Lapping the V/Line S302 brakes

Thanks to Christine Sweetnam, creator of V/Line S302, here's how you go about using the brake system fitted to S302.

If you'd prefer to substitute a self lap system (and not be prototypical), see below.

For more on train braking, see these references:

• Barry Andrews' explanation and practical exercises with the MSTS GP38-2 brakes01.zip (459kb, 16-Jun-02) from the Train-sim.com library.
• BNSF Air Brake & Handling Rules: www.bnsf-ttc.com/bnsftime/
• Train Air Brakes: www.trainweb.org/railwaytechnical/

Brake replacement for V/Line S302

Inside S302's cab at Williams Town.

If you're not comfortable with the method of lapping S302's brakes then you can replace this prototypical behaviour for the S class with a self-lapping system. Here's how you go about it.

In the usual manner, run WordPad or your favourite Unicode text editor and navigate your way to the VlineS302a sub-folder under the Trainset folder. The file you want is VlineS302a.eng so open it.

Scroll down the file, towards the end, looking for these lines:

    ..............
   Brake_Engine ( 0 1 0.0125 0
NumNotches ( 3
Notch ( 0    0 EngineBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
Notch ( 0.33 0 EngineBrakesControllerHoldStart )
Notch ( 0.66 0 EngineBrakesControllerFullServiceStart )
)
)
   Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.0125 0.25
NumNotches ( 4
Notch ( 0.0  0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
Notch ( 0.25 0 TrainBrakesControllerHoldStart )
Notch ( 0.5  0 TrainBrakesControllerFullServiceStart )
Notch ( 0.75 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
)
) 
    ..............

Replace the above with these lines (taken from 3DTrains' Penn Central F7A):

    ..............
   Brake_Engine ( 0 1 0.0125 0 
     NumNotches ( 1
        Notch( 0  1 Dummy )
     )
   )
   Brake_Train ( 0 1 0.0125 0.75 
     NumNotches ( 5
        Notch( 0    0 TrainBrakesControllerReleaseStart )
        Notch( 0.3  1 TrainBrakesControllerGraduatedSelfLapLimitedHoldingStart )
        Notch( 0.85 0 TrainBrakesControllerSuppressionStart )
        Notch( 0.9  0 TrainBrakesControllerContinuousServiceStart )
        Notch( 0.95 0 TrainBrakesControllerEmergencyStart )
     )
   )
    ..............

As a final thought, using the EMD 567 engine sound set, emd567.zip (153kb, 11-Sep-02), from the Train-Sim.com file library would be a fitting tribute to S302, one of the stalwart locos of Victoria's railways.

S-class cab

You'll see a note from James Brook when you're installing his VR S-class S300 loco that you need the S-class cab, Au_vicSClass_Cabview_Setup.exe (8.4Mb, 15-Nov-02), from Australian Add-ons to MSTS. Once you've installed this cabview, you don't need to do anything else so make up a VR passenger car trainset and take the S300 for a drive. Note that James has named his own cabview, s.cvf, and it obviously doesn't have the cuppa, so don't get confused with the naming of the cvf's below.

The download above contains both of Christine Sweetnam's S-class cabs, one without the NR cuppa, the other with the cuppa sitting on the control stand.

So download the S-class cabs and after installation into the Common.Cab folder, look in the CVF_Alias sub-folder under AU_SClass where you'll find two CabView Files, s.cvf and s_nm.cvf.

The readme in AU_SClass gives directions on how to use the cabs with other S-class locos. Having decided which cab you want to use, copy the appropriate CVF to the Cabview folder of the corresponding loco. You'll also need to edit the ENGine file, too, so edit the Cabview line to:

Cabview ( s.cvf )

to have a cuppa on the way, or, wait until you get to your next stop:

Cabview ( s_nm.cvf )

Alternative cab & sounds for Pilbara Dash 9

You might have a dialup connection that just won't enable you to download the NALW GE pack gemegav2.zip (52Mb, 19-Sep-02) to use the cab and sounds in Michael Forster's Pilbara Iron Dash 9. So here's an alternative.

Before we go any further, to install the Pilbara Dash 9, web•TrainSim suggests you use Explorer to create a new sub-folder named PilDash9 under your Trainset folder. Then drag'n'drop the ACE, S, SD and ENG files from the archive into this folder.

The second job is to re-name the ENGine file so the names of the folder and ENGine file are the same - this keeps MSTS very happy. So rename the ENGine file to PilDash9.eng.

Now open this ENGine file in WordPad or your favourite Unicode text editor to carry out the edits shown in red:

    ..............
   Wagon ( PilDash9
    ..............
    ... Scroll down past the Lights section ...........
    ..............
   Sound ( "..\\..\\Dash9\\Sound\\D9Eeng.sms" )
    ..............
   Engine ( PilDash9
    ..............
    ..............
   Wagon ( PilDash9 )
    ..............
    ..............
   CabView ( "..\\..\\Common.Cab\\Dash9\\Dash9.cvf" )
    ..............
    ..............
   Sound ( "..\\..\\Dash9\\Sound\\D9cab.sms" )
   Name ( "Pilbara Iron Dash9" )
    ..............
    ..............

Note we're assuming you've got your Common.Cab sub-folder set up and you've populated it with the aliased default cab views in cabalias.zip (28kb, 30-Oct-01) from the Train-sim.com library.

If you've got NALW's UP GE pack, up_gepak.zip (17Mb, 30-Apr-02), and you like to have in-cab signalling, you could alias to the UP Dash 9 cab that you've got as part of that download - here's the CabView line:

CabView ( "..\\..\\NALW_C44-9W_UP\\Cabview\\Dash9.cvf" )