Empire Builder Activity available on train-sim.com

rfranzosa

Hi gang,

This has taken WAY TOO LONG. Rather than list my excuses, I am pleased to announce the first 'leg' of the 1957 Empire Builder activity has been sent to the train-sim.com upload area. This activity is for the GN Hi-Line (Marias 4). Should be available tomorrow (Tuesday 25th).

I had originally planned to model the entire route, and add a second activity for the Whitefish portion through MT and ID.

Well, MSTS had other ideas, and by the time I added loose consists and AI trains along from Havre to Whitefish, the old SEND/DON'T SEND appeared. I kept trimming back and trimming back until I final had a stable activity from Havre to Shelby, roughly 2 hours.

To keep frame rates high and downloads low, I used Henry Triplett's Car Strings in yard areas and limited the 'variety' of rolling stock. This activity requires 2 payware downloads and 4 freeware downloads.

This will be followed by additional activities covering the remaining Marias and Whitefish routes, as time allows, using the same equipment.
Enjoy!

Rick

charliechan · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Utah

Good Morning Rick:

I want to thank you for all you do for the hobby. I would like to point out one idea that the guys over at the Cascade and North Western VR use. They take their activities and break them up into multiple parts. This way the AI traffic is closer to the times that you want and the amount of eye candy consists in yards and beside the main are refreshed each time.

To give an example of this, the series of activities that I am working on is up to 8 parts and I believe that one more will get me back home.

Also one of their ideas about crowded yards and such is this post about invisocars.

http://forums.flightsim.com/ts/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=3&topic_id=181812&mesg_id=181812&listing_type=search

The second post by Turbo Bill is the one that I am referring.

This is in no a way a complaint about you work, I have always enjoyed the stuff you have done for the Cape Cod route and your New Haven rolling stock.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to more.

Chandler

rfranzosa · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 6:49 pm Post subject: Missing WAG Files

I already posted this on train-sim.com.

I need to issue an apology on the activity. One of the loose consists includes z6100.zip from train-sim.com. I inadvertantly left out the wag files when I uploaded those cars. I use Train Store and the wag files were in the Train Store folder.

To complicate matters further, I am traveling this week, and I will not be able to upload the wag files until Friday at the earliest.

Sorry for the inconvenience... Embarassed

Rick

rfranzosa · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:54 am Post subject: wag files now available

I uploaded a new version of z6100.zip to the train-sim file lib last night, which includes the missing wag files. It should be on the file lib today.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Rick

rfranzosa · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:40 pm Post subject: Westbound Series Complete

Hi Gang,

As of yesterday, I have completed and uploaded 5 activities covering the West Bound 1957 Empire Builder from Havre, Montana to Sandpoint, Idaho.

Part 1 - Havre to Shelby (GN Hi Line - Marias 4)
Part 2 - Shelby to Summit (GN Hi Line - Marias 4)
Part 3 - Summit to Whitefish (GN Hi Line - Marias 4)
Part 4 - Whitefish to Troy (Whitefish 4 Hawk - Kootenai Sub)
Part 5 - Troy to Sandpoint (Whitefish 4 Hawk - Kootenai Sub)

What's next? EASTBOUND, of course!! Laughing

Rick