Abacus' Scenic Railway: how many miles?

[UtilityInfielder]

Abacus releases their new payware route next week (link to their info page below). My question is has anybody found out yet how long this route is?

http://trainsimulatorworld.com/scenic/

[SVTS]

No word yet on length. Don't get your hopes up for anything long, like Marias. Probally under 50 miles. But, I hope it is longer than that. But this is Abacus we are talking about. The same fine folks that brought you the useless roundhouse add on.

[LAHDPOP]

I realize I'm kind of new here, but I've been flight simming for quite a while, and I just have to ask this ---
None of you guys actually PAY Abacus for any of their crap, do you? I can't imagine their train sim stuff would be any higher quality than their flight add-ons, which are total junk.
To the original poster of this thread, do yourself a favor. Take a day off work, and just sit here and download routes from the file library, and order the Kicking Horse Pass route just for good measure. Money spent on Abacus is money wasted.
Pop

[Hack]

>Money spent on Abacus is money wasted.

Question: Have you ever tried any of their Train Sim addons? While I would agree the Roundhouse has left a bad taste in many people's mouths, many of the other MSTS addons are perfectly fine. I can understand if you had a gripe about one of their flight sim addons, or even if you purchased one of their MSTS ones and felt you got burned. This would indeed be unfortunate, but your comments are unfounded and out of line.

Rest assured - from someone who's played with the Scenic Railway - the addon is top-notch and worth every penny...And no, 3DTrains didn't develop it.

Cheers!
Marc - 3DTrains
http://www.3dtrains.com

[patm41]

There is nothing wrong with Abacus stuff!! some of their products are unique, and only avalable from them...There LTV mining is a fun route to run and is different than most of the freeware routes you will find. Their up comming Casino express
is totaly different from anything than is avalable anywhere!!

Keep in mind that most Abacus customers are not hardcore downloaders or people that do not have the skills or know how to
install a downloaded route.(yea i know some routes are foolproof but alot are not)

having been a flight simmer for years i always had good results
with Abacus add-ons!!

http://www.trainsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3cf0f5f54234a5f7.jpg
patm41

[Richard]

Pop, I purchased the LTV-Erie Mining add-on from Abacus and I'm very glad I did. Sure there are some minor problems with the route, but they are not Abacus fault. The problems I've encountered with the LTV route are also present in the Marias Pass route, because of errors Kuju made from the Get go. Not that I'm saying Kuju did a bad job with MSTS. A program as complex as MSTS will have some bugs, all it takes is one little over sight in the source code and you have a bug. So my final thoughs are, I am happy with the LTV-Erie Mining route from Abacus and do not feel that I've been taken. The units, cars, mine areas, crushers, and ore dock are simply outstanding, of course this is just my opiniun and your mileage may vary :-)

Rich S.

[LAHDPOP]

OK, you guys sold me. I'm not gonna go buy one, but I'll quit assuming ALL their stuff is crap just because so much of their flight sim stuff is. My apologies.
Pop

[TrirailF40PHL]

BTW, I think they scored good when they released Train Sim Modeler!

Kurt

[Johansteam]

HA!HA!HA!HO!HO!HA! LOL........ A payware route?? I'm still waiting for my promissed route, when I bought the LTV-Erie Train-set. Six months waiting and Counting. I will NOT buy anything from them again.
Johan.

[ThomInCA]

Based on the map of the route, and assuming the inlets of Crystal Lake are about a mile deep, then the route appears to be 40 miles or so.

Looking at the various screenshots, it looks fairly interesting. Will just have to wait and see what someone else has to say about it before spending any $$. At twice the cost of KHP, it's a little pricey.

-- ThomInCA

[UtilityInfielder]

Based on your recomendation I'm off tonight to buy Kicking Horse. As for Abacus, well maybe they could sell 10 times as many if it was priced at half as much, and so they might wind up with more profit...

[shoskins]

Yeah, I agree with your there. That Abacus Roundhouse is a RIPOFF.

Everything on it has been available inthe File Library of train-sim.com.

It was quite disappointing to find this out....especially after opening and running the Abacus disc, not being able to return it where I bought it.

[Bing]

For me, Roundhouse was a waste of money. Rich Garber's Route Editor and Activity Editor manuals are great; doubtless the info could be assembled by searching the forum and other sources. But for a few bucks I got two excellent publications. Ordered on a wekkend - Sat or Sun, forget which - Monday morning first thing I got a product key for both manuals, d/l'd and was up and running in a few minutes. I'll certainly be buying TSM in the fairly near future.

I've purchased only one payware route - German Railroads Vol. 1 - Biggetal. If you can't cope with German language instructions and notes, wait until July for the English language release. I have Biggetal installed and it is a dream, well worth the price, which itself is lower than many add-on routes. Ernst T. airmailed it to me for an add'l seven bucks, I had it in ten days which is kinda slow but not bad. In Chicago I might never have gotten it.

Bing

[rrlyon]

I purchased a few Flight Sim add-ons that were slick for Combat Flight Sim such as Battle for Midway, Flight Deck and Wings over China. When I purchased RoundHouse I was so disappointed that an email to them was done immediately. The response was that tech support was not happy with it either and the next ones would be better. I have heard good things about LTV and the Scenic Railway looks good from the screen shots. I will be waiting to see what the forum members have to say about it.

Richard
Bellevue, WA

http://www.trainsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3ccb690c00ab10c5.jpg

[SkyRat]

i strongly suggest you download boddidly (ohio river & western) and East Metro (emrr), both by Rich Garber, both with keep you very busy and awe struck for 100's of hours. lots of cewl scenery, landscape and excellent operational work on both railroads and lots and lots of miles of tracks, not to mention a ton of activities! and best, they are free. kicking horse is cewl, but i was wondering if either end of kicking horse runs into some operations (industries, cities) where we can make some great, challenging, complex activities; that would be a great add on; gold mines, coal mines, logging, oil, open pit mines, lumber yards, something, vaste cities... driving up and down the pass looking at the mountains, trees and rivers is fun, but after awhile needs something else. (i bought the route and have no regrets).

SkyRat

[Paul1953]

I'm with you. I dont yet have all the skills neccessary to attempt downloading the available routes at Train-Sim, and I'm quite happy to test out my consists on Cliff Hanger. I dont Know about the rest of you, but I'm having a riot seeing how far I can throw various diesels off Lookout Point!!. I had a DDx40 clear the river and hit the mountain on the far side. And before anyone tries to take me to task on this, remember there is a thread farther along in this forum inviting people to upload thier favourite derailment screenshots. I cant hit the nose of a new loco with a bottle of bubbly, but its a baptism all the same(and wierd therapy too!).

[lnghairedwizard]

ACtually, its all the industries in the Scenic route that have me curious about it...unfortuanately, the choose only to show screenshots of the cities as opposed to the industries...am wondering when we'll be able to see some industry shotz?????

Longhairedwizard

[jpmurd]

Just recieved this route in the mail. Arrived in 3 days via US mail. Cost 35.00 incl shipping. Overall a good route with 12 activities. The length is 30 to 31 miles, (to answer the orig question). Lots of nice trees, Lots of objects. MY only Negative comment is The River in places looks like a LAVA flow rather than a river. AND yes a few of the FreeWare routes are better ESPECIALLY the SEAWIEW route, The Bodiddily Route (O&WV) , PO&N, EastMetroRR , just to name some of the BEST.
John

[Kip]

I just got the Scenic Railway last week and it's a good route. The activities are good with alot of switching and pick-ups and deliveries. My only "gripe" is that the SD40-2's they have (5 of them I think) are too dark to the point that they remind me of "blobs" with windows in the front. No detail...too black. I like the gradual throttle instead of the notches and the view of the city is very well done. Large railyard too. I won't comment on the Roundhouse. I also got their Railhouse Collection that wasn't bad. I will get their Erie Mining route soon.

[CNfavorite]

I'm intrigued with this Abacus thing, and to UtilityInfielder - I think you're going to like KHP! :) My gripe is that Maple Leaf Tracks made such realistic consists (up to 80 cars or more), the viewing angles really suffer for it (atleast on my laptop?)

I'll have to check out this Abacus thingy shortly?

[Adam3291]

I purchased Round House and Lake Erie Minning. Both of them I bought was money wasted. They don't take there time to develop anything that is of quality to sell us the consumer. I should have taken ALL my Abacus stuff back to the store and exchanged it for something of quality. I'm not going to let Anacus take the money I worked for!!

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