Claude's Corner
Taz's Tales
Old Heading  13 May  
Railroad Slang

   21 May  Non-NERR News
  29 April  Other Downloads
  28 May  Fun Page

Send news, articles & other material to us. All contributions used with gratitude!!

 A bugless program is an abstract theoretical concept.

31 May

• The 9  new work orders  today will keep you busy for more than 9 hours, if you do them all today - that will keep you out of mischief! It's the end of the month, and you need the money, so get going!

  • NECS-179-01 for the Clinton Subdivision. At 9.00am, you start your switching tasks in the Beverley Yard in an EMD SD40-2 (FURX Lease). They will take you about 1¼ hours.

  • NEDF-045-01 for v4 of the Dual Fictional route. Today, your work order is to take a GP38-powered local freight service from the M&RM Loco Depot to South Park with 2 shunts en route. It should take you just over 1 hour to complete this one.

  • NEDF-109-12 - another work order for the Dual Fictional route. Your task today is to take an early-morning run in a  CMT Shuttle  from Nuggett to Buffalo Island. To start your run, you are at the Nuggett service area, and you need to back out to the siding.

  • NEDF-109-12a - take your ALCo RS1 from BWF Mining  at Baers Canyon to the BWF Mining Lead and switch some tankers.

  • NEDF-109-12b - again, you are driving an ALCo RS1 in the area around the BWF Mining Lead, ending at Baers Canyon South after completing some switching tasks.

  • NEDF-109-12c. This time, you are in charge of an EMD SD24. You start your work order at Buffalo Island and finish it at Baers Canyon South. There's a lot of congestion, and you are following Unit 1 in dark territory at the beginning, so beware.

  • NEDF-109-12d. In your EMD SD24, you do a run from Baers Canyon South to South Park, with one pick-up near the start.

  • NEDF-109-12e. You are giving your EMD SD24 a good workout today. This work order tells you to take a 90 car train from South Park to Jacks Meadows. Your train is 4,761 feet in length and weighs 3,037 tons. Your power has 7,200, giving you 2.37 h.p. per ton. Is that enough?

  • NELV-047-01 for the Lehigh Valley route. In this work order, you will be using an NERR RS1 #1571 + ALCO RS2 Slug power setup to complete a steel mill switching task, taking your about 1¼ hours. You pick up NERR RS1 #1571 at the PBNE Engine shop. Your assignment is Bethlehem Steel Mill Switching. Plant Operations has been waiting for your shift to start. Blast Furnaces 1 through 5 are filling the slag cars at the back of the furnaces. They'll be full shortly and need to be taken to the slag dump as soon as they're full. You will proceed without delay to Slag Dump #1, pick up 5 empty slag cars, and bring them to the blast furnaces. Exchange them with the full cars, one at each furnace. When you have the 5 loaded slag cars, take them back to the slag dump and back them into Slag Dump #1. Uncouple, and pull forward and the activity will end automatically. You had better take your map of the area with you on this job - you'll probably need it!

29 May

• It's nearly the end of the month, so let's take a look at the  Top 5 Engineers  in each Division:

  • South West Division has 5 of its own engineers in its Top 5.

  • North West Division has 4 of its own engineers in its Top 5.

  • South East and North East Divisions has 3 of their own engineers in their Top 5.

  • Central Division has 2 of its own engineers in its Top 5.

28 May

• 2  new work orders  for you today:

  • Pocahontas District - NEPO 110-06. At 3.30pm, you are suddenly called on to drive a BR&T GP38-powered train to evacuate the local people in Gilbert County, when a large storm with heavy rainfalls and high winds cover the area. Pick up the evacuees from Gilbert County and the surrounds and convey them safely to Wharncliffe, where a special train will take them to the area's Emergency Storm Evacuation Shelters. You will need to be extremely cautious due to damaged bridges and tracks. Obey all dispatch instructions, and try not to leave anybody behind. MOW crews are working hard to keep the tracks in a safe condition.

  • North Coast Railroad - NENC-067-05A. Heavy rains in Southern California have caused massive destruction. Hundreds of people are now without homes. Lumber companies all along the North Coast are donating massive amounts of lumber and building materials to assist with the reconstruction. Your job is to pick up various loads of lumber from the lumber mills that line these tracks and deliver them to the south for distribution. Now people can start the rebuilding again. Watch for restrictions and be prepared to stop short of men and equipment, as you drive your ALCo C628 diesel on a 5 hour work order between Samoa and Scotia Lumber.

• There are currently  10 rookies  undertaking the WCN induction program, which precedes their entry onto the NERR callboard as qualified NERR engineers. All of them have joined the program since mid-May.

• The team developing the TrainMaster Train Simulator (TMTS) - the  2nd generation TS program  - have set up a website to keep us up-to-date with progress on their work. Some of the features that they list include:

  • "Advanced graphics with a level of detail unseen in train simulation.
  • Dynamic sounds accurately following the behavior of the train.
  • Cab interiors modeled in full 3-D.
  • Models, routes, and activities produced by the best developers in the train simulation community.
  • Advanced physics replicating real engine, car, and load behavior.

  • New track system supporting real world GPS coordinates."

• The  Bison Rail System  has released the 5 different paint schemes that have been used on their locomotives throughout their history - shown in the table below in thumbnail size (click on the picture to see a larger version):

Phase 1	Phase 2
Phase 3	Phase 4
Phase 5

26 May

• The last few days, your writer was in Canberra, our national capital (down here in Australia). It's the home of our national parliament (like Washington DC is for the U.S.A.). The parliament is housed in the building shown on the right. There is no railway in or through Canberra, so we can't show you any trains!

• A  new route  has been released at t-s.com: Very Short Line RR. "This is a fictional railroad based on model railroading. This short line is a continuous loop track. At the ends of each loop is a turnout which allows endless loops." It's a 30Mb single-file download.

• Just for  something different  near the end of the month:

21 May

• A recent  new route  released at t-s.com was the Zafra-Jerez de los Caballeros route - a real line from the RENFE (Spanish National Railways) in the south-west of Spain. The download is 1 file of about 95Mb (an executable file), which expands to 237 MB on your hard disk. XTracks and New Roads add-ons are not needed.

Era: 1988-1998. The prototypical operations on the route are mainly freight - steel products, foil reels, and scrap.

Length of Mainline: 47 Km. 2 branches - the Merida-Seville line and the Zafra-Huelva line. 3 sidings - Zafra station, Burguillos, Llanos de la Granja and Jerez de los Caballeros. 1 station with passenger service (Zafra). Several abandoned stations (Alconera, Burguillos, Llanos de la Granja [only goods], Jerez de los Caballeros [only goods].

All single track, non-electric. Fully landscaped. FPS - from 18 to 45 (as tested on a 3.2 GHz, 2 GB ram, graphic card 256 MB).

Several activities provided with the route. They were made with the rolling stock that is used on the real route. The necessary consists are in the folder "documentacion". The necessary rolling stock is available at http://trensim.com/.

•  Do you remember this?  In late 2000 and early 2001, the following notice appeared on various games websites. It heralded the start of the virtual railroad world that we are now part of. The computer specifications are interesting!

20 May

•  Where do our members live?  All around the world! The table below shows the states and countries where we live. There are multiple members in many of the locations. There are a few members who have not told us where they live. But this gives you a good idea of the global nature of the NERR.

19 May

• Want  better smoke  for your locomotives?

  • Try the solution at this website. You can download a replacement smokemain.ace to be placed in your Global/Textures folder. The default smokemain.ace will be renamed to "Copy_of_default_smokemain.ace".

  • You can also download a file called steamrep.zip from the file library over at Train-Sim.com.

  • At UKTrainSim, you can download file #9758 (221Kb). "This simple patch will upgrade the visual quality of the diesel fumes within Microsoft Train Simulator. The fumes are all photo realistic and can be used with a diverse array of traction."

• You know about locos and rolling stock, but how much do you know about  the rail  that the trains run on? There is no part of any railroad that is as important as the item that gave the industry its name: the rail. The rail, combined with vehicles with flanged-wheels, assisted the development of a system of transport that was very distinct from the regular road transport system.

The earliest railroads used wooden rails, which wore out very rapidly. Later, railroads were built of wooden rails capped with thin iron strips to provide a smooth running surface for the wheels. All-iron rails were imported from Britain as early as 1831, with the first ones being produced in the U.S.A. in 1844. By 1850, iron rails were standard throughout America.

But iron rails were brittle because of its high carbon content. Post-Civil War developments such as the Bessemer process reduced the cost of steel to the point that it was economical to use in rails. In 1880, about 30% of all track was laid with steel rails; by the turn of the century, steel had almost completely replaced iron. Steel rail is composed of iron, carbon, manganese, and silicon, and contains impurities such as phosphorous, sulphur, gases, and slag. The proportions of these substances may be altered to achieve different properties, such as increased resistance to wear on curves.

The standard configuration for North American rail looks like an upside-down T. The three parts of the rail are called the base, web, and head. The flat base enabled such rail to be spiked directly to wooden crossties; later, rail was placed on the now-standard steel tie plate. While the proportions and precise shape of rail have changed, the basic T-section has been standard since the mid-19th century.

The most common way of describing rail is in terms of its weight per linear yard (the British unit of length). In the late 19th century, rail was produced in a range of sections weighing between 40 and 80 lbs. per yard. Weights increased over time, so that rail rolled today weighs between 112 and 145 lbs. (The Pennsylvania Railroad's 155-lb. section, used for a time after World War II, was the heaviest used in the U.S.A.) Generally, the greater the tonnage or the higher the speeds on a given line, the heavier the rail used will be. Because of the cost of track maintenance, the longer life of heavier rail makes it preferred even for urban transit systems, where loads are light and speeds low. Heavier rail sections are often used at road crossings, switches, and crossings at grade with other rail lines.

The length of standard rails has historically been related to the length of the cars used to transport them. From an early range of 15-20 feet, rail length increased with car size until a standard of 39 feet (easily accommodated by the once-common 40-foot car) was reached. Even with the advent of today's longer cars, 39 feet has remained the standard for rail because of the limitations in steel mills and ease of handling.

The joints in rail — its weakest points — can make for a rough ride. Individual rails are joined with steel pieces called joint bars, which are held in place by 4 or 6 bolts. Today, the 6-bolt type, once reserved for heavy-duty applications, is standard. The bolts in a joint bar are faced alternately outward and inward to guard against the remote possibility that a derailed car's wheel would shear them all off, causing the rails to spread. Transition between rails of two different weights is achieved with special angle bars. In territory where the rails serve as conductors for signal systems, bond wires must be used at the joints to maintain the circuit.

The problem-prone nature of rail joints prompted the most easily recognized advance in rail technology: the adoption of continuous welded rail (CWR). From its early use on a few railroads in the 1940s, welded rail has come to be used in almost all applications. It is produced by welding standard 39-foot (or the newer 78-foot) segments together into quarter-mile lengths at dedicated plants. The rails are transported to where they're needed in special trains, which are pulled slowly out from under the rail when it is to be unloaded. When in place, CWR is often field-welded into even greater lengths. Much jointed track survives because of the long lifespan of even moderately used rail, and because the specialized equipment needed for CWR installation is not economical for short distances.

Managing the expansion and contraction that comes with temperature change is important with CWR. To avoid expanding and potential buckling when in service, welded rail is laid when temperatures are high (or it is artificially heated). Rail anchors clipped on at the ties keep the rail from getting shorter as it contracts with falling temperatures. Thus constrained, it shrinks in cross section (height and width), but not in length. Because it's in tension, welded rail is treated with care during track work in cold weather.

Under heavy traffic, rails get worn down, although their life can be extended by grinding the head back to the proper contour. Purpose-built machines are used to grind the rails. Rail no longer suited for main-line use may still have some light-duty life in it and is often re-laid on branches, spurs, or in yards. When rail wear is uneven at a given location (such as a curve), rail may be transposed from one side to another to get maximum use out of it.

From an article by Robert S. McGonigal

17 May

• Announcement!

• 5 new work orders today - for the Pocahontas route:

  • NEPO-110-01 - Coal Train. This is a hard 3+hour winter work assignment, driving an  NERR BQ23 + SD40b
    at the head of a heavy coal train (3 power units and 45 loaded hoppers) from Williamson to Bluefield.

  • NEPO-110-02 - Transfer assignment. This is a short (less than 1 hour) drive in the Speedster. The crew from the last incoming train needs to replace the crew of the tanker train that is waiting at Tug station. As you are in a non-signalized branch line we can do the things a little differently, such as running on the rear of other train. You are to follow the train that passes you before you enter the mainline to Tug Station.

  • NEPO-110-03 - Mixed Train. This work order should take you less than 1½ hours in your NERR HI-16-16. Drive a mixed train, both freight and workers, from Weller to Devon. You will receive instructions en route to pick up work crews and another freight train.

  • NEPO 110-04 - Working in the Mountains. Drive a mixed train, powered by 1 SD40 + 1 SD45 (Leased Units), consisting of both freight and empty gondolas from Bluefield to Consol Coal Mine. It should take you about 1½ hours. You will receive instructions during your work. You have pickups at Bluefield West Yard Track# 3 and Cliff Yard Track #3 with a setout at Cliff Yard track #4.

  • NEPO 110-05 - Under the Storm. Your power for this 2+ hour work order is 1 Alco C628 + 2 Alco C636 locomotives. It is winter, and it is snowing, and it is a tough assignment! During a heavy snow storm, you need to drive a fully loaded tanker train from Cedar Bluff to Auville Yards. Track conditions are poor. Check your sander and your brakes!

16 May

• Here is a simple tutorial on a manual method  to alias a locomotive . The easiest way is really to use ConBuilder, but it's often good to know another way to do it. This example uses the default GP38. You can adjust the files to fit almost any other installed locomotive.

15 May

• Interesting website: Trainorders.com operates a major  webcam network . Their webcams have made available millions of images on the internet since 1997. This year, they started to use cameras that provide full motion video and sound. 3 webcams are available without registering - Tehachapi Pass, Dunsmuir I-5 Corridor, and the new one on the Sandpatch route.

• 2  new work orders  today - NECV-047-01 for the Chippewa Valley route. This is an MOW work order, starting at 10:00am - and it will take you about 50 minutes to complete. Your task is as follows: there was a nasty derailment in the East End Main Yard that tore up sections of Yard Tracks #1 and #2. MOW crews have been working around the clock to clear up the mess and put the Yard Tracks back in service. Fortunately, Main Line Track #2 wasn’t affected, but it was a challenge to keep main line traffic running, since the work on Yard Track #1 often fouled the Main. At this point, all rolling stock involved in the derailment has been removed, and the Yard Tracks have been replaced and re-aligned. All that remains is to put additional ballast where necessary and ballast tamping. That’s where you come in. You have been assigned as the operator of NERR's RRS 09-3X Tamper #9740 working under direction of the MOW Track Foreman.

During this assignment, you will be under strict control of both the Dispatcher and the Track Foreman. Pay attention to the messages they have for you. Also active is the MOW Extra, Engine #9728, with 4 ballast cars to place the final ballast prior to tamping. Due to main line traffic, the Dispatcher requests that all switching be manual and requests you to ask for permission to pass any red signal.

• NENE-061-10b for the North Eastern Corridor V4 route. The time is 1:00pm. The season is summer. The weather is clear. This run from Bayview Yard to Philly Snyder Avenue should take you about 2 hours 15 minutes.

•  ConBuilder  Update: a Minor Fix file has been released. You can download it from the ConBuilder forum over the NERR forums - click here to open the forum thread.  It's a 450Kb zip file that you unzip into your ConBuilder folder. The fix is to adjust the program to handle the following:

  • MSTS has a 30 character limit on consist names; and

  • Some people like to use extra spaces in eng files.

14 May

• The second of our NERR steam locomotives is the  4-8-2 'Mountain' . Here is some background to this fast, powerful locomotive that was used very successfully for both passenger and freight trains.

As railroads became a more popular means of travel and transport, railroad companies had to develop a steam locomotive with greater power than the 'Pacific' to handle the heavy passenger trains in mountainous terrain. An example of this need was on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. As the number of cars increased on its passenger trains, it became necessary to double-head the currently-used "Pacifics" to get the longer trains over the Allegheny Mountains. In 1910, the C&O asked the American Locomotive Company (Alco) to build them a more powerful locomotive. The engineers at Alco studied the railroad's route conditions and their other requirements. They recommended a locomotive with eight drivers, like the 'Mikado', for traction, to which they added a four-wheel lead truck, like the 'Pacific', for speed and riding stability. The result was a new wheel arrangement, the 4-8-2. The first 4-8-2 in North America was built at Alco’s Richmond plant and delivered to the C&O in 1911. The 4-8-2 did the job for the company successfully, and the locomotive type acquired the name 'Mountain' from its main purpose. Other railroads ordered 4-8-2s, and the design evolved quickly. The 62-inch diameter drivers used on the early examples were increased to 69 inches (on C&O's second order), and up to 73 inches. Boiler size and power were also increased substantially. By the early 1920s, a new 4-8-2 did not resemble the original C&O locomotives in many ways at all. The ways in which they were used also changed. These large, powerful locomotives were ideal for fast freight service, so the 'Mountain' became a dual purpose locomotive, handling both heavy passenger trains and fast freight consists equally well. Used courtesy of www.frisco1522.org - this example was built in 1926 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia for service on the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway. The 4-8-2 found a home in both the mountains of the west and the flat territory of the mid-west and south-east. They were successful in both types of landscape because they had good speed as well as great power. Many of the western railroads owned large fleets of 4-8-2s: Southern Pacific owned 83, Union Pacific had 60, Santa Fe acquired 51, and Great Northern owned 43. The Canadian National acquired its first 'Mountain' in 1923. Its last batch, 20 semi-streamlined 4-8-2s delivered by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1944 (nicknamed Bullet Nosed Betties), were the final steam locomotives purchased by the railroad. The Rock Island and Missouri Pacific were two mid-western railroads with large fleets of 'Mountains'. In the south-east, the Seaboard and Florida East Coast placed their 4-8-2s at the head of long consists of heavyweight Pullmans headed for Florida. The 'Mountain' distinguished itself as a fast freight engine, particularly in the east. There were many users, but three railroads had especially noteworthy fleets. New York Central received its first 4-8-2s in 1916 (and relabeled them 'Mohawks'). By the time its last was built in 1944, it had purchased 600 of them. The Central used them mainly in fast freight service, but the last 50, built by Lima during World War II, were also used in heavy passenger service. Central’s rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, ordered 301 engines of its Class M-1 design between 1923 and 1930. They were used primarily as main-line fast freight locomotives. Together, the two eastern railroads owned almost half the 4-8-2s built for U.S. railroads. The Illinois Central took a different route. After initially acquiring 60 locomotives from commercial builders between 1923 and 1926, the railroad decided to build its own 4-8-2s. 56 were constructed at its Paducah, Ky., shops from 1937 to 1942, using the boilers from surplus 2-10-2s. Paducah built an additional 20 engines between 1942 and 1943 with all new parts. IC’s early 4-8-2s were dual service locomotives, but the Mountains built at Paducah were exclusively for freight. As train lengths increased and schedules were tightened in the late 1920s, railroads began looking for a more powerful locomotive, which led to the introduction of the 4-8-4. However, rather than replace the 4-8-2, the 4-8-4 complemented it. 'Mountains' continued to be built and used for assignments not requiring the power of a 4-8-4. The last steam locomotives acquired by the Baltimore & Ohio — and also the last 4-8-2s built — were assembled at the railroad’s shops in Baltimore in 1948. By that time, 41 railroads bought or built over 2,200 'Mountain' locomotives. The 4-8-2 was the locomotive that demonstrated the value of combining eight coupled drivers with the speed potential of the leading four wheel truck. Had the engineers, in 1911, recognized the serious limitation of the two trailing wheels and had allowed more weight by adding a trailing four wheel truck then the ultimate dual-purpose locomotive would have been developed 16 years earlier than the 1927 introduction of the "Northern". The table below lists the railroads that used the 'Mountain' locomotives, the numbers that were in their fleets, and the companies that built them. Railroad Line Quantity, Builder Alaska Railroad 2 Baldwin Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 51 Baldwin Baltimore & Ohio 2 Baldwin, 42 B&O Bangor & Aroostook 10 ALCO Boston & Maine 18 Baldwin Canadian National Railway 42 CLC, 32 MLW Canadian Pacific Railway 2 CPR Central Vermont 4 ALCO Central of Georgia 27 ALCO, 5 Baldwin Chesapeake & Ohio 8 ALCO, 2 Baldwin Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 13 BLW, 8 Lima Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 62 ALCO Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 45 ALCO Denver & Rio Grande Western 30 ALCO, 10 Baldwin Florida East Coast 90 ALCO Grand Trunk Western 5 Baldwin Great Northern 28 Baldwin, 15 LIMA Illinois Central 35 ALCO, 25 LIMA, 76 IC Lehigh & Hudson River 3 Baldwin Lehigh Valley 6 ALCO Louisville & Nashville 22 Baldwin Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie 18 ALCO, 3 Soo Missouri Pacific 33 ALCO Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis 5 ALCO, 8 Baldwin New Orleans Great Northern 3 ALCO New York Central 435 ALCO, 165 Lima New York, New Haven & Hartford 70 ALCO New York, Ontario & Western 20 ALCO Norfolk & Western 10 ALCO, 12 Baldwin, 26 N&W Pennsylvania 225 Baldwin, 50 LIMA, 26 PRR Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac 4 ALCO Rutland 4 ALCO St. Louis - San Francisco 30 Baldwin, 34 SLSF Seaboard Air Line 25 ALCO, 36 Baldwin Southern Pacific 34 ALCO, 49 SP Southern 58 Baldwin Tennessee Central 4 ALCO Texas & Pacific 5 ALCO, 5 Baldwin Union Pacific 60 ALCO Wabash 25 Baldwin Western Railway of Alabama 2 ALCO

13 May

• To all the  triskaidekaphobics  out there today: we hope that you have a relaxing and happy day!

• Part 1 of a  new Old Heading article  from Bill is published today - follow the link at the top of this page.

• 1  new work order  for today - for the Chippewa Valley route: BRS-CV-0003. It's 9:00am, and you will spend about the next 2 hours in your NERX MP15AC. After a dark and stormy night, sunshine has returned as you complete the morning rounds. This work order is the third in the series. Here we go! Reverse out of Phillips Scrap, pick up the load of tractors on EC Industrial #5 (and the caboose) and proceed to Risburg Implements. Spot the caboose on the siding lead, pull forward past the switch, and spot the tractors for later placement. Pick up the consist at Risburg Implements, bring it forward, and spot it short of the switch to EC Feed. Pull forward, using manual switching move the tractors (from EC Industrial) to Risburg Implements. Pick up the consist on EC Feed and then the consist from Risburg Implements. After main line traffic has cleared at about 9:45am, pick up the caboose and proceed to COOP Grain. Using manual switching, enter the siding, separate the caboose and the tractors, pull forward and place the consist from EC Feed. Pull forward, run around the siding, pick up the caboose and spot it on the run around track. Pick up the consist from Risburg Implement, add the caboose and proceed toward the paper mill. There is an unmarked 15 mph speed restriction beginning at the signal before Peter's Meats. Spot the consist on the main, pick up the consist at the Paper Mill, retrieve the spotted consist, and proceed to US Rubber. Following the same procedure, pick up the consist at US Rubber and continue to East End Main Yard. Spot the caboose on the main, place the consists on Main Yard #3, retrieve the caboose and deliver it to Maintenance Standby where the work order will end. It's probably not as complicated as it reads!

• From one extreme to the other! The two photos below show  railroad stations . One is in Helsinki (click on the photo to view a larger version), Finland, and the other is at Bogantungan, in western central Queensland. The photos are not the same scale! Bogantungan (meaning 'grass and tree') is only a very small settlement (about 30 people), but the station was the change-over point for train crews travelling on that line - that's why the station is so large.

12 May

• Have you had trouble deciding which work order to run next? Try using the  Random Work Order Selection  facility on the NEAWOS page on our website. You might find your next favourite work order!

• You might have noticed the  hit counter  that has been added to the bottom of this page - impressive figures already! Thanks for reading this news page.

• When you get to the  end of a route  and find that the track just ends - usually without even a set of buffers - how do you feel? What if the route ended like the one in the picture to the right (click on the thumbnail to the right to view a larger version)? This one came from a forum that I read some time ago - the writer had modified the route for his own amusement. This is meant as a comment, not as a criticism of any of the work done by that special breed of people - route builders - who provide us with the basis for our MSTS fun.

11 May

• Over at UKTrainSim, in the New Files section, there is a file that gives instructions about how to  convert drivable locomotives  to AI locomotives and static locomotive objects. The document, in MSWord format, starts: "Full versions of locomotives have a couple of disadvantages when used as either traffic (AI) or static objects in a MSTS activity. Using the full version of a steam loco as a traffic loco results in the wheels revolving much faster than they should. Using full versions also uses more computer resources than necessary, since these have inside sounds, outside sounds and cabviews. Inside sounds and cabviews are not necessary for AI locos, and all three are not necessary for static locos. It is possible to create locos for use as AI (#) locos by removing the inside sounds and cabviews and modifying the wheel rotation speed. It is also possible to create static ($) locos by removing all sounds and the cabview and removing as much of the other information in the .eng file as possible."

•  Handy Hint: 

  • Situation:

    • You have just installed a new work order.
    • You now want to run the work order.

    • You use TrainStore.

  • Issue:

    • How do you make sure that you have all the locos and rolling stock for that new work order so that you can run it? How can you tell which ones you are missing, if any?

  • Solution 1:

    • You first need to unstore any of the the locos and rolling stock for the work order that are on your hard drive but which TrainStore has previously stored for you.
    • Run TrainStore and highlight the new work order in the list of work orders under the appropriate route.
    • Click on 'Store Activity' and press the 'Go!' button. Wait until everything stops searching, finding, moving files.
    • Click on 'UnStore Activity' and press the 'Go!' button. Wait until everything stops searching, finding, moving files.

    • Now you can run the program that you usually use to find out if you are missing any of the required stock, e.g. Activity Analysis, Route-Riter.

  • Solution 2 - from Tony Formoso, the developer of TrainStore:

    • You don't need to 'Unstore Everything! before installing things, but it is advisable to 'Prepare the Route' you are going to install the work order to, so that you don't get Tsunpack telling you the route is not there, or, if you have items stored, you don't get confused by 'duplicate' messages when you come to use the route.

    • There is only one thing that it is essential to do after you have installed something. Run TrainStore, and press the 'Go!' button. Until you have done this, TrainStore has no way of knowing what you have changed, and certainly it can't unstore any needed items if you haven't run it.

    • These points are covered in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the manual, and the section dealing with Maintenance Mode:

      • Do I need to do anything before installing a new Route? P118 .
      • How should I install a new Activity? P118.
      • I have just installed a new Activity and now Train store has caused errors with missing Consists. Why is This? P118.

      • How should I install a new Consist or Stock Item? P118 .

9 May

•  Brian Element , our current resident programmer, has given us this advance notice today: "NETS Version 2.0 is nearing completion. When I do the upgrade here at the NERR, NETS and NEAWOS will be offline for several days. I am just giving you advance warning." He expects to install the new version in the next couple of weeks. Brian's been working on the new version for several months now, and it has been extensively tested at the P&A.

• A steam-era  equipment pack  (locomotives and rolling stock) has just been released by VScale Creations for their St Louis & North Arkansas route - their first route, set in about 1902. The new pack is based on equipment used in the RW in 1903. See the full story on the Non-NERR News page on this website.

• The  South West Division  has moved into the lead this month, in terms of the number of time slips submitted, with the Central Division just behind them. Both of them are well ahead on their nearest rivals.

• 4  new work orders  for today:

  • NELV-177-28 for the Lehigh Valley route: It's  8 a.m. on a clear spring day. You are driving an ALCO C628 #634 running the "Bath Local" from Northampton through Bath to Dexter Hill. This line handles mostly cement traffic, with some interchange freight. The line is the former Erie Lackawanna Bangor & Portland Branch. The portion we're running is about 10 miles long. There are several railroad crossings at grade on the sidings, so be alert.

  • NEFB-268-03 for the Full Bucket line route: You are in an EMD GP38-2 at 6:20 am on a rainy winter day, and this is the thrice weekly local from Mount Oliver to Fort Fairfax. Pick up your train from MO Yard 3a and get going. There are a considerable number of pick-ups and set-outs along the way, so try to keep up with all the work and stay out of the way of the moderate traffic. After picking up the ballast cars at Lena's Mining, you are limited to 40 mph due to the open top loads. Not all pick-ups or set-outs may be listed in the work order, but you will be checked by the yardmaster upon arrival at Ft. Fairfax!

  • BRS-CV-0001 for the NERR's Chippewa Valley route. Today, you driving an NERX MP15AC. It's 7:00am, it's spring, but it's snowing, and you have about an hour's work to do. After a dark and stormy night (the weather, not you!), you are called to make the morning rounds. This work order is the first in a series for the day. You must pick up the caboose and proceed backwards to EC Sand, where you must find a place to spot the caboose while you pick up the consist. You must then take the consist to Chippewa Sand and spot the caboose before delivering the consist. You will encounter pass through traffic during this work order.

  • BRS-CV-0002 for the NERR's Chippewa Valley route. You are still in the NERX MP15AC. it's now 8:00am, but it's stopped snowing - it's now raining! This work order is the second in a series for the day. You will pick up the caboose on Chippewa Storage. Then, after waiting for traffic to clear, pick up the consist on Chippewa Scrap Iron. Drop the consist on the main, run around it on Chippewa Scrap Iron Standby, and connect to the other end. You must proceed, in reverse, to EC Industrial and place the consist on Phillips Scrap after you spot the caboose.

8 May

• Do you like to run your trains in a  realistic  way? Here is how one of our members does it (thanks for this item to Bill Prieger, #269):

  • I go into the GUI folder in MSTS and remove the greenblob, redblob, and yellowblob ace files. I copy a black blob to my desktop and then rename it for each of the removed colors (red, green, yellow) and reinsert the three new files into the GUI folder. Now your F4 (track monitor) will show only three grey 'globs'.

  • I move the F8 switch indicator so that its bottom left corner blocks the written upcoming signal indication at the bottom of the F4 HUD. Now you can see the speed limits without knowing the next signal.

  • If a cab has cab signals, I position the above two windows over the cab signals. The Southern Pacific locomotives that I drove didn't have cab signals, so that's how I run.

  • I then use the F4 HUD as a footage counter, using the bottom readout to judge when my rear has cleared a switch or crossover, and the speed portion as an electronic TT in a sense. This is the only way that I could get a footage counter for MSTS. That counter is a major tool for hoggers.

  • I very rarely leave the cab view except for switching moves and the rare railfan shot. When I switch, I place my view how I would see it as a conductor - no overhead views. This adds to the realism and increases the challenge factor.

  • I always "walk" my train once, just to admire the work of those who gave us the great equipment. But also to get an idea of what I'm pulling, and how my train is made up. So I run accordingly.

  • I also go into ConBuilder and get the tonnage and footage numbers for my train and all my pick-ups and setouts. I do this so I know how much braking to use and what to expect from my train.

By doing these things, I can get remarkably close to the the real thing. I found that following many of the RW practices that I used when I used to run for real now work here in MSTS at the NERR. Cool, huh?

• Where did our trains come from? Here are a few notes about the early history of rail:

  • c. 1550 - Wagon-ways were the beginnings of modern railroads and were used in Germany as early as 1550. These primitive "railed roads" consisted of wooden rails over which horse-drawn  carts, with wooden wheels, moved with greater ease than they could over the gravel roads then in use.

  • 1776 - iron had replaced the wood in the rails and the wheels on the carts. The wagon-ways evolved into tramways and quickly spread throughout Europe. Horses still provided the tractive power.

  • 1789 - William Jessup, an Englishman, designed the first wagons with flanged wheels. The flange was a groove that allowed the wheels to grip the rail better. This was an important design that carried over to later locomotives.

  • 1803 - Samuel Homfray decided to fund the development of a steam-powered vehicle to replace the horse-drawn carts on the tramways. Richard Trevithick built that vehicle - the first steam engine tramway locomotive.

  • February 22, 1804 - the locomotive pulled a load of 10 tons of iron, 70 men, and five empty wagons for 9 miles from the ironworks at Pen-y-Darron in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, to the bottom of the valley called Abercynnon. It took about 2 hours.

  • 1821 - Julius Griffiths, another Englishman, was the first person to patent a passenger road locomotive.

  • September, 1825 - the Stockton & Darlington Railroad Company began as the first railroad to carry both goods and passengers on regular schedules. The S&DRC used locomotives designed by English inventor, George Stephenson. His locomotive pulled six loaded coal wagons and 21 passenger cars with 450 passengers over 9 miles in about 1 hour.

  • George Stephenson is considered to be the inventor of the first steam locomotive engine for railways. Richard Trevithick's invention is considered the first tramway locomotive, but it was a road locomotive, designed for the road and not for a railroad. In 1812, Stephenson became a colliery engine builder, and in 1814 he built his first locomotive for the S&DRC. Stephenson was hired as the company engineer and soon convinced the owners to use steam motive power. He then built the line's first locomotive, the Locomotion. In 1825, Stephenson moved to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, where he built the Rocket.

  • Colonel John Stevens is considered to be the father of American railroads. In 1826 he demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on a circular experimental track constructed on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey, three years before George Stephenson perfected a practical steam locomotive in England. The first railroad charter in North America was granted to John Stevens in 1815. Grants to others followed, and work soon began on the first operational railroads.

  • 1830 - The Tom Thumb, designed and built by Peter Cooper,  was the first American-built steam locomotive to be operated on a common-carrier railroad.

  • 1857 - The Pullman Sleeping Car was developed and built by George Pullman. His railroad coach was designed for overnight passenger travel. Sleeping cars were being used on American railroads since the 1830s; however, early sleepers were not very comfortable. The Pullman Sleeper was a great improvement.

• More information about the new  Version 4 of the Dual Fictional route , which can be downloaded from t-s.com:

  • Name of Route: ADFRRV4 Update (ADF/M&RM)

  • Version and Release Date: Version 4 Update (and probably the last) May/06/2005.

  • Description: The ADF/M&RM is a fictional Midwestern connecting line of approximately 345 point to point miles (including main branches) with trackage rights leased to many better known railways, so it's common to see many different names and types of equipment at any given time. It ranges from two mountain ranges to the hills and rolling plains in between with a variety of single vs. double track. This version has changes to Ada, and adds a small freight yard and branch South of Nuggett to fill out the Eastern End. Also some industries have been contracted in a couple of different areas.

  • Installation Method: 1 Full zip (80+Mb) or 4 smaller zips (20-25Mb each). Prerequisites: must have ADFRRV3 already installed and running - 10 Self-installers inside zip files with installme.bat (by Route-Riter) that should be allowed to run after the FIRST Install file.

  • Size of Download: Approx 82meg (update alone).

  • Size of Installed Route: 755 meg including terrain buffers.

  • Fantasy, Prototypical, or Freelance Operations: Freelance with emphasis on prototypical operations.

  • Freight or Passenger: both.

  • Era or Genre: 1950's forward.

  • Location: USA - Midwest.

  • Length of Mainline: 287 linear miles, not including the M&RM.

  • Length of Branches: 105 miles.

  • Number of Branches: 4 Short, 4 longer (5, 11, 15 and 77 miles - M&RM).

  • Number of Sidings: approx 80.

  • Number of Yards: 7 small yards with wyes, 5 interchange yards and 2 staging tracks.

  • Mixture of Dual and Single Track: 60/40.

  • Level of Trackside Detail: Signals, Mile markers, Platforms Siding and Yard Markers, Sound Sources, Sound Regions, Car spawners and many Custom add-ons from the TrainSim Community.

  • Amount of Scenery Completed: 100% (some locations lighter than others, befitting the Western setting).

  • FPS Specs, with qualifiers: 10-34fps @ 1024 x 768 x 16 bit on PIII-800, 64mg video card 256mg RAM with sliders maxed, except shadows.

  • Activities Provided: 55 simple activities (in apk form, found in the Extras folder) to highlight the changed sections, with default consists which you can easily change to reflect your roundhouse and preferences. See the web site below for briefings.

  • Non-Default Consists or Rolling Stock Required in Activities: None in the installed activities, but some are required for the Extras Folder Activities.

  • Add-In Track Sets: Xtracks required, compatible with v3.10 or later.

  • Tsection.dat file used: standardized Tsection.dat, release 00018 or later.

  • Payware or Freeware: Freeware, with distribution restrictions.

  • URL for More Information and Screenshots: http://www.adfrr.com/index.html, go to Version4, Guide.

  • Known Problems: 1. Still some bumpy track at Junctionville and between Bogville and the Mousetrap. 2. A switch North of Bailey has visual problems that I'm working on but haven't found a solution to as yet. 3. Probably would help to compact it with Route-Riter once installed and running to get rid of any old files not being used (about 20-25Mb).

7 May

• The big news overnight is the release of  A Dual Fictional RR route Version 4  by Robert Reedy (robertr, ID# 109) - the NERR currently uses V3. You can download it at t-s.com in a single file of about 82Mb. "This is the one file update completing the fictional ADF/M&RM, a Midwestern connecting line with trackage rights leased to many better known railways. Therefore it is common to see many different railroad names at any given time. You must have ADFRRV3 installed, and XTracks 3.5 or later and standardized tsection.dat 018 or later installed prior to using this." According to Robert, most work orders produced for V3 should work OK with this new version, except that "the problem areas would be anything that originated or went deep inside of either Valley Mining (Klosen Ridge) and/or Jacks Meadows Power & Light."

Robert is also in the process of uploading the same file broken into four (20-25Mb) chunks for those with only dialup internet access. Version 4 adds more industries and new South Nuggett facilities, and expands Ada's downtown area. Early comments from people who have downloaded V4 are that it definitely continues Robert's high standards of route building.

Be sure to read the installation instructions carefully. The zip file "should be unzipped into your Main Train Simulator\ folder or (if you wish to see what is in the zip file) unzip it into a temporary folder and then move the ADF Update Folder into the Routes folder and the consist Folder into the Consists. Then run the bat file. The reason for doing this was to get the consists in the correct place."

• Our second  interview  for this month is with a member who is very well-known to those who frequent the NERR forums, with over 850 current posts there.  Mike Martin  (mmartin, ID# 219) joined the NERR on 29 January 2003 and has since submitted 310 time slips totaling over 560 hours. Here are his responses to our interview questions.

1. Where do you live? I currently live with my wife and two teenage children on an acreage near the small unincorporated community of Galesburg, Iowa, which is in central Iowa about 40 miles east of Des Moines. 2. Do you have any connection with railways (railroads) in the real world? If so, would you tell us something about those connections? I presently have no connection with railroads in the real world. In my childhood in Southern Iowa, my uncle was a station agent for a small local interurban traction road, the Southern Iowa Railway, and I spent as much time as I could with him at the station. I was also lucky to have a station agent at the Milwaukee depot in my hometown who took pity on a young boy with an interest in trains and tried to impart as much knowledge to that boy as he could, including some Morse code. 3. How did you start with MSTS? What were some of your early experiences - good and bad? I purchased MSTS very shortly after it came out and was very pleased with my first experiences, but then the realization came that after you had run the included activities, there wasn't much else to do. Then I found train-sim.com and from there, NERR, and that all changed. 4. Did you have any experience with other VRs? Yes, I have had experience with other VRs. I was a member of NER, since defunct, and of Midwest something or other that didn't last very long either. Then came NERR, where I have been a member for almost 2 and a half years. I am also a member of GL&A VR and P&A VR. 5. How did you find the NERR? Why did you join it? I found NERR via Google. I did a search on MSTS, and NERR was one of the hits. I followed the link, read the home page and liked what I read, so I filed an application. 6. What part of the VR world and MSTS do you enjoy the most - running trains, doing work orders, or ...? I like trains. I like to run trains. I am a route collector. I don't think there are any freeware routes that I don't have, and I know there are no North American payware routes that aren't in my MSTS routes folder. 7(a). Where do you think / hope MSTS will be in 5 years' time? Depending on the success (or not) of the TMTS sim and a couple of others that I understand are being developed, I expect MSTS to continue to expand in scope. The abilities of the route developers and the rolling stock modelers just continue to expand, much to the amazement of someone like me who can't even get the Route Editor to open, let alone design a route, and who can't use Train Sim Modeler to draw a straight line! 7(b). Where do you think / hope the NERR will be in 5 years' time? I see nothing but continued growth for the NERR. Even if something comes along to replace MSTS, I believe that the NERR will encompass that sim and run with it. 7(c). Where do you think / hope that you will be in the VR world in 5 years' time? I'm happy being right where I am now. I enjoy being a member of the NERR and am honored to have been selected as a Division Director for the South East Division some time back. I just hope I can continue to make a contribution to the NERR and to the MSTS community. 8. If you could add or change two things to the VR world and/or to the NERR, what would they be? I would like to see a traction division for the NERR. I love playing with the traction routes and rolling stock that are out there and really think that routes like Mesaba and the Milwaukee Rocky Mt. Division with the overhead catenary are a lot of fun. 9. What are your favourite MSTS routes - freeware and payware? Why? The Clinton Sub has to be my all-time favorite route. It is so well done, and if I want to, I can drive about 30 minutes and be sitting trackside watching the live RW action on that sub. 10. What is your favourite MSTS loco? Why? I don't really have a favorite; I like to play with them all. I love the older diesel locos, especially the ALCO mosquito killers, but I can also remember the huge steam monsters rolling through my hometown when I was a kid and love to play with them, too. I only wish that somehow, somewhere, steam would make a comeback. I know it won't happen, but it is a dream. 11. What is your favourite type of activity / work order? Freight. Freight. More Freight. Yard switching freight. Run-through freight. And did I mention freight? 12. Is there anything else that we should know about you - family, other hobbies, secret vices ...?! I'm 58 years old, married for 16 years and have 6 kids - 4 from a previous marriage, and 2 that my current wife and I adopted. If you want to know why people don't have children later in life, bring a 2 and 4 year old into your family when you are in your very late 40s! It will either kill you or make you young trying to keep up with them. We raise horses on our acreage, and we have more cats than I can even mention. As for secret vices - if I told you, then they wouldn't be secret, would they.

5 May

• You have installed a new route, and you want to look around it. But - there are only a couple of starting points in the paths folder, so you have limited opportunities to vary the starting points for your explorations. Here's a quick workshop on  creating new paths  for your route:

  • Go to the MSTS Editors menu, and then the open Activity Editor (AE).

  • Click on Files and then select New.

  • Give the activity any name that you like. This does not matter, because you will not be saving the whole activity, just the paths.

  • Open the Player Service Editor. Again, don't worry about the name.

  • *Click on the New button under the Path option on the menu.

  • *Create your path - you don't need to make a long one. In fact, you can put the end point right next to the start point, because when you Explore Route, MSTS cares only about the start point. It does not read the end point at all. Please note that, in Explore Route, it will take only the straight path through a switch.

  • *When you create your paths, give them a unique  name that you can remember the meaning of. Example: for your first Hoodoo Pass Explore path starting at Fredrick, you could name the path Hoodoo Fredrick.

  • You can repeat the asterisked steps above and create as many paths as you want.

  • When you have finished creating paths, you can Exit the Service Editor. You might get an error message about forgetting to make consists - don't worry about that; you only want the paths to explore the route.

  • Exit the AE. Do not save the activity -  it was only a dummy used to allow you to create paths. The paths will still be there.

  • Now you can Explore the route form as many starting points as the number of paths that you created.

• The Central Division has jumped out to an early lead in the  engineers' performance  stakes early in the month, and SE  and SW have started very well.

4 May

• The  "White Train"  has not, AFAIK, been modelled for MSTS yet - unlike lots of other 'named' trains. This train ran between Boston and New York in the late 1800s. The train's first run left Summer Street station in Boston on 16 March 1891. On the next day, the Boston Herald newspaper wrote: "Rolling out of the New York & New England Railroad station at 3 pm yesterday afternoon, the New England Limited took all the glories that could be attached in a complete new train resplendent in white and gold. For three months past, items have appeared in the daily papers about a new departure in car decoration that the NY&NE Railroad was about to inaugurate, and yesterday saw the fulfillment of those announcements. The Pullman Palace Car Company has built for the service seven parlor cars, four passenger coaches, and two royal buffet smokers. These cars are divided into two trains, owned by the New England and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroads. The New England road has provided a dining car of the same general design to run between Boston and Willimantic, Connecticut. The cars are heated by steam directly from the locomotive and are lighted by the Pintsch system of gas. The parlor cars are furnished with velvet carpets, silk draperies, and white silk curtains. The chairs are upholstered in old gold plush, and large plate glass mirrors set off the car handsomely. Three of them have each a stateroom and 26 chairs in the main salon, while the other four have 30 chairs each. The royal buffet smokers, which will be run in addition to the ordinary smoking cars, are decorated in the same manner as the parlor cars and contain 20 handsome upholstered chairs for the passengers. Two cards tables with stationary seats, and writing desks with all needed stationery for letters of telegrams are also provided. The regular passenger coaches seat 60 persons and are comfortable and easy riding. The train that left Boston yesterday was seen by crowds and people who were lined en route to gaze with mingled curiosity and delight at its handsome appearance."

The Poet, Rudyard Kipling, even wrote some verse about the train (can you imagine a poem today about an Amtrak train?):

Without a jar, or roll or antic,
Without a stop to Willimantic,
The New England Limited takes its way
At three o'clock each day,
Maids and Matrons, daintily dimited,
Ride every day on the New England Limited;
Rain nor snow ne'er stops its flight,
It makes New York at nine each night.
One half the glories have not been told
Of that wonderful train of white and gold
Which leaves each day for New York at three
Over the N.Y. & N.E.

Part of the reason that the White Train could make the run from New York City to Boston in such a short time was the innovative 'pan trays' that were used in Putnam, CT. Pan trays were troughs of water bolted between the tracks. A steam locomotive would lower a scoop to draw in from 1,500 to 2,500 gallons of water without stopping. The White Train would speed at 45 miles per hour through Putnam and not stop until arriving at Willimantic. Pan trays had been invented and deployed in England, but this was their first use in the United States.

• From the  Great Lakes & Allegheny VR  website:

3 May

• If you are not sure what the different file types in your MSTS folders are all about, this list might help you.

• From the  Great Lakes & Allegheny VR  website:

2 May

•  Interview with  a member: We have known him as  Intelvet  (aka Jim Moeller, ID#260) since he joined the NERR just over 2 years ago on 15 February 2003. He has submitted over 180 time slips totalling over 340 hours. He currently has almost 700 postings on the NERR forums, placing him in the top 15 message writers. Here is what he has to say in response to our questions.

1. Where do you live? Can you tell us your three favourite things about the area where you live? How long have you lived there? Have you moved around much during your life? I live in Syracuse, New York. The best things about living here are that in the autumn, you get some amazing colors in the trees. Whole hillsides look like they're on fire when the sun hits them. We have some high-density rail traffic that's visible from my front porch. The pictures of the DeWitt yard that I posted (and in other threads in that forum) required only a 10 minute drive to get a position. Then if I tire of CSX action, I can drive an additional 5 minutes and be in position to get some NYS&W shots. In the autumn here, we have many apple orchards in the area that produce some of the best apples in the world, and the quality of the cider produced is its only rival. If you're in the area during that time, it's not to be missed. 2. Do you have any connection with railways (railroads) in the real world? If so, would you tell us something about those connections? I used to. Before my early, medical retirement, I drove CSX and NYS&W crews to and from their trains, assisted in switching moves, transported crew members for train inspections, and generally had a blast ... crazy hours though, but when you're addicted to trains, it's a good deal ... and these guys actually paid me to do something that a lot of folks would be willing to do for free. It was great! 3. How did you start with MSTS? What were some of your early experiences - good and bad? I've always liked simulations and had always wished that someone could come out with one for trains. When MSTS came out, it was exactly what I was looking for. All other simulations were removed from my computer, and I've never looked back. My initial experiences with MSTS were good, but I found that most of the work orders that were supplied with the routes were less than challenging, and the routes were somewhat limited. Add to that, a computer that was barely able to support MSTS, giving me maximum frame rates of 7-9. It was too late though ... the hook had been set. 4. Did you have any experience with other VRs? No real experience with other VRs. They were noted, but I was still trying to figure MSTS out, and that was taking up most of my time. 5. How did you find the NERR? Why did you join it? To be honest, it was completely by accident. I was doing a search on MSTS routes/activities and noticed that a section of the listings were talking about sites that were virtual rail companies. I checked around at a couple of them, but I wasn't comfortable with any of them - until I found the NERR. I'd go into their forums section and read the posts. Most of the other VRs had the usual items that you'd expect to find, but when I arrived at the NERR site, I noticed something that the others didn't have. The over-riding sense that I got from reading the posts here was: "We're glad you're here. If you're having a problem, we can probably help you solve it, and if you do the basic requirements (2 WO/month, and post once in a while), we've got all these goodies that you can have access to." It was like it was my birthday all over again! My first few downloads were tentative. I expected a popup after a short time saying that if I wanted to keep using the equipment I'd have to made a "donation" ... never happened! I still can't believe the amount of hard work and effort everyone does here to make sure we have the best equipment and routes. (Guess you're stuck with me now. ) 6. What part of the VR world and MSTS do you enjoy the most - running trains, doing work orders, or ...? My favorite part of simming is running the trains. I enjoy writing work orders too, but ideas come slowly. In the RW, I like watching trains with huge loads of freight (i.e. coal) struggling to climb over the mountains and then try to keep things in check on the way down again. I try to tailor my work orders to reflect this, but it makes for some very long runs. That makes it tough to stay interested in them, so I've had to modify what types of work orders I write, which is a good thing! It never hurts to stir the grey matter a bit. 7. (a): Where do you think / hope MSTS will be in 5 years' time? Well, I'd hope that MSTS will still be vibrant, and the folks who write it will get off the dime and do something with it. There are a lot of train simmers out here, and it's like Microsoft is saying "That's ok, we don't need your money" ... dumb! 7(b): Where do you think / hope the NERR will be in 5 years' time? NERR will still be here running strong, maybe not with MSTS, but with whatever replaces it. Either way, whatever is going on here at NERR, it will be cutting edge and pushing whichever sim we're using right to the limits. 7(c): Where do you think / hope that you will be in the VR world in 5 years' time? Ok, if we're really dreaming here ... I'd like to learn how to write routes. Right now, I'm certain that anyone who does this has made a pact with the devil and there's a lot of midnight "get-togethers" that involve voodoo dolls of Bill Gates, the sacrificing of old computers and chanting ... lots of chanting. 8. If you could add or change two things to the VR world and/or to the NERR, what would they be? This one's a tough call. The VR world is on its own course, just as the NERR is. I can't honestly think of anything that should be changed here other than all the sick puns folks keep putting up! I'd NEVER stoop to that kind of low humor! 9. What are your favourite MSTS routes - freeware and payware? Why? My favorite MSTS routes have to include: FBL, Hoodoo Pass, and the D&H Bridge Line. FBL has an indescribable feel to it - it's not familiar, but it is. I'd describe FBL as a comfortable chair. Hoodoo is my visit to the gym. You have to stay alert, nursing everything you can out of your train to climb the hill or keeping things under control on the downhill side. The D&H Bridge Line is my homecoming. The area that it runs through is essentially my backyard. I still remember seeing D&H equipment running down the line when I was little. 10. What is your favourite MSTS loco? Why? I like the high power diesel units - SD-70s and the like. It's good to have the power at your command to get the freight through. But I have to admit that my favorite lash-up to run was the 10 unit GE 25-Tonners that I strung together ... that was a hoot to drive as long as you weren't trying to move anything that was too heavy. 11. What is your favourite type of activity / work order? Why? Freight, freight and freight. I know I've strayed a couple of times to some passenger runs, but those were mainly accidental. I'm getting so that I'm enjoying switching activities a bit more, but I'm still unsteady with them. My dream run is a long freight, with some pickups/drop offs along the route, fighting with the AI traffic. Throw in some crappy weather, and I'm in hog heaven! 12. Is there anything else that we should know about you - family, hobbies, ...?! I'm a retired Private Investigator (15 years), did 7 years with the US Navy, have a wonderful wife and daughter, and have been married for 31 years this coming May (so much for my wife's taste in men!). I love trains, astronomy, thunderstorms, Formula 1 racing, and photography. I have a serious addiction to Hazelnut coffee and diet Pepsi. Any secret vices will stay that way! Not much more to add without having to check on the availability of bail monies, so I'll shut up while I'm ahead of the game. I'm glad to be here and am constantly impressed with the quality of people we have. Thanks for having me!

• Here is the  monthly report on the Bison Rail / Central Division activity  for April 2005 from Scott_AUS, the BRS/CT Human Resources Director (NERR engineer #120):

  • CT engineers = 50 (+7 from March '05), representing 17% of the NERR population, excludes HQ-based staff.

  • Work orders available in CT = 196 (+5 from March '05), representing 23% of the NERR work order database.
    Bison Rail work orders = 39 (+/- 0 from March '05).

  • CT work orders Logged (by any NERR engineer) = 239 (up from 208 in March '05). This represents 21% of total NERR time slips logged for the month – holding steady from last month.

  • CT work orders run, compared with all NERR work order types (last month in brackets):

    • NE = 129 (132)

    • NW = 175 (307)

    • SE = 157 (7)

    • SW = 239 (248)

    • CT = 239 (208)

  • CT engineer statistics :

    • Out of 50 engineers in the CT division, 37 are currently active, two are on leave, and 11 are inactive.

    • Of the 37 active engineers, 25 logged NERR-based work orders, representing 68% of the engineers contributing to the Division.

    • 11 active engineers failed to log a single NERR time slip in April '05, which is an increase on last month.

    • The top four CT engineers of the month are:

      • #236 dkunath - 18

      • #117 mcewen - 13

      • #152 Dross - 12

      • #90 HiLine - 11

• 1  new work order  for you today: BRS-MN-0005 for the Monon route. A short work order of about 40 minutes for you, driving a GE 44 ton from Bison Rail in the Ames Yard. The speed limits are as posted, but 80 mph is not recommended in the yard! Ask permission at all reds – you have been warned! Consult the map in the download package for the assistance that you will need. The briefing goes like this: Move forward on Yard 1 and reverse onto Yard 2 and pick up the 2 reefers. (Stay off Yard 3 as a tanker train is due at 9.02). Proceed back to Yard 1, forward to Ames 1 North, reverse to Siding 8 and drop off the reefers at the larger building and then return to Yard 2. A grain train is due on track 9 at about 9.10, but he will wait for you to clear if necessary. At Yard 2 pick up the first 3 boxcars. Take them forward across onto Yard 3 and then across the main - drop them off near the warehouse on Siding 11. Continue forward and then reverse onto Siding 10 and back to Yard 2. A coal train is due on Track 12 at 9.23, so if you are later than this, wait for him to pass before going onto Siding 10. If you are earlier than this, he will stop at the 10/12/11 switch and wait for you to clear. If you are well ahead of him, he will pass by on Yard 3 at about 9.24. On Yard 2 pick up all the remaining cars and proceed through the Yard Lead and reverse at the reverse point. (If the grain train has not departed, you may have to go through a red at the Yard Lead switch, although permission is denied – but watch out for the passing coal train at 9.23). After the next reverse point, drop off 3 autoracks outside the big grey building. Pull forward until clear of the switch (not as far as reverse point), reverse into Siding 6 and drop off the 2 stone wagons at the factory building. Then proceed to Siding 7 to drop off 3 boxers at the warehouse. Return to Yard 1 where you started, and the work order will end there. You can relax until the next train arrives! And that's all!

1 May

• 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.

• Some  time slip statistics for April 2005:

• 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." Then, with 3/4 of April gone, the situation was that the NE, NW, and SW all had 5 of their own engineers in the top 5 in their divisions, the SE had 2 out of 5, and the CT had 1 out of 5. By the end of April, that had changed again to:

  • the NW and SW had 5 out of 5 of their own engineers in the top 5 in their divisions;

  • the NE had 4 out of 5; and

  • the SE and CT had 2 out of 5.

• The table below compares the  performance of the 5 NERR Divisions  for April 2005 with March 2005 - the March figures are in brackets - some significant changes in rankings in April.

• The March 2005 issue of Roundhouse Ramblings has been moved to the Archives page. You can access it, and all the previous issues of Roundhouse Ramblings, through the link on the menu on the left hand side of this screen. The last two days' news items from April will be shown below for the next couple of days.

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.