Line news April, 2005

• <30-Apr-05>: Some are finding it a little more difficult to locate download sites for French rolling stock and routes. The Simtrain-fr.org forum is alive and well (well, usually - web•TrainSim visits it daily, but at the time of writing, it's down). Even though Trainsimfrance.net is no longer updated, its library is still available for a wide range of French rolling stock. Funtrain.net is the source for French routes, such as Cannes - Grasse and Ligne du Morvan - Version 3, the latter having its own site for screenshots and information. Others sites that could help you out include Trainss.com, the Projets ESK download page, and the Matériels Français sur Internet page. Finally, check the web•TrainSim list of French MSTS sites.

• <28-Apr-05>: Reading through the A Lartigue Monorail (from Bodgit & Scarper Engineering)... post on the Train-sim.com forums, we could see a MSTS model of the strange (but true) The Lartigue Monorailway (the forum thread has some screenshots attached). Nick Bernard has written up a tutorial on using ThoPil's PolyMaster Version 2.10, either as HTML, pm-tut-h.zip (4Mb, 27-Apr-05), or in Word format, pm-tut-d.zip (8Mb, 27-Apr-05). Also at Train-sim.com, Tim Muir has a Pacific Electric electric freight loco, pe1615.zip (8.8Mb, 27-Apr-05).

• <27-Apr-05>: At Train-sim.com there are a pair of Conrail E8 As, cr_e8s.zip (3.5Mb, 25-Apr-05), a set of three Canadian National C-630M's and three M636's by Jan Henning Gettkant, cn_mlw6.zip (12.6Mb, 26-Apr-05), and a collection of New England boxcars, bonepk.zip (6.3Mb, 26-Apr-05). The Cabmaker has a new OBB-4023 cab and has plans for an ICE-2 night cab. Route Riter has gone to v6.2.63 to add a couple of helpful features to managing the Common Folder and Mike has written up documentation to set up a Common Shapes/Textures for MSTS. Ottodad has added some loops to Wupper 9 and they should be incorporated into an update of the route soon.

• <24-Apr-05>: Train-sim.com has a pre-dash2-series GP38 cab by Dwight Mitchell and Ken Powers, gp38comb.zip (3.2Mb, 23-Apr-05) - use View in the library list to bring up a good-sized screenshot. As well Craig Kawahara has more route maps, including ones for the Crawford Hill, Tehachapi Pass 2 and Sand Patch routes. Latest news from Tony Formosa is that Train Store is being upgraded to version 3.2 and will be available in May. Several new features have been incorporated, as requested by users, especially the use of multiple stock lists within a route, path lists in maintenace mode and integration with Paul Gausden's Shape Viewer (if installed) to view stock and consists.

• <23-Apr-05>: The Train-sim.com library has seen a number of new contributions over the past day or two. Craig Kawahara has route maps for Cajon Pass, .zip (, 23-Apr-05), and the Whitefish 4-Hawk route, .zip (, 23-Apr-05). The Chuck Zeiler-Tim Muir team have contribued two sets of Chicago Aurora & Elgin steeplecabs in 1950s and 1940s liveries, cae52t50.zip (9.4Mb, 21-Apr-05) and cae52t40.zip (10.4Mb, 21-Apr-05). Don Karch has modelled various rolling stock for the Moffat Road and Rollins Pass/Moffat Tunnel routes, including Denver & Salt Lake carriages, dsl_p1.zip (6.4Mb, 21-Apr-05), a 4-6-2 steam loco pack, dsl_l4.zip (2.8Mb, 21-Apr-05), and a 2-6-6-2 steam loco pack, dsl_l1.zip (1.3Mb, 21-Apr-05). The 1914 Jewett Motor Car for the London and Port Stanley Railway is in download lpsno2.zip (4.1Mb, 02-Oct-02).

• <21-Apr-05>: Trenomania.it has a number of new locos, including E646.158 livrea storica (7.67Mb, 20-Apr-05), E636-384 vecchia livrea (5.88Mb, 20-Apr-05), E636-077 livrea XMPR (6.11Mb, 20-Apr-05) and E632-025 (17.6Mb, 20-Apr-05). At Train-sim.com Carl Dupree has contributed a set of schematic maps for the Whitefish_6 route, wf6maps1.zip (1.8Mb, 19-Apr-05). Mike Simpson has updated Route Riter to version 6.2.60 so that it now checks the Common Textures folder for files already there before copying over new files. The Simtrain-fr.org forum (Superbe ligne MAV dispo) has a post to announce the Hungarian Railways (MAV) Z-Line route. Unfortunately the route hasn't been optimised for download (it's 740Mb) but there are screenshots and more information about the route at the Z-Line site.

• <20-Apr-05>: At Train-sim.com there's the L&PS (London and Port Stanley) Bathurst St. Yard interurban route, lpsm-v4.zip (24Mb, 19-Apr-05), which caught web•TrainSim's attention. This small electrified interurban line is situated in London, Ontario, and its author has put a great deal of work into documenting the route at his site, The London and Port Stanley Railway Route homepage. You'll need UK Finescale installed and there's more info in the L&PS post in the Train-sim forums. UKTrainsim has two cabs by Kenji Kimura, one for the Class 390, 390cabV2.zip (2Mb, 19-Apr-05), and the other for the Adelante Class 180 DMU, 180cabV1.zip (2.1Mb, 17-Apr-05). The Class 390 is much better known in the U.K. as the Pendolino, now running at 125mph on the West Coast Route. Also, there is a working timetable for the Settle & Carlisle in two files, PART ONE.Settle & Carlisle Working Timetable 3rd May 1971 to 30 April 1972.zip (14.8Mb, 19-Apr-05) and PART TWO.Settle & Carlisle Working Timetable 3rd May 1971 to 30 April 1972.zip (16.7Mb, 19-Apr-05). Those who wish to experiment with Route Riter's new Common Folder/Route textures and shapes feature can download the latest upgrade, version 6.2.59, from Route Riter's page at Steam4Me but you should read through the threads at both Train-sim.com and UKTrainsim: A Common Folder for all your Shapes/Textures etc. and Alias default textures?? (third page) respectively.

• <18-Apr-05>: The-Train.de has sixty-five yard schematics as JPG files by XRunner, Gleisplaene Wupper-Express 9, Gleisplaene_Wupper-Express_9.zip (1.7Mb, 18-Apr-05), the RB Krefeld-Moenchengladbach activity for Wupper Express 9 by Speedy (400kb, 18-Apr-05) and a set of three DB BR141 locos in three different liveries, QD_DB141_beta09 QD_DB141_beta09.exe (5.2Mb, 17-Apr-05). Amicitreni.net has loco FS E636-384 by Mauro Ciociola, FS_E636_384.zip (6Mb, 17-Apr-05). A quick browse of Mr Rokko's site is always worthwhile and version 3 of his FS E402B electric loco (including cab and sounds) looks good. Mike Simpson is always looking at new ideas and his latest is to make use of XP's NTFS file system to implement a Common Folder for all your Shapes/Textures etc., the discussion having started on the UKTrainsim forums. Mike has a trial version of Route Riter, RR6258up.zip, available on his home page (take all the usual precautions, such as backing up the route, if you're going to try it).

• <17-Apr-05>: A quiet day but there are two downloads at Train-sim.com which may be of interest: for New Zealand trainsimmers, English Electric NZGR DE loco, nzr_dev1.zip (3.9Mb, 16-Apr-05), and two Canadian National Dash 9-44CW locos, hrd9s_3.zip (13.7Mb, 16-Apr-05).

• <15-Apr-05>: The-Train.de has a new version of the Metropolitan trainset by Ingo Wittenberg and team, including BR101 and sounds, (9.1Mb, 15-Apr-05) and a small update is available at Ingo's site. Amicitreni.net has two new locos, FS E645-101, FS_E645_101.zip (6.8Mb, 13-Apr-05), and FS E636-036, FS_E636_036.zip (5.6Mb, 13-Apr-05). Both these FS locos are also available from the Trenomania.it library.

• <13-Apr-05>: Just a couple of snippets. At Train-sim.com Dick Cowen has an upgrade for his Canton Railroad F7s, ctn-f7ug.zip (5.3Mb, 11-Apr-05), and the pack now includes a B-unit, and Matt Doti has a set of Santa Fe zebra-striped SD24s, atsfzs24.zip (5.6Mb, 12-Apr-05). At Amicitreni.net MrRokko has a set of "old" E636 locos, FS E636 Old Pack, FS_E636_old_pack.zip (10.1Mb, 12-Apr-05).

U79 has people! Handelszentrum stop.

• <11-Apr-05>: A quieter day so that will give you some time to try Haraldh Fahlberg's activity for Wupper 9, WE9 Passenger Activity, we9_pact.zip (25kb, 10-Apr-05), driving an ICE3 from Monchengladbach via Krefeld (the new section added to WE9) to Duisberg, then to Hagen, back to Dusseldorf then south to Cologne. Over at Trenomania.it, Mr.Rokko and team have two new E636 locos, E636.038 ed E636.164 (18.5Mb). web•TrainSim has had a chance to try a couple of activities on Stadtbahn U79 so if you want to have a look at the new LTU Arena, do a run with the Laenderspiel Teil 1 and 2 activities.

• <10-Apr-05>: Train-sim.com has a set of Canadian Pacific locos - SD9043, GP9u and GP9RM - contributed by Wil Richardson, sigloco1.zip (10Mb, 09-Apr-05). web•TrainSim has installed Wupper 9 and Stadtbahn U79 and will have a look around U79 using the activities that came with the route and think about some of his own. Hint: If you're running MS Antispyware, as soon as you double-click the Installme.bat for Wupper Express 9 and/or Stadtbahn U79, an alert will pop up and you can allow the batch file to run. However, Installme.bat won't carry out any of its copy functions - you'll notice zero files being copied if you read quickly enought! A second double-click on Installme.bat will see everything carried out properly.

• <09-Apr-05>: XTracks version 3.14 has been released to solve some visual problems with version 3.13 on certain routes. The automatic installer version, xtracks.zip (9.5Mb, 08-Apr-05), is at Train-sim.com. Also of note is Ted Curphey's Ultimate Railbox Set, railbox1.zip (2.2Mb, 08-Apr-05), consisting of ten TTX/Railbox cars over thirty years and an update to Chris Bogley's What Runs Where, wrw31.zip (3kb, 08-Apr-05). XTracks version 3.14 is also available from the UKTrainsim library. Amicitreni.Net has another E646 repaint, FS E636-117, FS_E636_117.rar (9.2Mb, 09-Apr-05), by Gaetano Vella.

• <08-Apr-05>: Amicitreni.Net has a new class 646 loco, FS E646-158, FS_E646_158.rar (7.7Mb, 07-Apr-05), a repaint by Alessandro Galimi & Angel Shark, and there are some new FS UIC-X68-70 carriages, FS_UIC-X68-70_V2.zip (8.1Mb, 07-Apr-05), and a patch for the FS 1968 UIC-X V2 set, FS_1968_UIC_X_V2Patch.zip (2.6Mb, 07-Apr-05). web•TrainSim is keeping an eye on the Cabmaker's site for progress on his ICE3 cab which will fit in nicely with the ICE3 on Wupper 9. If you're new to the Wupper Express, after you've settled in you might like to spend some time on tuning up a couple of the locos and adding some real sound to the carriages - see Small Fixes 16 and Small Fixes 17 for some ideas and how to go about it.

• <07-Apr-05>: Train-sim.com has Heiko Mueller's set of German Railways Class 218 diesel locos, 218_pack.zip (23.5Mb, 06-Apr-05), in different historic liveries. As well, there's Jeff Bergner's RandomRoute, now updated to version 2.5, rroute25.zip (1.9Mb, 06-Apr-05). At UKTrainsim Kenji Kimura has contributed another of his fine works, a cab for the UK Class 43 HST, HSTcabV2.zip (2.6Mb, 06-Apr-05); take a minute to view this screenshot.

• <06-Apr-05>: The Train-sim.com library has the Stinky Creek and Cheesman Pacific fictional route in seven files, the first being sccp.zip (9.3Mb, 05-Apr-05), and others in the set of spanned files start at sccp.z01 (15Mb, 05-Apr-05). There are several packs of rolling stock, including Stinky Creek & Cheesman Pacific 4-4-0 steam loco, sc_set01.zip (7.7Mb, 05-Apr-05), and Stinky Creek Extras, sc_extra.zip (1.6Mb, 05-Apr-05), has consists and gravel roads folders. The other download of note is Ron Pertuit's Union Pacific 4-12-2 No. 9000 steam loco, up9000.zip (9.8Mb, 05-Apr-05). For more info on this unique loco, a couple of sites are the Union Pacific 9000 page and Fil's Artificial Railway Track And Rolling Stock Environment. The Microsoft Train Simulator Train-sim forum has a new URL, forums.flightsim.com/ts/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=3&page=. The-Train.de has a couple of new activities, Duisburg-Duesseldorf (U79 v2) and RB22325 (WE9). This week's WinXPNews newsletter mentions a (very much-) revised version of the MS Paint program, Paint.NET - it's free, only available for 2000/XP unfortunately (you may have to get the latest build of the .NET Framework, another 23Mb or so, to install it), and to get a feel for its capabilities, see the this tutorial page.

• <05-Apr-05>: There's a map of the Burton-Derby route at UKTrainsim, as well an activity pack, B,D&D (Burton, Derby and District) Activity Pack, BDD_Activity_Pack.zip (370kb, 04-Apr-05). The Train-sim.com library has another of Peter Fischer's V/Line N class diesel-electrics, the City of Warrnambool. No. 466, vlp_n466.zip (8.6Mb, 04-Apr-05), (which coincidentally, web•TrainSim may have seen yesterday, if his memory is correct, when picking up someone at the local station). Mike Simpson has a small update to Route Riter to version 6.2.56 to improve the display of the route name in the Activate/Deactivate feature and he's also got solutions to common errors experienced after installing or upgrading - they're down at bottom of the Route Riter download page (at Steam4Me).

• <04-Apr-05>: UKTrainsim has a new route, the Burton-Derby, set in the 1950 to 1965 period, the first file of seven being bd1_1.zip (16.7Mb, 02-Apr-05) and the other six files being of about the same download size. For more info, see the Burton Derby Route post in the UKTrainsim forums. The (former) Northern Germany site (one of the sites from where loco AR-DB101030 for Wupper 9 can be downloaded) is back on air at www.tsm-factory.de (TSM-Factory).

• <03-Apr-05>: Version 2 of the Graphics15 team's metro tram route, Stadtbahn U79, is now available from The-Train.de's download area (English). Route files are U79-2-1.zip (21.2Mb, 03-Apr-05), U79-2-2.zip (21.2Mb, 03-Apr-05), and the trams and activities can be found under the heading of Stadtbahn U79 v2 Aufgaben/Trams in file U79TRAMS.zip (26.1Mb, 03-Apr-05). There's also a small update to fix an SD file and new ENGine files for the V60 diesel locos in UpdateWE9TRA.zip (46kb, 03-Apr-05) under the heading Update Rollmaterial WE8-->WE9 at The-Train.de's download area (English). web•TrainSim hasn't had time to install either Wupper 9 or U79 as yet - and probably won't for a couple of days after a quick check of his to-do list - but will probably start with U79 and slowly work away at re-doing his Wupper 8 paths for Wupper 9 (there are about 150!). You can browse Intro to Wupper 9 and Intro to U79 activities for maps (including locations of Bayer complexes) and timetables for Wupper 9 and U79, and rolling stock for Wupper 9. Peter Cunningham has worked with the Raildriver desktop control team to produce enhanced Raildriver files with accompanying re-vamped ENGine files for a large number of locos and trainsets that were not previously supported. Use this reference document to match a particular ENG file to the appropriate Raildriver RDF file and the New CabMaker settings.pdf shows the function of various controls.

• <02-Apr-05>: Wupper Express 9 is now available from The-Train.de. Using the German headings in The-Train.de's download area (English), the route itself is in files Wupper Express 9 Teil 1 (24.8Mb) and Wupper Express 9 Teil 2 (26.9Mb), rolling stock is under Wupper Express 9 Zuege, we9TRA.zip (11.5Mb), and activities under Wupper Express9 Aufgaben, WE9ACTS.zip (2.8Mb). If you've made changes to your rolling stock in Wupper 8, as web•TrainSim has, then some care will be needed to not lose these changes by overwriting ENG and WAG files - more later when web•TrainSim gets a chance to download and check out what's in the zip (all the files are dated 2004 so they all appear to be the same as distributed for Wupper 8). One piece of rolling stock required over and above what's in the Wupper 9 rolling stock download is MadMike's DB 151 electric loco - it's in the electric locos section (Germany, Baureihe_151) of the The-Train.de download area as file E151B_20.zip (2.734Mb, 02-Nov-03) with heading DB E151 blue-beige 2.0. You can use MadMike's cab or Blackman's (download from www.bw-alpha-manfred.de) and you can download Werner Spieker's sound set E-Lok Sound fuer MMs E151 V2.0, E151.zip, (1.331Mb, 02-Nov-03), from The-Train.de.

• <01-Apr-05>: Simtrain-fr is alive again at simtrain-fr.net (even though they're still calling themselves simtrain-fr.org) for downloads of French rolling stock and the MSTS forum at simtrain-fr.nuxit.net/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1. The Train-sim.com library has Chris Bogley's latest version of his What Runs Where MSTS route information map for the U.S., wrw3.zip (307kb, 31-Mar-05), and Jan Henning Gettkant has a set of Reading ALCO Centuryies, rdg_alco.zip (12.6Mb, 30-Mar-05). Over at UKTrainsim there's a cab for the Class 170 DMU, 170cabV1.zip (2.9Mb, 31-Mar-05).

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• Email me at info@webDotTrainsim.com if you have questions or comments. I'll try to answer as best I can. Certainly post me if any step-by-step instructions on various how-to pages need clarification.