I found 31 train sims

How Many Train Sims Can You Name? I've listed 31 unique ones below (one is listed under two categories). I think there are more.

Dispatching/Signaling
NXSYS. (http://nxsys.nycsubway.org/)
SIAM. (http://www.siam.co.uk/index.html)
Signalling Centre Software. (http://www.sigcent.com/)
Train Dispatcher. (http://www.signalcc.com/)

Railway Modeling
Rail3D. (http://www.rail3d.net/)
JBSS Bahn. (http://www.jbss.de/hpg_eng.htm)
Zusi - Der Zugsimulator. (http://www.zusi.de/)

Cab-View Drive-It
BVE. (http://mackoy.cool.ne.jp/)
Loksim3D. (http://www.loksim3d.de/LokSim3D/loksim3d.html)
Mechanik. (http://www.thelocomotivecab.com/mechanik.html)
Real Railway. (http://www.realrailway.com/)
Simulatore di treno 3.00. (http://signa.texnet.it/sbapao/)
Train Cab Simyulator. (http://www.digiflyer.nl/eriki/trains/index.htm)
Train Simulator. (http://www.ongakukan.co.jp/)
TrainMaster. (http://www.trainmaster.com/)
YKTrain. (http://www.geocities.jp/yuuchankellyy/indexe.html)

Full-Featured 3D
Eisenbahn Professional. (http://www.softwareuntergrund.net)
Micrososft Train Simulator. (http://www.microsoft.com/games/trainsimulator)
Rail Simulator. (http://www.railsimulator.com/)
SpoorSim. (http://www.modellbahnsoftware.de/Simu/spoorsim.htm)
Trainz. (http://www.auran.com/)

Video
A Train 6. (http://atrain6.midasinteractive.com/)
Densya de Go! (Let's Go By Train!). (http://members.aol.com/netransi10/densya/densya.html)
Train Simulator. (http://www.ongakukan.co.jp/)

Strategy
A Train 6. (http://atrain6.midasinteractive.com/)
Locomotion. (http://www.atari.com/us/games/locomotion/pc)
RR Tycoon. (http://www.poptop.com/)
Transport Giant. (http://www.transportgiant.com/)

Professional
SYSTRA's RAILSIM v7. (http://www.railsim.com/)

Other
Train Games (http://www.traingames.freeservers.com/HOMEPAGE.HTM)
Black Five (devleopment suspended - http://www.black5.co.uk/)
Amiga Train Driver

How Many Train Sims Can You Name?

How many train sims can you name? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? Next week I'll give you my list.

Al

Japanese Drive-it Sims

While certain game companies are going all out to give us can-do-everything train simulators at break-even prices, other clever manufacturers are preparing to skin the cream of the drive-it sim market (HUGE in Japan) with simplicity iteself. Imagine filming a real route from the cab of a locomotive, transferring the results to a computer screen, and placing a computerized cab over the displayed film. Then adding 3D train controls and proper train physics, and selling the package as a train simulator. When the user masters the route, or just gets tired of it, sell them another with a different route.

Smart? You bet! Not that I wouldn't rather build my own route in BVE or Trainz or Rail3D, but I have to admit that plenty of people, especially kids, will go for these action-packed, simple entries into the market. Being available for Play Station 2, Play Station Portable, Windows, and Macintosh platforms makes them all the more attractive.

Check out these two web sites and be prepared to use you Babelfish translator.

http://www.softgrow.com/trainsim/

http://www.ongakukan.co.jp/

Al

More VR in RMC

What the acronyms are saying is that Railroad Model Craftsman (RMC) has published part 2 of Mark Baldwin's excellent article, "Virtual Gilpin" in the September issue, which is now available. In the same issue is my guest editorial on virtual railroading (VR) in the Editors Notebook column. A couple of minor errors slipped in during the editing process, but the essential thing is that a mainstream model railroad magazine has taken a chance and published a significant virtual railroading effort - Mark's Gilpin. Thank you, Mark, for a great series; and thank you, RMC, for publishing it.

Al

Sociology, Anyone?

I'm loaded down with preparing the next issue of Virtual Railroader and working on a few other projects, so I'm going to let John Bruce do the talking. Have a look at his article "The Sociology of Model Railroading" here: http://www.trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Sociology.htm.

This is a fascinating bit of writing, and I should say a LOT of writing rather than a BIT. If this is too much to handle at one sitting - it is for me - try copying and pasting the entire article into a WordPad document on your computer for liesurely reading in small sections.

Speaking of WordPad, I've found the perfect replacement. It's called Jarte and is available free at http://www.jarte.com
I've been using Jarte steadiliy for nearly a month now for creating drafts of all my lengthy correspondence, articles, ideas, and so forth. It produces Rich Text Files - the universal word processing format - and stores them wherever you like. The nice thing is that it displays all your open RTFs in a tabbed environment in which the program interface gives the feeling of working in a notebook. That's great - all my stuff is in one place, yet it is not in a proprietary setting.

Al