About a month and a half ago, in the midst of transferring to new systems here, I trashed practically everything I had of MSTS, with the exception of the original CDs. I still had all the routes and data from earlier days, but none of it was working any more, an backups do not help.

I’m not presenting here about the trials and tribulations therein ... I’m talking now about a person who is starting over with MSTS. In every case, now that I think about it, the Default Routes are not satisfactory.

After getting myself back to square one ... downloading the MSTS update and rolling stock update ... I found myself looking at a very clean slate. In a way an enviable position.

Oh I did download the great free routes, from TRAIN-SIM Port Ogden, the new, improved North East Corridor, and the new improved Acela, etc., and I did certainly get ConBuilder and TrainStore but it soon came time to choose on the pay ware routes.

Before “The Great Crash” (or shredding or chew up) here, I had just purchased the A&0 sub. I’d found it to be very interesting! The rolling stock is by the same MSTS Artist who did the Budd cars ... I think his name is Gaetan Balanger. This equipment is generally photo realistic and a pleasure to look at.

I say, “generally” not to reflect on if it is or isn’t, but because I am a low end user ... I hardly know for sure what photo realistic means ... but I do see that the engines and cars on this road look like very good pictures. In some instances, scenes presented are like great water color renditions.

The makers of this road call it a V-Scale Model railroad. I found it to be a lot like the roads I used to see depicted in the center fold of “Model Railroader.” The related industries, the history and lore ... they are all there.

It makes me feel like inviting friends over to see. It is just that beautiful.

It isn’t a long road, but the stock is aged and the engines putt and thump like an old tractor. Sometimes you hear sounds like boiling water! There isn’t much AI traffic, but that is certainly understandable in light of the given history of the A&O sub.

I get the feeling while driving around on this railroad, that I am working. In the cab, I can almost smell the sweat and steel.

The scenery is excellent and relevant. We’re in the Ozarks ... I think. Country stores, lumber yards and (shudder) chicken processing plants abound.

The work is cut out for us! I don’t particularly like switching activities, but they are here and mercifully simple to even me. Seems we are to pick up cars at various industries and take them out to the main line.

There are tutorial runs supplied which give a feel for the whole road. Without a train I’d say it takes not so long to pull from one end to the other on this route. Up by the main line, there is a fantastic last hill to climb and this is daunting as anything.

I believe there is no schedule involved ... nothing to stop us from leaving half the train down in Podunk or whatever the last town before the big hill is ...

Details are not the strong point for this legally blind person. I really love this chug chugging route. I can see myself getting familiar with it ... the whistle sounds great as you rumble through a crossing ... there are many up hills and down hills, one has to be ready with a “touch of the pipe” (the instructions refer to gentle braking) and one has to conserve air too.

In my big MSTS crash here, I lost the embedded password to reinstall this route and the author, Adre Ming, upon receipt of my pleading bleeding email was very kind and prompt in the matter of re-supplying me with my password.

Summing up this quick review of the A&O sub, I want to say this is not the kind of route I’d normally go for, North East Corridor being a greater favorite in the past and Sand patch, Tehacapi and concomitants along with Bridge line being right up there for me ... but they are gone now gone gone gone ... fallen digital flags ...

Thank good ness for the great free downloads here and assistance at TRAIN-SIM... Port Ogden, Lintworld! Etc. But some ... like the beloved NE Corridor, have so much else that must be plugged in with them that getting those routes fully updated is a task in and of itself for me.

No, in the matter of getting some spicy interest back, these two pay ware routes are totally stand alone (on top of the MSTS standard package) and allow me to reposition myself as the blind engineer here.

Here are more pictures of the start of a run on the Arkansas and Ozark ...

Click HERE for HOME Page

Click HERE for Top of this Page

One thing A&O sub and Niagara Corridor have in common, in my opinion, is the very well thought out scenery. Not only are both beautiful, and era relevant, but superb touches which I generally only notice when they are NOT done are fully present here. For example ... what is hitchier to the perception than looking out over the top of a roadway and seeing the pavement end abruptly on the other side of the tracks?Both routes very dutifully and fully seem to me to tie up these loose ends. Roads can not always dwindle off to the horizon, Disney style, but they can and do twist out behind a stand of trees or buildings. The effect is well ... realism. Like reading a story, I get to suspend my disbelief.

Now for a differ net one: Niagara Corridor. Hey, don’t say “corridor,” you make me long for the needed time to get “my” NE corridor all tuned up and running again.

Maple Leaf Tracks has taken some criticism for its repeated use of certain patterns or buildings etc. Well ... hello! That is how it is in life: Successful good design gets used again and again.

For me, feeling the loss of Sandpatch and Bridgeline, plunking myself into the cab and seeing that old Maple Leaf cup on the dash was nothing but reassuring.

Looking around the nice new cab (“new” particularly after “dealing” with the “old” apparently oft refurbished hardware on the venerable A&O Sub) did make me wonder how Maple Leaf Tracks managed to impart the illusion of that New Car Smell into a train simulator.

And by the way ... on the A&O refurbished flavor: Here in West Virginia, we know that it is the old, paid for truck which is making lots of money. The A&O sub gives that reliable but hard working flavor.

But back on the Niagara Corridor. The familiarity of the bridgework and towns etc., was and is reassuring to me. I like it. I have found around this country pretty much the same thing: Towns and the roads between them can be highly similar. We like this!

The sounds of the Maple Leaf Trains rock. You hear the steel squeal on tight corners (of which there are not many on the Niagara Corridor). The engines growl and purr like cats.

To me, the very familiarity which is cited as a negative factor by some few others is a positive thing: Not only is it “real” and practical to me to repeat success, but under my circumstances (lost the Bridge and Sand routes) this reception is very helpful and reinforcing.

The thing I like in any instance on MSTS is the illusion that I am going somewhere and doing something. Due to the fine touches on these roads mentioned here, that sensation is particularly strong.

One question I have about the Niagara Corridor is: Must EVERYTHING be Canada Marked? I mean, on the real Niagara corridor they might have an occasional car from the real Sandpatch or Bridgeline?

I find the rolling stock on the Niagara Corridor to be very good too. There are Norfolk Southern engines and runs but everything else IS Canadian.

The warnings when approaching a crossing are small, and since we’re generally going “fast” it is easy to miss these signs. I believe these "W"s are probably close to scale.

Like signals, if they are made at scale size and proportion, they are perhaps not so easy to see. Speaking of signals, Maple Leaf has some interesting technique whereby “distant” signals are perceivable even without the track monitor.

The entire line is mostly double track. The towns are laid out so nicely that for this user, the absence of clarity in favor of realism with regard to the crossing signs is made up for by the fact that roads cross the tacks generally in a most true to life manner.

Coming to a town or a factory? There will most likely be a crossing or two.

Finally, on installation: Having MSTS in its default location means one thing for this low end user with regard to both these routes: IT’S A SNAP!!

Thanks for your time and the railroading!

Very respectfully
jivajiva (President Club Services)