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InterCity XPT, in the candy livery, stands at its departing station. The XPT celebrates 20 years in service in 2002. |
Before you begin any loco or rolling stock downloads from Train-Sim.com, there are a couple of excellent demos to install from other sites. Once you've got these, you'll be able to download others of a similar type and re-use the protypical cabview and sounds (the technical term you'll come across for this method is "aliasing" - more about it later).
As a general rule, webWiz decides what to download and add to MSTS by looking for a loco that has its own cabview and sounds. Not much point in driving a loco that may look different from the outside but uses another loco's engine characteristics and cabview!
For passenger coaches, there are cases where a design is so good that there's no choice but to download! An example is the VIA passenger set with the dome car or the Chesapeake & Ohio set with the observation car.
When you get to downloading activities, the challenge of completing the activity will over-ride the fact you may have to download extra rolling stock, regardless of download time and disk space.
There's a special page to talk about downloads from Train-Sim.com because there are so many choices, whether rolling stock, routes, activities or tools. Here are the sites which may only have one or two worthwhile choices - they're covered in more detail below:
webWiz, you'll see, is biased towards diesel locos - there's nothing like the sound of an EMD V-16 turbocharged 2-stroke pounding the sub-woofer! If your interest is steam (UK, Europe or USA) or UK or European locos and rolling stock, you'll find plenty to whet your appetite at the sites listed.
- 3DTrain Stuff
- Train Artisan
- Australian Add-ons at Steam4Me
- Maple Leaf
- UK Train Sim
3D Train Stuff |
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An SD70MAC heading a consist of Boeing freight cars of 777 fuselages leaves the shunting yard. |
- 3DTrain Stuff: SD70MAC loco (7.5Mb download; there's no consist so use ConBuilder); Dash 9's in CSX, Santa Fe, Amtrak liveries (each about 1.4Mb download); NEC CSX K-train activity
Train Artisan |
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VIA passenger cars, headed by VIA F7A-B-B-A locos, stand at Washington platform 14. |
- Train Artisan: VIA F7 loco set, VIA passenger car set (includes observation & refreshment car; 12.5Mb download)
- Recently announced, and available to all towards end of March: RS11 Budd Rail car set, CWAC60 locos (including one in BHP livery).
From 04-Apr-02, the following have been made publicly available:
- MSTS_D_US_SD70_011124.zip (24-Nov-01, 14.5Mb): SD70s and an SD75
- TrainArtisan_SD70_update011212.zip (12-Dec-01, 3.9Mb): update to above (modifies the loco ENGine files)
- TrainArtisan_CWAC60_02030411.zip (03-Apr-02, 6.3Mb): GE AC6000 set, including one in BHP livery (the AC6000 is currently the most powerful diesel-electric loco)
Steam4Me |
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NSW Class 81 in Olympic 2002 livery and helper lead a Superfreighter. |
- Australian Add-ons: National Rail NR locos, NSW XPT (candy livery), Garrett steam, V/Line S-class (use Train Artisan's cabview), NSW Class 81 and 82, freight wagons
Dekosoft |
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Southern Pacific SD45T-2 No. 6801 departs Glacier park with a consignment of Boeing 737 fuselages and parts. |
- Dekosoft Trains: Southern Pacific SD45T-2 No. 6801 (with own sound); other SD45 models; more to be released (as of 01-Mar-02)
Other sites |
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Passengers enjoying the refreshments provided in the observation car. |
- 3D Trains: TEE DB-103 train set, ICE 1 trainset, EMD F7A (Penn Central & Santa Fe)
- ChrisTrains: British & European locos
- Railserve MSTS Add-ons: Locos, rolling stock, activities & routes
- UK Train Sim: British & European locos, passenger cars & freight (unfortunately, because of bandwidth constrictions, it's very difficult to download from this site)
- Valley Pass: VIA F40 loco, VIA train set - creative work!
- Auran: The formidable Union Pacific DD40X, a special loco UP built to celebrate its centenary (really 2 SD40s on the one chassis). This loco deserves its own cabview: dd40upg.zip (1.3Mb, 17-Nov-01), f45cab.zip (3.3Mb, 05-Nov-01), f45v11.zip (500Kb, 26-Dec-01) at Train-Sim.com. webWiz promises a special page of instructions to get the best out of the DD40X. You have to register (it's free) at Auran - it's a bit messy but worth it to get the DD40x.
- Justin Cornell's loco sets: Dash 9, GP38, SD40, SD40s (his web site simply lists the downloadable zip files).
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