Virtual Scale Layout

Here is your chance to run Dawson Station from the comfort of your own computer! To complete the puzzle, you need to drop off the empty center beam (yellow) at the shed and the empty wood chip car (orange) at the chip loader (compare it to the picture in the banner above!)  The game ends when you pick the empties up and head for Alpine Junction. Give it a try and let me know what you think! Post a comments or suggestions below.

If you are having trouble seeing the applet above, please go to java's website 
and test your installation. It needs version 1.5 or 5 to work.  If you don't want the pressure of the clock or step counter hanging over you while you learn, hit the 'h' key.

If you enjoyed that, head on over and see some other virtual puzzles & layouts I've put together.

When I first started doing research for my layout, I found Adrian Wymann's website which in turn led me to Neil Machin's online layouts.  I spent many hours running both his Inglenook and Timesavers before creating my own Inglnook based layout. Now I've created an online version to go along with it!

Interestingly, the Processing software used to produce this Java applet is almost identical to the Arduino software used to program the microcrontrollers. If you click on the link, you can actually read the source code, should you be so inclined. Here is a quick screen shot:
The nice part is that it will run on ANY computer running a java-enabled browser, including Chrome running on Linux! Gotta love open source software! I plan to do a Timesaver version, and then use it to plan my next switching layout. Perhaps a complimentary module like a paper mill for Dawson Station to send loads to?

19 comments:

  1. Well that was fun!
    I've run a couple of missions and it works like a charm. Thanks :)

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  2. That's very nice indeed. Could you say something about how you made this demo?

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  3. Don, that was fun, and you did a great job. Like some others I'd like to know how you made that, it would be fun to design my own layout and run trains on it.
    For a small alyout that would be fun to build and operate on. Thanks,

    Brian

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  4. And now, the timesaver!

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  5. I flunked the test! You don't wanna hire me. :)
    Linda W.

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  6. just what the wife needs, me to find another way to waste time on the computer. great fun
    Glenno from footscray

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  7. Cool simulation, thanks! My best score is 287 points in 233 secons, with the easy throttle

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  9. hello. thank you very much for letting me comment. very good article I would like more information on this item

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  10. This is simply wonderful... micro layouts (3D and virtual) are the best!

    JP
    Crofton, MD

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  11. Not quite as easy as it looks at first, but you soon get the hang of it. Now I'll go build a real one!

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  12. I'm a engineer and this blog is one of my favorites, because last edition I've learned, JavaScript's used applications outside web pages—for example in PDF-documents, site-specific browsers and desktop widgets—is also important to know it. Newer and faster Javascript VMs, particularly Node. 23jj

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  14. And I thought that a Inglenook will be uninteresting...
    Now I know thats a lot of fun!
    Thank's a lot!

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  15. One of the reasons why I like visiting your blog so much is because it has become a daily reference I can use in order to learn new nice stuff. It's like a curiosities box that surprises you over and over again.

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  18. Addictive to say the least! LOL

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  19. I like it!, can't wait for the timesaver code.

    Thanks for posting the code too, maybe I will try writing some jave too :-)

    Brian

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