Newbie questions about freeware routes

[Player701]

Hello.

I'm completely new to Railworks communities, though not to the game itself, and I'm sorry if these questions that I'd like to ask you are trivial. I wanted to send a PM to one of the admins but I found out that this feature is disabled for me, most likely as a preventive measure against spam bots.

Anyway, my problem is: I became interested in custom freeware routes for Train Simulator but so far I haven't been able to find where to download some of them (or scenarios for some of them). I found NERW, which I'm liking very much; the landscapes, the stations and the overall atmosphere there are pretty much awesome. Plus, an extensive amount of scenarios is available for this route, and it's also good that most of them don't require any payware installed.

However, when I started searching for other routes similar to NERW, I discovered that some of them are widely discussed (or had been widely discussed in the past) on various forums, but download links for them are nowhere to be found. Maybe you can help me by telling me where to find the routes I'd like to install? Or, if they really can't be downloaded anywhere anymore, maybe someone has them archived on their local hard drive and could send me a copy?

Thank you very much in advance. Again, sorry if this problem is trivial. Intensive googling didn't get me anywhere. Same thing for the forums - as I said earlier, I'm not quite used to Railworks community boards, this is my very first registration on one of them.

So, here are the routes I'm talking about.

• C&O Alleghany route. Is there a version 5.0 of it? Website for this route is down but after a few hours of searching I found this. The route I can get from there is version 4.5. And it looks awfully incomplete to me in some areas. For example, here landscape objects are completely missing, and here I can see missing rails. Maybe this is due to not having some of the required assets but there is an asset pack in the archive along with the route itself, so I think these are just incomplete parts of the route, and there is a more complete version somewhere. Furthermore, the forum for this route on this board is locked, and there are no posts explaining why (to me)...
• Norfolk Southern - Atlanta Subdivision route. Unlike with the previous one, for this route I've not been able to find a download link (not even for a beta version). Its website is also down.
• CSX Mainline and P&LE Final routes. I found them on the same site as the C&O route but there doesn't seem to be any scenarios for them. At least I haven't found any so far (of course not counting the free-roam and some experimental ones). Where can I get any scenarios? It's really weird if there are none available, because these routes - especially the latter one - look very awesome to me.
• It is also sometimes hard to find the necessary assets for routes / scenarios (especially the latter). For example, I couldn't run a free roam scenario on the C&O route because some rail vehicles couldn't be loaded (screenshot). I thought I got literally everything when I downloaded the 1.2 GB asset pack from OVSRails.com. Turns out I was wrong... would be nice if someone tells me where to find these cars.

That's all, I hope I didn't forget anything.

Thank you again, and sorry if this is not an appropriate forum for posting this.

P.S. I'm using Train Simulator 2015, the latest official version from Steam.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Unfortunately, all of the freeware routes you mentioned are currently unavailable.
These routes have been a long time in the making, some dating back to Railworks from 2008.
Many authors found that updating their routes to the latest Railworks incarnation each year gave them too much problems.
Freeware routes usually come with lots of freeware assets. To these assets applies the same, many are old, never updated and hard to find or even obsolete by now.
Not all authors were good at making scenarios, as this is almost a completely different art form. Some routes lack the necessary basics, like markers, waypoints and portals to effectively create scenarios other than free roams. it is not very effective to create elaborate scenarios for a route that is a WIP. as things are about to change at any moment.

You'll be able to download some of them from trainsim.com's Ottodad at: http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/
Be careful when installing these old routes, they make excessive use of the Kuju asset folders. Too many items in these folders might lead to problems. Never overwrite any default assets in the Kuju folders with older versions.
Remove all instances of pontrack.bin from your Railworks after installing freeware routes. This file is broken and will crash your Railworks.

Other freeware routes worth acquiring are:
Tennessee Pass 2
Paramint Crossing
Mojave desert
There are some smaller freeware routes available here from RWA.com and trainsim.com and other sources.

Currently there are a few freeware routes under construction, though progress on most is slow. Keep reading the forums for updates.

[buzz456]

The previous post is not entirely accurate as he points out in his response where to get a couple of these routes. As far as finding all of the stuff required to run them my first suggestion is to go purchase Mike Simpson's RWTools. It is donationware so you can run it a fair number of times before you have to spring for a nominal donation. Among the zillion or so other things it does is it will tell you what you are missing whenever you load a route or scenario and allows you to easily substitute things you already have for items that might be missing. One route that was not mentioned so far is the Cimmaron & Pacific route which is available here and is a really nice period piece. Also available here are Decatur Junction, Ann Arbor,The Montour RR, and Great Northern Butte Division all great pieces of work. I'm sure I have forgotten someone so forgive me.

[NSrailfan6130]

If you have the assets i would suggest the Boston and Maine railroad by RicKFoury too.

[Player701]

Thank you all who replied.

Unfortunately, all of the freeware routes you mentioned are currently unavailable.

So the C&O 4.5 Beta is really incomplete, and the 5.0 is no longer available (or never was)? That's sad news...

Not all authors were good at making scenarios, as this is almost a completely different art form. Some routes lack the necessary basics, like markers, waypoints and portals to effectively create scenarios other than free roams. it is not very effective to create elaborate scenarios for a route that is a WIP. as things are about to change at any moment.

Of course if a route is in development, then it seems unwise to create scenarios for it, as anything in the route may change in the future. But despite, for example, the P&LE route being labeled "Final", there are still no scenarios for it...

You'll be able to download some of them from trainsim.com's Ottodad at: http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/
Be careful when installing these old routes, they make excessive use of the Kuju asset folders. Too many items in these folders might lead to problems. Never overwrite any default assets in the Kuju folders with older versions.
Remove all instances of pontrack.bin from your Railworks after installing freeware routes. This file is broken and will crash your Railworks.

Thank you, will check this out. But how can I ensure that none of the default assets are overwritten? Routes or asset packs usually come either as .rwp files or bundled with an automated installer program. It does everything automatically and doesn't ask me what to install, it just installs everything.

About pontrack.bin: I'm aware of this bug and already ran into this issue like 2 times. Quick googling easily brought me to a solution mentioning this file, and that I had to delete it.

Other freeware routes worth acquiring are:
Tennessee Pass 2
Paramint Crossing
Mojave desert
There are some smaller freeware routes available here from RWA.com and trainsim.com and other sources.

Alright, when I have time I will certainly check them out.

The previous post is not entirely accurate as he points out in his response where to get a couple of these routes. As far as finding all of the stuff required to run them my first suggestion is to go purchase Mike Simpson's RWTools. It is donationware so you can run it a fair number of times before you have to spring for a nominal donation. Among the zillion or so other things it does is it will tell you what you are missing whenever you load a route or scenario and allows you to easily substitute things you already have for items that might be missing. One route that was not mentioned so far is the Cimmaron & Pacific route which is available here and is a really nice period piece. Also available here are Decatur Junction, Ann Arbor,The Montour RR, and Great Northern Butte Division all great pieces of work. I'm sure I have forgotten someone so forgive me.

I really don't like acquiring any additional payware or donationware but in this case I guess I have to. I forgot to mention the GN Butte Divison route: it also looked partially incomplete to me when I ran it. Looks like I'm missing assets and have to use RWTools to find which ones. And I've run into another problem recently: one of the NERW scenarios uses a repaint of Britkits SW1200 locomotive, and its cab view is missing for me. Which is strange, since I didn't find any additional installation instructions for repaints, and cab view works in the original Britkits SW1200. Can RWTools tell me what's wrong in this case? I copied nearly every file from Assets\Britkits\EMD\RailVehicles\Diesel\SW1200\Default to the repaint directory, to no effect (of course without replacing the files which were already present).

If you have the assets i would suggest the Boston and Maine railroad by RicKFoury too.

Okay, thanks for your suggestion, will check it out.

[PapaXpress]

Just for reference the NSAND was renamed to AND. It is on an indefinite hiatus. Any updates to its status will be made here:
http://atlantanorthproject.blogspot.com/

[OldProf]

You'll be able to download some of them from trainsim.com's Ottodad at: http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/
Be careful when installing these old routes, they make excessive use of the Kuju asset folders. Too many items in these folders might lead to problems. Never overwrite any default assets in the Kuju folders with older versions.
Remove all instances of pontrack.bin from your Railworks after installing freeware routes. This file is broken and will crash your Railworks.

I strongly recommend avoiding Otto's routes even more than the plague. I could go on for pages about the damage they're likely to cause to your TS installation, but will resist that temptation.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

You'll be able to download some of them from trainsim.com's Ottodad at: http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/
Be careful when installing these old routes, they make excessive use of the Kuju asset folders. Too many items in these folders might lead to problems. Never overwrite any default assets in the Kuju folders with older versions.
Remove all instances of pontrack.bin from your Railworks after installing freeware routes. This file is broken and will crash your Railworks.

I strongly recommend avoiding Otto's routes even more than the plague. I could go on for pages about the damage they're likely to cause to your TS installation, but will resist that temptation.

I agree, but Ottodad is the only remaining source for them. His tamperings can be undone, but at great time expense.

P&LE is a very large and complicated route. It is an example of a route that lacks the necessary fundamentals for writing scenario, such aw waypoints, end points, makers etc. in the right places. Here are my two reconnaisance scenarios. I remember I had to put all my markers and waypoints down myself to make the AI trains do what I intended: http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13375#p153195

When installing large freeware routes and asset collections, make a complete backup of your Railworks folder first, just in case.

I recommend manual installation of the assets. Unzip the route archive to your desktop. You can then open the .rwp package manually with a program like WinZip, WinRAR, 7Zip and likewise. Inside the .rwp you usually find folders like Assets, Content and Manuals.
Move each of these folders into your Railworks folder, but do not overwrite anything, especially the Kuju folders inside the main Asset folder.
Deleta all .pak temporary cache files.
Run RW_Tools on the new route and see what's missing. First the route, then the rolling stock.
Try to "edit" your newly installed route, when you can, and the tracks are showing, this usually means basic dependencies are met.
Try to run a free roam scenario that uses default rolling stock. You probably find some milk bottles standing around, these indicate missing assets.
When you can edit the route, and run its default scenarios, you can start looking for the missing assets, rolling stock, repaints and such. This can be time consuming, and when not found, you can use RW_Tools to substitute other locos/cars or delete the scenario if all else fails.

When in doubt, ask here for help. Many of us have the old routes still in good working order and are glad to help you out.

Good luck.

[buzz456]

I have all of the US routes from Otto loaded on my game with no issues.

[Player701]

I recommend manual installation of the assets. Unzip the route archive to your desktop. You can then open the .rwp package manually with a program like WinZip, WinRAR, 7Zip and likewise. Inside the .rwp you usually find folders like Assets, Content and Manuals.
Move each of these folders into your Railworks folder, but do not overwrite anything, especially the Kuju folders inside the main Asset folder.

Hm, and what if I accidentally overwrite something nevertheless? Will "Verify Game Cache" feature of Steam restore the original files without removing any other installed assets?

[buzz456]

Yes.

[Chacal]

This applies only to original assets downloaded from Steam.
If an asset pack overwrites a 3rd-party asset with an older version, Verify game cache won't help you.

[Player701]

Yes.

Great. So I'm going to verify cache and then buy RWTools when the author returns from his holiday, to search for missing assets.

If an asset pack overwrites a 3rd-party asset with an older version, Verify game cache won't help you.

Well, that's quite obvious since Steam only checks official game files. Can there be any serious issues if the version of some asset is older than required? I thought asset packs were better because I didn't have to download everything file by file... but I might reconsider if these packs are known to cause problems of such kind.

[trev123]

Soldier Summit http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/d ... y&search=1

[Chacal]

There are more.
Check out our Route Overview forum.
Excellent freeware routes (highly recommended, scenarios in our library):

Bay of Quinte
Alaska route
Moscow Camden & San Augustine
Industrial Interactive Route v4