Railworks America

Hello everyone!

I've become aware of Britkits recently, and I've been looking for some in depth reviews of their steam locomotives. I've searched here, on Steam, and YouTube with nothing to show for it. What I really want to know is if any of his engines have Great Northern Liveries (or if any repaints exist) and are the controls in the cab functional? I hate driving with the F4 HUD, so I need animated controls and gauges in the cab. If their engines have these features I might be willing to give them a try, so feel free to share your thoughts!

Just to save some time, I did find quite a few GN repaints on RWA. So I'm not too worried about that.

Well every engine, steam, diesel, or electric, should have animated controls in the cab of some sort, specially if they're payware. Or you could use the keyboard shortcuts.

I have several Britkit engines, and am happy with them. Here's a shot inside the 0-6-0, showing working instruments. Sorry it's rather dark.

I believe all of Brit Kits locos have functioning controls in the cabs. At least the ones I have do.

gwgardner wrote:I have several Britkit engines, and am happy with them. Here's a shot inside the 0-6-0, showing working instruments. Sorry it's rather dark.

Are the live and exhaust injector controls animated?

Also, can the sounds be modified? I've seen some comments that say the sounds used are from MSTS from 2001.

M0T0RM4N wrote:

gwgardner wrote:I have several Britkit engines, and am happy with them. Here's a shot inside the 0-6-0, showing working instruments. Sorry it's rather dark.

Are the live and exhaust injector controls animated?

Also, can the sounds be modified? I've seen some comments that say the sounds used are from MSTS from 2001.

I have seen comments that the moon is made out of green cheese. So what?

I've seen more realistic looking locomotives in the sim, but for a payware locomotive sadly these aren't really the ones, the outsides look great, but all of the interiors seem to look like the same cab model. Now I'm not certain about everyone else, his diesel engines look great, but his steam locomotives are just not my cup of tea.

jpetersjr wrote:I've seen more realistic looking locomotives in the sim, but for a payware locomotive sadly these aren't really the ones, the outsides look great, but all of the interiors seem to look like the same cab model. Now I'm not certain about everyone else, his diesel engines look great, but his steam locomotives are just not my cup of tea.

I think at this point I'm going to walk away. I'm driving myself up the wall with whether or not I would enjoy them.

I used these in CVP. They are good for background, the cabs are dated but the physics IMO are good.

I own several Britkits steam locos, including the mogul, pacific, and mikado. As American steam is painfully underrepresented in TS20xx, his engines are more than sufficient in bridging the gap. The exteriors are great, but as others have said, the cab views are relatively simple. But the cabs have animated controls and do seem to be unique to each engine. The mogul cab has different elements than the pacific or mikado cab.

I don't mind the sounds and really enjoy the rugged chime whistles the locos come with, especially the mogul's. The only thing is that on some of Dick's locos, the HUD display doesn't show the brake state or application percentage, so if you're braking, you have to look at the brake gauge in the cab or 'guestimate' your braking power if you're in external view.

Nonetheless, as far as representing some of the US' less glamorous but more commonplace steam engines, you'll likely be satisfied spending the few dollars on Dick's steam engines. He's one of the few out there making them, and he's worth supporting.

Agree with above, heaps better than nothing at all.

I find the Britkits, like others have said, to be done very well for semi port-over content from MSTS. They perform well and have very nice physics qualities and are very adaptable to ones tastes if you are so inclined to changing things. Even though the cabs have operating controls, they are very low on detail (a sign of the era of digital railroading), which is fine with me as I run third person more like a model railroad. The outer detail is excellent for the aesthetic effects we look for to give us the feel of what we are doing. Repainting can be a bit of a chore as many of the texture are used in several places so repainting the boiler may change something on the tender, but the standard texturing is fine as is.

Here's a repaint I did for my personal railroad the Neuville & Williamsburg Railroad Co.

I have several of his steam engines as well. I personally like them. They look good and run great.

Seriously, I don't know what people expect. Yes these are a little dated and basic, but they are from an era when if you wanted any US steam, it was Britkits or nothing. There is plenty of variety, Dick pioneered the engine and tender road naming system, and if for nothing more than yard and AI variety, they are an excellent buy. If you want fidelity, then it is Smokebox and Victory Works, that's it! Personally I have about 3/4 of Dicks releases, including the wonderful Shays (who else has released any logging equipment?), and am sufficiently happy to seriously look at whatever a new release might be.