Likes: 
I've been a fan of train simulators ever since Microsoft Train Simulator came out in 2001. My favorite one is Train Simulator 2015, made by UK developer Dovetail Games. It has a wonderful collection of routes and equipment, especially if you are into vintage British steam.
TS2015 has rather old graphics but they have enhanced the sim over the years to get decent rain, smoke and light effects. The object is to drive a locomotive and the realism is pretty good. You need a fairly powerful computer for best results.
The major competitor to TS2015 is Trainz, made by Australian software company N3V. Trainz is more of a model railroad simulator where you play with the tracks and terrain as much as the locomotives. Trainz is developing its next generation game right now that will take advantage of multicore processors and advanced graphics cards. My system qualifies so I got a discounted copy of the Trainz Beta on Steam and will receive the final release some time in May.
I have had fun with Trainz so far. I discovered a number of typical model train layouts on the Internet and have built a few already. The route editor is very powerful and I have only discovered about half the tools available. The model trains are a bit on the "cartoony" side compared to TS2015, but the sound effects and visuals are good - better than real life electric trains anyway.
If you like building model train layouts you can test them virtually in Trainz. If you are a real artist I am sure you could make some great looking routes. I just like shunting freight cars around so that's fun too.
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