Line news January, 2004

We're met with a spectacular evening sky as we come up out of the underground to the Kennedy Damm stop.

• <31-Jan-04>: web•TrainSim has Kosmos installed and ran the wizard to choose the clear summer environment for the U79 Handelszentrum to Rhein Stadium and return activity - all done in about two minutes. Meanwhile at Train-sim.com Jim England has a repainted the GS-4 loco and tender into American Freedom Train livery, aftlt.zip (1.4Mb, 30-Jan-04), Robert Reedy has a set of activities for the ADFRRV3 route, adfmrm03.zip (79kb, 30-Jan-04), and there's a challenging activity for the La Mure route, ebsgact1.zip (89kb, 30-Jan-04).

• <30-Jan-04>: Kosmos is the latest freeware tool to enhance MSTS. It's goal is to provide us with a means of changing the environment, that is, the sky (e.g., moon and sun), precipitation (rain and snow), and water for any route to whatever is desired through a wizard. About the only restriction is that MSTS and Kosmos should not be run at the same time. Kosmos is the work of Jeff Bush, creator of Environment Control, and many others including Bill Burnett, Michael Vone and Mike Simpson. The download, kosmos10.zip (19.5Mb, 29-Jan-04) from the Train-sim.com libary, has clear and concise installation and how-to-use instructions. The last news snippet for today is that Route Riter has been updated to version 5.0.29 and can be downloaded from Mike Simpson's page.

The Rheinstadium comes into view.

• <29-Jan-04>: At the Train-sim.com libary there is now a full installation of the latest version of ConBuilder, cb171f.zip (2.9Mb, 28-Jan-04). Everybody should have ConBuilder on their system - it's one of three mandatory tools that helps us all keep MSTS in a healthy state (not to mention ourselves). The other two applications are Train Store and Route Riter. web•TrainSim is stuck at a red light on his way back from the Rheinstadium so he'll have to investigate what's going on with the Rheinstadion und zurueck (002) activity. By the way, he's found this map (PDF document) to be an excellent reference to Dusseldorf and its U-bahns.

• <28-Jan-04>: Jim England has another two of his relivery projects in the Train-sim.com library, Full Bucket Line MW2 loco set, fblnw2pk.zip (1.4Mb, 27-Jan-04), and four cabooses in Full Bucket Line livery, fbl4cabs.zip (1.3Mb, 27-Jan-04). You might want to have your EMD diesel locos pour out their exhaust smoke more realistically - have a look at R.E. "Ron" Dacus Henry's MoSmoke2 EMD Exhaust Modification, mosmoke2.zip (574kb, 27-Jan-04). Finally, Andy Keffer has a night cabview for the SD70M loco, ncab.zip (1.0Mb, 27-Jan-04). web•TrainSim has revised the original Kirmes Sonderfahrt activity on Stadtbahn U79 and fixed the problem of the signal not clearing at D-Luegplatz - see here.

• <27-Jan-04>: At Train-sim.com there's a revised GP and SD cabview that includes the Cab80d in-cab signal display (handy for driving on routes such as Marias Pass where you can turn off the Track Monitor for more realism), cabsigud.zip (397kb, 26-Jan-04), and Jean-Louis Chauvin has a revised version of his tutorial on driving trains equipped with the UIC brake system, muicb101.zip (87kb, 26-Jan-04). Mike Simpson's Route Riter, version 5.0.24, can be downloaded from UKTrainSim.com and in the German language from TheTrain.de. Trenomania.it has a pack of eight E656 electric locos (10.9Mb, 26-Jan-04) to add to your Italian Railways rolling stock. There's a new French route, La Transversale, a short non-electrified route which is just perfect for running the RTG or CC72000; see the author's site for downloading (26Mb self-installing file).

• <26-Jan-04>: Mike Simpson has updated Route Riter to version 5.0.24 and it now includes Shape Viewer version 1; you can download this latest version from Mike's page. At Train-sim.com Chris Bogley has his twenty-fourth Route Guide, this one for the Rollins Pass - Moffatt Tunnel route, mofguide.zip (3kb, 25-Jan-04). Those with the Rollins Pass - Moffatt Tunnel route may want to try Ken Plaza's activity in which you're driving the California Zephyr from Granby to Denver, mawrpcz.zip (91kb, 25-Jan-04). web•TrainSim has completed the first activity, Dusseldorf to Duisburg, on Stradtbahn U79 and it's a good introduction to the sights of Dusseldorf.

Crossing the Oberkasseler bridge over the Rhine.

• <25-Jan-04>: Dick Cowen has provided another of his reskinning kits at Train-sim.com, this one for EMD SD50 and SD60 diesel-electric locos, sd5060kt.zip (5.7Mb, 24-Jan-04). The Rule of the Week on the Train-sim.com forum this week is Headlights. web•TrainSim is still finding his way around Dusseldorf on the U79 route and a good map from www.rheinbahn.de (click through to Fahrplan and get the PDF one for convenience) is helping. At the moment he's following the U79 route towards Duisburg (activity 001).

One of U79's underground stations from the cab of tram G15_B80D_4277.

• <24-Jan-04>: The Shape File Viewer utility, sview1.zip (1.76Mb, 23-Jan-04), is now at version 1 and can be downloaded from either Train-sim.com or Otto Wipfel's site (the link to Otto's site will immediately start the download). web•TrainSim finally took the plunge to download and install the Stadtbahn U79 tram route. Installation tips and screenshots of a couple of activities, Variobahn Parade and Loerick and return, are under Activities and Routes in the menu on the right. Even though the route is highly detailed, it doesn't seem to be that hard on frame rates - except for the trees!

• <23-Jan-04>: The remaining two files of the Rollins Pass - Moffat Tunnel route are now available from the Train-sim.com library, rollins3.zip (24.3Mb, 22-Jan-04) and rollins4.zip (25Mb, 22-Jan-04). Jean-Louis Chauvin and Hank Sundermeyer have contributed their Signal scripts for colourlight Type-D signals, cl_dsig2.zip (867kb, 22-Jan-04), which should prove useful for route builders and Andy Miller has some extra files, ctsrrext.zip (1.8Mb, 22-Jan-04), for his Denver & Rio Grande Western Cumbres Pass route which may solve some installation and running problems. UKTrainsim.com already has version 1 of Paul Gausden's Shape (.s) File Viewer utility, SView1.zip (1.7Mb, 22-Jan-04), and expect to see it soon at Train-sim.com.

• <22-Jan-04>: Another route (well, the first part of it) has been added to the Train-sim.com library, namely the Rollins Pass - Moffat Tunnel route, modelled on a section of the Denver & Rio Grande from Denver to Granby (Colorado). Until the Moffat Tunnel was constructed in the 1920's, the route crossed the U.S. contintental divide at 11,000 feet. As well, Cyndi Richards has put together a good selection of OK to proceed, Permission granted and Permission denied sounds, permsnds.zip (376kb, 21-Jan-04), with instructions how to replace the MSTS defaults. James Brooks has the first of his videos of Victorian railway activity downloadable from his VR Railfan site (7.5Mb; you'll need the free DivX player). Victorian railways celebrates its 150th year this year, so visit James' site from time to time for upcoming events.

Shape View of BB36000 electric loco.

• <21-Jan-04>: A quieter day, with just a couple of downloads of interest from UKTrainsim.com: Class 86 Cabview, 86 CabView.zip (3.2Mb, 20-Jan-04), Class 37 sounds, UltClass37.zip (5.7Mb, 20-Jan-04), and Class 31 sounds, UltClass31snd.zip (4.3Mb, 20-Jan-04). The screenshot above was taken from the beta version of Paul Gausden's Shape Viewer utility which is a part of the latest version of Route Riter.

• <20-Jan-04>: At the Train-sim.com library, Andy Miller has released version 2 of his Denver & Rio Grande Western route (it's in seven files, starting with ctsrrng1.zip, 8Mb, 19-Jan-04). The D&RGW is now the location of the famous Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Jim England has repainted the fearsome Big Blow Turbine #3985 loco set into Full Bucket Line livery, fblmbb.zip (2.2Mb, 19-Jan-04), and if you haven't heard one of these, download it! Dick Cowen has a GP Booster Reskinning Kit, gp9-bkit.zip (1.9Mb, 19-Jan-04), Peter Harvey has modelled a highly-detailed South African 19D steam loco, sar19dv1.zip (8Mb, 19-Jan-04), and if you want more exhaust smoke from your diesels, have a look at MoSmoke EMD Exhaust Modification, mosmoke.zip (1.5Mb, 19-Jan-04). Australian MSTSimmers might like to have a look at this post on the Train-sim.com forum.

Coming into Ambilly on our way back to Geneve Eaux Vives (from the number two end cab of our Z5600 trainset).

• <19-Jan-04>: There are a couple of new routes in the Train-sim.com library, Daniel Bazin's La Mure route, mure-uk.zip (128Mb, 18-Jan-04), and J. H. Sullivan's Milwaukee Road, Rocky Mountain Division, the first of eleven files being mlwrmd2a.zip (10.2Mb, 18-Jan-04). There is a set of rolling stock for La Mure in file, mure-rst.zip (74Mb, 18-Jan-04). La Mure, now a tourist railway with its own homepage, rises from Saint Georges at 316m to La Mure at 882m - there's more information here. TheTrain.de also has a new route, Bonn to Berlin version 1.2, (18Mb, 17-Jan-04) which the author intends to extend as far as Cologne. web•TrainSim is trialling a couple of there and back activities on Haute Savoie using the Z5600 and Z6100 trainsets which have number two end driving cabs. See Geneve Eaux Vives to Annemasse and return and Geneve Eaux Vives to Annemasse and return twice!; the latter needs repairing but you can give it a try as far back to Eaux Vives and get an idea of what should happen.

• <18-Jan-04>: Robert Fontaine has been busy again and contributed a set of Genesis P42DC locos in an early Amtrak Phase V livery to the Train-sim.com library. There's the complete set of eight separately numbered locos, at5epack.zip (8.7Mb, 17-Jan-04), or you can choose a particular loco, such as loco number 93, amtve93.zip (1.1Mb, 17-Jan-04), to download separately. Jeff Bush has contributed various MSTS enhancements relating to the environment, for example his Environment Control Utility, and he, with others, is ready to release the Kosmos environment tool so watch the Train-sim.com forum here. A late snippet - also have a look at some screenshots of the La Mure French route, soon to be available in English. This route near Grenoble was a commercial narrow gauge route but is now a popular tourist attraction renowned for its scenery.

• <17-Jan-04>: At the Train-sim.com library, Jim England has repainted an A-B-B-A set into the Santa Fe Red Warbonnet livery, sfpa6970.zip (2.2Mb, 16-Jan-04) and TSNZ Workshops have released a set of NZ Railways Highsider wagons, highside.zip (6.2Mb, 16-Jan-04). For those wanting to run activities on Haute Savoie, web•TrainSim has put together some small fixes for the SBB IC2000 trainset and the SNCF BB422217 loco.

• <16-Jan-04>: There are two tutorials worth downloading from Train-sim.com, HUD Tutorial, hud1.zip (36kb, 14-Jan-04), and Graduated Brake Release Tutorial, grt.zip (83kb, 14-Jan-04), as well as some more rolling stock for the Sumpter Valley narrow gauge route, such as 76600-Class flatcar, sv76619.zip (345kb, 14-Jan-04). There's a new route at UKTrainsim.com, the UK Regional route, which features plenty of mainlines and branchlines as well as a tram section. It's fictional but with the longest trip possible being 180 miles, it offers lots of variety. There are five files to download, each self-installing, starting with UK_Regional_Base_Pack.zip (7.7Mb, 15-Jan-04) (other zips are sized 22Mb-29Mb).

Our train led by BB36002 passes the Viaduc de Longeray over the Rhone. It carries the line from Annemasse. We're just short of Bellegarde.

• <15-Jan-04>: At the Train-sim.com library you'll find more rolling stock from the TSNZ Workshops, NZRailways UK and UKA container wagons, nzr_ukv2.zip (1.7Mb, 14-Jan-04), and NZ Railways Class Ep plough vans, nzr_ep.zip (1.8Mb, 14-Jan-04). Michael Sinclair has a guide to his 202 sounds contributed over the past few days, sedescri.zip (4kb, 14-Jan-04), and Chris Bogley has his Guide To The Illinois Northern 2.0 Route, inguide.zip (3kb, 15-Jan-04). web•TrainSim installed the latest version of Route Riter and it includes Paul Gaudsen's Shape File Viewer - an amazing piece of software for MSTS! Today, Australian time, the first train to travel over the just-completed Alice Springs-Darwin line departed Adelaide. Adelaide-Alice Springs has long been in use and the completion of the route to Darwin had been promised since 1907. Adelaide-Darwin is the longest stretch of north-south railway line in the world; AustralAsia Railway Corporation operate the line.

A green on the other track is even better news.

• <14-Jan-04>: Some Queensland Railways (Australia) rolling stock will please QR fans and Stew Winston has some hopper wagons in the Train-sim.com library: QR VNSQ/VNLQ, qr_vnsq.zip (1.5Mb, 13-Jan-04), and QR VNQB, qr_vnqb.zip (1.1Mb, 13-Jan-04), coal hoppers, and QR VMOM, qr_vmom.zip (2.0Mb, 13-Jan-04), and QR VMO, qr_vmo.zip (1.9Mb, 13-Jan-04) bulk molasses hoppers. The UKTrainsim.com route builders forum has LucaZone's Terraform Your UK Route in 5 Easy Steps tutorial and other contributors have added some tips to his post. You can update your copy of Route Riter (as long as it's at version 4.2.00 or later) to the latest version by downloading the latest EXE.

web•TrainSim has plenty of time on his hands as his train wait for a clear line to Saint-Gervais. May as well see if the service from Saint-Gervais is on its way - seems so.

• <13-Jan-04>: There is more variety at the Train-sim.com library, such as TSNZ Workshops' New Zealand Railways URC freight wagon, nzr_urc.zip (1.6Mb, 12-Jan-04); more sounds for MSTS by Michael Sinclair, seffect2.zip (9.8Mb, 12-Jan-04) and seffect3.zip (9.7Mb, 12-Jan-04); a number of pieces of rolling stock for the Sumpter Valley Railway (see some preview screenshots of the route in the Trainsim.com forum), e.g., the 76600 class flatcar, svfltll2.zip (941kb, 12-Jan-04); and the Amtrak Train 8 activity for Marias Pass, train_8.zip (15kb, 12-Jan-04) (presumably for the default Marias Pass; see the author's readme for extra rolling stock).

• <12-Jan-04>: The famous German Railways class 103 electric loco appears at TheTrain.de today with four different numbers, 101, 112, 128 and 157. There is a mixture of new models of less well-known railways at Train-sim.com, such as Maine Central GP-7r #592, mec592.zip (4.5Mb, 11-Jan-04), and New England Southern GP-10r #566, negs566.zip (795kb, 11-Jan-04). UKTrainsim.com includes a set of ScotRail blue and grey Mk 2 carriages organised into core files, ScotRail_BlueGrey_Mk2s_Core_Files.zip (5.5Mb, 11-Jan-04), and extra packs of different resolution textures.

• <11-Jan-04>: There is another set of new HST Class 43 (XPT in Australia) sounds available from UKTrainsim.com, New HST Sounds.zip (781kb, 09-Jan-04). Trenomania.it has two new steam locos, Locomotiva a vapore FS Gr.476 (2.4Mb, 10-Jan-04) and Locomotiva a vapore FS Gr.475 (1.53Mb, 10-Jan-04), and some new cabs. At Train-sim.com Chris Bogley has written up a guide to the CSX M&M Sub route, mmguide.zip (3kb, 10-Jan-04), and there's Enrico Onori's Italian Railways three phase E431 electric loco, fse431v2.zip (3Mb, 10-Jan-04), with cab, cabfs431.zip (2.2Mb, 10-Jan-04). web•TrainSim has six activities for Haute Savoie available for download - they're a bit rough around the edges at present but at least will give you some paths for exploring, especially if you're wondering what the scenery is like around Saint Gervais.

• <10-Jan-04>: There are some new models in the Train-sim.com library: several TTX wagons, such as a pack of several articulated container wagons, gnrmonac.zip (1.5Mb, 09-Jan-04); Jim England has a DDA40X repainted into Full Bucket Line livery, fbldd40m.zip (4.0Mb, 09-Jan-04); Bob Edwards has a write-up of the features of the Tehachapi II Route to help activity makers, teha2dat.zip (3kb, 09-Jan-04); and Michael Sinclair has contributed one hundred sounds for route builders, seffects.zip (8.9Mb, 09-Jan-04). Thanks to those who provided corrections to web•TrainSim's What's this? page.

• <09-Jan-04>: web•TrainSim didn't come across any downloads worthy of note today. So that meant he had to do some tidying up and think about some more paths for his Haute Savoie activities. One thing he decided to do was to start gathering up all his little snippets of information (acronyms, explanations, facts, figures, and so on) into one place. So have a look at What's this? under Background Information; the list will surely grow as web•TrainSim uncovers all sorts of bits and pieces scribbled on scraps of paper and buried somewhere on his desk.

• <08-Jan-04>: There's a heavy coal freight activity in the Train-sim.com library today, one version for the default Marias Pass route, mpcoal19.zip (194kb, 07-Jan-04), the other for Marias Pass 3.1, mp31ec19.zip (256kb, 07-Jan-04). There are some pieces of extra rolling stock required and you'll find details in the author's readme. Julien Cachemaille has been made a large number of contributions, producing a large number of pieces of rolling stock liveried in the Petit Arbre Line (fictional) colours; an example of his work is the Petit Arbre Line Capitaine Brundswick passenger trainset, julcapbk.zip (10.3Mb, 07-Jan-04). web•TrainSim has sorted out a few small problems with some of the rolling stock used in activities on the Haute Savoie so see BB25185, BB25186, BB25236 sound, Re 446 Tesa throttle and Corail carriages wheel radius under Small fixes 15.

• <07-Jan-04>: At UKTrainsim.com, web•TrainSim noticed some new cabs, especially the Deltic day cab, DELTICdaycabview.zip (6.3Mb, 06-Jan-04); others are a Deltic night cab, DELTICnightcabview.zip (1.7Mb, 06-Jan-04), Class 87 cab version 1.1, Class87CabV1_1.zip (1.03Mb, 06-Jan-04), and Class 44 cab, Class_44_Cabview_v1.zip (1.7Mb, 06-Jan-04). web•TrainSim has organised the rolling stock required for activities on the L'Etoile de Savoie (Haute Savoie) route. Whether you intend to run the activities included with the route or those web•TrainSim will eventually get to create, this list should help you find everything that's required. See web•TrainSim's Haute Savoie paths, Evian to Chambery and Nyon to Geneva Airport which has some screenshots of some of the Swiss rolling stock.

web•TrainSim gets moving on Haute Savoie. CC6539 at the head of Corail TER Rhone-Alpes carriages heads out of Evian les Bains.

• <06-Jan-04>: He's late, he's late... now and then web•TrainSim has to give in to an accumulation of late nights. ConBuilder version 1.7.1 update, cb171upd.zip (304kb, 05-Jan-04), can be downloaded from the Train-sim.com library, as well as Michael Sinclair's update of the Tutorial - The Activity Editor, actrev.zip (36kb, 05-Jan-04). At Trainsimfrance.net, there's version 1 of SNCF Z7306 trainset, SNCF_Z7300.exe (3.43Mb, 04-Jan-04), which requires Serge Carrey's BB 25600 loco set, SNCF_BB25660.zip.zip (15.9Mb, 27-Dec-02), which is well worthwhile anyway.

This RER tram from Geneva Airport has almost reached Geneva station.

• <05-Jan-04>: An SD40-2 in Happy New Year 2004 livery caught the eye of web•TrainSim in the Train-sim.com library today; it's file, sd402hny.zip (1.6Mb, 04-Jan-04). The topic of Slack Action - What it is is covered in the Train-sim.com forum as a follow up to last week's Rule of the Week: Starting Your Train. web•TrainSim has just about made enough paths for an activity on Haute Savoie.

• <04-Jan-04>: Jim England who has contributed many models to the Train-sim.com library has put up his MSTS Roundhouse site which already has some tutorials for those working with graphics for MSTS. Thierry Vaillant has released version 2 of his Roussillon route. You can either download the full version in handy chunks: five 3Mb files plus a 2Mb file, or you can update from version 1.7 from the 8.9Mb download file.

• <03-Jan-04>: The Texas Western Railway features in the Train-sim.com library today from work by Bill Hemb: there's the Texas Western Railway Passenger F7's, twf7.zip (7.6Mb, 02-Jan-04), Texas Western Railway Passenger F3's, twf3.zip (16.2Mb, 02-Jan-04), and Texas Western Freight F-Units and freight cars, twfrtfs.zip (17.6Mb, 02-Jan-04). As a bonus, Bill has also contributed the Lord Of The Rings - Kingdom Of Rohan trainset, rohantrn.zip (35.7Mb, 02-Jan-04), which includes engine crew in appropriate costumes and contemporary music in the observation car - see some screenshots on the Train-sim.com forum.

• <02-Jan-04>: There's a small fix for Bjoern Arlt's Full Bucket Line version 3, namely the correct format for the install.bat file, fbl301fx.zip (11kb, 01-Jan-04) at Train-sim.com. News on the Train-sim.com forum that the Timesaver Pocket Route (a whole 58kb download) has acheived its 20,000th download. web•TrainSim has given himself some work to download the rolling stock required for activities on Henry Verpiot's L'Etoile de Savoie (Haute Savoie) route, version 6.1. Henry has some available from a page at his site but there's lot more to organise and download. Just as well we've got ConBuilder, Route Riter and Train Store. The Haute Savoie complements the Rhone-Alpes route and if you think "skiing" and "Mount Blanc", you may find yourself attracted to driving trains through this region of France.

A busy Sunshine station: FA G513 wheat train to Bunges at Ballarat, XPT from Sydney, Footscray to Ballarat passenger service and St. Albans commuter service.

• <01-Jan-04>: Best wishes for a happy 2004. Trenomania.it has some new cabs, including a night cab for the ETR500 and a new cab for the Treno Alta Frequentazione (TAF). Bruno Astorg has updates at his site for his Les RIO 79 S.N.C.F. carriages with new interiors and cab, rio79.exe (2.1Mb, 30-Dec-03). There are some screenshots of web•TrainSim's Sunshine Silos to Bunge Siding activity that he's trialling on the Footscray-Ballarat route.

Coming into Ballarat station in G513 (with NSW class 82 cab).

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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.