Suono Italia

Sounds, authored by Vittorio dell'Aquilo, for Italian electric locos are in download it_sound.zip (1.6Mb. 02-May-02) from train-sim.com.

web•TrainSim could see that these sounds would be used by various electric locos, so created a sub-folder, FS_Elec, under Common.Snd.

Drag'n'drop the WAVs and the SMS files, xxxxCab.sms and xxxxEng.sms (the ones that have path Suono_Italiano\New Locos\ in the zip) from the archive into this new sub-folder.

Rename xxxxCab.sms and xxxxEng.sms to FS_ElecCab.sms and FS_ElecEng.sms for easy recognition.

Now you'll need to open each in WordPad, or your favourite Unicode text editor, to remove the ..\\..\\Suono_Italiano\\ path name wherever you see it preceding a WAV file name.

You'll also need to remove the ..\\..\\HHP\\SOUND\\ path name that precedes the ...couple... and ...uncouple... WAVs since it's not required as they're looked after by MSTS in its global sounds folder.

Now you can edit ENGine files, such as for the E464.103 loco and the ETR Y500 and ETR401 trainsets, to alias their sounds to the FS electric sound set.

ALe841 sounds

The ALe841 trainset has its own horn sounds but otherwise uses the Suono Italiano sounds.

A simple method to use these horn sounds without a whole lot of extra work is as follows:

• Open Explorer and navigate to the FS_ALe841_pack folder, then the Sound sub-folder and copy Trombaout.wav and Trombain.wav to the Common.Snd\FS_Elec folder.
• With Explorer still open in the Common.Snd\FS_Elec folder, make copies of both FS_ElecCab.sms and FS_ElecEng.sms.
• Paste each back into Common.Snd\FS_Elec and you'll have two files named Copy of FS_ElecCab.sms and Copy of FS_ElecEng.sms.
• Rename Copy of FS_ElecCab.sms to FS_ALe841Cab.sms and rename Copy of FS_ElecEng.sms to FS_ALe841Eng.sms.
• Open FS_ALe841Cab.sms in WordPad or your favourite Unicode text editor, scroll down until you find fischio.wav - replace this with Trombaout.wav. Scroll down a bit further and you'll find another edit to do. Check and save.
• Open FS_ALe841Eng.sms and scroll down until you find fischio2.wav and replace it with Frombain.wav; there's another instance further down to be down. Save.

Now you need to edit the ALe841 ENGine files in the FS_ALe841_pack folder so the Sound () lines point to the SMS files in Common.Snd\FS_Elec:

• Scroll down or use CTRL-F to find the first Sound () line which looks like this:
• Sound ( "FS_ALe841Eng.sms" )
• Edit this line by inserting ..\\..\\Common.Snd\\FS_Elec\\ so you have:
• Sound ( "..\\..\\Common.Snd\\FS_Elec\\FS_ALe841Eng.sms" )
• Scroll down towards the end of the ENGine file to insert ..\\..\\Common.Snd\\FS_Elec\\ in the Sound () line for cab sounds - you'll end up with this:
• Sound ( "..\\..\\Common.Snd\\FS_Elec\\FS_ALe841Cab.sms" )

There are three other ENGine files to edit - it won't take long and everything is then consistent.

E402p, E402a cab

E402a cab. The ETR460 is pulling out of its departure platform.

The FS E402 prototipo electric loco pack, fs_e402p_packv1.zip (4.58Mb, 13-Apr-03, from Allfreenet.it), includes an E402a cab. So it could be used easily for other E402a locos, web•TrainSim thought he may as well move the cab to a sub-folder under his Common.Cab folder so everything was where he could later find it.

He made a sub-folder named FS_E402p under Common.Cab and moved all files from fs_402p_pack\CabView to this new sub-folder. As usual, web•TrainSim renamed the CVF to reflect its folder name, FS_E402p.cvf, for easy recognition.

Then the only job remaining was to prefix all graphics ACE filenames in the CVF with the folder pathname, ..\\..\\Common.Cab\\FS_E402p\\.

While you've got WordPad open and before forgetting about which locos now need their CabView lines altered, do the ones in the fs_402p_pack folder. Open each ENGine file in turn, scroll down to the CabView line, and replace the file name there with:

CabView ( "..\\..\\Common.Cab\\FS_E402p\\FS_E402p.cvf" )

FS npBD Rib cab

When setting up a push-pull consist with the FS npBD Rib XMPR1 pilot car, a check with ConBuilder revealed a a small problem with the naming of one of the graphics ACE files in the cab file, FS_npBD_Rib.cvf.

You'll find this cab file in the Cabview folder under FS_rib_XMPR_pack, the default install folder for the FS Rib XMPR pack by Hans Engler (FS_ribXMPR_pack.zip 5.01Mb, 30-Dec-02, from Trenomania.it).

It will only take you a couple of seconds - you'll see that one of the graphics files, Spilotaright1024 is missing its ACE file extension so add that to the file name and all will be well:

Spilotaright1024.ace

E402 cab

This cabview is for E402b locos and, until one is made specifically, for E402a locos. The download file is Cab-FS-e402b.zip (1.08Mb) from digilander.libero.it/pek317/.

Under Common.Cab, create a folder named FS_E402b and drag'n'drop the files from the archive into this. For easy recognition, web•TrainSim renamed to CVF file to FS_E402b.cvf.

The next step is the usual one to use WordPad or your favourite Unicode text editor to prefix each ACE graphics file in FS_E402b.cvf with the appropriate folder path name, in this case ..\\..\\Common.Cab\\FS_E402b\\.

Save, and then look at which ENGine files you'll also need at this stage to edit to alias their cabs. Obviously any E402b locos and for the time being, E402a locos. Find the Cabview line and edit it to read:

CabView ( "..\\..\\Common.Cab\\FS_E402b\\FS_E402b.cvf" )

E656 cab

web•TrainSim finally found the latest version of Alessandro Tardioli's FS E656 loco pack, fs_e656_packV5.zip (5.06Mb, 17-Apr-03), and realised he didn't have to set up any cab aliasing.

E656 loco pack V5

There are a number of E656 loco packs but look for Alessandro Tardioli's latest, fs_e656_packV5.zip (5.06Mb, 17-Apr-03), from trenomania.it.

The zip contains a self-extracting install program and you won't be able to access the readme until you've run the EXE. When you do peruse the readme, you'll see that Alessandro has modelled the E656 so it is set up prototypically to be an articulated loco. To see how this works, after installation, load one of the loco consists, such as FS E656 041.con, into ConBuilder.

ETR 401 loco pack

There are two ETR 401 trainsets installed when you run the self-extracting install in download, FS_ETR401_pack.zip (2.8Mb, 09-Mar-03) from trenomania.it.

You need the ETR450 cab, ETR450cab (1.6Mb, 06-Oct-02) from trenomania.it and the Suono Italiano sounds, it_sound.zip (1.6Mb, 02-May-02) from train-sim.com.

To set up the sounds, see the steps at the top of this page.

For the cab, web•TrainSim set up a folder, FS_ETR450, under Common.Cab in the anticipation that other locos might later use this same cabview. Then drag'n'drop was used to the move the files from the zip archive. The CVF file was renamed to FS_ETR450.cvf for easy recognition.

The next step was the usual one to open the CVF in WordPad and precede each ACE graphics file with the folder path name, ..\\..\\Common.Cab\\FS_ETR450\\.

Then the final bit of work involved editing the ENGine files for both the standard ETR 401 trainset and the trainset in Argento livery. Note each carriage is powered so there are four ENGine files for each trainset; you'll find them in folders FS_ETR401 and FS_ETR401-Argento.

ETR 480 trainset & cab

The outskirts of Via Grigione from the ETR 480 cab.

Update 19-Jul-03: Salvatore Valese has a new 3D model of the ETR480 Pendolino trainset, available for download from either Trenomania.it or AllFreeNet.it in FS_ETR480_Pendolino.zip (8.97Mb, 29-Jun-03). Look under the Locomotiva section. This trainset has its own sound set installed from the installer program, as well as Kenji Kimura's cab. The set is installed into folder FS-Etr480 and there's a consist named Fs Etr 480 Pendolino.con placed in your Consists folder. As a result of this updated version, we won't have to worry about doing any work on version 2 below to convert its end WAGon to an ENGine.

The ETR 480 high-speed trainset version 2, FSETR480.zip (3Mb, 12-Oct-02), is available from AllFreenet.it. There's an updated cab, cab-etr-480.zip (3.77Mb, 26-Apr-03), so download that as well.

You'll want to change the folder name in which you're going to install the ETR 480 to FS_ETR480 since the folder name given in the zip archive contains a space and that sometimes can cause MSTS problems.

Since you've got Explorer open, simply drag'n'drop the ETR 480 files into FS_ETR480, ignoring the zip's cabview files.

Create a Cabview sub-folder under FS_ETR480, open cab-etr-480.zip in WinZip and drag'n'drop the cab files. web•TrainSim renamed the CVF to FS_ETR480.cvf for easier recognition at some later date.

You'll need to open the ENGine file, etr480_eng.eng, in WordPad or your favourite Uniocde text editor to make a couple of changes:

• Firstly find the CabView line and change it to read:
CabView ( "FS_ETR480.cvf" )
• Secondly you'll need to alias the sounds to our Suono Italiano ones, so find the two Sound ( ) lines and change them as follows:
• Sound ( "..\\..\\Common.Snd\\FS_Elec\\FS_ElecEng.sms" )
• Sound ( "..\\..\\Common.Snd\\FS_Elec\\FS_ElecCab.sms" )

There are a couple of other parameters that you might like to change while in the ENGine file (the values below were taken from the tech specs page for the ETR 480 at La Mia Ferrovia):

• MaxPower ( 5600kW )
• MaxForce ( 280kN )
• MaxContinuousForce ( 215kN )
• MaxVelocity ( 132mph )

A consequence of changing the folder name to FS_ETR480 is that you'll need to build a consist file rather than use the one supplied; that's easy with ConBuilder. An ETR 480 formation is FS ETR 480 Highspeed Train + two FS 480 1.K1 + FS 480 Restaurant/Bar + four FS 480 1.K1 + FS 480 ENDE (names used are those that appear in ConBuilder).