I first got into Trainz back in 2008 when a friend bought me a copy of TRS2006. I was instantly hooked and I remember playing for hours on the Hawes Junction route.
I first tried my hand at building routes when I tried to build the Swanage Railway – except I couldn’t figure out how to add a baseboard, so the line just went round in a circle! Over the years I have practiced, practiced, practiced and now my full route, Swanage Railway, has been released to the public! I also have a freelance route, Chillingbourne, on the DLS though this is one of my older layouts. Ever since then I’ve been hooked and I’ve always been into the route creation side of Trainz.
My favourite part of creating a route is seeing it all come together and recognising it – especially when others can also recognise it! This to me shows I’m doing something right and only spurs me on to do more.
I’ve learned a huge amount from the forums but in particular I’ve looked at the routes of/learned from Clam1952, Edh6, 2995valliant, Marky7890, paulsw2 and N3V!
I’m really looking forward (very, very much so) to the new surveyor terrain when that is released, but otherwise I would like to see better lighting. I know ray tracing is coming and that is brilliant but it will be fantastic to one day fire up a route, set to evening and see the light gently flow over the surfaces of nearby objects, gently illuminating the surrounding area and reflecting off trains.
I wouldn’t change anything within Trainz – though it’d be nice if I could get my head around Blender! I’ve made several assets in other 3d modelling programmes that are on the DLS (mainly for Swanage) but they’re not to the latest standards. They’ll do for now though.
I’m currently waiting for the new terrain system so that I can give Swanage a hefty upgrade, but I do have another heritage railway in the pipeline. Let’s just say, this one is very ‘Hants’ on...
I would encourage anyone who wants to get into content creation to go for it and keep at it – no one gets it right on their first go but every time you learn something more and eventually you’re developing full routes! I always try to practice a particular scene first; try replicating your local station or your street etc. and see how you do. Half the fun is finding that asset that fits perfectly and looks just right – with over 500,000 to choose from you can’t go wrong!
