Highland Mainline problems

[expressboy1983]

Hi,

I downloaded the HM a few hours ago and have been struggling ever since to get an act working!
I wanted to take a trip from Inverness to Keith to explore the scenerized section, so made a path, grabbed a 26 from the library and used the FDB Mk1's, saved the whole thing as an act and off I went. Loaded up MSTS, it generated all it's terrain buffer things and then on loading the activity, gave me this message...

Errm...JPG (9.12 KiB) Viewed 1204 times

...along with the associated .sd file errors, then crashes throwing me back to the desktop.
Note, that it is looking in the ROUTE FOLDER for the STOCK.

I've followed instructions on installation to the letter, and can use the route in explore mode, but it doesn't seem to matter what stock I use, it just won't let me get on!
Am I missing something here?

Any advice would be appreciated please.

And thanks in advance.

[scampispeedway]

Hi Simon, I loaded and ran this Route a few months ago and got numerous errors like this,
only by copying the relevant .s and .sd files from the Trainset and MSTS Shapes folder
into the Route Folder did I manage to get it working.
I then checked the Route using Route Riter and that corrected many errors but after that I
got a problem when after completing an Activity and clicking on O.K. MSTS just crashed and
I couldn't get an Activity Report.
I gave up on this Route and put it into storage but later on I will re-install it and copy over
certain files from the original download to see if I can get it working again.

Bob

[rufuskins]

This is yet another route sat in my external HD waiting for installation.

At the risk of "teaching elderly relatives about actions with eggs", I quote the "readme" verbatim:-

"Intstallation Instructions

Read this before you start an Installation of Highland Mainline V1.0!

Ensure you have all 6 MSTS default routes installed

Additionally you will require UKFinescale track version 3.1.6.0 from http://www.trainsimfiles.com/products/ukfs or UKTS File ID: 11889

Also TSection.dat file Build 30 UKTS File ID: 6698
and New roads UKTS ID 6254

If you already have the above you do not need to obtain them again.

Now Download files Highland_Mainline1.zip to Highland_Mainline16.zip

Now Extract Highland_Mainline1.zip to the routes folder of your MSTS installation
(usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\ROUTES

Do the same as above for Highland_Mainline2.zip to Highland_Mainline.16.zip

You will now have a Folder in your Routes Directory called Highland_Mainline

Enter this folder and run the Installme Batch file.

When you first run the route in MSTS it will take a few minutes to Generate terrain buffers once this is done the route is ready to use."

. . in particular the installme batch file.

Apologies if I have stated the obvious but sometimes one's eyesight is called into question when located in a forest!

Alec

[douglee]

Hi Simon,

Errm...JPG

...along with the associated .sd file errors,
Note, that it is looking in the ROUTE FOLDER for the STOCK.

You said it, "looking in the Route Folder for the stock".
At a guess these items are the stock as static scenery items just the .s and .sd.
I am sure these will not be transferred by the installmebat as they will not be used as such in any default route.
but they should be in the shapes folder of the route as downloaded.

Hope this is of some help.

Good luck
Doug

[BobLatimer]

I've just had a look at my installation of the Highland Mainline and there are no FDB Mk1 shape files in the route's Shapes folder.

I've just tried running a couple of the 55 activities I have for the route and they both started fine.

Simon, can you run the route through Route_Riter and see if it comes up with any error messages? It's been a long time since I installed the route but I don't remember having any unusual problems getting it running.

I'm wondering if it's the error message that's the problem, i.e. it's not really missing the shape file from the route's folder. It does say "can't open", not "can't find". Try the stock on another route and see what happens.

Bob.

ADDENDUM:

I've just downloaded and installed the original route (not the Aberdeen-Inverness extension) and I can run the included activity okay. (There were a couple of snow textures missing, even after running the batch file, but that shouldn't cause a problem when not running in the snow.)

Which file are you using for the FDB Mk1s? I downloaded UKTS_17570_FDB_Mk1_BR_Blue_Grey.zip but it included FDB_Mk1_TSO_B&G.s, whereas your error message listed FDB_Mk1_TSO_BG.s (no "&"). That file also required the BATS passenger view, that wasn't included.

Bob.

[expressboy1983]

First of all apologies for the long delay in replying, I was away for the weekend.

I have managed to solve the problem after reading through everyones suggestions an none of them worked. And Bob, the Mk1 stock is the same as that used in NWE3 (NWE_FDB_MK1_BG) and RR threw up no errors at all about the route!

It turns out the problem was caused by my own doing.
I have taken some stock and placed it in seperate renamed folders so that I can experiment with certain stock. Somehow I had managed to forget to copy over the relevant .sd files to the renamed folder.
Why this caused MSTS to think they were missing from the route folder, I have no idea, but I can now run the route fine it would seem using the class 26 and the mark 1 stock I mentioned before.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, if it happens again I will review them before posting.

Also, as an aside, it's a shame the Aberdeen extension was never finished. Keith to Aberdeen is a lonnnnng way to go with next to nothing to look at.