Hi Guys (and Dolls), My name is Brian White and I live in Rustenburg, North West Province, South Africa. Love trains and simulators. Was a technician on the Sabre and Mirage simulators in the South African Air Force (SAAF) many. many moons ago. Discovered a cute little software program called "joycur" which motivated me to tackle building my train simulator. The program converts joystick contacts into keyboard strokes which is what may train simulator programs use. To be more realistic I built the 5 basic train control levers (8 notch throttle, forward/reverse, independent brakes, train brakes and dynamic brakes) to look more like the real thing. I also built in a 30 inch LCD screen, some quality speakers and used the Trainz software to bring it all together. The "cab" also looks more real and is a permanent fixture. I later acquired a RailDriver controller (which I've been told is used for real train driver training) and built this into my sim as well, so now I have 2 separate sets of controls, one old fashioned and one much newer. I particularly love driving a loco (Diesel Electric) into and out of sticky situations, like onto a turntable and selecting a difficult shed to park it, etc. I'm also into model railway and have a room full of layout. If you like you can visit my website that shows both the model railway layout and my sim in action. My website is - www.bew-model-railway.simplesite.com Would love to hear from other sim people. Brian
