by Gadfly
Microsoft offers train simulator programs for your computer at Circuit City.
It is more fun when you can do it for FREE courtesy of your employer! I was a clerk, but I got to run an engine a couple of times (courtesy of friends) and the NS simulator was pretty cool. It came around to our locations from time to time, and any employee, if he was not otherwise tied up, could run it. It was in a GM camper that was sort of like a theatre complete with sound effects and a panoramic surround screen. It would give some darned good sensations, including slack run-in/out, & the way it felt if the engine slipped down. Your instructor could dial in any division or trackage and I got to do the "rat hole" division once and the old Saluda to Melrose line, one of (if not THE) steepest grades in the US. That was an eye-opener because ( and I don't fully remember how it was done) standard procedure was to do a standing brake test at the top and bottom of the grade. At the top, they also turned up the retarders, set the brake pipe pressure at a certain level, a certain throttle setting so that the train would ease down the hill at 8 MPH (now don't hold me to that, it's been YEARS since I was permitted to play with that segment. The Road Foreman that was letting me play with the "train set"
told me I had just TWO brake reductions down the entire hill. There were several SAND tracks where the switch was always lined into the sand. If you passed a certain point approaching the switch at 8 MPH or less, the switch would automatically line to the main, and you would proceed down the hill to the next switch. If you were FASTER than 8 MPH, you were going into the SAND! 
Saluda was so STEEP that a heavy train would literally get away from you before the system could pump up the air if you let it get beyond the magic 8 MPH and you WOULD go into the sand track. As a Train Order operator, I heard them working up and down Saluda at the South end of the Asheville District at Hayne Yard, and getting to run the simulator helped ME to understand what the crews were going thru. I was NO "engineer", but the company seemed to approve of having their other craft employees "play" with the simulator, time and schedule permitting, so we other crafts could understand what it was all about. Very interesting to me!
Gadfly
It is more fun when you can do it for FREE courtesy of your employer! I was a clerk, but I got to run an engine a couple of times (courtesy of friends) and the NS simulator was pretty cool. It came around to our locations from time to time, and any employee, if he was not otherwise tied up, could run it. It was in a GM camper that was sort of like a theatre complete with sound effects and a panoramic surround screen. It would give some darned good sensations, including slack run-in/out, & the way it felt if the engine slipped down. Your instructor could dial in any division or trackage and I got to do the "rat hole" division once and the old Saluda to Melrose line, one of (if not THE) steepest grades in the US. That was an eye-opener because ( and I don't fully remember how it was done) standard procedure was to do a standing brake test at the top and bottom of the grade. At the top, they also turned up the retarders, set the brake pipe pressure at a certain level, a certain throttle setting so that the train would ease down the hill at 8 MPH (now don't hold me to that, it's been YEARS since I was permitted to play with that segment. The Road Foreman that was letting me play with the "train set"
told me I had just TWO brake reductions down the entire hill. There were several SAND tracks where the switch was always lined into the sand. If you passed a certain point approaching the switch at 8 MPH or less, the switch would automatically line to the main, and you would proceed down the hill to the next switch. If you were FASTER than 8 MPH, you were going into the SAND! Saluda was so STEEP that a heavy train would literally get away from you before the system could pump up the air if you let it get beyond the magic 8 MPH and you WOULD go into the sand track. As a Train Order operator, I heard them working up and down Saluda at the South end of the Asheville District at Hayne Yard, and getting to run the simulator helped ME to understand what the crews were going thru. I was NO "engineer", but the company seemed to approve of having their other craft employees "play" with the simulator, time and schedule permitting, so we other crafts could understand what it was all about. Very interesting to me!Gadfly
They'll tell ya "No one can drive a train!"
Good times on the M&B.