The following are utilities that are available to all for free:

Conbuilder - Indespensible - It is very usefull to create consists and edit one you already have. It is very easy to use. It also is very usefull in finding errors in eng/wag and consist files.

It only has two drawbacks - but they are not big ones. 1. It only uses a generic outline of an engine or car. If a jpg or gif picture of the stock is not in the stock's folder, it will not show a piture when you right click on it. 2. It does not calculate the consists volcity/acceleration numbers, it uses generic. This can be fixed by opening the consist in the AE and flipping an engine backwards, then flipping it back and exit with saving.

Route Control - This can be a usefull tool for finding errors in different files. It is quick, that is it's main feature. It has been surpassed in usefullness by Route riter.

Route Riter - another must have. It can do everything the others do. This is the single most powerfull tool for MSTS.

EngMod - another must have. This enables the user to edit ALL the eng files at one. You can edit all the wags at once also. This is great for fixing coupler damping and break lines without haveing to edit the files one at a time. It also has a bracket checking feature.

I would add Shape File Viewer simply for the fact that people can load up objects in it failry easily and take screenshots of what they have, then convert the screenshot to a .jpg so that that Conbuilder will have an image to display of the particular rolling stock. Shape File Viewer is also a free utility.

Also, do you not use Bounding Box Editor? It's also a free utility. I have a little bit of a hard time figuring out exactly what numbers to type in whenever errors come up, but I think it's a good utility.

Route Riters Homepage is:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/virtualtrains/

Well I certainly agree that for reskinners that shapeviewer is a must have just so you don't have to go into the game to see how your engine is coming along.
Actually Kevin, I like RouteControl, maybe I am just used to it more than routeriter, although I certainly have both and use them both. Conbuilder is good for a quick check on an engine, as well as for making a consist quickly.
I have Engmod but although I have Kevin's updates I just haven't had the time to get to it yet. So much to do so little time!

What was the question again? Oh yeah, utilities, hmmmm. I think Kevin covered it very well. Not a utility but you need Kevin's alias tutorial. Also gotta have Kosmos. And that about covers it.....

As usual Kev is right on track (pun intended)

Tim

Got it, Kev, thanks. Had to navigate away from that site to actually find a site that hosted the full version, but it wasn't too hard. I'd actually already been to the site you posted while I was searching for an update since I thought I had the full version already--turns out the version posted at train-sim isn't the full version. So, uh, you just ignoring my question about BBEdit, or what? I could use some info on how to use it correctly. I try to keep the number as close to "default" as possible, but just make it higher or lower incrementally until the numbers turn black. Is this correct? It seems pretty random, but I don't really know what else to do.