Line news January, 2005

• <31-Jan-05>: Train-sim.com has more contributions from Dwight Mitchell including a new cab for Mark Toland's 250 ton crane, 250tcab.zip (1.1Mb, 30-Jan-05), and two Maine Eastern Railroad F40PH locos, merr265.zip (1.5Mb, 30-Jan-05) and merr291.zip (1.5Mb, 30-Jan-05). UKTrainsim has a register of all routes available from its library and Amicitreni.Net has a number of new electric locos by Alessandro Sposito as well as Fabio Ferrari's FS ETR 300 Settebello trainset and an ETR300-250 cab by Mauro Ciociola.

• <30-Jan-05>: It's cab download day at Train-sim.com! Dwight Mitchell has generic cabs for GP-9r, gp9rcab.zip (1.5Mb, 29-Jan-05), GP-7r, gp7rcab.zip (1.4Mb, 29-Jan-05), and F40PH (freight, passenger, and passenger with FOB screen) f40rcab.zip (2.7Mb, 29-Jan-05), locos. Claudio Paletta has a cab for the FS Minuetto trainset, cab-minu.zip (4.4Mb, 29-Jan-05). Michael Stephan has a model of Great Northern No. 1024 4-6-0, gn_4-6-0.zip (3.3Mb, 29-Jan-05), and there's another set of activities for the Kootenai River Sub route, w4hbonr.zip (608kb, 30-Jan-05). The latest update for Route Riter is an update package (which also includes an update to TsUtils) to bring it to version 6.2.27, RRit6_2_27upd.zip (3.4Mb, 29-Jan-05).

• <29-Jan-05>: At Train-sim.com the Port City Car Company team (PCCC) has another of their detailed models, Interstate Public Service Co. No. 217 overhead line repair car, ipsc217.zip (7.3Mb, 28-Jan-05), and there's more history with the FS (Italian Railways) E626, lfie626p.rar (4.1Mb, 28-Jan-05) and Electric Trainset ETR 202, fsetr202.rar (5.7Mb, 28-Jan-05), by David Villa. Other Italian Railways rolling stock includes the present-day E464 electric loco in Trenitalia livery, fse464pk.zip (7.4Mb, 28-Jan-05). Ted Curphey has another set of flatcars, TTEX Long Runner Flatcars, ttex_f1.zip (1.4Mb, 28-Jan-05), which includes updates to his previous contributions. Obrian Jones has repackaged his Atlanta Macon route into a version for those on dialup - it's in five files, each about 25Mb, starting with nsatlpt1.zip (22Mb, 28-Jan-05).

• <28-Jan-05>: Today's highlight is Pierre Gauriat's 141 TA and 5300-5400 PO tender loco set (5.8Mb). At Train-sim.com, the Atlanta and Macon route has been re-released, nsatlant.zip (114Mb, 27-Jan-05), which solves installation problems some had with the first release. Chris Bogley has some driveable paths around the Atlanta and Macon, ns_paths.zip (14kb, 27-Jan-05), and finally, there are some Italian Railways electric locos and trainsets which are also available from Trenomania.it.

• <27-Jan-05>: Version 4 of the Coals to Newcastle route was released yesterday and can be downloaded either as a single EXE or as multiple files (note that XTtracks 3.12 and NewRoads 3.2 are required). Train-sim.com has the lastest update of Route Riter to version 6.2.26, rr6226up.zip (3.5Mb, 26-Jan-05), and the Atlanta and Macon route, nslandoc.zip (85kb, 26-Jan-05) and nsatlant.zip (59Mb, 26-Jan-05). You can see some of the Atlanta Macon route on the Georgia Rail Passenger Program page. For those who may be wondering, Edouard Staniczek's current project is a 231E (Chapelon) steam loco - no announcement yet of what he and his team will now that they've taken over Clem Tillier's TGV sets. web•TrainSim has another Wupper 8 activity for you to try, ICE Service No. 521 Dortmund to Koln (0550 departure) in which he's tried his best to get the Train Control Manager to set a favourable path but be prepared for the unexpected (How can one prepare for the unexpected? Ed.).

• <26-Jan-05>: At Train-sim.com there are another four activities for the Kootenai River Sub route, w4htroy.zip (559kb, 25-Jan-05), a right-hand cab view for the Pennsylvania & Reading Camelback steam loco, camelcab.zip (1.2Mb, 25-Jan-05), an update for the New Zealand Railways EE DF loco, nzredfix.zip (294kb, 25-Jan-05), and cabs for some Italian Railways rolling stock. There are more new locos and cabs at Trenomania.it, including a fictional repaint of an E474 model, and other repaints including E626, E633-212 and E655-260.

• <25-Jan-05>: Today at the Train-sim.com library there is a set of sounds for early GP and SD non-turbocharged locos contributed by Ron Furto, gp7snd.zip (2.1Mb, 24-Jan-05), and a set of reefers from the 1920s which carried company billboard advertising, bbreefs.zip (2Mb, 24-Jan-05). Mike Simpson has solved a couple of problems in Route Riter and the latest updates bring it to version 6.2.22. Take a couple of minutes to see what the latest is at Spoor Sim, formerly known as the Steam Simulator site.

• <24-Jan-05>: Train-sim.com has the latest update for ConBuilder, version 2.3.222 as either an update or a full install. There's also the Monon Russell-Built Snowplow 82917, mon_plow.zip (7.5Mb, 23-Jan-05), and a New Zealand Railways EE DF loco, nzredfv1.zip (2Mb, 23-Jan-05). Route Riter has been updated to version 6.2.18 to fix the Package Activity module and that means web•TrainSim's activity, Early morning freight HA-Vorhalle to Bayerwerke, can be downloaded to test your patience and eyesight (keep an eye on the signals to allow plenty of time to slow your train for yellows and reds).

• <23-Jan-05>: A quiet day so that gives you a chance to have a quick look at web•TrainSim's next Wupper 8 activity, a freight run from HA-Vorhalle to Bayerwerke. All web•TrainSim's current Wupper 8 activities are on this page.

• <22-Jan-05>: A short line news today with a mention that Route Riter has been updated to version 6.2.14 to get rid of a small bug that crept in when Mike was rushing a bit to get everything done. Being a quieter day, web•TrainSim hasn't any excuse for not re-testing his HA-Vorhalle to Bayerwerke activity on Wupper 8 (If he didn't spend so much time recovering from emergency braking situations, things would improve. Ed).

• <21-Jan-05>: Historical steam is the order of the day at Train-sim.com with Ron Pertuit's Pennsylvania & Reading Camelback No. 408, camelbak.zip (6.5Mb, 20-Jan-05), and Scott Brunner's 1899 CB&Q 2-6-2 Prairie, prar23.zip (7.2Mb, 20-Jan-05). You can read more about the Camelbacks on the Fastest Steam Locomotive page. Also at Train-sim.com are motors by Sjoerd Lafeber, L.A. Lusser and Max Calvi of the RhB Bernina Pass Route in designs from the 1910s to the present. Route Riter is at version 6.2.11 as of 21-Jan-05.

• <19-Jan-05>: At Train-sim.com Henri Patey has a set of eight activities for the Kootenai River Sub route, w4hlibby.zip (526kb, 18-Jan-05), Clayton Notgrass has more of his SD50 reskins from Dick Cowen's model such as CSX SD50 8512, csx8551.zip (4.6Mb, 18-Jan-05), and ConBuilder has been updated to version 2.3.32, the full install being in cbfull.zip (6.3Mb, 18-Jan-05) or there's the update, cbup.zip (4.2Mb, 18-Jan-05).

• <18-Jan-05>: Train-sim.com has an update for Jerry H. Sullivan's Milwaukee Road, Rocky Mtn. Div., 4th Sub route, mlwrd4ph.zip (106kb, 17-Jan-05), to fix two missing sounds; there's a pack of Penn Central ALCO Roadswitchers, pcalcors.zip (18.5Mb, 17-Jan-05); and there are three packs of Bessemer & Lake Erie SD40T-3 locos, the first being bleutah1.zip (10.1Mb, 17-Jan-05).

• <17-Jan-05>: Bruno Astorg's current project is a set of RIO 77 Rhone-Alpes carriages, including a driver trailer - there's a good screenshot on his news page. The MSTS 3D Model Making - Using Simple Freeware Programs thread at UKTrainsim may be of interest to those wondering how to get started without spending a fortune. The latest update for Route Riter, version 6.1.109, solves a couple of problems especially relevant to Windows 98 users.

• <16-Jan-05>: The QianJin steam loco by Jijun Tang and Bill Hobbs, qjsteam.zip (11.5Mb, 15-Jan-05), at Train-sim.com will be popular with steam fans. There's a site with info on China's steam locos at Steam in China - News Page. Yuri Kurowski has an activity for LGV Med 3, Sakura Falls Activity, sflgv30a.zip (177kb, 15-Jan-05), and Richard Haagsma has contributed a replacement texture for diesel smoke, dsmoke.zip (193kb, 15-Jan-05). The Australian Add-ons for MSTS site has a new URL - http://steam4me.railpage.org.au/trainsim/.

• <15-Jan-05>: The hot weather has addled web•TrainSim's grey matter so he's a day behind. Train-sim.com has Vern Moorhouse's new route, the Inlandsbanan, a Swedish route of 270 km from Gallivare to Arvidsjaur, tsukinld.zip (79Mb, 12-Jan-05), with a couple of patches, inlptch1.zip (658kb, 13-Jan-05) and inlptch2.zip (738kb, 14-Jan-05). Mark Ollard has a collection of bridges, c_uk_bdg.zip (2.6Mb, 14-Jan-05), for route builders and there's a tool, for those who may need it, to clean up registry keys after an uninstall of Shape Viewer, sfvkyrm.zip (410kb, 12-Jan-05). web•TrainSim has finally got his Morning freight BO-Langendreer to Neuss Hbf activity to a reasonable stage so it's there as a challenge and a break from passenger trains. Small Fixes for German Railways rolling stock used on Wupper 8 has been updated with some items web•TrainSim has come across and you may want to check your BR 101 locos are suitably tuned for Morning freight BO-Langendreer to Neuss Hbf.

• <13-Jan-05>: Australian Add-ons for MSTS has just this morning announced approximately ninety items (about 140Mb of downloads) of N.S.W., South Australia and Victoria (note alphabetical order!) rolling stock. The Train-sim.com library has the latest update to ConBuilder, either a full install, cbfull.zip (6.2Mb, 12-Jan-05), or just the latest files, cbup.zip (4.2Mb, 12-Jan-05). Jerry H. Sullivan has his Milwaukee Road, Rocky Mountain Division, 4th Sub route, Alberton, Montana, to Avery, Idaho, in eight files, each about 24Mb - see his readme1st.txt when you do a View in the library listing for full details of the route. The Gulf Mobile and Ohio Northern Lines route has an update to bring it to version 2, gmonl20a.zip (26Mb, 12-Jan-05) - requirements include GM&O version 1.8.

• <12-Jan-05>: Just a few lines of news. Route Riter has been updated to version 6.1.99 as of 11-Jan-05, RRit6_1_99upd.zip (3.37Mb, 11-Jan-04), so check Mike's page for the latest download (if you have V6.1.75 or later, it's a much smaller update). Trenomania.it has been updated with some new electric E464 locos.

• <11-Jan-05>: At the Train-sim.com library Steven Ross has a collection of BNSF pictures, bnsfpics.zip (10.3Mb, 10-Jan-05), current and back to BN and ATSF days; Tim Muir has a set of Northern Pacific cabooses in various guises, np24cabs.zip (5.6Mb, 10-Jan-05); and Chris Bogley has one of his guides for the just-released payware Pacific Surfliner route, surfgde.zip (6kb, 10-Jan-05). The Pacific Surfliner route has been awaited by many trainsimmers for months - here's all the info you need at FacingPoint.com and there are a couple of threads running on the Train-sim forums. For a map of Amtrak's California routes, see here. A post on these forums reminded web•TrainSim to mention Gaetan Belanger's site, especially releavant for ALCO fans.

• <10-Jan-05>: Train-sim.com has plenty of VLITREX reefers and box cars by Ghislain Van Vlierden and there are more route objects from Marcel Despont such as skyscrapers and others. Amicitreni.Net has pilot cars for the FS Intercity and UIC-Z carriage packs, as well as a cab for the Minuetto trainset. Well, web•TrainSim had better get back to fixing and updating his Wupper 8 activities...

• <09-Jan-05>: Only a snippet of news today with the release of Jerry H. Sullivan's CSX Kingsport Subdivision route in five files from the Train-sim.com libary. Bruno Astorg's current project is a set of RIO 77 carriages in Rhone-Alpes livery so they should appear soon.

• <08-Jan-05>: Train-sim.com has a five-activity pack for the Kootenai River Subdivision route, w4hstrkr.zip (699kb, 07-Jan-05), a variety of RENFE 270 and 271 electric locos, a pack of three Union Pacific GE C44-9W locos, upc449pk.zip (4.2Mb, 07-Jan-05) - you need Mapleleaf Tracks' free BNSF Dash 9 - and there are Dave Oston's EMU and DMU two tone buzzer and door sounds, emu_tt.zip (3Mb, 07-Jan-05) and dmu_tt.zip (223kb, 07-Jan-05), with sets specifically for UK Class 205-7 DEMUs and Class 158 DMUs. The latest in French rolling stock is a SNCF BB9001 1.5kV and a BB15000 in En Voyage livery.

• <07-Jan-05>: Paul Gausden's latest Shape Viewer, version 1.4.157, is also now available from the Train-sim.com library in sview14.zip (2.1Mb, 06-Jan-05). So being somewhat quiet, web•TrainSim hasn't any excuse for not getting on with re-testing his RE1 K-Nippes (Koln) to Dortmund Wupper 8 activity.

• <06-Jan-05>: Horace and his friends have been updated in Okrasa Ghia's TK_Utils package - it's in tk_utils.zip (373kb, 05-Jan-05) at Train-sim.com. While there, you'll find Shawn Becher's Zip File Tutorial, splitzip.zip (90kb, 05-Jan-05), a handy reference guide. TK_Utils is also at UKTrainSim, as well as Paul Gausden's latest version of Shape Viewer, version 1.4.157. Shape Viewer is also available from its own page at Australian Add-ons for MSTS where you can find the download as well as a table of shortcut keys. Route Riter has been updated to version 6.1.86 and looks like it should be able to cope with any of a myriad of variations in various files that it checks. Finally, Amicitreni.Net has a new FAS ALn776 pack (with cabview by Kenji Kimura), FAS_ALN776.rar (15.6Mb, 06-Jan-05).

• <05-Jan-05>: The Train-sim.com library has Okrasa Ghia's XTracks Reference Route, xroute.zip (3.1Mb, 04-Jan-05), mainly for route builders but informative for everybody, and Shawn Kelley's five hour Burlington Northern Coal Activity, bncoalcc.zip (790kb, 04-Jan-05), on the Cascades Crossing route. web•TrainSim's Evening RE13 service Monchengladbach to Hagen (Mass-Wuppertal Express) is ready for you to try but keep an eye on your signals once through Dusseldorf.

• <04-Jan-05>: Andreas Müller has the latest version of his DB 628 trainset ready for download and web•TrainSim has to re-test his ICE service Dortmund to Koln and finish doing a first run of the RE13 Monchengladbach to Hagen service.

• <03-Jan-05>: There's plenty to choose from at Train-sim.com. Firstly, for Australian trainsimmers there's another activity from Michael Cameron for the Footscray to Ballarat route, vl8113.zip (7kb, 02-Jan-05), and a suitable loco for this route is S302 in V/Line Passenger livery, vlp_s302.zip (1.4Mb, 02-Jan-05). Shawn Becher has contributed his shortline Wenatchee and Cashmere route (in four files) - there's been some rolling stock added to the library over the past few days. The Genesis Man, Robert Fontaine, is never idle and has provided a LightFx update, atveatfx.zip (34kb, 02-Jan-05), to two packs of Amtrak Genesis P42DC locos, atvep1fx.zip (37kb, 02-Jan-05) and atvep2fx.zip (37kb, 02-Jan-05). Marcel Despont has a collection of objects, such as the Georgian Bay Lighthouse, de_lt_2.zip (1.2Mb, 02-Jan-05), for route builders.

• <02-Jan-05>: A quiet day and that's given web•TrainSim a chance to complete a final run of his Midnight S1 Dortmund to Dusseldorf activity and it's now ready for you to try (there are a some yellows to cope with). web•TrainSim is now organising ICE service no. 521, Dortmund to Koln (via Essen, Duisberg and Dusseldorf) and attempting to persuade the Train Control Manager to give drivers a clear run so they can enjoy some 160 km/hr running.

• <01-Jan-05>: A safe and happy 2005 to one and all. The latest version, V2.2.9, of ConBuilder, cb229ful.zip (6.5Mb, 31-Dec-04), is available from Train-sim.com. As well, there are a couple of updates, one for J. H. Sullivan's Milwaukee Road Rocky Mountain Division route, mlwrm4fx.zip (261kb, 31-Dec-04), to fix a problem with missing textures, and the other for the BCER Electric Trolley No. 1304, b1304fix.zip (217kb, 31-Dec-04).

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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.