Railworks America

I think i speak for everyone on here when i say it would be nice to see some good quality freeware steam locomotives in this sim.

It's just we would need to find some one who's willing to do it Cause if i knew how to model, i'ed do it my self.

I think I speak for the creators of most of the payware available when I say:
If you calculate all the hours, researching, building, rebuilding, coding, publishing (not to mention updating/maintaining a social media outlet to draw potential buyers), then patching said payware; I think you'd find your getting the end product for a song and a dance.
Then DTG has sales which ofcourse lower the price further.

If you want to learn to model its not as hard as you might think. I recently learned how to make child objects from watching youtube videos. Took me a couple days to have my first object ingame.
Baby steps, but steps none the less.

stlsf4003 wrote:I think i speak for everyone on here

Well you don't speak for me.

Yeah i thing i should have worded that a little better.

Sorry if i offended you Smokebox

Since I don't belong to the something for nothing group I would be pretty happy to see quality steam offering that I had to pay for. Bring it it on.

Personally, if the locomotive in question is top notch quality (Smokebox for example) It is completely worth it, even at full price. Now MSTS import quality, I would not pay for. Steam locomotives take an exceptional amount of time to research, model, animate, and code and I commend most people for even attempting it from scratch. There are some steam locomotives I wouldn't give much more than 10 bucks for. The Berks for example are pretty good, but they show their age being that they were made for TS2012 or 2013.

That's just my . Come back again for a Quarter

There's a freeware Berk in the library, look up Pere Marquette.

http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/home/the-archives/news-archive/item/228-pere-marquette-berkshire-bonus-download

I wouldn't mind being able to buy one of these in reasonable quality to run in Railworks:


https://kltrainz.com/payware/wheel-arra ... -northern/

and there are lots more interesting steam locomotives available in the other game.

[quote="_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha"]I wouldn't mind being able to buy one of these in reasonable quality to run in Railworks:

I would also love to see a "real" C&O K-4. I grew up 20 miles from one in a park display in Washington Court House,Ohio. That is part of the route I am working on,and I have the Rick Grout C&O re skinned version on display in my RW park. K&L Trainz has great content at reasonable prices. I purchased their B&O P7 set just to support their effort,even though I moved away from Trainz. But the course of this thread is on freeware steam. I have noted very few "new" content creators in the past few years. It seems unlikely that someone would put hundreds of hours into a steam loco,to release it as freeware.

RAILSOHIO wrote:I would also love to see a "real" C&O K-4. I grew up 20 miles from one in a park display in Washington Court House,Ohio. That is part of the route I am working on,and I have the Rick Grout C&O re skinned version on display in my RW park. K&L Trainz has great content at reasonable prices. I purchased their B&O P7 set just to support their effort,even though I moved away from Trainz. But the course of this thread is on freeware steam. I have noted very few "new" content creators in the past few years. It seems unlikely that someone would put hundreds of hours into a steam loco,to release it as freeware.

That is mostly true, yet there were some generous creators that did almost the complete 1920-1950 Western Pacific roster of steam locomotives to run over the MSTS Feather River Canyon in the form of free DLC.

On Railworks there are indeed very few US steam locomotives, and most of these stem from MSTS. Only Smokebox's Consolidation and FEF and DTG's K4 are original RW creations as far as I know.

Same goes for iconic first generation Diesel locomotives, that go well with late steam era, for these also require lots of research and tailored work. No cookie cutting there.

More interesting is the question wether there really is a market for nostalgia. We have very little steam era DLC like the B&LE route and small roster.
Most still running steam locomotives' owners demand licences for their reproduction, which is putting off prospective creators no doubt.

And yet the British steam locomotive market seems to be chugging along with a full head of steam. what's up with that?

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:Only Smokebox's Consolidation and FEF and DTG's K4 are original RW creations as far as I know.

I think the Big Boy and Challenger were done originally, by IHH, for RW (or perhaps when it was still Rail Simulator, not sure). All of mine (Connie, FEF-3, Jupiter and 119) are originals for RW. I've never done any locos for any other game.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:More interesting is the question whether there really is a market for nostalgia. We have very little steam era DLC like the B&LE route and small roster.

The market for steam is considerably smaller than for modern stuff, and I suspect (it's just a feeling, based on the amount of screenshots, videos and streams I come across) that American steam is much less popular than UK steam. So basically I'm serving a very small market compared to nearly everyone else. I do it because American steam is what interests, and motivates, me the most. It wasn't always like that, but I got hooked on it when I started doing the Connie.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:Most still running steam locomotives' owners demand licences for their reproduction, which is putting off prospective creators no doubt.

It certainly put me right off making the N&W J-Class no. 611. I get asked about that one a lot, but the costs are prohibitive. After everyone else had taken their cut, there wouldn't be much left for me (the guy doing most of the very hard work).

stlsf4003 wrote:And yet the British steam locomotive market seems to be chugging along with a full head of steam. what's up with that?

There simply seems to be a much larger fan base for steam in the UK. I can't be certain, but there might be more people who can get to a nearby preserved line (there are a lot in the UK) to see steam "in the flesh". There are also more UK steam-era routes in TS that are suitable for running the UK steam locos. That's a problem for US steam. There's a plethora of candidates for modelling, with so many "fallen flags", but every time I get asked if I'd model such-and-such a steam loco from this or that railroad, nearly always I have to respond by asking "and what steam-era route in TS is suitable for that loco?" (that's usually the second question - the first one is "where can I get the hundreds of original builder's detailed engineering drawings needed for making an accurate model of that loco?"). The answer to both questions is virtually always negative.

mrennie wrote:

stlsf4003 wrote:And yet the British steam locomotive market seems to be chugging along with a full head of steam. what's up with that?

There simply seems to be a much larger fan base for steam in the UK. I can't be certain, but there might be more people who can get to a nearby preserved line (there are a lot in the UK) to see steam "in the flesh". There are also more UK steam-era routes in TS that are suitable for running the UK steam locos. That's a problem for US steam. There's a plethora of candidates for modelling, with so many "fallen flags", but every time I get asked if I'd model such-and-such a steam loco from this or that railroad, nearly always I have to respond by asking "and what steam-era route in TS is suitable for that loco?" (that's usually the second question - the first one is "where can I get the hundreds of original builder's detailed engineering drawings needed for making an accurate model of that loco?"). The answer to both questions is virtually always negative.

I know you investigated doing the 611 and decided against it for the reasons mentioned. The thing about "excursion" engines,is that you can justify running them on a routes,other than the true home roads. I am a big supporter of your work,and LOVE the Centennial sets and assets. Yet I know there are less people interested in 1860's steam/routes,than a more current era. I believe the N&W "J",would sell well. I do not know if the versions for other platforms have a royalty/licensing agreement in place. I would jump at the chance to purchase such a package. I am just trying to provide a bit of encouragement,should you ever reconsider....

jpetersjr wrote:There's a freeware Berk in the library, look up Pere Marquette.

http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/home/the-archives/news-archive/item/228-pere-marquette-berkshire-bonus-download

It would seem that i'm having some issue with the PM Berk.
The Tender will show up in game just fine but the engine wont. I need the G-trax Berk pack to use this engine don't i?

mrennie wrote:There simply seems to be a much larger fan base for steam in the UK. I can't be certain, but there might be more people who can get to a nearby preserved line (there are a lot in the UK) to see steam "in the flesh". There are also more UK steam-era routes in TS that are suitable for running the UK steam locos. That's a problem for US steam. There's a plethora of candidates for modelling, with so many "fallen flags", but every time I get asked if I'd model such-and-such a steam loco from this or that railroad, nearly always I have to respond by asking "and what steam-era route in TS is suitable for that loco?" (that's usually the second question - the first one is "where can I get the hundreds of original builder's detailed engineering drawings needed for making an accurate model of that loco?"). The answer to both questions is virtually always negative.

Well at least we've got you providing us with top of the line locomotives.