NALW loco sets

From the cab of an E60C at Wilmington station.

There is a huge number of free download add-ons for MSTS and once you've found them, the question is "Which do I choose?".

North American Locomotive Works (NALW) is one group of developers who make available various loco sets with an easy-to-use Windows installer. You might prefer to increase the number of locos in your roundhouse by installing their work and later move onto manually installing rolling stock from other developers.

This page gives a brief description of what NALW thus far have made available to the MSTS community as free downloads from Train-Sim.com.

Electric

Conrail GG1 #4800 rolling out of Baltimore station.

Electric locos that kept passenger travel alive on NEC!

• GG1 Megadownload. This famous electric loco comes in a number of different liveries, all well-known: gg1_mega.zip (13.6Mb, 28-Jan-02). The left-arrow gives the fireman's view and is handy when driving to view signals ahead on left-hand curve (while not observing, it seems the fireman's been messing around with the fuse box). Note: there's a "rogue" consist in the download and MSTS may get upset when it starts because it can't find some rolling stock; use ConBuilder and/or Explorer to find the con file and delete it (sorry, can't remember the consist's name; look in Train-Sim.com's message board, though, because web•Wiz posted a message about this problem.
• Amtrak E60C electric: e60c_42.zip (6Mb, 22-Jan-02)
• New Haven EP5 electric, with Merchant Limited passenger cars: ep5.zip (6.6Mb, 26-Dec-01; custom cab & sounds) & update ep5_up11.zip (6.6Mb, 28-Jan-02)

Famous diesel-electric

Santa Fe Big Blower Turbine. Exhaust smoke from the rear unit is blended with the trees in the background. Note the fuel tanker.

F40, the loco that saved Amtrak features in this group. Drivers (oops, sorry, engineers) of the F40 were issued with ear-plugs to cut down the whine of the turbocharger. You'll hear why when you drive #309.

• Amtrak F40 #306 & #309 (with head-end power): f40_set1.zip (13Mb, 11-Mar-02) and update, f40_pat1.zip (680kb, 12-Mar-02)
• Amatrak F45 custom cabview: f45cab.zip (3.3Mb, 05-Nov-01) & updated by f45v11.zip (502Kb, 26-Dec-01) which is a fix for the left-hand view. Note the installer in f45cab has the incorrect driver letter (D:) for the default path for MSTS - replace it with C:. You can now use this cabview for your F40PH rather than the GP38's (yuk). Now your Amtrak F45, installed by amtf45.zip (690Kb, 22-Dec-01), will have a realistic cab.
• Big Blow UP gas turbine V2.0: bblowup2.zip (9.9Mb, 17-Jul-02) - with custom cab, new sounds (both external and internal) and improved textures.
• Big Blow Turbines V1.2 (Union Pacific 10,000 hp): bblw_v12.zip (6.2Mb, 04-Jan-02) - a must-have, just to hear the sound and see the exhaust smoke; note it has its own fuel trailer!
• GE Megapack V2 (18 locos - AC4400s, Dash 8s, Dash 8CWs, Dash 9s with cab and sounds in C&NW, CR, CSX, NS and UP liveries: gemegav2.zip (52Mb, 19-Sep-02).
• Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter pack nalwmbta.zip (17Mb, 29-Oct-02) made up of three F40PH locos, a Horizon control car and five Horizon coaches. Note you need f40_set1.zip and f40_pat1.zip.
• New Haven Alco PA loco pack (12 locos, 6 different New Haven liveries): nhpa_pak.zip (10.4Mb, 17-Mar-02).
• UP Turbine set (8,500 hp #4066 & 4,500 hp Priest River Railroad #3055 "Veranda"): 4500_nt.zip (2.1Mb, 26-Apr-02), prrr8500.zip (980kb, 26-Apr-02).
• VIA F40PH #6415 & #6402 (with HEP), by written permission of NALW: via_f40p.zip (14.6Mb, 18-Apr-02) and update via_f40.zip (12kb, 24-Apr-02).

Modern diesel-electric

Amtrak Genesis #182 & #36 in Phase V livery depart New Carolltown.

Modern Amtrak passenger locos, used to head the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle across Marias Pass, other passenger services throughout the U.S., and also to head their mail and express runs along the NEC.

• Genesis P40 Phase III & Genesis P42 Phase III, IV, V: gen_pak1.zip (15.7Mb, 26-Mar-02), gen_pak2.zip (3.4Mb, 26-Mar-02; requires gen_pak1)
• Genesis P32AC-DM in Amtrak, New Haven/ConnDOT liveries (both diesel & electric 3rd rail versions): gen_pak3.zip (10Mb, 28-Mar-02). The P32AC-DM (dual-mode) leads Amtrak's passenger services into Penn Central in New York where trains run underground and need to use electric motive power.
• Genesis MSTS default loco upgrade: opt_pak.zip (2.3Mb, 24-Mar-02) (requires the gen_paks to be installed)
• Genesis sound pack update: gen_snd2.zip (3.2Mb, 30-Apr-02). Revised sounds - eliminates the "lawn-mower" sound of the engine in gen_pak1.zip, especially if you didn't have a sub-woofer with the bass almost on full; includes brake rumble and a touch of brake squeal when stopping. (gen_snd2 requires gen_pak1 to have been installed.)

UP AC4400CW #7149, Dash 8 C40-8 #9188, Dash 8 C40-8W #9436 & Dash 9 C44-9W #9733, with custom sounds & cabs: up_gepak.zip (17Mb, 30-Apr-02)

VIA (Canada) latest GE Genesis P42s, with the latest "Renaissance" passenger cars: gen_pak4.zip (19.3Mb, 30-Apr-02)

Steam locos

Union Pacific Big Boy #4005: bigboyv1.zip (13.7Mb, 04-Jul-02). Since it's initial release, several fixes have been published so you also need to download: missing sound file bbcruis5.zip (73kb, 06-Jul-02), updated whistle bbwhist.zip (124kb, 07-Jul-02), a smoke fix smokefix.zip (207kb, 08-Jul-02), firebox fix firefix.zip (266kb, 08-Jul-02).

Useful engine sounds

Amtrak Empire Builder, led by Phase III #18, #50 & Phase IV #111, winds its way eastwards above Conkelly.

The NALW team make extensive use of aliasing both cabviews and sounds, to make the best use of what's available for as many locos of the same type as possible. There's also the advantage of saving a lot of disk space!

• emd40snd.zip (17-Nov-01): re-packaging of EMD loco sounds for easy installation; also conforms to NALW's aliasing method by using the "Common.Snd" folder to store sounds common to different locos.
• gp40_snd.zip (22-Jan-02): re-packing of SD loco sounds, using "Common.Snd" for aliasing.