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Random Style of the Day: Big Sky

Big Sky is a color scheme used by the Great Northern Railway from 1967 to 1970. It is a combination of blue, white, and gray, and was inspired by the landscape of the Big Sky Country of Montana.

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  • Properly Install Content and Third Party Applications for OpenRails

    Properly Install Content and Third Party Applications for OpenRails

    If you've downloaded an add-on, they should go into a common Content folder. Some people organize all of their routes and trains into a single folder, while others might organize them into regions or time eras.

    Many have installers, but it's also common to simply have a set of folders that get copied within your content folder.

    I'll be using C:\ORTSContent for this tutorial, but your content...
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    Last edited by eric; 12-19-2024, 21:43.

  • State of the Site -- March 2024

    State of the Site -- March 2024

    It's Anniversary Week!

    Looking back a few days, March 8th marked the one year anniversary of separating Trainsim.Com from its previous owner, and ending a negotiation which had started five weeks earlier.

    But that's not the only anniversary at hand...

    Tonight, March 12th, marks a somewhat more significant milestone -- the one year anniversary of moving onto our own servers, and thus having total control over our collective destiny as a community.
    ...
    Go to post
    Last edited by eric; 03-12-2024, 20:23.

  • It's Been A Year?

    It's Been A Year?

    It's been a little over a year since FlightSim sold off Trainsim, and what a year it's been.

    Rather than rehash that, I just wanted to take this time to thank a few people.

    First of all, Nels Anderson for starting and funding the site, and Rick Frerichs for literally keeping it running during those two plus decades. Rick wrote the original software used for the file library, and it performed flawlessly up to the day we moved from the FlightSim servers to our own servers....
    Go to post
    Last edited by eric; 03-08-2024, 14:32.

  • State of the Site - February 2024

    State of the Site - February 2024

    And just like that, NFL football is over for the season. Those of you who don't follow football closely may not understand the emptiness that sets in following the end of the regular season (especially for those whose teams don't make the playoffs), but for me, watching football is a block on the weekend where I am guaranteed to get mostly uninterrupted time to concentrate on programming fixes and other things Trainsim related because our household watches a lot of football... Congrats to the ...
    Go to post

  • Bundles of Bundles

    Bundles of Bundles

    A number of routes old and new have been bundled recently, which means you can get all of the required items in a single zip if you're a First Class or FastPass member. To view the list of current routes and other files that are bundled, Click here With the new track pieces for older routes available, you might want to rediscover a few of the older gems including the various Milwaukee Road "Lines West" such as the RMD East, RMD West, Idaho and Coast divisions. Or maybe the Pacific Electric o...
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    Last edited by eric; 02-09-2024, 17:23.

  • State of the Site -- January 2024

    State of the Site -- January 2024

    I'd say we are off to a very good start to the year... The last few years, I've been out of meaningful NFL football to watch by the first week of January, and able to spend more time doing other things. This year, my Packers shocked the world and knocked out the #2 Dallas Cowboys, making it to the Divisional Round officially as the youngest average age team in NFL history and the first #7 seed to advance to the Divisional Round... Unfortunately, this past weekend they lost a close game to the...
    Go to post

  • Happy 2024!

    Happy 2024!

    During the last year...

    An average of 10,000 pages were visited daily...
    624 people made 11,610 posts to our forums...
    264 people sent 2,089 private messages...
    153 people uploaded 1,334 screenshots and other attachments...
    110 people uploaded 442 files to the library...
    Over 18,000 unique users downloaded 735,664 files from the library...

    Since August, 11,040 users performed 906,271 searches of the file library...

    Numbers like...
    Go to post
    Last edited by eric; 12-31-2023, 16:08.

  • State of the Site - December 2023

    State of the Site - December 2023

    Where has the time gone? We're just a week out from Christmas, and a fortnight from the New Year... The month started out with some bad news regarding one of our early members and long-time moderator on the site... Our friend Dave Edwards passed away on December 7th. He'd been battling health issues for the last few years, and while things were looking better over the past couple months, he took a sudden turn for the worse. There's a thread in the "We Remember" forum for those looking for more de...
    Go to post

  • Run8 Studios South Fork Secondary

    Run8 Studios South Fork Secondary

    Run 8 Studios announces a new route for v3 -- the Norfolk Southern South Fork Secondary.

    Set in Pennsylvania, this 30 mile route depicts a line from South Fork which services three coal mines -- Huskin Run, Rose Bud and Shade Creek.

    The line climbs steeply out of South Fork on a nearly 2.4% ruling grade up to the summit. Most trains will either run in a 3X3 or 3X2 configuration, in a push-pull manner.

    Along its course up to each of these mines, there is a...
    Go to post
    Last edited by eric; 01-19-2025, 21:35.

  • State of the Site - November 2023

    State of the Site - November 2023

    Happy Thanksgiving! I know we've got a lot to be thankful for in our household, and I hope everyone gets a chance to spend some time with those they care about and celebrate the good things in their lives.

    To celebrate fall a little late, I've been having some fun in the Upper Peninsula on MLT's Michigan Iron Ore route, which I've been meaning to pick up for a while.

    It's my idea of a perfect route -- not too large, and one where you can spend as little or as long as you...
    Go to post
    Last edited by eric; 11-22-2023, 23:48.
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  • Price Increase in July
    by eric

    During the time I've been managing the site, I've tried to be as transparent as possible regarding its operational and financial stability. Like it or not, there are aspects that need to be managed like a business, mainly making sure costs are covered adequately by donations and memberships.

    As mentioned on a few occasions, the price of the First Class Membership has remained at $29.95 since 2012, even though the costs of running the site have changed. Some (particularly storage) have...
    06-06-2025, 02:19 by niknak
  • The Bots are Back... Logins now required to view content
    by eric

    Sorry Folks, but it's getting out of control again. I've had to lock down "Guest" access.

    If you're a legitimate user who doesn't want to create an account just to browse, you can try logging in with Ghostuser as the user and password.

    Older members, queue up Thin Lizzy: https://youtu.be/X5SrvSeYe9k?t=22

    Younger members... here's the modern AI generated version:

    Guess...
    05-27-2025, 06:19 by eric
  • State of the Site - April/May 2025
    by eric

    Yep, it's May. And I skipped the April monthly site update entirely.

    To be more accurate, I wrote an update, and then the bot attacks hit (all remedied....), so I scrapped it. And then, well....... as I've found out a few times in life, God has a sense of humor.

    As some might recall, my wife and I bought land in Tennessee last year, with the plan to move sometime in late 2026. In early April, our plans got moved up with very little notice, and we put our house up for sale....
    05-14-2025, 17:49 by eric
  • Server Instability
    by eric

    I'm sure you've probably noticed some server instability over the last couple days.

    There's no clear smoking gun, but what I did discover digging around is that we saw a huge jump in site access starting on Saturday. By Monday, there was 20 times as much activity...

    I suspect the real issue was the access logs. When you have increased activity, logs grow accordingly.... As a log file size increases, the amount of time needed to insert each new transaction also increases,...
    04-29-2025, 19:51 by eric
  • Amtrak and Greyhound Announce Merger to Revolutionize Transportation Industry
    by eric

    Washington, D.C. - Amtrak and Greyhound, two of America's Top 46 transportation companies, are excited to announce a merger that will transform the way Americans travel. The merger, which has been in the works for years, will combine the strengths of both companies to create a seamless, efficient, and cost-effective transportation network that will serve millions of people across the country.


    Under the terms of the merger, Amtrak and Greyhound will join forces to create a new...
    04-01-2025, 06:22 by eric
  • State of the Site - March 2025
    by eric

    Geez, time flies. I just realized what week it was.... I really hate forgetting things like an anniversary, and here I just did that.

    As of March 12th, we've been a fully independent site for two years. I couldn't be happier with how the community has responded since "The Split", and how you've all continued to help make this site a fun place to stop by.

    Thanks to the moderators and others who help keep the forums moving along, those who contribute to the library,...
    Today, 15:37 by
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