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Old Heading  24 April  
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  29 April  Other Downloads
  27 April  Fun Page

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30 April

• And just to end this month on a humorous note (we can't be serious all the time around here, can we?! ) - do you know the  longest website address  in the world? Try this one:

www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk/

• 2  new work orders  for you today:

  • BRS-MN-0004 - Monon route (you will need the Bison Rail equipment to run this work order). At 1.00pm, take your Bison Rail EMD SD40T-2  from Louisville to Vernia - it should take you about 1 hour. Along the way, your work order is as follows. You and your crew have finished lunch from the KFC restaurant on your right and are ready for work! Proceed forward to the yard beside the Ohio River (note that the bridge is closing for you, but you don’t go that way!). Uncouple your caboose near the forward end of siding on which you entered the yard. Proceed using manual switching to pick up the autoracks on your right and then pick up your caboose again. Move forward and admire the river port facilities. At North Wye, reverse at the reverse point (ask permission at the red) and then manual switch to drop off your consist on the first siding in the yard opposite the engine sheds. Reverse back past this yard and pick up all the parts boxcars on the furthest siding, the first two boxcars only from the middle siding, and all the boxcars from the remaining siding. Pick up the rest of your autoracks with your caboose. Proceed forward through town onto the left siding before Vernia. Uncouple the caboose where advised, before you reach the siding to the unnamed Ford Auto Plant on your left. Manual switch to reverse and drop off the autoracks on the outside siding at the plant (when the rear car is at the end of the shortest building). Drop off the remaining cars on the inside siding (when cars are inside the building). Couple to your caboose and keep reversing until the work order ends on that siding.

  • BRS-FS-0021 - Frisco Fort Smith route (you will need the Bison Rail equipment to run this work order). Just before noon, climb into your Bison Rail EMD SD40T-2 for a 1 hour trip from Zero Mountain Storage to Springdale. Proceed out of Zero Mountain Storage and head for the wye after Fay where you turn train around.
    Do not come out of the wye before 12.10pm, as you need to wait for the passing tanker train on the main. If you arrive later at the wye, the tanker train should wait for you to enter the wye before it proceeds. Proceeding back up the hill, manual switch to pick up the soup reefers at Campbell Soup #3. At Fay yard reverse to pick up more soup reefers at Campbell Soup #1 & #2 (be careful on the steep grades). After Ralston Purina, manual switch to drop off the rear 3 reefers at Steele Can Co siding on your left. At Springdale yard, drop off the 3 remaining reefers at Steele Canning #2 yard space, then go forward past siding on right and then reverse onto it (manual switch) and drop off the boxcars at Springdale Warehouse. Take the engines to Yard Track 1 where the work order will end. Soup for lunch?

• Extracts from an RW news item earlier this month: EMD is now successfully transferred from General Motors to an investor group led by Greenbriars Equity Group and Berkshire Partners. It has been renamed from Electro-Motive Division to  Electro-Motive Diesel Inc . So even though it's no longer GM EMD, it's still called EMD. (Electro-Motive Diesel). The new company will continue to be based in LaGrange, Illinois.

The sale covers almost all of the Electro-Motive businesses, including North American and international locomotives; power, marine and industrial products; the spare parts and parts rebuild business; and all of Electro-Motive's locomotive maintenance contracts worldwide. Both the LaGrange, Illinois, and London, Ontario, manufacturing facilities are included in the sale. Electro-Motive employs approximately 2,600 hourly and salaried people. The company designs, manufactures, markets, sells, and services freight and passenger diesel-electric locomotives and diesel marine and power generation products for use worldwide. Since the early 1930s, Electro-Motive and its associates have produced more than 58,000 diesel-electric locomotives for customers in 73 countries. Electro-Motive diesel engines are used in over 100 countries worldwide. They currently produce the SD70M-2 and SD70ACe freight locomotives, plus the GP20D road-switcher. Earlier models included the SD90MAC, SD60MAC, SD40-2, GP30, E8, and the GP7.

• Interested in MSTS routes in France? Then www.funtrain.net is the website for you.  28 prototypical French routes  and 6 fictional French routes are listed and linked to download sites. Take a look - it will take just a few minutes of your time to appreciate the skills of the route developers.

29 April

• On the  Other Downloads  page: Route-Riter v6.2.64 - fixed a few bugs in the buttons which listed unlinked files, now gives a count of files in the Common folder.

• The  Bison Rail System  team have just released a 16-part work order series for the Wenatchee & Cashmere route (the 10 mile shortline based around timber and oil). Together, the series adds up  to about 5½ hours' driving time - switching and mainline running with some automatic switches and some manual switches. This series is is based on moving timber around the route. It is a well-thought-out series, with good, clear  instructions. I have run it, and it's great fun. What's the catch? It's available only to BRS engineers, so you need to join to access it.

28 April

• Mike Simpson, the developer of Route-Riter, has posted the following information on his website:

•  Looking for some work orders to run  at the end of the month to make some extra $$? Well, the ones in the table below have all been on our books for a while, and the customers are getting upset because we are not running them often enough (less than 4 or 5 times). We need to keep their business - can't let the road transport companies over at www.truck-sim.com take over our customers. So let's run some of these this month.

27 April

• From the  Other Downloads page  today: Route-Riter version v6.2.63. Added buttons to delete unlinked files from the Common Files folder, and to show how many files are linked, both in the Common folder and in a Route folder.

• 9  new work orders  today, for a variety of our routes:

• NEWH-152-06b - Whitefish 4. You leave from Troy at 11.15am in your Mikado on the third part of your journey from Sandpoint to Whitefish. This is a work train designed to service the lumber industry. Since your arrival in Troy it has started to rain, and the forecast says that it might turn to snow before your hour-and-a-half journey is over. (This work order is designed to use the automatic fireman, although you can do it manually. As always, save frequently and play it safe with the speed and crossings. But above all, have fun!)

• NEFS-117-01-BR01 - Frisco Fort Smith. Drive a Bison Rail EMD SD40-2 from Rogers to Fort Smith, leaving at 9.00am on a clear, spring day. You should be at Fort Smith before 11.00am. Pull forward across road but stop at the W sign before the main line. If you look behind you, you will see a priority tanker train approaching on the main. He will stop at the entrance to yard; you should then reverse slightly so he can see that you are waiting, and he will then proceed past you. When the tanker train is clear, go onto the main and reverse (using manual switching) on to the siding on the left and pick up the lumber cars at Brashears Lumber. Proceed to the Formam Lumber siding (about MM 351.5) and manual switch to reverse to pick up the lumber wagons there. Continue on the main past the Campbell Soup 3 siding, where the dispatcher will give you instructions to allow a local freight to pass at Fay Roundhouse Track. Proceed over the Ozark Mountains peak at Winslow and then down the scenic Arkansas River valley to Fort Smith (MM 414) on the set path. Drop your consist on the Fort Smith Yard 4 siding. Go forward, following the reverse point, and stop on the Fuel siding, where your work order will end. Refuel and refresh before the next sector!

• NECV-117-01-BR01 - Chippewa Valley. Drive a Bison Rail EMD SD40-2 from the West Route Connection to Cornell Yard, starting at 12.30pm for about 2½ hours. You have taken on some helpers from Fort Smith, as there are some heavy pickups to come. Proceed up the valley and past US Rubber, when a reverse point will appear. Reverse at the point beside Larsen Lumber onto the Dells Pond Siding, and then go through the first side of the wye. Continue reversing until the dispatcher tells you where to drop off your lumber wagons in the US Rubber yard. Then move forward with your engines only and turn them around through the wye. Reverse onto the main and proceed to EC Industrial and pick up pipe wagons. Return to Dells Pond and run the train through the wye, and then continue reversing to pick up the lumber wagons that you dropped off previously. Head forward onto the main, and if you are passing Larsen Lumber around 14.18, a tanker train will run by on the other track and on past Hallie with you. Continue to Chippewa Concrete, and stop on the main and uncouple from your consist. At the reverse point, reverse your engines to pick up the waiting consist with the helpers attached. Couple the new consist to your waiting consist on the main and proceed to Cornell. At the Cornell Yard you will receive instructions on where to leave the wagons so that you don't block the level crossing and where the work order completes. Onward to Cascadia Mine in next sector!

• NE-HP-090-BR01 - Hoodoo Pass. Starting at 6.00am and ending at about 8.00am, you will take a Bison Rail EMD SD40-2 from Trentwood to Helper Station #1 on a snowy spring day. This is the first part of a 4-part series of work orders.

  Introduction to the BR/CT Contract with the South East Division - the Background: The South East Division requested assistance in providing resources necessary to expand operations at Cascadia Mines as follows: "Cascadia Mines Inc plans a large expansion of their mining operations, due to the discovery of very large high grade ore deposits. To gain access to the ore bodies, new tunnels (Drives) need to be driven from the existing mining area to reach the ore bodies. Then new mining galleries need to be built so  mining of the ore can commence. Many materials are needed, from explosives. treated logs, shoring fixing systems, cement, pipes, heavy machinery, new drilling equipment, and new railway lines for the underground haulage system. Cascadia Mines Inc is looking for expressions of interest in transporting these materials, from their present locations to Cascadia Mines Hoodoo Pass. As much as possible, NERX rolling stock will be used in the transportation of the contracted loads. The BR&T will supply the necessary motive power in the SE Division, and if necessary, arrange to lease more locos to fill all needs. "
  
  After performing one of the first day operations, an engineer is selected to continue operations on the second day. Operations begin at Trentwood Yard by assembling all of the consists from the first day operations into one large train for delivery to Cascadia Mines. After assembly, the train is taken to Cascadia Mine, picking up and dropping off helpers (provided by SE) as needed. After arrival at Cascadia Mines, the train is disassembled and placed on sidings determined by negotiations with SE Division, and the engines are placed on the diesel fuel track.

• NE-HP-090-BR02 - Hoodoo Pass. Part 2 of the 4-part series. BR/CT has gathered all the portions required to satisfy the contract with the SE division. All contract items have been assembled into your train. Helpers are required to take this long, heavy train to Hoodoo Pass. This work order is the second in the second day of the series. You must pick up the helpers, take the train to Hoodoo Pass, drop off the helpers, and reattach to the train. You will encounter pass through traffic during this work order.

• NE-HP-090-BR03 - Hoodoo Pass. Part 3 of the 4-part series. BR/CT has gathered all the portions required to satisfy the contract with the SE division. All contract items have been assembled into your train, and it has arrived at Hoodoo Pass. This work order is the third in the second day of the series. You must take the train down the mountain to Cascadia Mine. You will encounter pass through traffic during this work order.

• NE-HP-090-BR04 BR/CT - Hoodoo Pass. Part 4 of the 4-part series. This work order completes CT's requirements to satisfy this contract.

• NENC-018-05 - North Coast Railroad. At 12.20pm, you climb into your Pacific 4-6-2 steam locomotive at South Fork. It's spring, and it's raining. Once a week passenger Train 20 heads north from Willits, stopping at all the logging camps, shifting the logging crews in and out. You're driving Train 20 today, continuing towards Scotia. The rain just started coming down as you pulled in to South Fork a few minutes ago. Thankfully, you're nearing the end of the run. You're ten minutes off-schedule, due to all the switching down the line, but it's especially important to get to Shively by 12:35 at the latest. You're meeting freight express Train 41 there. Make sure you're on the siding there by 12:35 at the latest to let it on through. This is part five of the work orders for Train 20.

• NENE-061-10a - North East Corridor. You climb into your NERX locomotive at 7.00am on a clear summer's day. Today, you are running from East Avalon via CSX to Elk Creek Munition, Edgewood Army Arsenal. After your pick ups, you will deliver the train to the Bayview Yard.

26 April

• We haven't had a look at the  current existing VRs  lately. Here is the current listing of the routes that they offer their members, taken from their websites:

  • Pacific & American - 43 members - 3 divisions, mainly payware routes:

    • Kings Gate - Cascade Crossing, Whitefish 5.

    • Mojave - Cajon Pass, Tehachapi Pass 2.

    • Belle Plaine - Clinton Sub, North Coast Route, Hoodoo Pass.

  • Great Lakes & Allegheny - 62 members, payware routes:

    • Kicking Horse Pass 2, Michigan Iron ore (LS&I), The Bridge Line (D&H), Sand Patch.

  • Bison Rail System - 45 members, potentially 5 divisions:

    • Bison Rail Midwest - Chippewa, Monon, Wisconsin Central, Hamilton Norfolk, Fort Smith Sub, CGW.

    • Bison Rail Narrow Gauge - Sumpter Valley - using Narrow Gauge equipment.

    • Bison Rail Europe - CityLine_U79, Wupper Express 8 - using German and European equipment.

    • Wenatchee & Cashmere RR - using WCRR, BRS and default equipment.

    • Bison Rail Australia - Under Construction.

  • North Eastern - 305 members - 5 divisions (numbers below in brackets are the number of work orders for that route):

    • North East - North East Corridor (49), Newark & New Jersey (30), Ohio Rails (57), LGV Med (13), Wupper Express (8), Unterland (10).

    • South East - Hoodoo Pass (52), Montgomery & Mobile (17), East River (23), East Metro (19), Florida Funnel Line (10), South Rail (14).

    • Central - Chippewa Valley (43), Wisconsin Central (36), Frisco & Fort Smith (14), Hamilton Norfolk (28), Monon (47), Niederelbebahn (10), Blue Mountains (10).

    • North West - Dual Fictional (93), Whitefish 5 (24), Marias Pass 3.1 (46), Seattle (30), Clinton Sub (4), Lehigh Valley (20).

    • South West - Full Bucket Line (66), Glorietta Pass (22), Raton Pass 2 (20), San Diego 2.0 (10), North Coast Railroad (9), Melbourne - Ballarat (9).

  • Ohio Valley System - 169 members, 2 divisions using the Ohio Rail Build 10 plus 2 others:

    • Shortlines - Canton, St Louis & North Arkansas, Arkansas & Ozarks, East Metro.

    • Narrow Gauge - Rio Grande Southern.

•  Word of the Day : Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - what does it mean, and how would you use it in a casual conversation?

25 April

• Only a week until the end of the month, so new material on this page during the next week will be limited to short news items. We'll start the new month with a couple of interviews with members - you will get to know two of our active engineers and very active forum contributors a bit better. And we'll publish an article on another of our steam locomotives - the Mountain 4-8-2, following on from the one on the Mikado earlier this month.

• If you ordered the  Donner Pass  payware route from 3DTrainStuff ("90 miles of extreme mountain railroading over the high Sierras back in the 1950s"), you shouldn't have much longer to wait. The news is that the first bunch of CDs has been posted.

But, from an even more reliable source, we hear the following (thanks, kip [ID#57]):

"Having been in contact with Brad Brown and John Dunbar recently, I pretty much got the inside scoop from them concerning CD printing and distribution ... Here's the scoop: Donner is huge. It is packed to the gills with goodies, and I'm not including the stock. So ... after the release announcement, Brad and friends proceeded to make the copies for delivery, and guess what? The entire route package and stock is too big for one CD ... it needs two. Yup ... that big. I emailed some suggestions to 3DTS, and I was told that the situation is now under control, and shipping will commence very, very soon. This week I bet.

Now ... let me say this: Brad recommends a high-end system to run this route. It eats up resources. Every item in the route was made entirely from scratch. Dozens upon dozens of terrtex files; buildings that are true to prototype from plans and photos of the 50s. Trust me, I know! When I started this project almost 2 years ago, I understood then that it would be set in the "transitional" time period (steam to diesel). That means making all the "goodies" that no longer exist. Anyway ... that's a lot of stuff to cram into 1 route 90 miles long. Remember ... Tehachapi and Cajon were desert routes ... Donner is a mountainous, forested and "snowy" area. Tons of objects to transpose to make the proper environment  Not easy.

So ... it's done and will be coming to those that ordered it very soon. You're really gonna like it. This is probably the best route EVER made..."

• Handy Hint: From time to time, we get queries about the problems of uncoupling using the  front coupler . Here's a solution from Robert Reedy - "Set your independent brake to about 30% or so. Then reverse using notch1 and slowly release your independent brake until you are just moving - less than 1mph for about 5 yards will do it. Uncouple as you go. If you have more cars than will show in the F9 window, simply uncouple them in series, one group at a time. This will work about 99% of the time. In fact, can't ever remember it failing for me."

• On the  Other Downloads  page: added the Czech language pack to the Train Store section of the page.

24 April

• We have a new  Old Heading  article from Bill Prieger (ID# 269) - about trackside Defect Detectors.

• We hear that Tony Formoso is upgrading  Train Store  to version 3.2 - it will be available in May. User-requested new features will be in the new version, including the use of multiple stock lists in a route, path lists in maintenance mode, and integration with Paul Gausden's Shape Viewer to view stock and consists. It will be necessary to install Shape Viewer separately.

• There are enough versions of the route with the word  Whitefish  in the name to confuse most people - especially your writer. However, here is information that will help to make the situation clearer. The information has come from a usually-reliable source, but no guarantees are given. If there are errors, please contact us. The various versions of the Whitefish route are:

  • Whitefish (v1) (Chuck Dollins).

  • Whitefish2 (v2) (rework of v1 by Matthew 'Batt' Smith).

  • Whitefish3-Hawk (rework/retexturing of v2 by Haken 'Hawk' Peterson).

  • Whitefish4-Hawk (continued rework/retexturing of v2 & Whitefish3hawk by Haken 'Hawk' Peterson). WF3Hawk and WF4Hawk by Haken Pettersson are in essence redecorations of WF1/2 (Chuck Dollins/Batt Smith). Hawk's main aim was at considerably improving vegetation & terrtexes, plus minor object placements, but WF2 tracks were kept.

  • Whitefish5 (rework of v2 + extension by Ren?ump). WF5 by Ren?ump is a full rework of WF1/2, including track re-laying, a prototypical straight Flathead tunnel, major terrain corrections, many new objects, and the Spokane/UP line from Sandpoint to Eastport via Bonners Ferry.

  • Marias-Kootenai (v3.0 Marias/v1? Whitefish by Frank Carver)

  • Whitefish 6 ( rework of v2/v5 - Ren?ump) (hopefully pre-1970). This version extends the route from Stryker over Eureka to Lake Koocanusa, i.e. the non-flooded part of the old route before the Libby Dam and the Flathead Tunnel were constructed. This section roughly reflect a 1970s' status, not the downgraded Eureka Subdivision as it is today. Additionally, Libby yard, the whole Bonners Ferry area, and Sandpoint were remodeled, distant mountains improved, and signaling remade from scratch. Plus a few eye candies (Katka Canyon wilder, animated tunnel gate at Twin Meadows, some sidings lengths made prototypical, etc.)

  • Whitefish 7 ( continued work on v6 - Ren?ump) - not yet released.

  • sooner or later Kootenai/S.I. Line (? - macster).

23 April

• An MSTS route that was released on train-sim.com a few days was the  London & Port StanleyRailway . The route's developer has published a comprehensive coverage of the route on his website, much our own Robert Reedy did for his Dual Fictional route. In the introduction to the L&PS route, he says: "Presented here is the London & Port Stanley Railway as it was in about 1927. The route traverses 24 miles of rural countryside from London, Ontario, Canada to Port Stanley on the Lake Erie shore. Electrified in 1914, the line operated a number of unique passenger and freight motors, many of which you will see here. The 1920s were an exciting time for the L&PS, with both freight and passenger traffic hitting near-records. The beach and amusement facilities at the Port provided a popular destination for area residents and generated much of the passenger business. The line enjoyed significant freight revenue through delivery of loaded coal hoppers from the Marquette & Bessemer car ferry to customers all along the route. The L&PS interchanged with four major steam roads, providing a source for additional traffic in both freight and passenger transfers." He has a mile-by-mile set of pages that tell the story of the line in both words and very good pictures taken along the MSTS route, and a page listing the equipment used on the line, along with photos of the equipment. He states that his aim in modeling the route was historical accuracy.

The picture to the left shows a model for the L&PS route from the Train-sim.com file library - "The No 2 Interurban for the London & Port Stanley Railway - a 1914 Jewett Motor Car, 61 feet long and weighing 47 tons. Model by Wayne Campbell, which includes a cab view. Sound by Chuck Zeiler." There is also a GE 44-tonner diesel locomotive available in the same file library. And there is a wide range of interurban equipment - both passenger and freight - available there as well.

If you are looking for something different from the heavy duty routes that make up much of the inventory of MSTS routes, then this might be just what you need.

• Do you have any of the routes (e.g. Sandpatch) on which the activities end with an "Activity Failed" message if you don't sound the horn on the locomotive before each and every grade crossing? Does it annoy/aggravate/enrage you? There are two ways that you can switch this feature off, but both of them are tedious.

  • Do these steps for each crossing on the route:

    • Open the route in the Route Editor and find the crossing.

    • Select the crossing object to get a wire-frame, and then right-click on it.

    • Click on the "Level crossing" tab and then edit "Crash probability" to be 0.0%.

    • Click "OK" and Save.

  • The second method involves going to the .W files of the route, opening and checking every one for "CrashProbability" lines. When you find one, set the value in it to zero (0). To open/close the /W files, you must use a Unicode editor, such as Wordpad (or a recent Windows XP Notepad).

22 April

• Back on 10 April, I wrote: "The North West and South West Divisions were the only ones in March which had 5 engineers from their own rosters in their top 5 tables  - showing the most time slips submitted. The NE had 3 of its own engineers in its table, the Central had 3, and the SE had 0." With 3/4 of April having almost gone, the situation now is as follows:

  • the NE, NW, and SW all have 5 of their own engineers in the top 5 in their divisions,

  • the SE has 2 out of 5, and

  • the CT has 1 out of 5.

  What does this really mean? You decide! I just report the facts!

• Back on 1 April, I wrote: "Which work order was run the most times in March? I can't tell easily from the statistical tools available to me." Well, I still can't tell precisely, but I have had a quick perusal of the time slips that have been submitted so far this month. No work order appears to have been run more than 8 times, and there are a few that have been run that many times - mainly the new ones. But the "old faithfuls" like the Grainmove work order for the Wisconsin Central route keep being run by a couple of engineers each month.

• 11 rookies have graduated from the  WCN  to become NERR engineers so far this month, and we have 10 others who are currently going through the WCN program. Congratulations to Dan and his very, very small team for helping these people start to make the most of their MSTS experience!

• Do you know  when MSTS was first released  onto an unsuspecting world? Keep watching the news page - we'll remind you. The date varies, depending on where you live - we'll take somewhere in the middle.

• Note from Bob Burrows (ID# 126): "This may be old news (the utility certainly isn't brand new), but it has helped me through some very computer resource-intensive routes and activities.  FSAutostart  was originally developed for Flight Simulator but works equally well for MSTS. It's a utility that shuts down unnecessary processes that run behind the scenes in your computer to give MSTS more 'headroom' to operate in. There have been a number of programs that do that, but this is by far the most comprehensive and flexible that I've seen - plus, it does a memory defragmentation so that more contiguous chunks of memory are available. It's a free download from here.

• Even though  our three current columnists  have not sent us any new material for a while, the links to their pages will be kept at the top of the news page, as their columns are of ongoing interest to our readers. The information in the columns is not current affairs or short-term news items, but rather comment or educational.

21 April

• For some thing different:   Interurban rail lines  developed as direct competitors of regular rail lines in many parts of the U.S.A. Very quickly after city street railways were electrified, companies were set up in the late 1800s and early 1900s to run frequent, inexpensive, high-speed trolley services between cities all over the United States and in many parts of Canada. These trolleys were  larger and much faster than intra-city trams or trolleys, and were called 'interurbans'. The map to the right shows the interurban networks that existed in the Midwest. The map is incomplete, as it shows only the electric lines.

The interurbans had several advantages over the steam railroads:

• The electric interurban trolleys were very economical to operate, so they could carry passengers for less money, so the fares were cheaper. The lower operational costs allowed them to provide more frequent service than the steam railroads.

• The trolleys had powerful electric motors and were able to accelerate much more rapidly than a steam locomotive, so they were able to keep to faster timetables than the steam railroads could. Even though the interurbans often made more stops in country areas than the steam railroads did, they could still maintain a faster schedule because of their faster acceleration.

• Because the trolleys could make more frequent stops, they became popular with farmers (to move their produce) and other people (to move passengers) who lived in rural areas. The interurbans were thus able to serve a market that the steam railroads could not serve economically.

• The trolleys entered the cities and towns on the rails of the local trolley line, so the interurbans could bring their passengers directly to the business districts. The railroad depots were usually some blocks away from this area of the city, so their passengers had to either walk or hire a vehicle to take them to their final destination.

There at least three interurban routes (and a good collection of equipment to run on them) for MSTS at train-sim.com, including:

• L&PS Bathurst St. Yard - represents the switching yard of a small electric interurban line located in London, Canada in the 1920s. Twelve car spotting locations and a compact two track yard with run-around.  This is the newest and smallest (1 tile only) interurban route at train-sim.com.

• DownTown Trolley 1.0 - a fictitious route system for trolley and interurban running. It is made up of eight urban branches and two interurban branches of about 65 miles in total.

• Mesaba Electric -  an interurban line that ran across the Mesaba iron range of northern Minnesota until 1928. There are four different railroads in this route:

  • 1. The Mesaba Electric is the primary road, and runs from Hibbing to Gilbert, via Kitzville, Chisholm, Buhl, Mountain Iron, Virginia and Eveleth.

  • 2. The Great Northern runs from Hibbing to Virginia, with a branch to the Glen Mine, and another branch diverging to Chisholm.

  • 3. The Duluth, Missabe & Northern runs from Hibbing to Virginia.

  • 4. The Duluth Winnipeg & Pacific only exists in the Virginia area, and extends north of there.

• Want something else a little different? Try an MSTS  route from Hungary ! The Z-Line, a Hungarian fictional railroad, has just been released here. "This is a Hungarian fantasy line, about 400 km long, in which several main and secondary routes, and two border stations, can be found. In the Szombathely, Nagykanizsa, Dunaújváros, Székesfehérvár square the terrain is true to life. The stations in Z-line were named after some Hungarian towns and railroad stations. Since in TS the simultaneous use of the electric and non-electric lines is very difficult, the overhead-wire pylon shows whether the line is electrified or not." The route's developer states: "I started to build Z-line on 20th September 2004, and it took 6 months to finish. Most of my free time was spent with the construction. I had no experience of the Route Editor and also, I had never ever set down a rail before. I am not a railroad man, just a railroad fan, so Z-line should be looked at this way. As I have put emphasis rather on spectacle, there must be some errors formally, such as some stations full of objects, which causes low fps." A mega-pack of activities is being prepared for release as well. The eventual final length of the route is planned to be 700-800 kilometers.

There is just one small catch ... or, rather, a large catch. The route download is 785Mb in ONE file!! Can someone introduce this guy to Route-Riter? When you download and install it, it will take up about 1.5Gb on your hard drive.

• On the  Other Downloads  page: Route-Riter v.6.2.60 - various downloads that will update your version in a variety of ways, depending on which version you have now. v6.2.60 replaces the Xcopy command in the Copy files to common file option with the VB Filecopy command. This allows the program to check if the file already exists in the Common folder and does not overwrite it. Also cleaned the code up.

For those users who get error messages when they run RR, Mike has listed some of the common errors and their causes and solutions:

Error Messages after Installation / Upgrading:

• I receive Error 76 when I first try to run Route-Riter after clicking OK on the Startup screen: The possibility is that the Route-Riter 6 registry entry has become messed up, in which case it will be necessary to use Regedit, and look for the entry:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\Route_Riter6 - right click on Route_Riter6 (and Route_Riter as well if it exists from a previous version) and select Delete from the menu. The program should then run OK. (The registry entries are then re-written when you next exit RR.)

• I receive Error 429 whenever I try to Check a Route or do some other functions in Route-Riter: The error 429 has always been caused by problems with either .Net or the Tokens not being registered properly. This is caused when the .dll required to compress/uncompress files is not installed properly. Make sure that you have Microsoft .Net Framework v1.1 installed (go Control Panel/Add Remove programs to see if it is listed). Make sure that TK.MSTS.Tokens.dll and .tlb are both in the Route-Riter folder along with regasm.exe and InitTokens.bat. Click on InitTokens.bat – this should take up to 5-10 minutess to uninstall the old tokens, then hit any key and it will install the new ones. This should then tell you the tokens are installed, after which RR should run OK.

• I receive Error 429 whenever I try 'Set up new .ENV files' or some other options: If you still get this Error 429 after you have carried out the option in the 2nd dot point above, and you find that you can run the 'Check Route' option successfully, then it is likely that you have a problem running scripts on your PC. This can be overcome by going to the Desktop Start/Run box and entering:- regsvr32.exe scrrun.dll -
  then clicking the OK button. After this everything should work OK.

• I am using Windows 98 and am unable to see the Route-Riter help files: This is similar to the dot point just above this one: Windows 98 does not natively read .chm files, so it needs hhctrl.ocx installed to do this, this file must also be registered as above:- regsvr32.exe hhctrl.ocx - then you should be OK.

20 April

• On the  Other Downloads  page: Route-Riter v6.2.56 has been added to the downloads for those who do not wish to try the Windows XP-with-NTFS add-on that is described below.

•  Notice to engineers:  On the Hoodoo Pass route at about MP 590, please note that stacktrains carrying loads that are two containers high are unlikely to fit under the bridge!! Do NOT try to cross the bridge with such loads. Incidents should be reported to the Management. For evidence of the results of such attempts to cross the bridge, please see this thread in the NERR forums. Residents downstream of the bridge are having a great time with the goods from the damaged containers - and our insurance premiums are skyrocketing!

•  Handy Hint:  If you want to change the distance units in MSTS from kilometers to miles, there are two ways that you can do it.

• Open the route in the Route Editor. On the task bar, click on 'Route' and then select 'Properties'. Just over half way down inside the Properties window, you can tick on 'Imperial'. The units next to your speed limits will change from 'Kilometers per hour' to 'Miles per hour'. Click on OK, then Save, and then Exit.

• The other way is to open the route's *.trk file in a unicode editor like WordPad in Windows XP. Near the bottom of the file,  find the line:
  
  MilepostUnitsKilometers ( )
  
  Change it to:
  
  MilepostUnitsMiles ( )

  When you run that route next, the distance units will be in Miles.

19 April

• On the Other Downloads page:  Route-Riter v.6.2.59  - two new additions to this utility:

  • From the 6.2.58 version from a day or two ago - an option for Windows XP-with-NTFS users ONLY to set up a common folder for all Textures/Shapes. See the instructions enclosed with the file. This is an .exe only file and is the same as v6.2.56, so will only be of use to those who wish to try this.

  • Realigns the S and C buttons on the report form. Clicking these now automatically searches an .eng file for the Sound or Cab entries respectively. The Common folder option is now changed. The first button now gives users the option to copy all the Shapes/Textures/Sound files in a route to a Common Folder, while the second button now replaces all files, where possible, with a hard-link.

•  Coupler Cam:  When assembling a train, the 6 key will, in its default state, give you a view down onto the coupler of your rear-most wagon or loco from vertically above it. This lets you see how close you are to the stationary consist, and it is supplemented by a figure in white showing the distance between the moving and stationery vehicles. But this view is unrealistic - can you really fly above your train? There is a solution, if you want to hack a file.

 camcfg.dat  (camera configuration file) can be changed to give you a different view. You will find the camcfg.dat file in the Train Simulator\GLOBAL folder. When editing this file, you must use a unicode-compatible text editor, like Wordpad. And always make a backup copy of the original camcfg.dat file before you start changing it in any way.

In this version of Coupler Cam, you are viewing the coupler from the yard man's viewpoint as he walks along beside the wagons. When you use this view, hold the right mouse button down and move the mouse left and right to look up and down the tracks. The arrow keys do not work in this view. Here's what you need to do to the camcfg.dat file:

Find the Coupling Cam section and make the following changes:

camera ( CamTypeCoupling
CamType ( CamTypeCoupling CamControlRotate )

CameraOffset ( -8 2.5 0.0 )
Direction ( 0 90 0 )
RotationLimit ( 0 360 0 )

Fov ( 54 )
ZClip ( 0.5 )
WagonNum ( -1 )
Description (Coupling_Cam)
)

The changes are:

• The CamControl field has been changed to Rotate.

• The Direction field has been changed to 0 90 0. This orients you so that you look parallel to the horizon (the first 0), and to the right across the tracks (the 90).

• The Rotation Limit has been changed to 0 360 0. This gives you the ability to look all around at eye level.

• Set the FOV to 54.

Remember, you must use the right mouse button to look around. The distance between the cars is still shown in the window when you get close enough - less than 50. No responsibility is taken if this change totally trashes your MSTS installation. Make sure that you have a back-up copy of your original camcfg.dat file stored somewhere safe before you make any changes. You have been warned!

18 April

• A new VR! It's different from the NERR-type of VR - no set routes, no equipment of its own, and no CV&W work orders. And it's not part of the NERR system. The  Cactus Valley & Western VR  is now accepting engineers onto its roster. They are a "basic, no-frills VR devoted to having fun running trains in MSTS. You can submit trip reports for any route and any activity (send 2 trip reports with the MSTS evaluation file, to the email address on their website. You can post hours, make a little virtual pay, and, most of all, have lots of FUN!" Check out the details at their website.

17 April

• Do you think that the NERR should buy some more  railroad routes  to add to the NERR network? Should some of the less profitable routes be sold off? Have you had your say in the two threads in the NERR forums discussing that topic? Your opinion is important to us, so go and do it now.

• A couple of the MSTS routes that are available are set up so that the engineer must  sound the locomotive's horn  before each and every grade crossing, or the work order will immediately end with an "Activity Failed" notice. This can be quite annoying to some people. There are two ways that you can use to remove this requirement from the route. The routes that are set up this way include the Wenatchee & Cashmere v.1, Cajon Pass, and Sandpatch.

  • Open the route in the Route Editor and navigate to the crossing in question. Select the crossing object to get a wire frame, and then right-click. Click on the "Level crossing" tab and then edit "Crash probability" to be 0.0 %. Click "OK" and save. You'll have to do this for all the crossings that you want to change. You might want to write down the latitudes and longitudes of the crossings to make it easier to jump there in the Route Editor.

  • There is another way to change this situation. Go to the .w files of the route. Open each one  and go to each of the "CrashProbability" lines and set the value after that expression to zero (0). To open .w files, you have to use a Unicode editor such as Wordpad (or recent XP Notepad). It is a tedious process, but then, so is using the Route Editor method.

16 April

• Jim (ID# 260, Intelvet) has an excellent  series of photographs  of a railroad yard area on the NERR forums. Thanks for sharing them with us - they are excellent.

• The development of railroads is an interesting topic for many of us. Your writer lives in Queensland, Australia, which has one of the largest networks of 3' 6" gauge tracks in the world, almost all owned by QRail, a government-owned corporation. It has always been a single network with a single owner. So it is strange, but fascinating, to read about the many changes in ownership and the many changes in structure of other countries' railroad networks. The following notes are about one of the Canadian networks, the  Canadian Pacific Railway , and the numerous and extensive changes that  it has undergone since it was founded.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (current logo shown on the right) operates a transcontinental railway in Canada and the United States. It provides rail and intermodal transport services over about 14,000 miles of track, serving the principal business centres of Canada, as well as the US North-East and Mid-West. CPR transports bulk commodities (including grain, coal, sulphur, and potash), merchandise freight (finished vehicles, automotive parts, and forest and industrial products), and intermodal traffic (high-value, time-sensitive consumer products transported in overseas containers and in domestic containers and trailers). The CPR network consists of four primary corridors: the Western, the Southern, the Central, and the Eastern Corridors. Each of these has a number of collector and feeder lines.

The name of the Canadian Pacific Railway, like its American counterpart, the Union Pacific, has lasted the test of time. The CP was incorporated in 1881 to build from near North Bay, Ontario, to the Pacific Coast at what is now Vancouver, British Columbia. Since the end of World War II, there have been a number of  subsidiaries that have kept some of their own identity - including the Esquimalt & Nanaimo, the Quebec Central, the Dominion Atlantic, and the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo. After CP obtained full ownership of the Soo Line in 1990, CP began shedding man prairie branch lines and lines east of central Ontario in a major downsizing program. The label "CP Rail," was used for almost 20 years while the company was part of Canadian Pacific Ltd. Renamed the Canadian Pacific Railway, the rail subsidiary was sold in 2001 as an independent company. It kept its name and its beaver logo. Go to this website for a history of the logo and how it has changed over the years - an interesting story in itself!

The following six paragraphs describe the events that form the history of the CP. Each focuses on a particular railroad that was taken over by the CP as part of its expansion programs.

• The Delaware & Hudson Railway, the oldest transportation company in the USA (according to its records), dates from an 1823 charter of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. The D&H operated the first railroad steam locomotive in the USA, the "Stourbridge Lion", in 1829. In the modern era of uncertainty surrounding  north-eastern USA railroads, the D&H was firstly taken over by Norfolk & Western in 1968, then returned to independence in 1972, then was acquired by Guilford Transportation in 1984 and placed in bankruptcy by them in 1988, then was sold to CP in 1991, then became part of the St Lawrence & Hudson (a CP subsidiary) in 1996, then reverted back to CP in 2000, and finally was placed under the control of the Soo Line in 2001. The D&H remains a Soo subsidiary, but it is operated as part of CP's overall system.

• The Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic was incorporated in 1883 to build track from the Twin Cities east to a connection with CP. In 1888 MSSM&A, Minneapolis & Pacific, and two other railroads merged to form the Minneapolis, St. Paul, & Sault Ste. Marie, nicknamed the "Soo Line" - the name comes from the pronunciation of the word 'Sault'. At the end of 1960, MStP&SSM merged with subsidiaries Wisconsin Central Railroad and Duluth South Shore & Atlantic to form the Soo Line Railroad. CP had owned 56% of Soo for many years. They tried to sell it in the 1980s but ended up owning the whole company in 1990. The Soo remains a CP subsidiary, but it is operated as part of CP's overall system.

• The Milwaukee & Waukesha Rail Road was chartered in 1847 and opened in 1850 as the Milwaukee & Mississippi. The Milwaukee & St. Paul, an 1863 reorganization of the 1858 La Crosse & Milwaukee, took over the St Paul & Chicago in 1872. In 1873 it built track from Milwaukee to Chicago and added “Chicago” to its name to become the Chicago, Milwaukee & Waukesha Rail Road. Between 1905 and 1909, it built the Pacific extension to Seattle and Tacoma. After it went into bankruptcy in 1925, it emerged in 1928 as Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific. Bankrupt again in 1977, it sold off the Pacific extension and several other lines. The Chicago & North Western, the Grand Trunk Western, and the Soo Line made take over bids for the railroad. The battle was finally won by the Soo Line in early 1985.

• The Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railway was incorporated in 1918 to take over the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester & Dubuque Electric Traction Co. - the "Dan Patch Lines" - which, in spite of its name, was never electrified. It used steam for freight and gas-electric power for its interurban passenger service. It became a profitable 87-mile Minneapolis to Northfield local industrial line. It was taken over by the Soo Line in 1982.

• The Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway was incorporated in 1887 as a merger of several Michigan ore-country lines. The South Shore was taken over by the Canadian Pacific in 1890. It was reorganized in 1949, after a 12-year bankruptcy, as the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad. The name changed to the Soo Line Railroad as the DSS&A corporate structure survived in the 1960 merger with the Soo and the WC.

• The Wisconsin Central Railway was incorporated in 1871, reached Ashland (Wisconsin) in 1877,  St Paul (Minnesota) in 1884, Chicago (Illinois) in 1886, and Superior in 1908. It was leased by the Northern Pacific in 1890-93. The it was leased in 1909 by the MStP&SSM, which thus gained access to the north-country iron ore deposits and Wisconsin's Fox River valley, until WC's bankruptcy in 1932. After that, the Soo Line was the WC's "operating agent". The WC became part of the Soo Line Railroad as part of the 1960 merger.

• The Soo Line, after trying in 1987 to establish an "internal regional" on most of its own lines in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan as the Lake States Transportation Division, gave up the attempt to concentrate on its new system including the Milwaukee Road. The Lake States' 2300 miles of track were sold to a group of investors who reused the name and emblem (which dated from 1885) of the prior railroad on the majority of its lines. The Wisconsin Central Limited ultimately grew to a 3000-mile system, including the Fox Valley & Western, the Algoma Central Railway, and the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Co., which was the company used to take over 220 miles of ex-C&NW Upper Michigan lines from Union Pacific in early1997. The Wisconsin Central Ltd was taken over by the Canadian National line in 2001.

For another story about the history, go to this website.

14 April

• Noticed in the forums of the  Great Lakes & Allegheny RR  - this VR, which has changed management recently, is gradually getting operational again. They are starting to use a manual callboard until they re-install NETS. They are also starting to test new work orders. That's great news! Think about joining the GL&A when they are in full operation, and support them in their work with some of the payware routes that they use.

• From the Guinness Book of Records: The  shortest national railway  is in the Vatican City, where a 862 metre (2,828 feet) spur of track enters from Italy. It is used only for goods and supplies. The Vatican City has a population of around 900. It is so small that you could easily walk its borders in less than an hour.

13 April

•  Handy Hint  for today: If you're running the new beta MS Antispyware program that you can download from Microsoft, you need to be aware of the following potential problem. When you double-click the Installme.bat for a new route that you are installing, the file probably won't carry out any of its copy functions. You will notice that zero files are being copied - if you can read quickly enough! But never fear - there are solutions:

  • A second double-click on the Installme.bat will see everything carried out properly.

  • LOL!! About an hour ago in the NERR forums, Kip reminded us that there is another solution to this problem. "I just right-click the Icon and shut it off. No more problems. I have had some play interruptions in the sim when the Spyware program pops on and does its business. Quite annoying. So, during sim operation (including RE/AE work) I shut it down completely... and restart it when I'm finished." Talk about interaction and co-operation around here! Now we have the News page and the Forums working together! Surreal! (As my kids would say!)

• Keep an eye on the main NETS screen - the positions of the Divisions in the table showing the  NERR statistics  for the current month has been changing frequently over the past week. There is quite a competitive spirit developing among the divisions.

• There are quite a number of work orders being run checked by the F-team at the moment, including a series or two. And there is a very  interesting discussion  in the NERR forums (Locker Room) about the current routes and work order development at the NERR, with a second, more focused thread in the NE Division forum - check them out and have your say.

12 April

• 1  new work order  from yesterday: NEWH-152-06a for the Whitefish sub-division. Today, on this clear autumn morning, you will be driving a Mikado steam locomotive for about 1½ hours. Your starting point for your work today is Bonners Ferry. This is the second part of your journey from Sandpoint to Whitefish. This is a work train designed to service the lumber industry. You will need to pick up 4 ballast cars at Crossport and take them to Troy to be used to repair bridges. Timing is not critical, but you'll want to get done as soon as you can.

• One of the ways that you can speed up the loading of MSTS if you do not want to use Train Store is to set up "mini-routes", as has been mentioned in a previous news item. One of the main proponents of this method has written a tutorial on how to use  the "mini-routes" method . Click here to read the tutorial. Remember that it does not change the number of consists in your Consists folder. If you have over 800 or so consists, you might start having random and strange problems with MSTS.

• The members of the  North East Division  of the NERR are having a discussion in the NE Division forum of the NERR forums about making changes to the network of routes that should be used in that division. If you have not had your say, you might want to check out the thread - it's getting quite lengthy. Currently, they are pondering over the value of having the European routes (Unterland and Wupper Express) in the division, what to replace them with if they are sold off, and what criteria should be used to select routes for the NERR. It can become very subjective at times, as everyone uses MSTS in different ways and for their own, very personal reasons, and we need to make sure that either we cater for that, or that we narrow our focus to cater for a much smaller range of MSTS users - and currently we fit the former pattern rather than the latter. These sorts of discussions are great to be part of, because it gets to the very heart of why we form VRs.

• Handy Hint: If you want to  change the units of distance  in a particular route, you can do it in two ways, as follows:

  • Open the route in the Route Editor. On the task bar, click on Route and then select the Properties item. Scroll down the menu list. About half-way down in the Properties window tick which of the Units that you want to use - Imperial or Metric. As you do so, you will see the units next to your speed limits change from Kilometres per hour to Miles per hour. Click on OK, Save, and then exit.

  • Open the route's *.trk file (in the root folder of the route - and make sure that you have unstored it first if your are using Train Store) in a unicode editor (e.g. WordPad in Windows XP). Near the bottom of the file, you will find the following line if your route is already using metric units (kilometres)

    MilepostUnitsKilometers ( )

    Change it to:

    MilepostUnitsMiles ( )

    If you want the units in imperial (i.e. miles), then change the line from kilometres to miles.

10 April

• A glance at the  main NETS screen  shows that there is currently a good competition going among the Divisions in terms of the number of time slips that the engineers have submitted this month - over 200 overall so far, with the SE division showing very strongly this month, being just behind the SW Division. Competition helps with engineer wages, NERR revenue, and the morale of employees - keep it up, guys!

• No prize, but  congratulations to wmlurgan  (ID# 299, B. Hile), from the NE Division, for his effort last month. He graduated from the WCN on 4 February this year and then submitted 46 time slips during February. In March, he submitted almost 90 time slips, with 23 in the NE Division, 29 in Central, and 18 in SE. He has been an NERR engineer for just 2 months and has already earned $7,299 from 168 time slips totalling over 240 hours. Great work!!

• The  North West and South West Divisions  were the only ones in March which had 5 engineers from their own rosters in their top 5 tables  - showing the most time slips submitted. The NE had 3 of its own engineers in its table, the Central had 3, and the SE had 0.

• There are currently 14 rookies in the  WCN induction program . 2 others have graduated so far this month.

• Mike Simpson, the developer of  Route-Riter , has posted the following message in another forum: "A bug has been reported in the Fix .sms files option of Route-Riter where it might incorrectly write aliases. The problem only occurs where an aliased .sms then further aliases to another folder in the same Common folder, e.g. the .eng file points to Common.snd\Dash9\Aliases\Dash9cab.sms and this file in turn to ../../Horns/dash9horn.wav. R-R was adding a further ../ to such calls, as I had assumed (wrongly) that all aliasing from within Common files would be back to some Default rolling stock folder. This is entailing a considerable rewrite, so it may take a little while to fix. So far it has only been reported by users of U.S. rolling stock."

9 April

• Another freeware route: the  CSX Tallahassee Subdivision , version 1.0. It covers the CSX Tallahassee Sub (western end), Madison to River Junction (Chattahoochee) Florida. Reviewers say that it gives good frame rates on almost all computers. It has

  • about 100 miles of main line,

  • 3 spurs ranging from 2 to 5 miles in length,

    • Apalachicola Northern (AN) for about four miles east and south from the AN connection track to the vicinity of the real-world Hardaway community.

    • Quincy Mine Spur, extending about two miles from the main track through the town of Quincy to the fuller's earth mine (locally known as the "Kitty Litter Factory"). This spur includes the most challenging grades on the route, as following the terrain resulted in two hills with grades exceeding 3%.

    • GF&A (CSX Bainbridge Sub), for about four miles north from the main track past I-10, including the Tharpe St. industrial park on the west side of Tallahassee.

  • seven passing sidings, numerous industrial switching locations, and

  • 3 small yards.

  It comes with the following activities: an Intro Train Ride, 7 default equipment activities, and 4 full prototype simulation activities requiring install of the provided locomotives.

8 April

•  Version 3.14 of XTracks  has been released. The self-installer version is now available on our website's Other Downloads page.

• 3DTrainStuff.com has released their  latest payware route : "Donner Pass Route - High Sierra Crossing features over 90 miles of double track mainline over Southern Pacific's historic Overland Route between Colfax, Ca in the west, to Truckee, Ca to the east. Set in the 50s during the height of the steam to diesel transition era." The package includes the route, 18 activities, and the following stock: 7 SP 2-8-0 Consolidations, 6 SP Baldwin AC-10, AC-11, and AC12 Cabforwards (Mallets), 7 SP Bloody Nose and Black widow FP7s, and F7s, SP Flangers, and Spreaders, 12 40ft Box Cars, 12 40ft Reefer Cars, 3 36ft Single Dome Tank Cars, 3 Gondola Cars With Scrap and Gravel Loads, 2 C-30-4 Baywindow Cabooses, 1 C-40-3 Cupola Caboose, 8 USRA Hopper Cars, 3 SP Gray/Black Heavy Weight Passenger Cars, 2 Cattle Stock Cars, 11 Flat Cars With Lumber, Tractors, M4 Tanks, and LCVP Loads, 4 MoW Flat Cars With Loads, 2 C-50-9 Baywindow Cabooses, and 6 Log Spline Cars With Loads. No download version - available only on CD for $US46.95.

• Another  freeware route  is available from t-s.com: The Stinky Creek And Cheesman Pacific v1.1. "This is a fictional Wild West railroad (1880-1890s) set in the south-western US. The route runs about 60 miles with 10 miles of the dual track mainline "Cheesman Pacific", and a 50 mile "Stinky Creek"  Branch line, including coal and silver mines and logging spurs." 7 files, each of about 15Mb. "One Main line station 'Cheesman Junction' on the north- south running Cheesman Pacific line with several sidings, including one to an engine roundhouse and service area, one spur to a coal mine, and one to the Stinky Creek Branch line Station - all in and around Cheesman City. There is one Station called Whistler and a Farm stop on the dual track Cheesman Pacific, with Farmland to the south and Badlands to the north of Cheesman, with bridges at both ends of town crossing the river. The Stinky Creek Branch line leaves and heads west and uphill, first into the high desert, with alternating grasslands, sand, and red rock. At the desert town of O.K. Corral, a spur leaves to the Patrick & Colin Silver mine, which can be seen from the high trestle of the S.C. line. We continue through cattle ranch areas with a stop at the PHK Ranch and hanging tree, an area frequented by train robbers. After a mid-length tunnel, the landscape changed to wooded hills. With the town of Longhorn in this area, there are plenty of cattle to be loaded. A couple of ghost towns, like Dead Horse Pass and Motherload, are along the way, with more mining activity. After another tunnel, the Stinky Creek is followed, and at the route's highest point, Summit Pass, it heads past a logging spur and finally downward into the town of Gun Hill."

• Some  things said  by famous people involving railroads:

  • "The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw." Friedrich Nietzsche (German classical scholar, philosopher and critic of culture, 1844-1900.)

  • "Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return." E. M. Forster (English novelist and essayist, 1879-1970.)

  • "You may seek it with thimbles - and seek it with care; You may hunt it with forks and hope; You may threaten its life with a railway-share; You may charm it with smiles and soap." Lewis Carroll (English logician, mathematician, photographer and novelist, especially remembered for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 1832-1898.)

  • "Sir, Sunday morning, although recurring at regular and well foreseen intervals, always seems to take this railway by surprise." William S. Gilbert (English lyricist, 1836-1911.)

  • "A railroad station? That was sort of a primitive airport, only you didn't have to take a cab 20 miles out of town to reach it." Russell Baker.

  • "A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging loudly and vainly as the train goes by." Christopher Morley
    US author & journalist (1890 - 1957.)

  • The human brain is like a railroad freight car - guaranteed to have a certain capacity but often running empty.

7 April

• Are you annoyed by  Kuju's MSTS movie  every time you start the program? It's easy to remove. Some people advocate changing the Windows Registry entry, but I'm not brave enough to do that. I went into the Global folder in my MSTS installation and changed the name of the startup.mpg file to startup.mpg.org. You can delete it, but I get nervous about doing that, so I just renamed it. Now, I don't even have to press the Esc key to bypass the movie - it doesn't start at all.

• The NERR has two  Mikado 2-8-2 steam locomotives . This class of locomotive was constructed by USRA from  1918 to 1944 . The Mikado could be found doing everything from yard switching to main line freight. The specifications of the locomotive can be found on the Steam page under the Fleet section of the Motive Power page on this website.

  Here is some more information about this very popular class of North American locomotive:

  • "Mikado" is the name generally assigned to the North American steam locomotives with the 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. It is believed that the name comes from the time of construction of locomotives of this wheel arrangement by Baldwin in 1893.

  • These locomotives had a 3 foot 6 inch gauge and were constructed for Nihon Tetsudo (Japan Railways), a private railway. The class of these first locomotives was "Bt4/6". "B" = "Baldwin", "t" = "with tender", "4" = drivers, and "6" = total axles.

  • After Pearl Harbor, some US railroads (including the B&O and Union Pacific) renamed their locomotives of this class "MacArthurs".

  • The first known example of this class in North America was on the Lehigh Valley. In 1883, that railroad rebuilt a 2-10-0 into a 2-8-2 with the aim to reduce flange wear on the rear set of drivers. The Lehigh Valley was one of the early pioneers of the 2-8-2, purchasing 47 centre-cab Wooten firebox-equipped locomotives between 1902 and 1905.

  • Early versions of these locomotives, both narrow gauge and industrial, were ordered with a trailing axle to permit ease in bi-directional operation. For road service, the Mikado was considered to be developed from the 2-8-0 and the 2-6-2, just as the Pacific was a product of both the 4-4-2 and the 4-6-0.

  • The 2-8-2 became the main freight locomotive of North America railroads, with at least 9500 being built for use in the United States. 497 were built for the Canadian National, 253 for the Canadian Pacific, plus an uncertain number for smaller Canadian railroads. The Nacionales de Mexico railroad later bought a number of 2-8-2s from US railroads, e.g. an order for 40 locomotives in 1921/23. The North American total, as of 1945, when almost all that were built would still have been in service, was somewhere over 10,000 locomotives. So, in that era, about one out of every five locomotives in service on North American railroads was a Mikado (or a MacArthur).

  
  

  • Why was this class so popular and successful? It was a relatively large locomotive - few were built with axle loadings of less than 50,000 lbs, and at least half were at 60,000 lbs and above. So these locomotives could handle general purpose freight trains of 3000 to 5000 tons at good track speeds. It was a well-balanced design with the lead axle and the two front driving axles being balanced by two rear driving axles and trailing axles.

  • Some coal hauling railroads, e.g. the Virginian, used 56 or 57 inch drivers for their Mikados. Mostly, however, driver diameters fell in the range of 61½ inches (Reading) and 64 inches (B&O, Burlington). With drivers in these diameters, and reasonably sized cylinders and big boilers, the Mikado was easily capable of 50mph and higher speeds.

  • Mikados were built as freight engines, with one exception. The Union Pacific, whose first 2-8-2s had 57 inch drivers, received a second order with 63 inch drivers which were intended for mountain passenger service. One odd feature of these "passenger" engines was this; they were equipped with "Vanderbilt" type tenders, common on the UP at that period, and had a dummy vestibule fitted to the rear of the cylindrical water space. This was to line up with the vestibule of the first car attached behind the tender, and was conceived of as a method of reducing sway, to what effect remains obscure. When the larger Pacifics, and Mountains, were assigned to passenger service on the UP, these Mikados had the vestibules removed and went into freight work. But, Mikados did work passenger trains, particularly on heavy grades and, for example on the B&O and the Pennsylvania, were frequently used as passenger helpers.

  • Obviously, the Mikado was in widespread use, to the extent that they were the main freight locomotive of North American railroads. But there were exceptions. Railroads which never owned 2-8-2s included the Boston & Maine, the Delaware & Hudson, and the Norfolk & Western. One exception to the domination of Mikados was on the Southern Pacific Railroad. That company owned 162 Mikados and 182 2-10-2s (called "decapods"  for obvious reasons.)

6 April

•  15,000 time slips!!  Mike Arndt (ID# 104, bigmvm) submitted time slip No. 15,000 yesterday - NEWH-110-SF03a, a 2½ hour diesel freight work order using an EMD SD70MAC locomotive. Congratulations!

And congratulations to all our members for continuing to maintain the NERR as such an active VR and a great virtual community to be part of. Now for the 20,000 mark!

•  2 new work orders  for today:

  • NEWH-152-06 for the Whitefish subdivision. Today is a clear autumn day, and you will be driving a USRA (Various) 2-8-2 (Mikado) steamer for about 1½ hours, starting at 0830 hours. This morning the supervisor wants you to take a steam train to Libby. There are several pickups and drop offs along the way. This is a work train designed to service the lumber industry. There has been a surge of activity due to the interest rates on housing going down. Timing is not critical, but you'll want to get done as soon as you can. There is a cold one waiting for you in Bonners Ferry! This activity is designed to use the automatic fireman, although you can do it manually. As always save frequently and play it safe with the speed and crossings. But above all, have fun!

  • NE-HN-073-BR01 for the Hamilton Norfolk subdivision. You will be driving an EMD SD24  from the Bison Rail herd. Your work order starts at 1200 hours and should take you only about 45 minutes. Looks like they hit pay dirt over at the Cascadia Mines, and the SE Division has been contracting supplies from across the entire NERR network and its subsidiaries. CT agreed to bring several items to the Hoodoo Pass connection. Hamilton-Norfolk was asked to contribute steel rails from the Parkersburg Steel plant. The crew spent the morning loading twenty flatcars and spotting them on the No 6 siding (right behind you). Transport these to the siding by Eureka Oil Distributors. After you drop off the steel, move forward past the switch and back your engine into the adjacent siding (follow the reverse point). Switches have been set for you, so get going.

• The  Central Division's HR Manager , Scott-Aus (ID# 120, Scott) has published a report on the performance of the Division in March this year - as both a report on their activities and an incentive to do better this month. (Any other Divisions that would like to publish similar reports can do so at any time.)

  • CT Engineers = 43 (+4 from Feb '05), representing 15% of the NERR Population - excludes HQ-based Staff.

  • Work Orders Available in CT = 191 (+6 from Feb '05), representing 23% of the NERR work order database.

  • Bison Rail Activities = 39 (+/- 0 from Feb '05).

  • CT Work Orders logged (by any NERR engineer) in March = 208 (down from 273 in February). This represents 21% of total NERR time slips logged for the month – down 4% from last month.

  • CT Work Orders ran comparable to all NERR WO types (Last Month in brackets)

    • NE = 132 (110)

    • NW = 307 (260)

    • SE = 78 (73)

    • SW = 248 (174)

    • CT = 208 (273)

  • CT Engineer Statistics:

    • Out of 43 Engineers in the CT division, 24 are currently active, one is on leave, and 10 are inactive.

    • Of the 24 Active Engineers, 23 logged NERR based activities, representing 56% of the engineers contributing to the Division.

    • Eight Active Engineers failed to log a single NERR time slip for March '05, which is an increase on last month.

    • The top four CT engineers of the month are:

      • 174 TimGJ – 20.

      • 90 – HiLine – 13.

      • 255 – Corny Cidermill - 13.

      • 181 – Northstar - 11.

      Well done guys!

    • We now have 10 engineers on the inactive board and three more listed as “Yellow”, which is on the increase.

  • CT’s Work Order effort is trending down now over the past three months, running third last month after a strong series of second places in the “monthly” stakes. Let’s see what we can do about returning to the solid efforts of months gone past.

• Occasionally, one of our members asks about the  maximum number of consists  that MSTS can handle before it starts to crash or at least to behave even more oddly than usual. The answer is generally given as being about 800, but it can vary, depending on the particular computer and MSTS installation. Other information that is useful to know about this aspect of MSTS includes:

  • 1200 consists, or more, as reported by some members, is definitely too much. 800-900 seems to be the critical mass where most users start getting into trouble.

  • To understand what the problem actually is, you need to know what MSTS actually loads into permanent memory. When you start up MSTS, it reads a lot of file types and loads them into memory:

    • All the .trk files of the routes - which is the harmless part of the story.

    • All the saves of activities you have - that can be more of a problem if you never clean out the saves folder.

    • All the .con (consist) files - which in itself is not really memory intensive, but the more consists one has, the more equipment you tend to have in the trainset folder.

    • All these .eng and .wag files used in your consists - which quickly tends to stress memory a lot!

    • All the key .dat files in the global folder, especially the global/tsection.dat file. If you use the standardised global tsection.dat coming with xtracks, that file alone is over 3MB!

  • Reducing the number of consists results in less equipment being called for, and fewer .eng files that MSTS has to load into memory in order to have it "ready" for you in the list of drivable engines.

  • As unbelievable as it sounds from a programmer's point of view, I repeat this observation: MSTS does indeed first read every single .eng and .wag file upon start-up, which is why you sometimes get error messages about an 'error in line #575, "../trainset/whateverfolder/whatever.eng"'. And it then cross-checks with all the consists files and loads those .eng files of active equipment - i.e. those in use in one or more consists - into permanent memory in order to put together the list of trains you can choose from.

  • This process is why it takes so long to load MSTS when you use a lot of different equipment. You can make the test yourself: MSTS loads in a flash if you have 500 consists all using nothing but default equipment, but it takes almost forever to load 500 consists using 1500 individual .eng files and 2000 different .wag files.

  • And finally for a solution: There's a utility program called Train Store (available from our Other Downloads page - log in through NETS) which allows you to "store" specific files (including activity files, and .con, .eng ,and .wag files) from MSTS when you do not intend to use them in your current session. That helps in overcoming the out-of-memory problems and many of the "cannot load shape file" problems that we have all encountered at times.

  • Another solution to consider is "mini" routes, where each route is installed in a separate folder. While Train Store is used by many members very willingly, it does require that you "store and unstore" before each session, whereas mini routes involves just a simple click to get the MSTS up and running. The details of this method of using MSTS can be found in the t-s.com forums.

  • Another solution that some people use is the program called "RoutesOnOff". It works to keep routes out of MSTS by renaming the .trk file. It works instantly without errors, according to some very satisfied users. It does not help with the consist problem.

I hope that this information helps some of our members who might have some difficulties as their MSTS grows with more routes, more work orders, more locos and rolling stock, and more and more consists. If you have some other solutions, send them in, and I'll publish them.

4 April

• A different quotation involving railroads/railways: "GEOLOGY, n. The science of the earth's crust --to which, doubtless, will be added that of its interior whenever a man shall come up garrulous out of a well. The geological formations of the globe already noted are catalogued thus:

  • The Primary, or lower one, consists of rocks, bones or mired mules, gas-pipes, miners' tools, antique statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors.

  • The Secondary is largely made up of red worms and moles.

  • The Tertiary comprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldy boots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage, anarchists, snap-dogs and fools."

• If you use  Route-Riter , the following notes from Mike Simpson (posted in another forum) about the workings of the various buttons in RR might be useful. This is a list of what the various buttons that change files actually change. These buttons were added following the problems with Windows XP SP2, when it was found that, under certain circumstances, MSTS failed when there was a difference in CASE between various files.

  • Eng/.Wag - Checks through the files and make sure that the case and spelling of the Wagon and Engine entries are the same throughout the file. Also checks that Damper units are in Newtons/meter/second not Newtons/meter. Also checks that the Wagonshape entry is the same as the shape file name.

  • .SD - Makes sure that there is a blank line between the heading and the Shape entry, that the Shape entry has the same case as the Shapefile name, and that the case of the .sd and .s files are identical.

  • .Con - Corrects the case of the EngineData and WagonData entries so that they are identical with the .eng/.wag name and the corresponding folder name.

  • .Act - Corrects the loose consists as in .Con above.

  • .Srv - Makes sure the Train_Config case is the same as the TrainCfg entry in the corresponding .Con file.

• So you have a free night and your partner wants you to watch a movie? Well, here is a list of over 400 movies that have a railroad connection! Now you can make two people happy!

3 April

• On the  Other Downloads  page: Route-Riter v6.2.56 - "Changed the Activate/Deactivate option to display Route Name only without the paths as they did not display properly on smaller resolution screens. Also includes a new version of TsUtils with a few bugs fixed."
   

• It's Sunday! So, for something completely different, here's a  railroad poem . OK, it's a slow news day! The musical "Cats" was based on poems by the author of this one. Here's our dose of culture for the month.

2 April

•  New work orders  for today: a series of 3 for the East River Subdivision - NEER-050-01a/b/c. In this series, you drive an EMD GP38-2. You start at Walton on a clear spring day at 10.20am. After a layover in Walton, you're ready to pick up your mixed consist and deliver it to Bluefield. The only task in this part of the work order is a switch out of empties with loaded boxcars at Hercules Powder. There is intermodal traffic out there today, so be prepared to stop at any time. It should take you about an hour to complete this part.

Part 2 starts at 11.35am.You are stopped near Eggleston and waiting for a clear track. After the southbound passes, you can proceed toward Bluefield. There is intermodal traffic out there today, so watch the signals and be prepared to stop at any time. This is a short run of about 45 minutes.

Part 3 starts at 12.25pm when you are just south of Narrows, waiting for traffic to clear. After clearance from the dispatcher, you can proceed toward Bluefield. This part will take you about an hour.

And those three should keep you occupied today! Have fun!

• Have you ever used Torben Spiegler's MSTS utility  Activity Changer , which is now up to version 1.5 and available for free from his website (a 450Kb download)? This program allows you to change to starting time and season and weather for an activity. It also allows you to generate random AI traffic for an activity (with some conditions on that facility). It has a help file in English and a good documentation file on how to set up the random AI traffic. It makes a backup copy of the original activity file before it changes anything, so, if you don't like the result of your changes, you can always revert to the original - so you can't lose anything by trying it. It might be handy for those  late night switching work orders!

• Version 3 of  What Runs Where  is now available over at t-s.com. "What Runs Where 3.0 takes the guess work out of trying to figure out what road names to run on which route or whether or not to download a particular route. What Runs Where is a detailed list of ten North American payware routes and fifty North American freeware routes. Included is the length of the route, type of route (freight, passenger or switching), terrain, scenery and detail levels, location of the route, and the past and current users of each route. What Runs Where also features a newly-updated US map (small version is shown to the right - red dots are where the routes are), with the locations of each route listed. By Chris Bogley." A very useful item.

• A  very late news item , but one that we should have in the NERR news archives. On 15 March, the Bison Rail System and the Great Lakes & Allegheny RR issued a joint press release, announcing new ownership for the GL&A. It was sad to hear that Jim Vaughan had retired from the GL&A (due to personal, work-related reasons, we understand), but it is great that his work will continue. Check out the GL&A website for the latest news.

1 April

• A few of the later items from March have been included below, just to ensure that everyone has had time to read them. They will be deleted in a week or two. The complete March issue of Roundhouse Ramblings is now available on the Archives page - use the link on the menu to the left.

•  11 engineers graduated  from the WCN induction program to the NERR - congratulations to you, and welcome to the NERR!

• Some  time slip statistics for March 2005 :

• Some  work order statistics for March 2005 : In the Ranking column, this month's rank is followed by last month's rank in brackets. In the Times Run column, the number of time slips submitted for this work order since NETS started in January 2004 is followed, in brackets, by the number of time slips submitted for this work order in March 2005.

• Which work order was run the most times in March? I can't tell easily from the statistical tools available to me. But, on looking through the total list, no one work order stands out. They are spread across the routes and divisions. The number of zeros in the far right column in the table above indicates that it is not necessarily the work orders in that table that are the most popular in any particular month. Some of the work orders in the table above have been around for a long time (in NERR terms), e.g. NEDF-109-X01, and they still get run each month - a tribute to the continued interest in both the route and the work order itself. If anyone would like to analyse the data in more detail, I'd be happy to send them the MSXL file of time slips for March.

• Some  Divisional statistics for March 2005 : These were taken directly from the main NETS screen. Remember that the Divisions do not have equal numbers of engineers (NE = 84. SE = 31. CT = 42. SW = 49. NW = 64).

The views expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of the NERR Administration. They are the views of the author of the particular news item.