Armchair season is upon us. Time to emerge from the basement and spend a little quality time with the family around the fireplace. Perfect time to bring out the laptop and practice a little recreational yard switching!

TrainPlayer brings the complete hobby of model railroading to your lap. You can start from a virtual sheet of plywood, sketch a quick, accurate track plan, decorate to suit from a huge catalog of scenery objects, add trains from an even huger catalog of rolling stock, then grab the control panel and run it like a serious railroad. Or let the computer run it. Or skip some steps and start with one of the great pre-built layouts from another (you guessed it) huge catalog.

When TrainPlayer launched the Scenery Toolkit back in August there were 250 images in our library.  Now, only three months later, thanks to contributions from Mark Johnson, Jim Schenk, Bruce Macleod and Bruno Pigozzo, we now have more than 600 scenery images! You can drag these onto your layout, copy, paste, rotate -- create a fully-landscaped railroad in an evening, no artistic skills required. This feature is available in TrackLayer 3.3 / Builder, our top-of-the-line product.

Here are some samples of some of the newest images:

If you want to see some specific images, feel free to drop us a line at support@trainplayer.com.

How-To Clinics on the website

At TrainPlayer, we want to enhance the enjoyment you get from operating your own equipment on designs of your choosing. With that in mind, we will provide some step by step clinics on a variety of topics to assist you in adding your own personal touches to your layouts.  For example, a lesson in MS Paint:

Check out our first two topics by clicking How-To Clinics.

Who Can Enter: Contest is open to anyone who owns a copy of Tracklayer.

Rules:

•  Layout can be any size, any shape, any scale or any time period the builder would like to use.
• The layout can either be a self contained "module" or a complete railroad recreation.
• The use of the Scenery Toolkit is strongly encouraged.
• Your layout should also have rail cars and engines from any of our Cartypes collections that suit the time period you have chosen.
• The designer should provide a brief note about their layout – what it represents, what its' purpose is and perhaps what typical operations would take place.
• Each designer can submit as many different entries as they want and each entry is rated separately.

It's as easy as adding new scenery elements to any your favorites from 101 Track Plans!  For more details, click here.

We are putting the finishing touches on some fine new features, to be release as Version 3.3.1 in January. This will be a free upgrade for all 3.3 users. Features include:

Transfer Tables

A transfer table is an alternative to a turntable as a compact way of getting a locomotive from one track to another. Linn Westcott didn't use them, but they work better in many situations and are gaining popularity.

A transfer table in TrainPlayer is a scenery object, which means it can be rotated, positioned, and decorated as desired. On top is a moving bridge with one section of track. Double-click and it moves slowly until it locks onto the next exit track.

Features: a second scenery object can be overlaid to move with the bridge; when you draw an external track and release it on the edge of the table, it snaps to perpendicular; rendering includes an adjustable set of guide rails.

AAR Codes and Car Classes

In 3.3.1, you will be able to classify your cars correctly using official codes from the American Association of Railroads.  Cars previously classified as "freight" can now be marked as specific types by choosing from a complete list, as shown here:

All the cars in our web collections are being classified this way, so that when you download new copies of these collections, you will see detailed type designations on each car.  These designations show up in the car properties dialog, in car tooltips, and in the train tree.

What's New Folder

The web collections of layouts, cars, sounds, and scenery are constantly being updated.  In 3.3.1 you will be able to open a special "What's New" folder to see what additions have been made recently.

TrainPlayer 3.3 / OPERATOR Everything you need to run virtual model trains on great pre-built layouts. Includes TrainPlayer 3.3, 101 Track Plans, TrainPlayer Screen Saver, Scripting, Standard Layouts.   Details...	$59 Click goes to checkout page.  Credit card is required.  Choose shipping method: CD delivery free thru Dec.
TrackLayer 3.3 / BUILDER For the do-it-yourselfer -- build and run your own scenic layout, or choose from our complete library of plans and cars. Includes all of TrainPlayer 3.3 / OPERATOR, plus: TrackLayer tools, Scenery Toolkit, Premium Layouts & Cars.   Details...	$99 Click goes to checkout page.  Credit card is required.  Choose shipping method: CD delivery free thru Dec.