Introductory post and a few questions for OR

[BloatedBlowfish]

Greetings,

I've spent some time familiarizing myself with the forum here before even considering starting a new thread, and I have a couple questions about Open Rails specifics, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone as it were and begin with an introduction.

Originally from Northeastern Ohio, my grandfather had a 1950's Lionel train set that he sat up every year around the Christmas tree, I specifically remember the Traveling Aquarium Train Car. I watched it for hours, falling asleep to the sound.

In 1967, my grandparents, my mom and I traveled through the Smoky Mountains. We came out of a long tunnel, and came to a crossing. Before us was five or six engines crossing in front of us with a long set of cars. How long? My grandmother and I got out of the car, sat on the hood, leaning back against the front window, and tried counting them. A gentleman walked up to our car and said, "get comfortable, its gonna be a couple hours". So imagine seeing an older woman and her 4 year old grandson asleep on the hood of a car, while the two people inside were snoring as well.

My first memory of train hunting was traveling with my Uncle (on vacation from his home in Virginia) to photograph some trains along the Ohio routes leading to/from Indiana/Kentucky/Pennsylvania. It was with him I saw the first Apollo launch in July of 69, so when he asked if I wanted to go see trains and eat greasy food for a couple weeks in August of that same year, well I was all in (after getting the go ahead from the grandparents and my mom).

We spent a couple days in the Canton/Massillon area photographing engines and stock on the Greer and Republic Steel lines respectively (near my home town) then traveled west to Dayton to pick up other important bridges and crossings. I remember stopping at a Hobby Shop somewhere near Dayton, which had a large train layout. It was cool, seeing the trains doing their job, while outside the door (or so it seemed) their real world counterpart were doing theirs.

Now at this point, the shop owner had a conversation with my Uncle and after a phone call, he told me were going to see a big layout at a man's house nearby in West Carrolton. Turns out it was Allen Mcclelland's V&O. Yes it's been 53 years, but that layout blew my little mind away. Mr. Mcclelland was a kind host and after a couple hours, we left, with a promise to return if ever in the area.

I never had the room to set up a layout, and now that I'm near 60, a very low income keeps that from happening.

Enter Open Rails:

For complete transparency, I do not have MSTS installed, so it is just Open Rails. So far, I'm really enjoying the game, and while I'm not to fond of being the engineer at this point, at least I have that option if I want in the future.

Routes I currently have are:
burrinjuck_v3
wvr_v1
tweed_railway_v2
Bernina
CP_MACTIER
zig_zag
BNSF SCENIC

So to my questions:

1) I've used the autopilot to take on the passenger role, switching from one camera to another so I'm somewhat familiar with how a route from point A to point B works. But I'm curious, is there a setting that would allow me to step out of a specific train as it comes into a yard and watch the work done, i.e., cars being switched, traffic coming in/heading out etc.?

1A) Is this considered "Timetable" mode, and if so, do most existing routes available for download have this feature added in?

1B) I'm not sure if the routes I currently own have a rail yard feature so that I can do this, so just in case does anyone have recommendations for routes that would include a rail yard.

2) I'm certainly a fan of Steam/Coal and while I have not investigated adding in any engines that are from this era to any of the existing routes I have, can anyone recommend routes that feature Steam/Coal?

3) Huge fan of the Appalachian mountain setting, does anyone have suggestions for routes that include Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio?

Sorry for the long intro and for asking all these questions,

Cheers,
BloatedBlowfish

[spoony1999]

Greetings,

I've spent some time familiarizing myself with the forum here before even considering starting a new thread, and I have a couple questions about Open Rails specifics, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone as it were and begin with an introduction.

Originally from Northeastern Ohio, my grandfather had a 1950's Lionel train set that he sat up every year around the Christmas tree, I specifically remember the Traveling Aquarium Train Car. I watched it for hours, falling asleep to the sound.

In 1967, my grandparents, my mom and I traveled through the Smoky Mountains. We came out of a long tunnel, and came to a crossing. Before us was five or six engines crossing in front of us with a long set of cars. How long? My grandmother and I got out of the car, sat on the hood, leaning back against the front window, and tried counting them. A gentleman walked up to our car and said, "get comfortable, its gonna be a couple hours". So imagine seeing an older woman and her 4 year old grandson asleep on the hood of a car, while the two people inside were snoring as well.

My first memory of train hunting was traveling with my Uncle (on vacation from his home in Virginia) to photograph some trains along the Ohio routes leading to/from Indiana/Kentucky/Pennsylvania. It was with him I saw the first Apollo launch in July of 69, so when he asked if I wanted to go see trains and eat greasy food for a couple weeks in August of that same year, well I was all in (after getting the go ahead from the grandparents and my mom).

We spent a couple days in the Canton/Massillon area photographing engines and stock on the Greer and Republic Steel lines respectively (near my home town) then traveled west to Dayton to pick up other important bridges and crossings. I remember stopping at a Hobby Shop somewhere near Dayton, which had a large train layout. It was cool, seeing the trains doing their job, while outside the door (or so it seemed) their real world counterpart were doing theirs.

Now at this point, the shop owner had a conversation with my Uncle and after a phone call, he told me were going to see a big layout at a man's house nearby in West Carrolton. Turns out it was Allen Mcclelland's V&O. Yes it's been 53 years, but that layout blew my little mind away. Mr. Mcclelland was a kind host and after a couple hours, we left, with a promise to return if ever in the area.

I never had the room to set up a layout, and now that I'm near 60, a very low income keeps that from happening.

Enter Open Rails:

For complete transparency, I do not have MSTS installed, so it is just Open Rails. So far, I'm really enjoying the game, and while I'm not to fond of being the engineer at this point, at least I have that option if I want in the future.

Routes I currently have are:
burrinjuck_v3
wvr_v1
tweed_railway_v2
Bernina
CP_MACTIER
zig_zag
BNSF SCENIC

So to my questions:

1) I've used the autopilot to take on the passenger role, switching from one camera to another so I'm somewhat familiar with how a route from point A to point B works. But I'm curious, is there a setting that would allow me to step out of a specific train as it comes into a yard and watch the work done, i.e., cars being switched, traffic coming in/heading out etc.?

1A) Is this considered "Timetable" mode, and if so, do most existing routes available for download have this feature added in?

1B) I'm not sure if the routes I currently own have a rail yard feature so that I can do this, so just in case does anyone have recommendations for routes that would include a rail yard.

2) I'm certainly a fan of Steam/Coal and while I have not investigated adding in any engines that are from this era to any of the existing routes I have, can anyone recommend routes that feature Steam/Coal?

3) Huge fan of the Appalachian mountain setting, does anyone have suggestions for routes that include Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio?

Sorry for the long intro and for asking all these questions,

Cheers,
BloatedBlowfish

Welcome to the forum and Open Rails. I can answer your last question. Search for "Austin Yoder" in the routes file section and download his NS Horseshoe Curve Route, NS Pocahontas Route and NS East River District Route. Those are both excellent routes that fit for Appalachian needs. I'm sure there are other routes that people can chime in with that fit that area.

[crstagg]

Welcome to the forum and Open Rails. I can answer your last question. Search for "Austin Yoder" in the routes file section and download his NS Horseshoe Curve Route, NS Pocahontas Route and NS East River District Route. Those are both excellent routes that fit for Appalachian needs. I'm sure there are other routes that people can chime in with that fit that area.

FYI I expect that those routes require MSTS installed to copy scenery and buildings etc. Check before downloading.

[seagoon]

FYI I expect that those routes require MSTS installed to copy scenery and buildings etc. Check before downloading.

They do, indeed.

[gremlin1812]

G'day All, I just installed the "Norfolk Southern - Horseshoe Curve Route" and it did not require any extra files, I have it in OpenRails and it looks and goes quite well. I just used the "explore in activity mode" and selected a loco/consist and off I went, you can select "autopilot" using Alt A.
There are a lot of routes which do require MSTS though.
Regards from Australia.
Barrie

[seagoon]

They do, indeed.

No they don't, you idiot!

[gremlin1812]

G'day All, I now have all three of the routes by Austin Yoder installed and they all install without the need for any extra files. I use OpenRails and these routes all look and run well.
Regards
Barrie

[BloatedBlowfish]

I wanted to thank everyone who replied with information to my queries. I re-posted these questions over at Elvas Tower on the advice of a member here, and have already received some very helpful advice.

Cheers and thanks so much,

R.S. Barker