About This Content

This is a Model Trainz layout with new TRS19 track, all seasonal 3D PBR textures, TurfFX grasses and seasonal SpeedTrees.

The railroad serves a diverse range of industries and factories in the Smoke Stack industrial regions of Chuck, Ewe and Pharlie. These include a steel mill, timber wharf, dry sort yard, saw mill, steel fabrication yards, fuel depots, grain terminals and mills, and numerous small and medium sized manufacturing plants and workshops. Two locomotive depots support both steam and diesel locomotives.

Five sessions are included. In the first session the locomotive is waiting at the head of a short consist. Freight cars have been spotted on the layout. Explore the layout and, if you want, pick up and drop off freight cars.

In the four sessions that follow, you have to undertake specific tasks. The tasks are displayed in a large pop-up window that can be opened and closed using the Function F1 and Esc keys.

For the uninitiated, in all my sessions there aint no pop-ups, no on-screen text messages, no hand-holding, no scoring. You are Chuck and Joe, The Dispatcher's premier crew. In most sessions you will have to undertake the roles of Locomotive Crew (driving the locomotive), Switchman (setting the switches), Yard Master (directing the Crew to the correct location for loading and unloading), and Load Master (loading and unloading the freight cars). In some sessions you may also be the MoW (Maintenance of Way) Foreman, the Barge Master (ensuring the freight cars are correctly loaded onto a Barge so that it does not capsize), and other tasks as required.

The route should appeal to those who like driving diesel and steam locomotives in either Cab or DCC mode, those who enjoy switching operations in a relatively confined but realistically portrayed environment, and those who just like playing with model trains. Despite the high level of detail, frame rates will be excellent, even on mid range computers. More details can be found in my thread in the N3V Trainz Payware Forum.