About us.

Our purpose

Rail-sim.co.uk's goals are simple, to provide extremely high quality, well researched content and innovations to Trainz.

Background

Rail-sim.co.uk was founded as a UK Content Creation group, focusing on the Auran Trainz range of railway simulators.

At the time there were a number of great UK creators (and still is!), but increasingly the new features added to Trainz made it more and more difficult for a single person to create the best content across all the different disciplines, and maximize the potential of Trainz. On that basis a small group of individuals with similar interests and, just as importantly, a reputation for creating high quality content, decided to form Rail-sim.co.uk.

In June 2004 Auran set up the Trainz Partnership Scheme (TPS) in order to gather together a number of groups of content creators to produce content for inclusion in the next release of Trainz Railroad Simulator, one result of which was the Hawes Junction package found in the retail release of TRS2006. Since then Rail-sim.co.uk has worked closely with Auran in developing content for Trainz, and have produced Trainz Classics Volume 3, and TRS2009:Settle and Carlisle, as well as continuing to be involved in the ongoing improvement of the Trainz series.

A little bit about ourselves

Whilst various team members have come and gone the commitment to quality remains as strong. The team are understandably proud of their achievements to date, but are working to continue to provide innovation and quality in their Trainz projects.

The team have a desire to not only produce high quality content, but to help others to do the same and to push forward the possibilities of the Trainz platform. To that end we have created tutorials, documented our projects, and provided help to others where we can, along with maintaining a dedicated contact point on the UKTrainz forum. We also have a policy that none of our content is encrypted, hidden, or kept secret in any way and we endeavor to share our discoveries and advances with other like-minded creators.

The group is formed from a number of creators who have a strong background in creating content for Trainz with a UK theme. Our interests lie mainly in this area although from time-to-time you may see us make something from a non-UK background. Whilst our interests are UK centred we are located around the globe, with members in the UK, Germany and Australia. What follows is a brief introduction to the members of the team.

Current team members

These people are all currently producing content on behalf of the team for the creation of new projects and are involved in the support of previous releases.

Mike Banfield (username: Mike10)

Mike is currently the coordinator for the team and acts as the focal point for relations with Auran. He has created a large variety of items for the various versions of Trainz, ranging from fences, to bridges, and on to locomotives, all of which are available from the Download Station or the team's project sites.

Andrew Howard (username: AndrewH)

Andrew is the team's route builder and his accuracy in terra forming, track laying, and object placement means that even those that are familiar with the routes in the team's projects experience a suspension of disbelief and find themselves transported to the locations in question from the comfort of their PC chair. As well as the team's projects Andrew created the fine Macclesfield route (available from the DLS) and this is what brought him to the team's attention when it was being formed. Andrew's in-depth and wide ranging knowledge of UK steam operations assists the team in many aspects of creation and helps to provide a believable experience to the user.

Paul Hobbs (username: paulhobbs)

Paul's commitment to accuracy and quality has become well known throughout the Trainz community. He has been involved in the creation of the vast majority of the locomotive fleet for the team's projects and has also contributed standalone work for inclusion in Trainz releases. A highly experienced 3D modeler, Paul has written a number of tutorials to help people get started in content creation using both Gmax and Blender. As well as these skills Paul uses his knowledge of the Trainz scripting language to add those extra features to projects that help expand on what is possible within the Trainz environment.

Leigh Stokes (username: Elstoko)

Leigh's enthusiasm for the team's products and his subsequent involvement in creating enhancements lead to him becoming a member of the team. Initially involved in scripting and session creation Leigh has also been creating some of the new content required for the next project. Leigh's determination to get things just right keeps the team thinking ahead and paying attention to the details of operational accuracy.

Andy Kemplen (username: Kemplen)

Andy created, amongst other things, the cars which can be found in TC3 and has also continued to produce assets for people to download from the website to add to TC3 and TS2009:S&C. A skilled creator with an eye for detail Andy is able to make a very convincing job of small objects with just a few polys and a small texture. A major advantage for the team when looking to save resources in the hunt for retaining performance. Amongst Andy's solo projects are the class 124 DMU, the Blue Pullman, and class 07 shunter.

Current Contributors

This list is of those people who are contributing to the creation of our products but are not full members of the team. We are grateful to have their support and assistance and much of our output would not be possible without them.

Bob Sanders (username: bobsanders)

A prolific creator of buildings and wagons, Bob is currently helping the team prepare their new release.

James Moody (username: Bloodnok)

Whilst a move to a full time job at Auran means James' time is more limited he continues to contribute to the team's efforts and currently has porjects underway for the next release. James was involved with all the team's previous releases and his broad range of skills coupled with his in-depth understanding of the inner workings of the Trainz program make him a valuable resource for the team when seeking to push the boundaries on what can be achieved.

Previous team members

These people were previously members of the team and have produced content on behalf of the team for the creation of projects but are now no longer involved in day-to-day activities.

Paul Franklin (username: Chileanllama)

The group was originally brought together by Paul over the course of a number of weeks following a large number of meetings, e-mail and telephone exchanges. After setting out the initial project Paul found that, due to personal circumstances, he did not have the time to lead the group in the way he wished and so Mike Banfield took over the day-to-day coordination of the team. Paul has created a number of routes for Trainz, one of which, Rosworth Vale, was first included in TRS2004 and has been carried forward in every major release since.

David Dallaston (username: Pikkabird)

Whilst no longer active in the Trainz creation scene David has for a long time been regarded as amongst the foremost creators of content. David's signature piece is the Class 37 locomotive, but his high quality content included wagons and brake vans and they are still to a large extent considered as benchmarks. David contributed some of his unfinished projects to the team's Hawes Junction project and these were completed by Paul Hobbs.

Previous Contributors

This list is of those people who have contributed to the creation of our products but have not been full members of the team. Some of these are, however, still involved in the support of previous releases. We are grateful to have had, or continue to enjoy, their support and assistance and again much of our output would not have been possible without them.

Rob Hill (username: Lielestosbrat)

Rob contributed both the 9F and the class 40 to the TC3 release and I think these stand testament to the quality of Rob's work. Rob has also created a wide range of content outside the team and whilst currently busy with life outside Trainz he is still working on content and we look forward to seeing what he produces next.

Michael Whiteley (username: MichaelWhiteley)

Michael created the Class 24 locomotives to be found in TC3 and TS2009:S&C. Michael's talents are now being put to use creating content for Railworks, but he may one day return to produce more content for Trainz.

Tony Weber (username: trw1089)

Tony assisted the team by contributing the engine sounds and some of the engine specs for TC3. This release brought major changes in these features and Tony's help in adapting to these changes was fundamental in producing the quality achieved in those areas. Tony is also responsible for the Class 45 'Peak' locomotive. Whilst this was not completed in time for inclusion in the release of TC3 it has been made available through the supporting web site for users to enjoy.

Terry Franks (username: Tafweb)

Terry Franks will be a familiar name to most of you, a lot of the UK buildings, as well as the modular station system, you will find in anything after TRS2004 were created by Terry. Of course Terry’s main claim to fame is his excellent TrainzObjectz program without which a lot of us would have a great deal less hair than we have now when trying to deal with managing content in TRS2004. Whilst no longer active, Terry remains one of the most respected figures of the Trainz community.

Steve Dark (username: Sdark)

Steve created the original set of Mk1 coaches released with the Hawes Junction route in TRS2006.

Alex Barnard (username: Wulfruna)

Alex assisted Steve in creating the Mk1 coaches.

Harry Spurr (username: Spurr)

Harry was the team's technical consultant when creating the Settle and Carlisle routes. Harry brought with him over 45 years of working over the line as engine crew and inspector. Harry's insights helped us to achieve our aim of creating an accurate version of the route and he was always there to point out where we may have been taking liberties with the facts.

Special thanks

These people have provided assistance to the team in furthering our aims, we thank them for their contributions. It is the enthusiasm and interest of people such as this that help us continue to develop our projects.

Chris Whiting (username: chrisaw)

Chris has provided a range of signals which have been released through the web sites to further the range of assets available for use within our projects.

Anthony Simmons (username: francelinetony)

Tony has also helped to expand the range of signals and these have also been released through the web sites for users to add to their own routes.

Peter Marples (username: peterat8)

Peter created the 'Homeward Bound' sessions released through the web site to increase the activities available for TS2009:S&C.

Wives and girlfriends

A special mention to all the wives and girlfriends for putting up with all the late nights and long weekends of their partners sitting in front of their PCs when they should have been cutting the grass, decorating, or generally paying them attention. We hope they feel their sacrifice was worthwhile and we thank them all for their tolerance.