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| Last Updated 12-Mar-2007 |
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This page is a list of loco sound packs that are available for specific locos which web•TrainSim has listed in his database of downloads. However he hasn't downloaded or tried all of them, nor is the list exhaustive. In relation to GM Electromotive Division and General Electric locos, it's good to know some background information so that a loco has the most appropriate sounds. All EMD engines, up to the 265H in the SD90, are two stroke whilst GE engines are all four stroke. Early EMD engines, such as the 567, weren't turbocharged (actually, supercharged is a better description as far as web•TrainSim is concerned - EMD's so-called turbochargers are mechanically driven - the 265H has real twin turbochargers driven by the exhaust gases). By the way, EMD engines could give a good 30 foot exhaust flame when the turbocharger clutch slipped if the driver/engineer changed too quickly from dynamic braking to power. For the real story on EMD engine specs, see History of EMD Motors. John Clevedon's Loco Pages list all Australian locos, detailing their engine specs and is an excellent resource.
The purpose of having the Common.Snd sub-folder under the Trainset folder is to save disk space. By being able to refer to a common folder of sounds for locos with the same engine, thus the same sounds, each loco of the same engine type shares the engine sounds rather than having its own sound folder using unnecessary disk space. Check in Explorer if you already have a Common.Snd sub-folder. Some loco packs and trainsets with a self-installer place their sound files here, so you might already have a Common.Snd. Otherwise create the folder yourself so you can install sound files there from the archives listed below that require manual extracting and copying of files. web•TrainSim sometimes changes the folder name from what the author suggests, mainly to be able to more easily recognise the folder's contents and engine type. As well, the two Sound Management System (SMS) files may undergo a name change to something more appropriate for easier recognition.
The term, aliasing, simply means telling MSTS to look in a certain folder for a loco or power car's sounds. By default, MSTS firstly looks in a loco's Sound sub-folder for two files, one for cab sounds and the second for the sounds we hear when viewing the loco externally (e.g., with a 4-key view). When aliasing, what we do is tell MSTS to look elsewhere for a particular loco's sounds. Some editing of a loco's ENGine file is required and we always use WordPad (or another Unicode text format editor) for this task. Browse through a sample ENGine file to see the two lines referring to sounds, one at the end of the Wagon section after the Lights definitions, the other at the end of the Engine section, usually just before the Description lines. Keep this page open as we'll refer to it below in our editing demo. Let's assume we've set up Common.Snd and given meaningful names to each sub-folder (web•TrainSim sometimes changes the author's folder name and SMS file names for better recognition). Start WordPad and open the ENGine file of the loco for which we want to edit the sounds. Sometimes you'll also need Explorer open at your Common.Snd folder and the specific sounds sub-folder to prompt your memory as for the folder name and the names of the two SMS files. Let's say we want to change an SD40 loco's default sounds to a better version we've heard about and want to try. We've installed these new sounds and have Explorer opened at their sub-folder, say EMD_SD40, under Common.Snd. Scroll down the sample ENGine file until you see this line: Sound ( "sd40Eng.sms" ) We want to tell MSTS to use look in another folder for our better sounds, so we edit the line above so it looks like this: Sound ( "..\\..\\Common.Snd\\EMD_SD40\\sd40eng.sms" ) Now scroll further down the sample ENGine file until you see this line which tells MSTS where to find the sounds we hear in the cab: Sound ( "sd40Cab.sms" ) We change this line to the following: Sound ( "..\\..\\Common.Snd\\EMD_SD40\\sd40cab.sms" ) Save the file and exit WordPad. All done! Those ..\\..\\ tell MSTS to firstly back out of the loco's default Sound sub-folder, and then back up one more folder, i.e., to the Trainset folder. Now go down to the Common.Snd folder, and finally to the sub-folder containing the required SMS files. Of course, you can see that it follows that aliasing sounds can also be applied to electric locos, power cars, trams, freight wagons and carriages. There are several locos, trainsets and trams which have been tuned for more prototypical performance and, in most cases, sounds haven also been aliased so look through the Tune ups section in the Op Docs on the right.
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