Atomic Systems

I don't actually have a train sim yet, but I'm thinking of getting a copy of MSTS shortly, to use chiefly with narrow gauge lines (L&B, Ffester, WHR, etc).

Reading some of the posts on this forum, there seems to be two "standards" in use - truescale and X2 - Could somebody please explain the differences, pros and cons of the two, and which is the most common/popular. Are there similar diffwerences with other simulators?

Many thanks,

Martyn

Hi Martyn,

As built my Microsoft the Train Sim had only the six "default" routes, all standard gauge.
Early narrow gauge MSTS modellers found that they could easily build their narrow gauge railways if they built everything (stock and scenery) to a scale of x2. This gave the appearance of a narrow gauge railway but MSTS was in fact using the default standard gauge track.
As time went by some of us were able to build our own track and add it to MSTS. Two forms of Truescale narrow gauge track has been built and added to MSTS, a 3ft and a 2ft.
The 3ft version is very comprehensive and has many sections making life easier for the route builder (most of this work has been done in the USA).
The 2ft is not so comprehensive, but there is now enough track sections to satisfy most route builders (much of this track has been built in the UK). It is also worth noting that the 2ft narrow gauge is exactly half scale standard gauge giving a rough gauge of 2ft 4in!!!
All of this track and much more besides is available as a simple download and install straight into MSTS as XTracks (very easy to use).

There are no real great benefits to one scale or the other, the choice really comes down the route builder and their requirements for the route.

One advantage of the Truescale is that standard gauge can be modelled and made to work!!!
My old route “The Piddington Light Railway” has working standard gauge, narrow gauge and monorail.

XTracks v3.20 standard edition (installer) [18231676 bytes] - XTracks.zip File ID: 14093 Date: 19 Nov 2007 - 21593 Downloads

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It's worth noting that when a route is built to either scale system you can still make use of a lot of standard scale 1:1 4' 8.5" gauge scenery models, as distance models. Like in model railways, where depth is a problem, you can fudge background detail in the sim by use of the underscale default objects to fill in the background. Even some default tunnel portals (some appear oversized anyway) and bridges are suitable.

Cheers Bazza