Line news December, 2004

• <31-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library now has Bob Bob Boudoin's freight wagon physics version 4.7, v47wags.zip (25kb, 30-Dec-04). There are some interesting locos today as well, including two Alco/GE 50 Ton Electric locos with different coupling arrangements, nycta7.zip (5.9Mb, 30-Dec-04) and nycta6.zip (6.4Mb, 30-Dec-04), and a Monon EMD BL2, mon_bl2.zip (5.7Mb, 30-Dec-04). As well, Jeff Bergner has updated RandomRoute to version 1.2, rroute12.zip (447kb, 30-Dec-04), with extra documentation on how to go about customising. You can do a route familiarisation run of the Midnight S1 Dortmund to Dusseldorf activity; after web•TrainSim's had a few words with the Train Control Manager, a more traffic-friendly version will be available in a day or two. All the very best for 2005.

• <30-Dec-04>: Models from the Port City Car Company (PCCC) are always worth taking note of and their latest is electric trolley no. 1304 of the British Columbia Electric Railway, bcer1304.zip (6.2Mb, 29-Dec-04), at Train-sim.com. Keep an eye out for Bob Boudoin's (plainsman) updated physics for WAG files (version 4.7) - there's a thread on the Train-sim.com forums. TheTrain.de has all of Mirko Küster's latest DB BR 156 electric locos for download. web•TrainSim is still testing his S1 service Dortmund to Dusseldorf (departing Dortmund at 0054 is not much fun!) and hopefully will have it ready before next year.

• <29-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library has two collections of ALCO locos, the Southern Pacific ALCO Roadswitcher pack, spalcors.zip (10Mb, 28-Dec-04), and the Ottawa Central MLW RS-18u pack, oc_rs18u.zip (2.2Mb, 28-Dec-04), as well as a pack of four 50 foot boxcars, 50ftbxpk.zip (2.8Mb, 28-Dec-04). Over at TheTrain.de, Mirko Küster has contributed some new locos and you can check his site for more new models he's released over the past few days.

• <28-Dec-04>: A quieter day but Patrick Wise has contributed some ATSF rolling stock to the Train-sim.com library, such as ATSF GP35 Locomotive, atsfg35.zip (1.1Mb, 27-Dec-04), and ATSF F45 Locomotive, atsf_f45.zip (1.6Mb, 27-Dec-04). web•TrainSim is returning to the drawing board to make some changes to his next activity, Midnight (almost) S1 service Dortmund to Dusseldorf - others to follow include ICE service Dortmund to Koln, RE6 service Dusseldorf to Dortmund and RE13 service Monchengladbach to Hagen, all of which should be sufficient to keep him busy for a while.

• <27-Dec-04>: Mickeal Keal has released his La Tarentaise route (64Mb) as version 4 beta. This route includes cities such as Albertville, Bourg St Maurice, Aix-les-Bains and Annecy. The German Hönnetalbahn route by Sebastian Hellmann has been updated to version 3 - this route is an add-on to the payware German Railroads Vol. 1 pack. Because of some MSTS freeware being offered on sites such as Ebay, UKTrainsim has a thread running, Unauthorised Sales Of Freeware (e.g. EBay, QXL etc), to report such sales which infringe the copyright of authors.

• <26-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library has the eight files of Jerry H. Sullivan's Milwaukee Road, Rocky Mountain. Division route, the main route being 110 miles of the Milwaukee Road from Alberton to Avery, with secondary routes being the Montana Rail Link and the Wallace branch. Each file is about 25Mb and full installation instructions are in installation.txt and readme1st.txt. Jonathan Lewis has a patch for his Rio Grande Southern route, rgs_v21.zip (18Mb, 25-Dec-04), Philip Chesters is back in print with another in his popular and informative Trainsimming series, Trainsimming Modern Hungarian Railways, mstshu10.zip (1.9Mb, 25-Dec-04), and there are a number of locos for various railways. Bruno Astorg has released his Z 5300 RER C trainset which features eighteen different route destination signs. At z2n.free.fr you'll find a beta version of the rubber-tyred Paris metro train, type MP73.

• <24-Dec-04>: Seasons greetings to one and all for the festival season. Train-sim.com has many new contributions which may take you away from the dinner table early to do some downloading. We spend a lot of our time in the cab so new improved ones are always welcome and those by Dwight Mitchell are good to see: Generic EMD Cab, genemd1.zip (2.2Mb, 23-Dec-04), and Generic ALCO Cab, genalco2.zip (2Mb, 23-Dec-04). Those with the Australian Footscray - Ballarat route have an activity, The Bacchus Marsh Service, vl8141.zip (8kb, 23-Dec-04). There's a pack of GP60s in Full Bucket Line livery, fblgp601.zip (7.8Mb, 23-Dec-04), and Tony Calorel has contributed more tankers and boxcars, such as the Big Johnson Tee Shirts boxcar, bjts.zip (746kb, 23-Dec-04). Paul Gausden has issued a warning to Win98/ME users to not install the latest version (V1.4) of Shape Viewer; the same thread tells you how to fix your Win98/ME system if you've got problems. Enjoy the next couple of days with family and friends, and, travel safely. The next line news should be on the 26th.

• <23-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library has Paul Gausden's latest version of his Shape Viewer, sview14.zip (2.4Mb, 22-Dec-04), and a new utility by Wolfgang Mueller-Fabini, TS-FastFix, tsff09.zip (454kb, 22-Dec-04), which looks like it will simplify the job of adjusting the first Friction line and the Adheasion line in ENG and WAG files using Joseph Realmuto's FCalc2 calculations and data.

• <22-Dec-04>: Jeff Bergner's RandomRoute, rroute10.zip (353kb, 21-Dec-04), at the Train-sim.com library is an interesting idea; see his readme.txt and jeffsnote.txt by doing a View. Tony Calorel has contributed another large range of boxcars and tankers, such as a tanker with the Agfa Photo Chemicals brand, agfaphot.zip (438kb, 21-Dec-04). A new French route is La Route des Vins, (97Mb, 21-Dec-04), available from Funtrain.net with more information on this page. UKTrainsim has a Class 67 cab, 67cabV1.zip (3.1Mb, 21-Dec-04), and the Lehigh Valley John Wilkes steam loco, jwilkes.zip (1.1Mb, 21-Dec-04), and carriages, jwcon.zip (950kb, 21-Dec-04).

• <21-Dec-04>: Back home! The Train-sim.com has two new routes, Hakan (Hawk) Pettersson's Whitefish4-Hawk, wf4_hawk.zip (130Mb, 20-Dec-04), and Daniel Bazin's Le Tortillard, a short metre gauge route in south-west France, ttg.zip (77Mb, 20-Dec-04). As well there is a Monon passenger train set, headed by F3As, monpsngr.zip (20Mb, 18-Dec-04), and many and varied freight boxcars by contributors such as Michael Gilmore. Paul Gausden has released a new version of his Shape File Viewer with new and quite clever features, SView1_4_155.zip (2Mb, 18-Dec-04) - it's available from the Shape File Viewer page at Steam4Me. UKTrainsim has a Christmas activity for the default Settle & Carlisle route and RailAtelier has two Pullman Flèche d'Or sets of carriages by Pascal Grando. On web•TrainSim's to-do list are four more activities for Wupper 8 so all activities thus far have return services.

• <17-Dec-04>: Bruno Astorg has finished his RIO 80 régionales PACA livrée bleue v3.0 carriages (26.2Mb, 16-Dec-04, just the thing for local trains on the branch lines around LGV Med 3. web•TrainSim will be away from his computer (and Wupper 8) for a couple of days and the next line news will probably be late Monday, 20-Dec (if he can keep his eyes open after the weekend). He's done a re-run of his Morning S6 S-bahn service, Koln to Essen Wupper 8 activity and you can now give it a try.

• <16-Dec-04>: web•TrainSim's Evening RE11 service Dortmund to Dusseldorf activity on Wupper 8 is ready for you to try. For those interested in reverse processes, the RE11 service Dusseldorf to Dortmund was much simpler to get working.

• <15-Dec-04>: Train-sim.com has a pack of Union Pacific SD90MAC-H2 locos, upsd90sp.zip (12.3Mb, 14-Dec-04). For realistic cab and sounds, keep an eye on this thread at Train-sim.com. web•TrainSim has to do a further test of his Morning S6 S-bahn service, Koln to Essen Wupper 8 activity, as well as Evening RE11 service, Dortmund to Dusseldorf. For the latter, you can upgrade the BR 120's cab and sounds with Fstd-BR120.zip (2.76Mb, 07-Dec-04) and E120.zip (1.17Mb, 05-Nov-03) from TheTrain.de.

• <13-Dec-04>: For those wishing to have a hard-copy bound manual for Train Store V3.1, one can be purchased from www.lulu.com/jaf. Trainsimfrance.Net has news that Clem Tillier (of Speedworks) has handed over his TGV Generation 1 project to Edouard Staniczek's Projet ESK team (Edouard and his team, among other fine models, produced the TGV Duplex). web•TrainSim is currently doing a route familiarisation of his Morning S6 S-bahn service, Koln to Essen Wupper 8 activity and it should be available to download in a day or two.

• <12-Dec-04>: A quiet day but Alco fans will be happy to see a collection of ALCO RS-11/36 locos in Delaware & Hudson livery at Train-sim.com in download dhalcors.zip (14.2Mb, 11-Dec-04). web•TrainSim has his Wupper Express Dortmund to Monchengladbach evening service activity for you to run.

• <11-Dec-04>: Columbus Locomotive Works is back on the air and their models are available from the Train-sim.com library, including all their GP30 locos, such as gp30nkp.zip (1.9Mb, 10-Dec-04) in Nickel Plate livery, and their Alco PA and PB loco sets - make sure you get the Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 trainset! To overcome some bugs that several users found, Route Riter has been updated to version 6.1.63 (as of 10-Dec-04). web•TrainSim was too smart for himself when creating his RE4 Wupper Express activity, Dortmund to Monchengladbach. For a challenge, he picked the 2209 departure time from the timetable and arrival at Monchengladbach was timetabled at 2348, to just squeeze in before midnight. Somewhere on a forum he'd read that MSTS can't cope with activities running through midnight so the player would be under a bit of stress to arrive on or about the scheduled time. From experience, web•TrainSim can now confirm that MSTS also can't cope with traffic that runs through midnight! An indication that there's a problem will only show up with MSTS getting to the Initialisation... stage and finally putting up a Send/Don't Send dialogue. However, the Activity Editor will gladly accept all the traffic you add and not cough or splutter. After three hours of checking consists (all had been used in other activities), the player path and anything else he could think of, changing all the times in the activity back by two hours fixed everything. Actually, the Activity Editor does give some indication of a problem when you do a Verify starting... from the Tool menu - there won't be any labelling of each train at that specific time. Ah, MSTS... web•TrainSim will make a few more changes, do a test run and Wupper 8's namesake service activity should be available for download tomorrow.

• <09-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library has Richard Dunn's Roseville Subdivision route, the Union Pacific contemporary route across Donner Pass, donner.zip (107Mb, 08-Dec-04). Both Wupper 8 activities, Late afternoon RB48 service W-Oberbarmen to Koln and Evening RB48 Koln to W-Oberbarmen can be downloaded. You'll be driving in foul weather on both jobs - that'll give you a chance to make use of the high visibility signals.

• <08-Dec-04>: Ted Curphey's long-awaited RTTX 89 feet Intermodal Flatcars Set 2 is now available from the Train-sim.com library in rttx_f2.zip (2.1Mb, 07-Dec-04); you need the original set, RTTX_F1.ZIP, and be certain to read Ted's readme for installation instructions. TheTrain.de has a new BR 120 cab from The Cabmaker, Fstd-BR120.zip (2.764Mb, 07-Dec-04). Amicitreni.Net has the FAS ALn776 pack, a set of four railcars with cab by Kenji Kimura, FAS_ALN776.rar (15.5Mb, 06-Dec-04), and FS Intermodale Pack v2.1, FS_Intermodale_pack_v2.1.zip (10.8Mb, 06-Dec-04).

• <07-Dec-04>: Train-sim.com has the French SNCF X73500 railcar by Stef38 and Stepholo in Lorraine, Bourgogne, Auvergne, and CFL liveries - e.g., x73500lo.zip (1Mb, 06-Dec-04) is the version in Lorraine livery. As well, version 2 of Stef38's CC 70001 and A1A 68538 locos can be downloaded from simtrain.site.voila.fr/. Here's a shorter activity on Wupper 8 for you to try, the Late afternoon RB48 service W-Oberbarmen to Koln (you'll have to be patient as you'll be driving an older loco, a BR 110).

• <06-Dec-04>: The GM&O Northern Lines route is now available from the Train-sim.com library in thirteen files, each about 35Mb (the route can be ordered on CD). To read about what's new in the route, requirements and install instructions, see the GM&O Ver. 1.8 now available thread on the MSTS Route Design forum at Train-sim.com. Route Riter has a major upgrade to version 6.1.58 (as of 04-Dec-04) that includes new versions of TsUtils and TK.MSTS.tokens.dll. web•TrainSim has done a trial run of his Morning RE11 service, Dusseldorf Hbf to Dortmund Hbf activity on Wupper 8, adjusted a couple of traffic times and it's now ready for you to try.

• <05-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library has some Australian and New Zealand rolling stock, including Stew Winston's WAGR AB Class Diesel Locomotive #1535, ab1535.zip (2.9Mb, 04-Dec-04), and two WAGR Y Class locos (one in that old green livery), 2yclass.zip (3.1Mb, 04-Dec-04), and Nigel Booth's Tranzrails DXR, nzrdxrv2.zip (2.1Mb, 04-Dec-04), and New Zealand Rails DX Class diesel locos, nzr_dxv7.zip (1.8Mb, 04-Dec-04), the latter two with experimental flaming exhausts. Paul Watson has contributed more Goderich-Exeter Railway - GEXR locos and rolling stock. UKTrainsim has about forty new downloads, including new cabs for Class 35 Hymek, Class 08 shunters, Class 52 Westerns, Class 31 and Class 33 locos. The Convoi utility has been updated to version 1.3.0 (there's a thread on the Simtrain-fr.org forums). web•TrainSim has revised and updated the following Wupper 8 activities so there are several hours of driving ahead of you: Evening S8 service Hagen to Monchengladbach, Night S8 Service Monchengladbach to Hagen and Afternoon RE5 service Koln to Oberhausen

• <04-Dec-04>: A somewhat quick update because web•TrainSim really needs to get into the cab and re-test a couple more Wupper 8 activities before they're ready for uploading. By the way, the Siglight update makes a huge difference to seeing signals from long distances - even web•TrainSim's ageing eyes can pick out a yellow from more than half a kilometre! The Burlington name features strongly at Train-sim.com with Paul Watson's Burlington Northern SD40-2 locos, bn7149.zip (908kb, 03-Dec-04) and bn7890.zip (908kb, 03-Dec-04) with accompanying liquid methane tanker, bn_rlm.zip (603kb, 03-Dec-04).

• <02-Dec-04>: The Train-sim.com library has the F1 Transit v1.0 NYC Subway/Elevated route, nysubway.zip (37Mb, 01-Dec-04), which includes parts of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Lexington Avenue and Broadway Lines, some of which is elevated. There are a range of objects by Marcel Despont for route builders and the ATSF MOW driveable truck, trk_atsf.zip (3Mb, 01-Dec-04), looks interesting. The latest update for Route Riter brings it up to version 6.1.57; check the Route Riter page for the latest features. There's a new utility, fis2004beta, over at TheTrain.de which appears to be a virtual station announcement program - web•TrainSim's attempts at translating haven't been very good (also see this post at Simtrain-fr.org).

• <01-Dec-04>: Tony Formoso's latest version of the Train Store utility version 3.1, trnstr31.zip (4.4Mb, 30-Nov-04), is now available from the Train-sim.com library. Train Store is an indispensable tool to help us manage MSTS and if you haven't got it, download and install it. Of course, we all need to check the Getting Started document before installing - and check it from time to time to review all the program's features. As well, Luc Web has two activities for LGV Med 3, Marseille to L'Estaque, lgvm3a01.zip (214kb, 30-Nov-04) and SEI Inspection, lgvm3a02.zip (207kb, 30-Nov-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.