’t know 

before, but you are not really using the forum properly until you can actively search 

for information hidden somewhere in the vast number of postings made over 

previous months or years; or until you know how to submit your own postings. As 

you gain confidence, you will also find yourself joining in some of the discussions and adding 

your comments to threads begun by other users. 

Let’s begin by conducting a search. You should do this before 

posting a question, as often topics have been covered before, 


sometimes several times, and it is no more than good manners to 

check this before posting the same question again. That said, you 

should not hesitate to ask questions at any time, as generally 

members are only too happy to help ‘newbies’ (people who are 

‘new’ to Trainz, who want to identify themselves as beginners). 

Reminder: make sure you have a live Internet connection. 

Searching the forum 

You conduct a forum search to find something specific, e.g. to 

answer a question you have, or to find something you’ve read 

somewhere on the forum in the past, but which you can’t find now. 

As an example for this article, let’s say you wonder why (in 

Surveyor) a loco sometimes faces one way when you place it on a 

track, and sometimes the other, and you want to see if this 

question has been answered already. 

Open the Search page by clicking on Forum Search on the main 

forums page (refer to the white arrow in Figure 1). Figure 2 shows 

the screen that appears. In the space at top left (red arrow), enter 

what you are looking for. Generally you will get the best results by 

entering just one or two key words. The search engine is very 

literal: e.g. “loco direction” and “locomotive direction” are two 

different searches and will yield different results. 

Figure 2: The Search page. 

You will probably have more success if you change the default 

setting to “Search titles only” (green arrow). This means exactly 

what it says: if someone posted a question and named it “Loco 

direction – why does it change” and your Keywords are “Loco 

direction”, then this search will find it. On the other hand, if 

someone posted exactly the same message but named it “This is 

driving me mad!!!”, of course it won’t be found. This is one reason, 

incidentally, for making sure that when you post messages you 

name them as descriptively as possible. 


Also, “Search titles only” is preferred to “Search entire posts” 

because the latter option may yield hundreds of threads – too 

many to be of much use. However, it does rely on members writing 

descriptive titles – and you guessing the right keywords – neither 

of which is necessarily true. You will develop your own preferred 

routine. This is mine. 

Leave all other settings as they are, and press Perform Search 

(white arrow). This will take you to the next screen – see Figure 3. 

Figure 3: Search results using the keywords “loco direction”. 

Although these thread titles look promising, in fact what you would 

find if you opened each of them in turn is that they do not discuss 

the problem we are trying to solve. This happens quite often! So 

let’s go back and try a different search, this time using the 

Keywords “wrong direction”. Figure 4 shows the results of this 

search (without the red and white arrows, of course, which have 

been added): 


Figure 4: Search results using the keywords “wrong direction”. 

Of these four results, the third one (red arrow) is unlikely, as the 

thread title shows that it is about switch levers, not locos. 

Similarly, the fourth (red arrow) is also unlikely, as it is about 

bogies, not locos – also, the Forum is one that is unlikely to have 

useful information for a beginner. However, the other two (white 

arrows) are both possible. In fact, on opening the second thread 

and reading it, you will find this section of the discussion: 

Figure 5: An extract from the second thread – direction is in red because it is a keyword. 

So there’s the solution to our example problem: the direction a 

loco faces when you place it on a track in Surveyor depends on the 

direction in which the track was laid in the first place. 

Note: After performing a search, clicking the browser’s ‘back’ 

button to return to previous pages does not always work 


properly, so instead click on the appropriate words in small 

white text at the top left of the screen, which is a ‘tree’ diagram 

showing where you are. 

One final point about searches: on the Search page, there is 

another option that can make a search that yields too many results 

less cumbersome. There is a drop-down selection box in the 

bottom half of the screen, which allows you to choose a particular 

forum in which to conduct your search, instead of all forums, which 

is the default. In the ‘loco direction’ example just used, the solution 

was found in a thread from the Route Builders forum, not General 

Trainz, which might perhaps be the forum a beginner would try 

first. However, Route Builders deals with predominantly Surveyor 

questions, so if you knew that, you could have narrowed the 

search by choosing that forum before clicking on the Perform 

Search button. 

Submitting (posting) The time will come when you want an answer to a question, you 

your first message try searching for it, but can’t find the solution. It is time to post the 

question yourself. When you’ve done this a few times you think 

nothing of it, but for many people the very first time can be a little 

daunting – after all, many thousands of other people will see it. 

The thing to remember is that EVERYONE has a first time – and, if 

you’ve spent some time reading the forums, you soon see that 

every so often there is a question from a ‘newbie’. One thing about 

the Trainz forum is that it is particularly tolerant of beginners, and 

if you say you’re new you’re likely to get many messages of 

welcome and encouragement, as well as answers to your 

questions. 

The first thing to note is that there is not one Trainz forum, but 

twelve (in English) – see Figure 1. The one you are likeliest to need 

is the first one, underneath Auran Announcements: General Trainz. 

Click on the words General Trainz, and the General Trainz Forum 

will open. Near the top of the page, click on the right hand button, 

New Thread (see arrow, Figure 6): 

Figure 6: The start of the General Trainz forum, showing where to click to post a 

message. 


A new screen will open: this is the one where you will type your 

posting. Figure 7 shows the top part of the screen. 

Figure 7: The top section of the Post New Thread screen. 

For now, only those features that concern a person posting their 

first thread will be discussed. As your confidence increases, you will 

experiment with other features – or, if you want to, you could post 

a question to find out about any of them! 

The arrows show all you need to begin a posting. First, enter a 

subject title for your thread (green arrow). This is what will appear 

on the forum page. Make your title concise, and descriptive of your 

topic: for example, How do I use yellow direction markers gives 

readers a good idea of the content of your posting. It is also better 

for search purposes in the future, as discussed earlier in this 

article. Compare that with the unhelpful heading, Newbie with a 

problem – even if it is truthful! 

Next, write your question in the panel indicated by the yellow 

arrow. Be as clear and direct as you can. It’s best to limit your 

questions to one per posting. 

The next step is to check the button next to Email Notification (see 

Figure 8, blue arrow) if you would like to receive an email 

whenever somebody replies to your posting. 


Figure 8: The bottom section of the Post New Thread screen. 

Email notification is a good idea, as it saves you having to keep 

checking your posting in the forum to see if anyone has responded. 

Of course, you need to have supplied your email address in your 

Profile for this feature to work. Finally, press the Submit New 

Thread screen (yellow arrow) and your message will be posted in 

the forum for all to see. If you have worded your question clearly 

the first response will probably arrive within minutes. 

Don’t worry if another member asks you for more information – 

just reply! (See below.) You’re almost certain to be overwhelmed 

by helpful responses. 

Responding 

(replying) to an 

existing message 

If you are reading another user’s posting – or you have posted a 

question and someone asks for clarification – don’t start another 

thread, just continue with the existing one. To do this, scroll to the 

bottom of the thread and click on the Post Reply button (light blue 

arrow, Figure 9). A screen that looks like the Post New Thread 

screen described above appears, and you use it in exactly the 

same way except you can ignore the ‘Post Subject’ box at the top – 

just write your reply directly in the large white panel then click 

Submit Reply. 

Figure 9: Posting a reply to an existing thread. 


Note: while you are in the Post Reply screen just described, if 

you want to check on other messages in the thread, you don’t 

have to go back – just scroll further down and you can see the 

other postings in the thread. For your convenience they are in 

reverse order, that is, the latest posting appears at the top. 

As a final comment regarding the posting of messages, whether 

‘thread-starters’ or responses, it should go without saying that any 

rudeness or signs of impatience will not be taken kindly by other 

forum users. (Serious rudeness contravenes forum rules and you 

can be prevented from using the forum by a forum moderator.) 

Remember that in the forum, just as with emails, something that 

might pass without comment in a letter or a conversation can often 

seem rude, so it is better to err on the side of courtesy. 

A few final pieces of 

information 

It is beyond the scope of this article to get into detail about some 

of the finer points of the forum. Like Trainz itself, there’s a lot 

there, and you learn by experimenting – or by using the forum! To 

finish up with, here is a small miscellany of items in brief: 

Main Forums page: 

● 

● 

At the bottom of the main Forums page, there is a list of all 

those members who are currently logged in. You might get by 

for years without ever using this feature, but the more familiar 

you become with the forum, the more you get to recognise 

individual members’ log-on names – if you wanted to email a 

particular member, you’d know there was a good chance they 

were at home if their name appeared in this list. 

Clicking directly on any of the names in the list mentioned 

above brings up that person’s profile 

Any specific Forum page: 

● 

● 

The coloured or flaming folders on the extreme left-hand side 

indicate how often that post has been viewed or replied to – a 

key at the bottom of the page gives the details 

At the bottom of the page there is another search you can do to 

find, say, all posts sorted alphabetically by thread title, or by 

the number of replies (i.e. which ones have generated the most 

discussion), and a number of other parameters (“Using the 

Forum, Part 1” explained how to view only messages posted 

since the last time you looked) 

When looking at a particular thread: 

● 

You can open a ‘printable version’ by clicking in the appropriate 

place at the end of the thread – one use for this would be to 

make it easier to cut and paste material into a word processing 


● 

program, if you wanted to keep particularly interesting 

messages 

You can also email the link to a particular page (thread) to 

someone by clicking on the wording at the bottom of the page 

next to the previous feature – one application for this would be 

to send such an email to yourself at home, if you were checking 

the forum at work 

When composing a new message: 

● 

● 

● 

You can experiment with formatting in a message (for example, 

bold, italic, or coloured text) by clicking/choosing the 

appropriate drop-down menu items from the area just above 

the white panel where you compose the message, THEN writing 

the word(s) to be formatted in the pop-up box before clicking 

OK and continuing with the message 

More ambitious formatting (e.g. inserting hyperlinks into your 

message) can be explored by clicking on Vb Code [help] to the 

left of the symbols just described: a knowledge of basic HTML 

would help here, but even without that you can experiment by 

copying from the Help page and pasting into the message area, 

and making the appropriate changes to the text 

If you change formatting you won’t see the effect until you 

either submit the posting or – to be on the safe side – check it 

first by clicking on Preview Post 

When adding a comment (replying) to an existing thread: 

● 

If you want to include in your reply a quote from another 

posting in the thread, locate the posting from which you want 

to quote and click the ‘quote’ button at its end. The text that 

you see (not anything in square brackets) is the entire text 

from that posting. Highlight and delete what you don’t want, 

leaving only the section which you wish to appear in your reply 

as a quotation, taking care not to cut out the square brackets 

or any of the material inside the brackets. Continue with your 

reply underneath. Preview before sending (see last point 

above). 

Colin 

Article and screen shots ©2005 Colin McKinney. All rights reserved. 


Download Gold 

Now For Something Completely Different! 


A 

s the Montey Python saying 

goes… This Download Gold 

column is about something 

completely different. It is about a single 

rule, but WHAT a rule! This rule will 

completely change the way you can 

operate with Trainz. After you place this 

rule in operation you will have complete 

freedom to add locomotives, rolling 

stock, complete trains, and even other 

devices to your route while it is in 

operation, and at any time you choose. 

Now you can operate your route just the 

way you could operate a model railroad, 

dropping cars and other items onto your 

tracks using the old 0-5-0 switcher (your hand). 

The rule is called “Emit Train Now” and is available at the Trainz 

Download Station (DLS). It was created by Sforget; the KUID 

number is KUID 2: 117746:990:1. 

This rule is designed to work in conjunction with Portals on your 

route. After the rule is installed, you have the ability to choose any 

piece of rolling stock, including any drivable items, such as aircraft, 

and assign them to be immediately sent out from any of your 

portals. When I was using portals to generate trains, they would 

start sending out the trains at regular intervals. Once I 

programmed a coal drag and set the time delay for 15 minutes, 

every 15 minutes another coal drag would appear whether I was 

ready for it or not. This rule overcomes that problem. 

Once the rule has been installed, you will see a notation on your 

driver screen saying “New Train”. Just click on that and you can 

introduce your selection into the route as it is operating. The rule is 

limited to working only when you are in DCC mode, but that seems 

to be the only limitation I can see. Because this is a rule that has 

to be added to your operation, I am going to describe the entire 

process. 


Basic procedure 

Set up the portal. In Surveyor, place the portal by Selecting 

“Portal Basic” from the Objects palette. You do not have to set any 

properties. You could select “Portal” instead, if you want the portal 

to be a tunnel. 

Activate the rule. In Surveyor, use the pull-down menu and 

choose “Edit Session”, click the Add button and choose the Rule 

“Emit Train Now”. Now click the checkmark to close the Rules sheet 

and click the next checkmark to accept the rule and close the Edit 

Session sheet. 

Use the rule. In Driver, click the New Train button in the lower 

right-hand corner of the screen. A property sheet displays. 

NOTE: The button is not visible if you have the heads up 

display turned off. You can toggle the display by pressing the 

F5 key. 

Select a train (vehicle) from the list on the left and click the Add 

button. The train appears in the right-hand list. 

Click the Send To Portal button. The property sheet closes and the 

train appears on the portal track. 

Example 

I am going to use my United Central route as the operating 

example. My route began with two portals that can be used for this 

rule. I added another, which I will explain. After the rule is 

downloaded and installed, you need to edit the session to activate 

the rule. 


Editing the session. 

Click the Add button. 


Choose the Rule “Emit Train Now”. 

Springfield Yard Team Track (Portal). 


Because this rule allows you to drop even a single car into an 

operation session at any portal, I added a portal to my Springfield 

Yard to be used as a team track. The portal does not have to be 

programmed to produce trains with this rule, but can retain the 

ability to delete trains if you wish. I use this portal and the Emit 

Train Now rule to drop any type of car or locomotive into the 

operation as I need. If I’m operating, and need a reefer to be sent 

to an industry, I click on “Add Train”, choose the proper car, send 

it to this portal, and it appears on the track ready for my switcher 

to move it. If I don’t have a switcher available, I can have it 

delivered, already coupled to a locomotive, ready for delivery. 

There’s more 

But wait, that’s not all! I can also deliver other rolling stock items 

such as aircraft. This allows you to keep from slowing down your 

operation by having idling aircraft at the airport when you are not 

using them. 

To take advantage of this aspect, I changed the configuration of 

my Northville portal. I made it into an airport runway with tie-less 

track running down it. At the end of the runway there is a switch 

where you can choose the invisible track for the plane to take off, 

or the track with ties to introduce a train to the route. 

Northville Portal disguised as a runway with rails in it. 


Click on “New Train”. 

Choose the item. 


After clicking on “New Train” the above the menu displays. First 

choose the item from the list of your available gear, then add the 

item to the blackboard at the right. When you are finished adding 

the items, send it to the portal of your choice. In this case I have 

chosen the drivable Cessna 150 (KUID: 152080:20501) by Minitrix, 

have added it to the list, and am sending it to the Northville portal. 

The Cessna appears on the runway. 


Take off! 

At the end of the runway the Cessna will be switched to the 

invisible track and will fly over the route. I DO have to remember 

to switch properly to be sure an express train doesn’t come flying 

across the sky or a Cessna doesn’t come down the tracks! 

One wrinkle 

There was only one problem with the rule, which was a bit of a 

bother. Originally, the rule could not be saved if the session was 

saved. If you wanted to save an operation, when you replayed it, 

the rule “New Train” indicator did not appear again. 

Everybody put in a lot of hanger time trying to figure out that 

problem, and finally Dieter came up with a solution. His idea was to 

use a trigger located on the route that would reactivate the “Emit 

Train Now” rule. The trigger could be placed on an unused siding 

and a boxcar could be placed over it, so that it would be continually 

reactivated. 

Ingenious! Here is what Dieter wrote to me regarding how to make 

the fix: 

Place a trigger on your route (somewhere in a siding you don’t 

use) and name it Restart Rule. 

Place a vehicle, such as a boxcar, on the trigger. 

In the Session Options add a trigger rule and link it to the 

Restart Rule trigger. 

Now insert the Emit Trains Now as a child of the trigger rule. 


Here is what the sequence should look like: 

Startup options 

Driver Setup 

Emit Trains Now 

Trigger Rule 

Emit Trains Now (Indented) 

Now every time you reload the session, the vehicle on the 

trigger restarts the rule. 

Hope this is of some help to you. It took me 6 days to figure 

out the solution, but the rule is so good it was worth the effort. 

Regards, 

Dieter 

Adding the trigger and boxcar. 

Thank you very much, Dieter, for working out that problem so well. 

Thank you, Sforget for coming up with the rule in the first place, 

and thank you Maggs, for your excellent Re-Rail portals, KUID 

2:116387:5:1 and KUID 2:116387:6:1. 


Together they add a totally new dimension to Trainz. Since I have 

devoted my entire column this month to this subject, I think you all 

can see how important I think your contribution has been. 

Thanks! 

John 

Article and screen shots © 2005 John D’Angelo. All rights reserved. 


Reference 

Train Sim Webfinder 


We’ve assembled some of our favorite links. We don’t want to leave anyone out, so we’ll be 

adding to the list each issue. Feel free to send suggestions (and corrections). 

-- Al 

Listings in bold are new for this issue. 

Site Owner URL 

Publication 

VirtualRailroader Alfred Barten http://www.virtualrailroader.com 

Simulators 

BVE Mackoy http://mackoy.cool.ne.jp 

JBSS BAHN Jan Bochmann http://www.jbss.de/start_e.htm#Anfang 

MSTS Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/games/trainsimulator 

Rail3D Martin Goodspeed http://www.rail3d.net 

SpoorSim Charl Vockerodt http://homepage.ntlworld.com/slsim 

Train Dispatcher 2 

Train Dispatcher 3 

Signal Computer 

Consultants 

Softrail Railroad 

Software 

http://www.signalcc.com/train2/td2freeware.html 

http://www.softrail.com/railsof.html 

Trainz Auran http://www.auran.com 

YKTRain Yuuta Kawai http://www.geocities.jp/yuuchankellyy/indexe.html 

Forums 

New York City BVE 

Motorman's Forum 

NYCTBA 

http://forum.nyctba.com/index.php 

train-sim.com Nels Anderson http://train-sim.com 

Trainz Forum Auran http://forums.auran.com/TRS2004/forum/default.htm 

UKTrainSim Atomic Systems http://www.uktrainsim.com 

BVE 

BVE Mackoy http://mackoy.cool.ne.jp 

BVE Vince Black http://www.vince-black.me.cz/BVE_welcome_EN.htm 

BVE Cornwall Chris Lees http://www.bvecornwall.tk 

BVE-routes.com Uwe Post http://bve-routes.com 


BVE-Train.de 

Martin Finken and Peter 

Schötz 

http://bve-train.de 

BVE Works in Progress Alfred Barten http://alfredbarten.com 

eezypeazy’s BVE 

pages 

eezypeazy 

http://members.lycos.co.uk/eezypeazy 

Hirakami Railway Hitetsu Hirakami Group http://hirakami.com/railway/indexeng.htm 

Italian BVE fans Luigi Cartello http://web.tiscali.it/lcartello 

New York City Transit 

BVE Authority 

NYCTBA 

http://www.nyctba.com 

Rail Sim Routes UK Anthony Bowden http://www.anthony-b.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rsr-uk/links.html 

Sasha's BVE Website Sasha Dodd http://www.superduper.eclipse.co.uk 

Scottish Railway 

Preservation Society 

Don Clarke 

http://www.gotopcs.net/index.phpoption=content&task=view 

&id=46&Itemid=40 

Scottish Rail Sim Files Robert Glass http://www.scotrailsim.co.uk 

Train Sim Central Steve Green http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk 

trensim.com 

http://www.trensim.com/index.php 

Virtual-Rail.co.uk Damon Cox http://www.virtual-rail.co.uk 

YKTRain Yuuta Kawai http://www.geocities.jp/yuuchankellyy/indexe.html 

MSTS 

trensim.com 

trensim.com 



Trainz 

Amsterdam Trams 

Roster 

http://world.nycsubway.org/eu/nl/ams-roster.html 

Bahnwerk.com Max Moire http://www.bahnwerk.com 

constructiongames.de Burkhard Jahnen http://www.constructiongames.de/trainz 

Downloader Pro Jelte http://www.huijelte.com/trainz/downloaderpro.php 

MyTrainz.tk Jan http://www.trainz.nl/downloads/mytrainz_tests/index 

.php 

Razorback Railway 

http://www.razorbackrailway.com 

Rob Shaw Rob Shaw http://robshaw.org/trainz.htm 

Prowler Todd Hohlenkamp http://steammachine.com/prowler/trainz/Trainz.html 

Section Shed 

http://www.sectionshed.com/english/downlprog.html 

Sirgibby's TrainZONE Mike Sutton http://www.trainzone.co.nz 

Slugsmasher Rich Blake http://steammachine.com/slugsmasher 

SteamTrainz 

Chris Grossman 

(atsfrr3000) 

http://www.steamtrainz.com/gallery 


Swedish Train 

Workshops 

STW 

http://msts.e-buzz.net/stw 

The Cowboy Shane Perrman http://www.cowboystrainzstation.com 

Toronto Trainz 

Trainz Download 

Station 

Trainz Land 

Trainz Luvr 

Auran 

http://www.torontotrainz.com 

http://www.auran.com/TRS2004/DLS.php 

http://www.trainzland.com 

http://trainz.luvr.net 

TrainzObjectz Terry Franks http://tafweb-trainz.co.uk 

TrainzProRoutes TrainzProRoutes http://www.trainzproroutes.com 

TrainzItalia 

trensim.com 

http://www.trainzitalia.com 


VistaMare Software TrainzMap http://www.vistamaresoft.com/trainz 

Virtueller Modellbau 

Virtual-Motive-Division 

Rolf Westphalen and 

Karsten Cornelsen 

Christian Steurer and 

Steffen Gross 

www.wohnseiten.de/einrichten.html 

http://www.virtual-motive-division.com 

World of Trainz Phil Campbell www.worldoftrainz.com 



Credits 

Virtual Railroader is published bi-monthly by Alfred Barten. No part of this publication may 

be reproduced without the expressed permission of Alfred Barten. All material contained 

within this publication is copyrighted as noted or, lacking specific notation, is ©2005 Alfred 

Barten. All rights are reserved. 

Visit our web site at http://www.virtualrailroader.com for details about the authors and for 

information about other issues of Virtual Railroader and our predecessor, Virtual Model 

Railway Journal.

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