Horseshoe Curve.....and a rant.....

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  • amtrak115
    Senior Member

    • Oct 2005
    • 289
    • Parker, TX
    • General

    #1

    Horseshoe Curve.....and a rant.....

    As I said before in an earlier post (https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showth...ack-in-the-Cab), I'm getting back into running trains, but this time using ORTS. Looking around on the file site, i hit upon a reference to Horseshoe Curve. Now, way back when I was in the Air Force and stationed at SAC HQ in Omaha, NE, I was sent to DC for a TDY, so I decided to take the train. ending up on the Capital Limited (I believe...could be mistaken, this was '75-'80), anyway we passed on Horseshoe Curve..I remembered that so I downloaded "MSTS Norfolk Southern "Horseshoe Curve" Route....A route by Blue Ridge Rails (Austin Yoder) with custom objects by Vincent Lanza." posted in June, of 2011. Hey, this is almost stinking brand new... So I downloaded it and installed it. no issues, (or so I thought), There were no Activities, and therefore no consists...So back to the forum....there's all these references to SLI HorseShoe Curve Pack....in just about anything related to the route. but alas this is no longer available. So I downloaded Activity--NS 64D. Naturally it uses all equipment from SLI Horseshoe Curve pack, but I buckled down and redid all the consist with equipment I had or those that were available on Trainsim...and I got it working...So I started up OR and lets take a ride on an empty tanker train around Horseshoe Curve...and it worked.. So being energetic and brave (or stupid....you pick), I decided to copy that activity into a new one call RBBX-Blue, and using the same paths and traffic just a different Player consist...I envisioned, UP4141 on a national tour, and NS decided to place it on the point of bringing Ringling Bros Circus train from points west to east with a "Crew Change" in Altoona, PA (end of activity), and again it works....I put the train on Auto Pilot so I could "fly my drone" above the train and do some railfanning....I keep noticing...how the ground textures are a little light...just a pale green with little texture in it. there were texture near bridges..and trees...but not much else. So I go on the board and there's a discussion from around 2012 or so about missing texture files....so I look in the terrtex directory and nothing is there...hmmm maybe it didn't install correct, and after all that work I did in fixing those activities......Looked in the install zip file and curiously there are two additional .exe files that I hadn't seen before. so I ran those...and everything is fine now.......Now my rant....

    SLI Horseshoe Curve Pack was developed back in '11/'12 as an activity pack for the "freeware" Horseshoe Curve route. Since that time, and I don't know all the details, SLI cease to exist, and later evolved into Trainsimulations.net. I'm not completely sure that there is any "new" development going on...but the web site will definitely collect your money and send you the requested download, except.......not all the SLI offerings are available. Based on my investigation...in '17 you could still order the HS Curve Pack through the "wayback" archive...but that has stop....What's the deal?? if someone would just put the "packs" back on line at the website under a banner that says "no support available, download at your own risk", they could still be making a few bucks off the downloads. but no...(Hey, Trainsimulation.net....if your reading this, send me an email/contact me via the board and if your price is reseasonable...we can talk a deal)....I'm sure there is some intellectual copy-rights involved from the original artists and developers involved....but ....I also know we are dealing with a software package (MSTS) that was released '01 but Open Rails is still "some-what" viable...and those routes and packages do run on ORTS...............Rant over....do I feel better.....don't know.....but I got it off my chest.....now back to your normal forum chats......
  • crstagg
    4500 Post Veteran


    • Nov 1999
    • 4885
    • Huntsville, AL
    • Texan
    • MSOR

    #2
    You did not need the first paragraph. All that was need is the rant.. We would have known what it referred to. Been stated in other posts.
    Charles

    Comment

    • geepster775
      2500 Post Veteran


      • Sep 2006
      • 2846
      • .
      • General

      #3
      Meh, no biggie in the loss dept. Most of what was in there was a real hodge-podge, and 90% had been released before. The SD40s had flintstone wheels - yawn. The dash-9s had the wrong sized plow (there was a misguided phase there of 'one plow size fits all') A total mash-up of new and old wheel tread types. The only real things that made that pack were the p5-equipped highnose GP38-2s (although they had round wheels they still had dated Danny Beck era underframes and bad rad fan spacing) and the TopGon hoppers which had to be reskinned by most seasoned simmmers anyway. They also had the roadrailers but David Rowe came out with nicer ones freeware.
      My Open Rails videos https://www.youtube.com/@lakecities3663/videos

      Comment

      • amtrak115
        Senior Member

        • Oct 2005
        • 289
        • Parker, TX
        • General

        #4
        I believed I used the David Rowe one's to replace the SLI ones....

        Comment

        • geepster775
          2500 Post Veteran


          • Sep 2006
          • 2846
          • .
          • General

          #5
          I think I even deleted the SD70ACes that came with that pack because the new Open Rails-only ones that came with the steel slab train were so much better.

          I forgot about the notch nose SD70Ms. They were a minor rework of the UP notch set with addition of round wheels and rear ditchlights. Someone reskinned the UPs to NS, the UPs and NS reskins should all be in the library here. As close as you can get.

          They are still developing, just Open Rails grade of content now. They posted some renders of some Conrail GP40s in the works, the MRL route, a B&O route that looked like the Met Sub/Cumberland Sub area, and another CN route that looks like Toronto-Montreal.
          My Open Rails videos https://www.youtube.com/@lakecities3663/videos

          Comment

          • lateagain
            2500 Post Veteran
            • Jul 2004
            • 2727
            • Wareham, Dorset, U.K.

            #6
            Come on Guys! I think you need to step back and look at the OP's point?

            The pack was old. It may not have been perfect. It was built for the route. It worked "out of the box".

            Put yourself in the position of someone who wants to run acts for a route that had a stock pack and THEN explain to me how telling him there are much better models available anyway is helping?

            Slagging off old payware models is as daft as comparing new car technology with that on offer 7 years ago. OF COURSE there have been many improvements both in freeware and payware but this seems to overlook the point that good routes take years to build and new ones (of quality) don't pop-up all the time. Payware manufacturers (with ONE NOTABLE exception) do not update already released packs and would hardly get any sales on re-releasing old packs with identical stock to their latest modelling standards!

            Given that this is the MSTS forum you might just as pointlessly say TS models are better

            Meh.... rant over ....but I do sometimes wonder about some responses on here.
            Geoff
            Dorset - near The Swanage Railway.
            UK

            Comment

            • Sidewinder
              Member
              • Nov 2013
              • 37

              #7
              I often wonder about people who spend more time commenting about post counts and join dates which can and are deceiving rather than spending all their time actually helping people debug their problems or unravel the mound of aliasing and package assembly on the nuts and bolts level that comes from their persistent need to run "free".

              Comment

              • conductorchris
                2500 Post Veteran

                • Mar 2010
                • 2905
                • Vermont
                • General

                #8
                Well I appreciated having that pack and I suppose I still do. Unfortunately I don't know the original question: how to get it now.
                Christopher

                Comment

                • Sidewinder
                  Member
                  • Nov 2013
                  • 37

                  #9
                  I get it that the OP was just venting. But no amount of venting will bring the dead back from the grave. I do give him lots of credit for getting back into the swing of things and solving his own substitution related workload. Kudos to you, sir.

                  This may seem strange, but there actually are a few users out there who are intermittent simmers who dumped their previous installs and they actually think they are owed support from volunteers to get it back so they can briefly kill their boredom once more. It must be shocking for them, and their advocates, to discover such is not the purpose of our little group.

                  Comment

                  • llanning08
                    Member

                    • May 2010
                    • 99
                    • MIdland Texas
                    • MSOR

                    #10
                    Trainsimsulations has posted their older "retired" products on a separate page and they are still for sale:



                    The Norfolk Southern Horseshoe Curve Trainset is found there.

                    Comment

                    • MMSS
                      Senior Member

                      • Aug 2009
                      • 842
                      • Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey (NJ)
                      • MSOR

                      #11
                      Originally posted by llanning08
                      Trainsimsulations has posted their older "retired" products on a separate page and they are still for sale:



                      The Norfolk Southern Horseshoe Curve Trainset is found there.
                      I remember in a message they posted somewhere that they were switching their payment server service and the old pages including the retire page will no longer be available. I know people that tried to use the page you posted here and they couldn't finalize the payment. So use it at your own risk. I believe the retired items page was valid until 12/31/2018 then they switched.
                      Last edited by MMSS; 09-10-2019, 13:41. Reason: Added infomation.
                      - Mark -

                      Comment

                      • amtrak115
                        Senior Member

                        • Oct 2005
                        • 289
                        • Parker, TX
                        • General

                        #12
                        Originally posted by llanning08
                        Trainsimsulations has posted their older "retired" products on a separate page and they are still for sale:



                        The Norfolk Southern Horseshoe Curve Trainset is found there.
                        That's the first link I've found that appears to work, thanks

                        Comment

                        • amtrak115
                          Senior Member

                          • Oct 2005
                          • 289
                          • Parker, TX
                          • General

                          #13
                          Originally posted by amtrak115
                          That's the first link I've found that appears to work, thanks
                          I'll have to correct that....it doesn't work...it says shop closed. and that's ok, now. I got the activity running and was able to run Open Rails with the stock I was able to download here and there. Would it have been easier...sure, but I was able to figure out alot about how activities work again. Was I concerned about the level of detail provided in the package. If my goal to to "Collect" accurate representation of every locomotive I used, then maybe it was better I didn't get the pack. In either case, and my point was I got the pack running. The fact that someone created models and skins back a few years ago, but for some reason or another are withholding that just doesn't seem right. Don't get me wrong, I want to compensate an author for his work....After all these years. $20 bucks for something that has probably been superseded by another author seems a bit excessive. I'm not just picking on SLI, there are others, but it was a rant. I'm working to figure out how to "modify" routes using TSRE5, Create routes use TSRE5 and look forward to future release of Open Rails. What I believed happened to MSTS, was the push for multiplayer....caused the cost for development to exceed what MS wanted to put in the product. 3dTrainStuff, went ahead and built Run-8 which I looked into, but I'm not interested in "multiplayer"...I have a number of projects from way back when till now.....SP Lafayette Sub Division....(Running Sunset limited out of NOUPT over the Huey P Bridge would be awesome..., Trinity Railway Express, Dallas to Ft Worth....probably my first crack at route design...mainly because it's straight....and it's local to me., anyway....rant part due..over.....I posted a video in the Open Rails screen shot forum of a run across Horseshoe Curve. And as one of my favorite YouTube creators says...This is Amtrak115 ....Out.

                          Comment

                          • geepster775
                            2500 Post Veteran


                            • Sep 2006
                            • 2846
                            • .
                            • General

                            #14
                            Official notification that came during the Dec '18 holiday sales email.


                            My Open Rails videos https://www.youtube.com/@lakecities3663/videos

                            Comment

                            • MMSS
                              Senior Member

                              • Aug 2009
                              • 842
                              • Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey (NJ)
                              • MSOR

                              #15
                              Originally posted by geepster775
                              Official notification that came during the Dec '18 holiday sales email.


                              Thanks. I knew I read it like I posted below. Thank for posting this.
                              - Mark -

                              Comment

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