ESSEX TURN, PART 1

WHITEFISH TO ESSEX FREIGHT SWITCHING ACTIVITY FOR MSTS MARIAS PASS (MP 3.0 now available!)

The first of two parts, Essex Turn, Part 1, covers the local turn crew's early morning run from Whitefish to Essex, with setouts, pickups and AI traffic along the way. Essex Turn, Part 2, will be available at this site in late August, 2001, and will feature the return run to Whitefish to wrap up a full crew day.

You have two GP38-2's and a short consist. Among the trains you'll meet along the way are a hot pig train, an autorack train, a tank train, and a stack train. There may be some signal issues with these trains if you don't make your setouts and pickups efficiently. You'll start as the sun rises over the mountains to the east, and by the time you get to Pinnacle and prepare to switch the steep side track to Essex pit, the full light of morning should help you navigate the tricky pit sidings.

Your first step after unzipping is to unpack the .apk file by double-clicking or dragging it onto the TSUnpack icon in the Train Sim Utils folder (making sure you've corrected the install bug in the application path line--search the Train Sim forums for more info). There will be no file overwrites, unless you have downloaded and unpacked previous activities from this site. If you have, be assured that there are no changes in consists or paths from any other activities, so you can say yes to overwrites without concern about effects on your system, your MSTS installation, or any other activities. Even if you say no to overwrites, the full activity should be ready to run. Be sure to read the text file included with the zip for important operation notes.

Read the activity description on the Drive a Train screen, and check your briefing when you start the activity. Watch the yard speed limits, use the train brakes sparingly, and notch down when taking diverging routes, or you will have some durability issues on your evaluation. A full run should take about two and a half hours.

Download, unpack and climb aboard for the first part of the Essex Turn!

Essex Turn, Part 1 zip file (11K)

Essex Turn, Part 1 zip file FOR MARIAS PASS 3.0 (11K)

Activity created by flarrfan, kentlw@yahoo.com for questions or comments.