Is Pacific Surfliner Blocked?

[SithMurcielago]

I discovered a few days ago when I decided to edit the pacific surfliner route that I can't add or remove things at all. Can't even fix the station heights. Why is it blocked? And is there a way to unblock this?

[Chacal]

I don't think it is because of .ap files.
All DLC routes usually come locked, you have to unlock them before you can edit them.
When playing the route, hit Esc, choose World Editor.
When in the route editor, click on the padlock in the right bottom corner, the click on the orange arrow, and save the route.
Now you should be able to edit it.

If this isn't enough, it is because the files are flagged "Read-only". The easiest way to solve this is through RE-Tools.
In Rw-Tools, choose File / FInd all .ap files; then extract the route from its archive. Rw-Tool wil remove the read-only flag from the extracted files.

[SithMurcielago]

I had unzipped the ap file already into the folder and got rid of the ap file afterwards. The padlock had been off for the longest. Will be extracting the ap file prevent me from still unflagging the files?

[Chacal]

No, you can still do it manually using Windows Explorer or using the DOS ATTRIB command (which is what RW-Tools does, it uses my DOS batch file).

[SithMurcielago]

Thanks Chacal that made it work.

[OldProf]

... All DLC routes usually come locked, you have to unlock them before you can edit them. ...

Actually, very few DLC routes are locked by default and Pacific Surfliner is not one of them. Of the routes I've bought, the list is: Castle Rock, Hedborough North, Horseshoe Curve, London to Brighton, Munich to Augsburg, and The Port Road. Why some routes are blocked by default is a mystery to me. Every now and then, I pester RSC about this issue and they send me a couple of boilerplate notes to let me know how much they care.

The real annoyance here is that these routes cannot be permanently unlocked; the padlock closes again with every cache verification.