Which Sites Do You Recommend?

Dear Trainz Discussion Forum,

I am for the most part, mostly interested in American Steam and Diesel Locomotives, usually Freeware if I can download it, but I'll accept payware sites too.

Is it safe for me to use WayBack Machines to download from older versions of deleted sites such as Sporbust.com?

Will it actually work if I can download those files and import them into Trainz: A New Era?

What sites do you recommend I avoid?
 
Yes, it is safe to access the sites referenced on the Wayback Machine (Archive.org).

There are many, many excellent content creators. Here are some I frequent or aware of.

K&L Trainz

K&L Trainz | Trainz Steam Locomotives | Trainz Steam Locomotives (kltrainz.com)


Jointed Rail

www.jointedrail.com

I have never purchased from RR-Mods, but I do have some of their DLC content and it's excellent as well. This doesn't mean I won't, and they do have some freeware assets as well.

Home - RRMods

Here's a site with excellent content both payware and freeware.

NARM
NARM Trainz Group (narailm.wixsite.com)

Trainz Forge.

Trainz Forge (trainz-forge.com)

This is great for steam and early generation diesels. There's lots of scenery items as well and some routes you might be interested in.

For payware, there's also N3V's DLC which is actually made by the above content creators. It's relatively inexpensive and there's quite a variety of locomotives to choose from.

With that said, there are many, many more sites and I'm sure others will chime in with their favorites.

and finally, there is the DLS. You'll be surprised what's available on the DLS that works perfectly fine and looks quite well.

Using Content Manager, if you see something you like download it. Switch to the Today filter and then preview the assets. Switching to the Today filter allows you to see what you downloaded quickly rather than going through a bunch of stuff already installed. Anyway, if you like what you see download more from the same author. You're lucky in that regard because the preview was never available before TANE.
 
Just going to do a shameless plug of Timetable Trainz, a source of quality freeware products for Trainz. The link is in my signature.

There’s also The Switchback, a very good source of American diesels and steamers.

Some others I recommend are Blue Ridge Simulations, CloakedGhost, The Erecting Hall (under construction) and the old Trainz Forge site. Some Wayback Machine sites include VMD, USLW content archive, Trainz Commuter Rail and more. If you look in people’s signatures, you may find some sites you like.
 
Yeah, I've downloaded & purchased from JointedRail, &L Trainz, and Trainz Forge. I haven't checked out NARM, but I have checked out RRMods, but I honestly have no idea how to download Freeware from RRMods...
 
And as you are visiting sites and downloading cdp's you are keeping them backed up and organized, right? Else you will forgot from where things came and you'll have to go looking everywhere again.

For example, I have a folder of "freeware diesel" and in that, a folder with the site name (such as "Jointed Rail) and I make sure file is named something meaningful. Use a system that works for you.
 
And as you are visiting sites and downloading cdp's you are keeping them backed up and organized, right? Else you will forgot from where things came and you'll have to go looking everywhere again.

For example, I have a folder of "freeware diesel" and in that, a folder with the site name (such as "Jointed Rail) and I make sure file is named something meaningful. Use a system that works for you.

Good on you for keeping track of everything.
 
I've got very bad and sad news... On the sites I went on the WayBack machine, it turns out when I try to download them, the WayBack Machine takes me to an "Error Not Found" page, and I haven't been able to download them. Does anyone have the files to any VMD, USLW, and SporBurst sites?
 
WayBack Machine and trying to download from these sites have just been nothing but errors for me. Are these files/locomotives lost forever?

Unfortunately, this isn't unusual with links on the Way Back Machine. In many cases, the content files are corrupted or can't be downloaded. That doesn't mean you can't check either because sometimes you can get lucky. With USLW, they ran into a bad crash, JR hosted their site for a while then the site got hacked and that was the end of it. I may have skipped a detail or two, but that's the gist of it.
 
Top Quality scenery items. The list is very large and the number of individual items is also very large:

MAGSAPPER -- Look for his entry in the FREEWARE section. further down this site list.

Search MSGSAPPER on the DLS fot the free items. High quality.
 
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Aw man, I downloaded the "SD9_SP_bloody_nose.cdp" but it won't spawn... It IS in what I call the "Spawn List" as "sd9 SP" but I cannot spawn it. Does this not work because I'm trying to download it for T: ANE? It says one of my kuids is unknown. I tried downloading an SD9 from bdneal (An Undecorated one) but that's faulty and it's missing dependencies too... :'(
 
If you are missing kuids from "bdneal", have you visited their website?

http://www.steammachine.com/bdaneal/
http://www.steammachine.com/bdaneal/std_frt.htm


Alright after doing an inspection, and looking into the edit config files of the undecorated SD9, here's what I'm missing:

flag-tail-1 <kuid2:96914:980019:1>
flag-tail-2 <kuid2:96914:980020:1>

I haven't been able to find them, whether I input the kuid or the name.

I don't understand why, but the SP SD9 I downloaded from the USLW Archives is labeled as "Modified, Faulty" but when I look at it's dependencies, I checked them all, they are Modified (Not Faulty though), and Installed from DLS.
 
I know that each Trainz fan has personal tastes and that I like some assets and others I don't like.
My habit is that when I enter a Trainz website, I download ALL the available and free material.
Sometimes within what we are not interested in there are kuids needed for other things.
There is always time to eliminate what does not interest us.
In the second link that I put, at the end of the page are the SD9 locomotives and some of those downloads include:
<kuid2:96914:980019:2> Class flag red flying
<kuid2:96914:980020:2> Class flag red furled

http://www.steammachine.com/bdaneal/std_frt.htm
 
Since you have quite a number of issues with missing dependencies, I highly recommend signing up for the Trainz Kuid Index.

www.trainzkuidindex.com

For a mere $10.00 a year, you'll have an online database to search for missing dependencies with links to the sites to download the assets. The other benefit is the links will lead to more content you can download if you like the author's assets.
 
So does that mean I should download every SD9 from bdneal's site? I'll try that. Ugh, this is terrible and mildly infuriating. When I downloaded the rest, I did get separate white and green class flags, but no red flags. I downloaded every single SD7 and SD9... :( It turns out they ALL need the red flag... It's really irritating that one small dependency, no matter how minor it is, can prevent something from being downloaded... :mad:
 
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