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Metabolomics/Analytical Methods/Mass Spectrometry/Ion Mobility MS

Back to Previous Chapter: Hormones Next chapter: Computational Modeling of Metabolic Control Next Category: Sample Preparation Go to: LC-MS Go back to: Ion Trap MS

How it works
Ion Mobility Spectrometry (or IMS) is a method in which ions in a gas phase are distinguished/ or separated by the differential migration through a uniform electric field. The first step in IMS is to ionize the molecules. This can be done through a variety of methods including electrospray ionization, using a radioactive source, or corona discharge. Ions are then put into the drift chamber and gating is done by a charged electrode system, although other, more accurate gating mechanisms can also be used. A uniform electric field is then applied in the drift tube once the ions are present which pulls the ions into the drift tube where they encounter the neutral drift molecules in the IMS. The voltage in the tube can have a wide range (a couple volts/cm to hundreds of volts/cm). Ions reach a detector in different orders based on their mobility which is reliant on their mass, shape, and size which can then be graphed based on drift time, resolution and IMS signal in volts. The overall process is very quick, taking only milliseconds.

Idaho National Laboratory
http://www.inl.gov/index.shtml Idaho National Laboratories (INL) main focus is to find sustainable energy systems and to ensure that energy systems are safe through security. They are currently researching methods to provide more effective and safer nuclear energy. INL also does testing and research to discover and stop national security threats. Ion Mobility is used to test trace explosives and determine there composition. INL is working on creating an IMS with a computerized spectral system to improve the detection restrictions and resolution and simultaneously increase the number of compounds that can be detected. Another improvement they are trying to make with IMS is to make it able to detect differences in money to help stop it from being smuggled. Customs inspectors would be able to use a device to pick up drug traces from the money. IMS is also being combined with global positioning to have chemical mapping that would be able show the precise location of airborne toxins and follow the trail to the source.

Terms

 * Leachate : A product or solution formed by leaching, especially a solution containing contaminants picked up through the leaching of soil.

 * Lignin : An organic substance that, with cellulose, forms the chief part of woody tissue.

 * Flue : any duct or passage for air, gas, or the like.

 * Shale : a rock of fissile or laminated structure formed by the consolidation of clay or argillaceous material.

 * Hemicellulose : any of a group of gummy polysaccharides, intermediate in complexity between sugar and cellulose, that hydrolyze to monosaccharides more readily than cellulose.

 * Gradiometers : any instrument used to measure a gradient, as the rate of change of the geomagnetic field.

 * Bitumen : any of various natural substances, as asphalt, maltha, or gilsonite, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons.

Relation to Biochemistry:
IMS is similar to other methods of Mass Spectrometry where the ions have to be ionized first. Like all other MS methods IMS ions are then put into and some kind of field (in IMS electric where some MS methods use a magnetic field). Electrospray Ionization Mass Spec (ESI MS) is a method to prevent breakdown of macromolecular ions while putting them into the gas phase and IMS can also uses electrospray to ionize large molecules so as not to destroy them. IMS can be used to detect and measure the concentration of CO pollutant in air. Since CO has around a 250 fold greater affinity for hemoglobin then oxygen does, a person who breathes in CO suffocates because hemoglobin molecule adsorption sites bound to CO can no longer bind O2 and deliver that to the cells. The high sensitivity of IMS will allow the detection of lower concentrations of CO in the air and allow more time for people to be able to fix the problem or find a place of safety.

National Institute on Drug Abuse- The Cellular Neurobiology Research Program
http://www.drugabuse.gov/DIR/cell-neuro.html

The Cellular Neurobiology Research Program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) looks at central nervous system (CNS) operation at the cellular level. They focus on neural plasticity, neurodegeneration, neuroanatomical methods, consequences of neurotrophic aspects, electrophysiology, and dopaminergic systems physiological properties. They use MALDI-Ion Mobility time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-IM-oTOFMS) to map different compounds present in rat brain tissue. Since cocaine enters the brain where it blocks the reuptake of dopamine, it will be present in the brains of people who use the drug. MALDI-IM-oTOFMS can detect cocaine. In certain disease states, things like lipids and peptides may accumulate, these can also be detected by MALDI-IM-oTOFMS.

Terms:

 * Neurotrophic : relating to the nutrition and maintenance of tissue of the nervous system.

 * Dopaminergic : Relating to, involved in, or activated by dopamine or related substances.

 * Mesolimbic : of, relating to, or being the more central portion of the limbic system of the brain that arises mainly in the ventral tegmental area, consists especially of dopaminergic neurons, and innervates the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and olfactory tubercle the brain's mesolimbic system is involved with the control of memory and emotion.

 * Microiontophoresis : a process for observing or recording the effect of an ionized substance on nerve cells that involves inserting a double micropipette into the brain close to a nerve cell, injecting an ionized fluid through one barrel of the pipette, and using a concentrated saline solution in the other tube as an electrical conductor to pick up and transmit back to an oscilloscope any change in neural activity.

 * Dynorphin : any of a group of potent opioids found in the mammalian central nervous system that have a strong affinity for opiate receptors.

 * Chlorisondamine : A nicotinic antagonist used primarily as a ganglionic blocker in animal research. It has been used as an antihypertensive agent but has been supplanted by more specific drugs in most clinical applications.

Relation to Biochemisty:
Metabolic functions are highly controlled in the body because too much of most substances can lead to problems. In an enzyme cascade, if the final product that is needed is not being created, then the pathway will not be inhibited or slowed down at all. When an enzyme is missing or defective in the chain a build up of the substance it is supposed to breakdown/convert will occur. This can lead to disease. Diseases in which lipids build up in the brain include: Niemann-Pick disease, Tay-Sachs Disease, and Fabry’s disease. Niemann-Pick disease is caused by the defective enzyme sphingomyelinase. Because of this defect sphingomyelin cannot be converted to ceramide. This causes a build up of sphingomyelin in the brain which leads to mental retardation and early death. Tay-Sachs disease is caused by the lack of hexosaminidase A and a consequent build up of ganglioside gm2. This also leads to mental retardation and death. Since NIDA also looks at lipid build up in brain tissue, these are some disease they would be able to detect.

Institute for Analytical Sciences
http://www.isas.de/english/menu-top/research/research-departments/

The Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS) is a physical and chemical analysis research center that focuses in biotechnology, spectroscopy, and microfluidics. There five departments work on metabolomics, proteomics, interface spectroscopy, miniaturization, and material analysis. ISAS works to improve current analytical methods. In their study of metabolomics a cell or organisms phenotype or biochemical status is found using quantitative and qualitative analyses. ISAS also uses these analytical methods to understand regulation and cell signaling processes in organisms. They hope to develop analyses that, in one step, will describe a metabolome. Some of ISAS’s current investigations include mold detection and detection of lung cancer through ion mobility spectroscopy.

Terms

 * Quadrupole : a molecule with a quadrupole will have no dipole moment because the two dipoles present in the molecule cancel each other out. A good example is carbon dioxide. A quadropole used in mass spec has four voltage-carrying rods which serve to give ions which travel between them oscillations.  Only ions with the right mass/charge ratio (m/z) can undergo these oscillations without hitting one of these rods.

 * Lithography : A printing process in which the image to be printed is rendered on a flat surface, as on sheet zinc or aluminum, and treated to retain ink while the nonimage areas are treated to repel ink.

 * Plasmon : The aggregate of cytoplasmic or extranuclear genetic material in an organism.

 * Ellipsometry : A technique for determining the properties of a material from the polarization characteristics of linearly polarized incident light reflected from its surface.

 * Synchrotron : an apparatus for imparting very high speeds to charged particles by means of a combination of a high-frequency electric field and a low-frequency magnetic field

 * Geodetic : The scientific study of the size and shape of the Earth, its field of gravity, and such varying phenomena as the motion of the magnetic poles and the tides.

Relation to Biochemistry
ISAS’s work with plants is attempting to better understand how certain essential elements are used at the molecular level including: the mechanisms in which these metals are taken up, placed, and how it is affected by the condition of the plant. As with amino acids, there are elements that organisms must obtain from their diets in order to maintain normal functioning. There are many reactions that occur within cells that require metals. For example, magnesium is used to stabilize the negative charges on the oxygen’s in the phosphate groups in ATP molecules. Magnesium is also required for plant rubisco where it is attached to Lys side chain. Magnesium in this reaction orients the reactants at the active site. Iron is used in many reactions we are already know about and it is possible that there are more places it is used. There are iron-sulfur proteins that take part in redox reactions with one electron where the Fe is reduced or oxidized. ISAS is attempting to find the other ways in which these essential elements are used and acquired.

First Detection of Metabolites of the Colon Cancer Cell Line SW 480 Using MCC/IMS and GC/MS
http://ijims.ansci.de/pdf/8/2/Zimmermann_051013.pdf

The Institute for Analytical Sciences in Germany is trying to find biomarkers in colon cancer that could be detected using MCC/IMS and GC/MS in order to find the cancer sooner and increase the survival rate of those who have it. Currently, the methods for detecting colon cancer can be poorly sensitive or invasive. Since cells release certain metabolites and these can be altered when a cell is in a diseased state such as cancer, they are hoping to find metabolites that demonstrate the presence of colon cancer. Since the tests are very rapid there would not need to be much wait time between test and diagnosis. Multi-Capillary-column is used to separate the sample to make sure that compounds separate out properly and then GC/MS is used to specifically identify the metabolites since this cannot be done with IMS alone. The test results found that there were certain ketones and an alcohol that were present in the cancer cells not found in the normal cells. Also, there were peaks in the normal cells for benzaldehyde, methylbenzaldehyde, a different alcohol which are missing from the colon cancer cells.

Terms

 * DMEM : Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium

 * SW 480 cells : is from a primary (non-metastasized) colon cancer in a patient

 * Aspirate : To remove (liquids or gases) by means of a suction device.

 * Fetal calf serum : This is serum taken from embryonic calves. It is used as an important part of media for promoting the growth of tissue cultures. It is not known what causes the tissue cultures to grow, but it probably has to do with growth hormones and other growth factors.

 * Adenocarcinoma : Cancer that begins in the epithelial cells, which line certain internal organs and have glandular (secretory) properties. Some types of adenocarcinomas include cancers of the breast, thyroid, colon, stomach, pancreas, and prostate, as well as certain types of lung cancer.

 * Solid Phase Microextraction : a very short gas chromatography column turned inside out. SPME is a fibre coated with an extracting phase, that can be a liquid (polymer) or a solid (sorbent), which extracts different kinds of analytes, from volatile to non-volatile, from different kinds of means, that can be in liquid or gas phase.

Relation to Biochemistry
Chromatography can be used to separate many substances. Often it is used in biochemistry to separate proteins based on size, affinity, and charge depending on the different type used. MCC was combined with IMS to increase the amount of information that can be extracted from the sample as in tandem MS when two mass spectrometers are used together (one to separate the peptides and the other to break each peptide to show the amino acid chain). Since cancer cells metabolize so much faster than normal cells, there could be a dramatic decrease in the amount of glucose available to the cells. With the decrease in glucose, the cells might switch to the metabolizing of ketone bodies to maintain energy needs. This could explain the 2 ketone bodies present in the IMS of the cancer cells but not in the normal cells since normally cells would put acetyl-CoA into the citric acid cycle and only small amount of ketone bodies would be formed.

Ion Mobility Spectroscopy to Detect Lung Cancer and Airways Infections
http://www.spectroscopyeurope.com/MS_18_6.pdf

The research group ISAS is testing IMS techniques to report on ways of diagnosing lung cancer and airway infections early on by detecting minute amounts of volatile metabolites. By combining IMS with a Multi-Capillary Column (MCC) analytes can be detected in less than 600 s with a concentration as low as picograms/liter. ISAS hopes that this device can be used in hospitals to detect different diseases faster and easier. They compared the IMS/MCC samples from people with lung cancer vs. people who were healthy and found 25 variables that distinguish between the two groups that have only a 1.3% error rate. They also found that some bacteria could cause alterations in the IMS of a patient which would help the detection of airway infections.

Terms:

 * Beta-radiation : radiation of beta particles during radioactive decay

 * Sorbent : a material that sorbs another substance; i.e. that has the capacity or tendency to take it up by either absorption or adsorption

 * Dead Volume : air that is inhaled by the body in breathing, but does not partake in gas exchange.

 * Faraday Cup : a metal (conductive) cup designed to catch charged particles in vacuum. The resulting current can be measured and used to determine the number of ions or electrons hitting the cup.

 * Bronchiectasis : a condition in which an area of the bronchial tubes is permanently and abnormally widened (dilated), with accompanying infection.

 * Serratia marcescens : the type species of the genus Serratia; a species found in water and soil and milk and foods and insects; can cause infections of the endocardium and blood and wounds and urinary tract and respiratory tract; has been tested as a bioweapon.

 * Haemophilus influenzae : A gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium of the genus Haemophilus, especially Haemophilus influenzae type b, that occurs in the human respiratory tract and causes acute respiratory infections, acute conjunctivitis, and purulent meningitis.

Relation to Biochemistry:
Cancer cells suck up ATP and therefore have to undergo glycolysis at extremely fast rates. Because of this they end up creating lactate in order to recycle NAD+ to keep up. This build up of lactate could be detected through these IMS methods in lung cancer. Because cancer cells arise from mutations in the genes of a cell and enzymes are often altered or made dysfunctional it is very possible that their products would build up which could then be detected using something like the IMS/MCC technique. Since people who have diabetes get a build up of acetone which is released in the breath, this is another compound that can be detected using this analytical method. In people with diabetes the liver incompletely oxidizes fatty acids in high amounts. Acetyl-CoA cannot be oxidized by the Citric Acid Cycle and builds up. Some acetyl-CoA is then converted to acetoacetate which is then decarboxylized spontaneously to form acetone. Acetone is then exhaled in the breath.

Development of high throughput dispersive LC-ionmobility-TOFMS techniques for analysing the human plasma proteome
http://bfgp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/3/2/177

The researchers have developed a technique that combines IMS with mass spectrometry, collision-induced dissociation (CID), and reversed-phase liquid chromatography. The combination of these methods is used to take the enzymatic breakdown of protein mixtures and analyze the peptides that result. Liquid chromatography first separates the peptides which are then subjected to electrospray ionization which puts them into a gas phase. These ionized peptides are then separated in the gas phase by the IMS. CID is then used to break up the peptides where they are then placed into an MS to determine the mass of each analyte. The human plasma proteome was picked to be tested because there are many proteins in plasma that have not been discovered yet.

Terms

 * Reversed phase chromatography : includes any chromatographic method that uses a non-polar stationary phase.

 * RF-focusing device : element that ionizes the electrons by emitting a radio frequency signal

 * Paul geometry traps : A type of liner quadropole ion trap that uses DC and radio frequency oscillating AC electric fields to trap ions

 * Uromodulin : a substance produced by cells of the ascending limb of the loop of Henle; it is a normal constituent of urine and is the major protein constituent of urinary casts.

 * Lyophilized : To freeze-dry (blood plasma or other biological substances).

Relation to Biochemistry
Electrospray ionization is used to make sure that the macromolecules are not destroyed in the process of switching them to the gas phase. In electrospray ionization, the sample is passed through a charged, high electrical potential. The needle scatters the sample as tiny charged droplets. The non-destructed charged macromolecular ions are left when the solvent around them evaporates rapidly. The paper talks about how certain low-amount proteins such as those from post-translational modifications and membrane proteins would be difficult to detect although they would be of high interest. Posttranslational modification includes enzymatic processing where phosphorylation, removal of amino acids, carboxylation, or addition of prosthetic groups. Posttranslational modifications are important for maintaining control within the cell. If proteins were always active then many metabolic functions would occur uncontrollably, so only small amounts of a protein at a time would be in an active state.

Wiki-d Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_mobility_spectrometry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DART_ion_source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury-Nielsen_shutter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_mobility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry

Articles and Web Pages for Review and Inclusion
Peer-Reviewed Article #1:

Monitoring Dynamic Changes in Lymph Metabolome of Fasting and Fed Rats by Electrospray Ionization-Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry (ESI-IMMS)

'''Anal. Chem., 2009, 81 (19), pp 7944–7953'"

Main Focus

 * Identify the main focus of the resource. Possible answers include specific organisms, database design, intergration of information, but there are many more possibilities as well.

New Terms

 * New Term 1: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 2: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 3: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 4: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 5: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 6: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 7: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 8: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 9: Definition. (source: http://)
 * New Term 10: Definition. (source: http://)

Summary

 * Enter your article summary here. Please note that the punctuation is critical at the start (and sometimes at the end) of each entry. It should be 300-500 words. What are the main points of the article? What questions were they trying to answer? Did they find a clear answer? If so, what was it? If not, what did they find or what ideas are in tension in their findings?

Relevance to a Traditional Metabolism Course

 * Enter a 100-150 word description of how the material in this article connects to a traditional metabolism course. Does the article relate to particular pathways (e.g., glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, steroid synthesis, etc.) or to regulatory mechanisms, energetics, location, integration of pathways? Does it talk about new analytical approaches or ideas? Does the article show connections to the human genome project (or other genome projects)?


text: User talk:86.41.158.157

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:86.41.158.157


text:
User talk:59.93.213.99

-- Herby talk thyme 16:12, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:59.93.213.99


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Zulu/Exercise/Lesson 3

Welcome to the exercises related to Lesson 3.

Click "▼" to check your answers.

How long have you been working for?
How would you respond to: (Assume for these questions that your name is Zipho Mtembu and that you're a student in Cape Town in your 3rd year. But you come from Johannesburg. You are 23 years old. Your brother works at Crispy Chicken as a cook. Your mother is a nurse. Your sister is teacher.)

Age and Where do you...
Translate the following Zulu sentences into English:

Translate the following English sentences into Zulu:

Odd one out:

Dialogue
Try translating the following dialogue:

Next step

 * If you would like, review this lesson: Lesson 3
 * Otherwise, continue to the next lesson: Lesson 4

title: Zulu/Exercise/Lesson 3


text:
Talk:Instructional Technology/Instructional Design

Currently requesting Copyright relase of Instructional Design History from the follwoign website: http://www.coe.uh.edu/courses/cuin6373/idhistory/watson2.html. This chronological data should beef up the "History section of this page. More to follow.


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Trainz/Versions Of Trainz

 * See main article: Trainz Version And Build Numbers for technical treatment and specifics on this topic.

Trainz is a product family which has continually evolved. The Trainz version number started as a simple Retail release and update tracking system, dating to the initial Beta test version of Trainz 0.9 in 2000 AD. The first actual widespread publication already had one service pack applied, begetting Trainz Community Edition as version 1.1.1 in February 2002, which would see three more software upgrades by November 26's release of Trainz UTC, the redundantly titled Trainz: Ultimate Trainz Collection; which was a short sighted title for a collection with a mere nine route maps!

As the version number system evolved it also became a measure and touchstone indicating a minimal asset technology level  eventually given a keyword-value pair called a & value inside the asset's main self-definition file.

There are also a number of different software versions that are produced to service the international community which are entirely different retail releases (e.g. Russian and Polish, or Dutch or Spanish) usually in partnership with entirely different regional publishers— but which have the same version numbers for they are equivalent technology except for the internationalization of the release language capabilities.

Version and Build numbers
So in fact, the version number is not strictly colloquial usage, but in a real sense defines the capabilities of the binary code which satisfies the upper level technology handling capability of the versions code. Today, the Trainz-build values, which 'currently range' from V-1.0 to V-'' respectively Trainz initial release through Trainz latest retail release or upgrade to that.

The trainz-build (TB) has increase uniformly and monotonically except for the intermingled Trainz TS2009–TS2010 s (SP) when the product was transitioning from 32 bit computers to harnessing the power of quad-core microprocessors and 64 bit architectures. The short story on that was TS2009 was a transition step to TS2010 which presented more development problems than anticipated, so was about a year late. The two versions share some of the same trainz-build values, so overlap technologically speaking—both have a SP4 which makes both TB V3.3 on the high end, but the TS10 TB's did not always increment with a new SP patch. The TS2009 release vetted the 'base content' of the preceding big sellers, and TS10's release had all the new content and new routes, plus the older content. The improvements in the TS09 Surveyor were welcomed by the route builders while the different and tighter data model testing and vetting of new assets gave the objects content creators a benchmark to hone their talents and practices. Only the hard-core driving obsessed community lost out with the TS2009 release—they had to wait that extra year for new built-in content and routes. (Sniff, sniff... did we mention yet that different folks get different aspects of Trainz into their blood and focus more on one area than another? Believe it! Some of us hardly ever drive, some never make routes, and some only make routes or sessions. If it works, who cares?!)

Why care about TBs?
Short answer: If you stay with Trainz in some capacity you'll stumble over the need for comparing such over and over and over and over... really! Better to know what it means, don't you agree? Some of Trainz have changed the requirements of how data is defined and where and how it is stored as the product family evolved new capabilities and features, many times at the request of the Trainz user community. These factors are familiar to the content creators that make assets and are mostly transparent to Trainz users—up until an extant asset has an irreconcilable translation incompatibility with the users code version. That is an asset, which worked fine in a previous Trainz Version (Though some are errors of composition-flawed data being uploaded to the Download Station) now evinces a problem in a newer Trainz version.

One thing the 'trainz-build' version is used for is differential processing, a widespread asset (for example an locomotive engine specification data element) built to Trainz-build v-1.3 might still be used in current Trainz (and is, since the DLS is around with tens of thousands of older content items) and thousands of routes may use a particularly popular asset "house 1', for example, or a gantry signal. Many of those will pre-date TS2009 when the new data model became more stringently enforced and that measure (with a long term payback [and also the much lessened likelihood of crashing your Trainz or the computer!]) created more errors from a plethora of new built-in error testing and asset validation measures.

As Trainz releases evolved, this error checking (introduced in TRS2004, much expanded in TRS2006) was put in place in the Content Manager to trap these incompatibilities or just caught older data ambiguities. These 'faults' require human intervention and adjustment of the asset's data files and have given rise to the term "error fixing" (usually a misnomer, data-model adjustment is more precise and correct) when one downloads an asset from the Download Station. A project was also begun belatedly towards the end of 2010 to 'clean up' the data base of the DLS, and is limping along gradually making progress. As of October 2013 the company CEO announced a new Trainz graphics engine with backward compatibility was expected by December 2014.

Retail Releases
The following list of Trainz Retail Releases names is in chronological order of publication:

Trainz 1.3

 * Trainz Version 1.0, published December 2001. Most common version was with Service Pack 3 applied, making Trainz 1.3

Trainz UTC

 * Ultimate Trainz Collection (UTC), published November 2002, . UTC introduced the extensible extended scripting capabilities into the game, known as and . With TrainzScripting, Trainz Scenarios entered gameplay allowing canned score-able challenges to be authored releasing the gameplay from the bounds of a Drivers experience and knowledge. These were augmented and made capable by parallel technical script developments improving interaction between the game and the user. Suddenly, a situation could be stage managed so a user could deliver empty cars, then pick them up when filled, or so that a schedule had to be kept, or speeding was penalize.

TRS2004

 * Trainz Railway Simulator 2004/Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (TRS2004), published September 2003, Version 2.0. also known as Passenger Edition in the UK. Four service packs creating version 2.4 with Trainz 2004 Deluxe as a final retail release (Most popular version, was available until 2013).

TRS2006

 * Trainz Railway Simulator 2006/Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 (TRS2006), published September 2005, Version 2.5; This was the version which introduced the file structure used through later versions, with minor differences, up to the SP3 release of TS2009. The major advance in the release was the Content Manager Plus (CMP) improvement (now called just 'CM' or Content Manager The (Trainz-build tag value) is now displayed when running CM.

Trainz Driver Edition
Trainz Driver Edition (TDE) —a low-cost (Driver GUI) 'demo version' of TRS2006-SP0 without Surveyor functions and most general content omitted. Instead, the release had three large routes with more 'sessions' than other TRS2006 based releases (though 2 of the 3 were part of TRS2004 Deluxe release).

Trainz Routes

 * Trainz Routes — consisted of four groups of add-on layouts for TRS2006 (no program included)

Trainz Complete Collection

 * Trainz Complete Collection — Bundled TRS2004 Deluxe, TRS2006 and the expansion DVD of Trainz Routes in one big box set.

TRS2007

 * Trainz Railway Simulator 2007/Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (TRS2007) (this is TRS2006 with its service pack applied) in French, German, and ; it is only sold in Central European countries), Version 2.6

TC1&2 and TC3
The three Trainz Classics releases represent a troubled era in Trainz steady growth because Auran Games Development ... to be cont
 * Three Trainz Classics releases
 * Trainz Classics (called Trainz Railways in the UK and Trainz Railwayz in the USA), first module (TC1) released in 2007.
 * Each has an slightly updated game engine, TC3 being the most up to date incorporating an actual software change affecting data structures. A modular system of gems where each one contains a different route and appropriately themed content.
 * Module 1 or TC1 is the Harlem Line, formerly a route
 * Module 2 is Metropolis Edition, essentially a city tram network, formerly a route
 * Module 3 is the UK's Settle and Carlisle Line set in the 1960s, formerly a route.
 * Modules 1 and 2 were bundled by Auran's joint-venture partner (a software publisher/distribution partner) and so are now generally sold together as one program, but Trainz Classics 3 does not contain the previous releases since a different publisher/distributor handled that product release. All of the Trainz Classic releases, the TDE, and other regionally targeted releases do not include many of the 'stock' built-in assets which were supplied with TRS2004 and TRS2006. As a result, any custom content which uses those assets as dependencies will not work, unless they are imported from TRS2006 or downloaded from the Download Station website.

TC3 has some enhancements that require the enginespec tag to be changed on other locos to enable them to take full advantage of the game engine. In the config.txt file for your loco change the 'enginespec' tag to be one of the following kuids.

The are listed from the smallest loco to the largest.  LMS3F Engine Spec  Fowler 4F Enginespec  Stanier 8F Enginespec  Gresley A3 Engine spec  BR Standard Class 7 (Britannia) Enginespec  BR Standard 9f Enginespec You can also do the same with the sounds to use the new built-in ones.

Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition

 * TRS2009 / TS2009
 * TS2009: World Builder Edition (2008) - Improved Surveyor capabilities and a new skin; the version contains the first actual software game engine advances that harnessed the increased RAM and Video card memory asset utilizations and was the
 * TS2009/10 also support the new specs, additionally they support DXT graphic compression transparently, and multi-core processors which the earlier versions did not. When running under a 64 bit operating system these programs can use 4 gigs of memory, TC3 and earlier versions are limited to 2 gigs of memory.

Trainz Simulator 2010

 * TRS2010 / TS2010
 * TS2010: Engineers Edition - Improved graphics capabilities and Speedtree technology with a new skin variant. TS2010-SP2 introduce the use of 64 bit processing while retaining a compatibility mode with older 32 bit computer architectures.

Trainz Simulator Mac

 * Trainz Simulator Mac - MacIntosh Computer version of TS2010.
 * TS12 (Anniversary Edition also Available)

Trainz Driver iOS

 * Trainz 2009 adapted to Apple Computer's iPad and iPhone turned into a surprising hit once Auran/N3V changed the icon.

Trainz Driver Android

 * Ibid

Trainz Simulator 2-Mac
The Windows TS12 crowd felt understandably neglected as N3V's programmers focused seemingly anywhere else but on a needed bug-fix Service Pack 2 and continued to throw grit in the gears for content creators by adding to minimum required s for production of the niche product TS-Mac2.
 * Trainz Mac versions are also serving as prototype platforms for various changes to the look, see, and feel for functionality for themselves and the various TANE versions expected by July 2015. This has created a spate of controversy and pushback by the TANE Beta tester community as N3V Games has unwisely and arrogantly been foolish enough to change terminology of many common CM command activities.

Trainz A New Era: Community Edition
Partial 64 bit advanced product once promised for the late summer 2014 (one year after web funding) just barely produced as a buggy demo version for digital downloading in the Christmas 2014 sales season.
 * TANE-CE

Trainz A New Era
Full product once promised for the Christmas 2004 sales season, currently expected to ship by May 2015.
 * TS15

Miscellaneous notes
In most cases, each version of Trainz is available in various regional editions for different parts of the world. These follow language groupings by market followings as things historically developed. Dutch-German-English attention created a German and Italian version before the 2007 release of a French version or those in Eastern European languages (Polish, Hungarian, and Russian).

In some countries older versions of Trainz are still available, often at budget software prices. Amazon.com (USA) was selling various older versions via it's online partners as recently as April 2013.

Most versions of Trainz have had s released which can be downloaded free of charge. The last service pack for TRS2004 is SP4 (makes Trainz Version 2.4). The only service pack for TRS2006 (version and build-tag is 2.5, like demo TDE release) is SP1 (makes TRS2006-SP1, or Trainz Version 2.6).

TS2009/TRS2009 is the 3rd most recent version of the game engine but began a trend of successive versions having a lower tolerance for errors in the config.txt files than earlier versions. T'09 also incorporates new graphics features taking advantage of newer video card online processing capabilities, including shadows and asset models incorporating LOD variations.

TS2010/TRS2010 is the 2nd most recent version of the game engine but has a lower tolerance for errors in the config.txt files than earlier versions.

TS12/TS2012/TRS2012 is the most recent version of this game & also released as an "10th anniversary edition for Trainz" (10 years).

TC3 content has been updated and revised to become both a TRS2009-SP3 or SP4 and TS2010 add on pack, first 3rd party developer and Auran/N3V Games 'partner' to systematically update assets to the asset technology introduced in T'09, new graphics model capabilities.

The versions of Trainz Driver for mobile device operating systems, iOS and Android, are not presently capable of supporting content made for more recent versions, and while users can create routes and sessions to exchange with other mobile users, other user content is not presently possible.

title: Trainz/Versions Of Trainz


text:
Trainz/Things You Can Do In Trainz

Trainz Overview

A full Trainz release is an advanced 'industrial strength' railroading simulator with world modeling abilities, not just a computer game. It is designed to allow model railroading in 'V-scale', or Virtual-scale, meaning creates and allows a user to interact with a virtual reality, which is the computing technical term for creating and playing around in an alternative reality of your own or another's making. It was one of the first commercially released software packages that did so, and unlike the big budget Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS), released the same year—and quite a few others—it is both relatively easy to model in, and still going strong as a series. It is extensible in all versions and Trainz releases make up a family of backwards compatible products with new releases and upgrades steadily growing in capability and power. The software system gives you everything you need to build a Virtual Model Railroad far larger and far less expensively than the dedicated hobbyist who has slaved away devotedly to build an expensive Basement Railroad Empire. In Trainz you can unleash your own creative streak to make a prototype model railroad—model a real railroad down to amazing degrees of accuracy, including if you like, automated topography from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) agency or other government's agencies (Trainz is world wide, Trainzers come from everywhere) that host satellite measured height above ground (HOG) data that can be rendered into a Digital Enhanced Map (DEM data). Alternatively, you can unleash the wild beast creative in yourself and create a Fantasy or Fictional Railroad in any setting and type of terrain that you dream up and can justify to yourself. Many Trainzer operating in that mode create a Fictional History to provide a backstory for their creation.

Not just a Drive a Train game
Given that background, consider that most dedicated 'Trainzers' do not typically operate or drive Trainz in their ordinary everyday time spent in Trainz! Trainzers all drive now and then, and enjoy the heck out of that game aspect, but that is not the magic of the software to Trainzers most days 'playing' in Trainz. Most Trainzers, like the user group who among others, maintain this Wikibook, spend more Trainz time building stuff—and get a lot of payback from anticipating how their time will show up as a 3D Virtual World (Route building) or in creating other 'assets' that are static or dynamic 3D models that will come to life and populate such routes or layouts. A lone creator doesn't get much satisfaction from a monopoly on an asset she built, so we generally share these goodies with others in the world wide Trainz Community by uploading them to the massive data base in the cloud at Auran.com known as the Download Station. Other community members can then share the joy of that new asset, and this is the true strength of any Trainz version—technology permitting, you can always access and add more free content.

Satisfactions
There is a lot of satisfaction to create something at all, much less something admired and complimented by others, so there are Trainzers who do little else but create 'professional grade' assets, and many a tyro with ambitions of acquiring such high-level skills who learn the Trainz ropes step-by-step and build up to that level, gaining satisfaction at every little victory. There are many more in acquiring that knowledge and that's what this Wikibook is all about. Members of the Trainz community have come together to share their knowledge and make a reference you can tap into any time you need to advance your knowledge of Trainz.

That means if you get joy from creation, that you never "reach the end" and there are always more things to do, and even more to learn, for not only does the Trainz technology continue to change and improve, but you'll find there is always something more you can do on your own projects. Other users, skilled in the arcana of script computer languages continue to create those generalized assets which extend the flexible game capabilities even farther that the N3V programmers sometimes envision. Features can be requested, and when honored in a Service Pack or new Trainz Retail release, can then be exploited by such scripts or new graphical features. Since there is a world wide user community, and there is a free website many add content and new routes up to, you can expand and select from a lot of non-Payware—over 267,000 assets were available for the four year old technology in TRS2009-SP1 in May 2013! Another strength of Trainz is a 3D asset can be imported from one (older) version to another; some times with only a little bother, mostly just by downloading it or cross loading it from an older Trainz release into a newer one. Many underlying parts of the technology haven't changed, so are very stable requiring no adjustments since Trainz 1.0! Hence many Trainzers, especially content creators operate more than one version of Trainz, for there is a unique asset technology level code that is part of the asset and the lower that , the more Trainzers with older versions can use it. Understand, many assets do not or cannot exploit new technology features, so creating them a a higher-than-necessary tech level makes them less useful to the community of Trainzers.

Trainz containers

 * ''Main:

Your biggest container is your simulator's Content Manager data base. Your routes and sessions and any other assets you download, create or import are organized and saved therein. The next container is a route or layout, which accesses that data base and in the GUI software modules launched from the Trainz Main Menu's Surveyor, Railyard, and Driver bring the assets into a 3D virtual reality. The simplest of these is Railyard, where only rolling-stock-classed assets can be viewed as if walking around nearby, climbing on top of, or examined by browsing through the alphabetical menu, which allows as well a view of the assets description, some of which contain histories, specifications, and even which rail road companies used the transport vehicle.

Different strokes
There was a '60s expression which fits Trainz well... "Different strokes for different folks!" Like in physical scale model railroading, different owners are interested in different aspects of railroading— some like creating realistic scenery, others modeling an actual real world railway (a prototype railroad), others the experience of driving, some designing the 'game play' aspect of Trainz, sessions for others to Drive and experience on a particular map or layout. Many like a bit of each in their turn. In Trainz if you don't like a layout, a few mouse clicks puts you back in the menu to select a different one. If you don't like one from the version's base content, there are over 3,500 routes listed on the Download station. You don't have to face tearing down man-years worth of painstaking effort of that model railroad which has been king of the basement all these many years, nor do you have to spend years building it's virtual equivalent: Many Trainz routes began modeled on model railway layouts, and today many model railroad clubs Trainz in 'V-scale' as much as meet at the club house where they pay dues, etc.

Scale Model Railroading
The difference between V-scale and other 'standard' model railroading scales is vast. Perhaps the most popular is the H.O. scale train sets sold so often during the Christmas holiday season. Model Railroaders look with some disdain at the technology level of the undercarriages, meaning couplers, wheels (plastic) and trucks; so would immediately replace with steel wheels, better trucks and much better couplers. Such an upgrade can cost up to $5.00 a car. In Trainz, it takes a few minutes editing a configuration file "config.txt", which is an initialization file common to all Trainz assets, and an whole consist of thirty coal hopper cars would be updated forevermore for five minutes of editing using a common text editor. If you want to run 90' to 120' passenger coaches, the least 'radius of curvature' you can put on a layout and not expect frequent derailments operating 'at speed' on a H.O. layout is 23-24 inches. To make a full 180° turn the inner track uses a full width of a 4'x 8' plywood panel. that means a H.O. model railroad takes a lot of space. A Trainz route needs a reasonably good computer and can display and run a route that is well into the hundreds of miles. Many of these routes now are created using Digital elevation model (DEM) technologies, accurately positioning real railroad trackage in V-scale.

What you skip with Trainz
Furthermore, a major feature of Trainz is that it replaces all the messes, wiring, sweat, tears, track laying and hammered fingers, torn/ruined clothing, physical insults to oneself such as nicks, cuts and scraped fingers—not to mention the several thousands of dollars— necessary to build a modest model railroad of your dreams in all too little space (most HO railroad projects need a large room to affect a small railroad)—Trainz programs give one all that without messy paints, plaster of Paris over a wood and chicken wire frame in a virtual space that can extends tens of miles in a given Route (railroad), and you don't have to give up the spare room, crowd up the basement, nor squeeze into the attic to create just a shortline model for a few miles of track in a repetitive quasi-circular motif.

The world is filled with learning curves
Like a new comer in the model railroading world, there are learning curves to surmount, not the least for example, the fact the simulator really models the physics of an actual train, it's responses and load effects in what is called CAB (in the Cab) mode. Or there is the option of DCC, which is much like the model railroad electrical controls, dial and all, with hot keys for switching and similar 'arcade game' play options. Learners start there, then learn to tame the CAB mode. Both are fun, and have their uses.

A bit on the legacy
The current release of Trainz is Trainz 2012 (TS2012) which still only requires 32 bit computer architecture but does need more advanced video cards. Trains 2004/2006 run fine on even laptops of their era and look quite stunning on newer more modern high definition monitor technologies. was released in 2001, and looks, feels and operates in Driver much like it's successors, only with less capable graphics, far less available content. TRS2004 was a major step forward introducing Sessions, interactive industries, and utilities for uploading and downloading content to the Download Station; initially full of bugs after the release of four service packs the version gradually took on iconic status, became a 'best seller' and many Trainzer both still run it and saw no reason to upgrade beyond it. In 2005 Auran begat TRS2006 with much the same graphics engine and a huge base data cabinet of ready to use assets, but the release improved upon Trainz 2004's gameplay very little but advanced instead by fixing data management issues by introducing the Content Manager Plus. Auran then sat on their laurels involving itself instead in developing a massive MMORPG, which bombed. Thereafter, each Trainz release was one of the many code stable Trainz 2006 variants (and there were a lot), exploiting regional pride with partnerships providing custom content opening up many new non_English-speaking markets and the capstone of that flurry of series Trainz Classics were iteratively better looking, smoother operating and used better technologies. The TRS's graphics engine and technology found it's way into a flurry of other non-railroad modeling and several major road companies (i.e. Real Railroad Operating companies) were interested in adapting the simulator for training staff; ultimately a mis-guided bad fit for the software, and one which slowed new releases, and in the end effectively killed Auran which had used the cash stream from the steadily growing Trainz franchise to invest heavily on this speculative direction, Fury, and several other products which didn't return anything but business liabilities. Auran was legally reorganized when is sought bankruptcy protection from creditors and sought other investors.

After a while Auran became N3V Games and returning to it's strength eventually produced the Trainz 2009, the World Builder Edition and the name is eponymous, the improvements in TRS2009 greatly improved route building ease, content selection and save lots of a user's time when operating Surveyor. TC 1,2, and TC3 and TS2009, look a bit different, somewhat spiffier with a new skin and semi-transparent drop down menus versus that look-see-and aspect of the preceding main releases, but the operating feel is the same, and the tools have only gotten better version to version. If you don't yet own a Trainz or unsure of your hardware's capabilities, TS2009 is available still for download at Auran.com and various web site vendors like Amazon.com. It runs fine on a 2003 era 2Ghz Pentium 4 and updated video card, as well as a 7 year old business laptop (both have 2 Gbytes RAM memory); and neither were ever 'gamer' machines. TS2010 and TS2012 have more taxing graphical and computer performance requirements, but may run still run fine on younger generation laptops. One stable staple of the company philosophy is keeping the graphical engine a few years behind leading edge technology, allowing today's Trainz release to run on yesterdays advanced graphics, which of course gradually permeate into a staple computer ability. This means a new Trainz version runs on just about anything from several years ago, creating a broad base of platforms serving the needs of it's million plus registered Trainz users. (Many of those have multiple versions, or the whole collection. Visit the website and see some posts; the users have 'Stations' shown in a track diagram indication registered versions. Want a question answered, ask a Trainz veteran.)

Where versions converge and diverge
Beginning with the Trainz 2004 (TRS2004) release and the much improved database facilities of the TRS2006 releases, there are three main operating modes or modules and several auxiliaries accessed via a common Launcher program: A database manager (formerly and initially long called CMP or Content Manager Plus which debuted as TRS2006's most significant improvement to users with respect to time, and which also incorporated the formerly separate uploading and downloading content run time programs—separate .EXE files launched independently—to upload and download from the DLS or Download Station server and website. TRS2006.exe is a typical launcher program, or front-end menu. Except for a few set up options adjustments and linking various parts of Trainz and the web site, it is small and does just that, connect things to make them simple. It or the equally eponymous TRS2004, TRS2009,..., TRS2012 are usually also the install folder name, so serve as a shorthand identifying the base release. CMP was a big step forward, for it included the ability to set certain selection criteria (region+building+era or industry+build+maker, and many other combinations) called filters, and look at them both in installed content but also in what was available on the DLS for the same criteria —CMP has lost it's plus, and is now just called 'CM' in newer releases; the CM or database manager will automatically list and download content from the Auran database, inform you that an upgrade exists, and download your shopping cart of free goodies when you ask it... allowing even more extensibility of your created worlds). ''The DLS and free user created (shared freeware under version control) content is one of the nicest features of Trainz, and by shopping the website or by DLS filters it is where you can access parts (assets) and download new (free or for pay) content/extensions/assets, the world building/editing Gui environment tool called Surveyor, and the Driver module where one enters play mode and interacts with the virtual worlds created in Surveyor. Surveyor can also use that same set of filters, allowing you to narrow down and exclude (Indian+Japanese+Austrailian+USA+German railway assets on a Irish Railway. Or selectively include as you like. Trainz is all about home cooking to suit yourself. There are also two auxiliary GUI database modes called Railyard and Paintshed; the first allows one to browse rolling stock; the second to modify paint schemes and adapt it to a local color scheme (Livery in Railroad speak). CM/CMP has thumbnail images so the full screen Railyard is useful for choosing period or line specific assets for a Driver Session; the asset which merges the Session's asset (scenario) tasks, rolling stock, Interactive Industries and you into a virtual railroad on a particular Route you or someone else created or modified in Surveyor. 'Tasking' is what the Model Railroad clubs do with one another worldwide—usually in timed contests, puzzle tests to use the least number of switching operations or junction changes or with co-operative sharing of rolling stock across parts of a layout (switching consists or engineers at the border, so to speak). Operation of such a physical model railroad and Auran's Driver Module are the real world and virtual world equivalents.

List of Trainz activities
Here is a list of things one can do in Trainz, but it is inevitably incomplete.

 * Learn how to drive a train
 * There are two driving modes, DCC (Digital Command Control which is simpler based on model railroad electrical systems and CAB mode (Cabin mode) which is considerably more challenging and realistic, placing you in charge of modeled real world train cab controls.

 * In each, one's Viewpoint can be outside the train (External mode) which can be focused and located as if attached on any of the trains cars (usually 'begins' on the Locomotive driven, but can center on any car in the consist), from an exterior fixed camera position one adds in Surveyor (Tracking camera/mode), inside the train CAB (giving the mode its name 'Cab mode' but also sometimes selectable inside some passenger vehicles), or Free Roaming, which allows one to use the mouse to fly down the virtual world ahead or behind the train and see signals, switches (turn outs, junctions, switches or points are all equivalent in railroad-speak) and generally see anything in the virtual world of your route. Each viewing mode but the fixed tracking camera allows the user to pan and change angles, rotate in all three dimensions and look around. They also zoom in or out using the mouse wheel and or cursor arrow keys on the keyboard. Both driving modes also have a set of operator hot keys allowing one to not use the mouse pointer drag method if desired.

 * DCC emulates the forgiving and speedier reaction physics of driving a model railroad, in many respects but a big consist still takes a while to slow or speed up. The mouse tip turns a dial and your engine responds quite a bit quicker than a train would in a real world. Alternatively, one can use hotkeys centered about the classic gaming control practice centered about the S key to control the loco. In practice, one uses both. The mass of the train is not neglected, and you still can't start on a dime, but speed changes and stops occur far faster and so driving a task is much easier (and/or safer).

 * CAB mode puts you in the virtual cab where you control the train using analogs of real modeled controls used by real world engineers. The mouse cursor point moves levers, turns valves to replenish boiler water, pushes buttons, tugs the horn cable and so forth, then the control takes effect. In short, like driving a real world vehicle, there are delays, sometimes appreciable delays that compound in the modeling of long trains with long consists of rail-cars depending upon air brakes and pressure changes through a lengthy system of hoses and pipes to effectuate actual braking, or brake releases. A 3500 ton train has a lot of momentum and takes some thinking ahead to drive safely. This can be fun and challenging, particularly when one needs to complete a picky task without running off the end of a siding when parking that particular car at an industry loading dock with little room to spare! Many coupling and decoupling sessions will also take off points for overenthusiastic coupling speeds. Coupling too fast will also virtually break consist couplers, leaving you to replay the mission (and hopefully learn from your mistake).

 * Give trains commands
 * These are scripts hidden as debugged graphical icons which you can set up in a list (queue) in Surveyor so AI Drivers (Artificial intelligence assistants) will follow and obey automatically. Conversely, in Driver, they can be dragged and dropped on the fly into a similar command queue, which allows you to dynamically change the instruction set for that particular AI Driver.

 * These include visiting industries and loading or unloading at them, stopping at train stations, following schedules, and so forth. These can be event triggered creating traffic you have to work around, or just add flavor while they go past where you are working. The system also contains portals, which are off the layout but provide simulated far off destinations and train sources that traverse your layout under similar programming one sets up in a session using surveyor for the particular train and its AI Driver. Time controls then generate the new train and Driver on your route which enters from the portal. Commands even span entering one portal (leaving your route) and returning from the same asset or from another portal. These can also be set up to empty a loaded train or load an empty train then return it.

 * More dynamically, iPortals allow co-operative train sharing between on-line players connected by Trainz chat similar to the way a Model Railroading Club set up in a hobby show will turn control over to another operator on the next part of the interconnected model railroad tables (Track alignment and spacing in such groups is possible because the clubs have developed a standard.) Iportals are far more flexible, requiring no alignments and can be in the middle of a much larger layout.

 * Explore the built-in Routes (layouts) which come with the program
 * These are changeable and extensible and yet will remain unchanged! Auran's Trainz disallows overwriting alterations of the canned content, but will happily clone such assets and allow you to create and fiddle from that copy at will. Most have associated Driver Session assets that will allow you to play before you put on your virtual carpenters apron. But jump right in. You can't hurt anything, but if you change it and overwrite a copy, there's no backup. You have to make that yourself by changing the name when saving. When launching, the simulator automatically indexes you to the last thing you accessed.

 * This is the easiest way to gain some fun experience with the many tools in the Surveyor GUI, go ahead and change a fields' appearance, 'paint' a different texture on that cliff, lay some new track, extend the world off the edge by adding a new baseboard (720x720 meters), add that industry or tree or grove, program that train station or add another five or ten trains or consists (groups of cars, assemblies). Once you change it, it's your own private world until you choose to share it.

 * Similarly, learning the art of creating bug proof Drivers command queues using the graphical script writing command system by modifying one of the tutorials in Surveyor is the best way to begin to learn and employ the extensive Driver Command system. (As I write this there are 14 AI Drivers systematically running as many locomotives to and from interactive industries on a watershed following route through mountainous terrain that is 25×16 baseboards (map squares) or 18.0×11.52 kilometers, that began exactly that way—as an adaptation of the Highland Valley Industries scenario used for the fifth tutorial, and which was bundled with all releases from the first through TRS2006. It uses only stock assets from TRS2004 and TRS2006, and is now in its fourth year, so you need not investigate on-line extensions at all to spend many a fun hour recreating and creating on Trainz.)

 * Run the built-in Driver sessions and/or scenarios
 * These include tutorials and challenges of various types. Many of these are based on Model Railroading Club practices, many of which have self-organized as prolific Trainz contributors providing much of the overwhelming wealth of free or for-pay content available to download. Need a new building type? Odds are there are ten or twelve out there modeled on real world structures put together by guys and gals experienced with model building in physical model railroads who have spread their enthusiasms and talents throughout the world community. Go ahead, boldly change that tutorial to run in a blinding rainstorm, steady snow, or at night. Surveyor gives you control of the world (virtually) to do as you will.
 * Tip: One of the great features of TRS2006 is that you can save many different operations session setups with a given route. E.g. an early morning passenger run or a midnight freight haul.

 * Create a layout
 * The Surveyor module of Trainz makes the inevitably complicated process of making a layout as easy as possible. However, while a small simple layout can be made by anyone, creating a worthwhile layout will take a very considerable amount of time, effort and skill. Starting with a stock kernel is easier, so add another baseboard square or three dozen, use the editing tools to copy terrains or towns and build some skills using the editor as you learn the art of terrain shaping and the tougher art of painting.

 * Download additional items of all kinds
 * Additional items are available on Auran's (the program's publisher) web site or a large number of Trainz fan-sites. Much of this material is freeware but some is payware, requiring a payment per item or a subscription for a period of time. The quality of these additional items varies enormously but some are of the highest standard.

 * Learn how to obtain assets
 * Many assets are required by newly acquired layouts or Driver modules but which aren't readily provided from the same source. Most often, a little diligent web searching can locate a source. It can be very frustrating when that fails, but an appeal on the website chats will likely find willing help that will email the asset to you, including older asset versions which have not been updated or vice versa; many times a party will adapt things into the newer flavor after a major release. Website chats and fan-sites are active and useful places.

 * Run downloaded Driver sessions and/or scenarios
 * These have their own special challenges and enjoyments.

 * Learn how to correct errors in downloaded assets
 * Since most additional items are created by Trainz owners with varying skill levels, they sometimes need to be mended before they will work. This is particularly true of older assets imported into newer versions or vice versa.
 * Some new constructs use features not found in older releases, as the system continues to evolve capabilities and features.
 * Other times older assets use a data element that has been found to be relatively useless, so has been deleted from updated content.
 * Since the simulator is at its heart, script based, it is highly reconfigurable, and extensible. Like any programming, a version change can require tweaks to the code, of a generally simple nature. This skill involves some programming like knowledge and little commonsense. Many things can be fixed up in a few moments using the edit feature in Content Manager Plus or a simple text editor like windows Notepad.

 * Join in discussions on the forums provided by Auran and the Trainz fan-sites
 * The forums are an invaluable method of obtaining solutions to problems.

 * Join an interest group
 * These are an outgrowth of discussions on the forums provided by Auran and the Trainz fan-sites, where a group gets together to co-operatively make a route, usually based on modeling a particular real world railroad during a specific era. As a spin-off benefit, you'll make friends and likely gain a wide range of mentors willing to answer dumb questions.

 * Reskin assets
 * Apply new textures to existing 3D meshes this is done with a graphics program such as Photoshop, paint.net or GIMP to edit the .tga or .bmp formated files used in Trainz graphics rendering. The PaintShed program which comes with Trainz can be used to create new skins for existing Paintshed meshes.

 * Get involved in contributing to the Trainz community
 * For example by offering help on a forum or acting as a beta tester on a fan-site.

 * Learn how to create 3D models
 * Using a graphical modeling program such as Blender (freeware) or GMAX

 * While these programs are generally regarded as being difficult to learn, the results can be extremely rewarding.

 * Create Driver sessions and/or scenarios
 * Creating your own is one thing, creating ones which are of a high enough standard to justify distribution to the general Trainz community in a whole different league. There is a lot of help out there to do so, but the time investment is yours to commit.

 * Become more involved in the running of a fan-site
 * This may require learning how to use the administration functions of server-based software such as forums and Content Management Systems.

 * Contribute to this Wikibook!

title: Trainz/Things You Can Do In Trainz


text:
Instructional Technology/Design

Design is the process by which the Analysis of your instructional project is designed prior to the development phase. Simply, it is the "blueprint" of your instructional construction project. The Design phase utilizes the Analysis phase objectives in order to plan a course outline that includes and instructional strategy and course flow of the learning intervention (the actual instructional training).

Before the Design phase begins, the Instructional designer should know, from the analysis phase (Learner Analysis), what the students/learners already know in order to gauge the level of learning that the instruction will take.

The following design phase steps compose the categories of the Design phase process:

1. Evaluate and Sequence Learning objectives

2. Develop an Instructional Strategy

3. Determine Assessment Strategy

4. Instructional Strategy

5. The Design Document

Step 1: Evaluate and Sequence Learning Objectives
From the analysis phase of the ADDIE process, you determined the objectives required for the student/learner to complete the training required. These objectives may have similar topics, such as "Define the Wikipedia document”, Analyze the Wikipedia document" and so on. All of the objectives that involve the topic "Wikipedia" could, in most cases, be grouped together to  form, depending on the complexity and structure of your project, a hierarchy of learning. For instance, a typical hierarchy may start (from High to low):

''' Block

Module

Lesson

Activity'''

Note: various names and hierarchies do exist and can be substituted.

Step 2: Develop an Instructional Strategy
There are many different ways to organize and structure your topics. Linear learning is a popular method of grouping your objectives from General to specific in complexity. You don’t want to show the student how to drive a car without first teaching them the controls and difficulties involved in driving. Other methods, depending on the type of instruction, especially technical training, involve a step-by-step approach, be where the student is taught the steps of a process, procedure or activity and then assessed on their ability to perform that task.

There are many methods for instructors/trainers to deliver the training to the student/learners. Typical methods include, lecture, group discussions, scenarios and practice. This all depends on the type of training required. The Instructional designers collaborate with the subject matter experts and instructors to find the best methods for presenting and assessing the objectives.

Step 3: Determine Assessment Strategy
The Assessment strategy is simply how the student will be assessed on the training they have been required to accomplish. This will involve either knowledge-based exams (paper or online testing), Online adaptive testing methods whereby the assessment process evaluates the difficulty of the next question based on the answer of the current question., or a practical exam whereby a student will perform a task and be evaluated based on a structured performance-based test or checklist.

Step 4: Instructional Strategy
The instructional delivery interface is most of the instructional strategy. In today's world on computer technology, there are endless means of instructional delivery options. Simple briefings using PowerPoint slides, Web-based instruction using browser interfaces, distributed learning, to virtual world environments where discovery is the training tool; are all options of the instructional designer for instructional delivery.

The important factor to consider is the cost effectiveness and keeping the learner's needs in mind when developing material. An extreme case would be utilizing hundreds of hours of development for a small briefing on how to change the oil in your car, when a simple briefing, some graphics and a performance test would suffice in adequate training.

Step 5: The Design Document
As a contractor requires a blueprint in order to acquire labor and materials for construction of a house, the Instructional designer utilizes the Design document to "blueprint the instructional projects that they develop. This document is important for many reasons:

1. It outlines the aforementioned specifics listed above

2. It outlines the way or, approach that the project will take to the development. This is important as the approach may take different directions from project to project, or even within a project, depending on resource allocations during the project, or unforeseen contingencies that occur during the development phase.

3. A Quality Assurance mechanism. This document serves as the policy for the project. Anytime during the project development, the Instructional designer can reflect on the design document to ensure that the development of the project is staying with the original design parameters.

4. This document also serves as proposal to the customer to present a valid design plan that will assure them that their requirements will come to fruition based on the sound design processes. It also provides them a vehicle for feedback and gives another set of eyes to the overall project design.

5. This document provides a blueprint for other teammembers to work from. As construction workers work from the same set of plans, Instructional development teams work off the same project design document.

title: Instructional Technology/Design