May 30, 2008 | Comments Off
MTR Song by Steve James, RTHK Radio 3 presenter
May 29, 2008 | Comments Off
If you play train simulation games, Microsoft’s User Research Group is currently recruiting participants for upcoming playtesting.
May 28, 2008 | Comments Off
DMV or the Dual Mode Vehicle, capable of carrying 25 people is being developed in Japan by Toyota and Hino Motors.
DMV have four rubber tires for road use and four steel wheels for the rails. It drives just like a bus on the road, and a hydraulic system raises the tires and lowers the steel wheels in as little as 15 seconds. This can be used in under-utilized lines instead of scrapping the rail service.
You can view more pictures and a video clip at the Wired Blog.
May 27, 2008 | Comments Off
Horns Inc. has good recordings of diesel air horns, collected from various Yahoo railroad air horn groups. The site’s owner Ed Kaspriske, has been fitting trucks with air horns. This will be a sure way of clearing traffic!
Here’s a sample of a Leslie S3K in active service, CSX:
May 23, 2008 | Comments Off
Aerosoft had created a Berlin subway addon for Microsoft Train Simulator. They recently announced that they are working on a stand-alone Subway Simulator. Their first route, scheduled for release in the third quarter is the New-Jersey-New York route.
Though subways are not my interest, i am amazed at the quality of the screenshots. They are using the latest graphics techniques like shader and parallax modelling.
Definitely got to keep an eye on this.
May 21, 2008 | Comments Off
I bought the Making Realistic Deciduous Trees video clip from Joe Fugate of the Siskiyou Line. This clip is around 85MB and runs for 8 minutes. He talks in detail about creating trees and shows us the products that he used. The method he used was elaborate but i am sure the trees will last for a long time.
Vidcap from the DVD clip
He also showed us a technique to spraypaint the tops of the trees to simulate sunlight. It was like a “ah ha!” moment for me.
If you are not interested in getting the whole DVD, do give these downloadable content a try. The videos are well lit and steady. He explains his methods very clearly. These video clips come in three formats, iPod ($1.99), DVD ($2.49) and HD Video ($2.99). I own two of his video clips and have not been disappointed. I do plan do get a few more on scenery making.
Related: My previous post on downloadable videos.
May 20, 2008 | Comments Off
Sorin Oprisan has made a lot of railway related icons that he created for the Traffic Screen saver.
A Sample:
The categories vary from Steam ,Diesels to Coaches, Freight and even street traffic. Various classes of Locos and rolling stock are from US, Britain, Europe and even Australia. He has used Paint Shop Pro to create these images and i am amazed at the level of details including shadow effects in them. The site is sometimes very slow so please be patient.
May 19, 2008 | Comments Off
The company house is now completed.
Well almost! I wanted to put gutters and downspouts and i did find them at Internet Trains but their shipping costs is $7.99. So, i will have to wait till i find more products to buy.
Here are some of the final pictures:
May 16, 2008 | Comments Off
Carl Arendt from Micro Small Layouts wonders what kind of a model railroad would a famous painter have? Here are some for your friday entertainment.
May 14, 2008 | Comments Off
Fujitsu in collaboration with video game developer Ongakukan has developed the world’s first train simulation system using high-definition video.
Conventional simulators for train operators so far have relied on computer-generated graphics. But through its technical collaboration with Ongakukan, Fujitsu was able to develop variable-speed playback technology for high-definition video shot on actual train lines.
Fujitsu is considering making this simulator available not only to railway operators but also to train and transport museums, amusement and children’s facilities. You can buy one commercially for just $29,000.
