[Train-a-Mania]

...in the 1990s, Donner Pass was as busy as ever. The Southern Pacific was still in charge of this portion of the transcontinental route, using everything from Dash 9's to Tunnel Motors (SD40T-2's) to haul freight over the grade. Can this railroading landmark work in Railworks? We'll find out in this review...at the railyard!



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LINKS
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Official "At The Railyard" website:
http://www.attherailyard.com/

Have your own opinions about this route? Share them here:
http://www.attherail...s-for-railworks

Donner Pass:
http://store.steampo....com/app/65239/

[Noisemaker]

Donner Pass still sends a shiver up my spine with it's unsavory history. But that funky sound track quickly put me at ease. :) I know you're great at showing a route off Nick, but gotta say this RW stuff is looking impressive in it's own right now. Won me over with the snow! And the vegetation is definitely improving for RW. It looked so plastic and something of a Japanese MSTS route before to me.

Shame as well to see and hear about all these big little foibles on the route as well. Again, something one might expect on a cheap or free MSTS route - but not something with RW. And I've had some wacky derailments with MSTS in my day, but nothing as wacky as what was captured in this review! ;)

As good as you made it all look Nick, it's even better you pointed out what doesn't. Hopefully like you say, these RSC folks will fix it up tout-sweet. But seems like a fair bit to grill when the little piggies already in the middle of the market.

MMMMMMmmmmm - Donner Pass Piggiy Fingers! Taste of home, when up in the hills! :pleasantry:

I couldn't resist - I'm a SICK man! :)

[Gman347]

Another great video Nick. And so fast after the last one. You're going to spoil us! Enjoyed it very much. :pleasantry: It is a shame that there are those problems. Now after seeing two RW reviews I am starting to think about picking up a copy for myself. I already have MSTS and Trainz but this new version of RW looks very nice. Hope to see more reviews from you with this sim.

Are you familiar with Trainzitalia? I believe that they are very close to releasing a version of Donner for Trainz. The screenshots look really awesome. You've already done a review of the MSTS Donner and now RW, maybe you can do Trainz for a final comparison. Although admiittedly the MSTS route is a little different animal covering a different time period.

I don't suppose I need to tell you that an update to the Surfliner Route for MSTS was just released. Love to see you do a review of that too.

Sorry, I'm sure you don't need more advice on routes to review but I thought I'd make a pitch.

Thanks again. Love your stuff! ;)

Regards,

Paul G.

[Genma Saotome]

I watched this full screen, HD, over at Youtube. I have to say I was taken aback by how completely un-like Donner Pass this RW route looks. Really, really off. As in SP does Yorkshire off.

All of the locomotives were impressive looking but that's about it. Oh... the derailment... certainly amusing. Wonder how they got it to do that?

[Noisemaker]

That's interesting Dave. I'm not that familiar with the area. But some of the views Nick captured reminded me of The Shining opening shots. Even in that, Wendy brings up the Donner party, and Jack says that was a little further west in the Sierra Nevada's. So much of the footage Nick captured I thought to be fairly realistic to that area, the few shots that he pointed out was odd I agree with as well. (Looked like the Don Valley instead of Donner Pass! :crazy: )

But you think it's REALLY off the mark Dave? Interesting, and makes me want to study the area more.

Maybe I should watch that movie Ravenous again...? I'm such a sick, sick man! :scarerun:

[Genma Saotome]

Noisemaker, on 06 March 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

But you think it's REALLY off the mark Dave? Interesting, and makes me want to study the area more.

There is this:
 Green.jpg (191.33K)
Number of downloads: 3

but this aerial is real:
 green-2.jpg (461.24K)
Number of downloads: 3

There is NO green grass in California, except on watered lawns, from June to December. Brown fading to wornout gray 6 months of the year. Also, there is something about the trees that are all wrong. Can't put my finger on it tho but just wrong somehow.



This one:
 Green-3.jpg (171.14K)
Number of downloads: 1

...made me laugh out loud. It looks like Maryland.



This may be Railworks itelf:
 Green-4.jpg (45.08K)
Number of downloads: 1

But what's with this sky? Sparks is in the bleedin desert and for the summer months, Roseville is even drier. It's just unnatural.

Speaking of Sparks, they did manage to capture it's inherent ugliness.



This surprises me -- AFAIK the SP never had "cabeese" like these.

 Green-5.jpg (26.2K)
Number of downloads: 1



I noticed this in a couple of places -- what's with the shoreline here? Looks like it's been groomed for a public park.

 green-6.jpg (137.88K)
Number of downloads: 1



So I suppose any one of those can be said to be a so-what but the cumulative effect on me was to think whomever did this route either didn't know very much about the location... or did but couldn't be bothered to do it right. Like the floating cars or the roadbed in the street crossings.

Want to know what a Sierra crossing looks like? Run 3dtrains WP 3rd Sub. Not only did Nalle know the area (even tho he lives in Sweden), he took the time to do it right. It looks spot-on. Amazingly correct appearance. This route made me think it was made by someone who never saw it in person.

[paulytechnic]

I completely agree, Dave! RW's Donner Pass doesn't look much like the Sierra Nevada as I remember it. Sure, some of the landmarks are there, but the landscape just doesn't "feel" right to me. I can't quite put my finger on it exactly--whether it's proportions, scale, or whatever. (It's also bugged me since the first screenshots RSC.com released that the non-speedlettered tunnel motors have the white sill stripe when they shouldn't...but now I'm being nitpicky! :crazy: ) I also agree that the screenshots I've seen for Trainzitalia's Donner Pass seem spot-on, as well as 3DTrain's FRC. I do like RW's blowing snow effect, though!


But back on topic...as for Nick's video review: nicely done, as always! :scarerun:

[Alexey_Soljenitchev]

Genma Saotome, on 06 March 2012 - 10:12 PM, said:

There is this:
Green.jpg

but this aerial is real:
green-2.jpg

(...)

Slightly off topic, but when I clicked on the links I got the message:

Quote

[#10171] You do not have permission to view this attachment.

And that makes me wonder why ?!

[Genma Saotome]

Alexey_Soljenitchev, on 07 March 2012 - 08:42 AM, said:

Slightly off topic, but when I clicked on the links I got the message:



And that makes me wonder why ?!

I don't know Alexey but you should be able to do that. I'll look at your config data to see if there is anything not quite right and if I find anything odd, I'll fix it.

[paulytechnic]

Genma Saotome, on 07 March 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

I don't know Alexey but you should be able to do that. I'll look at your config data to see if there is anything not quite right and if I find anything odd, I'll fix it.

(For the record, I also get the "[#10171] You do not have permission to view this attachment." error)