Correct Acela MaxPower value

Acela Express 0003 departing Washington Station.

The developers made a mistake in the amount of power for the Acela express power car - they gave it a value of 9200kw rather than 4600kw. The Acela ENGine file is used by several similar locos and so the error has been carried on to the TGV (from which the Acela is derived) and Thalys for example. Here's how to correct the error and bring the Acela back to reality!

• Start WordPad, or your favourite Unicode-text editor, and open the Acelea ENG file in the Acela sub-folder under the Trainset folder, which in turn is found in the folder where MSTS is installed.
• Scroll down after the Lights section or use Find to search for MaxPower. You want this line:
• MaxPower ( 9200kw )
• Change the 9200 to read 4600 so you have:
• MaxPower ( 4600kw )
• That's it! Save the file, exit WordPad and drive a more realistic Acela Express!
• If you have other locos that use the Acela ENGine file, use WordPad as above to edit their MaxPower value.

A handy reference for this modification and others can be found in Other_Modifications.txt in Joseph Realmuto's f_calc10.zip download from the Train-Sim.com file library.

TER 72500 sound files

For those who have downloaded the TER 72000 trainset (interestingly, one of the first modern diesel-electric railcar trainsets) as part of the rolling stock for several LGV Med activiies, to drive it you'll need to make some edits to the SMS sound files, 72500cab.sms and 72500eng.sms. Firstly, you'll find this:

"../../dash9/sound/d9_sand.wavd9_dynb_dyn1.wav"

You can see that extra d9_sand.wav so delete them (use CTRL-F to find them).

Secondly there are some missing ../..dash9/sound/ folder path specifications missing in both SMS files.

Finally, there are some folder paths to GP38 sound files that are mistakenly referenced as "../../dash9/sound/gp_power_cruise1.wav" for example. These should be:

"../../gp38/sound/gp_power_cruise1.wav"

Use ConBuilder to check you've made all the necessary edits. web•TrainSim found some distortion through his speakers so there needs to be further adjustments made to the WAV files.

Countrylink Xplorer tune up

These are some changes that web•TrainSim is trialling with Brendan Robinson's Xplorer DMU set. Before you change your Xplorer ENGine files, copy Brendan's updates from endxplfx.zip (264kb, 29-Sep-02).

You'll need to use WordPad to make changes to the ENG file of each power car: AU635a.eng, AU635b.eng and AU635c.eng, each of which is in its own folder, AUxplEA, AUxplEB and AUxplEC respectively.

    Adheasion ( 0.2 0.4 2 0 )
    DerailRailHeight ( 4cm )
    DerailRailForce ( 2.5*58t )
    DerailBufferForce ( 150kN )
    NumWheels ( 4 )
    Friction (
       629N/m/s      0      1mph      15.91N/m/s      1.8
       5.1N/rad/s    1      -1rad/s    0      1
	)

Scroll down past the Lights section to make the following changes:

    Wagon ( AU635a )
    Type ( Diesel )
    MaxPower ( 375kW )
    MaxForce ( 75kN#est )
    MaxContinuousForce ( 75kN#est )
    MaxVelocity ( 101mph )
    WheelRadius ( 21in )
    Sanding ( 6mph )
    NumWheels ( 2 )

Further down the ENGine file, you'll find the following. web•TrainSim found specs for the Voith T312 hydraulic transmission (www.voithturbo.com) and has used its values for the force and speed at which gears are changed. Note the T312 has 3 gears.

    DieselEngineIdleRPM( 600 )
    DieselEngineStallRPM( 500 )
    DieselEngineMaxRPM( 1800 )
    DieselEngineSpeedOfMaxTractiveEffort( 34mph )
    DieselEngineMaxRPMChangeRate( 150 )
    DieselEngineType( hydraulic )

    GearBoxNumberOfGears( 3 )
    GearBoxDirectDriveGear( 3 )
    GearBoxMaxSpeedForGears( 50 75 101 )
    GearBoxMaxTractiveForceForGears( 30000N 20000N 18000N )
    GearBoxOverspeedPercentageForFailure( 170 )

CityRail Endeavour tune up

Bombardier were also the manufacturer of the Endeavour DMU and it has similar traction power to the Xplorer. After you copy Brendan's updated ENGine files from endxplfx.zip (264kb, 29-Sep-02), here are some further changes you can make to the two Endeavour ENGine files, AUle.eng and AUte.eng, for more prototypical performance:

    Adheasion ( 0.2 0.4 2 0 )
    DerailRailHeight ( 4cm )
    DerailRailForce ( 2.5*58t )
    DerailBufferForce ( 150kN )
    NumWheels ( 4 )
    Friction (
       629N/m/s      0      1mph      15.91N/m/s      1.8
       5.1N/rad/s    1      -1rad/s    0      1
	)

Scroll down past the Lights section to make the following changes:

    Wagon ( AU635a )
    Type ( Diesel )
    MaxPower ( 375kW )
    MaxForce ( 75kN#est )
    MaxContinuousForce ( 75kN#est )
    MaxVelocity ( 101mph )
    WheelRadius ( 21in )
    Sanding ( 6mph )
    NumWheels ( 2 )

Further down the ENGine file, you'll find the following. web•TrainSim found specs for the Voith T312 hydraulic transmission and has used its values for the force and speed at which gears are changed. Note the T312 is 3-geared.

    DieselEngineIdleRPM( 600 )
    DieselEngineStallRPM( 500 )
    DieselEngineMaxRPM( 1800 )
    DieselEngineSpeedOfMaxTractiveEffort( 34mph )
    DieselEngineMaxRPMChangeRate( 150 )
    DieselEngineType( hydraulic )

    GearBoxNumberOfGears( 3 )
    GearBoxDirectDriveGear( 3 )
    GearBoxMaxSpeedForGears( 50 75 101 )
    GearBoxMaxTractiveForceForGears( 30000N 20000N 18000N )
    GearBoxOverspeedPercentageForFailure( 170 )

Regional Railways Class 153 cab

You may not see the cab properly after you've installed this Class 153 DMU. Use WordPad or your favourite Unicode text editor, to add the 1024, as shown in bold, to the red-highlighted lines below in the cabview file, 2000.cvf:

Tr_CabViewFile (
    CabViewType ( 1 )
    CabViewFile ( ../../153/cabview/2000HUDFrnt1024.ace )
    CabViewWindow ( 69 0 507 296 )
    CabViewWindowFile ( ../../SERIES2000/cabview/AcWndFrn.ace )
    Position ( -0.6 2.7 11.2 )
    Direction ( 10 0 0 )
    CabViewFile ( ../../153/cabview/2000HUDLft.ace )
    CabViewWindow ( 26 0 367 480 )
    CabViewWindowFile ( ../../SERIES2000/cabview/AcWndLft.ace )
    Position ( -0.5 2.5 7 )
    Direction ( 5 -40 0 )
    CabViewFile ( ../../153/cabview/2000HUDFrnt1024.ace )
    CabViewWindow ( 69 0 507 296 )
    CabViewWindowFile ( ../../SERIES2000/cabview/AcWndFrn.ace )
    Position ( 0.7 2.7 -10.8 )
    Direction ( 10 180 0 )