This post is my 10,000th post on UKTS.
Whilst not necessarily of great significance to others, this is a notable milestone in my Railway Simulation journey, a journey that will hopefully continue for many years yet until a final destination is pencilled into the timetable.
Although the record shows that I joined the forums in 2007, when Rail Simulator was launched, in fact I have been a member since 2001 when Microsoft Train Simulator was King. Very much an observer of the forums at that time, I was much keener on playing with Train Simulator than talking about it, and downloaded much from the library. My username of Acorncomputer seemed OK at the time but there is now a whole generation who have no idea what an Archimedes computer is but ironically, the new DIY Raspberry Pi uses the Acorn interface and perhaps the next generation will have a better understanding of the legacy that Acorn Computers left to the world in the form of ARM processors, billions of which are in use daily in all sorts of mobile devices.
Writing pages on the highs and lows of the last few years would be easy but I will spare you the details, suffice to say that the first 10,000 posts were based on a mixture of emotions ranging from informative to enquiring, passionate to argumentative, astonished to disbelieving, disappointed to elation, and everything else in between.
I am grateful to Matt and Peter for their hard work in keeping the site going and for indulging my Route Building Challenges and thanks to all the moderators past and present who have a particularly tough job.
Thanks also to members and contributors without whose help I would have got nowhere and who patiently persevered with answering my questions. Particular thanks to Derek Siddle who revealed the mysteries of Wang Tiles, Adam Lucas who helped much in the early days, Paul Gausden and Doug Kightley who provided so much help with 3D Canvas and dozens of other very talented people who took the trouble to pass on their knowledge to me and other members.
I have had many interesting dialogues with members through the pm system and also met many of them at UKTS live events and other places. There are also those who were there at the launch of Rail Simulator and are still active UKTS members ... a tenacious bunch of people from all over the World who share the passion and keep hanging in there as well.
Much credit to my dear wife as I have shamelessly used the Simulator as an excuse to get (us) out to visit routes I have been creating, even down to obtaining lineside photographer passes for two Heritage Lines and meeting people who work on them, all in the name of research, with the odd loco driving and footplate rides thrown in for good measure. Where will we be next
I love what has become TS2013 and hope to continue creating and playing with it as it evolves over the years and I have great faith in RailSimulator.com to keep improving and developing this Tardis (infinite possibilities) of a simulator into something even better.
As I think back about what has given me the greatest pleasure from being a member of UKTS, although I have loved seeing the download count of my routes increase each day and I am easily flattered on receiving some really nice comments, curiously it has not been the Simulation forums that have provided my most memorable experience. UKTS has a wide range of sub-forums including railway photography and it is there that I discovered Roni Kappel. Roni is clearly a World Class photographer and the video and photo record of his railway journey around India contains some of the best images I have ever seen. Check it out yourself from this link where you will find further links to his fascinating journey but be warned, you will need quite a lot of time to see them all.
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 2875&hilit
Anyway, I have thanked everyone who has helped me, enthused over UKTS and made everything look rosy. I have managed to dodge a ban over the last 10,000 posts (although a little close at times) and hope that I can stay unbanned for another 10,000 posts.
Best wishes to everyone
Geoff Potter (aka Acorncomputer)
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