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    10 May   MSTS Utilities
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28 May

• Less than 2 weeks ago, we re-opened the membership lists to  new applicants . So far, we have welcomed 18 new members to the NERR. Most have started to submit NERR time slips to start their NERR careers. Well done to all of them!

• A new route, or rather a heavily-revised route, has been released over at Train-Sim.com this week - the  ConRail Indy V2 . From the file: "This is the original route by Bruce Bridges. It covers the Conrail Indianapolis and St. Louis lines from Avon Yard to Marion, Ohio. The route has all new scenery, some roads have been extended and more car spawners added. Requires that all six default routes be installed, plus the latest X-Tracks and T-Section. New scenery by John Finney." No changes were made to the track from the previous versions, apart from the new texture. When the route is installed - 1 zip file to be downloaded of about 255Mb, you will have to copy some files from the Shapes folder to the MSTS Global Shapes folder. I can not find a readme file included in the zip file, and nor can I find an install.bat file. It might also need the modern track sounds file (modtrkv2.zip) from the Train-Sim.com file library. It is a great pity that  this sort of information for the user is not included in a short readme file with the download - it is not that difficult to do.

• An interesting posting over at the  Train-Sim.com forums . Bob Edwards, an active MSTS route builder wrote: "Once PIE and TMTS made their public announcement that they were stopping work on TMTS, I sent a copy of their news release to KUJU and asked that they look into stepping into the doorway opened by TMTS. I think many of you will take note of the following email I received today!" Read on.

"Hi Bob, Thanks for the mail and yes, we had already seen it – we’ve been in communication with PI Engineering for some time about their Rail Driver hardware and we hope to make an announcement about that sometime soon. Just to be clear – we’ve always seen Rail Simulator as a global product; however, at the moment we don’t have a distribution deal in place for North America. When one is finalised we will make it a major announcement. I can’t say much about routes for North America either – but I will say that we have been very happy with the approach we’ve taken to developing our German route, and that we know that if we are going to release in North America we will need some content. I’m sorry I can’t give you any more information at the moment - keep your eye on our website and the forums in the next month or two! Regards, Richard Rogerson, Studio Head - Kuju Simulation"

24 May

• As I'll be away for the next couple of days, this might be the last update for May.

• It has been good to see that my article earlier in the month about  "low use" work orders  had a couple of effects:

  • At least one of our engineers ran a few of the work orders and enjoyed them.

  • I found out why some of the work orders were in that category. Now we might be able to do something with them - maybe archive them so that they are not lost but just not visible on the database. It might be possible to do the same as we do when we "delete" an engineer from the callboard - the records go into a separate section of the database. We can dredge up those records if an engineer wants to return - as two have done this week - Dana and Terry. Welcome back. guys!

• There are lots of preserved rail lines around the world. Let me tell you something about the  Bally Hooley Steam Railway  in Far North Queensland, Australia, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Cairns. The photo to the right shows the two locomotives and four open passenger carriages that make up the equipment used on the BSR - click on it to open a larger version in a new window.

But first some general information first about the cane trains in Queensland. The Queensland east coast has a number of sugar cane growing areas where, up until the 1970s (about then) the cane was transported to the local crushing mill by train. The 2-foot gauge trains ran on light rails, some of which were portable, and were pulled initially by steam engines and later by diesel engines. We generally used to call them "engines" here, not locomotives. The rail transport was replaced by road transport in the 1970s because of speed, flexibility, safety, and cost, but the spectator sport was lost! Most of the tracks were sold off and pulled up for scrap, but a few lengths were kept in place. One of the short sections of track was near the coastal resort of Port Douglas, part of the rail system for the Mossman Mill.

The BSR operates on 4 kilometres (about 2½ miles) of this track, running from the former Port Douglas sugar port area.  It is run by 14 enthusiastic local volunteers. On the days when the train runs (Sundays and public holidays), the steam trains' four carriages are usually packed with tourists and some locals, 4 or 5 times a day from 10am. The first station on the line out of the Marina Mirage resort is Dougie's, a backpacker resort, the Country Club (near the Mirage golf course), then Rydge's Resort, then to the terminus at St Crispins. The passengers disembark there, while the  round-trip customers wait while the steam locomotive is turned on a fully-operational turntable, then couples to the other end of the train for the trip back.

The original line was opened in 1900 and consisted of a yard / station / wye/ workshop complex at the Port Douglas end. The early wagons and boxcars were supplied by Hudsons of Leeds, along with the passenger carriages, and by the German firm, Orrenstein and Koppell. The latter supplied the "Douglas" compound Mallet locomotive, in addition to the wagons. More wagons were supplied by Walkers Ltd., Maryborough, and from a works in Ipswich, both cities in Queensland. These accounted for about half the wagon stock. The remainder were built in the railway's own shop. The locomotive was named the "Faugh-a-Ballagh", from Fowler's in Leeds, her builder's number being 8733 of 1901. The photo to the right shows the train at the Port Douglas station in 1902.

23 May

• Well, the announcement about the indefinite cessation of the development of  TMTS , one of the new-generation rail simulators, did not really cause much of a stir in the MSTS world. Most people seemed to take the view that they had not really expected to ever see it on the market. It seems that a number of people have dusted off the projects that they had stopped work on and will now complete them for the current MSTS. The position of the payware companies seems to be unclear (from what I have read, and I have no inside contacts whatsoever), and nothing public has been heard from them. And even this comment from one of the people closely involved in TMTS in one of the other forums has changed people's opinions: "Thought I would put my head around the door- nothing really changes that much, the Train sim world may eventually benefit from this move in the long run though, it will supply a needed breathing space for developers too, as the guys have stated above, we are still building TMTS its just not going to hit the shelves, who knows, you may see it later on, just not right now." from Tim Court.

• Train-Sim have had a large number of locos and stock items for the  Monon line  in recent months. Someone might now why this line has had a sudden growth in popularity. If you want to run prototypical equipment on the Monon route that the NERR has in its network, you have a great in the T-S.com file library.

• And there is even a  Thai MSTS website !

• Have you looked at the other  Virtual Railroads  lately? Here's a bit about each of them and their activities recently:

  • NERR - you know all about that one, or you should! Probably the biggest news is the re-opening of our membership lists for new members. In the past week-and-a-bit, we've had about 25 applicants, 10 of whom have already graduated from the New Engineers Orientation (NEO) program to the main VR. Most of those have started to earn money on the main callboard. A couple of former members have rejoined through that program, and it is great to see them back 'home' with us.

  • Great Lakes & Allegheny RR - it is still active and accepting new members. They have work orders for their 8 payware routes and an active set of forums. This VR is closely associated with the BRS (see below).

  • Pacific & American RR - it is still active and accepting new members. They have work orders for their 9 routes, mainly payware, and an active set of forums. It is rather quiet at the moment, as some of their leaders are off doing other MSTS things.

  • Bison Rail System - it is very active and accepting new members. They have a growing list of work orders for about 15 routes in 3 sections - North America, Europe, and Australia. They have a very active set of forums, an activity writers training program, an  evolving historical rail section, and a new vAmtrak section.

  • Ohio Valley System - it is still very active and accepting new members. They have a growing list of work orders for their 4 main routes and 4 connecting routes - mainline, shortline, electric, with some payware added into the mix. They have an active set of forums, a training/certification section with a range of courses (basic, advanced, steam, passenger, activity development - the largest, longest-established VR training section around), and even an attached virtual airline.

    They recently updated the information on their main website page, which they do every couple of months, or more frequently if there is some breaking news: "May 22, 2006: The rosters have finally been updated on the Ohio Valley Aviation site. Voyager moved to a new host, causing the delay. All aircraft can be downloaded now. We are once again flying charter service for the Cleveland Indians and Akron Aeros baseball clubs. Other teams can be easily added. Also coming soon are "Sportsman Specials", unique charters to very interesting destinations.
    
    If you are interested in running Sand Patch, Conrail Indy, Hamilton Norfolk, and/or PRR MIddle Division, let us know. We are considering deleting our "connecting route" program.
    
    Work on the new Ohio Central Route continues by Austin Yoder. This route, if found acceptable, will make a great addition to the Ohio Valley. Connecting at Zanesville with Ohio Rail, it provides access to Columbus, Ohio, a connection to the P&WV route at Mingo Jct, and runs north to Brewster, Ohio. Austin previously released the popualr Pocohontas Route, so we know he does great work.
    
    Rich Garber is back to work on the Cumberland Route. Based on the L&N prototype, the Cumberland route again stretches the limits of MSTS route design. Word is Andre Ming also has the construction crews busy on an all new route."

  • Cascade & North Western RR - will open for members for the first time on 5 June 2006, but you can check out the website. It will use a specially-developed, updated and enlarged version of Robert Reedy's Dual Fictional route. This VR will run a bit differently from the others described here. The automated dispatcher system will sequence the work orders in a set order, and engineers will be able to access only the next in the series and the associated equipment to run it. Keep watching this space for more information.

• I am not a great fan of most payware. Don't flame me, it's just my opinion. I appreciate the effort that goes into payware, and I know that they have to make commercial decisions. But one of the smaller payware organisations does get my vote. Andre Laming's  V Scale Creations  has two routes on the market now, and another one at least in the development stage, plus 4 equipment packs. The routes are brilliant (the St Louis & North Arkansas [steam era] and the Arkansas & Ozarks [diesel era]). Gaetan Belanger is now providing the locos for the routes, and his work is among the best around. Together, they make a great team producing great packages for us "play" with. Real big boys' toys!! And I'm not on a commission for this shameless plug.

20 May

• The  BIG news  today is in the following box. You can also read about it on their website. So that leaves just Kuju developing a new train simulator package. There is now some speculation that Electronic Arts, the major company bankrolling Kuju, might be looking to cut projects like Rail Simulator. There is always speculation, so we'll see what happens in the next few weeks. Maybe they will broaden their route and equipment base to include North American material in the hope of capturing that market. Who knows? Watch this space.

19 May

• Sorry for the lack of news updates. We've had 10 new members graduate from the  NEO welcome/induction program  to the NERR in the last 4 days, with another 14 still undertaking the program. It has been great to see the current members - old and newer - giving the new guys a great welcome in the forums. Thanks for doing that! I hope that you can keep it up for the next couple of weeks until the rush finishes - maybe. Most of the new members have also submitted more NERR time slips since they graduated, so we now that they are keen to get going. Great to watch!! As NEO Manager, I am having a great time. Brian has ironed out the few remaining glitches in the self-paced program, and it is going well now - thanks again to his superb programming skills.

• If you have been waiting for more prototypical stock to run on the  South Australian route  called Adelaide and Hills, a new batch has just been released over at the Steam4me site. The SAR700 class loco is shown on the right - click on the picture and a larger version will open. From the site: "The long-awaited and stylish SAR 520 class by Joseph Spinella and team-ALCO is now available for your immediate download and installation. Player and AI-versions of this magnificent beast are included. More South Australian Railways rolling stock as we release further models by Alexander Jamieson: the SAR Country Passenger Carriage set, featuring 500, 600, 700 series and Centenary carriages, some with passenger and guard views. Team-ALCO has re-vamped the SAR 700 class 2-8-2 with upgraded physics and AI versions of the locomotives."

• My news item on 10 May about the work orders that have been submitted 5 times or fewer elicited an excellent response in the NERR forums. Read this thread to find out why some of those work orders are on  the 'Low Use' list . I have edited the table in the 10 May item to show the work orders mentioned in the forum thread. But there are still a lot of the work orders for which the low use has not been explained. So why not run some of them and find out what they are like?

• There will soon be another VR in the MSTS vworld - the  Cascade & North Western . Another part of the vision of Bob Artim, the C&NW will be a bit different from the NERR. Engineers will have to follow a designated "career path" as they are allocated work orders to complete by the railroad dispatcher - just as in the rworld. You can check out the website, but they are still in testing mode, so don't try to join up yet. The opening date is set down as 5 June 2006. Watch this space (and the NERR forums).

• Over at Train-Sim, there have been some activity packs released this week for the  CSX Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac line  from Fredericksburg to Washington route. I have not run this MSTS route, but I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has. There are a number of activities and plenty of equipment for the route, so someone must like it.

16 May

• There has been a rush of  new members  to the NERR today. We've had 22 applicants, with 5 graduating to the NERR already, 1 leaving, and 16 undertaking the New Engineer Orientation (NEO) program. Some of these guys have been waiting very patiently for several months to be able to join the NERR, so they are really going through the tasks in NEO very quickly. On the main front page of the NERR website, you can see who the 5 most recent graduates have been, plus the number of rookies still in the NEO program. We are publishing  a welcome message to the new graduates in the Human Resources Department forum in the NERR forums, so go over and welcome the new engineers.

• Two  new work orders  for you today. They are:

  •  NEDF-067-06A for the Dual Fictional Railroad route. On a clear summer morning, you climb aboard the trusty old EMD SW1500 switcher at Ada for a work order that should take you between 1½ and 2 hours. Your task is to assemble a train in heavy opposing traffic in Ada's industrial areas. Timing is critical. (You need 16 equipment files to run this one.)

  • NECG-075-02 for the Chicago Great Western route. To complete this work order on a clear autumn morning, you will be using a GE C44-9W - our NERR #9022 - for about 1½ to 2 hours to complete this work order. "You have been given the privilege of taking the first shipment of grain for this harvest season from Oelwein to Dubuque. I know you will do us proud. Just follow the path. Pick up the grain cars and be on your way." (You need 55 equipment files to run this one.)

15 May

• The  major announcement  for today is:

We have had 9 applications for membership since NEO re-opened just about 36 hours ago, without having to advertise it at all. 1 of those has already completed the welcome program and is now a fully-fledged Active NERR engineer on the callboard.

1 other rookie decided that, although he had completed most of the tasks in the NEO program, including the first work order, the NERR was not for him and resigned. I asked him by email what had caused him to " become very frustrated and not enjoy this at all", so that we can see if the problem was at our end or his. I hope that he replies. The other 7 rookies are working their way through the process at varying speeds. A couple of them have failed the first attempts at the first work order because they went too fast in the yard at the start of the work order.

I have also contacted the 20 or 25 people who have left their email address on the website to express an interest in joining the NERR. I hope that some of them join us.

• Note from the website owner over at UKTrainSim: "I'm extremely pleased to report that one of our most popular CDs, Tim Court's  Mid-East UK  route is now back on the CD ordering screen! This is essentially the same route as the original version, and it now comes fully patched and ready to go (previously you had to install the route and then manually apply a few patches that were on the CD). It's got self-installers and an auto-run menu - the same as our other CDs. The changes to the route are simply the scenery replacements to comply with the permissions withdrawal previously in the year and a couple of other minor swap-outs to improve the look of the route.

Mid-East is set in the British Rail Blue 80s period, and the stock included on the CD matches that period. The route does not have overhead gantries. What we have done is to go through the stock and upgrade it to the current versions that are available.

Mid-East has always been a popular route, but as one of our oldest CDs, its included stock has always been quite old. Not the case anymore! Lots of brand spanking new stock on there, including the very nice new HSTs. Note: This route is NOT the upcoming "Mid-East PLUS", that's not due out for a while yet."

The price for the CD, posted by first class airmail to anywhere in the world, is GBP4.50. This includes 1 month of premium membership of the file library. It is a great bargain, if you are at all interested in UK routes and railways.

• As you know by now, if you have not been living totally under a rock, there are two major rail simulators currently in the development stage. One of those is by Kuju, the original developers of MSTS before they passed it over to Microsoft. They have several updates on their progress over at their  Rail Simulator  website. The latest updates have been about their Track Tool and the support for the AGEIA PhysX Processor in their program.

• Train-Sim has released lots of rolling stock in the past few days, including several packs from the Arkansas Locomotive Works and others from Australian modellers, together with some more activities for freeware routes (e.g. the Pocahontas route). It is great that more activity developers seem to be sharing their work. Those of us who can't/don't develop our own activities really appreciate the time taken to produce good quality activities.

10 May

• The latest update to  Train Store, V.3.2.2 , is now available as a 946Kb download from the Roster section in NETS. It is easy to install - just open the zip file, double-click on the exe file inside, check that it is pointing to the folder where your installation of Train Store is, and then let it run. The only file that is changed is the Train Store exe file. It does not change any of your settings or any of your stored files. From the readme file: "This update fixes a number of small errors in Train Store V3.2, and adds some additional features. The update is an update to the TRAINSTORE.EXE file only. The update is compatible with all existing V3.2 files (including all language packs) and with V3.2.1."

Train Store is the program that kept me in the MSTS world when I was ready to uninstall MSTS for the second time because it was taking forever to load the sim, if it ever managed it without crashing! I still use it only for the storage of the routes or work orders that I don't want to run for the time being - I usually have only one or two unstored routes. But it keeps me sane - if that's what you call my state of mind! If you are not using Train Store, why not?! It has never crashed for me, and it has never lost a file for me. Even when I changed computers without unstoring everything, all I did was to copy all the Train Store storage folders into my MSTS installation, and all my routes and work orders were back and running again. Tony Formoso has produced the "perfect" program - IMHO.

• The table below shows the  69 NERR work orders  that have had 5 or fewer time slips submitted for them since NET started. I though that I would look at each one and see if I could identify the reason for the apparent lack of interest in running these work orders. The reason that I decided on is in the right hand column. Some reasons, such as for the 958 to 960 series of work orders, are obvious; others are not so obvious; and others, such as those shown as "???" are for reasons that I can not ascertain. How about you running a few of these work orders this month? Some of these work order developers must be starving, if they are trying to live off the royalties that they are earning for these work orders!!

8 May

• The  index to the past issues  of the News page has been brought up to date. The index lists the main articles in each news page and contains links to those articles.

• One  new work order  in recent days: NECG-110-SF03E on the Chicago Great Western route. This is a Special Freight run on a clear summer day, driving an SD70 plus a AC6000 and freight cars. Cascadia Mines Inc. in the Hoodoo Pass District plans a large expansion of their mining operation due to the discovery of very large high grade ore deposits. To gain excess to the ore bodies, new tunnels 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, and cement to heavy machinery and new drilling equipment - also new railway lines for the underground haulage system. You need to collect the required loads from various NERR Divisions. This work order transits through the Chicago Great Western District from East Dubuque to Stockton.

• The internet has millions of websites with information about all sorts of topics, from the common to the totally esoteric. One website that is attempting to become an online encyclopedia is  Wikipedia . It calls itself "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit." There are over 1 million articles in the English language Wikipedia, over 100,00 articles in the German, Spanish,  French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish ones, and Wikipedias in over 100 other languages. It has an excellent search facility. The articles also contain links to lots of the terms used in the article, a very useful cross-referencing mechanism. The major downside of this website is the lack of obvious moderation and quality assurance of articles, all of which are contributed by individuals from around the world - and there is the opportunity for people to add extra information to articles.

Examples:

• I searched for "railroad". This brought up a long article, divided into the following sections: General, Operations, Level, Safety and railway disasters, History, Terminology, Further reading, Rail transport by country, "See also", and External links. There is enough reading in this article and its linked material to keep anyone going for weeks.

• I'm not sure what I searched for, but I found a list of U.S. railroads - a great source of information, with links to articles about most of these railroads. An example of one of the categories in the list is the Class 1 Railroads: BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Grand Trunk Corporation (holding company owning all U.S. railroads controlled by the Canadian National Railway), Kansas City Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway, Soo Line Railroad (controlled by the Canadian Pacific Railway), and the Union Pacific Railroad. The other categories of railroads in the list are: Regional railroads, Local railroads, Switching and terminal railroads, Non-common carriers, Unknown classification, Passenger railroads, Excursion and tourist railroads, Canadian railroads also operating in the U.S., Mexican railroads also operating in the U.S.

A great source of information.

• The first line of railroad constructed in northern Alaska was built in the winter of 1900 by Charles D. Lane and his Californian associates to enable them to deliver mining supplies to their mining properties at Anvil Creek and other points. The narrow gauge railroad was extended to Shelton, about 75 miles from Nome in the hope of opening up the Kougarok mining district. When the output from the mines decreased, the railroad was abandoned. However, the line continued in use as long as the rails remained on the ties, due to a unique form of train. From 8-10 sled dogs - Siberian Huskies - were hitched to a line attached to a small flat car - the wheels fitted over the tracks. The driver and passengers sat on a bench or on the freight packages. This railroad became known as the   Siberian Express . Another dog-powered express was “The Alaska Unlimited”. Both were sometimes called the “Pup-Mobile Express.”

• Handy Hint:  How Can I Disable Error Reporting?  Whenever a program crashes or I have to stop an application that's not responding, XP wants to send an error report to Microsoft. I've put with it for a while, but now I've decided that I'd rather not "call home" with this information. So I always click not to send the report, but I've now found a way to turn off this feature. Follow these steps:

  • Right click My Computer on the desktop or in the Start menu.

  • Click Properties.

  • Click the Advanced tab.

  • Click the Error Reporting button at the bottom.

  • Click Disable error reporting. You can select the checkbox under it if you still want to be notified when errors occur.

  • Click OK.

  Note that you can disable error reporting for the operating system only, or for programs only, by unchecking the appropriate box under the Enable error reporting option. You can also configure error reporting only for specific programs by clicking the Choose Programs button.

• Do any of your locomotives lack a  headout view ? You can add it by putting the following code into the eng file, usually near the cabview line:

CabView ( 110.cvf )
HeadOut ( -1.5 2.9 -6.7 )
MaxDieselLevel ( 430gal )

The second fiqure in the above line is the height.

5 May

• A new route from a new route builder (a very young guy) has been released in the file library over at Train-Sim. From the readme file: "This route is called " The Golden Gulch Railroad ". It is a small shortline, circa late 1890s to late 1930s. The line runs about 20 miles from the city of Townsend to the town of Snake Eye with the town Fort Custer in between. The route winds and climbs through mountains and is a loop around at either end. Townsend is a quaint town on one side of the mountains, and Snake Eye is a bustling industrial are in a desert scrub climate. Fort Custer which lies between them is a quiet little town in the mountains." No detailed reports on what it is like as yet, but you might need to use Route-Riter to find and fix the missing files (all from the default routes), and you will need the latest version of XTracks (3.17, IIRC). It is a small download - just 15Mb in one zipped file, which you drop onto the Routes folder of your MSTS installation.

• A little bird told me recently that the NERR might be opening its  membership portal  again in the near future, with a new induction program, and a new induction manager. Watch this space for details - unless that little bird gets plucked!!

• There are lots of engineers on the callboard who have not submitted any NERR time slips for more than 2 months - sort the callboard by the Last Run column, and you will see a large block of  yellow ID cells  - 1st warning level. Come on, guys, do some vwork!!

• Another interesting move over at Train-Sim is the sudden influx of  UK material . This has not happened to this extent before. And an increasing amount of  Australian equipment  is now being released both at Train-Sim and at the Steam4me website (the usual release point for almost all Australian MSTS freeware. Are North American MSTS engineers suddenly becoming interested in foreign routes and equipment?

3 May

• 2  new work orders  for you today:

  • NENE-235-03A  for the Northeast Corridor 4.0 route. This is a huge, marvellous route, and we don't see enough work orders for it, IMHO. Today, you will be using a GE AC6000CW NERR #9905  for this short morning work order of about 45 minutes. From the briefing: "Morning George. I see the yard has completed maintenance on the engines. That means back to work for us. Today we'll be picking up freight at International Harvester and Napa Auto Parts, making a delivery and pick up at Baltimore docks, with our final delivery to Bayview Yards. Should be an easy day. Hope you didn't forget the iced tea. All switches are set; the engines are warmed and ready to go."

  • NENE-235-03B for the Northeast Corridor 4.0 route. back into your GE AC6000CW NERR #9905 locomotive. This morning, you have another work order of about 1¼ hours to complete. From the briefing: "Our day continues as we head toward NECX Siding #1 for our next pick up. After making the pick up, we will go to Baltimore Docks and drop the 6 flats at pier 4. While there, we'll pick up 11 Gunderson's at pier 6, then on to Bayview Yard to drop the remaining freight on track 7. The work order ends when we pull into Bayview Engine #2. All switches are set prior to entering the Baltimore Docks area. Once there, we throw all switches. On leaving, Dispatch will again take over the switching for us."

  Enjoy them! I'm going to run these in the next 2-3 days.

• The Community CDs of UK MSTS routes are gradually returning to UKTrainSim. They were taken off the market earlier this year when one UKTS member withdrew permission for his models to be used on them - that caused a lot of consternation! Now, after a number of members produced new models and rebuilt the routes and equipment, the first of the new generation routes, the  Northern Rail RoutesV6.0 , has been released. It "includes the latest community scenery updates! A fictional extension of the default Settle and Carlisle line extending vast distances, includes stock and activities. By Gerald Morris and Alan Howat." The CD of the route costs GBP4.50, with free postage to anywhere in the world by first class airmail (gets to me in Australia in 5-6 days). That price also gives you 1 month of free premium membership to the file library (unlimited download of files). The CD also comes with activities for the route - usually 20-40 of them - with all the stock needed to run them. Excellent value! You can be up and running with the route  in less than 15 minutes. I have bought a number of these CDs, and I have never had an installation or running problem with either the route or the equipment - they all use two self-installers, one for the route and one for the stock.

• Joe Morris, a well-known member in many parts of the MSTS community, posted the following in another forum, as part of a thread about  Train Store , that excellent utility that I am positive has kept me using MSTS. If you don't use Train Store, you must read this. if you do use Train Store, you should read it to see how other people use it. I am sure that Joe would not mind my publishing his words here for us. When I first read this information, I learned a few new things about Train Store - yes, I know that I should have read the manual - but I have read the bits that I needed to, so that I could run it in Classic Mode, which is really all I do with it. Now I might try a few more things! Thanks, Joe.

"A big advantage of TS is that it "stores" routes ( the .trk file I think ), consists ( the .con file ), paths ( the .pat files ), services ( the .srv files ), and equipment ( by storing the .eng or .wag file ). This allows MSTS to load faster, and it avoids the 'too many' problem with these types of files. I think it reduces crashes tremendously and makes the sim run smoother ( I know that most feel that mini-routes do the same thing, especially if they have only the paths, services, consists, and equipment necessary for the mini-route ), even though that was not a reason for its creation.

Here are some of the "ways" I use Train Store:

• When just running activities or exploring, it is a no-brainer: Easy Mode. ....Several advantages: When changing activities or routes, it is very fast. To change a route and/or activity, there are only a few files that need to be "moved" (store the ones that were in use and unstore the ones to be used). And, of course, MSTS loads very fast. And, if I save an activity and want to continue that activity on my next MSTS session, I don't even have to launch TS again; just start MSTS and that activity is "ready", including its saved files.

• I also use Easy Mode when I am dealing with a problem activity or a problem .eng or .wag file used in an activity or explore mode run. I can either allow MSTS to run, or check the "Suppress MSTS Launch" feature. Then when I run ConBuilder, it is also much faster, loading only the rolling stock that is used in that activity (or explore mode consist). This makes fixing and finding errors in the .eng and .wag files much easier. I can find them much easier than using any file manager, since CB only shows the "unstored" ones, and I use CB's feature to "edit the .eng or .wag file". I use CB's launching of Shape Viewer in a similar way. If I need to check the activity, AE loads much faster, and only shows the activity I want. Again much easier and faster than searching manually through any file manager (even though I use one of the best, Power Desk). And, if I have to stop working, I just exit everything. They are ready for me when I begin again.

• I also use a variation on Easy Mode when adding new items to MSTS. I will select the Test Track route (or maybe your Shorty), with a small consist (usually a single engine only). In this, I usually suppress the launch of MSTS. Then, I install the new equipment. Now I go to ConBuilder and run all my tests on the new equipment, easily finding them to fix any errors and make physics and coupler changes. I can view them in Shape Viewer from CB. I can make simple consists for them if necessary. And then I can load them into MSTS and test them, as well as perform your favorite check of the wheels on the track. The next time I launch Train Store, it takes note of the new stock and adds them to the lists it uses.

• I can also do that with Easy Mode when adding a new route, since my MSTS has all the files necessary to run an installme.bat file (Train Store does not affect the files that these batch files copy). Then I can use all my tools (Route Riter, Con Builder, Activity Editor, Route Editor, etc.) necessary to check out the installation of the new route, including any equipment and consists added by the installation. I don't always do this when I know the route builder, but PO&N10 showed me that I should have done it this way, as I was one of the ones that got that blank track texture.

• I use the Classic Mode in a different way. If I am creating an activity for use by my VR, or one with only default equipment, or one with a specific equipment list, I will use Classic Mode to create a "scenario" where the desired route is the only one unstored, and only certain equipment is unstored. The equipment used in existing activities for that route ,and what I mark as "explore mode consists", is all that will be available for use in the activity editor and the other "tools". This way I make sure that I don't use unintended equipment in an activity, especially unintended loose consist items. Train Store saves the scenario, and it is available any time by just loading it from the Classic Mode menu.

• Some of the ways I use Train Store are not "recommended" by the author, and I don't recommend them to inexperienced users, but for an inexperienced user, nothing beats the Easy Mode of Train Store. I have only had one problem since using Train Store, and that was after a system restore (which apparently can cause MSTS problems without Train Store). I probably should have "unstored everything" in Train Store before running the system restore. I got some "extra" folders that appeared to be MSTS files stored by Train Store. Anyway, it wasn't too hard to fix, and wasn't really the fault of Train Store.

• The only thing I would add to Train Store is the creation of an "automatic" consist for engines in Easy Mode. They could be selected even if they didn't have a consist created for them, Train Store would make a simple one (or two of the same) engine temporary consist automatically, and then they could be run in explore mode for testing. Then I wouldn't have to have all those consists with just one or two engines in them just to run the engines by themselves, especially for those engines I add and just want to see how they look in the sim. For those I didn't want to keep, I could just delete the engine folder and not have to worry about deleting any associated consists.
  
  Anyway, Train Store is as good as "sliced bread" for me."

2 May

• If you would like to see what is happening with other rail simulators, such as Trainz and BVE, the  V-Scaler website  has plenty of information, as well as a link to another site with free back copies of their ezine in pdf format. The final issue for 2005 has a long list of about 70 rail simulators of various types, with links to websites for them. Interesting reading.

• There has not been a lot of new MSTS material in the file libraries this week - until today, that is. Train-Sim released a new route - the " Dampfbahnverein Zrcher Oberland route . The DVZO route is one of the most interesting preserved lines in Switzerland - among the few museum lines that still exist. In comparison to other countries, few lines have been closed in the past decades. The association started its operation in 1978 on a scenic stretch of the former, private "Uerikon-Bauma Bahn" (Uebb), a secondary line that closed down in 1948. But luckily, the mountainous and most interesting section of the line between Hinwil and Bauma has been taken over by Swiss federal railways and even been electrified. But traffic levels remained low as ever, as the line, which was initially founded and initiated by local industrial "tycoon" Guyer-Zeller, completely failed to satisfy actual traffic needs right from the beginning, merely linking insignificant villages. In 1972, that remaining stretch finally was closed to passengers, but it was kept open for occasional freights and, more importantly, for military strategic reasons. That was when the association became active, raising funds to buy steam engines and a number of historic coaches, and started to rebuild them with a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers. The scenic line, which was still fully maintained by federal railways SBB, but only partially used, was an ideal candidate for a museum railway. Today, the association owns half of the line. They equipped it with semaphore signals, historical railroad crossings and restored the old infrastructure. The museum line is only 11 km, but it has eight bridges and features many picturesque spots and steep grades up to 29 0/00 (1 in 35), so the engines have to prove their traffic effort on every trip. The museum line is a regional attraction, running on a twin-weekly pattern on Sunday during summer."

The route is a 360Mb download in a single rar file from Train-Sim. You can also download it from a European MSTS website. On that website, the download consists of 8 rar files with 38.1Mb in each plus 1 rar file with 8.86Mb plus 1 file of 29Mb with the activities and stock to run them. I am not sure if the Train-Sim download has the activities and stock, because I can't view the file contents as it is not a zip file, and I have not downloaded it yet. The route looks excellent - from screenshots on the European website. This is the third version of this route, according to information on UKTrainSim. One of the earlier versions was released as the Tösstal route a year or so ago. The Europeans seem to be still developing routes and equipment for MSTS, and the community still seems to be very strong there, judging by the number of active websites with freeware material to download.

• Bob Edwards has released a  guide to Craig Hatlestad's Union Pacific Clinton Sub  MSTS route over at Train-Sim. an The Clinton Sub is a major east-west freight route running from the Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa westward to Boone, Iowa. From the guide: "Annually, the Clinton Sub moves in excess of 40 million tons of freight per mile. Freight moving over the route includes grain, coal, autoracks, and intermodals." This is for the version of the route released at Train-Sim, not the version used by the P&A and the NERR, but it still makes very interesting reading, and it is not a large download at 35Kb.

1 May

• The latest version of  Route-Riter, v6.3.90 , is now available in the Roster section of NETS. It is an update version only and is a 2.24Mb download.

• One  new work order  today, for the Chicago Great Western route: NECG-075-01. Use an EMD SD40-2 diesel locomotive for a autumn's morning freight run from Dubuque to Oelwein. The dispatcher has given you 2 hours to complete this work order. In order to accomplish this, you will need to stay as close to the maximum speed limit as possible at all times. You may need to use sand periodically to keep your speed close to maximum; so stay alert and don't over-speed. Penalty stops will be costly in time lost.

• If you are interested in running Australian routes, the Bison Rail System has just added the  Adelaide & Hills route  to their network. It is an excellent route, and they will have some work orders for it very soon.

• We'll start the month with the usual  Top 40 Work Orders , as determined by the number of time slips submitted for them since NETS started. As you can see , the top ones have not changed since this time last month. The number in the brackets in the right hand column shows the number of time slips submitted for these work orders in April. This table is becoming less and less useful, as the total number of time slips has dropped from over 1,000 per month about 12 months to fewer than 500 during April. I'll have to try to find a way of compiling a table of the most popular work orders for each month - can't do that now without a lot of manual counting of time slips!

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.