Here is a zip file with all of the Consists and Activities, corrected to date, that convert the Activities from original equipment to the new Davis Locomotive Works equipment. You will, of course need to have both the St.L&NA Route and the North Arkansas Equipment Pack installed on your computer.

Step 1 (if applicable): If you are running Train Store, open Train Store, go to Tools and Unstore Everything. Once completed, go to step two.

Step 2: MOST IMPORTANT! Back up your files! Go to Train Simulator, Routes and open your St.L&NA folder. Copy the Activities folder to a secure location. Then go to Train Simulator, open your Trains folder and back up your Consists folder to that secure location.

Step 3: Save this zip file to wherever you transfer files (don't run it on Marc's server!) and unzip it there. It will produce two folders, NA Activities and NA Consists.

Step 4: Open the NA Activities folder, Ctrl-A to select all, Ctrl-C to copy all. Navigate to Train Simulator, Routes, the St.L&NA folder, and open the Activites folder. Right click amongst the files in there and select Paste. Say "Yes to all" on file overwrites.

Step 5: Open the NA Consist folder, Ctrl-A to select all, Ctrl-C to copy all. Navigate to Train Simulator, Trains and open the Consists folder. Right click amonsts the files in there and select Paste. Say "Yes to all" on file overwrites.

Step 6: Enjoy the St. Louis & North Arkansas in all of it's glory!

Disclaimer: As with any freeware software or programs, use these files at your own risk and I take no responsibility for any damages, real or perceived, to your personal system by these files. The files have been virus scanned with the most current definitions (6-27-05).

Of course, if there are any problems, please let me know.

EDITORS NOTE: Dead Link Fixed 3/26/07

Herb, thank you for the Updates. I have d/l'd this update and am looking forward to running the activities. I've spent the last 2 weeks running Explore and enjoying the Route immensely.

I like to sit in the cupola of the StL&NA cabooses and watch the train snake through the curves. I did a little trick to move the view to the right hand seat running long end forward (making the first minus number in the head location line a positive moves it from left side to right - BACK UP THE FILE FIRST!) and the view is just great.

Watch out for cinders in your eyes though!

I like to ride the tops, hitting "2", and then a bunch of "Ctrl""right arrow" to put myself in the middle of the train, facing forward.

Same cinder-in-the-eye thing, though.

You're all very funny because I like to sit on top of the engine cab looking backwards...

Ughhhh. I hate it when I don't understand stuff and sound like a newbie again.

Sheesh, I have just been away too long, and am not familiar enough with the equipment pack yet to know what it changed in the first place and so forth.

What exactly does this do? Andre told me in another thread, that at least some of my old activities were going to undergo a transition to the new equipment anyways.

I was not really too happy about this, as I would have preffered to have something like a 1 and a 1a ( 1 being original, 1a being the activity modified to use the new equipment in the NA pack), however, I simply created a separate install for a virgin copy and then a modified copy. Problem solved.

So what does your tool do exactly?

Thanks for your patience.

MFOS

PS. Sorry I am sure the answer is in the forum somewhere, but I have alot of catching up to do, so in some cases asking saves alot of time (I'm estimating about 2 hours of backreading).

> Sheesh, I have just been away too long, and am not familiar enough
> with the equipment pack yet to know what it changed in the first place
> and so forth.

First off, the North Arkansas Equipment pack changes nothing in your StLNA route installation.

It is an assemblege of models created to be as accurate for the St. Louis & North Arkansas (circa 1903) as could be determined. It can be installed and used completely independant of the StLNA route.

> What exactly does this do?

Can I assume "this" to be the NA_DLW.zip activity rework contained in this thread?

If I assume correctly, then I can explain what the NA_DLW.zip file available in this thread accomplishes:

Herb Kelsey kindly went through all the supplied default activities that came with the StLNA route, and replaced the dated models with the superb models within the North Arkansas Equipment Pack. (Or "NA Pack" or "NAP" for short.) This includes the rollingstock, et al. Once the above zip is installed, no piece of default supplied StLNA equipment remains in the activities.

> Andre told me in another thread, that at least some of my old activities
> were going to undergo a transition to the new equipment anyways.

If I read you correctly, I think you have misunderstood me.

Let me stress again: Installing the NA Pack as purchased/downloaded will not alter ANYTHING with your StLNA route installation. Nada. Zip. Nothin'.

The NA Pack installer will merely empty it's contents into your MSTS' Trainset folder. It may also give you a selection of consists (trains) to run (I can't recall offhand), but will NOT affect ANY supplied activity that came with the StLNA route.

> I was not really too happy about this, as I would have preffered to have
> something like a 1 and a 1a

Well, bear in mind that once you see the new equipment, you will WANT to see it... over and over again... in ALL the activities.

Since installing the NA Pack into my MSTS installation, I have never again used the supplied StLNA equipment, it is THAT good. No, it's not that good... it's that EXCELLENT.

> So what does your tool do exactly?

Now you know!

> Thanks for your patience.

No prob.

Andre, I just bought the NAP. Has this been fixed or do I need to apply this file?

By just bought, I mean like yesterday.

Thanks.

Hi Mike:

No fixes or otherwise needed for the NAP. What is being discussed here is a set of activities that will replace the equipment supplied with the StLNA route with the better models from the NA Pack. The zip file in this thread is merely an alternative activity pack available to end users that have both the NA Pack and StLNA route. This zip makes it possible to use/see their new NA Pack stuff in all the StLNA activities that was supplied with the route.

Now, there is a texture update available for the NA Pack if you desire to install it. It updates one engine: #3. The updated texture adds some rivets that Jon had overlooked on his original #3. Yup, Jon is that serious about accuracy. If you want the updated texture for #3, it can be found in the Product Updates section of the VSC forum. Here's a direct link:

http://www.3dtrains.com/forums/index.php?s...?showtopic=8784

Great. Thanks, Andre. Got the download. Great stuff for a great route.

Hi Andre.
I've had the St.L&NA route and NAP pack for awhile now but it wasn't till lately that I decided to give steam an honest effort. I've been enjoying myself quite a bit but like the fella above, I could use the zip file to change everything over. Thanks!

Rob

Hi Rob:

Try the link now. I have replaced the dead file with a fresh one. Hopefully all consists were included!

Got it now. Thanks Andre.

Rob

Hello,

I just got STLNA and and the DLW NAP, then downloaded the DLW_act.zip file, to get the North Arkansas Equipment Pack. The file I got had only consists in it. Were there supposed to be activities also?

Thanks,
Gary

As I recall, the DLW consist files directly replace the supplied/default StLNA equipment with the DLW NAP equipment. Thus, the activity need not be changed, as the new equipment is found in the consists the activities use.

Try it first... if I'm wrong, I'll try to figure out what I'm forgetting.

I think you're right. I got confused because the original instructions mentioned copying activity files. However, that was not necessary. Thx.

Has anyone Tried or found out how to remove the crew from the DLW locos? The trains look great but those Lego Guys have got to go. I tried just removing the various crew files from the train folder for one of the trains but that just caused the game to crash when I tried to run it.

Dan

Well I figured out how to do it myself and for anyone else who wants to get rid of the crew here is the answer.

In your trains folder you will see folders for all the DLW NAP locos
The Folder names will start StLNA_***_* where the asterik is the number of a particular loco.
EX StLNA_440_2

Inside of each folder will be three .eng files you will need to modify They will have the same engine naming as the folder they are in.
AIStLNA_***_*.eng
HStLNA_***_*.eng
StLNA_***_*.eng

Do a search and remove the following line from each .eng file and save. Crew will now be gone.

FreightAnim( StLNA_***_*_crew.s 1 1 )

Again backup these files first before you do anything, so you can reuse them later if you want or put them back in case the game does not work after you modify them.

You will have to do this for every individual loco that you do not want to see crew on. I think the DLW NAP adds 7 locos to the game.

Hope it´s OK to breathe life into a almost dead thread.

Actually you need to change the activity files too since all the loose consists (i.e. cars that are placed on sidings) are defined in the act-files and not in the con-files. Having the replacement con-files is a great help but does anybody have the replacement act files? Of course I can do the changes myself (which I have started to do) but it would be easier to have the modified act-files.

/Måns

I can't tell you how much I enjoy the StL&NA and how much the new equipment pack has added to the value of the route.

There is just one thing, and I can't find an answer to it elsewhere in the forum. The update (I tried two downloads) did not include a replacement consist for activity #10 - "Helpin' Hand", the very activity I was looking forward to using the new StL&NA DLW #3 and #4 locomotives.

I have tried using Activity Master to replace the #4 player locomotive and tender with the new DLW versions. That worked OK, but left the AI #3 locomotive without a tender. I tried using ConBuilder to fix that and although ConBuilder showed the loose consist now contained the DLW version #3 and tender, it doesn't show up in the simulation.

I have tried different approaches and still don't get anywhere adding a tender back onto the AI consist locomotive.

I have probably missed something. Is there a replacement for this activity that will use the DLW Locos? Any guidance you can give me will be much appreciated.

Hi Chuck:

Try downloading/unzipping/placing this consist into your CONSISTS folder and see if it does the trick?

Hi Andre,

Thank you much for the consist. It was much like the one I already had in my MSTS CONSISTS folder. I did touch up the previous one to exactly match the one you sent me, but, I am sorry to report that it did no good. The rogue AI consist (the one just like the original consist except for the missing tender) still sits stubbornly in the started activity.

ConBuilder does not recognize the "rogue" loose consist, but does list (and approve) the NA_Ai3w10lds3mts consist in ACTIVITY DEPENDENCIES. Because CB does not load the "rogue LC' I can't even replace the lead wagon with the appropriate tender. I can't see anything wrong with the activity itself - it shows the updated NA_Ai3w10lds3mts LC just as it looks in the main Consist folder. I even replaced the activity in the route with the original 5/10/2004 version and updated the LC with CB to the DLW equipment. The "rogue LC" still loads with the activity in MSTS but the overall activity runs fine otherwise. even though the "tenderless" old StLNA #3 without a front coupler drives me nuts.

Andre, where do you think the "rogue LC" resides? Where does the activity find it? it is surely not in the MSTS CONSISTS folder. The only thing left that I can think of is to ask if you could find a copy of the Helpin Hand activity that actually works with the new NA_Ai3w10lds3mts and let me download it.

I am very grateful for your time.

Chuck

Chuck:

This is a new one on me.

Seems that somehow the default consist in question was corrupted, and because the consist in question is an AI consist, and thus does NOT use a "driveable" engine, apparently CB doesn't "find" it. (The same will be the case with MSTS "Activity Editor".)

Am I understanding correctly that you can not find the bad consist file in your CONSISTS folder?

Is the StLNA route installed in your main MSTS installation located in the default location? OR, is the StLNA installed within a Mini-Install?

Andre:

I was finally able to locate an obscure corner on my C: drive where my Activity Master archive files were kept and restored the original new11 act successfully into the StLNA route on MSTS. This brought back the old style locos and tenders on both the player and AI trains and the act runs OK. (BTW, I believe this whole mess started with Activity Master when I switched the player loco to the new DLW model. It was after this that the AI tender turned up missing. I have had much trouble with AM since installing it on Windows 7, but that is between me and Skyline.)

Answering your questions:

The bad consist file is not in my CONSISTS folder. The only two files in the CONSIST folder pertinent to the StLNA "new11" act are StLNA4.con and NA_Ai3w10lds3mts.con, both of which contain and specify the new DLW locos and rolling stock.

My StLNA route is installed directly into MSTS which is located in the default location (C:/Program Files (x86)).

Why the act doesn't pick up the DLW revised consists is still the question. Where do you suppose it picks up the original consists when the originals are not in the CONSISTS folder anymore?

Andre, I can't tell you how honored I am for you to take the time for this. I, like your other rabid fans, am waiting anxiously for your Ozark route expansions. If you come up with anything, I will be grateful. If I come up with anything, I will let you know. If not, why don't we set the problem aside for now. (I have built a new double headed consist that replicates the "Helpin Hand" train with DLW equipment and I can run it up the hill to Seligman on explore when I feel the need.)

Ozark Rails Forever!

Chuck

I haven't a clue on the AM situation either. I have AM, but frankly, haven't taken the time to install and figure it out. I suspect I enjoy creating routes and stuff more than actually using the sim? Hmmm.

Anyway, would seem to me that perhaps using the MSTS Activity Editor to make any edits to a consist would be a good course?

Ah well... at least you're up and functioning again.

As for Ozark railroads... you'll get a hearty AMEN from me! Even though I'm currently on my CM kick... I'm confident I'll be back piddlin' with the Ozark Lines concept eventually!

Have fun!

I must be doing something wrong, when I open the file it does not open to two other files it just opens. Am I doing something wrong?
craig