UKTrainSim
UKTrainSim is an online trainsim community website for downloading addons for Microsoft Train Simulator. The site also have a small selection of addons for Rail Simulator and Trainz, plus other simulators. UKTrainSim is very familiar with many commercial MSTS add-on sites including Europeanbahn and Making Tracks, and always has kept in competition with train-sim.com and other add-on sites.
AbOUT UKTrainsim
UKTrainSim was launched on 13 August 2001. For its first year, Models were quickly produced for download. As of December 2007, there are over 9000 files for download of which they are mainly for MSTS.
There is also a small selection of STOCK for other simulators such as Trainz, BVE and Rail 3D as well as Steam Express simulator, however Trainz and BVE files have tended not to be as popular as the main bulk of files for MSTS.
Trainz add-ons also tend not to be popular, mainly because anyone who want to take advangage would have to be a member of Download Station to take advantage, even if they want to go to Trainz Download sites other than Download Station!
Registration
There are two types of registration available to download files, a Premium Account which gives unlimited Account, and a Free-Registration which offers a more restricted download system.
Premium Registration
A Premium Account takes advantage with unlimited downloads 24/7. A premium account is well worth paying for because of the fast download speeds and no queues, from prices starting from £3.00 a month, £11.75 for 6 months or £20.00 a year.
Free Registration
December 2007 - Current
The same system is used as before but upgraded the download speed to 5kb/sec in December 2007.
February 2004 - December 2007
A Free Account has a queuing system, and at peak times, particularly during the weekends, queue can reach up to around 50 downloads. Download speed is capped at 2Kb/sec. The free-account user can only download one at a time and cannot download another at the same time. While waiting in a queue, free-account users receive "Download Depot" page.
Appart from increasing to 5Kb/sec 2007, this is the current download mechanism is Download Server 5, which replaced the bottleneck 8pm "food fight" in February 2004.
Pre February 2004
Before Download Server 5 was introduced in February 2004, free-account users could only download from 8pm for 1.7 gigabytes of downloads for around only an hour or until they used all the gigabytes, then the sign reads "Downloads for today have been exhausted" until the following evening. In Christmas 2003 they tried New Download Mechanism which caused severe problems and was scrapped before the new year and reverted to 8pm "food fight".
Available Addons for MSTS
A huge number of addons are available at UKTrainSim for a number of simulators.
Stock
The first few downloads available when UKTrainSim launched in August 2001 were four Class 55 in different liveries by Matthew Peddlesden (no longer available, but it is still available at Train-Sim.com) and a green Class 101 DMU by James Hunt. More addons began to be expanded and released.
Today, there are wide range of stock available for download. Through different techniques, programmes and methods, downloadable stock has far more detail than some of the earlier models. Many now require Common.cab and Common.sound files to be set up prior to use.
There are over 5000 stock available as of November 2007.
Routes
There are wide range of routes available for downloading. Many routes require X-tracks or UKFinescale and sometimes Newroads. As a result, Global files are introduced with some routes recently to save from having to download and install any of the files separately. Many routes are British, however several come from countries further afield.
Today there are even more routes to choose from, ranging from steam era or modern. Routes released nowadays are larger than the routes as they were in 2002. Thames Mersey V4 and Dorset Coast v4 are the largest route files and therefore the most popular being available in UKTS. These take a long time to download for non-premium members as the files are very big and there are a lot of files. It would take approximately 48 hours to download Dorset Coast alone without stock and activities.
CD ordering
UKTrainSim has their own shop which sells add-ons for MSTS. They also sell their own CDs known as Community CDs which can only be bought from UKTrainSim. Commercial add-ons are also available from the site.
CD ordering also sell addons for Flight Simulator.
Current Community CD's
- BATS/EB/MT Class 89 Appeal Pack
- Blackpool Tramway inc Illuminations
- Burton Derby V2
- Cannock Chase 5
- Dorset Coast V3
- Ffestiniog
- GWR Branch Lines - Reg Furniss
- GWR: Toddington
- Manchester Metrolink and Crich Tramway
- Mark Shipmans Deltic Collection
- MT: Springfield
- Northern Rail Routes 6.0
- Northwest England 2.1
- Paddington to Penzance 2.5
- Scottish Central: Stage 1
- Severn Valley Railway: Diesel Gala (requires Severn Valley)
- Steyning Line
- Taieri Independent Timber Co.
- Talyllyn 2.0.2
- Thames Mersey 4.2 **DVD**
- Tim Courts Mid East UK - 1.4.5
- Verns 5 Route Compilation CD
- Yorkshire Coast Railway
Community CD's No Longer Available
- Ballyshannon
- ECML 3.1
Available Addons for Rail Simulator
Rail Simulator addons have started to release addons and are available for download. Few diesel locos have been released for download, all diesel locos are Class 47s, and a Black 5 steam loco. Scenery for Rail Simulator have been also released.
As of 26 December 2007, there are 43 files are available for RS.
Notible Errors and Events
File library problems, 30 January 2004
On 30 January 2004, There was an issue with the file library as a result of new download system, which caused many people downloading empty zip files. It took some couple of days to rectify the situation, although the were problems found and it was completely resolved on 3 February 2004.
Withdrawals of CDs in January 2006
Things kicked off with a big bang in January 2006 which affected the whole community. CD's began to be pulled out CD ordering system, as a result of copyright problem to scenery objects and some stock and by February 2006, many CD's were temporary withdrawn. The first CD to return is Scottish Central while others were pulled out. Matt Peddlesden said that work on replacing the scenery objects is very advanced now and hopefully won't be long. However it turned to be over two months. The corner has turned in April 2006 when Northern Rail Routes V6 and Talyllyn 2.0.2 were returned. Commercial CDs were unaffected, although Protrain 9, 10 and 11 were permanently withdrawn.
It took 15 Months to restore all the CD's involved in the situation and they have now been re-released, with the exception of Bala Hub 4, which look doubtful about it's re-release, and Ballyshannon was permanently withdrawn following the release of the comercial Irish Enterprise North by Making Tracks.
Matt also said on 31 December 2006:
Downtime
UKTrainSim suffers down time quite a lot at peak time, mainly at weekends. Some evenings people are unable to access the website. This is due to the number of people that have a non-premium account. UKTrainSim hope to resolve this in the near future but sometimes there are so many people downloading files that the site cannot handle the sheer volume of traffic.
Forums
UKTrainSim runs one of the largest train simulator forums on the internet. The forums contain a variety of boards ranging from Real Railway Discussion to General MSTS Discussion to Narrow Gauge discussion. The forums were upgraded to the latest update of forum software on the 8th September and have now assumed a new look from the original. This upgrade is the first of the whole UKTrainSim website being upgraded.
EUTrainsim
EUTrainSim was a European version of UKTrainSim website. It went live on 06 July 2004 and lasted only two years, which in June 2006, the EUTS file library was amalgamated into the main UKTS website, therefore making it easier for people to obtain files.
Future Website Upgrading
Matt has officially said that he is redesigning the site. No release date has been said yet.
Matt Said in the Fourms:
The new site will include different sections for different sims including:
- Flight Simulation Section
- Microsoft Train Simulator Section
- Microsoft Train Simulator 2 Section (When Sim Released)
- Rail Simulator Section
- More to be decided!
More informtion here: About the new future
UKTrainSim Live
UKTrainSim Exhibition goes to places such as Model Railway Exhibition, Diesel gala at Preserved railways, etc. The first UKTrainSim visit to Exhibition is in Basingstoke on 9 and 10 March 2002. It renamed UKTrainSim Live in September 2003.