Developing Rail businesses in SL

Hello!
I am planning a major station / rail yards / rail museum / rail mall / train company in Calleta.
I am seeking help with how to promote this facility to the whole of SL.
I have a rail-based business in RL.
Is there a mentor who could assist?
Interest in rail / trains etc would be much appreciated.

Hello possible mentors,

To anyone who has looked at my post and decided not to volunteer - can I ask why? Rail / train enthusiasm is not required! But I would really appreciate input from an SL PR / marketing guru who may see the possibilities.

Background to our RL businesses at www.trainchartering.com, www.soundwaveexpress.com & www.privaterailcars.net.

Soundwave Express shows what could be achieved with a branded & themed Train.

Train Chartering may offer ideas for private hire of party wagons for instance, and how amazing / romantic is the idea of a private rail car with an outside deck on the back of a scheduled Train!

Ideas welcomed!

I just found your post. I'd like to work with you to promote your rail project in Sl and beyond.

I do videos and have some ideas about how we could work together on videos.

I have a website with a section called Thinkerer's Travels. I will look around your build and get some pix for posting.

Calleta has other rail features, so we might work together to publicize them all.

I hope you can Skype so we can actually talk.
TM

I've been whopping busy but my latest major push is getting the 19th century Caledon National Rail fully operational.

Tracks are in 11 sims, split into the Victoria, Caledon On Sea, Cay, and Mayfair lines. With perhaps some special surprises to come.

The code, textures, sounds, shape and everything else about the trains is open-source, in hopes that I'll get improvements from other folk over time.

I'm not much for mentoring, but there is a lot of interest in rail out there. And rails we have, not just textures on the ground!

Maybe someday we could all collaborate on something grand.

Thanks to Thinkerer & Desmond for their posts. We are now talking to Thinkerer about his ideas, and Desmond - please join us in the "Luxury Trains and Rail Cars" group.

I have not yet visited your facilities but will do so today. You are right - let's co-operate!

We have some really good rail talent already such as our brilliant engneer & architect Qu Qi, the owner of the long-standing Great Second Life Railway Athos Murphy and Kitto Flora, who is an accomplished developer & rail visionary.

We also need to get the attention of the Lindens - there IS a lot of interest in rail in SL, but having SLRR on baord will help. Issues such as compatitbility, open access for other Trains, rail crossing & interchange points and Linden-sponsored promotions are just some of the topics we should raise with tem. How do we get them involved (Nigel Linden seems to be a key contact?).

I wouldn't mind helping out but, I haven't had much...well...any experience building trains. Though I have done buildings, structures, wierd stuff, avatars, and some other misc. stuff.

Hello Tormented Twilight,

We are looking for freebies for passers-by that promotes rail in general and Grand Calleta / SL orient Express in particular.

Things that are orginal, attractive and clearly about rail, railroads, trains etc would be great - hats, flags, whistles, rail lamps, pull-along toy trains, ride on toy trains, or anything else that u think SL AVs would think cool / unusual but still send the message "Come and See us"!

Later we need items for The Rail Mall for purchase. We would give you free retail space for a good range of rail-raletd items in return for a % of sales.

Anyway - thanks for responding!

The biggest hinderance to things like this is that the land costs money, and there aren't that many ways to recover the costs. It's certainly something that could be developed more - there aren't that many places where you can actually have proper transport networks in Second Life, although there are a few places on the mainland, there aren't on private islands simply because most island owners simply want to maximise revenue, rather than donate land over to something 'useful'.

But, certainly if there's anything Stratics can do to promote the project, feel free to give me or Lewis Nerd a shout and we'll be happy to talk.

Broccoli

Thank you Broccoli Curry for your support!

It is true that we need to think of new ways to raise revenue other than selling tickets to ride.

Soundwave Express www.soundwaveexpress.com points to one opportunity - branded Trains for promotions, perhaps also as mobile stages for gigs and other music / theatrical events.

Private Rail Cars www.privaterailcars.net offer ideas for private charters on rail cars with open decks. High profile travelling or a moment for romantics?

The fact is that brainstorming for what to do with Trains always produces new ideas! This forum may see some appear! I hope so.

Anyway, on behalf of everyone at "Luxury Trains & Rail Cars", I welcome interest from SL media in the same way I work closely with media in RL.

By the way - I give websites not to promote them or our RL business directly but to illustrate that we have some relevant RL experience.

And I forgot The Rail Mall www.therailmall.com - another way that ral enterprises can generate an income.

Whilst we really only cover in-game stuff, certainly if you can provide either of us with information or a press release of your SL activities, we could most likely make some news from it.

Broccoli

Hi, sadly I can't take on any more groups (I'll save the long explanation) and unfortunately never get much chance to talk, even though Qu Qi has contacted me a couple of times and struck me as a very decent person. I'm typically in 2-3 IM's at once at a minimum in-world, which has eroded my ability to do much other than land business.

Once in a fit of 'get away from it all' I went to the ANWR station, and was pleasantly surprised to find what I believe to be one of his transport vessels in operation through there.


That said, I'm a HUGE fan of rail, and struggling to get the basics of Caledon's rail system up and going.

Once it's fully operational (hopefully a few weeks from now, maybe less?) I can outline what it takes to design a train for our rails, and I'm willing to have other people run trains if they like. It's a tad complicated, with prim limits, size, track curves and a few other things making for nasty requirements, but it's quite possible. I'll have to cook up a document because once I do, the trains that others make and contribute will be far better than my own.

The 'big one' is that anything that runs on Caledon's rails must be 100% full mod and open source, and free to anyone who asks for it. Caledon's own current train and rail code is available as a freebie in Central Park, Victoria City.

Thanx for the vote of confidence.

I've reworked the ferry that runs between mainlands. It's running most of the time these days. The GSLR south (ie: mainline) trolley is also running most of the time these days. (thanx Garth!) Ride it to Purple to catch the ferry.

The north GSLR line is not yet running but should be soon. I have extended the track right into Hobo's and Orhalla has been working on a station on the Infohub land there. There will be a bit of a challenge as the GSLR train will have to live on non-GSLR land for a little while, but it should be ok. The ferry lives on non-GSLR land almost all the time.

The Periwinkle Infohub is being reworked at the moment. Garnet has not had the time for it lately and has graciously allowed us to pitch in. Angel and Alex are working on a new build there. It will have all the normal Infohub stuff. Any Infohub helpcards, helpprims, etc appreciated.

We have talked about re-working the rails that we run on. there are a number of different schemes in use. I need to study Desmond's a bit more and hopefully come up with some standards that will help us interoperate better. Kitta has been leading an effort in this direction. I support it. I'd like to see the invisi-physical rail go away if we can get the stability we need without it. It's disorienting to have to step over a rail you can't see.

A few of us are working on sensor based track following scripts that are showing promise. These could run on a flat bed with a U shaped phantom rail to follow. Same prim count, but more intuitive.

Desmond: are the Caledon rails phantom? I really need to read the source.

I've not seen Garth's scripts so far. I don't know for sure how he handles map updates etc. My stuff is all shared with the GSLR group. I'm open to sharing more widely if desired. Take a look at the ferry scripts. "Patches welcome"

The Calleta terminal project that started all this is also making progress. We have a few land issues that we'd like to resolve, but there are a bunch of trains there in the yard and more are welcome! We need a notecard that links to all the interesting train and other non-commercial transportation locations all around SL.

It would be nice to have a balloon ride linking the disconnected SLRR stations. It would have to rez someplace on non-linden land if it is to be a non-linden project.

I'm still a newbie here, thanx so much to all those that have worked on these things over the past years! Cool stuff is happening.

I really wish that the Lindens would have a group that ran all the SLRR lines and such that non-lindens could be part of. Seems there are constantly objects blocking the SLRR tracks and other issues that need attention. If we had return rights I could do more fixing without linden involvement. Ditto if we had ban rights.

If any Lindens read this and are interested in chatting about _any_ transportation issues like this, please holler! I'd love to find someone interested that has power to change things. Nigel and others have been _great_ with helping, but I don't get the feeling that they can make larger changes like that.

I'll be adding a loading ramp for the ferry on both mainland terminals for example. It would be nice to have something similar in ANWR at some point. It's nice that there's a platform there now though!

Guess I got long winded, and somewhat off topic. I'm a fairly well known Open Source developer in RL. I get that way there too sometimes.

Caledon National Rail has 'real' rails, solid and stick up from the ground, but not made physical or anything. The gravel bed / ties are a prim.

The trains themselves aren't fixed to the rail, but rather are scripted nonphysical objects that move along in a manner that they mathematically mesh with the rails positionally.

I use a combination of global grid coodinates, simple messaging and simple timing - the trains don't 'pull' the cars, the cars simply know when to start and stop on their own based upon either say, a 'ten second' stop or a quickie message from the locomotive that it's time to pull away from the station now. Easy easy stuff.

Again, that's not to say that physical trains or whatnot might be the next step. This is just how they work now.

Torm Twi--- I expect to do some videos aboiut the trains. A train engineer outfit would make a reall contribution. Would be worn by someone inthe vid. You would get screen credit for costume.

You can get pictures if you Google train engineer with Google images. Of course, the outfit could be sold in the SL mall.

Broccoli -- Maybe you or someone else at Stratics would like to work with me on doing a video story about the trains. I need experienced interviewers who can Skype, capture audio, and prepare their own content.

Paddy -- Don't be embarassed about promoting your RL business in SL. That is probably the future of SL.

Anybody: For videos, I need about 3 people who can Skype together, can talk on topic, and can follow directions for the camera. I also need a story. That means it opens with a quest that is important to someone in the story. And the quest (or at least a piece of it) is resolved in less than 6 miniutes. The quest does not have to be big. Could be something like finding out why Qu Qi is working on the railroad. Could be a reporter loooking for a news story (Broccoli). Could be a Murder on the Orient Express (in several episodes).

What a great exchange of views - SL rail is going places!

I think that a conference / meeting with the Lindens & key SL railway developers would help greatly.

We did something similar in RL with a national rail authority and a number of train operating companies which helped everyone concerned run a better railway for charters, despite some initial cynicism. Now we have 6-monthly conferences and better communications all year round with people we know.

We found that the rail authority had always had intentions to pull things together in our area of interest, but had never got around to it.

I wonder if that would sound familiar to the Lindens?

Question is - again - how do we contact them? Do they monitor these forums closely?Perhaps with large posters around SL? Or with a seance??

I could be wrong, but I think Nigel Linden handles the rail.

I once asked about open-sourcing the trains on the Company owned tracks, but he said that they would likely be buying said trains from a developer and probably couldn't opensource them.

Heh, depending how far we get in Caledon, perhaps someday a generation of our trains will be better than a developer's. Not quite the case now, but could happen.

This thread piqued my interest. I can't offer any help as far as creating contetnt, but if there is some other way , I'd be glad to pitch in. I am a train enthusiast as well.

hello Brenda,
Thanks for volunteering for this growng rail community in which I am a SL-newbie!

What are your skills & inetrests in SL/RL that could be applied in some way?

As a (relative) noob i was pleasently surprized to see Railways in SL and I suspose I'm a big fan of Rail travel in SL and RL in general myself - in fact I usually use the Perwinkle Station as a hangout - (having a facelift this week - the station - not me!).
By Coincidence I had been walking all the lines I could find in SL order to test to see if any of them had working trains like the periwinkle line (as well as sightseeing!). I hadnt realised they were under construction.

there are some great variations around - the model steam train near the GNUBIE store was pretty cool.

But as an observation - I cant see people paying to travel by rail in a "universe" where they can simply fly or teleport. I think you would be better off having your stations close to commercial areas or selling sideline souvenirs etc..

Also I do think SL mainland would benefit greatly from having a proper travel infrastructure - it would benefit the social community if there was a regular way of getting places without flying or TP, ie by road or rail (or even boat).
It would contribute to building a proper interaction between users and their landscape for example. Just TPing everywhere is an experience just like surfing the web rather than "being there".

btw - I am getting the hang of the Prim building - if anyone would like a hand give us a shout when im inworld...

Pay-to-travel is likely to be a difficult way to cover expenses.

Caledon National Rail is cost-covered by the landed gentry of Caledon insofar as I always save aside some infrastructure land to enhance the sims.

One way to get rail going might be to approach some soon-to-be land barons with a vision of how to enhance their areas. It's incredible what you can do with some buffer land and just 50 prims - heh, some people have a fountain that nobody notices which is more prims than that.

More competition for me if there are other railways, I guess, but more fun too.

I agree - pay-to-travel is likely to be a difficult way to cover expenses. Certainly for straight point-to-point travel. Let's have free travel for the general SL public!

What about private use of speciallydesigned rail cars for events, parties & promotions and even static residences? There are also ex-rail cars used as diners around the world - ideal for raising rail awareness. In RL, there is a former S-Bahn carriage used as such outside a Berlin Airport terminal.

We have in RL a branded train that will be used for a launch across much of Europe later this year that has major public interest - not simply toothpaste! The train will look spectacular - not just a mobile billboard - and events will happen at en route stations.

As for stations - today we have been talking in RL to someone who is producing an event in New York's Grand Central.

We have an amazing opportunity to stage special journeys for spectacular events.

Don't worry - we would not want tasteless or unimaginative products or services on our Trains!

"Caledon National Rail is cost-covered by the landed gentry of Caledon insofar as I always save aside some infrastructure land to enhance the sims. One way to get rail going might be to approach some soon-to-be land barons with a vision of how to enhance their areas." Good ideas here!

Competition? I think that 'cooperative competition' generally increases passenger numbers through more opportunities and better offerings.

As far as SL goes, I haven't yet cultivated any particular skiils, but I am history buff and I have a fairly large store of info on railroads here in the US in particular. Ia lso dabble in photography, perhaps I will work that into SL. I've also been told I have a pretty good eye , so perhaps I can help in design, if not construction. Even if it is just contributing a few Lindens, I like the idea you have put out there.

Brenda -- if you can Skype and know a bit about train history, perhaps we could work up a video with you giving us a tour of historical points in SL.

As to getting people in SL to pay for riding, I doubt that the payoff would be worth the effort. I suggest looking into RL companies. Train related. Travel related. Especially those with world wide intersts. They might sponsor trains and events.
TM

I don't Skype. Actually I don't even know what that is.