Hornby Virtual Railway - PC Games

This package gives everyone the chance to get his or her hands on a whole lot of top-end, Hornby model-railway kit that would otherwise prove more expensive than the average train-set enthusiast can afford. You can experiment with the steam, diesel and electric engines, plus the rolling stock, track elements and scenic objects available in the Hornby catalogue and see your dream railroad layout take shape before your eyes, with the benefit of being able to try countless layouts to get the perfect effect, before committing to the real spend. Every item is labelled with the corresponding real-world catalogue number and a printable inventory is automatically generated as you build. Six pre-built layouts provide an idea of the possibilities before you get stuck in to the design of your dream layout.

After a little getting used to the tools, designing your railway is very easy and follows the same steps you follow with any train set. First select a size of table for your track and a room to set it in, then lay out the scenery and track sections and put your trains and carriages in place. Then it's full steam ahead as you watch your train set whirling around your specially designed track.

Graphical quality is remarkably good--a modestly specified computer system with a 3-D graphics card produces highly satisfactory, smooth views of your railway in action with the facility to fly-through and around your layout, observing it dynamically from every angle. --David Shepard