Line news June, 2005

• <29-Jun-05>: A new loco is available for Australian trainsimmers from Australian Add-ons for MSTS, the Victorian L class electric, AU_vicL_MSTS1_Setup.exe (19.7Mb, 28-Jun-05), in twenty-three different liveries and bodies (designed by Geoff Forrest, textures by Richard Lauder). Mike Simpson has upgraded Route Riter to version 6.2.74 to include some new features such as being able to fix cabview files, list the stock in a consist or consists, and a zero error terrain bias MSTS file utility. Amicitreni.net has the Cab Pilota MDVC-TE Revamp V2 by Mauro Ciociola, CabPilotaMDVC-TE_Revamp_V2.zip (4.2Mb, 27-Jun-05), and Trenomania.it has the treno merci light with E645 104 by Fabrizio Mungai and the Carrozza notte Excelsior carriages. Bob Boudoin (plainsman) has made a strong point on the Train-sim.com forums regarding modellers who don't credit other peoples' work and the fact that after all these years, fundamental errors in ENGine and WAGon files can no longer be tolerated, especially in the light of all the work Bob has put into fixing basic errors and bringing MSTS to such a realistic level of operation with his numerous physics updates.

• <26-Jun-05>: Pascal Grando has completed another of his fine French Railways steam locos, 140C SNCF ex-Est et Ouest de 1919 avec tender 18C in SNCF livery with cab (7.8Mb, 20-Jun-05). It's available from the RailAtelier download page and for some screenshots, see the la 140 C est disponible post on the Simtrain-fr forums. Florian Tarel's La ligne de Tramway No. 2 de la RATP (download page link) route is available, TramT2_V1.0.exe (111.6Mb). The Citadis 302 RATP ligne T2 tram, Citadis_302_T2_RATP_BETA.exe (6.19Mb, 24-Jun-05), can be downloaded from the Citadis 302 RATP tram page, Citadis_302_T2_RATP_BETA.exe (6.19Mb, 24-Jun-05). For links to some activities and other required rolling stock, see the T2 dispo !!!! post on the Simtrain-fr forums.

• <25-Jun-05>: Canadian Pacific Railway is making available some MSTS downloads from its dedicated MSTS downloads page to celebrate fifty years of the Canadian Streamliner: 1955 Canadian Streamliner (33.8Mb), CPR 2816 Empress loco (25.5Mb) and Royal Canadian Pacific carriages (5.4Mb). Harold Clitheroe, an employee of CPR, is co-ordinating the CPR MSTS rolling stock and he has contributed several models to the Train-sim.com library over the years. And keeping with Canadian railways, it's timely that Hugh Reilly has contributed another set of Canadian National SD60Fs, hrsd60f2.zip (16.5Mb, 24-Jun-05).

• <23-Jun-05>: Trenomania.it has two new cabs by Mauro Ciociola, Cabina per pilota MDVC TE V.2 (4.2Mb, 22-Jun-05) and Cabina per ETR460 (4.1Mb, 22-Jun-05). UKTrainsim has news that Electronic Arts Announces Kuju Entertainment Partnership for a new train simulator, Rail Simulator, planned for European release in 2006. Commentary and discussion can be found on the UKTrainsim Kuju Rail Simulator forum.

• <22-Jun-05>: UKTrainsim has PaulMitchell's BR Standard Class 7 4-6-2 70000 Britannia steam loco, Britannia.zip (2.27Mb, 21-Jun-05) and two short video clips of arrivals and departures at Clapham Junction from Lee Scott. Train-sim.com has some driveable trucks and buses from Pierre Forsberg: lastb1.zip (513kb, 21-Jun-05), bussar1.zip (1Mb, 21-Jun-05) and bussar2.zip (340kb, 21-Jun-05). The Cabmaker's next project is underway, a cab for OBB 1822 locos. In the Une tres grande nouvelle post on the Simtrain-fr forums, you can read about release of a CC6500 loco collection by Simware.

• <20-Jun-05>: There are some new locos at Trenomania.it, including E636 300 (7.35Mb, 19-Jun-05), E444 056 and E444 082 (3.46Mb, 19-Jun-05), E633 205 (8.28Mb, 19-Jun-05) and diesel D445 1100 (8.28Mb, 19-Jun-05). As well, there's Mr. Rokko's Regionale completo trainset (19.1Mb, 19-Jun-05) and the D445 cab can be downloaded separately (4.65Mb, 19-Jun-05). Bob Boudoin has provided a mini-tutorial on why we need to check ENGine files so we get MSTS to behave as closely as possible to the reality in his post on the GN U25B .eng file.

• <19-Jun-05>: Michael Sinclair has re-submitted all his trees to the Train-sim.com library with updates for all weather seasons. If you want to use them then see the discussion in the Influx of new MSTS Trees... thread on the Train-sim.com forums. A new route, La Vallée de la Meuse version 2, can be downloaded from Funtrain.net (3 files, each about 45Mb) and there's more info on the Simtrain-fr forum.

• <17-Jun-05>: While browsing, web•TrainSim came back to a site he'd found ages ago, Operator Manuals at the Fallen Flag Railroad site. A quick skim of some of the manuals, such as that for the F40 (link opens PDF document; couldn't find mention of earplugs for the driver) and dynamic brake operation on the GP40, now make much more sense than the early days of MSTS.

• <15-Jun-05>: The Train-sim.com library library has Tony Formoso's Train Store version 3.2 in file, trnstr32.zip (4.9Mb, 14-Jun-05), along with various language packs as separate downloads. In the Train Store V3.2 Release thread on the Train-sim.com forums, Tony mentions a useful feature whereby ConBuilder can be called up to edit a consist, whether the particular consist is stored or unstored, by right-clicking on the consist name in any of the Maintenance Mode list editors.

• <14-Jun-05>: Train Store version 3.2 is available from the UKTrainsim library, TRNSTR32.zip (4.9Mb, 13-Jun-05), along with language packs for Czech, German, Dutch, Polish, and Spanish, and will be available shortly from the Train-sim.com library. To catch up with the new features in Train Store V3.2, see Tony's post on the UKTrainsim forums or over at the Train-sim.com forums. The Daleks on the SVR! activity is also in the UKTrainsim library and Bob Boudoin's V4.8 AC physics is now in the Train-sim.com library as download v48ac.zip (37kb, 13-Jun-05).

• <13-Jun-05>: François Gerard is working on version 3 of his Paris Rive Gauche route. Also see his post on the Simtrain-fr forums. Bob Boudoin (plainsman) is testing version 4.8 physics for AC locos such as CW44AC, SD70Mac, GEVO, and SD70ACe models. Paul Watson continues to contribute Canadian rolling stock to the Train-sim.com library: Canadian National E9A Nos. 102 & 103, cne9a.zip (1.4Mb, 12-Jun-05), and Ontario Northland SD40-2 No. 1730, onr1730.zip (1.4Mb, 12-Jun-05), are two of his latest. Murray Tremellen has an activity, Daleks on the SVR!, for those with the Severn Valley Railway route; you can download it from his Misbourne Valley Train Sim activities download page.

• <11-Jun-05>: At Train-sim.com Jan Henning Gettkant will keep ALCO fans happy with his Conrail ALCO Century set consisting of seventeen locos, cr_cent.zip (47Mb, 10-Jun-05). More info about Jan's creations can be found at his site. Michael Sinclair has updated his trees with winter snow and has more on the way.

• <10-Jun-05>: The Graphics15 team have announced their considering Stadtbahn U79 version 3 which will include an extension of route 903 north of Duisberg. The Trenomania.it library has Carlo Santucci's sounds for the ALn663 trainset in two parts (4.1Mb each). UKTrainsim now has three of Making Tracks Free Stock Friday Download trainsets: Class 450 South West Trains Desiro, BR Eastern Region Class 313 EMU and Class 220 Springfield Voyager. And web•TrainSim has just heard some rain on the roof!

• <09-Jun-05>: Salvatore Valese has contributed his multi-voltage FS ETR 460P trainset, Fs-Etr460p.exe (12.5Mb, 09-Jun-05), to the Amicitreni.net library. The cab by Mauro Ciociola is included but if you want it separately, it's in download CabETR460.zip (4.1Mb, 09-Jun-05). There's a set of CFL (Luxembourg Railways) new class 4000 locos at The-Train.de, CFL 4000 Set (3.4Mb, 07-Jun-05).

• <08-Jun-05>: Paul Gausden (Decapod) had some time to fill in so he's come up with Who?, who.zip (2.4Mb, 07-Jun-05), for the Doctor Who fans at UKTrainSim.com. For more info and a screenshot, see the Dr Who's afraid of the big... thread. UKTrainSim.com also has a Class150/1 DMU cab, 150cabV1.zip (2Mb, 05-Jun-05), and Michael Sinclair's trees. On Making Tracks Free Stock Friday Download page, there's their Class 450 SWT Outer Suburban Desiro Unit in beta version (4.23Mb). Three days of exam supervision is over. Everybody in the local area, especially our farmers, are eagerly awaiting the possibility of an inch or so of rain over the next few days (our last big fall was early February and this type of dry spell has been unprecendented). You can get the forecast for web•TrainSim's local area here.

• <05-Jun-05>: At Train-sim.com Hugh Reilly has contributed another pack of locos, this set being four Canadian National SD60Fs, hrsd60f1.zip (20Mb, 04-Jun-05), repainted from Maple Leaf Track's freeware Canadian National SD60F, and Bernard Grant has added a set of three Copper River & Northwestern Railway (Alaska) 2-8-2 steam locos, crnw2822.zip (3.6Mb, 04-Jun-05).

• <03-Jun-05>: Just a snippet of news that Amicitreni.net has Raffaele Fiore's set of FS UIC-X 78/80 carriages with interior views in three files: Uic-X_78-80_Vol.1.exe (34.8Mb, 02-Jun-05), Uic-X_78-80_Vol.2.exe (24.9Mb, 02-Jun-05) and Uic-X_78-80_Vol.3.exe (29.7Mb, 02-Jun-05). At Train-sim.com Ed Bigge has contributed a set of New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) CMX flat wagons with LCL containers, au_cmx.zip (930kb, 01-Jun-05), used in the later 1950's up to the days of containerisation.

• <01-Jun-05>: Amicitreni.net has Mauro Ciociola's FS D445 1100 diesel loco, FS_D445_1100.zip (8.3Mb, 30-Mar-05), and Riccardo Gennari's FS SAADKMS XMPR Pack, FS_Saadkms_xmpr_Pack.zip (12.7Mb, 30-May-05). Trenomania.it has the ETR253 Arlecchino trainset (6.2Mb, 31-May-05). Over at Train-sim.com Ted Curphey has his Westbound Z activity on Marias Pass 3.1, wbz1.zip (96kb, 31-May-05), and his new FRED for freight wagons, ff_fred.zip (554kb, 31-May-05). As well, G. Kenson has a cab fix for his MBTA Red Line subway set, redfix.zip (130kb, 31-May-05), and Bob Pickering has a modern day excursion activity for the Durango and Silverton route, dsng.zip (320kb, 31-May-05).

About | Contact

• 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.