PRAY For Me

Because I'm wanting to start learning to edit/build routes in the worst way. (All these great screens being posted and the new scenic objects guys are creating have really got me fired up.) THAT being the case: I'm terribly confused looking at the mind numbing way RE labels the track sections with Egyptian hyroglyphics that I cannot understand. "Iq005boyRUdum" means diddly squat to a neophyte like ms. Plus, I hear there's some switches I need to avoid, etc, etc, etc! (ad infinutum until the brain is sprained.) SO... is there a list of the track pieces with descriptions/warnings that's been uploaded somewhere in the vast MSTS sim community that some experienced soul can point me toward?I've heard of Mike Vone's excellent route building tutorial, but printing out 250 some-odd pages seems a bit more than I can tackle at this point. Perhaps armed with a list of track sections w/descriptions and the steam4me website tutorials, I could at least start experimenting without spending all my time trying to find a track piece to fit.Thanks for any input you can share with me.Andre

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RE: PRAY For Me..., GMOF3A, Sep-24-02, 06:01 PM, (1) RE: PRAY For Me..., CGW409, Sep-24-02, 06:08 PM, (2) RE: PRAY For Me..., GMOF3A, Sep-24-02, 06:33 PM, (3) RE: PRAY For Me..., sniper297, Sep-24-02, 07:53 PM, (4) RE: PRAY For Me..., Coonskin, Sep-24-02, 09:29 PM, (5) RE: PRAY For Me..., fireball, Sep-24-02, 11:00 PM, (6) RE: PRAY For Me..., fireball, Sep-24-02, 11:20 PM, (7) RE: PRAY For Me..., davidbeach, Sep-25-02, 00:57 AM, (9) RE: PRAY For Me..., highball5, Sep-25-02, 00:18 AM, (8) RE: PRAY For Me..., Coonskin, Sep-25-02, 01:32 AM, (10) RE: PRAY For Me..., zhivago47, Sep-25-02, 07:59 AM, (11) RE: PRAY For Me..., griffinmt, Sep-25-02, 09:39 AM, (12) RE: PRAY For Me..., kptom, Sep-25-02, 10:37 AM, (13) RE: PRAY For Me..., Coonskin, Sep-25-02, 12:50 PM, (14) RE: PRAY For Me..., griffinmt, Sep-25-02, 01:17 PM, (15) RE: PRAY For Me..., kptom, Sep-25-02, 04:29 PM, (16) RE: PRAY For Me..., Coonskin, Sep-25-02, 06:00 PM, (17)

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Hey Andre..I always pray for you! Thanks for your support with the GM&O route....BTW..there is a site, someone here can tell you. It has all the track nomanclature referenced to what kind of track it is and what size.....I just cannot remember what the address is..someone else chime in here..

Paul...
www.mstsgmo.com

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LAST EDITED ON Sep-24-02 AT 06:09 PM (EDT)

Andre
2 bits of advice I learned the hard way
rule one- Back up back up back up
rule two- back up again
rule three-see rule 1&2second, as tempting as it maybe to install signals crossings or otherwise DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT install until your track is completed, I lost CA&E ver. 1 that way
all in all it's worthwhile undertaking and I'm sure most of us here will be more than happy to lend any advice we can

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I agree with Gary..I lost the first GM&O version that way...You saw the signals on the route shots I posted..they are all gone now..(after the re-build)..Lawrence Kelley lead me all the way through re-building my route...had it not been for him helping me after my signal placements (before the track was done) there would be no GM&O route now.DO NOT, my friend, place any crossing signals or track lights of any kind on your route until all track is laid and you are totally happy with it's placement. You will have more headaches than you've ever encountered if you don't heed this warning Andre. (it almost made me give up on my route) ...P.

Paul...
www.mstsgmo.com

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I'm certainly not gonna pray for you, misery loves company! What I did was got a notebook and a pen, and started placing stuff on the ground, looking at it and taking notes on what it was, and eventually figured out the naming format;I'd still advise that anyway, just so you don't have to hunt for "what the hell was the name of that building" that would look perfect in this scene. For the tracks tho, they appear in alphanumeric order, which is why the 50 and 500 meter straights are mixed in with the 500 meter radius curves. You don't have to go thru the agony we did to figure out what they were tho, Yuri to the rescue again, mststrax.zip in the file library is a list of track sections.

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Guys, thanks for the tips coming in thus far. (And thanks for the prayers Paul! Keep it up 'Bro!)In regards to the track zip mentioined, I have it. But I don't have a program that will open it. All I have is Win XP with it's "Works" package, and apparently, the spread sheet program it includes won't handle .xls files. Any kind of read-only freeware available to read Excel files with?I also have two or three MSTS help files that need Excel. Route building sounds like it will be an absolute hair-puller at times... BUT... if I'm successful at creating something that looks only HALF as good the recent stuff that's been coming through here... I think it will also be quite rewarding.Andre

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You can go to the Microsoft web site and in the download area you can get a free viewer for Exel, Word, etc.Roger

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Actually here is a link for ya.
http://office.microsoft.com/Assistance/9798/viewerscvt.aspxRoger

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One more rule to add, back up.Actually once you get the hang of it, a lot of the file names make a lot of sense. Don't know why the A. but A1t10mStrt would be a single track, straight section 10 meters long. A4t... would be 4 tracks. Curves have a track count, curve radius, and angle span of the curve. Switches have PNT in the name for points (the writers must have been British ).Much as I hate to say it, your first experience with the route editor should be using the default \global\tsection.dat file and only the default track sections. Something one tile or two in size. Push the RE to the limits, crash it, screw up the route - terribly. Fix it, recover it, discover just how often you have to back up so that you can abandon all your work since the last back up and still sleep at night. Then realize that the last x number of backups may contain the seeds of the problem that causes the crash. Can you deal with that?Once you have beaten the RE into submission, then, and only then, add in your extended track sections, Xtracks or what ever, and the standardized \global\tsection.dat file, and begin to create your dream route.If you want to test something, make another one tile route and test it there, never on the route you really care about.Discouraged yet?Once sufficiently discouraged you may proceed, in to the loonie bin of route editor users. Welcome to the club David Beach.Palouse & Lewiston

1% Completed

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Like several other people said, make BACKUPS.. as many as possible.
Nothing more frustrating than to have many hours of work done and one
fine day, for no apparent reason, have the RE burp up a hair ball and refuse
to load your masterpiece in progress. What I did was to buy a bag of marbles. I put them all in my mouth, and after
each mile of track I laid, I spit out a marble. When finally I'd lost all my marbles
I felt qualified to be a route builder.

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Wow guys... thanks for all the kind words of "encouragement". Seriously, I am sure I don't even have an inkling how that RE is a real booger... but got a feeling I'll find out once I start. I don't see any other way to have some things I want with some of the routes I have without learning it. All in good time, I guess. Perhaps I need to reserve my room at the regional Insane Asylum now while I still have the sanity to do so?As for an Excel viewer - this is the closest match I came up with at the MS site that was supplied. Is this what I need? (I have Win XP on my machine, btw.) 22-Dec-1999 Converter
Excel 97/2000 Viewer: Spreadsheet Files
Download Now! 3813kb / 23 mins
Microsoft Excel Viewer is a small, freely distributable program that lets users view and print Excel for Windows (versions 2.0 and greater) and Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh (versions 2.2a and greater) spreadsheet files.Thanks again for some input... please feel free to add any other things you think about. Andre

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LAST EDITED ON Sep-25-02 AT 08:00 AM (EDT)

Good luck Andre, you will need it. Seriously, I am on my fourth try at it and had to learn the hard way. DO NOT PUT ANY SIGNALS OR CROSSINGS OR LIGHTS ON YOUR ROUTE BEFORE YOU ARE FINISHED WITH LAYING ALL OF YOUR TRACKS! This I learned the hard way. AND BACKUP. If you just learn those two things you might not have to be working on your fourth attempt at creating a route like I am. But I am not giving up. I will get it right eventually. And once you lay a few tracks you will learn what they are quick enough. Try not to use too many dynamic tracks, especially if the ground is uneven.......can be a real pain in the butt.Again, good luck!Tim
The Spur Line
http://tahunter.net
Appalachia RR - Midwest & Rocky Mountain RR - ADFRR Route

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LAST EDITED ON Sep-25-02 AT 09:39 AM (EDT)

Thats the viewer and should work for most of the xls stuff out there, except much of that stuff is designed to be interactive, and you won't be able to do that with this tool. It only lets you 'see' the sheets.Martyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com

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Andre,
I have an MS Excel spreadsheet describing all 157 different track pieces. It prints out to about 3-4 pages, and I keep it nearby to use as a reference as needed. I am attaching it to this message.
I can't remember, but I think I originally found it somewhere in the depths of the train-sim file library.
Tom

Attachments
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d91ca18387f5584.zip

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Thank you very much for the kind effort Tom. I downloaded your zip, but alas, it too is .xls format for which I have no program to read it with. That is my current dilemma and I'm hesitating on downloading the huge program Microsoft offers in order to read-only .xls files. (Other than reading a couple MSTS .xls files, I have no other current use for a spread sheet program.)I may have to do this the long way by placing each trackpiece within RE and make a manual list describing its attributes/etc. Andre "Coonskin" Ming

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Tom,Can you export it as html pages from Excel, and then send him those?Martyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com

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Martyn,
Excellent idea. Here is the MS Excel database saved as an HTML file

Attachments
http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d921c8411524540.html

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THANK YOU!!That did the trick! I've printed out all 6 pages and they're ready to go get the holes punched and placed into my He Man's Route Builder Notebook!Andre "Coonskin" Ming

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