Loose consist?

This may be a dumb question, but exactly what is a "loose consist" and how does it differ from others?Quentin

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RE: loose consist?, tsharaldh, May-19-02, 05:51 PM, (1) RE: loose consist?, carlylet, May-19-02, 06:23 PM, (2) RE: loose consist?, qcburrows, May-19-02, 11:32 PM, (3) RE: loose consist?, bcdef, May-25-02, 10:13 AM, (4) RE: loose consist?, biggg1fan, May-26-02, 02:57 AM, (5) RE: loose consist?, McCloud_River_John, Jul-26-02, 01:54 AM, (6) RE: loose consist?, dvdhoven, Jul-26-02, 03:27 AM, (7) RE: loose consist?, McCloud_River_John, Jul-26-02, 08:20 PM, (8) RE: loose consist?, dvdhoven, Jul-27-02, 02:34 AM, (9) RE: loose consist?, McCloud_River_John, Jul-29-02, 01:31 AM, (10)

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Hi Quentin!When you create an activity using the editor you may want to add consists here and there. Just for the show or for to be picked up in your activity.If you aftaerwards right-click on such a consist, TS will call all of them "a loose consist"! Even if you had given each of those consists it´s own name!!! Seems to be one of those M.........t items!!!!Haraldh F

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LAST EDITED ON May-19-02 AT 06:25 PM (EDT)A loose consist is one that is placed on a non traveled section of track in an activity. It can be one that already exists or you can build new ones as you construct an activity. A loose consist does not have to have an engine. It can be tank cars at an oil siding, grain cars at an elevator, or mixed cars on tracks in yards. It will not move during the activity like the player service train or the AI traffic trains. You can connect your player service train to a loose consist and move it and rearrange it, take cars from it and leave cars with it. You can pick up an entire loose consist with your train and take it farther down the line.A very simple activity to build is a player service train with no AI traffic. Place all kinds of "loose" consists along the entire route. Build you player train with several cars and place the start point at one end of the route with the end point at the other end. With no AI traffic, you do not have to be concerned with switches and passing points and meets.Start the train and stop along the way and pick up cars from the loose consists and leave cars from your train. Set out cars that you pick up farther up the line at another siding. This activity will be similar to Exploring the Route, but there will be cars on sidings and whatever pickups and set outs you want to do. That work can be different each time you run the Activity.This is a great way to be introduced to the Activity Editor and have some fun with TS other that exploring the route.

Carlyle Thompson
ACL Purple and Silver

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Thank you both -- both replies were very informative!Quentin

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ya but how do you get the loose consist as of i want it AI to move?!!!
any info would help

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"Loose consists" are stationary. They do not move. They are part of the scenery in an activity.If you want it to move, it becomes "an AI train". AI trains are created by selecting "New" under Services inside the Traffic Pattern window in the activity editor. You have to make a path and everything like you do for a player service. Once you create the AI train, You click on the "Insert Selected Service" button when you've selected it as a service in the Traffic Pattern window. Finally, you need to right click on the service when it's listed in the traffic pattern box and set the start time. If you do not set a start time, it defaults to midnight, and unless you are running a midnight service, you will not see it.Hope this helps,Derek

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How do you edit an existing "loose consist"? For example in the MP3.0 Ballast Extra, I want to swap out all the loose ballast cars for another type. I've searched high and low and cannot find any posts explaining in dumb bell english how to find the loose consists and edit themJohn

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Hi,Loose consists are saved in the Activity file. (.act)
There are two ways to change them. Both are tedious.
1. The "right" one, fire up the Activity Editor. Open the Activity and travel down the player path and check every consist, by right clicking it in the little circle and choose Properties. You will see the well known Consist Editor popping up.2. The hacker way. Can be faster then nr. 1, but more dangerous.
Open the .act file with Wordpad or a Unicode sensitive Editor. Scroll down and you will find the Loose Consists. When you ever have looked in a Consist file (.con), this part will look very familiar.
So it is a two part line; first entry: name of the wag/eng file, second entry: name of the subfolder in the Trainset folder.And for illustration here is a part of an Activity file with a loose consist:

ActivityObject (
ObjectType ( WagonsList )
Train_Config (
TrainCfg ( ""
Name ( "Loose consist." )
Serial ( 9 )
MaxVelocity ( 0.00000 0.00100 )
NextWagonUID ( 6 )
Durability ( 1.00000 )
Wagon (
WagonData ( emetro_coal_fl "n11 coal1" ) <<< you need to change this type of lines
UiD ( 0 )
)
Wagon (
WagonData ( emetro_coal_fl "n11 coal1" )
UiD ( 1 )
)
Wagon (
WagonData ( emetro_coal_fl "n11 coal1" )
UiD ( 2 )
)
Wagon (
WagonData ( emetro_coal_fl "n11 coal1" )
UiD ( 3 )
)
Wagon (
WagonData ( emetro_coal_fl "n11 coal1" )
UiD ( 4 )
)
Wagon (
WagonData ( emetro_coal_fl "n11 coal1" )
UiD ( 5 )
)
)
)
Direction ( 0 )
ID ( 32790 )
Tile ( -11797 14365 -234.482 348.595 )
)
So when you look at the WagonData lines above, emetro_coal_fl is the name of the wag file; n11 coal1 is the name of the subfolder in the Trainset. Note: this name must be enclosed in quotes, as there is a space in the folder name.
My advise: Never use spaces in a foldername, use underscores insteadAnd remember, act files are Unicode as all files in MSTS. In WinMe and lower, never open them with Notepad.Dick van den Hoven

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Thanks Dick, after I sent the message I started to look at the act file, and hoped there was an faster method, and since I'm a hacker I probably have carol opne door number #2.

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You're welcome John. I have done it several times at the hacker way and when you what you're doing it is not that hard.Dick van den Hoven

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Cut and paste! I retro'd several activities back into BN green and black from BNSF. Thanks for all your help.

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