ITS train

Wow!!! Have a look a the newest files in the file library. Illinois Traction Class B loco plus passenger cars. This looks great!!!!Cheers, Al
http://alfredbarten.com

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In 1922, The Illinois Traction System (ITS, later the Illinois Terminal System) sent a special train to the Central Electric Railroad Association’s (CERA) national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. Port City Car Company (PCCC) brings that special train to the Microsoft Train Simulator.
The train consisted of a re-furbished Class B locomotive #1578, coach #531, the sleeper “Edwardsville”, and the #513 parlor observation “Clinton”. The train made the journey under its own power, except for a gap in the electric railways between Danville, IL and Crawfordsville, IN, where it was hauled by the steam power of the Peoria & Eastern (NYC). Upon arrival in Indianapolis, it was put on public display, and an average of 600 people per hour toured the train.
The Class B locomotive for the train, #1578, is modeled for MSTS in the 1922 paint scheme, with the appropriate appliances of that era. Each model also has a passenger view, and in the case of the locomotive, pressing the #5 key will put the view in the rear cab, just right for switching or backup moves.
The cab view design is based on photographs taken at the St. Louis (Missouri) Museum of Transport, one of two preserved Class B locomotives.
In addition to a passenger view, the Class B also comes with a choice of wire heights. To make this easier for all to install, the Class B comes with a self-installer. Of course, for those so inclined, you can direct the self-installer to place the files in a temporary folder, and pick which files you would like to include in the MSTS Trainset folder. The cars for the train install in the “traditional” manner (create a folder under Trainset, unzip the contents to that folder).The Class B will appear in the MSTS Consist Editor, or ConBuilder, six times, provided a choice of three wire heights (MSTS default Tokyo route of 5.4 meters, Dave Mewhinney’s Mesaba route of 6.2 meters, and the MSTS default NEC route of 7.2 meters), and passenger view or No Passenger View (NPV) for each wire height choice.Each of the cars comes with two choices, a passenger view, or NPV. We designed it this way because MSTS defaults to the first passenger view it finds in the consist. So for instance, if you decided to build a consist of the Indianapolis Train, you would select a Class B with NPV (and appropriate wire height), coach#531 NPV, the sleeper NPV, and the parlor observation with the passenger view. The cars do not have trolley poles, but they were electrically powered for lighting with bus jumpers (cables), pulling power from the locomotive’s pole.The plan at PCCC is to bring you a variety of renditions of the locomotive and cars sometime in the future. Like almost all railroad rolling stock, these cars and locomotives were given a variety of paint schemes and appliances over the years. We will also issue an ITS caboose shortly, but it is lettered for the successor railroad Illinois Terminal.Also uploaded with the four Trainset files (ITS1578.zip, ITS531.zip, ITSslpre.zip, ITS513.zip) is a Sound file named ITS_Who.zip. This is a player piano musical recording, used with the permission of Gabe Della Fabe. This file can be used to replace the Sound folder of the ITS513.zip (the parlor observation car) and will provide piano music for the observation deck. In addition, there are .sms files for the PCCC doodlebugs previously released, so this same file can be used to provide piano music for the doodlebug’s observation platform.As always, post your comments and questions here, and we will address them as time permits. We at PCCC wish to thank the people of the Museum of Transport for allowing us access to the Class B (and the Class C) locomotive for detailed photographs to help us in the construction of this locomotive model. In addition, extensive background information was provided by Dale Jenkins, President of the Illinois Traction (Historical) Society.http://www.illinoistractionsociety.org/. And our thanks also to Gabe Della Fave for allowing us to use his player piano music.http://www.mindspring.com/~gabedellafave/player.htm

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Chuck,Great pieces of equipment. Have had no problem with them. They look and handle wonderfully. Nothing like learning to 'drive' a new piece of equipment. Actually, one you get used to the so-called 'primitive' breaking system, it works really well. That's what makes railroading such an art - each loco handles differently. Engineers learned to 'feel' their locos.Thanks also for the historical perspective. Even though a native of Illinois when the IT still existed, I never really got to know it. Always loved those b class locos however, even if I often wished they had pantographs.

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Thanks for the background. I was just reading the chapter about ITS in Middleton's Traction Classics. The B's were primarily freight locos, but they look good in front of passenger cars. They make a great train.Al
http://alfredbarten.com

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Chuck! WOW! You Bill and Paul deserve a huge round of applause for this trainset and it's presentation. I say agin,WOW TM

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