Installing Auto Train

You may have downloaded an activity called Autopack (autopack.zip, 760kb, 25-Apr-02), from the Train-Sim.com file library, and then seen the "readme" to find you require the Auto Train Pack (autotrain.exe) from the CSX A-Line site. At a size of 13Mb, you may have wondered - will I download or not?

Yes, it is worthwhile - the Autopack author has done a good job with the three activities. web•Wiz has run the Marias Pass & NEC2 versions and has found a good mixture of traffic and rolling stock on sidings to maintain interest. More importantly, the computer-controlled trains don't slow down the computer, as some other activities are prone to do.

We'll go through the steps to install the various rolling stock making up the Auto Train Pack download: 2 U36B locos in Seaboard Coast Line livery, 2 Auto Train car carriers, and a passenger carriage set that is a repaint of Gaetan Belanger's Via trainset. This set includes skydome cars, one of which, the observation car, provides a panoramic passenger view.

After downloading, you could install by just letting WinZip go to work. However, web•Wiz is a bit fussy and saw that folder names could be improved for consistency. Even if you've already installed Auto Train, it's a good exercise to make some improvements to the default folders.

By the way, to find which folders various pieces of rolling stock will be installed to, from Winzip's File menu, choose Properties and at the bottom of the dialogue box, choose Details. A lengthy report appears, telling you file sizes, etc., but also the destination folder for each file.

Before going further, we'll assume that you've set up Common.Cab and have downloaded and installed the Dash 7 cab (dash7cab.zip, 4.1Mb, 04-Feb-02 from Train-Sim.com) into this sub-folder.

Folders to create

After viewing Winzip's report, web•Wiz decided to create the following sub-folders under Trainset to hold the files for the various locos, passenger cars and wagons:

• autotrain: for all the passenger cars (file names beginning AutoObs, AutoCoach, AutoManoir, and so on);
• autou36b4009: note that the "#" has been omitted because of web•Wiz's phobia for non-standard characters in folder and file names; we'll have to remember to rename the ENG, S, SD files appropriately, and we'll have to edit the ENG and SD files to point to the renamed S file;
• autou36: for the second U36 loco;
• atraincar1full: for the loaded car-carrying wagon;
• atraincar1empty: for the empty car-carrying wagon.

Now it's just a matter of selecting files from the Winzip list and dragging and dropping them into the appropriate folder. Leave Explorer open at the first folder, autotrain. In the Winzip list, select all the files beginning Auto which make up the passenger car set. You may as well de-select any unncessary files, such as readme.txt and bak files: hold down CTRL while you click each. Now hold down the left mouse button and drag the selected files to an open spot in the Explorer window.

Repeat the select, de-select if necessary, and drag and drop operations for files for each folder. For each loco, you'll need to copy its eng, s and sd files, and then bogies, details, glazing, tread, u-cab-int and u36b-i ACE files.

After copying and while you still have Explorer open, move to the autou36b4009 folder and rename the eng, s, sd files as follows:<

• autou36b4009.eng
• autou36b4009.s
• autou36b4009.sd

Jobs for WordPad

Firstly, the simplest job. Start WordPad and open the file autou36b4009.sd in the autou36b4009 sub-folder. You'll see this line:

Shape ( autou36b#4009.s

Edit it to read as follows:

Shape ( autou36b4009.s

Save the file. Now open autou36b4009.eng. The first line to edit is:

Wagon ( autou36b#4009

Change it to read:

Wagon ( autou36b4009

Next, change

WagonShape ( autou36b#4009.s )

to read as:

WagonShape ( autou36b4009.s )

Scroll your way down past the Lights section to get to:

Engine ( autou36b#4009

Edit this line to read:

Engine ( autou36b4009

A little further down is:

Wagon ( autou36b#4009 )

Edit this line to read:

Wagon ( autou36b4009 )

So far, so good - save!

Move the cursor back to the start of the file and do a Find to get to the cabview line:

CabView ( "gp38.cvf" )

Change this line so we can alias the cab to the Dash 7, which is far more prototypical (GP38s are EMD locos, not GEs anyway):

CabView ( "..\\..\\Common.Cab\\dash7\\dash7.cvf" )

While you've still in autou36b4009.eng, you may want to change the /s to \\s in the two Sound lines for the folder paths to the default Dash 9 sound files.

You'll see that we've just put into practice what is talked about on the ENG, CVF and SMS page. To browse through a fully commented sample ENG file, click here (it opens in a new window).

Note that if you install the SCL locos from the Train-Sim.com file library (scl1774.zip and scl1744.zip), you can also use the Dash 7 cab by editing their respective ENG files to make the same change to their Cabview lines as above.