Tutorial 3. Running your first train
In the previous tutorial we built a simple oval of track. Now we can try running a train on it.
If you haven’t got it open already, open your layout from Beginners’ Guide Part 2.
Looking at those sharp curves, what we need is probably a small shunting engine. Select Show Rolling Stock Library from the Trains menu to open the stock dialogue. Navigate through the tree until you find something that looks suitable. The preview panel will help you to choose.
(Your selection of stock will probably look a bit different from mine, depending on what you’ve downloaded.For this exercise it doesn’t matter greatly what you use, provided it is a loco.)
When you’ve found the loco you want, drag it from the preview pane with the mouse on to the track close to one of the nodes of your layout. When you release the mouse button to drop the loco, it will appear on the track. Find some wagons in the stock dialogue, and drop them on the loco - they will couple to the loco automatically to form a train.
Note: the initial direction of travel is always towards the nearest node: this is what determines which side of the first vehicle successive vehicles will be coupled to.
Close the stock dialogue when you’ve finished making up your train.
To go for a ride is very easy - the program automatically places you in Follow Train mode for the new train.
Select Start Train (the toolbar button with the green flag) from the Trains toolbar (or just press <F5> twice). The train will set off.
You are still in top-down view. To see the train from other angles, try pressing the keys 1–7 to cycle through the available views.
1. Cab view
2. Helicopter view front
3. Helicopter view rear of train
4. Lineside view
5. Top-down view
6. Fly-by view
7. Helicopter view rear of loco
For a bit more fun, open the Drive Train dialogue. The <A> and <D> keys control the throttle and the <Z> and <C> keys the brake. (See also Driving a Steam Engine in Rail 3D)
Save your layout again when you get bored with driving around in circles.
You can download the layout from this tutorial here: tutorial3.zip (194kB)
loneaussie 19/02/2015 05:57:07