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As mentioned in the US Set Dev Thread I'm picking up the old US Set's artwork and running with it. The initial release goal is to include everything that was in the last US Set release plus everything that was in its tracking table. The ultimate, pie-in-the-sky goal is to include every piece of rolling stock ever used on US rails.

You can think of it as being the same to NARS as BROS is to UKRS. The goal here is realism and eyecandy.

Here's a list of hopefully-planned features - some may require additions to the NewGRF spec and might take a (potentially infinite) amount of time. Some will require a bunch of artwork:

• Realistic multiheading - reduced crew costs for booster units. Additional units that don't have an MU connector will be unpowered.
• Realistic B-units - purchased separately, reduced speed if leading a train.
• Slugs and related items - Available in cabbed and cabless varieties. Cannot move independently. Cabless varieties reduce speed if leading trains. Slugs increase the TE of compatible adjacent locomotives. Some varieties work only at low speeds, others continuously.
• Eyecandy non-revenue rolling stock - MoW vehicles, special trains, etc. Entirely optional, of course.
• Realistic coupler enforcement. Your fancy high-speed rolling stock can't be hitched to a road locomotive without an adapter car in between. For instance, an Acela Express locomotive has an AAR coupler up front (it's there - hidden under a panel), so you can tow it - but behind it, you can only have compatible railcars.
• Explicit livery refitting for all locomotives and appropriate rolling stock. (Uses the NARS regearing cargo, but does not break it)
• Early start date (think horse-drawn)
• Experimental locomotives and trainsets have very short availability windows and are massively expensive if not purchased during the preview period. (Ex. The Bombardier JetTrain)
• Multiple classes of passenger service - first class coaches are smaller but pay higher rates and so forth. Refrigeration technology will improve over time using the same mechanism (Needs recent trunk).

I'll get it up on the devzone ASAP - in the mean time, I've attached a little preview. It's not really playable (no costs, extremely limited vehicles, etc.), but it includes the following:

• The Bombardier/Acela Express family (Acela Express, Acela HHP-8, JetTrain) in both liveries. The HHP8 can haul both Acela coaches and regular stock (this isn't strictly realistic, it's just that way for demonstration purposes)
• The EMD F7 family, in all the liveries that were available in the original US Set.
• Boxcars and coilcars, just to give the F-units something to haul around.

There might be some sprite alignment issues, particularly with the F7A's (there are duplicates of those sprites in the original set, and I took my best eyeball guess at which ones were the ones with the right offsets) - if you spot any let me know.

If you did graphics for the original set, check the credits on the NewGRF description and make sure you're there. I think I got everyone.

Nice start!

Possible bug though, when putting two Acela trainsets one behind the other, the last car of the first trainset reverts to a standard coach rather than a DVT.

Not really a bug so much as a consequence.

I'm not sure if I want cab cars to be a 'replace the graphics of the last car in the train' deal or an actual distinct buy menu item. They're currently just a graphical replacement, but I'm leaning more towards making them a buy menu item (you'll already have multiple classes of passenger car in there - what's one more?)

In the Acela's case, no cab cars of the type were ever actually built (Bombardier did design them for the JetTrain - none were ever constructed, however) - but if they had been, they'd have been configured like the locomotives - hidden AAR coupler on one end, permanent coupling on the other. Realistically enforcing rules for coupling like that is either impossible or extremely difficult without some changes to the NewGRF spec, so either way there's going to be something hokey about that particular configuration for now.

There'll be cabbages?

Yep. Heck, if I could control individual refit costs, I'd let you refit old locomotives into them for scrap money.

EyeMWing wrote:Explicit livery refitting [...] Uses the NARS regearing cargo

Not such a good idea. For a start, that means the set won't be usable with ECS (the F7 doesn't appear in the purchase list, probably the same with all others). The only way it could work while allowing manually changing liveries is making gearable engines refit to anything.

"regearing cargo" is a known failed idea. i'd avioid it by all means.

Well, I can always have it detect other cargo sets using the slot disable the livery refitting, but that strips off a pretty major feature.

I can have it detect other cargo sets using the slot and refit into an otherwise harmless cargo instead (ick).

I could use the US Set's original 'random livery' method, but that doesn't preserve through duplication and is annoying when you want something specific.

All of this could be avoided if you could refit cargoless vehicles which nonetheless have cargo subtypes available. Despite sounding strange, I don't think that conflicts with anything.

Check it out. (No work done yet)

Sounds plausible, but not helpful in the short term. I doubt I've got the C++ chops to make meaningful progress on that. So I made this: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=56594

Assuming no changes to the trunk for awhile, though, I need a direction to go with RUST - because this is going to crop up for almost every single locomotive. I think the best way to handle it is to stick with the special cargo when possible, but to detect ECS and switch to a capacity of 1 passenger. It still breaks "full load all cargos" and might have interesting effects on cargod*st, but it's a compromise.

I am open to suggestions.

Refit to all cargos seems the best solution to me. Then you can select a cargo that matches one of the cargos in the train. As a result there's no problems with full load all and/or cargo destinations.

At the expense of an EXTREMELY long refit list (32 cargos * however many liveries)

Been having a bit of an attack of Real Life lately. Normal programming should resume shortly.

Is there anyone willing to modify or redraw some of the wagons (particularly the flatbeds) for cargo support? We can do it with layer-based compositing so there isn't any of the rediculous repetitiveness - just draw the wagon once and each cargo once.

US trainset is now alive? Amazing!

Kogut wrote:US trainset is now alive? Amazing!

Was about time... I have long time wondering who will take the work on his head!
As a big fan of American trains specially northern ones I am very grateful!

Just out of interest would this set have locomotive sounds involved?

coalroads artist wrote:Just out of interest would this set have locomotive sounds involved?

Maybe, I hadn't really considered it.

Wow, look what happens when I dont creep around on the forums. Things start getting RUSTy around here if you dont watch for new stuff

Its really cool that there will be a new version eventually. I like the realistic features going into the set (cheaper B-units, slugs, coupler types, etc)

Just too bad there wasnt a 2cc version with liveries based on real life schemes, I rather liked the US set's style and selection (More of the lesser known stuff is in the US set vs NARS2.0), I even resorted to making my own grf with repainted US Set graphics (for personal use only though)

I know something that coulpd be added to this set in the future, how about the Siemens Mobility ASC-64 (Amtrak Cities Sprinter , 6400 kW (8600HP)), which hopefully will be out between 2013 and 2016

How's the set coming?