Hawk & Badger Railroad Forum

Hi all, I'm Tommi from Vantaa, a place close to Helsinki, Finland.

Trains have been my long-time interest, and I'm a member of Jokioinen Museum Railroad (several narrow-track steam engines running) + a supporting member of Haapamäki Steam Park where there are dozens of old steam and diesel engines, some completely preserved and in action, some still waiting for their destiny. Many of the engines there represent excellent TR1 Mikado and HR1 Pacific series the last of which were still used around 1970. These engines were designed and built in Finland (save a small crew of Germany built TR1s). A train enthusiast's paradise to visit! :)

As for games... My all-time favorites must be the old Microsoft Train Simulator (endless entertainment) and Railroad Tycoon 3. For RRT3 I have recently made two absolutely huge maps, one of Scandinavian surroundings and another of China. They are really not "typical" RRT3 maps, since there are no time limits and not even a need to "win" anything. They are just some of the biggest, most detailed and - in a way - also most realistic maps RRT3 has ever seen. Industries are where they should be, towns and cities are of right size, etc etc. And they are VERY demanding for the computer! ;) But well... if one, like me, enjoys building a Scandinavian or Chinese railroad network over and over again, playing with different strategies, you might like these too. I intend to make them available here once I figure our how.

Hi Tommi a board!

It's great to see an additional RRT3 fan and map creator . And, of course, I just started to wait for you maps!

Welcome aboard...Helsinki...isn't that where they park the trains in the hotels? :)

nedfumpkin wrote:Welcome aboard...Helsinki...isn't that where they park the trains in the hotels? :)

Well, it seems like it's still possible to mess up a top-modern SR2 heavy electric (top speed 230+ km/h) so that some trucks can escape... Strange and serious.

aboard Tommi.

Do you have any plans of sharing those monster maps with the community?
If so let me know. I believe I can help out.

And we here in Texas greet the railroad fans from Finland! Let's all have a great time together!

to the forums! I hope we'll be able to see those maps soon.

Thanks for warm welcomes! :) The first of these giant maps, China should now be available here somewhere... Probably where the rest of Asian maps are located too. ;)

thietavu wrote:China should now be available here somewhere...

Yep! Right at the top of the page.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/rt3_asia.htm

By the way, if you happen to visit Finland, there are three places you should see (when it comes to railroads)...

One is close to Helsinki, the Finnish Railway Museum. Easily reached by a local train (what else?). This one is a good one! Lots of interesting locomotives and other things, mostly from the steam era. The oldest ones are very old - and there are several interesting locos in fully operational condition. http://www.rautatie.org/web/en/default.asp

The next one, the Jokioinen Museum Railway is a wonderful narrow gauge railway with several steam engines (+ some diesels) running in the summertime, and even later on some special dates. This railway is magical! The wonderful steam engines run through beautiful countryside, also climbing the steepest grade in Finland's national railway network. That's when these beauties *really* work! Wood-burners, of course... http://www.jokioistenmuseorautatie.fi/i ... &Itemid=74

And then there is the Haapamäki Steam Park... Unfortunately, its website http://www.veturipuisto.fi/ is only in Finnish (a shame!) and there are other things to complain about, too. But... The background: when Finland finally abandoned its steam fleet around 1970 (quite late), most of the usable engines were stored for "bad times". When, finally, some people decided that steam will no longer be needed, an interesting decision was made. Instead of scrapping everything, many of the steam engines were moved to Haapamäki station, some 300 km North from Helsinki. Then someone decided to make the area as a theme park! As result, closer to 100 steam engines were transported and stored there. Then some were restored, some even to fully working condition. Still later, when Finland's State Railways abandoned their oldest diesel units, an example of each series has been transported to Haapamäki and restored to full working condition.

Although the park could be much, much better in many ways, it is still a treasure for everyone interested in steam engines - and the people there also repair and run very interesting old diesels, too.

The pride of Finnish railways is probably HR1 "Ukko Pekka" (named by the nickname of one of Finland's presidents) - a pacific designed and built in Finland. This quite modern steam engine didn't surrender to diesels or electrics until in the early 70's. And some HR1s still run for tourists and on special occasions.

I hope you didn't get bored. Just thought that on your way to Scandinavia you might like to see things like these...