pacific surfliner route - Train simulation software - Trains.com

Pacific Surfliner was a payware route product, so it was and probably will never be at train-sim. It is no longer available anywhere. It was developed by Facing Point Media, but the trainsets were made by 3DTrains. Facing Point allowed people to pre-order the route, but then because of delays, it was several years after the expected release date. Later when it was finally done, some people never got the route at all, or a refund. Also the owner of Facing Point did not pay 3DTrains completely for the rolling stock, so they ordered Facing Point to send all copies of the route to 3DTrains, which probably did not happen, and took over ownership of the route. Soon after Facing Point went out of business and now their website is gone too. That was about 2 years ago. The Trainsets (but not the route) have been released again by 3dtrains.com, for about the price of the original route. The Surfliners are very detailed. So there's no way to get a copy of that route anymore, unless 3DTrains eventually releases it.

To sort out a few inaccuracies stated above....

I am one of the developers of the Pacific Surfliner route developed by Facing Point Media and 3DTrains. So, I just happen to know the 'real deal' when false information is spread around on forums and what-not.

1 - The route was not several years late. It was about 7 or 8 months late...I can't remember our original release date, but it was moved back more than once due to problems with developing the route. The MSTS community's reaction to these delays were what led to the route being released in an unfinished state.

2 - 3DTrains ONLY has rights to content developed FOR the Pacific Surfliner route, not the entire route. This includes the Surfliner trainsets, Coaster trainsets, Metrolink trainsets, some freight equipment, several key structures along the route, and the ScaleRail system debuted with the route. Every thing else belongs to Facing Point Media, even to this day....not 3DTrains. If Facing Point Media were to replace all of the above mentioned content they could do with the route as they wish.

3 - The relationship between Facing Point Media and 3DTrains, and several other contracted developers, was broken because the terms of the contract were not met. 3DTrains did not receive the moneys owed for services rendered. We were also quite disappointed with the approach Facing Point Media was taking in regard to customer service. The owner of the company, Andrew Held, hired PR reps to handle the customer service when things turned bad and all but disappeared from public view. Not only did he leave the community out to hang, his PR reps were left taking the heat when even they did not know what was going on. For this reason 3DTrains sent Facing Point Media a Cease and Desist notification warning that no other copies of the route were to be sold if it included content created by 3DTrains. Facing Point Media quickly closed up shop after this (pulled their website), though, they had been taking orders for the Pacific Surfliner Route, and Pacific Surfliner DVD, for quite some time before this without delivering the product to those who bought them. Some sympathetic individuals then stepped in to try and help, which brings me to point 4.

4 - When customers did not get their Pacific Surfliner route and DVD some of the beta testers, and forum members, decided to try and help out by burning copies of the route and sending it to those who they thought might have a legit complaint about not getting what they paid for. By this time 3DTrains was no longer involved in the sales end of the project (we didn't get order confirmations any longer) so we could not verify if someone who came on the forum complaining about no goods delivered was actually a customer or not. Therefore, we asked that this sharing be stopped, because our content was included with the add-on, and that the people saying they were shorted have their credit card company credit them back the cost of the add-on, along with reporting FPM to the BBB. To this day we do not condone the copying and distribution of the Pacific Surfliner route as we deem it illegal.

5 - The trainsets we have re-released on the 3DTrains website are not the same price that the route was sold for. After shipping and handling, if people missed out on the preorder, the cost of the route was about $40. We are now selling the Surfliner trainsets for $20 ($15 at this moment in time because of a Holiday Special). As a bonus you get the Metrolink trainsets, and access to additional files we make available in the future, including the long-awaited Metrolink Cabcar cab. While we weren't sure how this would pan out in the community we have been well supported by our loyal customers in doing this. Many repurchased the trainsets, or purchased them new even though they didn't get the route originally, just to help us recoup what was lost to us when we were not paid for our original efforts by Facing Point Media.

Lastly, a note on the recent rash of piracy going on in the MSTS community. If you see the add-on for sale on eBay it will 99% of the time be an illegally pirated copy someone has burned to try and make a buck on something that is in demand in the MSTS community. However, the majority of the piracy going is done over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, or friends just sending the install exe to friends. I have caught MANY people doing this, and they seem to think it is alright. All it has done is to ensure that our next generation of products for future simulators will be anti-piratable, meaning you won't be able to send any of our files from your computer to a friend's and expect it to work. We are working within the payware community to implement this all around so that ALL companies can benefit from knowing that their products are safe. The piracy went unchecked for too long and will soon be a thing of the past, if you want the latest and greatest. I'm sure some of the more proficient pirateers out there will figure a way around it, but we're sure the pirating of payware products will drop to an 'acceptable' level.