Thought I would start a nice little thread to see how many new people we have had come into the hobby over the years and how many long term members we have. I started back on 31st may 2001. How can I be sure if that date well I bought Microsoft train simulator on day if release. From there my passion for the hobby grew. I started buying the expansion packs when you had to physically go to a store and buy a disk copy From there I Carried it on with railworks,rail simulator and now to present day picking up the annual copies of train simulator from stores.
Around Christmas each year, starting the late 1980s, I would build my own Rascal & Cottonwood in TT, with mostly German trains, collected by my dad from the DDR. I found this game at a hefty discount randomly during the Winter Sale 2014, probably flash sale, got the Steam Edition. Played some Northeast Corridor, I had the itch but wasn't entirely satisfied, needed a better PC and of course learn about signaling, scoring trickery - if you remember it has the scenario with the scripted emergency and stuck brakes, and then the Acela which derails... Anyway, since autumn 2015 I'm in full swing, done some ECML:S, binge purchased the next year's edition and upon finding Donner Pass and running the first scenario with the GP9, I was having too much fun. I'd say I spent most of 2016 learning and exploring, letting a few things go, and upon ultimately discovering free roams and basic scenario creation, I became a lot more casual about things. In 2017 I realised I have a lot of content and had an idea of playing in sequence, so that I can remove things. Nearly six years later, I didn't remove anything. I'd say the game is a great catalyst to read about aspects of railroading, areas of interest and history.
Christmas 2013, when I first got Train Simulator. I didn't get into the swing of buying DLC until a little after that though, with my first DLC purchases being the Isle Of Wight, FGW HST and GWML. Today I own about a third of the Steam DLC library.
Started out in 2012 with Loksim3D, a german freeware with very good safety system implementation. Learned all the PZB and signalling stuff there. Got TS2016 when it came out in autumn of 2015, owning 709 DLC now (never would've thought it back then) Then TSW when CSX Heavy Haul arrived, but didn't upgrade to TSW2. Playing it from time to time, TSW 2020 has less bugs than its successors.
My first train sim was Trainz Railway Simulator: Ultimate Collection back in 2004 or 2005 and played it for a while but didn't find it enjoyable so moved on to FS2004 instead. In 2020 I got TSW:2020 on the PS4. In 2021 I then upgraded to TSW2 on the PS4 and also bought TS21 to play on my laptop. However, my laptop wasn't really upto the task of playing TS21 so had to stop playing until I could get a decent desktop PC. In 2022 I got hold of a decent PC and started playing TS and since then have amassed quite a collection of routes and stock and played for over 690 hours. Also in 2022 I upgraded to TSW2 on the PS5 and then to TSW3. *Edit It wasn't TANE I played back in the mid 2000s, it was Trains Deluxe which included Trainz: Railroad Simulator, Model Railway Creator and also Trains from the Lineside DVD.
I have been Train Simming since 2009. I was inspired to create routes after learning a bit about model railroading as well as having a few model trains. Thankfully Trainz allowed me to create my own model rail routes as well as attempts with making prototypical routes over the years. I first started out with Trainz 2006 Service Pack 1 in 2009. Around 2011, I also started playing OpenBVE. I really enjoyed Trainz as well with it's huge library of DLC available I started playing Trainz Classics 1&2 in 2010 Trainz 2009 World Builder Edition in 2011 Trainz 2010 Engineers Edition in 2012 Trainz A New Era (TANE) in 2015 Around 2017, I took a hiatus from the Trainz series and tried out Train Simulator In 2018, I started playing the Train Sim World Series, starting out with CSX Heavy Haul, Train Sim World 2020, Train Sim World 2 followed by Train Sim World 3
Trainz or MSTS I cannot remember. I still have the discs for both. I also have on Cd USA & Canada Regional add-on pack for MSTS 20 Classic new locos for MSTS done by Auran who do Trainz.
2011 for me with MSTS then discovered TS in 2012 as well as WoS 1: The PATH. Modded a lot for TS in 2013 and took a break till 2020 with TSW. Now got back into it fully with TSW3, TSC, Wos1 and 4 and even both TramSims
Hehe, I'm the newbie here so far, (you have no idea how refreshing that is to someone in their 50's and been around most simming communities since their games inception). In July 2013 I bought TANE (70.1hrs) but didn't much like the driving style of that nor the download station. I purchased TS2014 back in Nov 2013 on a whim, it came with London Faversham, Hamburg & Donner Pass. I played London Faversham for an hour or so, I wasn't really into EU or US rail and at the time only had a very fleeting interest in rail at all. I then didn't really get back into it until February 2020 at which point it was now TS2019 (currently @ 1495.3hrs) I bought TSW - CSX Heavy haul in June 2018 (77.6hrs, it's now called TSW2020 of course) I bought TSW2 March 2022 (6.9hrs all of which was in that long white German thing trying to learn German signalling and safety systems) when it was a couple of quid (£3.74) in a sale. Only other Train related purchases are a couple of the WoS series which I bought out of order WoS 3 (22.2hrs) in 2019 and WoS 4 (94 mins lol) in 2020.
I started waaaaay back in the very late 80's / early 90's on an Acorn Electron (remember them???) Playing Dee-Kay Systems games... First one I played was "Mendips Stone" on a text only screen between Whatley Quarry & Theale Yard on a mate's computer... From there, I bought that game, and also South Devon Hydraulics (Exeter - Plymouth), then Gatwick Express (London Victoria- Gatwick Airport)... I became quite proficient at that as it was a route you could do in about 30 mins!!! From there, i digressed into the "Shedmaster" series, whereby you became the foreman controlling where incoming locos had to go, what they required (fuel, exams, maintenance etc) and what they were allocated to... My first being Old Oak Common, then Finsbury Park... After that, I tried signalling sims, Doncaster & Crewe amongst others... Remember, all these were on CASSETTE, and took what seemed an eternity to load... HEAVEN FORBID if you accidentally pressed the "Break" key which I think was on the top row next to the "1" key... If you pressed it, you lost the game and had to re-load it...!!! Happened to me many a time, as a result, I made a sturdy cardboard cover to go over the "Break" & "Escape" keys & I never had the problem again... Pressing the "Escape" key was never as bad as pressing the "Break" key as you seemed to be able to "get into" the programme, type "run" (or whatever it was) and the programme would start again if you were lucky... Pressing the "Break" key would terminate the programme AND "empty the memory" resulting in you having to rewind the cassette & reload it all over again...!!! Soon after I got a 5 1/4" floppy drive and soon learnt to transfer the files from cassette onto disk... No longer did I have to wait for what seemed an eternity, it loaded in seconds!!! From there a while after, I converted to 3 1/4", 1.44mb discs!!! Again very quickly learning how to transfer from 5 1/4" to 3 1/2" discs...!!! Around that time Ashley Greenup came onto the scene with his simulations... I tried & dabbled with some of his stuff, and again remember, it was all mail order at the time... You sent your order by post with a cheque (written by my Mum or Dad) and sent it off by Royal Mail and waited, and waited, and waited until eventually you received a cassette or disk by return of post... NO INSTANT DOWNLOADS back in the day...!!! Anyway, I think that's enough for now... I'm tired & probably bored you all to death!!! Eric
That is why I don't moan about the graphics we get today like some people not necessarily on this forum to what we got way back then. I had a Commodore 64 in 1985.
Jumped in, in 2014! Since then addicted, and regular visitor of the "Train Simulator Anonymouse" group. . Since 2018 mainly driving real schedules in QD with ThirdRails!
My start with train simulation is very similar to Eric "ntypeman". Started with "Southern Belle" which I bought from W H Smiths, in the mid 80s. At the time I had a ZX spectrum and I remember it took ages to load. Moved onto the "Shedmaster" series, which from what I can remember involved shuffling around locos, for servicing etc. Bought MSTS when it came out around late 2001 early 2002, that's when I became a member of UKTS in April 2002. Did the usual progression to Rail Simulator, Railworks, and now Train Simulator. Dabbled a bit with Train Sim World when it came out and binned it when I discovered its a closed game with no real way for players to mod anything. Still with TSC and happy to see DTG are still developing this game.
now ive been gaming since 1982 on the Atari 2600. But let me tell you, going that far back with sims has me bowing to your greatness!
Well, for my part im a newborn in trainsimming : Started with TSW in end of 2021... I was really hésitating, i didnt see how can people be interested / entertenaided by driving on rails, comon, its only about going forward and braking... I have since fully plunged on TSC, mostly due to route variety, as i dont really care about shiny graphics. If only each route had a decend QD with tons of AI... Its really curious that i came so late to train sims as i started flight "sims" on C64 in late 80s, with a game called Solo Flight 2 and never really abandoned flightsims since. For some reasons i completely missed MSTS and discovered about it only here.. Anyway a happy young train simmer
I'm (ahem) 47 now and probably started train simming when i was about 13 / 14 years old...!!! I'm especially curious to "today's youngsters" (who possibly won't know what cassettes are???), (and anyone else's memories) regarding cassettes and having to wait for an eternity whilst the tape loaded and other factors like having to wait for the programme you ordered to arrive in the post!!! Eric
I played the DeeKay / Ashley Greenup games on the Spectrum too - IIRC we had the EMCL one with Deltic/47/HST (Flying Scotsman?), and MGR with 56/58. Then a massive gap until I took it up again with Railworks 2, whenever that was (2010/2011?). Been playing RW/TS ever since, and more recently expanded into DRS and TSW2.
Started with Trains 2006 and used that plus a few upgrades to 2011 when I found Train Simulator 2012/Railworks 3 I gave up with Trainz for a few years - when I reinstalled it the routes were poor compared with TS20xx I got TSW after it came out which was ok apart from the lack of variation and loads of errors. It got better when some Czech simmers made mods that give you options to change the traction on the routes. I bought some add-ons for the route but I did not play them that much I tried TSW2 when released but I never liked it - I last played it on 14 Jan 2022 for 6.5 hours DTG took away the option to swap traction on the route the Czech simmers made. TSW3 is out and I have no interest as DTG have not yet made a BR Electric Loco I'm happy with TSC and the DLC available from DTG and third partys which keeps the game fresh.
I started with Mechanik EN57 under MS-DOS sometime at the end of 90's. It was a single EMU, but multiple routes sim playing in 320x200 screen resolution. It was actually one of the very few, where I could play on my local route. A couple of years later I tried MSTS for a few days, but as it was friend's game, I didn't return to playing it after trying and crashing a few trains and returning the CDs. Later return to train simming was with TRS2004 and TRS2006, which I played for a few years, followed by a freeware MaSzyna EU07, then a little gap, until I returned with a few single route editions of Trainz, followed with Trainz 12, and later Train Simulator 2013. Since then I basically switched to Train Simulator, though I tried TANE for some time, playing on routes which weren't available for Train Simulator or TSW (like Mojave Subdivision, that only recently released for TS in 2021), or which still aren't existing (like Australian, Russian routes).
An interesting thread. Thanks for starting it 390001. My start was back in the mists of time when I bought Southern Belle for the Commodore 64. I think that was in the 1980's? I moved on to MSTS in 2001 - what a step forward. My wife bought me a Raildriver for Christmas in 2003. (Blimey the fiddling about with .eng files to get the Raildriver to work). I bought Rail Simulator on 11 December 2008 (I well remember chasing the assets to get Ghostcav's Wales & Borders working) and have gone through all the iterations up to TSC now. I bought TSW and TSW2 but I haven't gone for TSW3. I thought TSW would become my main sim, and it was for a while, but I'm back almost 100% on TSC now and loving it. Over 1200 hours on TSC logged on STEAM. Say it quietly but I've spent over £3000 on hardware and software add ons over those years. I do find train simulation a very involving and (mostly) relaxing hobby.
your welcome I just thought would be a nice little thread like an “ice breaker” for new members to engage with other others in here. And I must say it is really nice to see quite a lot of member’s with the “new member” role tag showing so hope to see these member’s come back and use the forums as a good base to engage with the community.
Started with MSTS in 2001 and had quite a collection back then. Moved to Rail Simulator as it was back in 2007, and have been through every iteration of it since.
Oh my god... Iv'e been trainsimming since 1986 with "Southern Belle", a simulator for the C64. very simple and pixelated: Southern Belle - Commodore 64 Game - Download Disk/Tape - Lemon64
I had on tape for the Commodore 64 The Americas Cup yachting sim. I still remember to this day after waiting about 25 minutes for it to load and error came up on the screen so I started again and got it to run. 1hr to load a game ummmmmmmmm.
I admit I didn't keep it for long. The Amstrad version didn't look any better than this because, even though it was running on a much more capable machine than the Spectrum, it was just a straight port. The "scenery" looked like a particularly leggy spider having a grand mal seizure.
The Amstrad was a pretty capable and cool machine. I've really gotten into coding on that 6128 of mine, until I got the Amiga 500. CALL &BB18
Compared to everyone else, I have started train simming very recently. I started back in 2013 with Train Simulator Classic and as you can tell by me talking on this forum, I've loved it ever since! Before 2022, it was more of a calm kind of hobby. I would play the game a couple times every now and then. But in 2022, I started playing the game much more and still do currently. Every now and then I have breaks, but I come back and enjoy driving a scenario more than the last time! And my game experience has been enhanced a lot too as I have been learning how to play more advanced DLC such as Armstrong Powerhouse and I have been enjoying it very much. My one hope for a DLC in this game is Australian routes, I want to drive on a route like the Kuranda Scenic Railway so much!
