I have spoken with Rich about doing some activities for CST, and he has agreed.

What I am going to try to do is capture the flavor of rural, shortline railroading in the south. This will be a totally different tact then Rich's "War with the FLC". I am titling the set "A day in the life of...". Each will be just that, a day in the life of a particuliar crew as it goes about its work.

Anyone who has run my activities for KHP 1&2 and Cascade Crossing know I strive for the most realistic experience possible within the confines of MSTS. These activities will utilize default MSTS and Canton stock with one exception. This is my trademark RF&P car, rf&pbox3, which is available at Trainsim's file section. I am going to try to keep the times down below the 5+ hours that most of my prior activities took.

As I get them finished I will post them in this section. I ask that comment about each be put into the thread where it is announced and the link is posted.

I am beginning work on the first now and should have it posted in several weeks. Please keep in mind that I have a full time 'day' job and household responsibilities, so my MSTS time is limited to 1 - 2 hours a day.

Sharon:

Having run your other activities, I am really looking forward to the results of your new venture!

Airartist

Good news indeed....best of luck Sharon!!!

Bill

Part ! of "A day in the life of..." is out being tested. Could be up in a week or less.

Looking forward to the additional CST activities!

I found and downloaded rf&pbox3.zip but could not find a RF&Pcar file on Trainsim.com?

Thanks-

Rich,

You have the file that is all that counts.

What do I name the file in MSTS Trainset folder - RF&Pcar?

rf&pbox3 is the folder name Rich.

OK! THANKS- All Set!

Ok everyone here is part 1, A Day in the life of...The Canton Switcher. It is a fairly hard, and long switching exercise in and around the Canton area. Please read all the included documentation carefully before running it. Take your time to think about what you are going to do before you start. Good luck and have fun.

Hi Sharon.

Thanks for creating a very challenging and enjoyable activity.

The timing and pace was just about right (at least for me). I managed to get the outgoing consist built with 10 minutes to spare. Used rear coupler throughout with a few exceptions. Did not use the RS1. Clocked off about 3.30pm, having ate my lunch in the cab! If I did it again could probably shave 30 minutes off, having messed up a few times.

Looking forward to your next activity.

... Elwood Spare to Elwood 3 ...

Stefan

Thanks for the nice remarks Stefan. I thought that that move, Elwood spare to Elwood 3, would be a nice challenge to the player.

Very nicely done, Sharon. It was a blast. I must have been going too fast since I was done by noon. I made a couple missteps that, had I done it differently, could have saved maybe 20 minutes.

In the real world, would the order of a string of 2 or more, say, coal cars destined for the same siding be specified or would the crew pay attention to same? In your manifest you have several instances of two or more cars of the same type destined to a particular siding. For example, the three grain cars to Bluestone 1, should
they be shoved in 0,1,2 or 2,1,0? I know MSTS wouldn't care about the order if they were listed in the workorder (it wouldn't even care if they were left in the siding at all, only that at one point in the activity they were put there). In the eastbound consist, there was only one pair of cars, 779-0 & 1 (if I remember it correctly) that would have had to been switched in order to satisfy MSTS "assemble train at" had that been a requirement. I didn't do it, but I was wondering whether a live crew would have.

Thanks for a terrific activity. I can highly recommend it.

Dave,

I am not sure as to that. My feeling is that unless the shipper or consignee designate a specific order it should not matter. Same is true with the cars designated for a specific destination, ie: Prudence. As long as all Prudence cars are together who cares which is frrst, etc. That is the resposibility of the Prudence switch job to sort out. I did something like that in my last activity for KHP2, by telling the player that certain cars had to be blocked together and in a certain order.

Glad you enjoyed it. I am now starting "A day in the life of...Extra 611 east", which is the train that you just made up at Canton.

As for too fast, as long as you didn't exceed the speed limits and got done by noon, who cares. The constraint is that 611 east needs to leave Canton by 1500.

Hi Sharon:

Don't know if you remember me, but I remember you over at Maple Leaf Tracks a few years back making activities for Kicking Horse Pass. I'm John the supposed 'music' maker.
(I do it for the kids, but I like country and oldies personally if you recall?)
Been doing well with it recently, and really enjoy Canton now as a 'better type of noise' shall we say in my brief moments off. Glad to see you're 'aboard' now as well, as i really enjoy your activities from the days of yore. I just got the Thompson upgrade thanks to kind and steadfast Rich (he makes better noise... er, music I mean - in case you didn't know. ) and am hoping to get some free time soon to give it all a good drive. Still on my poor old lappy doing music AND all this train stuff, and Rich won't let me live it down either. I don't get ALL the detail due to having on lower settings for smoothness, but it's still a heck of a lot more exciting than KHP V1.

Good to see you again.

Hi John,

Grab the first of the CST activities, you won't be disapointed. I am working on the second part now and, if time smiles on me, it should be ready in a month or so.

Remember folks, my MSTS time is very limited.

Well part 2 is progressing alone. I need a few intrepid people who would be willing to do some testing. Boring stuff, getting me timings at various locations, wether the AI did what it was susposed to do, you know that kind of running. Send me an email at the address noted in the part one readme.

Shot of Extra 611 doing it's work at Prudence in the final light of a spring day.

Well its almost ready. Attached is a teaser shot of the engines pulling the Logan pickup back to the main line. I will tell everyone that Logan is all front coupler work.

A little help pls, when I tryed to install I got the following, Track DB is version 1073 and needs to be 1771. How can i update it, Tks Bob

Bob,

Just install the activity, the track database number should not have any impact on it's ability to run.

Works great, Tks

All right everyone, here is the final beta of Extra 611. I would like some brave souls to run it for me. I think everything is fixed, but one never knows until it hits a few different systems. All the documentation is included along with the new Operating Rules for the Canton Railroad. Read everything carefully before starting. As always, I do not use the "work order" but provide a switch list of the pickups and set outs. Let me know what you think and any problems. Thanks for helping and I hope that I can come back and say this version is gold.

revised Extra 611 below

Problems, problems, problems...

Well, I did some adjustment to the activity itself, but forgot to rework my messages. Disregard the message as you leave Prudence that there is no further traffic. Go by the popup at 1146 that there is a Canton RR train coming west and you will meet it somewhere east of Prudence. One person got to Thompson east and got a red. Could be a meet there. I will repost the activity later with the corrections.

Revised Extra 611 activity

Ok, Got one completion with only a minor problem. I now await several others getting back to me about how it went, then will either maked necessary changes or declare it good as is.

Just so people will know my next "A Day in the Life of..." will be the Prudence Job.

Sharon,Got a cornfield meet east of Thompson with manifest led by f unit,if I waited at east end of prudence will this train pass? and then go on my merry way Benny

Figured it out,I waited out the secomd AI train at Prudence,once it passed I was able to complete the activity,very fun I might add. Benny

Hi all.
I'm new to the whole train sim deal so I would like to know how to add your activities Sharon?
I've got the Canton package although I don't have your "rf&pbox3' yet. but will get it tomorrow after I sleep awhile LOL.
Don't you just love newbees that jump in on the deep end right off. It sounds like your work is enjoyable so I thought I'd give it a go.

Thanks in advance
Odd

With Cumberland almost upon us, I say that Sharon's Corner is active again. As soon as I have the route in hand I will be starting to develope activities for it.

Welcome back, Sharon.

Don

Sharon,

Can't wait and welcome back to active activity writing.

Paul

But how do you get the front coupler to work? I'm having all sorts of problems using it. I know it is or used to be an MTS problem. But if there's a fix could someone please walk me through it. Sorry I'm still stuck in MTS class 101
Thanks
gnfan
Steve

Steve,

Look at this thread, I think it will at least get you headed in the right direction: http://www.3dtrains.com/forums/index.php?s...?showtopic=8626

Paul

Hi Sharon,

I am having trouble downloading ADITLO.ZIP. I get a error. I have tried a couple other places and cannot find it. HELP.

I have finished the 2 passenger runs you had on C&NW. I had better stick to freight. Thanks

Bert

Good Morning:

That link is more than 2 years old and Sharon has not posted here for a least a year. Here is a response that I got from her over at C&NW.

Sharon:

I have always enjoyed your activities, but it has been more than a year since anything has been posted in “Sharon’s Corner”. Do you spend all your time over here.

Looking forward to your activities.

Chandler

Thank you Robert, and yes I am now over at C&NW all the time. It is such a great route and concept, that I want to focus all my energies here to make it as real world as possible with binned M$TS.
_________________
Sharon Evans,
Glen Allen, VA
Activities are what makes MSTS run!

Sharon is one of the great activity writers, she is just at C&NW all the time now.

Hope this helps
Chandler

Bert,

All the links here got messed up over a year ago when 3DTrains had to redo the whole thing. I really don't know where you can get any of them since I did not post them on TrainSim. I do have some activities at TrainSim that are for the Kicking Horse Pass2 and Cascade Crossing routes.

Sharon

Sharon,

Ok. I will look for some on Cascade Crossing. Thanks

Bert