Dear gentlemen,
It is the fisrt time that I write on this forum,and,please,excuse-me if I make mistakes,because my English is not perfect,and for a little "frenchy",it is not easy to memory the good grammar.
If I come to you today,it is only to have some information:
A -I have bought Arkansas & Ozarks Subdivision route and Cumberlan route. I finish all every activities for each route.Where,eventually, can I find another?
B -When I see the very good job,and the wonderfull rollingstock on every "Belanger Locomotive Work", I would like to buy every one,but I don't know if there are some activities working to drive these locomotives.Because,if I find only rollingstock, I am not interested by that. I have not enough informatic expérience to make activities,and, I think to drive a locomotive alone,without AI traffic,it is the best.
Many thanks for your eventually answers
Kind regards.
Jean-pierre

Hi

Greetings, and welcome to the forum

A good investment would be "Activity generator' available by download for $15 at the following link

http://www.skylinecomputing.com/

You get a program and then it is possible to download activity templates for a large number of popular routes (not only just the A&O)... If you like switching this is the program for you... You can generate an infinite number of different activities... and the templates are added to all the time (you can with effort even make your own, and publish them)...

and the program is updated regulary...

I now use it exclusively, having long ago got very bored with four hour journeys from A to B...

Stefan

Jean-pierre,

Have you ever considered Virtual Railroading at the Ohio Valley System?

http://or4c.com/OVSTS//

I recently wrote a series of activities that simulates an engineer's workweek. They collectively add up 30+ hours playing time. The activities and includes switching, locals, helper services, and heavy end-to-end. The series hits all industry and sidings on the A&O at least once. Some activities are easy, some are hard, and some are just plain wicked.

Alex

The following routes are "run" by OVS.

Ohio Rail by Rich Garber
Canton by Rich Garber
St. Louis and North Arkansas by Andre Ming
A&O Sub by Andre Ming
L&PS by Wayne Campbell
Cumberland by Rich Garber

as well as several other routes.

In addition, we allow logging of time in almost any MSTS route. Of course no virtual pay for runs not in our "system" routes, but experience hours do count from those routes.

Alex is one of our more prolific members at activity writing. He also manages to head up another VR as well. You will find plenty of activities for both Cumberland and A&O, as well as all our other routes. And we have an activity writing course available as well. And, you can never beat the support from the members when you join a VR.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, since this advertisement is over.

I wrote an entire series of A&O activities for OVS. This series simulates an engineer's workweek on the A&O, erdnay style. You will have lots of work to do, even if it is mowing the grass and weed trimming at Seligman, spending an afternoon answering the phone taking freight orders in Eureka Springs, or taking a road trip in the A&O pickup over to Wal-Mart to buy some office supplies.

The activities range from easy, medium, hard, and just plain wicked. Many of them can be completed in under an hour.

Over 300 hours went into development for 30+ hours playing time.

OVAO-005-53a - Monday Morning Part 1
Regular Morning Service for Wood Products Inc.

Switch cars for several Berryville customers. See work order for explicit details of what cars go where. When completed, return to the Berryville Engine Track where the activity will end.

OVAO-005-53b - Monday Morning Part 2
Grain to Berryville

Take a consist of cars from Eureka Springs down to Junction, where you will pick up another consist to be forwarded to Berryville Yard Track 1. You will be picking up and dropping off cars on the way, so review your work order carefully. When completed, back the locomotive set into the Berryville Engine House where the activity ends at the fueling station.

OVAO-005-54a - Monday Afternoon Part 1
Switchin' Berryville

Switch cars for several Berryville customers. See work order for explicit details of what cars go where. When completed, return to the Berryville Engine Track where the activity will end.

OVAO-005-54b - Monday Afternoon Part 2
Switchin' Ozark Limestone

Switch hoppers at Ozark Limestone. See work order for explicit details of what cars go where. When completed, return to the Berryville Engine Track where the activity will end. You'll have a layover in Berryville. As usual, we'll spend the night at my Uncle Chester and Aunt Pittypat. I heard that my cousin Sissy Lee is home from University of Arkansas before fall semester gits started.

OVAO-005-55 - Tuesday Morning
Headin' East to Seligman

Take the consist at Berryville Yard 1 up the hill to Seligman. There is a pickup in Grandview. Refer to your work order for details. The activity ends at the Seligman Back Track.

OVAO-005-56a - Tuesday Afternoon Part 1
Assemble two trains in Seligman

A&M just switched out some cars on the Back Track. Now these cars need to be further broken down and sorted into two separate consists. The first consist, empty hoppers for Superior Gravel and lumber for Ozark Pallet, will be dropped off at Junction and forwarded to Urbanette sometime tomorrow. The other consist is tomorrow morning's delivery for Wood Products, Inc. in Eureka Springs but also has hoppers for NoArk Gravel. Assemble the Ubanette train at the northern (far) end of the Back Track. Assemble the other train at the southern end of the Back Track. Use the Pass Track as a work area. The activity ends near the south end of the Seligman Back Track. Refer to your work order for details. Remember the order of the cars is important!

OVAO-005-56b - Tuesday Afternoon Part 2
Seligman to Eureka Springs

Take your consist from Seligman Back Track to Eureka Springs. There is another train in front of you. Take care down the Seligman grade otherwise you will cause a rear-end collision!
Work Order Detail:
Seligman Back Track:
Pick up 32768-*
Walden West Track:
Drop off 32768-9 thru 32768-16 (8 hoppers)
Junction Back Track:
Drop off 32768-6 thru 32768-8; 32768-17
Eureka Springs Middle Track:
Drop off 32768-0 thru 32768-5; 32768-18

OVAO-005-56c - Tuesday Afternoon Part 3
Pickups in Eureka Springs

Make afternoon pickups in Eureka Springs and call it a day. Refer to your work order for details. When completed, pull past the office and the activity will end on the Eureka Springs Main track near the Team Track switch.

OVAO-005-57a - Wednesday Morning 1
Local to Walden

Local to Walden with swtichouts at Milsap Tie in Elk Ranch and Younger Tie in Beaver. Walden is currently clogged up with empty rock hoppers. We need to clear this stuff out before the afternoon rock and grain trains start moving through so that they can use the Pass Track. Shouldn't be
any problem since we're gittin' an early start. Refer to your work order listing for details. Bring your assembled your train to the Walden Pass Track, decouple your switcher and pull forward until the activity ends.

OVAO-005-57b - Wednesday Morning 2
Switchin' Butler Lumber

Switchin' Butler Lumber. Perform the required tasks to
complete your work order. When finished, pull forward on
the Walden East Spur until the activity ends.

OVAO-005-57c - Wednesday Morning 3
Hopper Switchin' at NoArk Gravel

Hopper Switchin' at NoArk Gravel. No thru traffic is expected until early afternoon, but a helper set for the trip to Seligman will hopefully arrive at about 9:55 and stop on the Pass Track. So first move the cars from the Pass Track to Main. Then perform the necessary tasks to complete your work order. Move the full hoppers up the Main leaving the at-grade RR crossing clear. When finished, turn your locomotive set around where the
activity will end on the West Leg of the Walden Wye.

OVAO-005-57d - Wednesday Morning 4
Up the Hill

You are on the Walden Wye. Place your helper set behind your engine set, then finish assembling your train and take it to Seligman. Judging by the length and weight of your train you're still likely to have to double the hill to Seligman, even with four engines. When finished, bring all four engines to the Seligman Engine Track where the activity will end.

OVAO-005-58 - Wednesday Afternoon
Switchin' Pender

Sorry, there's not much to do this afternoon... Jist switchin' a boxcar and some lumber bulkheads down in Pender. But we sure are short handed in the office. Can you stay the rest of the afternoon and type up these freight orders on our new IBM XT? It came with an amber screen, but I prefer the green ones myself. I told 'em to add memory to 256K and install a whoppin' 10MB hard drive. Man, we'll never need more than that, right? It sure beats that 'ol Tandy computer. Yer cars are waitin' fer you on the Middle Track. Use yer front coupler and take them to Pender. Then shove the loads back to the Seligman Middle Track. [Activity ends on the Seligman Middle Track] Oh, and one more thing... git a good night's sleep. You'll be workin in Urbanette all day tomorrow.

OVAO-005-59a - Thursday Morning 1
Freight to Urbanette

Yuck! What a nasty day. Assemble the train and take it to Urbanette. Once at Urbanette, break the train down into the following locations:
32781-11 & 32781-12 Freeman East Siding
32781-0 thru 32781-10 Urbanette North 2
*32780-* Urbanette North 1
32779-* Superior Storage Trk
32778-* Superior Storage Trk
*Place 32780-* behind 32787-* already on North 1

OVAO-005-59b - Thursday Morning 2
Swtchin' Superior Gravel and Lime

Switch loaded hoppers from Superior's loaders to the storage track, and empty hoppers from the storage track to the loaders. See work order listing for what cars go where. To finish the work order, run light and manually switch to the Urbanette Wye East Leg where you will then reverse and back down to the West Leg until the activity ends.

OVAO-005-60a - Thursday Afternoon 1
Switchin' Tyson Grain I

The Urbanette Yard frequently gets clogged with hoppers so typically we will switch the Tyson facility twice a day and then take the empty hoppers a couple of miles down to the siding at Freeman. Reverse and back out of the wye. Then spot the empty hoppers at South 1 of the Urbanette wye. Then pick up loaded hoppers from North 1 and spot them at Tyson. Finally, head back over to the wye where you will turn your engines around. Pull forward (heading out of town) on the West Wye Leg until the activity ends.

OVAO-005-60b - Thursday Afternoon 2
Switchin' Freeman

Take the cut of six covered hoppers down to Freeman, where you will do some switching and then assemble a train on the Freeman East Siding. Run light back to Urbanette and turn your engines around at the Urbanette Wye. The activity ends on the West Wye Leg near the A&O Office.

OVAO-005-60c - Thursday Afternoon 3
Urbanette Pickups

Make afternoon pickups in Urbanette and call it a day. Assemble the train and spot the cars on Urbanette North 1 along with the covered hoppers but leave the covered hoppers as a separate cut. Bring the locomotives to the Engine House track where the activity will end.

OVAO-005-61a - Friday Morning 1
Urbanette Deliveries

Make regularly scheduled morning deliveries to customers in Urbanette. Perform the dropoffs listed on the work order. When finished, run around and pull forward on the East Leg of the Wye until the activity ends.

OVAO-005-61b - Friday Morning 2
Switchin' Tyson II

Perform the necessary work to complete your work order. When copleted, *couple to the helper set, then run all four engines light down to the Superior Gravel wye where you will turn your around. [Activity ends on the Superior Gravel Wye South Leg]
*Coupling to a stopped AI train in MSTS may be unstable. Save [F2] your activity before coupling. If you have problems coupling to the helper set, then you can skip this step and just run the players' engines down to Superior. It won't affect the outcome of the activity.

OVAO-005-61c - Friday Morning 3
Clearin' Out Urbanette

An eastbound Urbanette Freight just left Seligman and will arrive in Urbanette early this afternoon, so we need to start clearin' out these cars and movin' them west. Assemble your train in the following order, so that the heavy rock cars are placed in front of the lighter loads and empties:
Player's Locomotives:
0-0, 0-1, 0-2, 0-3
Superior Storage Track:
32771-* (15 Covered Lime Hoppers)
32772-* (7 Open Rock Hoppers)
Urbanette North 1:
32773-* (7 Mixed)
Urbanette North 2:
32768-* (2 Tankers/6 Covered Grain Hoppers)
Freeman East Siding:
32769-* (9 Mixed)

OVAO-005-61d - Friday Morning 4
Long Heavy Train to Seligman

You are at Grandview. Deliver your train to the Seligman Back Track, where another crew will take the engines to the A&M shop facility in Springdale, AK for maintenance. Your train is long and heavy and you might need to double the hill to Seligman. But even with that, you should get finished about lunchtime.

OVAO-005-62a - Friday Evening 1
WPI Needs Us

Business is booming at WPI in Eureka Springs and they have had to add extra shifts on the weekends to meet a tight production schedule. Take the loads of lumber and the empty woodchip gondola to Eureka Springs. Drop them off at the Eureka Springs Middle Track for delivery later on this evening. [Stop in front of the Eureka Springs A&O Office and the activity will end]

OVAO-005-62b - Friday Evening 2
WPI Evening Delivery

Evening service for Wood Products. Perform the switching operations necessary to complete your work order. Tie down T6 #14 in the engine house and the activity will end. [Stop at the engine house]

Alex