Look what I found!

Below you will find a Youtube video link of the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas tourist operation when it was still running steam. The videos were taken long after I had left NW Arkansas... but man... did the memories ever come flooding back as I viewed this little clip!

FWIW: Engine #1 was my favorite engine to run. (It's the little cabbage stacked Mogul.)

Have fun!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIbsUD0o6A4

Thoroughly enjoyed THAT vid!

Great video. Thank you for linking to it. Some very interesting camera angles there. It'd be one heck of a task to recreate that density of vegetation and grass along the ROW. Having said that though, there is certainly massive visual potential for the extended version of the Ozark route. It's something I'll be following with interest

Glad you two enjoyed it!

SAR:

As for the task of recreating such dense foliage, it is the bane of any MSTS railroad set in mountainous regions of the US, especially from about eastern OK on to the Atlantic: Trees, trees, and more trees.

FORTUNATELY... around these parts during the era I like (1880's - 1890's), most of the surrounding hillsides were denuded of usable timber for construction of the railroad passing through the area (for ties, bridges, structures, etc) as well as being harvested, milled, and sent off to market.

Early photos show much reduced tree density... even sparse at times.

The last time I saw steam "Live in Eureka Springs" (used my radio announcer voice) was in '97. I want to say 201 was the only one running at the time. We stayed at a caboose (remodeled to a kitchenette type of thing) that was just up the hill...to the north...from the wye. It was great when we were there during the afternoons...you couldn't see the action (foliage was too thick) but you could hear everything as they came down the grade...turned....then headed back up. If I only would have gotten that on audio.

The brush was pretty close to slapping the side of equipment the last time I was up there (Oct. '07). There was an area behind the sewer treatment plant I'm convinced it had to be rubbing just from the shape it had. Riding a motorcar...there wasn't any issue with brush hitting the cars. But it does limit your view...and motorcars DON'T have the RoW at a crossing. That place is really neat, Branson stole allot of business away from ES when it got going. Somethings have been able to adapt...others don't seem to have been able to.

Hi Zack!

That sounds neat! (The caboose stay.) If one ever has the opportunity to be around it much, steam power has a way of getting way down deep in 'ya. Our (Zack and me) mutual friend Dave McDonald is a prime example!

All:

I have several hours of ES&NA tapes I shot back in the mid 80's... into the late 80's? I loaned them to Bill Hobbs so as to extract sounds from them. Many of those sounds made it into the VSC/HLW Steam Sound Pack. Bill is packing them up to send back my way, so I should be receiving them in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to viewing them again, as well as burn them to DVD for posterity.

The above video has just a bit of in-cab footage of #1. If the fellow wasn't so whistle-happy (unfortunately a common occurance at steam tourist operations) you could better hear what I heard when running it: That sharp, cracking exhaust that little booger had. Such a fun engine. Every now and then (when ES&NA owner Bob Dortch wasn't looking ) I would set a bit of air on the coach(es) coming up the grade... shorten up the cutoff a bit (makes the exhaust sharper at the expense of power)... and REALLY make it bark coming up that stiff grade into Eureka Springs! I could make it sound like shotgun blasts! Those were indeed great times. (sigh )

Speaking of sounds, I've been looking for old wooden creaks, bangs, bumps and general wooden rattling sounds from wooden rolling stock.
All my models are of the 1800s era and I'm in need of some good ol' wooden sounds to add to my creations.
So far, over the past couple of years of searching, I've failed at finding any.

I spent a few days at Cass WV and have quite a few sound files of the Shay loco but no wooden sounds. (My two Shays are equipped with the sounds I've gotten there, btw.)

Does anybody know where I can obtain a few good wooden sounds?

Thanks,

Rick, in your ON Trains folder, inside the Trainset folder is a VSC Steam Sounds folder. If you open that up, you'll see a host of sounds and a Documents folder. The Documents folder has a number of instructions to jazz up your car and locomotive WAG and ENG files. The freight car sounds are the best. Once you match the sounds - especially the "heavy" sounds - with your cars, your consists will make a heck of a prototype racket descending Fly Gap.

Andre, nice clip! The 201 shots in the winter were especially poignant. A fine little railroad!

Thanks, Steve but I'm afraid I didn't get the VSC sound pack with my copy of the ON.
I'll check into where I can get it, though.

Now, back on topic...

The VSC Sound Pack is a completely different package available via VSC:

http://www.vscalecreations.com/HLWtext.htm

The ON equipment already has the needed VSC sound strings "commented" within each eng/wag file. If the VSC Steam Sound Pack is installed, you can edit the ON eng/wag files by commenting the original sound string, and de-commenting the VSC Sound Pack strings.

Example from ON #5. Here's one of the "as shipped" sound strings from the eng file:

comment ( Sound ( ../../VSCSteamSound/rodloco2.sms ) )
Sound ( "..\\..\\NA_Required\\SteamSoundsOrgUk\\GWR-Manor-Ext-StLNA.sms" )

If the VSC Sound Pack is installed, change it to read:

Sound ( ../../VSCSteamSound/rodloco2.sms )
comment (Sound ( "..\\..\\NA_Required\\SteamSoundsOrgUk\\GWR-Manor-Ext-StLNA.sms" ) )

Presto: New sounds eminating from your ON #5!

Whoops! I've had it for so long that I thought it was bundled in ...

Just for everyone's information the Caboose (kitcheette thing) is Livingston Junction. They have three cabs and a Depot you can rent out. My wife and I have stayed there 3 times so far traveling to Eureka Springs. Very nice stay and it is just on the hill side above the ES&NA RR line. One can here the sounds of the bell and horn from there.

Here is a web linke to the location: http://www.livingstonjunctioncabooses.com/

Dennis

That's the place...couldn't remember the name...just remember the good times my wife & I had when we were there.

Just use caution and be sure you both do not fall out of the cupola!!!