Not a good sim by a LONG way. I'm a huge railway sim fan and have to say I was incredibly unimpressed with this one. I would be really hard pressed to find even one redeeming feature of this game.
Controls are awkward and really unrealistic and as was said before you always need to move your viewpoint to make adjustments which leads to accidents and resets (which take ages!). Sounds are repetative and personally I found them to really bland. Graphics are ok at best, framerates are miniscule on anything below a 512MB graphics card and only look acceptable on the highest settings. Gameplay is dull, scenarios are very limited and trying to make them better with the editor requires a degree in quantum physics.
Just be very wary before shelling out on this one (even at $29.95) because you will probably feel a tad ripped off. Just be glad you didn't cough up $79.95 like I stupidly did!
Auran Trainz (ultimate collection) is a much much better buy and should cost around the same. It has a much larger community and masses of freeware (& payware) addons if you really get into. it