I may sound cheap, but I’m looking for a website that lets you either sample or play their railroad simulator game for free. Are there any suggestions???
There’s a software company in Great Britain that has several railway simulation simulations that you can try demos for. The company is Signalling Centre Software, with a website at:
I’ve downloaded two of them, and they’re really good.
The two I’ve downloaded are:
Birmingham New Street (12 hour shift in retail version) &
London King’s Cross (13 hour shift in retail version)
The demos will only simulate the first hour, which is plenty of time to get a feel for how the simulations work, as well as a feel for how busy British railroading can be. These are top notch, Windows based simulations.
There’s a third program as well:
London Victoria Central (9 hour shift in the retail version) There are additional free timetables (that is, scenarios to run using the same track diagram) on the website for the Victoria Central retail version.
The timetables involved are complicated enough (400 train services on 80 route miles for King’s Cross, for example) that you can run the simulation more than once without getting tired of it. And remember, that’s 12 actual hours of time per runthrough.
Worth a look.
-Ed
I found Microsoft Train Simulator in the bargain bin at Staples for $10 US. That’s almost free, and you get to keep it, not just demo it. If you can find it, that’s the going rate now.