Newbie question

[olsbyen]

Hello everyone, new user to the forum, I have played TS and TSW for a bit over 2 years, so I'm more of a newbie to this forum than to the sim, though I still have a lot to learn.
I have been most active on the official forum and on the german forums due to german railroads was the easiest entry-level, however now I am starting to get more dlc and it's easier to enjoy the american addons now that I have more than 5 scenarios for each route, the only obstacle now is that I'm restricted to certain dlc's not being sold in europe, like Cajon pass, Marias pass and Stevens pass.
So to my questions:
What are the must have american freeware you would recommend me for TS ?
- Are there any enhancements you know of for american routes, something in the alley of Armstrong Powerhouse mainly for refurbishing older routes so I'm thinking track and scenery enhancements mainly, free is good but payware is
also welcome ?
- Are there any enhacements you would recommend for the kuju locos and rolling stock aka the U.S loco and assett pack, payware and freeware are welcome.

I'll list the routes I play the most:
- Sherman Hill
- Feather river canyon
- Horseshoe curve
- Norfolk southern Coal District.

These are the routes I am most interested in various enhancements for, though I own more. I also have most, but not all, dlc's for these routes.
I hope the info I gave is sufficient for helping me out, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask :)

- Bjørn -

[mindenjohn]

Welcome to the site Bjorn

In respect to TS20xx....
It is a constant source of irritation that we, outside the USA, cannot access Cajon Pass, Marias Pass and Stevens Pass routes, GP9 pack and SW1500 pack, SD75, Dash9 pack etc. but we can't and we have to get around this as best we can. It does mean that third party freeware such as Adriana County, Majestic Pass and others are not accessible to us without a huge amount of work on trackage and assets.
The routes you have listed are often used for their assets in third party freeware routes e.g. Bedford Junction Branch (in the Steam workshop) but I would also recommend Maine Maritime (in the RWA library) and Montana HiLine (Steam) as G-Trax assets are very useful. If you duplicate the Maine Maritime assets folder, rename it Portland Terminal and drop it into the assets most of the freeware routes that require Portland Terminal are runnable with few missing assets e.g. Atlantic bay Terminal (Steam Workshop), there are little dodges like this.
I strongly recommend that you browse the RWA library, there are many routes of varying types (not available elsewhere), scenarios (something for all tastes?) and hundreds of repaints of locomotives and rolling stock plus lots of useful add ons and tutorials. Revel in the library!
I recommend the work of Harry Adkins, Buzz Baxter, WA Campbell, ET44C4, Great Northerner, Rick Grout, MaineLines to name but a few of the many.
The community here is helpful, constructive and inventive.
Once again, welcome.

[TheR62Fan]

In terms of enhancement work, I'd highly recommend the works of both TruRailSimulations and SearchlightSimulations.

[olsbyen]

In terms of enhancement work, I'd highly recommend the works of both TruRailSimulations and SearchlightSimulations.

Thank you, TruRail was new to me, I knew about Searchlight and have used some of the free stuff from their site, in regards of Searchlight,. do you know if their discontinued sound packs work, or did something change in TS that made them deprecated ?

[AmericanSteam]

They work.