

With a host server, the entire group on this email could participate in an operating session, and that host server is simply someone's computer with RUN 8 running and configured to host, and attached to the internet. In a nutshell, its most appealing characteristics are the incredibly realistic physics model, and the multi-"player" operations (single player with realistic AI trains as well). RUN 8 came to fruition because of the the owners of 3D Train Stuff's (a third party developer for MSTS) frustration of the limitations of other sim platforms, and the desire to have something much more realistic, so they set out on their own to develop RUN 8. About half of the 15 attendees were using the software. The whole group of students were professional railroaders, either from consulting firms like myself, or from the railroads proper. I've had this software and its continual evolution since late spring 2013, introduced to it by a railroad track design engineer (David Clarke) who was teaching my Track Design Standards Course my company sent me to at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. But the one that stands apart is RUN 8 from. Many may remember Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS), and its many vulnerabilities, or currently use Trainz, Open Rails, Railworks, etc. From fellow model railroad operator Rick Newton:
