What are /r/trainsim's favorite Products & Services?

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Paddington - Redding average route time: 32 minutes. 10 more hours of content looks questionable at best now. And with a $30 US price tag... what a joke.

Source: https://www.thetrainline.com/train-times/london-paddington-to-reading

Glad I bought Train Life instead.

It's cheap, it's very promising for the future, devs are friendly and listen and I really dig ETS2 like gameplay, changing weather, daily cycle, working industries and ability to freely explore the world. Even in Early Access it's mostly polished (well to be expected from team from Poland :D). It may be not be hardcore train sim and their locos are not licensed yet (they plan adding ICE3 and ICE4 soon) but for some reason I enjoy playing it a lot more, it's very relaxing experience.

Honestly, I don't even have an urge to start TS2021 lately. The new routes from TS2022 are broken (only good one is Washington).

Alt+Shift+O

If you have -OculusRift in the launch parameters.

Note: It only works with the Oculus development kit 1, there is currently as far as I know no way to use it on newer versions or the vive.

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Train_Simulator_2017#VR_support

Edit: Fixed key combination

> is there an easier way to create simple manifests going from yard to yard?

Alright, so freight operations in Southern California rarely have manifests going from, say, Barstow to Colton or Bakersfield (they DO exist, M-BARBAK is a train, but they're not common). Unit trains like autoracks are a little more common.

Note you said manifests, so I assume you're actually referring to a manifest (mixed) freight train and not a unit train.

In order for a train to go yard-to-yard there has to be a reason for it to do so. The most common scenario is that you get a manifest freight coming on from the Needles Subdivision headed to Barstow, with the train tagged for local trains. Local trains will have tags like L-CAL0611, L-CAL1191, etc. By default these usually come in on an M-BELBAR (Manifest freight from Belen New Mexico to Barstow California). Sometimes you'll have ones headed for Colton instead.

They go to the hump yard where they're broken into their respective local freight trains. These are usually the ones that go from yard-to-yard. For example, L-CAL0101 and L-CAL0041 are both run out of the Victorville yard. So what happens is the manifest freight comes in "off map" (again, usually from Needles), goes to Barstow, then gets humped into it's respective locals. They then get run from Barstow to Victorville, at which point they get run to the local industries as per their switchlist. The pickups are then returned from Victorville to Barstow, where they can be assembled into the outbound manifest to head "off map" again.

Different local trains run out of different yards. LOP53 runs out of Mojave, L-CAL0103 runs out of BNSF Bakersfield yard, L-CAL0611 runs out of Barstow, etc.

If you're interested in mimicing prototypical operations this book is a goldmine.

This train simulator is seriously really cool:

https://www.amazon.com/RailDriver-Desktop-Train-Controller-TS2019/dp/B016YLK15W?crid=ACV1JI08479&keywords=train%2Bsimulator&qid=1660694820&sprefix=train%2Bsim%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-1-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE2U0UxRVlGQz...

Irish Enterprise North: Belfast to Dundalk

and

Irish Enterprise South - Dundalk to Dublin

Excuse the somewhat random links, it looks like the original developer is no longer active.

For anyone who finds this thread, I can confirm you do not need an OTG hub - a powered OTG dongle will work perfectly fine. Look for one with reviews that say it works with a Fire Stick, PS Classic, et cetera. Basically you need a micro-to-micro passthrough with a full-size USB port chained off of it. This is what I used since finding micro (not USB-C) hubs is almost impossible now.

In case of Trainz New Era, the Platinum Edition is the best buy in terms of content - it will give you plenty routes and locos to play with, while Train Simulator offers yearly editions which bundles several routes/trains for much cheaper price. You can also get previous yealy editions very cheaply on some 3rd party websites (again, buy when on sale) to obtain previously bundled content.

Me too, very good price. Can also recommend North London Line for TS2019 (only £4.68).

Here is the list: https://www.greenmangaming.com/search/train%20simulator?franchises=1073742275

Original Post:

You can check the 2022 version on steam, and I found the 2015 version on Amazon

I have removed your comment as it contains an affiliate Amazon link (&tag=metacritic-games-20).

This is the "clean" link: https://www.amazon.com/Train-Simulator-2015-Pc/dp/B00OW2P35O

However it seems there is some "amazon link magic" going on in the original one since it automatically redirects to your local Amazon page. For example US Amazon doesn't have TS 2015 but German Amazon does.

Simply search for "Train Simulator 2015" in your local Amazon page.

You can check the 2022 version on steam, and I found the 2015 version on Amazon

Not quite a direct answer to your question, but my son loved "Short Trip". It's a 2D, free browser tram driving game with cute (but high-quality pencil drawn) graphics, and simplistic controls. You can walk left or right, and once you reach your tram, you use the same buttons to speed up or slow down. When you reach the end of the map, you just turn around and do it again.

The sounds might need to be enabled as I think they default to off, but they are actually decent. Clicking on your tram sounds the bell, and a very small number of landscape items are similarly interactive. If the game stutters on your machine, just resize the window smaller.

On Android, I can recommend the Lego Duplo Train game, although some of the puzzles in between can be frustrating early on. It's aimed at toddlers, so it has basic controls, and lots of interactable scenery, etc.

Currently, we occasionally play the very recent TramSim. It's actually a very good sim in general, but only has one route. This does not tend to be a problem for the young ones, however. Although my son can generally grasp the controls, I think he finds stopping at the correct points and obeying the rules of the road a bit overloading, so we have a compromise; I drive the tram, he operates the doors (this generally requires two key presses at each stop), and the bell (if a car or pedestrian goes in front of us). He also loves the road signs in general, and calls out any he thinks I haven't spotted. It's good fun, if you're in any way interested in this trains / trams!

There’s cheap kits for fight sticks on amazon that come with everything you need

XCSOURCE Zero Delay Arcade DIY Kit Parts USB Encoder To PC Joystick 5Pin Rocker + 10pcs White Push Buttons AC783 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0714DLWX6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_e5ZOCbZVBMHCB

It took me about an hour, the board I got wasn’t well labeled. But it works great! (I use it mainly for shmups) my computer detects it as some kind of game pad. (Some games show Xbox button prompts).

I also set up a... Leonardo KEYESTUDIO Leonardo R3 Development Board with USB Cable for Arduino https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0786LJQ8K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_n8ZOCbG5MF92R

I also made a cardboard box as a pinball controller, that took a little programming; it’s arduino though so I basically copied example programs and tweaked the buttons being sent.

It’s easy to get into and do, and pretty cheap. If you buy a board just make sure it supports operating as a USB HID, that’s how the computer sees keyboards and game pads.