Atomic Systems

I have just installed the Rye and Camber route, a lovely little route. However I cannot run the "Welcome to Rye & Camber" activity. Every time I click on it's name in MSTS, the sim freezes and eventually crashes. The other downloadable activities work fine. Has anyone had this problem and overcome it?

.

To use the Welcome to... activity, you must have downloaded the locomotive: Camber. It is a separate download from the route.

Go to the Companies section of the UKTrainsim download library and look for Rye & Camber, it will have all the rolling stock:
3 engines
2 closed coaches
1 open
goods wagons.

Be sure NOT to change the names of the Train files that are produced for the Trainset folder, or the activities will not also produce errors.

Steve

Thanks. The problem was because of an error I had inadvertently caused in the Camber .eng file. It is now resolved. Interesting little route.

.

Yes, this quaint little route has really caught my fancy too. It has even finally got me off my behind to learn how to create very basic activities.

There are a couple of problems with the rolling stock though.

The petrol tractor's brakes just DO NOT work! The tractor will just roll and roll. Try setting the brakes to 100% and you can still start the engine on the first notch! Curiously, the brake sections in the eng file were lifted verbatim from the Camber/Victoria engines where the brakes work just fine. I think it has to do with steam loco vacuum brakes on a so-call diesel tractor. If you come up with any cures, let me know. I swapped in a brake set from another diesel eng file to solve it for now.

Just to improve appearance, I also used the HRPT cabview (available at this site) in place of the default scotsman. It is very easy to do. Just dump all the HRPT files into the Camber/Victoria cabview folders and rename the HRPT cvf file to Camber or Victoria. Voila!

One other frustration is that the wheels on the open coach and goods wagons will suddenly sink below track level during coupling/uncoupling actions. It does not matter whether its the front of rear engine coupler. I cannot solve this problem and the author has not replied.

Beyond that, I am nutty about this tramway for its switching value and short run.

Yes Rye and Camber is a lovely little route. There have been a number of issues with Camber and Victoria in the past, I had the shape files coming to bits in the sim at one point, though i think this my old graphics card. The sinking below rail level ive not heard about before, though isnt suprise me, its MSTS. Possibly somthing to do with how the shape files were made. Does it happen with non RC stock (try some of the Southwold Coaches.)

All in all, well worth the download.

Chris

The problem seems ONLY to occur with the RC goods wagons and open coach. I have been using MSTS since it first came out, and I've got a library of six CD's worth of rolling stock and routes and I've NEVER seen this wheel drop issue before. Perhaps its just been luck on my part. But it really ruins the fantasy while running RC.

I've examined the .s files for these particular vehicles and what I see in these files may just as well be rocket science. I've been told to remove the animations section, but then they crash the sim. Since this is a narrow gauge route, finding proper replacements has been for naught. Besides, I'd rather use the historical rolling stock.

The drops occur during coupling/uncoupling actions, regardless of which coupler on the loco is involved, or how far down the consist the particular wagon is from the engine. Most of the time, saving and re-entering the activity restores the wheels, but there MUST be a cure. I need some hotshot shape file guru to assist me. The author Jur Snijder still has not replied.

Jurs normally very busy with business, which takes him round the world, often for weeks at a time. I found this out working with him on Southwold. I have a feeling many a model was made in foregin hotels, as I would often get 5 or 6 Southwold models sent to me in one go on his return!

Id wait a while for a reply. Have you emailed him as well as PM'd, i imagine he's more likely to pick up emails.

Chris

Yes, I used his email address from the Rye & Camber readme file. It didn't bounce back, so I assume it is still active.

In the meantime, I've created a few activities with the questionable vehicles in anticipation of a fix. I also downloaded suitable replacements from the Southwold collection just in case. Haven't examined them yet though.

How is Southwold? Lately, shortlines have taken my fancy since one can quickly become familiar with the route.

How is Southwold?

It was fine last time we spoke Version 2 got suspended due to ref file problems and trying to balance it alongside the WHR.

Lately, shortlines have taken my fancy since one can quickly become familiar with the route.

Yes there are some nice little routes, Narrow Gauge lends itself to branch lines really rather well, due to its nature. When it comes out I think you might like Saddletanks Highworth Branch! Standard Gauge 5 mile Great Western Branch Line, terminating at Swindon Works!

Chris

Steve - I just realised I have most of the R&C stock on my home PC. If I get a chance, I'll try and fix the S files and send them to you - I may need reminding if you've not heard anything in a week

decapod wrote:Steve - I just realised I have most of the R&C stock on my home PC. If I get a chance, I'll try and fix the S files and send them to you - I may need reminding if you've not heard anything in a week

Greetings,

As Mark Twain said through one of his characters, "You are truly a nickel-plated wonder!"

Likely due to some missing adjunct file, your Shape File Manager just could not find ffedit_unicode.exe with my Win98se, so I put my old dos hat on and used ffedit off the dos prompt. I did finally learn to decompress, recompress .s files, read them with a text reader, and spent hours trying to solve the bug. Though failing, my experience "under the hood" of MSTS has been expanded, but your kind assistance is most graciously accepted.

Steve

The amended shape files you (Decapod) sent me work. And I am happy as a pig in the mud. Now I can finalize my simple activities for Rye & Camber.

Sorry for coming a bit late to this conversation

I haven't been into MSTS for some time now due to a relocation to Australia where I am likely to stay for a number of months. Very busy workwise and so on. Also, my Internet access here goes through our office server in the UK and I can't easily acces my personal emails.

Anyway, enough sorry excuses

I haven't seen the problem with the wheels myself, but as so often in MSTS what happens in one setup doesn't happen in another. I am curious to know what changes Decapod has made to the .s files. I may want to upload corrected versions if this problem is seen by more people.

Glad you enjoy R&C and Southwold!

[plug] If you want to try your hand at some standard gauge you might want to download Thaxted [\plug]

Cheers,

Jur

The changes I made were to completely remove the redundant animation section from the end of the S file.

TSM sometimes adds this section when there are no animations which causes the sim to rotate the wheels about the bogie x axis when coupling.

We saw it on a few TSM models for Highworth and Matt P found the fix.

Wahoo! I've finally been useful!

Hehehe

Matt.