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This time, instead of some fantastic RPG or RTS, we bring you another genre of game, a simulator. Even though there are a lot of simulators out there, from space to aquatic simulators, this week we chose a train simulator to take us out of the normal routine.

Trainz Railway Simulator 2006 puts you in the cabin of a virtual train and really lets you drive it safely, or just derail it for fun. Even though the game has some predecessors, like Trainz Railway 2004, Ultimate Trainz Collection and the first one of the series, Trainz, it still remains an almost unknown game.

When I first heard of Trainz was in a PC magazine named Level that even gave the game for free, as a supplement. Back then, I never experienced any train simulator, so the genre was quite new to me. It still is nowadays as no other producer dared venture into this uncharted territory.

The [rail]way it feels

The controls of the game are a bit weird, but once you get used to them, you will have no trouble maneuvering that twenty cars train through even the busiest of stations. To make things easier, the developers have included two modes in which you can control the train.

The first one, Cab Mode, is a lot harder, as you have to control the train from the cabin with the help of your mouse. In addition, this mode offers the player more information about the state of the train, like brake pressure, or the flow of air around the train, all of these measured in psi.

Think of this as a manual driving box at a racing simulator game. Also, you have to manually change from forward to reverse or neutral to get that train going. The second one, the DCC Mode is comparable to an automatic gear box, as you have a button with which you can set the trains speed and some other buttons that operate auxiliary equipment like the horn or lights.

Not only does this mode simplify things a lot, but it also gives you the ability to drive the train from the external cam, allowing you to see what is happening around your train. It is also an excellent way for beginners to play this game, as the other one is a lot more complicated.

For example, to get the train moving, you must first put the train in forward movement, and then increase the throttle. If you full stop the train, you must first go into neutral and then back into forward or reverse before the train will start to move again. The second mode skips these annoying tasks and immediately sets the train on his way.

After getting used to the controls in the tutorials, which I bet any gamer new to this type of genre will take, you can then start playing the available maps. Each of these maps has a specific object, be it to transport goods from one factory to another, or just empty cars from one town to another.

To allow the players to do just anything they can imagine, the developers have created four special modules. The first one, the Surveyor, is a route editor. This module is pretty much an editor, with which players can create their own landscape, railways, stations, industries, trains and well… everything they want. They can also set train routes in this editor.

The Driver module takes the scene created in Surveyor and allows the user to operate the trains. There are two methods of manual control: DCC mode which simulates the simple stop-and-go of a model railway, or Cab mode, which simulates real-world physics. Alternatively, the trains can be given instructions and driven by the computer, also known as "scheduling".

Scenarios are pre-scripted activities which let you go through a specific set of challenges, such as getting your passengers to their destinations on schedule, or switching rail cars in a rail yard without damaging the cargo, and among many other things as well.

Railyard, also known as My Collection in earlier versions of the game, is a virtual train shed where the user can view locomotives and rolling stock, and sometimes their description.

An additional module is the external program Paintshed, which is a simple program for coloring different Trainz locomotives and other rolling stock. Paintshed has been included with Trainz since version 1.5.

Trainz also has a large content creation community who use modeling software such as Gmax to create additional scenery and rolling stock models for use in the game. The more recent versions of Trainz include a lot of third-party content, and registered owners of the game can download third party content via the Trainz website.

One’s personal cabin

Like I said earlier, there are two modes to drive your train. Each one of these has its own interface. As such, the first one, the DCC mode has a simple layout, easy to use.

This mode has a speed dial button, which you can rotate to adjust speed. It also has four smaller buttons for full stop, lights, horn and raise/lower power outlets. All of these are situated in the upper right corner, right under some other vital functions.

These are your current speed, the indicated speed as not to derail, and the time. Speed depends on where you are. As such, you cannot travel with more than 16 mph in a station, nor is it indicated. Also, if you are driving too fast in tight corners, or where the speed limit is far below what you are traveling, you are very likely to derail, thus ending your session.

The second mode, the Cab Mode provides a lot more information to the player than he actually needs, or understands. Here, you can find the Air Flow, Brake pipe, Brake cylinder, Main reservoir, Equalizer, Throttle, Reverser and Brake. The first five indicate the pressure in these components, pressure measured in psi.

Throttle indicates the current gear you are in, usually eight for steam and diesel locomotives and 35 for electric ones. The next one, the Reverser indicates in which state the engine is in, forward, reverse or neutral. The last one, the Brake indicates the state of the brakes.

Above these, we have some possible views that we may choose. They include the cabin view, external view, chase and free view. Each of these offers some extraordinary views, but the most commonly used is the external view, as it allows the player to see everything around him.

In the lower right corner, we can see yet another window with some more information for us. The four buttons, in order are as follows: Next Message, Map, Commodities and Couple/Decouple.

Right beneath them there are some reports that tell us what is needed, and where, that is the Waybill, and another that gives you info about the driver section.

In addition, if we are to hover the mouse in the upper left corner of the screen, we can see yet another mini menu with commands as Quit, Save, Pause, Change Imperial/Metric, Performance settings, Find and On Screen Help. Each of these will make our game much easier, as each will play a crucial role during play.

We can also see a small interface in each locomotive we drive, as each one has its own cabin, with its own equipment and controls. That is one reason for why I will not get into details as each cabin differs from others.

The Driver Module provides a lot more than just a train driving simulation. TRS2006 provides you with a number of different ways of controlling the trains on your railroad.

Firstly you can hop into the cab and explore the tracks from behind the throttle. You can choose either the simple DCC speed control system or the realistic Cab controls using each of the levers and switches in the cab.

You can watch the trains from trackside as they come thundering past, or from a bird’s eye view tracking along with the train.

You can even switch to a Map View and control all the junctions, monitor signals and control traffic flows from a 2D perspective. While running multiple consists, you can choose to control each train yourself, or let the computer AI system control the trains as you control the switches.

Finally, you can even issue specific orders to Drivers that you allocate to each train. In addition to the various systems of control, there is also a fully interactive industry model that automatically generates waybills for goods that need to be delivered to the various industrial sites.

Your task under this mode is to maintain the operation of these industries by controlling movement of goods and resources along your railroad. You can watch as your train or the trains under the control of your drivers are each loaded and unloaded at the various industries.