Editing Saved Consists

If you have saved consists from within RailWorks, these are saved in the folder RailWorks\Content in a file namedConsistTemplates.bin unlike MSTS where each consist is saved in a separate .con file.

Many users apparently don’t know that you can save consists in RailWorks and place them wherever you wish from withinthe Scenario Editor. This is accomplished by building a consist as under, here I have just used a default Black 5 with somemineral wagons.

Once you have built the consist, you can select ALL the items in the consist at once by clicking the CONSIST icon in thetop left hand window shown by the arrow in the picture above. This places a grey cube above every item in the consist.Double click on any of the cubes above your new consist and a right-hand pop-out appears into which you can enter a namefor the consist.

Once you press enter to save the consist name, it will appear in the list of available consists in the centre left-hand pop-out ifyou click the Consists icon. These saved consists may then be used in your scenarios just like selecting a locomotive or wa-gon. If you select the Consist Select button in the bottom box, then clicking on any item in the consist will select the wholeconsist and you can use the orange arrows to change its direction just like flipping a wagon.

However, this can be quite a cumbersome business, especially if you are building a long freight consist for use on U.S.lines, involving constant clicking to position rolling stock and getting them to couple up correctly. So I have added a newoption to RW_Tools which enables users to build and save consists while not running RailWorks. I believe this will makethis operation easier for some users. It also allows you to edit existing consists by adding/deleting stock from consists youhave already saved.

Indexing your Rolling-Stock in RW_Tools

Before you can edit the ConsistTemplates.bin file, you must have indexed all your Rolling-Stock. This ability was added toRW_Tools recently and to set it up, proceed as follows:-

Go to the Edit Assets screen and navigate to the main Assets folder in the folder window, click the 'Rolling Stock Only' boxand click 'Add to List' this will take quite a long time, but will add all your rolling stock to the grid. Then click the Save In-dex button and an index file named Index.csv will be added to your RW_Tools\Reports folder. This can be reloaded backinto the grid with the 'Load Index' button at any time.

This new Index.csv file is used by both the options Edit Scenarios, and Edit Saved Consists on the Scenarios menu.

Using the Consist Editor

The following screen is accessed from the Scenarios/Edit Saved Consists menu.

The top section of the screen is a list of the items in your saved consists. The bottom section consists of a list of all yourrolling-stock as contained in your Index.csv file. It is sorted on the Category column, i.e. whether Diesel, Freight etc. Youcan change this by clicking on any column header to sort on that column.

If you have no Index.csv file, you will be advised to compile one. If you have no existing saved consists, you will be askedif you wish to add a saved consist and you will be prompted to add the name of your new consist.

All changes to the Saved Consists are made by selecting a rolling-stock in the bottom screen by clicking on it then selectinga row in the top screen and right-clicking to bring up the pop-up menu as under:-

1. Add New ConsistIf you select this option, you will be asked for a name for your new consist. Type in something useful likeClass47_30Mineral - Don’t make it too long as the display box in RailWorks is not very wide.

You can then build your consist by clicking on rolling stock in the lower window. You can search for items by name, e.g.enter Mallard in the ‘Search for Name’ box and you will be taken to the first instance of Mallard found, click the version ofMallard you require and it will appear at the bottom of the top box.

Clicking on the Next button a few times will take you to the various Mallard tenders. After which you will probably want tofind suitable passenger coaches so entering DT MK1 in the box and pressing enter will bring up the Digital Traction MK1coaches, click on these in the order required and your consist is finished.

2. DeleteThis option will delete the selected rolling stock item from the consist it is in.

3.FlipThis option is a toggle and will change the orientation of the selected rolling stock - 0 indicates normal direction and1 indicates the item is running backwards. Usually this option is used for locomotives, or for some multi-item freight mod-els.

4. Insert after selectedInserts the selected rolling-stock item from the lower window into the line following the selected line in the top window.The remaining stock is moved down by one line.

5. Insert multiple timesAs above, however with this option you are asked how many instances of the selected item you wish to insert. this can be asmany as you like to build a consist. For most railways this would be less than 100, but there are railways who run largertrains.

6. Rename ConsistSelect ALL the lines for the Consist in question and click Rename Consist and you will be asked for a new name.

Once you have updated all of your consists, click the ‘Rebuild ConsistTemplate.bin file’ button and your file will be saved(a backup with .bak suffix is made) . It is now ready for use.

Note:

ALL rolling-stock in a saved consist MUST have the Provider/Product ‘green ticked’ in the Provider box for the Scenario inquestion, or the saved consist will NOT appear in the list of saved consists.