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Any Train Simulator/model railroading geeks here?


Kerbinchaser

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On 2/28/2019 at 2:03 PM, sslaptnhablhat said:

NOT a train enthusiast here, I'd just really like to know what it is you train enthusiasts find so interesting about trains. It's insane how many people I've met both online and in the real world who have a genuine interest in trains, and while I can fully understand the appeal of automobiles, motorcycles, aircraft, spacecraft and watercraft, I genuinely can't comprehend why or how a train could be so fascinating when it's essentially a gigantic truck with lots of tiny metal wheels, so please, someone enlighten me on this subject.

Lots of kinetic energy.

 

Smoking exhaust.

How is this less than a rocket? Except it has to run daily and within arm's length of other trains.

 

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On 2/28/2019 at 6:03 AM, sslaptnhablhat said:

NOT a train enthusiast here, I'd just really like to know what it is you train enthusiasts find so interesting about trains. It's insane how many people I've met both online and in the real world who have a genuine interest in trains, and while I can fully understand the appeal of automobiles, motorcycles, aircraft, spacecraft and watercraft, I genuinely can't comprehend why or how a train could be so fascinating when it's essentially a gigantic truck with lots of tiny metal wheels, so please, someone enlighten me on this subject.

Well, I'm more of a model train enthusiast than I am of actual trains. I love their miniature craftsmanship, and the absolute worlds people can create with them. On the subject of trains as a whole though, I love all the moving parts, the thousands of tons of freight lumbering by, carrying cargo all over the nation, and the distant horn blasts as I fall asleep. 

The thing I love the most though is taking a long-distance passenger train. Seeing all the scenery of the United States with no traffic to annoy me, with no jetlag to kill me, and enjoying a very comfortable ride in a sleeper cabin with very good food 3 times a day really appeals to me. I took the Amtrak "Auto Train" from Lorton VA to Sanford Florida, and the food was excellent, (I'm talking beef brisket and atlantic cod) I slept well, and I saw the sights of the east coast all while my car sat a few cars behind me. All in all a 28 hour trip that only cost about $100 more than a car ride down. (With wear & tear, gas, etc.)

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Well, I bought it.   Wanted to get in for the early access price, and it looks pretty playable as is, so....   Just gotta get my gaming rig repaired...  And since it doesn't require VR anymore, that's a plus. 

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3 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Well, I bought it.   Wanted to get in for the early access price, and it looks pretty playable as is, so....   Just gotta get my gaming rig repaired...  And since it doesn't require VR anymore, that's a plus. 

Ooh let us know what you think!

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1 hour ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

Ooh let us know what you think!

Well, here's another playthrough, same guy.   If you are watching these, I recommend 1.25 or 1.5 speed.   I mean it is pretty real speed for a sim, so...

 

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On 4/30/2019 at 11:04 AM, Lo Var Lachland said:

Never built a layout? 

Not since I was 10.  Worked on my grandfather's HO garage layout a bit in the 60's).  I sometimes build N scale models.  I've got my eyes on 3D printers though...maybe one of these days I might build a layout maybe even make my own dcc system (good excuse to brush up my assembly language skills).

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On 5/2/2019 at 9:56 AM, kBob said:

I've got my eyes on 3D printers though...maybe one of these days I might build a layout maybe even make my own dcc system (good excuse to brush up my assembly language skills).

If you do get into 3D-printing, i would suggest a couple things you check out.

 

First there is a little something i just got printed/built/painted...well, minus the railings. It took ages to print, and was a bit of a pain to assemble in a few places, but it was SO worth it in the end :D.

20nn1UT.jpg

 

The lovely 1:32 scale SW-1500 by Daniel Noree, with Flexicoil trucks by raby and custom stickers and cab interior by me. It's part of the Open Railway project. You can find it on Thingiverse and My Mini Factory, and propably other places as-well.

Like raby, i decided to go for Nasa color's on my SW-1500. It was used by Nasa to pull the SRB transport train, that as the name might suggest, was used to transport recoverd Solid Rocket Boosters by rail in 6 segments (nose, engine and 4 fuel-tanks) on 5 specialized 8-axle flatcars. The train would usually also have a couple spacer-cars (empty flat-cars) on front, a clearance-car behind them (a standard box-car with roll-bar thingy's on it) and box-cars between every special flat-car.

 

Here's a few more picks of the model.

Spoiler

 

pltdP3N.jpg

You can see the original non used truck-sides on this pick. I left the interior attached as i didn't know how easy it would be to put back in again. Turns out it went WAY better the second time.

 

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And just for reference.

u5clkSF.jpg

 

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Secondly, i would suggest you check out OS-railway on thingiverse. The project contains a bunch of locomotives that are meant to be motorized and fitted with an ARDUINO thingy to control the thing with your phone or something.

There are also some traincars and track so you can basically print all the needed stuff for a full set..

 

Oh, and thirdly, if you're planning on designing your own stuff, i highly suggest Fusion 360, it's professional and it's free if you fill the criteria (details on the website. Can be a bit hard to find, but it's there).

 

 

And as a bonus for everyone, here are a few picks from my last haul before the doors closed for good. Yes, i was supposed to show these much earlier, but i forgot.

Spoiler

tScvULZ.jpg

 

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I got this binder full of Roco Club magazines as a free bonus.

 

I also got myself a whole bunch of little 1:500 die-cast airliner models. Sadly the picks of those have vanished somewhere.

 

If you guys are wondering about the current state of my main layout, it's currently still in winter storage. I could probably set it up right now if i wanted to, but since i will likely be moving away soon, i don't want to go trough the trouble of putting it up and possibly having to tear it down like 2 weeks later.

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A bit of a sad story, but anyway; last week we moved about 150 locos and about as many wagons from storage. The owner decided to sell them since his illness is preventing him from enjoying them. We are still going through them, cataloging them, figuring out prices etc. Most of it is in good or decent condition, some brand new. Some are not in their own boxes so it's a bit of a mess. It took us two days to move it all out and we filled a Peugeot 5008 twice.

There are some very nice gems in the pile, so we'll buy some of it ourselves.

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On 5/4/2019 at 12:04 PM, kapteenipirk said:

If you do get into 3D-printing, i would suggest a couple things you check out.

Check out Thingiverse, there's many many designs available for model railroads. 

On 3/14/2019 at 2:10 PM, Lo Var Lachland said:

Ooh let us know what you think!

Well, Finally got around to playing with Derail Valley.   It's pretty cool.   The controls for non VR are a little weird at first, but you do get used to them rather quickly.  I did end up running around the station house with a coffee mug in my hand that I couldn't get rid of, since all the instructions and everything are actual objects in the game, and I didn't have room for anything else, I couldn't drop the mug to pick up the instructions again to see how to drop the mug. 

Game play is really nice.  I have a semi-potato laptop, and I don't think I can run anything else in the background while this is running (like I can with KSP), but once it loads up (another boot the game and go make a meal situation), it's really smooth.   Slightly choppy for me at default gfx settings, but once I toned them done, very smooth.  

Once you get used to the interface, it's really easy to play.  I only played a couple of the shunting jobs around a yard, but it was really fun.  The open world setup of the cab and environment makes the immersion really cool.  The movement controls (while walking) are a little weird, you can easily end up on top of a building by accident (while you can walk, it's much easier to teleport to your mouse cursor, and if you don't aim correctly....). 

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Our local club is celebrating its 50th cakeday, so there is an exhibition.

I neglected to bring my camera, so I took some pictures with a potato I found laying nearby.

Opening speech and greetings to all.

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As with every proper cakeday, there was cake. Quite good actually, if you skip the blue thing.

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I'll be spending next two weeks there.

 

 

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On 7/2/2019 at 6:49 PM, LandBoatBuick said:

I don't have a layout, but i have N scale, and HO scale, I take them out once in a while, and I can live in train museums.

Yeah I'm an armchair modeler myself. I dream about having a layout but it doesn't seem plausible in the near future. :/

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Feels good to be back posting in this thread, especially now.

So, as you may have read from my recent post's, i moved in to a place of my own.

And with that place of my own comes finally...

cAPjGsX.jpg

 

A proper layout that is not only on a table, but is also inside. Witch makes me super-happy.

Unfortunately the layout is a little small and then there's the thick crust of street-dust the buildings collected while in the balcony, but that doesn't really matter too much.

 

And now for a total total surprise. Today we had a sort of field-trip from our school to the Habitare design exhibition in Helsinki, and there i made a discovery i never taught id make.

In this exhibition that was basically all about interior design, there was a small antiques section, and in this antiques section i found this.

 

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A lovely piece of model-railroading history, a really really old Märklin train-set. I don't know the exact age of this thing, but stuff like "Made in West Germany",  the metal track-bed, all metal train-cars and a single large ski type pickup system should give you a better idea.

Despite it being decades old, the train runs absolutely perfectly, its missing running lights (not a standard feature back then) and its very noisy, but that's to be expected.

 

Here are some closeups of the train.

Spoiler

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Compared to say, the Roco Multimaus, or the Piko manual controller, this thing is quite huge, and freaking heavy.

Changing direction happens by flicking the knob below zero for a sec and then letting it spring back to zero.

 

bIE8Uj3.jpg

A closeup of the underbelly where you can get a better look at the "single-ski" type pickup system.

The ski picks up the power from a series of teeth that run in the middle of the track, similarily to how old lego 12V trains used to have that center rail, and the little pickup pads under the motor unit.

Not the prettiest, or most impressive, or well detailed or anything like that, but man, there's just a certain history/charm about this one that makes me love it more than i probably should.

Because of the age of this thing, im already planning on 3D-printing a display case for this so that i can keep it in good clean condition for years to come, just need to experiment a bit with the clear filament i got and see that just how clear it actually is.

 

In the simulator side of things, one "train-simulator" that ive found surprisingly fun is Garrysmod. Using mods like Sligwolfs train stuff and the CBH trains stuff, and using the proper maps like, the Sunset gulch, you can have quite a bit of fun.

 

Here are a few consists ive built in Garrysmod.

Spoiler

The biggest and most laggiest consist ive made has got to be the Russian firefighting train

gFFNiUd.jpg

That bus and the fire-truck are super well betailed, and because of that super laggy as-well compared to most vehicles.

 

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A smaller more manageable version. The map has changed as-well.

 

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A nice little maintenance/crane-train.

 

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A military medical train.

 

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Lumber delivery!!, this time using the CBH trains stuff that replicates real life stuff.

 

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Propably the most well detailed train model in Garrysmod and one of my all time favorite trains to boot, what's not to love.

 

Unfortunately you can only make your consists so big before things get way too laggy. The big firefighting train for example, is way too much for my computer to handle, and the big lumber delivery is pretty laggy as-well.

 

Edited by kapteenipirk
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9 minutes ago, kapteenipirk said:

a really really old Märklin train-set

It's not that old. That set was produced from 1972 until 1978. The M track appears to be in nice enough condition, and if it works flawlessly as you say, it must have been taken care of. Usually, with time, M track develops nasty rust that makes operation jerky until the track is thoroughly cleaned. The trafo also looks to be in decent condition.

If you want to buy more M track, it can be purchased rather cheaply on flea markets, but you should only buy stuff in perfect condition. If you do plan on extending that Marklin layout, I'd suggest you do it with C track. It's much better. There are transitional segments between M and C, so you can still use the track you have.

How much did it set you back, if you don't mind me asking?

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