Demand For Freeware Routes?

[Retro]

Agree with Vern here. Loads of constant changes that make Route Building very difficult indeed. 6 SBHH problems in 2 Hours trying to place Fences. Very few before the latest Update.
Some may be thankful I am not going to post again but I have had enough.
Kind regards James.

[longbow]

Looking ahead I imagine we'll see more major collaborative freeware routes along the lines of the current Trans-Pennines project. These can aspire to a level of scale, detail and accuracy that few commercial authors would contemplate.

[salopiangrowler]

Funny though.

Freeware S&C released

RSC pops up with a modern day Version.

Indeed, even RSC consulted the freeware route author months ago to tell them they were doing it as well. What a conspiracy it is!

Makes you wonder wether it was worth the 13 months of Back breaking office chair pains to create something without gaining a penny when someone with Money Bags in their eyes releases the same route, Albeit in a Different Era.

They'll probably have a Glasgow to Fort-William route with Mallaig and Oban attached to it for the Jacobites within the next 12 months.

[Rockdoc2174]

Is jetgriff complaining? Nobody else has the right to. Certainly not those who've downloaded and used his route - and more fool those who haven't say I. The two versions don't clash and, as has been pointed out several times, he was kept in the loop by RSC. There doesn't seem to have been anything underhanded in any of this despite conspiracy theories abounding.

Rather than curse RSC for doing what every company has to do - make money - you should be praising jetgriff's largesse in letting us play with the very many hours of work he's clearly put into his route without charge. If he were charging a tenner a time it would be worth every penny but he's not. That's remarkably generous of him and I, for one, don't like to see that ignored while pot-shots are taken at RSC for being commercial.

Keith

[salopiangrowler]

wouldnt say conspiracy more of a Coincidence.

we had a Similar debate when Just trains did a Class 67 after RSC released theres.

These things go full circle eventually.

[flightsimflier]

Is jetgriff complaining? Nobody else has the right to. Certainly not those who've downloaded and used his route - and more fool those who haven't say I. The two versions don't clash and, as has been pointed out several times, he was kept in the loop by RSC. There doesn't seem to have been anything underhanded in any of this despite conspiracy theories abounding.

Rather than curse RSC for doing what every company has to do - make money - you should be praising jetgriff's largesse in letting us play with the very many hours of work he's clearly put into his route without charge. If he were charging a tenner a time it would be worth every penny but he's not. That's remarkably generous of him and I, for one, don't like to see that ignored while pot-shots are taken at RSC for being commercial.

Keith

Well said that man.

[Darpor]

we had a Similar debate when Just trains did a Class 67 after RSC released theres.

No we didn't, JT announced it around 2 years before. It's just the way of the world, things overlap and we move on. It's no biggie.

[transadelaide]

we had a Similar debate when Just trains did a Class 67 after RSC released theres.

No we didn't, JT announced it around 2 years before. It's just the way of the world, things overlap and we move on. It's no biggie.

I recall that the debate at the time was around people being unimpressed by the way that JT announced the development of the Class 67 a couple of years before, but until RS.com beat them to the point of releasing it for sale they never showed the public any sign that they wanted to do complete it and release it.

The same thing happened with their Class 20 Collection as well.

[Darpor]

Indeed, but it wasn't a case of releasing something because someone else already had as seems to be the conspiracy in this thread.

[jarmstro]

There is a parallel in my world of 4mm Model Railways. The hobby used to be about modelling and the enjoyment or learning and creating. Loco Kit building used to be hugely popular and there were many cottage industries producing kits for just about any loco you wanted. The nice thing about it was that at an exhibition (or wherever) no two loco's of the same class ever looked the same. The model being dependent on the skill and interpretation of the modeller. Its was fun, fulfilling, competitive and gave the hobby endless interest and variety.

Then about 15 years ago Hornby and Bachmann switched production to China and went hell for leather to make money. They've been whacking out new 00 gauge loco's at an astonishing rate and of high quality. The market is swamped and each year they struggle to find new engines to make. As far as I know every UK diesel loco is now available RTR. This goes for everything else as well; Buildings, Scenery and Infrastructure.

Kit building as a result has died a death. Utterly. The few sad souls that cling to the art are few and far between and as the kit makers drop out they are not replaced.

Now, most modellers. wallet in hand, simply go to their local shop and buy ready made stock and everything else. They glue it to a baseboard and hey presto! it's a model railway and their flawless trains run on flawless track past flawless scenery in the blink of an eye! It's instant gratification but it isn't modelling. Very soon they become bored. Because it IS boring as their layout and stock is the same as everyone else's.

At 00 exhibitions now all layouts look much the same in style. All stock looks the same because it is the same as 99% of it is made by just two companies. The hobby has lost it's appeal.

But now I think Hornby and Bachmann are beginning to drain the dregs of the cup of poison they have mixed for themselves as their sales are in decline and their costs are rising. And I am finding I am being asked to build engines again for people who want something individual and different to what Fred has down the road.

Railway Modelling can only survive as an amateur hobby IMHO. There is a limit beyond which Hornby and Bachmann cannot go if they are not to kill themselves off at the same time.

In RW3 if all Freeware is swamped out of the picture I think the Sim will die. RSC beware!

John A

[paulz6]

I never did understand this route ownership idea. I laid down a section of track yesterday evening that could be used in at least three different A to B style routes. The section of route has been mooted by several freeware developers and commercial outfits, although both may turn out to be vapourware. I am sure a commercial outfit is definitely going to produce part of this route in the same era eventually, but who knows what the A to B will be? I certainly plan to run through A and branch off to C and D!

[Oldpufferspotter]

To get back to BigVern's original question!
I do think it well worth anyone's time and effort to create their own route, be it prototypical, fictional, or their own version of an existing freeware or payware route.
To me what it is all about is laying track, deciding on the station/goods yard layout, deciding which ready made buildings and platforms to use, which signals to use (upper quad semaphore, lower quad semaphore, 2aspect 3aspect or searchlight colour light signals, British or American, etc, etc.
Then comes deciding which bridges to use, what style of housing and vegitation to use, which roads with busy or light traffic, the list goes on.
I lay a mile or two of track between two stations. I lay all scenery etc between those two stations. I create a freeroam scenario and a timetabled scenario to run trains between those two stations. Then I extend the track and scenery to another station, and in due course alter the scenarios to run trains between the first and the new station. That way I have always something to think about and do in creating the route and also have the choice of running the bit of railway I have already created.
It's great fun!!
I spent four years creating my route, building it in exactly that way.
I have now cloned that route, once to trim it down into a single track light railway, and now I have cloned it again to creat an Irish style double track railway. They all go through the same scenary (no need to do all that again!) and the same 'places', but I do alter and add to the scenary as necessary to create a slightly different look and, hopefully, character to it. I use different station buildings and alter the track layouts and signalling according to the character of the railway I am trying to create.
That is the advantage of a fictional route. No constraints as to what you can do with it! Driving along the light railway is so different to driving along the Irish line, which in turn I hope will eventually be so different from my original LMS/GWR route!
To me that is what it is all about. And I do it all with what is available to everyone else, payware and freeware. I am still with Rail Simulator and have spent about £100 on it. Worth every penny. And I love it!
regards Ted.

[valleyforge]

Agree with Vern here. Loads of constant changes that make Route Building very difficult indeed. 6 SBHH problems in 2 Hours trying to place Fences. Very few before the latest Update.
Some may be thankful I am not going to post again but I have had enough.
Kind regards James.

Well it is happening to me James since i upgraded last week and i find that if i wait and make sure everything is loaded before i "Fly" to a particular area to work on it is ok, then again i do that and i sometimes get the SBHH!

My trouble is that i play off line and wanted to download the DB 1970 addon from Steam so i backed up the Steam folder and went on line and had the update and my addon but now when i try to delete the Steam folder to replace it with my backed up one it will not let me do it, not really knowing to much about all this i don't want to muck it all up and have more problems, except for these SBHH now and again RW seems to be running ok.

Cheers,

Roger.

[msdejesus]

In RW3 if all Freeware is swamped out of the picture I think the Sim will die. RSC beware!

Oh, by December 21st the world will be over, so what difference will it make, anyway?



You can call me Nostradamus.

[paulz6]

In RW3 if all Freeware is swamped out of the picture I think the Sim will die. RSC beware!

I think the commercial types need to worry about swamping themselves out. I stopped buying every stock item that came out a while ago, and now I'm not going to buy a route just because it is available.