ROCK ISLAND RELEASE - November 11, 2004
As usual, nothing ever comes easy. This extensive set of GE locomotives was made with Rock Island folks in mind. It is the one railroad we know very well. We realize that there may be some locomotives in the set that you could live without, but it is all or nothing. One set-one download. We have, however, given it a 'little' price tag so nobody gets too badly beaten up. We have always wanted to do a large Rock Island set, with all the major freight locomotives, in various paint.Now it's done and we are running them all over the place... just for fun!
Most of these R.I. units fit into the era from the 70's to the shut-down. Units 201,205,225,249 & 258 come in mid-sixties paint. We thought some people may want to convert a couple of specific units to trailing units, so we created instructions and files to do that(inside the locos' folder). The switcher (R.I. #900) will have to wait a little while for it's own cabview. We will put it together soon. In the meantime, we provided you with an old favorite(ha ha). We will make an add-on 'ROCK' slug for this set also. By the way, we can't get enough of those silver RI piggyback trailers done by Clifford Timm and Randy Hubmann(available from www.train-sim.com) These R.I. U-boats just love pulling them around! Thanks boys!
Most of the air horns for the set were typical for R.I. U-boats, but getting them to sound 'just right' for the sim, proved to be difficult. We searched everywhere for samples(some from a private collection) to find recordings that would work well in MSTS. An air horn recording has to be 'just right' to start with, before it gets mixed for use in MSTS. What we had to start with was not perfect, but when the alternative is ../../GP38/SOUND/x_gp_horn1.wav, we knew we had to make it work.
Our horn sounds are different from what comes with MSTS locos. Some of them cannot loop without pops or clicks. Every now and then we find one that will do it all, and still have some character. However, throw in real-world squeeks, squeels, echoes, and asymmetry from a good horn recording, and you have a simulator horn that will give one short blast, and one full-length blast, with only a mediocre looping ability.
Thanks
for waiting -We sincerely hope everyone enjoys these locomotives, and
that they will make you...
...remember the Rock
Island
On
January 24th, 1980, in a federal courtroom, the Rock Island was ordered
to be liquidated. At that time, the railroad was serving 15% of the nations
grain elevators. William Gibbons, Rock Island
bankruptcy trustee, generated $500 million in liquidated assets from the
railroad, and managed to pay off all creditors, with interest.
Source: Lee, Thos R. "Rock Island Westward",Volume One; T. Lee Publications 1992
