Which is the best train set

[martinldz84]

Well i'll start a new game and i wan't to change de train set (i was using the american set), what do you think is the best?

[Tesseract]

tha same question ...
(of course it`s subjective opinion, but ...)

[CARST]

DB Set XL

http://www.ewetel.net/~michael.blunck/ttd/download.html

[richk67]

It probably depends what country you are from. Europeans will probably prefer DBsetXL, Brits will probably prefer UKRS, and North Americans will probably prefer NARS or Canadian Renewal Set.

Personally I prefer UKRS - because I saw many of the locos from my youth (Deltics, class 20s, 25s, 37s, 47s, HSTs, etc.). Pity it is missing my absolute favourite loco - the class 50 "Hoover". Wonderful engine sound - you could tell it was pulled by a 50 from a mile away.

[CARST]

For sure richk is right. This all depends on where are you coming from...


Well and richk is from GB and that's why he votes for the UKRS, i'm from Germany and that is way is say DBSetXL.


But i have one objective arguement for the DBSet: It includes all DB trains from 1920 till present (okay, most train sets have that) but it has the transrapid monorail train build in Germany, too. And it is a realistic "future-train", already driving in Shanghai and a track in Munich will be build soon to connect the city to the airport.


In the end ... try em all ...

[michael blunck]

[TransRapid:] a track in Munich will be build soon to connect the city to the airport.

<cough> <cough>

richk is from GB

A country which apparently doesn´t belong to Europe:

Europeans will probably prefer DBsetXL, Brits will probably prefer UKRS

regards
Michael

[richk67]

richk is from GB

A country which apparently doesn´t belong to Europe:

Some do believe that. (not me) Maybe I should have qualified it with "Continental Europeans"... but as with all these things, its subjective, and any generalisation is probably definitively wrong (but also probably statistically correct).

The DBsetXL is "alien" to me. The only 2 trains I instantly recognise are the ICE (thanks to the railcrash), and the TransRapid. All the rest are unknowns - just another pretty graphic with a set of stats. The UKRS diesels mean something to me; so I prefer that set.

I also suspect that to a US gamer, setting up a double-headed FP40 rake is instinctively "right"... (or whatever engine is suitable - I dunno).

The new engine sets are what makes OTTD/TTDP such a delight to play. You can create something that looks and feels right for you. Totally subjective.

[DaleStan]

I also suspect that to a US gamer, setting up a double-headed FP40 rake is instinctively "right"... (or whatever engine is suitable - I dunno).

Maybe. I'd tend to guess "instinctively right" would tend more toward 3, 4, or 4+2 engines, though. More than 4 engines on one end of the train would just be wrong, though, as would engines anywhere except on the end.
(Cue tales of me triple-heading DBSetXL electrics.)

The US does everything bigger, but it doesn't necessarily manage "better" in the process.

[CARST]

Offtopic:
Well, i saw a report yesterday and they mentioned that about one third of all freight in the USA is transported by trains at one point or the other. I think in Germany we're at 10 to 15%, not very much, only passenger trains are good here...

[Sir A. Boey]

Well you won't get to much help from me
although I'm from Belgium I really like the US trainset it's
my personal favorite, but you have to try them all...

The graffics in each set are just amazing and very hard to draw!!!

[michael blunck]

Well, some numbers:

Market share for railway freight transport (in tons/km)

Code: Select all

EU26	  16.8%
Germany  17%
Russia	40.5%
USA	   42.4%
China 	68.1%

One reason for the lower numbers in Europe is the relatively lower cost for transport by truck (EU: 14c/km, US: 20 c/km). Although transport by rail is cheaper in both continents (EU: 11c/km, US: 1c/km), in relation, transport by rail in the US is significantly cheaper (EU 3 c/km, US: 19 c/km difference). Main reason is that trains in the US are usually much longer than in Europe (3000t vs 320t on average). This is only possible because in the US, the rail network is almost exclusively used for freight.

regards
Michael

[Gramble]

Main reason is that trains in the US are usually much longer than in Europe.

And the reason why they are so long? I think it is mainly because of the longer distances. Thus, there are more freights with the same route. Furthermore in Europe it is too much work to put the freight on the trains for these short distances.

But for me the passanger trains are much more interesting, and I have to say, that I love trains like the BR 612, VT-137, BR608, BR432 etc.
So, my favorite train set is the DBSetXL

[michael blunck]

And the reason why they are so long? I think it is mainly because of the longer distances. Thus, there are more freights with the same route. Furthermore in Europe it is too much work to put the freight on the trains for these short distances

Well, in Europe the "density" of trains per km is much higher than in the US. Consequently, trains have to be shorter but travel faster. In Europe, freight travels with max speeds >80km/h where in the US you may well find speeds as low as 10km/h These are two different philosophies. In addition, to achieve transport capacity per train like in the US, you´ll need heavier couplings and longer sidings, both aren´t available in Europe.

regards
Michael

[CARST]

I think today they have faster freight trains in the USA, they said in the tv-documentation that most freights can be transported in 2 to 3 days through the whole country (by train).

Let's say the have a track length of 3000nm and they need 60 hours (2 1/2 days), they would travel with about 50miles, something like 78km/h. But it is possible that this only counts for a few tracks, the documentation (on n-tv) was about one specific type of diesel-locos (produced by GE) and one track (i think something from UP).

[Gord]

UKRS is good for running similar passenger networks to the UK. I use pendolinos, voyagers and intercity 125's (a few 91's as well) on mainlines. I use the EMU's to commute around the cities and the 101's and sprinters taking people to the far flung areas of the countryside. And as an extra piece of realism, i run super sprinters and 4 car voyagers on long distance cross country services between many cities and they get very overcrowded! Now we have the british tram set too for inner cities...you really can get a good looking network together.

I've been trying other trainsets recently but always come back to the UKRS. The japan set and spain set appealed to me as they replaced maglev with high speed lines for the intercity traains...(couldn't get the spain one to work mind!)...however, i dont use maglev so good for me...maybe not for those who like maglev.

What happened to the other British trains project for TTD? Haven't heard much about it recently. Some fantastic artwork in there.

[AntBUK]

Personally, I quite like using UKRS and DBSetXL. I also like using the Canadian Set and the JapanSet as well

[michael blunck]

Mmh, now that I´m taking a second look, I´m just unsure if the original question has been answered by now. Asking for the "best train set" seems to address more the design of a set than its original background.

Europeans will probably prefer DBsetXL, Brits will probably prefer UKRS, and North Americans will probably prefer NARS or Canadian Renewal Set.

So this would be understandable but just irrelevant in this context.

Although, I confess that everybody has emotional ties to "his" railway, but o/c this doesn´t answer the poster´s question.


Per se, every available railway set for TTDPatch/OTTD is "good" because his/their author(s) knew what they did and they´ve gained a massive knowledge in modelling a real railway company or the railways of a country into a .grf set during months and years working on it.

But o/c, there are differences.

The most obvious difference is that some railway sets are using "real liveries" and others are using "player colour". The original TTD scheme (player colour) may be better suited for multiplayer games where you have problems to differentiate your own rolling stock from that of the partners/enemies.

OTOH, real liveries introduce the last bit of "realism" if it comes to simulating a real railway company. This is one of the key aspects of the DB set which (at least in its latest release - not yet published) models this in an almost 1:1 fashion from 1920 to 2008 (OK, the "pop-coloured" coaches are still missing).

Other sets include additional track systems, like narrow-gauge. E.g., the Serbian rail set has been the first including a full range of NG material (the Canadian set does this as well, but to a less general degree).

Last, but not least, some sets include fictional locomotives for the years after 2010, and some do not. So its up to your personal preferences what set you´ll prefer.

regards
Michael

[xpi0t0s]

Is there such a thing as a train set that supports ECS vectors, but that simply extends the default set with the extra carriages necessary to support the extra cargo types, supporting rail, mono and maglev, but no (or maybe just a few) extra locomotives? For myself I don't particularly care about turning TT into a complete historical record of locomotive history etc, all of which is great and I'm not knocking it, but it's just not what I'm after.

[FooBar]

IIRC, George has such a set at his download pages. Just check the website where you got ECS Vectors, it should be around there somewhere.

[AntBUK]

I don't think there is a set which just extends the basic set to accommodate ECS/PBI, AFAIK the only sets which do are DBSetXL (with ECS Extenstion) and UKRS. At a guess NARS should be able to as well... I'll have to go check.

Edit: Yup