FYM

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Freight Yard Manager - or FYM as it is commonly abbreviated - is a Freeware, 2D Railroad Simulation programmed in Visual Basic and DirectX by Jim Hill. It focuses on Railroad Yard Operations within the US and Canada, with the player viewing satellite images of real-life yards.

Contents

[edit] Overview of FYM

FYM is a 2D yard operations game, developed by Jim Hill. Each player has assigned yards, which he takes trains for, and passes of trains for other yards to the appropriate player via a central server. Also included is a chat client, to communicate with other players. The basic operations are creating railroad cars, which consist of just about every type of currently operating rolling stock car types, from the basic boxcar to articulated intermodal well cars. The cars are loaded and assigned a destination, then routed by players from origin to destination. The cars are unloaded when they reach their destination, then either returned to the place of origin for reloading, or loaded at the current yard and assigned a new destination. There are no fixed rules as to what players should do with the cars they handle.

The maps used in FYM are satellite images obtained from Microsoft’s TerraServer web site, Google's Google Earth program, or - more recently - Flash Earth, which allows images to be taken from various image servers including Google Maps, Microsoft VE, Yahoo! and Ask.com. The images are downloaded or saved as “tiles”, pieced together by mapmakers (which any player can become), and the prototypical trackage is laid over the image. The software recognizes the lines as different types of track and switches, and guides the trains along them as if they were physical rails.

[edit] System Requirements

  • Microsoft Windows XP or 2000 or Vista
  • DirectX 9.0c
  • .NET Framework V2
  • 400MHz CPU
  • 128 MB memory
  • Video Card Supporting 1024x1024 Textures (Virtually any after 1996)
  • 1GB of Disk Space (Variable)

Depending on the system, FYM can run 3-figure FPS rates.

[edit] Features

FYM has many features and realistic options, but players can choose how prototypically they run their yards.

[edit] Trackage

All trackage in FYM is modelled on real-life track, and is often nearly completely accurate to the real life model. Routes between maps are also realistically mapped. Railroads, locations and industries are all labelled correctly, along with trackage rights should they be applicable. This is all handled by a skilled mapping team.

[edit] Locomotives

There is a wide variety of power available to FYM players, from SW1200s to AC6000CWs. Each loco has individual horsepower, length and weight values. Also, there is a wide selection of real liveries that can be painted, or a player may use custom livery to put on a loco. Locos need regular fuelling, washing should they become dirty, and servicing should they become damaged. Locos can also be "In Tow" - attached to a train but not providing power.

[edit] Cars

FYM has 23 types of car to choose from. Ranging from normal cars such as covered/open hoppers, boxcars and tank cars to intermodal cars, autoracks and roadrailers, FYM provides a wide variety for players. Roadrailers and Intermodal cars both have special loading methods, IM cars requiring cranes and roadrailers needing bogies to carry the trailers. Cars must be delivered to the correct spurs for loading/unloading, and sent out on trains to other destinations.

[edit] Yard Operations

FYM is based around yard operations. Players must send cars to local industries, which include ports, coal mines, power plants and steel mills, then string them together to form trains. Cars must be coupled at 20mph or less, to avoid car damage. Should this happen, cars can be repaired. The largest yards are generally hump yards, and there is an integrated "autohump" to allow cars to be sorted quickly as the player wishes. Transfers are commonplace between real railroads, with Chicago, Kansas City, Memphis and New Orleans being the major transfer points - as in real life.

[edit] Routings

Trains generally follow real-life routings, along with real symbols. The major Class 1 carriers (UP, BNSF, NS, CSXT, CPR, CN and KCS) are all included, along with many shortline railroads. Realistic routes are used as well. Where symbols are not available, each yard has a symbol assigned to it (based upon the BNSF system) that can be used to make stand-ins, although efforts are being made to provide accurate lists for the Class 1 railroads at least.

[edit] Hotbox Detector

FYM also includes an optional audio "hotbox detector", that will play a real-life recording upon a train entering a yard, the message changing if there are bad order cars in the train. The detector can be customised on a yard by yard, player by player basis. There are also additional sounds within FYM such as engine sounds and coupling sounds.

[edit] Intermodal Operations

FYM also includes Intermodal operations. Trains are loaded and unloaded by special Intermodal Cranes, which move at slow speeds on special intermodal loading tracks. This is very realistic, and represents the loading/unloading of containers onto these trains. Also, Roadrailers, another type of intermodal, are loaded slowly onto specially modified bogies, for transport as impromptu rail cars.

[edit] Turntables

A new feature in version 2.4 (and the public betas available at time of writing) are turntables, allowing cars and locos to be turned. This requires edits to maps already in game, and multi-map updates are providing the new features over time.

[edit] Passenger Operations

Another new feature in version 2.4 and pre-release betas is Passenger Operations. Passenger cars can now be loaded and unload en-route, and now only have their destinations changed at the end of their route. Randomly generated passenger numbers are given to each car, and these are changed each time the cear is loaded or unloaded at a station. There is also a passenger route and symbol database, which allows realistic passenger trains to be run.

[edit] Multiplayer Interaction

FYM is a first in many ways, but foremost in its multiplayer capabilities. The online community is large, yet friendly and helpful. The ability to send trains from player to player is what makes FYM more than a simple toy to a full-blown game. It is very fun to plan a train with another player, or to see the journey a train has made since you last saw it. This is programmed into FYM, in an FTP system, along with certain filters to show only trains for oneself, trains for anyone, and so forth. FYM can still, however, be played without an internet connection, once relevant files have been downloaded.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links