How many times have commuters been stuck on a slow-moving or delayed NJ Transit train and thought, “I could do a better job.”
Now you can find out.
Dovetail Games, a game publisher of the popular train simulation games called TrainSim World, launched a new game on Sept. 30, with new rail routes, including NJ Transit’s Morristown line.
This isn’t their first NJ Transit route, but the new TrainSim 6 provides a very realistic, interactive experience for players. These virtual trains break down, and get slowed by red lights and weather, just like the real ones.
Your job is to try and get them to the station on time. There are versions for PC, Mac, Playstation and X-Box
I test drove it and the verdict is, if you see me at the controls of a real train, get off and call Lyft.
In addition to a much more realistic representation of the route and scenery for every stop between Dover and Penn Station New York, the game has random equipment failures and speed restrictions. You can be the engineer or if you’re a people person, the conductor.
Your train choices are the commuters’ favorite (because of age and reliability) the Arrow III cars, an ALP 45 electric locomotive and a multilevel cab car. Get good enough and you can run a route on a real schedule.
Nerd alert — I’ve played earlier versions of of the game and this sixth iteration is very realistic, down to the sounds of the announcements and train noise.
Before 2020, NJ Transit showed me its train simulator that they train real engineers on. That was so sophisticated that they could simulate any weather conditions, up to Hurricane Sandy. TrainSim 6 offers similar features.
In this version, the experience is totally interactive; you even have to climb on board. Earlier versions began the game with the player sitting in the engineer’s seat ready to go.
Operating a train is much different than driving your car. The rails do the steering and you use your hands to control braking and acceleration, in addition to operating horns, headlights and opening doors.
Like any game, players get points for making goals such as on-time performance, staying under speed limits and obeying signals. Players lose them for speeding and unsafe operation and get a graphic debriefing afterward with a chart showing the highlights, and lowlights.
How did I do? NJ Transit or any other railroad won’t knock on my door soon with a job offer. I operated a “teaching train” with the locomotive cab door open for miles before noticing it.
One virtual train broke down in Summit. It just wouldn’t move no matter how many different fixes I tried.
Another train I operated had door problems that started in Convent Station and continued until the end of the run.
Actual locomotive engineers have to learn the physical characteristics of the rail line they operate trains on, which requires study and testing. The game offers heads-up displays showing speed limits, signals and distance to the next station. Another display shows if you’re going up or down hill.
How was my on-time performance? I was happy just to get the damn train to stop in the stations.
Too often I miscalculated the distance, applied the brakes, stopping the train far from the station. Braking is a learned skill and my virtual commuters had to endure some slow, crawling rides into the station after a mistake.
Once in the station, the challenge was stopping the entire train so no car missed the platform. I could only imagine virtual commuters cursing when the train stopped short of the mark.
The game helps by showing red, yellow and green icons on the track ahead- red to apply braking, yellow to ease off and a green stopping target.Too many times, I saw that target, marked in feet, go fading off the screen as I rolled past. Eventually, you start to get better at it.
Getting moving again isn’t car-like either, because like the real thing, the virtual trains are heavy, and it takes a lot of power to get it moving, especially a train of Multilevel cars.
My worst performance was missing a speed reduction on the Portal Bridge (the one that always gets stuck open) on a train out of Penn Station New York. I barely stopped at Newark Broad Street station.
But it got worse. I was penalized because the brakes were off and the train crept backward with the doors open.
Ironically, the older Arrow III trains, which are the most trouble prone in real life, are the most fun to operate on the virtual railroad. They’re fast and brake better than the heavy multilevel cars and have simpler controls.
This game requires taking tutorials to learn and practice generic rail operations and then graduating to learning how to operate the specific trains. Don’t skip the tutorials because you will be lost.
Real locomotive engineers spend two years training to do this job and this game showed me why.
Maybe I’ll just stick to riding trains and playing games.
