Hello to all,

Prior to the route release this week-end, I have received a request to have a template made for the route.

I no one else steps forward, I am ready to take on a look at the route to consider making one.

It will be a massive enterprise with at least three Railroads to tackle with, the Monon, the MILW and the NYC. This one is expected to take a lot of time to complete.

Here are the first photos captured of this amazing route. Congratulations Rick for a well done job!





Will wait for replies
Thanks

All activities I have for version 12 seem to work. Will test existing Template(s) tonight or tomorrow. Can't recall how successful Template was on V12. BUT, there supposedly has been nothing done to the track data base, so if it worked on V12, should on V16.

The templates are planned to be completely different as they will be based on actual trains operated in the fifties and the sixties.

Benny had provided me a link to a document available in the TS site (motrains.zip).
A big thanks Benny for this precious document!

It has enough information to create templates in this way. It provides crew change points (Lafayette and Bloomington), it gives some freight details for fast (numbered 50's and higher) and local (numbered 40's) freight trains and the areas covered. I have also downloaded on the Monon official site ( monon.org) a timetable to help with schedules and runs covered. It will not be meant to replicate exactly the timetables but might change the timing to have most work done in daytime.

Templates by train number have been done for the Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) Template in the Spring of last year.

I will wait first for replies if someone else would like to take on the challenge before moving on.

Sorry. Misunderstood. Looking forward to them.

In addition to the previous post, I hope to have inside the Chicago area exchange of goods between the different railroad yards, So far, I hope to have some exchange of goods between the NYC, the PRR, the CBQ, the CNW , the ATSF and the MONON. It is a maze of lines inside the Chicago area and will take some time to figure out the proper ones.

I expect to have all this work in what I hope to call the CHICAGOYARDS template.

Time will tell if this will become reality during template construction.

Denis

really looking forward to this template-the Monon 16 is really a beautiful piece of work!

harlank

Hello to all,

Work has begun on the templates and have successfully put all markers for the entire route. The number stands at around 597 serviceable sidings. It includes about 50 sidings inside the Chicago yards area.

Before starting the work on the Monon system, I have decided to tackle first the Chicago yards area. It is a maze of tracks. It took quite some time to figure out some paths inside the area. At the end, four (4) paths have been set, covering most of the yards. They have different duration periods. Some traffic trains have been installed but traffic will stay small because they have not been verified with all paths. This will have to be tested before releasing.

Also the TDB file has been done, only the proper attributes to each siding is still to be done. It took a whole evening to create. Many sidings had alternate tracks numbers much different and not next to the main track number. I had to work with both ACT and TDB CSV files to handle it, also mistakes with such large files were made and later corrected.

The first CHIYARDS template activities were created and ended successfully. Testing the acts with gradually including some traffic has started and looks good so far.

Here are the first shots with the four player engines for the CHIYARDS template that will service each of the four paths. The first is the Monon from the South Hammond Yards to the Chicago GM&O yards ( the longest). The second path is from the IC railyard to the ATSF Joliet yards. In this one, due to the lack of good quality engines for the IC, it has been replaced by the Chicago, Indiana and Midland (CIM). The third path goes from the ATSF Dearborn yards to Monon's South Hammond yards. The last is with the CB&Q.

Since the template can have only one default engine, in case here two Monon C-420's, it will be required for the user to manually change with CB, CONVOI or other to use the other paths.

I hope to start soon building the other templates.

The shots:





















Will update later

Hi to all,

Here are shots of the first SLG successfull activity for the fast train #71 between South Hammond and Lafayette. This is the first crew change of the run. The next crew change is Bloomington (McDoel Yard) and after at Louisville.

From South Hammond with some work at Monon South Yards up to the final setting at Lafayette
Enjoy the shots





















More later

Success for the second leg of the Monon fast freight. The run was between Lafayette and Bloomington (McDoel yard) with a pickup at Limedale.Took more than three hours to complete.

The shots





















More later

Reaching Louisville successfully ending the third and last section of the entire route. It took another three hours to reach. Some auto cars were left at the Vernia Storage track, which was part of train 71 work order in the sixties.

Shots of the last leg of the route between Bloomington and the Youngtown yard in Louisville:



















Will get now to the NB run, back to South Hammond.

Hi to all,


After two weeks of hard work on the project, I believe the templates are now finished on the Monon 16 route. In terms of the number of railroads involved, it includes the ATSF, CB&Q, IC, NYC, PRR, MILW and the Monon RR's. Each of the Monon six (6) fast Freight trains (numbered 56,57,70,71,90 & 91) and the ten (10) local trains ( 40 to 49 inclusively) have their own template. Other than these, there are gravel runs, coal runs, the French Lick run, local runs on the MILW, NYC, PRR, Yard work on six areas and, to finish, runs along the Chicago yards. Overall, the user will have twenty-six (26) templates to work with, most of them have customized traffic.

As mentioned the main downloads are three payware from Belanger/Zosatrains: Both Monon sets and the 1970 Northeast freight pack.There are 25 additional freeware downloads from Trainsim (23), Mophouse/MLT downloads (1) and the Columbus (CLW) locomotive works (1).

Here are some screenshots captured during construction of the different templates






















Now testing will start on all these templates. Benny has volunteered to help with this huge project. Thanks again Benny! If some of you wish to join with the testing, let me know.

Will update later

Testing has begun and progresses well. Benny is providing reports as well.

Had worked mainly between Monon, Lafayette and Michigan City (trains 48,49, 56 & 57). An issue has arisen because some of the passing sidings are very short in Otis, Haskells and Wilders. The problem with longer player consists can be seen on the sixth image( a 26-car consist) (see circle in RED). This has been addressed with making sure train meets at this areas were shorter that the sidings capacities and also some additional waiting time has been set to AI traffic, allowing the player train to clear the back switch before movement of the AI and avoid collision. Some testing has been done also on the PRR, NYC and MILW lines.

Here are some captured shots

















More to come later

Hello to all,

Some shots of all three successful SLG-generated acts for the limestone template. The paths were between McDoel and Gosport Jct, its return trip to McDoel and from McDoel to Harrodsburg from the Eastern path and returning on the Western section back to McDoel, working limestone quarries. The latest one took more than three hours to complete. It had twenty empty cars and came back with twenty limestone cars.

During testing, I have found out I have omitted limestone cars from the required downloads. That needed to update the limestone template to include them. That make the total freeware downloads to 26, in addition of the basic three payware downloads from BLW/ZT (two Monon and one Northeast freight pack)

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Good news from Craig Kawahara. He is currently working on updating his maps from v10 to 16. A big thanks Craig for your excellent work.

Toggling the signalling to permissive may be necessary during work out there.

The shots:




















More later

Would it be possible to post the required downloads list here, so we can get a jump on downloading them, or to see if we already have them? If not, no problem. Looking forward to this template, and thank you for the hard work. It IS very, very appreciated.

Hi Glenn,

As requested, here are the required downloads: 24 from TS, one from the Mophouse/MLT site, one from the Columbus Locomotive works site (CLW) and finally the three main payware downloads from the Belanger locomotive works/ZosaTrains web site.



As for the three main payware downloads from BLW/ZT, don't forget to include all bonus downloads.

Thank you, Sir.

Hi to all,

Another successfull run for Monon train 46 NB from Indy to Monon.

I could have taken more shots but have focused on the most interesting part of this run.

Frankfort is where the Monon, PRR and the NKP meet. In the run, I had to pickup and setout cars in both interchanges with the PRR and the NKP as well as some work in the scrap yard, which is located inside both interchanges. In the first shots, the user can see a successfull meet with the PRR, waiting for my engines to clear before moving forward (see 2nd and 3rd shot)

The screenshots show the work in chronological order from the arrival and departure from Frankfort.

Because of a oncoming meet with a Monon Passenger train, after picking up the cars at all locations, I needed to back up to the mainline half a mile South and allow the train to take to the passing siding. Once cleared, I came back to setout all the cars to their respective locations. Once done, I resumed the run NB.

During all the work there, toggling the signalling to permissive has been necessary to complete. Make sure also to save your work regularly. Had to reload after making the mistake to delay the toggling.

The ninth (9th) picture gives you an idea of the Frankfort area and the surrounding railroads and the sidings that have been worked during the run.

Here are the shots:





















Continuing testing and more to come later.

Hi to all,

Benny has provided his latest report and suggestions to the package. Thanks Benny!

I have added a coal run in the French Lick Branch to leave empty coal cars and pickup loaded coal cars at the Southern yard in French Lick. This was done occasionally according to documents. To allow a runaround of the train at the French Lick wye, I have set the maximum of cars to be picked up and setout at 25 with three F-units and cab.

An interesting detail provided by Benny: consists of more than 45 cars do have a head end caboose. This has been changed to the two consists which have more than 45 cars

Here are now shots of some work on the NYC at Michigan City including one at Greencastle. Also shots of the French Lick branch depicting the coal run.



















More to come later

Additional shots from a NYC local work at the NYC Greencastle area.

Handling 12 cars took almost two hours to achieve since complex moves including runarounds are necessary, taking into account trailing and facing points sidings. The Grays quarry runaround siding will help to succeed.















More later

Here are shots from another successfull activity, this time from the MILW EB from the Latta yards to past Bedford. Once the last work done in the MONON/MILW interchange at Bedford the activity ended once the assembled train reached 20mph. Outside Latta, images show work in Midland, Linton, Beehunter, Elnora, Cale and Bedford.

The number of downloads have been reduced by one. It has been discovered that the MILW 5004 U23B has been introduced in the late 60's, past the timeframe of the current template package. The CLW SD9 & SD7's remain as the main prime mover for the MILW.

Here are the shots as promised



















More later

Hello again,

Here are successfull acts between Wallace and Midland and also a return trip between Midland and the White Rose mine area.

After the tests, the default player consist, three F-units has been increased to four units to handle up to 25 fully loaded coal cars. Use of three F-units came to be difficult to move because of the heavy tonnage of the coal cars.

Here, it has been necessary to toggle the switching to manual and is also recommended to do the same with the signalling.

The shots:



















More later

Hello to all,

A new template has been added to the existing ones: handling unpowered diesel engines and passenger cars inside the Lafayette facilities. It includes work in the car and engine shops, the paint shop, the fuel track. RIP tracks are the source tracks and some storage tracks will be used as final destination.

Rick Franzosa, from BLW/ZT, had handed me what is expected to be part of an oncoming bonus set for the BLW/ZT Monon sets. A big thanks Rick, much appreciated.

According to Rick's information unless mistaking, the SW1 was the original diesel switcher purchased by the Monon, and they used it as a shop switcher toward the end of its career.

I had some coupling issues which took a few days to find out the proper way to uncouple from the cars. The unpowered engines were created with Route Riter and do not cause copyright issues since no files were modified from the original ones. These unpowered engines filenames are preceeded with a $ sign. The same was done for the Stowe Northern route earlier this year.

Pending release of the bonus set, I may temporarily change the player engines to another type of engine (if the template package is released prior to the bonus set) and once the bonus release is done, the user may use the original CON file which contains the SW1 to overwrite the temporary CON file.

I have succeeded to complete its first SLG-generated activity and the following shots include also some of earlier attempts.



















more to come

Just to confirm Craig Kawahara has sent me his updated Monon-2 map system from version 10 to version 16.

A big thanks Craig for your excellent work!

Be on the lookout for its oncoming release at Trainsim in the next day or two.

The map is there today. Also, Rick reports he has to rebuild track south of Bloomington ( http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread.ph...ersion-17/page3 ).

Hello,

Testing is continuing and everyday passed makes it closer, I hope, to release the entire template package in November.

The project took a small twist this week.

I have received the green light from Rick Berg, the route's author to allow me to include with the template set a small route update I have done by stretching the South Hammond Yard 1 & 2 sidings to allow longer consists within their limits. The original settings had their car-capacity to around 23 & 20 cars ( based on a 20m car average). With the update, the capacity numbers have increased to 42 & 39 cars respectively. I have also included, in a separate folder, the original route files that were modified with the update for those who wish, for whatever reason, to restore the route to its original settings. The other yards along the South Hammond-Louisville line have at least one or two sidings that host 40-car consists.

Big thanks Rick for your permission. Much appreciated.

Rick has also confirmed that in the next version ( Monon 17) the Smithsville branch, between McDoel Yard and Harrodsburg Jct, is expected to be removed.

In the meanitme, more screenshots between Bloomington and Lafayette






















More to come.

Hello again,

A 28th template has been created. The following pictures depict some work between both Monon and NYC yards in Indianapolis. It starts at the Monon yards to the NYC Moorefield yards and back home. In between, there is also some local work alongside servicing four areas.between both yards. A full workload can take up to two hours before completing.


Here are some images from the SLG-generated activity.





















I hope to release the whole package in about two weeks or less.

More to come

Hello to all,

Finally, the Monon 16 template files are now ready and have been sent to Steve for uploading in the templates page. It has been the most extensive template project ever done and am very happy with the resulting package. Benny gave me the green to release the set.

A big thanks Benny for testing the templates and suggestions which helped to bring the package as they are now. Much appreciated again!

Will confirm once uploaded.

Thank you for this, and all the other projects you have done in the past. It is VERY much appreciated by all of us who use the Activity Generator program. Can't imagine MSTS without it, and folks like yourself. Thanks again

Hi to all,

I have received confirmation from Steve this afternoon about the template. It is now available for download in the templates page.

Once again, a big thanks to Benny for helping with the testing of this huge project. Also thanks to Craig for his updated map network. To Rick for allowing me to make a small update, thanks!

Here is the image to be seen in the templates page ( look after the MONSON Template image)



Not to forget Steve with this great program. What would have become for many of us MSTS without it? Thanks again for your constant assistance.

Enjoy the package and happy trainsimming to all.

Just to confirm that Rick has released the Bonus Monon SW1 as promised and can be retrieved for those having purchased the Monon 2 pack at the following address:

http://www.valleypass.ca/Rick/BLWZT_2013_ChristmasBonus.zip

Don't forget to swap the CON file located in your Train Simulator\TRAINS\LOCOPASS with SW1 Consist folder to retrieve and overwrite the substitute CON file that was used pending the official release

A big thanks to Rick for this release and enjoy

Hello to all,

A mistake had been found while generating an activity for the the Monon Tr71 template. In the TDB file a misspelling of the word LIMESTONE to LIMESTOME in some areas generated a message and prevented the activity to be generated. The message overall is the following

The Template calls for LIMESTOME but there is no car of this type in the ...ACT file. Please contact the template author

If you have experienced this message, download the included attachment with the present post, unzip the file and overwrite the old file in the ACTIVITIES folder.

For those having experience in editing the TDB files, you can open the TDB CSV file and replace all instances of the word LIMESTOME to LIMESTONE. This will resolve the issue.
If someone else encounters similar misspellings elsewhere, it can be tackled in the same way. Please let me know if other misspellings.

Will be writing later to Steve to update the package.

My apologies for the mistake and thanks again for using the present template.

The update is now in the templates page

Enjoy and thanks