Line news March, 2004

• <31-Mar-04>: A quiet day apart from an update to NALW's Norfolk Southern Dash9-40C pack (to bring it to version 1.1), nsd940p1.zip (7.6Mb, 30-Mar-04), at the Train-sim.com library. web•TrainSim has two activities for Wupper 7, Duisberg Hbf to Oberbilk via Dusseldorf Hbf and Solingen Ohligs to Wuppertal, which are ready for download.

• <30-Mar-04>: Just one item today, namely all the files (ten of them, in manageable chunks for dialup users) for Gavin Mclaughlan's Coal Road route (version 2) are now available from Train-sim.com. By the way, Gavin has plenty of technical info at his site about some of the tricks he uses for loco sounds.

• <29-Mar-04>: Gavin Mclaughlan has the first three of ten files of version two of his Coal Road route (New South Wales Maitland to Werris Creek) at the Train-sim.com library. The first file is coalv2p1.zip (25.7Mb, 28-Mar-04) and the download will include all required rolling stock for included activities. Dick Cowen has upgraded his SD40 and SD40-2 Reskinning Kit, sd402-ug.zip (3.1Mb, 28-Mar-04), TSNZ Railway Workshops has a New Zealand Class DSC loco (made famous by its Flying Tomato livery), nzrdscv3.zip (2.0Mb, 28-Mar-04), and there's an activity for the Sumpter Valley Railway, svract.zip (45kb, 28-Mar-04).

DB Desiro 642 crossing the Wuppertal River at Scharberg on the RB47 route Solingen to Wuppertal.

• <28-Mar-04>: The Train-sim.com library has another Dick Cowen reskinning kit, SD60M Part 2, britkt19.zip (6.4Mb, 27-Mar-04); Dwight Mitchell has more Boston & Maine locos, e.g., GP-7L Commuter #1574, bm1574.zip (1.7Mb, 27-Mar-04); and Jonas Mannion has an addendum to his Hints And Kinks Tutorial, ahak.zip (1.7Mb, 27-Mar-04). Edouard Staniczek has posted the second clue, E=mc^2, on his surprise page. More traffic is required in web•TrainSim's Solingen to Wuppertal activity but there are some screenshots to look at.

• <27-Mar-04>: Jim England has repainted an ALCO FA A-B-B-A loco set into Union Pacific freight livery, upfaset.zip (1.4Mb, 26-Mar-04), there's a pack of freight activities for the Full Bucket Line fbl3rf.zip (811kb, 26-Mar-04), and Jean-Louis Chauvin has recalculated brake parameters for locos and wagons for more realistic running over the Kicking Horse Pass, khp2_b.zip (5.5Mb, 26-Mar-04), with all details and methods documented in his readme. All these downloads are available from the Train-sim.com library. This weekend Australian Eastern Time finishes daylight saving and Britain begins so if you're confused, check with the Industrious Clock (those who know the Goons' sketches will find a similarity). web•TrainSim's Duisberg Hbf to Oberbilk via Dusseldorf Hbf activity on Wupper Express 7 can be downloaded.

• <26-Mar-04>: A quiet day and all that web•TrainSim has to offer is some screenshots of an activity he's creating for Wupper Express 7; hopefully there'll be a few more. For those who enjoy developing passenger service activities, there are more tracks to fill services with in Wupper Express than can be imagined.

• <25-Mar-04>: Andrew Brandon of Northern California Narrow Gauge Model Builders has repainted Jon Davis' original Eureka & Palisade no. 4 Eureka into the livery of number 5, Palisade, 440_ep5.zip (3.6Mb, 24-Mar-04). Do a search in your favourite search tool for Eureka & Palisade to get some interesting facts about the original narrow gauge line. Also at Train-sim.com are a set of superliner carriages in Amtrak Phase IV livery, amp4sup.zip (1.6Mb, 24-Mar-04), and a replacement set of sounds for Sumpter Valley Railway locos nos. 250 and 251, sv250snd.zip (6.5Mb, 24-Mar-04). Have a look on the Simtrain-fr.org forum for some screenshots from the latest version of Steam Simulator. And the latest EXE for Route Riter (to bring it to V5.0.43) can be downloaded here (659kb, 24-Mar-04).

• <24-Mar-04>: NALW have a new model, a Norfolk Southern Dash9-40C Tophat with custom cab, physics and GE sounds, nsd9-40c.zip (21.3Mb, 23-Mar-04) at Train-sim.com. This loco pack includes specially configured AI locos (see the readme for use in consists). Noticed at TheTrain.de is a new cab for the Desiro 642 trainset (23-Mar-04) and a thread on the Simtrain-fr.org forum mentions a small mountainous Italian route, the Etnaland which can be downloaded from the author's site (8 files, 53Mb). You might like to keep this thread on the Train-sim.com forum as a handy reference when installing routes that are contained in spanned zip or rar files.

• <23-Mar-04>: A quiet day, with just the Gulf Mobile & Ohio Northern version 1 route at Train-sim.com catching web•TrainSim's eye. The download is split among a number of files, the first being gmonlv10.zip (36Mb, 22-Mar-04), and you'll need WinZip 8.1 or later to unpack the complete route. For those wanting to follow up some history of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio, look through the Post-merger era page at the official GM&O site.

• <22-Mar-04>: Mike Simpson has updated Route Riter to version 5.0.40, rr5040.zip (7.1Mb, 21-Mar-04), and is available from the Train-sim.com library. Apart from several improvements, this latest version incorporates Paul Gausden's Shape Viewer into the main program and on the Graphics tab you're able to view a selected consist in colour; see this thread at Train-sim.com for more info. Stephen Thompson and Tim Muir have their narrow gauge Sumpter Valley Railway route ready for download, the first of five files being svrr1.zip (10.9Mb, 21-Mar-04). You can find Tim Blythman's Brisbane trams (an FM class and a Phoenix class), AU_BNEtram_FM_MSTS1_Setup.exe (1.3Mb, 20-Mar-04), at Australian Add-ons for MSTS (currently Tim's Melbourne trams are only available from Train-sim.com).

• <21-Mar-04>: Dick Cowen has two new reskinning kits, an SD40-2 kit, britkt20.zip (17.6Mb, 20-Mar-04), and an SD40 kit, britkt21.zip (9.4Mb, 20-Mar-04), available from Train-sim.com. TSNZ Railway Workshops has a NZGR DSC Class loco, nzrdscv2.zip (2.0Mb, 20-Mar-04) and Dwight Mitchell has made some corrections to his Boston & Maine FT A-B locos, bm4213a.zip (830kb, 20-Mar-04) and bm4219a.zip (833kb, 20-Mar-04). There's been a further update to ConBuilder that corrects a typing error in the code that prevented the wagon list being generated, cb174upc.zip (747kb, 19-Mar-04). At the Z2N MSTS site you can download improved versions of the French Z20500 and Z20900 metro trainsets, z20500.zip (19Mb, 20-Mar-04) and z20900.zip (19Mb, 20-Mar-04) respectively. Finally, Edouard Staniczek has given the first clue for his surprise project.

• <20-Mar-04>: The Train-sim.com library has an activity for the Full Bucket Line Commuter Edition - if you've got the payware Amtrak Surfliner trainset, download mawfblsr.zip (255kb, 19-Mar-04), otherwise mawfblcr.zip (206kb, 19-Mar-04). Amicitreni.Net has some new additions, namely Elettromotrice Ale 724 electric trainset (12.6Mb, 19-Mar-04), a pack of FS 245 Jenbach diesel locos (12.5Mb, 19-Mar-04) and diesel shunter FS 214 4214 (8.7Mb, 19-Mar-04). As they say, you learn something new everyday, so visit Wuppertaler Stadtwerken (purposely left in German).

• <19-Mar-04>: A quiet day - at least a chance to catch one's breath and get ahead with installing Wupper Express 7. There's an interesting modification by M. Holmes at Train-sim.com that enables a full runby camera view from fixed locations, initially implemented for the default NEC route, usa1yvm.zip (1.6Mb, 18-Mar-04). Please read the install instructions carefully as this modification makes extensive changes to the default installation. Those interested in following up on the Milwaukee Road, Rocky Mountain Division, should see this thread at Train-sim.com. One sample photo is here.

• <18-Mar-04>: Luc Web has another activity for the LGV Med route, TGV Race, tgvrace.zip (288kb, 17-Mar-04), at Train-sim.com. Also in the library there is the version 1.1 update to the Alpensee route, alpsee11.zip (6.0Mb, 17-Mar-04). For a completely different type of route, have a look at Crogiez's Lunar1 route (there are plenty of screenshots on the next page of his site); the Lunar1 download page is here. Otto Wipfel has translated the twenty U79 activities into English - both of the following links will begin to download the zips: one to ten, eleven to twenty. At Australian Add-ons for MSTS, Russell Beer has contributed a pack of sixteen Victorian Railways and V/Line large box vans carrying the Ford logo, AU_vrVBCW_MSTS1_Setup.exe (1.11Mb, 17-Mar-04). For some light browsing, see Strange Chimneys & Stealth Locos.

• <17-Mar-04>: The final set of Milwaukee Road electric boxcab locos, the E25s, has reached the Train-sim.com library: milwe25a.zip (2.5Mb, 16-Mar-04), milwe25b.zip (2.6Mb, 16-Mar-04), milwe25c.zip (2.0Mb, 16-Mar-04) and milwe25d.zip (2.8Mb, 16-Mar-04). For illustrations of how these locos, as well as the E33s and E45s, are formed as multiple units, see this thread in the Train-sim.com forums. For fans of the LGV route (note to web•TrainSim: go for a run on the LGV in the near future to clean out any cobwebs in the TGV Duplex) Luc Web has two activities, September Rain Part 1, lgvsr01.zip (268kb, 16-Mar-04), and September Rain Part 2, lgvsr02.zip (141kb, 16-Mar-04).

• <16-Mar-04>: A post on the Simtrain-fr.org forum has several screenshots of the Czech Breclav Praha route joining Kuty and Brno. There is a great deal more detail on its own page at the author's site. At Train-sim.com there's another Boston & Maine ALCO, S1 #1186, s1bm.zip (3.1Mb, 15-Mar-04). Tim Muir and Chuck Zeiler will have their final set of Milwaukee Road electric boxcabs, the E25 units, available in a day or two.

• <15-Mar-04>: web•TrainSim often reads in the various forums that someone who has a problem with MSTS thinks that re-installing will solve the problem. No, it doesn't! Unless a solution is found, then whatever the cause, the problem will re-appear some time in the future - you can bet your bottom dollar on it! There are enough free MSTS tools to help us get to the cause of a problem, but the old adage of asking What have I changed (i.e., installed or removed or modified) since MSTS last ran properly? is a good place to start. After that it's (just) a matter of logic! Anyway, make sure you've studied (yes, studied, not browsed or skimmed through) the author's readme for the rolling stock, route or utility program. The Amicitreni.net file library has a special cab for electric loco E636-284 Camilla (2.1Mb, 14-Mar-04). There's an update to the Alpensee route at TheTrain.de to bring it to version 1.1 (5.73Mb, 14-Mar-04) featuring new sound and other improvements particularly to the activities. At TrainSimFrance.net Benjamin Deville has a new BB27000 loco, BB427000.exe (1.38Mb, 13-Mar-04) - the 4 designates the loco as belonging to SNCF Fret (freight). At Train-sim.com there are couple of CSX SD60s in their Grey Ghost factory delivery colours, one being csx8700.zip (4.9Mb, 14-Mar-04), and two A-B set of Boston & Maine FT locos, bm4213.zip (829kb, 14-Mar-04) and bm4219.zip (827kb, 14-Mar-04).

• <14-Mar-04>: There are more of Michael Sinclair's sound creations at Train-sim.com, the first being a recording of the sounds onboard an express (not for MSTS and just for our listening pleasure), 100plus.zip (32.5Mb, 13-Mar-04), and a Kosmos environment set, Abula 21 Summer Clear with MS 100 mph Express Sound, expr100.zip (8.4Mb, 13-Mar-04). Juan Rivera has modified the SD40-2 ENGine file to include AI lighting, sd402eng.zip (7kb, 13-Mar-04), so it may be helpful at least for reference. George Kenson has contributed a scaled and detailed Alco S1 loco, s1.zip (3.3Mb, 13-Mar-04), and Nigel Booth of the TSNZ Railway Workshops has a NZGR DSC Class loco, nzrdscv1.zip (1.8Mb, 13-Mar-04). At MSTrainstop.com you'll find Greg Celen's Antwerp-Brussels route (includes Lijn25 and Lijn27 with Belgian signalling) at version 1.1 (51.607Mb, 13-Mar-04).

• <13-Mar-04>: The Train-sim.com library is once again taken over by Milwaukee Road electric boxcab locos by Tim Muir and Chuck Zeiler. There are E45A, E45B, E45C and E45-D units as well as E33A, E33B, E33C and E33-D units. For some good screenshots of these locos in action, see this thread on the Train-sim.com forums. A reminder that the home for these locos is J. H. Sullivan's Milwaukee Road Rocky Mountain Division 2 route. Gary Cameron has another upgrade to signalling on the Sea View 4 route, sv4sig02.zip (1.4Mb, 12-Mar-04); note that upgrade number 1 is required. To keep your installation of Derek Morton's EngMod utility up to date, visit his site for the full install of version 2 and update version 2.0.0.1.

• <12-Mar-04>: Our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones and friends in the horrible train bombings of March 11 in Madrid. That trains, the centre of our interest as a hobby and recreation, should be involved in such destruction of innocent life, heightens our sadness and grief.

• <11-Mar-04>: At the Train-sim.com library, Jim England has made available his BNSF SD70M ACE graphics files for advanced users only (see the readme), bn70mpk2.zip (5.1Mb, 10-Mar-04). You can see the result of someone who has made use of Dick Cowen's GP60 reskinning kit in the work of Ulco Ferwerda, one of his sets of Emerald City GP60s being ecgp60a.zip (5.9Mb, 10-Mar-04). At Ajouts a Train Simulator there is a new set of Belgique Voitures K4 first and second class carriages (1.1Mb, 09-Mar-04). A reminder that Ajouts a Train Simulator has an extensive list of French MSTS rolling stock. And we've got to keep an eye on Edouard Staniczek's Projets ESK site for a surprise.

• <10-Mar-04>: Some news of Australian locos for MSTS, namely a set of twenty (yes, twenty) X-class diesel-electrics in Victorian Railways, V/Line, V/Line Freight and Freight Australia liveries by Russell Beer and Richard Lauder as download AU_vicX3_megapak_MSTS1_Setup.exe (9.8Mb, 08-Mar-04) from Australian Add-ons for MSTS. Apparently there's a texture error for X46, as explained on this thread at the Australian MSTS Forum, but a repaired .S file is available for download. To keep track of what's happening in the Australian MSTS world, visit the Australian MSTS Forum.

• <09-Mar-04>: The Amicitreni.net has some new electric locos, E656-169 (8.4Mb, 08-Mar-04) and E656-515 (8.5Mb, 08-Mar-04), and a pack of seven E646 (XMPR livery) (14.5Mb, 08-Mar-04), and cabs for the E646 (2.5Mb, 08-Mar-04, version 2) and E656 (3.94Mb, 02-Mar-04). At Train-sim.com George W. White has contributed his MarkerMaker tool, mmaker.zip (1.5Mb, 08-Mar-04), for route builders to enable them to glean coordinates from the Topozone site. Discussion continues on the UKTrainsim.com forum in relation to Future of standardized tsection.dat with Okrasa Ghia and Tony Formoso adding to Tim Booth's initial ideas.

• <08-Mar-04>: Another of Edouard Staniczek's models is now in the Train-sim.com library, the SNCF 2D2 5546 Waterman electric loco (with sounds by Belphegor), 2d25546.zip (9.3Mb, 07-Mar-04). Jim England has repainted another set of SD50s, on this occasion into Denver, Rio Grande and Western livery, rgsd50pk.zip (9.9Mb, 07-Mar-04). Chad Thompson's desktop backgrounds, pix.zip (1.2Mb, 08-Mar-04), might give others some ideas of alternatives to the default MSTS backgrounds - for comments, see this thread in the Train-sim.com forums. Bruno Astorg continues to produce fine models of SNCF R.I.O. carriages which also include a driver trailer for push-pull operation - his latest is a set of R.I.O. 77 Regional Stelyrail (red livery) for the Rhone-Alpes, rio77_stelyrail_rouge.exe (17.3Mb, 07-Mar-04).

• <07-Mar-04>: Tony Calorel has been busy and all but a couple of new additions to theTrain-sim.com library today are the result of his work. So you should be able find a number of freight wagons with various company advertising to add to your freight roundhouse. web•TrainSim's attention was drawn to a Belphegor tutorial on programming MSTS sounds - you'll find it at his site. While there, browse through his sound sets which are his unique work. Belphegor's sounds are used in the TGV Duplex and many other trainsets and locos; if you haven't experienced them, download a French electric loco such as Edouard Staniczek's SNCF BB 12000, bb12kv2.zip (10Mb, 28-Feb-03) from Eduoard's site or Train-sim.com. web•TrainSim has been slack in keeping the latest version of ConBuilder available for download from here, as mentioned in ConBuilder's help file. Consequently web•TrainSim had harsh words with himself and both the version 1.7.4 update and version 1.7.3 full version can be downloaded from downloads.webDotTrainSim.com.

• <06-Mar-04>: Some new, worthwhile models are now at Australian Add-ons for MSTS, including Paul Gausden's NSWGR C35 class 4-6-0 steam loco, AU_nswgrC35_MSTS1_Setup.exe (2.3Mb, 05-Mar-04), Joseph Spinella's NSWGR&T 1-class tram, AU_SydtramR1_MSTS1_Setup.exe (2.8Mb, 04-Mar-04), and Matt Austin's Victorian Railway PL & BCPL carriages, AU_vrBPL_MSTS1_Setup.exe (6.2Mb, 01-Mar-04). The Train-sim.com library has more Milwaukee Road electric locos, including single Boxcab E57B for shunting and local freights, milwe57b.zip (2.8Mb, 05-Mar-04), and Bobtail booster E34C for the E57B, milwe34c.zip (1.9Mb, 05-Mar-04), and Boxcab EF cabview, efcomcab.zip (1.64Mb, 05-Mar-04). There's an updated ENGine file with improved physics by Bob Boudoin for Diesel-West's free Alco RSD-5, rsd5_v47.zip (18kb, 06-Mar-04). For those who like to know where to find a cab when needed can download one for the U.K. Class 60 loco, Class60.zip (1.2Mb, 05-Mar-04), from UKTrainsim.com. Route builders might like to read and comment on Tim Booth's ideas on maintaining a standardised tsection.dat file in the future; follow this thread at the UKTrainsim.com forums.

• <05-Mar-04>: At Train-sim.com Jim England has been busy repainting and his five SD50 locos in present-day Union Pacific livery are in download, upsd50pk.zip (4.9Mb, 04-Mar-04). Steven Wood has made many improvements to the MSTS default Genesis loco, including a revised cabview, genesis3.zip (16Mb, 04-Mar-04). Conbuilder has been upgraded to version 1.7.4, cb174up.zip (799kb, 04-Mar-04) - note this update only upgrades the EXE and help file, and you need the full install, cb173ful.zip (3Mb, 22-Feb-04), if you haven't yet got this vital MSTS tool. Finally, there are more Paul Gausden and Peter Nijmegen Airbus A330 Projects, such as Airbus A330 Project - France 1, a330fra1.zip (1.4Mb, 04-Mar-04).

• <04-Mar-04>: At the UKTrainsim.com file library, those looking for a Class 67 or Class 37 diesel-electric loco have plenty to choose from, such as EWS 67016, 67016.zip (2.7Mb, 02-Mar-04), and BR 37216, 37216ml.zip (2.8Mb, 03-Mar-04). Paul Gausden and Peter Nijmegen have added to their Airbus A330 Project at Train-sim.com, another example being Airbus A330 Project - East Europe 1, a330eeu1.zip (1.9Mb, 03-Mar-04). Finally, Amicitreni.net has a new 3D cab for the FS E656 electric loco (4Mb).

• <03-Mar-04>: There have been encouraging comments on the Train-sim.com forum about the Steam: South African Garratt simulation so you might like to check it out on its site and download the beta version of the program. There's a fix for J. H. Sullivan's Rollins Pass/Moffat Tunnel route that's been available for a while - it's download rmd2fixs.zip (1.1Mb, 28-Jan-04) - and solves problems for those who've been following the Trouble with The Milwaukee Road, Rocky Mtn thread on the Train-sim.com forum. Of interest to fans of the Full Bucket Line route will be the Full Bucket Line - Timetable No. 3 document, fbl-ett3.zip (509kb, 02-Mar-04), for vital information on speed limits, speed restrictions, station listings and siding capacities, among other things. There are some new models at Amicitreni.net, including electric loco FS E636 Ultima Corsa (7.9Mb), and others at Trenomania.it such as railcar set Complesso Ale724 in livrea MDVE (12Mb). Finally, at UKTrainsim.com the UK Regional route has been upgraded to version 2, UK_Regional_V2.0_Upgrade.zip (30Mb, 02-Mar-04).

• <02-Mar-04>: For something different, Stephensons Rocket can be downloaded from UKTrainsim.com in archive, Rocket.zip (2.3Mb, 01-Mar-04). At Train-sim.com you'll find Don Karch has updated his Rollins Pass/Moffat Tunnel route to version 3 - just add the files in rollinv3.zip (1.1Mb, 01-Mar-04) to your version 2 installation of the route. Michael Sinclar has more sound sets, these latest being for route builders: Paddington Station Ambiences, the first of three files being padd1.zip (10Mb, 01-Mar-04), and Waterloo Station Ambience, the first of three files being watloo1.zip (6Mb, 01-Mar-04). The Amtrak Heritage Car Pack, with carriages in Phase III, IV and V liveries, has been updated to version 2, amtkhtp2.zip (12.4Mb, 01-Mar-04). The TheTrain.de is on the air again, although the English version wasn't available this morning AEST.

• <01-Mar-04>: The innovative Milwaukee Road dominates the Train-sim.com library today with several models of their electric locos for download. There are Boxcab Electric E50A, milwe50a.zip (2.3Mb, 29-Feb-04), Boxcab Electric E50B, milwe50b.zip (2.1Mb, 29-Feb-04), and E47-C Booster, milwe47c.zip (1.9Mb, 29-Feb-04). You'll also need the cabview, efcomcab.zip (1.6Mb, 29-Feb-04), and sound set, efcomsnd.zip (3.4Mb, 29-Feb-04), to complete the package. Of course there's a route, namely J.H. Sullivan's Milwaukee Road Rocky Mountain Division 2 route, the first of eleven files being mlwrmd2a.zip (10.1Mb, 17-Jan-04). One reference on the Milwaukee's achievements, such as its 650 miles of electrified line built in the 1920s and the 100 mph Hiawatha, is Milwaukee Road Lines West.

As we run the first leg of our service, plenty of people are already out enjoying themselves at the amusement park on the Rhine.

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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.