No truer words were ever spoken to the heart of a Railfan. I have been a Railfan for 30 years. Needless to say, I was VERY excited to get this CD and take it out for a test run. The last train-sim that I had any contact with was 1997’s Railroad Tycoon 2. So, I was quite eager to get my hands on the throttle for some major train action.

First thing I noticed was the BNSF Dash-9 train coming at you on the CD cover. A good sign of things to come. The package comes with two CDs and requires about 2Gigs worth of space to install all the features including the 6 routes that come with the simulator.

As always, Microsoft makes the installation easy and painless. The installation does check your computer to see if DirectX 8 is installed. This seems to take a lot of time, so I would recommend you download it from Microsoft before installing the game.

There was no fancy introduction like on other sim-type games that I have seen. As an introduction, I would like to have seen trains rushing by and old steam locomotives in their heyday. You know, something to wet your appetite.

With the Display options section, you can set the Screen Resolution for the game including colors (640x480, 16 colors, all the way up to 1024x768, 32 colors), AND, for those of you who might be 3-D video card challenged, you can tell the simulator to give you better performance (meaning the game moves more realistically but the graphics are more 2-D) or better graphics (in a word…WOW!!).

Here in the Options menu, you can also set your realism factors. For example, do you want the train to derail if you do something stupid (like take a sharp curve at 80 mph) or would you like for the “alerter” option to be turned on (it is a function on a train that keeps the driver awake and ALERT).

One very noticeable drawback is the lack of any people. The scenes are filled with automobiles at grade crossings, and wildlife along the track. But, if you look inside the passenger cars and in the passing engines, they're devoid of ANY people. Perhaps this is a view of the future…computer-operated trains or ghost trains. Kuju Entertainment, the developers of the game, has said that by adding people with the detail to match the rest of the game brought the whole program to a halt. OK. But, even lesser detailed figures in the car would have been preferable to NOTHING. I think most of us would agree, we could do without the cows and deer scampering from the track. After all, when was the last time you saw deer along the NE Corridor?

However, I would tell Microsoft that the most important sound aspect that was missing was the clickety-clack sound. What would a railroad be without the clickety-clack of the rail on the track? Also, the squeaking and creaking of freight cars as they trundle down the track was missing. Even though those two effects were missing, I think that the realistic sound effects of this game are great.

One of the first things I liked about Train Simulator is that it doesn’t matter if you are a “greenie” or a “master” at the locomotive controls. Right at the start the first option they have for you is an Introductory Train Ride. Not only is someone showing you the trains and talking to you about the things you can do, but you are also seeing different views of your train, which you will use in your simulations.

The next option on the home menu is the Tutorials sections. What a great tool! I had never driven a train in my life; so, for me, this was one of the first things I wanted to do. Inside the Tutorials section, you get to familiarize yourself with the electric, diesel, and steam engines. In the process, you’ll learn all about the gauges and controls and how they function. Most of all, you’ll learn how to get the train moving.

Now after that if you are still not comfortable with “driving” a locomotive, each route comes with a route that lets you familiarize yourself with the area you will be working in. There is no pressure here, just pick your route, pick your engine, pick the consist you will pull, chose the weather, the season, and even the time of day and go on your way to seeing the route. If that isn’t enough for you, there are actual tutorials on each route to get you into the setting of a real job that you’ll have to pull. I think that Train Simulator has enough for the beginner and plenty for the so-called “masters” of the locomotive.

A “readme” file is included and has other pieces of information, tips, and hardware information that did not get included with the Handbook. You should read this as well. There is also the Train Simulator Help that you can access while you are playing by pressing F1 (Press the ESC key first…trust me…). If you need any further help, there is a support web site that you can access. Just point your mouse to http://www.microsoft.com/games/trainsim/.

However, the Handbook does not come with instructions on how to use the editors and tools that come with Train Simulator. For those who want to use the editors and tools that shipped with Train Simulator, there are technical documents written by Kuju Entertainment that are available as a self-extracting zip file in the techdocs folder on the Train Simulator CD1. The Train Simulator Editors and Tools, as well as the technical documents, are not supported by Microsoft Product Support Services.