Trainsets are a couple applications that put some of the fun of a model railway into your Mac.
With these applications you can assemble a layout, track, switches, buildings, etc., and run a couple trains, divert them around via the switches, and avoid the other trains.
The original Trainset has evolved into two separate applications, the original application, trainset, has become trainset Pro. It is based on an icon size of 32 by 32 pixels and a layout is about 32 by 32 icons. This means that only a small part is seen in the window at any time, but you can scroll around the layout using the keyboard. Colour is available by pressing the Colour button on the ‘Splash’ screen that appears at the start of the application.
On the way to becoming an application trainset shrunk into a smaller version using 16 by 16 pixel elements and to differentiate between the two applications the smaller application became trainset and the larger application became trainset II and then, with Colour, trainset Pro. I’m very sorry about the names but its just how things came about.
•trainsets.
In general you start off with either a previous layout by double clicking on the desired file icon and the Finder will find the version of trainset that created it and after a few seconds the layout will appear and you can start, or you can double click on the application trainset, or trainset Pro, and you then have the option to open an existing file or start a new layout.
You’ll notice that if you start the application for the first time you will be asked to put your name into the ‘Splash’ screen, to appear each time the application starts.
Items are chosen from the menus and clicked into the desired place, you can place a series of pieces by holding down the button and moving the mouse.
Points or switches once placed, can be changed by holding down the shift key and clicking on the switch to have it change direction. Some pieces are ‘animated’ but it should be noted that this slows down the application and in some cases this may be unacceptable. Anyway it’s an option, so you may decide to use it or not.
Buildings and other items can be placed around as you want and it’s from here that differences between the two trainset applications start to show.
Turntables are the round shaped Icons in the Points menu. When a train stops on this item you can change it’s direct ion switching to the Points mode, command - M, and select the Turntable Menu item or press command - T. This feature only works in the Points mode. Only the last train to land on a Turntable will rotate, sorry.
Sound and Animate are two menu items that enhance the application but also impose speed penalties so they have been left to default to OFF each time the application is restarted. Only a few of the elements are Animated and sound is used in only a few situations, a crash, or to warn of an approaching train, etc.
The original object of trainset was to provide some enjoyment for my son, an so more effort was placed into making it look good and work easily against the need to make a true to scale, working model Train Set.
Also from this application sprouted DollsHouse and Chutes, DollsHouse being a DollsHouse construction kit with some interaction between the items and the user while Chute was just a diversion, and is a cross between several Pipeline style applications and a freeform music generator.
In 1992 my family started looking at building our own home and when the need for a quick and dirty floor planner arose, an old copy of DollsHouse was turned into HomePlanner, which allowed us to view and modify floor plans from several builders and compare them for space, and functionality.
•OLD trainset.
This application is built on several FONTs, each item is a character like a letter. This application contains 4 fonts which covers a few variations that make trainset a little more flexible.
The standard font was simply trains, this prompted a font that gave the layout trains at night. You can toggle between the two using the menu items or keyboard short cuts.
In a fit of craziness, Trams and Racing Cars were added to round off the selection. The last font you use is saved in the layout file so that a racing track opens as a racing track and not as a train track.
This application has two modes Edit and Point.
Edit mode enables you to place items into your layout, as you wish, the construction phase,
Point mode allows you to control the items in your layout, like the points or switches, and turntables.
The control of the speed and direction of each train can be either made by using menu items or key board short cuts, in this application reversing the train, turns the train around and it then continues on around the layout. The entire layout can be made to go faster or slower to take into account different types of Macs.
•trainset Pro
This application uses Icons and as a result, can be started in Colour or Black and White. The default is B+W and you choose Colour by clicking the ‘Colour’ button in the ‘Start-up’ screen.
Unlike trainset, trainset Pro has only one set of characters, or Icons, but the layout is larger and has a little more detail, and optional colour.
Colour has a slight speed penalty but it is not that great and should not detract from your enjoyment.
Control of the speed and direction of each train can be either made using menu items or key board short cuts, in this application reversing the train does just that, the train will move backwards around the layout. The speed of each train can be increased by selecting the ‘Train’ menu item more than once, each time it is selected the chosen train will increase it’s speed. This makes the animation or movement of that train a little rougher. The entire layout can be made to go faster or slower to take into account different types of Macs.
Another change is that you can leave the layout in POINTS Mode, this will change to EDIT mode when an Item from a menu is chosen.
On request a separate version is available for 128k and 512k Macs.
Paul B Jones
P.O.box 208
Moora, 6510
Western Australia.
Shareware !, Part of the sandcastles software collection
$30 for 3 disks of stuff.
Price ? $30, cheap !!!
if you think that sending money overseas is a waste, how about a couple of boxes of New disks, or chocklates, sweets, old Original software, old games etc., a book or two, (I like secondhand computer books and manuals ), stamps and coins, a receipt for a gift to your local charity, something, anything !!
