Railworks America

Boy it's quiet out here. Is this thing broke or is everyone on vacation?

enjoy it while it lasts.

I've been so busy at work that I haven't had much time for TrainSim.

Harry

As someone who loves this platform,and this forum,it's dying. I waited a day to post,to see how many replies this topic would get. I only needed one hand to count them. I have been a proponent of RW/Train Simulator since I purchased the disk at Best Buy in 2010. The creators seem to be enamored with TSW,which I still have not purchased. Route creation is the number one selling point of this sim.Way too complex in TSW,from what I can tell. I visited the Trainz forum before making this post. They have 20 new posts today,and counting. If you were new to train simulation,it would not take long to discover that the available content for other train simulators is exponentially greater. Thank goodness for Harry Adkins and a few others,as re-paints are about the only new content. I still do my best to get new people interested in THIS platform. But I am not having as much luck as I did 10+ years ago.
I have ideas for improvements to this program,mostly for route building. But I have no idea how to spark new interest in the people interested in operating trains in a prototypical way.

Well, and least from this neck of the woods, it's fair season and the end of summer. Outdoor projects need to get wrapped up by the end of September or mid October as we can have our first snow as early as Halloween. Got to get the kids ready for school and out of summer mode. Yea, it's been a little quiet here. But I do remember it has been like this in years past around this time. As for the "other" forums, they do get posts... and trolls... and abusive rhetoric. None of that here thank heavens. I'll take the quiet periods along with civil and constructive posts. Just my .

Once the snow falls and fall chores are done, projects finished then back inside and with notch 8 and sand. The older I get the longer it takes.

If you got nothing to say, don't say it but when you have share it. ( my philosophy).

Edit
My wife says that when I'm quiet I'm up to no good!

RailsOhio.................Way to cheer me up. OK how about I pull the plug then and be done spending my time and money to support the thing?

Aww Buzz don't get bummed. I am aware of that many of these activities are more suited for colder weather. This is the only place I get info,as I am not interested in anything railroad related on another continent. I look at the updates when I start Steam,but that is about it. There are a few developers that I check their sites regularly. But there are not enough of them. I have talked to content creators who build for the "other" T platform,to build content for this sim. No luck. The early days had developers who built quality products for multiple sims. I have purchased most of Machine Rails products,as they are nearly the only supply of North American steam. I want this site and platform to thrive. I am encouraging users to continue to spread the word about it. This is not meant as a "Gloom and Doom" post,but how can we make it better. I am very happy Railworks America is still chugging along,and hope hope it continues for years to come.
I will admit I have not done much route building the past year. I have been designing and 3d printing N and HO scale projects. For those of you who have never delved into that field,it is much easier to do that,then to get content into RW. Mike Adams,who is doing a fantastic job on bringing the N&W Class J to this sim,has volunteered to help me get some content imported. So maybe this fall,when it is cooler. Joe

There is so much content for this sim, there's no way I can use half of it before I die of old age. Our own Library has 4568 free entries.

I've personally been pretty busy with work. I do still play train sim as much as I have time to do, though!

Trying to play around with modeling small switching routes rather than my former larger projects. Easier to make time for, and less demanding on the PC as well.

I also have seen a drop in our look or chat RWA Library and I can't give anyone a probing answer.
For instance for me, summer is time to do road cycling. yes at 80 i can churn 2 or 3 runs of 50km average per run, per week

I still work on repaints and have expanded my latest pack to 20 delivery box-trucks BUT i'm also preparing a trip to Japan with my son for this September.

But I'll be back and continue to do repaints for this fun hobby.

A la prochaine, Bernard

The truth is that while this forum is TECHNICALLY still alive, it is EFFECTIVELY dead.

There are a couple reasons for that...

#1: Forums in general started to decline and disappear around 2010. Only a fraction of them survive today. Most of the debates and conversations that once took place almost exclusively on forums, has now moved to the comments section of YouTube videos and posts on social media site/apps like X (Twitter). Even though videogames in general are still very popular today, the majority of websites and forums dedicated to them have been cut down or completely eliminated.

#2: Train Sim Classic is now a legacy product that no longer gets any new features or improvements. No more in-house DTG-made DLC. It's all 3rd party made DLC either sold on Steam with DTG getting a cut of the money or purchased/free directly from the author's own website. DTG has clearly moved on to Train Sim World. Just the reality.

N3V Games on the other hand has stuck with Trainz, making newer versions over the years that can still play a lot (not all) of the older DLC. Some needing only tweaks or updates to do so. That's why their Trainz forums are still pretty active.

Same with Open Rails. They have people still working on improving the sim. They also have 24 years of MSTS/OR DLC compatible with it and still being made. As a result, the forums for it are still pretty active in comparison to TSC dedicated forums like this one.

RWA is still here, but will eventually dwindle down to nothing as it's members move on or pass on. The average age on here skews older. With a general lack of younger blood joining the forums, coupled with DTG moving on from TSC, it becomes harder to justify as time moves on and the engagement dwindles.

I don't say this with pleasure. I only say it from a place of reality. It's a sign of the times.

Quality over quantity.