Shelby to Whitefish Amtrak Empire Builder

This activity has been developed into two version and both are available for download. Please note that the version 1 traffic file will be overwritten by the version 2 one, so finish version 1 first before installing version 2 if you want to see it out to the bitter end.

Take along the rule book and BNSF training manuals for some quiet study for your next exams while waiting for oncoming eastbound freights to clear the line. The timetable gives you a three-hour trip but in practice it's about five hours.

You will be taking the contemporary Amtrak Empire Builder from Shelby to Whitefish. Departure time from Shelby has been adjusted back three hours to 1420 so you can enjoy the scenery for most of the trip (well, sort of - version 2 is in winter and it's much better for sight-seeing until the sun sets slowing in the west).

There is enough oncoming freight traffic to test your patience while you wait in passing loops because the dispatcher has given priority to his freight friends. In the current test, for example, web•TrainSim has had to wait for about thirty minutes at Bison West for two freights to go through. Until then at Glacier Park, he had his train fairly well on time. The wait at Pinnacle is worse!

As is usual, web•TrainSim has been testing in various weather conditions for variety.

Both versions of this activity have been compiled into a zip file with Route Riter so you can see what you're files you need to install. To repeat, Version 2 of the activity will overwrite the version 1 traffic file. So if you want to finish version 1, don't install version 2 just yet.

On the technical side of things, this activity works because of the robust signalling rules put into place by the Marias 3.1 authors.

To download, see here.

Oh, there's some blatant, pure and simple, advertising by web•TrainSim who has placed his 40- and 86-foot boxcars on various sidings.

For something different, web•TrainSim has put together a short photo story movie (460Kb) and you can view it in Windows Media Player. The free Windows XP Photo Story 2 LE tool is a clever way of presenting your photos and graphics accompanied by sound and narration. The photo story here is currently without narration.

The last carriage of our Amtrak Empire Builder passes the Izaak Walton Inn at Essex.

Rolling stock

All the following rolling stock is available from the Train-sim.com library. Hopefully web•TrainSim is correct with the Superliner coaches; check with ConBuilder and then use it to substitute other model Superliners if you receive any errors.

There are some loose consists of the web•TrainSim boxcars, but you can use ConBuilder to substitute your choice of rolling stock in running consists. Be careful, however, to keep the train lengths roughly the same as the original (i.e., don't increase a train length from, say, 50 wagons, to 100 wagons). Apart from perhaps not fitting on a siding, train speed will change with a heavier load and you could spend longer at any reds.

• 1949 Great Northern Empire Builder trainset, gn1949eb.zip (10-Feb-03, 27Mb)
• Amtrak P42DC Genesis #802 from Robert Fontaine's amt4pack.zip (30-Jul-03, 4.2Mb), update amt4upd.zip (08-Aug-03, 49kb) and cabview, p42tan.zip (26-Jul-03, 920kb)
• Amtrak Phase III Superliner coaches, ph3super.zip (04-Feb-02, 3.4Mb)
• BNSF Dash-9 pack #4 (re-textured locos by The Keystone Works, bnsfd904.zip (30-Sep-03, 2.1Mb)
• Great Northern Empire Builder full-dome carriage, gnebfd.zip (23-Sep-03, 1.4Mb)
• NALW Amtrak P42 and P32 Genesis pack, gen_pak1.zip (26-Mar-02, 15.7Mb), gen_pak2.zip (26-Mar-02, 3.4Mb), gen_pak3.zip (28-Mar-02, 10.4Mb), gen_pak4.zip (30-Apr-02, 19.3Mb), gen_snd2.zip (30-Apr-02, 3.2Mb)
• web•TrainSim 40 foot and 86 foot boxcars, wdts40.zip (26-Sep-03, 275kb) and wdtsbox.zip (18-Jul-03, 405kb)