I decided to buy the Trainz TRS19 train simulation a couple of days ago. Dave Balser had sent me a plan for his layout, so that I could study it and work out different switching scenarios, maybe even practice switch lists and such, since I can't actually visit hime and operate his layout due to COVID-19. I'd seen information about TRS19 and thought it might not be too hard to actually simulate Dave's layout with it. Then I could use the simulation to "operate" his layout, which would be a great way to become familiar with it. Then, when I can visit his home again some day, perhaps I won't stumble around so badly trying to run trains on it.
I'm running this on my MacBook Pro so the performance is not as great as if I had a really strong computer. I also was a little low on disk space so decided to try to install it on an external USB drive. This worked out, luckily.
Downloads from the developer are pretty slow, and there was a glitch in my installation (don't use the period character in the Trainz passwords!). But I've been going through now a bit, and it really is neat. They have built in tutorials for running trains which were very fun. I also have started going through some YouTube video for building up simulations.
One thing I found was there is no real documentation for TRS19. Instead, a Wiki is maintained with instructions for using the game. Also, they use a Discord chat for a community forum platform, and I had good luck asking questions in the "support" thread. Their Trains website also has a comnunit forum. Finally, I did get the email to use for problems
Related links:
- Support email: anewera@n3vgames.com
- Trainz website: www.trainzportal.com
- Trainz support: support.trainzportal.com/index.php?
- Trainz Wiki: online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/Main_Page
- Trainz WikiBook: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz
- Discord Trainz: Discord Chat
- YouTube tutorials for constructing a simulation (this is the first episode): Trainz route building tutorial Ep. 01 by Sharadise
- A site to locate downloadable "content" (that is, 3-D models of structures, cars, locos, etc etc) Lots of this is available from the Trainz folk, via their "DLS" (Download Station), but apparently many Trainz users provide content from other download sites like GoogleDrive. These are hard to find, and this site has an extensive collection of such links, and includes to a search function: Trainz KUID Index. To use this, you have to pay a subscription fee which is $15/yr.
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