Does anyone here play at VORA?

[TrainMaster1]

It is said that word of mouth advertising is priceless and I usually agree with Chris, but this time I don’t. I know at least a few of the forum members are or were members of VORA. But I think it is only fair to caution people about this “Virtual” Prototypical Railroad, as you may be wasting your time as I have felt I have wasted mine. My reasoning for attempting to join this organization was to expand my knowledge of Railroads and Railroad operations. I attended their Intro Questions and Answer Session, where it was explained to me and several others that VORA was ran like a "real" railroad. They did provided some information that the required training would consist of two training sessions for a total 4 hours’ worth of training, and that you must pass a two qualifying runs. That there were a minimum number of sessions one had to attend to maintain your engineer qualification and that there was other positions one could train for such as Dispatcher, MOW, etc. I really thought this was neat.

Mike: I am sorry that you feel you wasted you time. That is not what our goal is for every member. For everyone, you do indeed run with dispatchers, yardmasters and more who have to pass training and be qualified on the route to hold their jobs. And to echo Mike-It is neat to be a part of an actual day in the history of a real route.

So I attended the four hours of training, and I admit we discussed a lot. Such as how to read the train roster, how to create my train consist to mimic how a “real” railroad operated in the past, how to fill out their copyrighted Track Authority Form, how to read their track charts, how to call a signal since they used a TeamSpeak. Since I had experience other simulator communities I asked all the questions I could and took notes because I wanted to do my best. So based on what I was taught and told I felt fairly well prepared and eagerly awaited the qualifying runs. For brevity's sake, let it be sufficed to say that their training and what they expect of beginners’ during the qualifying runs are two totally different expectations.

Very interesting. Our expectation is that a crew is able to follow their track chart and Bulletin Order for an operating session. The Bulletin order right now gives a crew the following: the proper signal call format for the railroad we are running on as well as it gives you every signal that is not a clear signal. Think of it as an open book test where we give you the answers. We will be abandoning this as in 2013 every route in VORA for every sim will have actual signals outside your window. If you can read a signal chart like an actual engineer you will do fine with us. By the way we give the actual signal card that an engineer running the route would have in their hands as well.

No true to life railroad could or would operate their training program in such a manner and survive. I should have known something was wrong when their total number of members was only 37 people. Completely not true we have not been under triple digits in members since January of 2011. Our forum is really not a stop by and post forum. All members have 90 days to earn their way into the cab or they are removed.

They have a high number of applicants (like us) but those that actually attend training and the qualifying session number is extremely low. That's right just like a real railroad. Lots of guys want to apply...some do...then find out they do not have what the job takes. So we experience the same thing. You have no idea how many times we hear nothing but excuses..."I have had the sim since the Beginning of time so I do not need to come to training" or" I know everything there is to know about railroads so you cannot teach me anything." Suffice it to say hundreds have applied and we have qualified dozens and dozens for operating sessions.

During my qualifying run approximately 10-12 individuals were scheduled. Only two others and I actually showed up and the experience was horrible. The “Dispatcher” had very little patience and the training that was provided didn’t cover everything and I left quite frustrated and disappointed. Again I am very sorry that you thought the experience was horrible. That is not why I pour all the time, energy and effort I do into the organization. The fact that 9 engineers were scheduled to run with you that night and many decided to do something else is nothing we have control over. You honored your commitment and made it to training and showed up for your runs. Not everyone seems to have a commitment gene these days. This is a major source of frustration for us. Just this past week we had 5 of 5 show up and 4 made it through. One will retry in January.

Bob is right; they do make it out to be a secret and many would call it a “Paper Railroad”. Unless they are using RUN 8 (which would best simulator for this type of organization), a few days before hand you are given your train consist list (it contains your start time as well) you create it on a modified route which you are given. You then get your train consist certified, once that is done on the day of the event you report in at your schedule time and contact the dispatcher and fill out your Track Authority Form prior to departure. Then you depart using a track sheet which will list the signals. This makes it very tough as you have to ignore the signals outside your window. There is no secret multiplayer software, you just know their schedule. But that first qualifying run left a very bad taste in my mouth. So I will leave it at that, maybe it will be different for you.

I have spent a great deal of time and money building VORA. So yes , I am not giving away info or making it public domain. We have many advances that allow us to do things (see other trains in real time with two person crews, have real working signals) and lots more that are really beyond what the majority of sim owners want. We have just completed development of a professional level training that will be used for our RUN 8 sessions as well in 1:1 scale as we are in negotiations to train for actual railroads! Quaifying takes time and patience on all parts crews as well as Dispatchers. Only twice in our history have we had a trainee up and leave in the middle of a run. What we do is not for everyone.

Two more items and I will bye for now---When I hear the phrase paper railroad, I know I am dealing with someone who has no clue the amount of paper a real crew sees. There were days when you could lean to one side with all the nonsense we had to carry...TTs, Bulletin Orders, Rule Books, Consist Lists and more. VORA honors that and so our crews have Bulletin Orders, Track Charts, Signal Charts, Switch Lists (local crews), Consist Lists (road crews). It is as close to hernia inducing realism as we can make it. Finally , we can do what we want to do with success on any sim...we can have two person crews work together live and see their train on any sim right now. As far as "multiplayer" goes here are our thoughts on both sim and real world. In the real world, you can go an entire day without seeing another train in your window. We run the actual schedule that the route saw on the day we are recreating no fake or phony AI trains as every train has a live crew in it. In the sim world to make MP work you must have every player have the exact same equipment so your computer will recognize that file when it passes you window. If you have one single custom piece...it appears as a blank to the other player.

In our busiest session to date we ran 37 trains since they ran on the real route that day. This was a combo of passenger regionals and Amtraks plus freight traffic. Most any one train saw was 8 others in the window for a total of about 15 minutes out of a 3 1/2 hour run. That was the actual schedule. What is more important to us is that the road runs right not the 15 minutes of waving to another crew. That would be nice to have don't get me wrong and we have that in ORTS and Run 8 full time. But we never add traffic or fake anything to get more window time.

We are moving to a more realistic system where all trains will be made up ahead of time just like an actual railroad. This is a necessity in ORTS and RUN 8. You show up and go to work rather than create and get your train approved. So no more getting your train approved, you just show up and get on board at your assigned time based on your personal availability and go.

We will take what we are learning and use that to develop new routes and equipment for RW since our goal is to make things better for sim owners everywhere. So stay tuned 2013 will see many new advances.

Anyone is welcome to apply and earn their way into the cab. We know it is not an easy leap from solo engineer to suddenly following the book and running with lots of other voices and people in your ears. We will work with anyone of any skill level to help them learn what they need to learn to get the most out of their sim and maximum enjoyment time. I hope this clear up some misconceptions about VORA and what we do. Thanks for your time.