Railworks America

Hello,

I am relatively new to Railworks, I have just started to get into it a little more now that I am figuring some things out.

I have been doing some looking for US Steam Locomotives, and I was wondering if there are any good quality models out their besides the ones on Steam, and the fellow at BritKits?

Thank you

At the moment, that's all that comes to mind. True, there are only a handful of steam locos for the U.S.

I was just looking at the DLC list and I find it "interesting" that RSC has yet to build a single steam engine for the U.S. market (the ones they offer are 3rd party developed, I think), but they've made several (even default contents!) for the Euro fans. What's up with that?!

Toripony wrote:At the moment, that's all that comes to mind. True, there are only a handful of steam locos for the U.S.

I was just looking at the DLC list and I find it "interesting" that RSC has yet to build a single steam engine for the U.S. market (the ones they offer are 3rd party developed, I think), but they've made several (even default contents!) for the Euro fans. What's up with that?!

A week ago, RSAdam flew into Philly and then drove to Strasburg PA to visit the rail museum. He spent two whole days there. I guess all we can surmise is that they have other things in the works.

I thought about that, too . Also I noticed coaling/water facilities on the HSC, plus they chose to set it in 1950... not 1956, a completely different era.

Toripony wrote:At the moment, that's all that comes to mind. True, there are only a handful of steam locos for the U.S.

I was just looking at the DLC list and I find it "interesting" that RSC has yet to build a single steam engine for the U.S. market (the ones they offer are 3rd party developed, I think), but they've made several (even default contents!) for the Euro fans. What's up with that?!

I wouldn't know where to start picking one, myself. I mean sure, everyone knows the UP mallets and the cabforward, but then what? the default steamers were built for the S&D route - there's no option for that, it was steam until closure and it's a bit of a cult icon, so good for sales - and the other RSC efforts were I suspect what people there wanted to model. Has there been an in-house US route before? I think the only way you can sensibly pick a workhorse-type class is to tie it to a route.

Personally I want a NYC S-1/2, but that's mostly as an appreciation of probably the ultimate passenger engine... is there even a single suitable mile of track? :) ( I wouldn't have a clue where to start looking for plans either )

Well, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the railworks dev team is in the UK. So by them making accurate UK routes and engines only makes sense - as that is what they are most interested in.

Horseshoe Curve is the first accurate route developed by the dev team for the US.

Personally, I would love to see some Pennsy Steam - K4, M1B, T1 are the primary ones that come to mind.

There are so many great locomotives out there, it is hard to choose a few to model.

Hopefully there will be more in the future.


On a side note - are the BritKit engines good quality, like sound and cab views and everything - there is not much media on their website for the locomotives. Just wondering before I buy them.

http://railworks.banal.net/catalog/catalog.html

Don't know how up to date it is, but that's a valuable listing for locomotives.

Go to http://www.gtraxsims.com he has several different US steamers that are really good quality. The engines at britkits in my IMHO are worth the price.

Oh, US steam. Yeah, actually more than a hand full. Challenger, Big Boy, the GS4 Daylight. The Kanawah. The Britkits Shay's. The Berkshires. Just do a search in the library here.

I believe Tori was referring only to RSC, and the OP wanted to know if there was anything *except* Britkits and Gtrax ( they're all on Steam ); all I can think of are the couple over at TS.com. Just because we're from over here doesn't mean we're automatically only interested in over here, Dick Cowen is a fairly appropriate illustration of that :)

So, can anyone lay hands on plans for a NYC Niagra? I got an "I'll build that if you can find plans" out of someone...

Here are some reference photo's of one, including a cab picture.

I would love to see one of these with a freeware basic pack as well.

Some US Narrow Gauge engines would also be very cool.


As a funny note - I would have to imagine that if a Brit went to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum without knowing much about US Steam, I bet he was surprised by the size of them. The British Standard Gauge engines were tiny by US comparison.

And Interesting note I found when looking some stuff up. The German BR 52 2-10-0 was LIGHTER than a US Narrow Gauge K-36.

FWIW the fourth photo (NYC Niagra 3.jpg) is actually the front end of Norfolk & Western's very first Y6. That would make a very interesting model, indeed, particularly since the Y4 through Y6 classes were all developments of the Y3 (a.k.a. the USRA 2-8-8-2) which is already available.

Kali wrote:So, can anyone lay hands on plans for a NYC Niagra? I got an "I'll build that if you can find plans" out of someone...

Yea, there's a lot of great steam engines, but I won't be choosy at all. A Niagra sounds just fine. You guys had better start another thread for that; lots of pics will probably roll in. You might be able to uncover some old manufacturing records or press coverage of those in the old Google Books. I've seen a surprising amount of detail (even engineering drawings) in some of the press coverage of certain new trains back before 1960.

Yea, Kali, I wasn't so much complaining as I was dropping a hint to anyone at RSC that might be reading. Paul has worked to make the U.S. side of this product better than the original, and I think a popular 4-8-4 PA unit for a nice special price (actually, I hope it would be included for HSC owners, retroactively), is necessary to finish out the basic U.S. necessities of the TS2012 product. Since the HSC is free for all new future users, we will eventually treat it as default content so it's kind of like a new route (with some new rolling stuff!) has been added to the base product. For free. Wow, I hope other companies are watching this marketing approach! Current RW owners should add the Horseshoe Curve to your collection; at half price it is a steal! Somewhat like a finished Alleghany only busier even. I think it needs more crossovers, some mountain streams, and a few more farmhouses.

ChaoticRambo wrote:As a funny note - I would have to imagine that if a Brit went to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum without knowing much about US Steam, I bet he was surprised by the size of them. The British Standard Gauge engines were tiny by US comparison.

Yea, funny thought there.... (I forget... who was it that came over? Adam?) Hmmmm, so he got to see a behemoth H-8 Allegheny hands-ons, eh? I think he should share something with us about that experience, lol.