Line news March, 2005

• <31-Mar-05>: No line news for today.

• <30-Mar-05>: The latest version of Mike Simpson's Route Riter utility, version 6.2.55, is available from the Train-sim.com library in file rr6255.zip (10Mb, 28-Mar-05). Bill Hobbs has updated his Excel worksheet for setting up steam locos, steam101.zip (81kb, 28-Mar-05), and Chris Bogley has been out photographing BNSF 7295, bnsfh3.zip (1Mb, 28-Mar-05), to help out loco modellers or those interested in the new BNSF livery. Those wanting to simply upgrade to the latest version of Route Riter can do so from the Steam4Me Route Riter page by downloading RRit6_2_55upd.zip (1.6Mb, 28-Mar-05) and the latest help file, RRit6_2_55hlp.zip (2Mb, 28-Mar-05).

• <28-Mar-05>: Edouard Staniczek has completed his 231E Chapelon, nord231e.exe (11.4Mb, 27-Mar-05), and it's available from the Projets ESK download page. The Voitures CIWL 1932 restaurant carriage, CIWL_FR.zip (4Mb, 19-Mar-05), by Pascal Grando can be downloaded from RailAtelier. News from the Graphics15 team is that Wupper 9 is finished and undergoing final checking and Stadtbahn U79 version 2 will also be ready for April 2. More information is available from each route's section at Graphics15 including the U79 route map. At Train-sim.com, Peter Harvey has another of his detailed models, steam loco A2 Peppercorn Bronzino 60539, a2-60539.zip (3.5Mb, 27-Mar-05), and Peter Fischer has V/line N Class Locomotive No. 464, City of Geelong, vl_n464.zip (7Mb, 25-Mar-05). Also there's the BNSF/UP Route Whitefish 6, Sandpoint & Eastport route by Rene Rump, wf61.zip (31Mb, 26-Mar-05) and wf62.zip (30Mb, 26-Mar-05), which now includes updates to Stryker-Eureka, Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint and extension of the BNSF Kootenai Subdivision.

• <25-Mar-05>: Tim Muir and Chuck Zeiler have some additional rolling stock for the Downtown Trolley route: Valley Transit Lines Linecar No. 99, valt99lc.zip (6.7Mb, 24-Mar-05), McGuire-Cummings Snowsweeper No. 027, sweep027.zip (5.9Mb, 24-Mar-05), and Tower Car No. 0077, lc0077.zip (7.5Mb, 24-Mar-05). UKTrainsim.com has Tim Booth's MSTS Track Viewer utility, ukfs_tv_setup.exe (145kb, 24-Mar-05), which will be useful for route builders and for viewing a route to learn its ins and outs. Amicitreni.Net has Mauro Ciociola's Cabina E636-645, CabE636-645.zip (4.5Mb, 23-Mar-05), and you'll also find it in the Trenomania.it library along with Davide Bianco's E633 054 locomotive, (13.7Mb, 23-Mar-05). The Projets ESK 231 E (Chapelon) is getting closer to completion.

• <23-Mar-05>: The Graphics15 team has announced that Wupper 9 and Stadtbahn U79 should be available after April 2 - more info anon. Gary Ball has contributed twenty texture files to the Train-sim.com library for route builders - the files can be downloaded separately (each is about 800kb) or as a complete collection, tf-v1.zip (17Mb, 22-Mar-05). Michael Gilmore has re-textured a range of pulpwood freight wagons, both loaded and empty, in a range of company liveries (e.g., Burlington Northern Pulpwood Cars, bnpulp.zip, 780kb, 21-Mar-05). Vince Cockeram, author of NEC4, has posted on the Train-sim.com forums that he has a route Under Construction. Henri Verpiot has some screenshots of progress on his Dijon Paris route.

• <21-Mar-05>: Mike Simpson has updated Route Riter to version 6.2.53 to include an option to activate/deactivate routes for those with multi-installations of MSTS by renaming a route's track database file from foobar.trk to foobar.off (for the route named FooBar). UKTrainsim has the UK FineScale V3.1.6 full shape installer, ukfs_v3.1.6_full.exe (16.8Mb, 20-Mar-05), and while on track shapes, if you're having problems with textures after installing XTracks version 3.13, refer to the Weird texture problem after installing latest X-Tracks post on the Train-sim forum.

• <20-Mar-05>: UKTrainsim has an update for Dave Corfield's Thames Mersey route to take it from version 3.2 to version 4 (there are seven files). For more info, see Thames Mersey 4 update. At Train-sim.com Ted Curphey has contributed a generic version of the SD45-2 for re-skinners to use, gensd452.zip (831kb, 19-Mar-05). Route Riter has been updated to version 6.2.51 to include a new program interface, a bug fix for the Fix .eng feature, and improvement to the Fix SMS option.

• <18-Mar-05>: Train-sim.com has XTracks version 3.13 in its usual three guises and the standard edition setup version is in xtracks.zip (9Mb, 16-Mar-05). The Cabmaker has news that the cab for the BR 628 is finished. The Graphics15.de team have put up some screenshots of the Stadtbahn U79 version 2.0 route. A milestone has been reached for Obo's MSTS Locomotive Catalog with 2 000 entries being reached.

• <16-Mar-05>: UKTrainsim has the latest installer version of XTracks, version 3.13, XTracks.zip (9.5Mb, 15-Mar-05), and expect it soon at other favourite download sites. Train-sim.com is very busy most likely because of the two new routes made available yesterday and there's still one file, SPEEDSTE.zip, for the GM&OSS, The Springfield Switch route to be listed in the library. Late arrivals at Train-sim.com: Chris Bogley has put together guides for the NS Pocahontas route, pokeygde.zip (3kb, 15-Mar-05), and NS Clinch Valley route, clinch.zip (4kb, 15-Mar-05) and before downloading the Norfolk Southern 834 and Norfolk Southern U25B, you might read the NS Clinch Valley Activity Questions post on the forum.

• <15-Mar-05>: There's a new release of the Streetcar Line 27 Berlin v1.1 (13.5Mb) at The-Train.de; it's also available from the author's site, Linie 27 Version 1.1 download page. Train-sim.com has two new routes, the first being Norfolk Southern Pocahontas District in West Viriginia, running for about 300 miles from Bluefield to Williamson. This route is in available in eight files, each about 30Mb, and there's the Pocahontas District Grand Opening post on the Train-sim forum so you can see where Norfolk Southern Pocahontas District is in relation to the Clinch Valley route. The other route is the GM&OSS, The Springfield Switch, with three of the four files in the library at the time of this line news. As well, there's an activity pack for the Clinch River District, crdp.zip (340kb, 14-Mar-05), and one for the Wenatchee & Cashmere route, wcrr_apk.zip (205kb, 14-Mar-05).

• <14-Mar-05>: At Train-sim.com you'll find Jim England's set of four Southern Pacific EMD SD50s, spsd50st.zip (10.6Mb, 13-Mar-05), which use MLT's stock from Cascade Crossing otherwise you'll have to alias to your own locos. Romain Larousse has released version 2.3 of his TRAMBX (Le Tramway de Bordeaux) route and his site has plenty of information (heavily using Flash). The route can be downloaded from FunTrain.net (99Mb) but take note of the warning about XTracks 3.9 being automatically installed and the need to halt V3.9 being installed if you've got a later version, e.g. XTracks v3.12.

• <13-Mar-05>: Just a snippet to note that Build 00028 of the tsection.dat file had a problem and Steven Masters has immediately released Build 00029 at Train-sim.com, tsection.zip (192kb, 12-Mar-05). For more info, see the Tsection - Build 29 post on the Train-sim.com forum.

• <12-Mar-05>: The Canton Railroad team, Dick Cowen, Marv Keur and Rich Garber, have contributed their Family Lines Central Engine/Rollingstock pack (version 3C), ctnrol3c.zip (11.4Mb, 11-Mar-05), to the Train-sim.com library. There's another of Jan Henning Gettkant's ALCO sets, Erie Lackawanna ALCO C-424/425, el424_5.zip (11.8Mb, 11-Mar-05), and route builders should find Paul Andrews' Sharp Tracks collection, strack01.zip (2.1Mb, 11-Mar-05), handy for sharp radius situations and tramways. Mirko Küster has updated his DB BR 243 locos and you'll find them at his site and at TheTrain.de. Those with enough space might like to extend their MSTS setup with Raildriver's full-size control stand (price is on the page).

• <11-Mar-05>: The remaining six (of eight) files of Lukas a.k.a Swissie's DownTown Trolley route are now available from the Train-sim.com library. As well, to keep us out of mischief, Lukas has also contributed his Mountain Electric route (eight files, each of about 30Mb except the last; the first file is mounte_1.zip (30Mb, 10-Mar-05)). As well there are three sets of rolling stock for these routes, vatset1.zip (44Mb, 10-Mar-05), vatset2.zip (26Mb, 10-Mar-05) and mtemot.zip (22Mb, 10-Mar-05). The route map for the Download Trolley route is in downtdoc.zip (390kb, 10-Mar-05) and you can also view this map in Lukas' thread, Two Routes to Play With And a Time Out, on the Train-sim.com forum. Russell Beer, author of the Australian Footscray-Ballarat route and many pieces of rolling stock, featured in an article about MSTS in the Melbourne Age's IT section on Tuesday March 1; you might be lucky to find a copy somewhere but there doesn't appear that the article is online at The Age.

• <10-Mar-05>: The first two files (of eight) for the fictional DownTown Trolley route version 1 are in the Train-sim.com library, downt_1.zip (30Mb, 09-Mar-05) and downt_2.zip (30Mb, 09-Mar-05). Also of note is the Eurotrain by Denis Verheyden (Markus Schaufler cab, Werner Spieker sounds), eurtrain.zip (12Mb, 09-Mar-05) which is also available from TheTrain.de.

• <09-Mar-05>: The Train-sim.com library has a variety of files so you should find something of interest. Bill Hobbs' Excel and Word files to help set up steam loco parameters will be useful to many loco designers, steam3.zip (81kb, 08-Mar-05); Tony Calorel has contributed a number of freight boxcars, hoppers, flat cars and tankers; Great Northern fans have Michael Stephan's GN Heavyweight Passenger Cars 2, gnhvy_eb.zip (4.3Mb, 08-Mar-05), and GN Long-Hood Forward GP-Series Cabview, gngpcabv.zip (4Mb, 08-Mar-05) for GN's early GP7s, GP9s and GP20s; Craig Kawahara has provided Canton Suddenly Track Charts, cst2.zip (134kb, 08-Mar-05); and Ron Furto has a set of ALCO 251 engine sounds, alco251.zip (2.5Mb, 08-Mar-05).

• <07-Mar-05>: The Ligne Roussillon route has been upgraded to version 3.1. You need version 3.0 (25Mb) then you can upgrade to the latest version with file Roussillon v3_1 update.exe (9.6Mb). Train-sim.com has a patch for the Norfolk Southern Clinch Valley route that fixes the problem of a missing file, nscvptc1.zip (476kb, 06-Mar-05). For more info on installing Clinch Valley, see the Clinch Valley District Route and New Roads Train-sim.com forum post. Also at Train-sim.com are several box car packs by Michael Stephan and the Netherlands NS 1200 electric loco, ec1800.zip (6.5Mb, 06-Mar-05) by Bjorn van Steenbergen.

• <06-Mar-05>: Marcel Despont has contributed a number of route objects, such as his footbridge, de_fb3pl.zip (736kb, 05-Mar-05), to the Train-sim.com library. Drifton Dalton has made available version 1 of his Clinch Valley District route; it's in four files, the first being nscv1.zip (13Mb, 05-Mar-05), and each of the others being about 40Mb in size. The Norfolk Southern Railway System in Virginia map will give you some idea of the section modelled by Drifton's route. As well, see the Clinch Valley District Route and New Roads thread on Train-sim.com if you've got NewRoads installed. Trenomania.it has some new locos, such as Mr. Rokko's version 1.2 E464 149, (22.9Mb, 05-Mar-05), and new cabs for E402b and E444R locos. UKTrainsim has the G5 and A8 steam locos built for the Yorkshire Coast Railway route version 1.51 by John Kendrick. Route Riter has been updated to version 6.2.48 to improve the provision to make route-specific tsection.dat files for use with Train Store (refer to Problems while running LSE and other long routes thread at UKTrainsim before using this new feature in Route Riter).

• <05-Mar-05>: Although things may seem quiet, the MSTS gurus are still looking at new improvements. For example, browse through the Problems while running LSE and other long routes thread at UKTrainsim to see how Mike Simpson, Tony Formosa and others are working on improving MSTS load times by adapting MSTS' use of the tsection.dat file. web•TrainSim always tries to keep an eye out for new cabs and sounds - Mauro Ciociola has version 3 of his E402b cab at Amicitreni.net, Cabina E402b V.3, CabE402b_v3.zip (3.6Mb, 03-Mar-05).

• <03-Mar-05>: Train Simulator in China has some new locos at its site and there are screenshots in this Come to download these new Chinese Locomotives Train-sim.com forum post. UK Trainsim has the Yorkshire Coast Railway route version 1.51 (six files, the first being YCR151_1.zip (16Mb, 28-Feb-05); also see the information page for other requirements).

• <02-Mar-05>: Train Sim New Zealand Workshops has another loco, the NZGR English Electric DG, available from the Train-sim.com library is file nzr_dgv3.zip (2Mb, 28-Feb-05). Also Bob Pickering has a set of activities in Modern Marias Pass Activity Pack 3.0 for Marias Pass 3.1, mpmap3.zip (696kb, 28-Feb-05), that incorporate more up-to-date rolling stock and consists (see Bob's readme or the Modern Marias Activity Pack updated Train-sim.com thread). Jan Henning Gettkant has a set of ten Lehigh Valley ALCOs, lv_alco.zip (20.7Mb, 01-Mar-05). Route Riter has been updated to version 6.2.44, RRit6_2_44upd.zip (1.6Mb, 28-Feb-05), and Mike has organised updates so that the help file is a separate download.

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