As some may be aware, most of the larger MSTS route files were hosted on a file-hosting service at hotfile.com. The main reason for doing this was to avoid excess load on steam4me's server at VentraIP.

As a result of a US Federal Court ruling, Hotfile.com was ordered to pay $80 million in damages because of copyright abuses. Hotfile elected to shut down its site completely rather than employ a filtering mechanism, taking everyone's files with it. This is probably a salutory lesson to those who believe that cloud hosting services are the way of the future.

I've elected to bring all files "back home" to the steam4me site; you should be able to find everything you need here.

When downloading routes, please DO NOT use download managers that permit multiple segmented downloads as these place an unacceptable (to VentraIP) load on their shared servers and may result in suspension of hosting for steam4me.

Brian Bere-Streeter has now completed and released the "Short West and Short South route". This superb route encompasses the full Short West from Wallerawang to St.Marys in Sydney's west. The route extends onwards to Sydney Terminal (and Enfield and Darling Harbour) in the east. From Sydney terminal, the Short South traverses the Main South from Lidcombe (via Sefton) to beyond Goulburn.

As well as creating much original route trackage, Brian has combined Mike Simpson's "Blue Mountains" route, Chris Nelson's "Southern Highlands" and part of Peter Newell's "Coals To Newcastle" route into a single seamless route that enables you to run westwards and southwards out of Sydney. Mainline mileage is 107 miles from Sydney to Wallerawang and 140 miles from Sydney to Goulburn, but actual trackage is much, much greater than this.

The route is packaged in a steam4me-assembled installer which will ensure correct installation of all the route's files. Options to convert electrification and era will be placed in the "Start" menu to enhance your enjoyment of the route. Do take the time to read the comprehensive readme packaged with this route: it will enhance your enjoyment of this fine route.

Special thanks also to Ted Palmer for his meticulous and tireless beta testing of this substantial route.

The release of this route significantly increases the amount of NSW trackage available in MSTS. The image below shows you the extent of what is currently available:

Click on Read More below for more information and to start downloading this wonderful route.

Brian Bere-Streeter's "The North Sydney Tram Lines" route is now available from its download page. Since its earlier release elsewhere, the route and its installer have been upgraded to make it more compact.

This route represents the final two and a half years in the life of the Sydney Tramways - North Sydney Lines, from January 1956 to their permanent closure in June 1958.

Time to sharpen your skills in train handling - the Western Australian BHP Billiton Iron Ore line is released today. The line extends from Mining Area C to Port Hedland some 270 km distant. 0.5% grades might not sound much but with over 30,000 tonnes of iron ore behind you, descending grades can be more challenging than climbing them. The route is packaged in a Clickteam installer and requires the BHPBIO Rolling stock pack for the enclosed activities.

Do take the time to peruse the readme that comes with the route for model and prototype information. The installer files are now hosted on "hotfile.com" due to server pressure caused by parallel downloads why does anyone need to have their download manager set to download a file in 99 parallel segments?).

Click on the "Read More" link at right below or on the "BHP Billiton Iron Ore Line" link at left for all your download information.

It's been years in the making, it's "bigger than Ben Hur", it's the NSW North-Western Route v1: covering a vast area of north-western NSW. There is a total of 753 miles (1205 km) of main line track in this route.

This version contains the following completed lines:

• Main North: East Maitland to Armidale (238 miles);
• Merriwa Branch: Muswellbrook to Merriwa (51 miles).

Other unfinished lines are in place within the route; in some sections some scenery has been placed, but no interactives are placed on these sections: these will be completed in future versions. Much trackage is unscenicked and the "edge of the world" will be visible from the train in some locations.

• Barraba Branch: West Tamworth to Barraba (61 miles);
• Mungindi Line: Werris Creek to Moree (157 miles);
• Dubbo Line: Werris Creek to Binnaway (84 miles);
• Gwabegar Line: Gulgong to Gwabegar (162 miles);
• a short section of the North Coast Line from Maitland to just north of Telarah;
• A short section of the South Maitland Railways from Maitland to just west of Mount Dee.

Chris Nelson and Brian Bere-Streeter have laboured long and hard to bring you this route. When received by the steam4me site, it was over 3.4G in size. I've been able to pare it down and create an installer that's only a tad over 600MB in size: you can download this route as an exe plus single data file; optionally you can choose to download the datafile as a 12-part RAR file.

Do take the time to read the instructions to ensure a trouble-free installation. The installer files are now hosted on "hotfile.com" following the denial of service attack on this site some weeks ago.

Click on the "Read More" link at right below or on the "North-West" link at left for all you need to know to download this superb piece of Australian modelling.

I can now report that all routes that were up prior to the Railpage server debacle are now back up on this site.

And with upgrades.

Russell Beer's Northern Main (Gisborne to Bendigo) is now at version 2 and is available for download at its own page (see links at left). The installer has been upgraded to "steam4me quality", which will make for simple installation.

Foot-Ball (Western Main Line Footscray - Ballarat) - Russell Beer's first route, running from Footscray to Ballarat has also been returned with a few modifications. The default Japanese catenary installed with earlier versions has been replaced with Martin Bennet's VR catenary and masts, improving the appearance of the suburban trackage enormously. The wire height has been set at 5.8m so that the route matches the team-ALCO Taits I'm sure will be running to St Albans. This route also has the option of being able to switch from visible to invisible wire for city/country operation - full details in the comprehensive readme when you install the route. If you've installed the North-Eastern route v1.3, you will have already seen that option in use.

Just received great news that Coals to Newcastle is back online: another victim of the Railpage melt-down, Peter Newell has set up his own site at http://www.coalstonewcastle.com.au/. Congratulations, Peter! This magnificent NSW coal-fields route is a must-download. Click on "Read More" to go to his site.

Another labour of love is born today - Michael Cameron's been working on his South Australian Main North and Barossa route for several years and it's finally ready to see the light of day. Two hundred miles of beautifully laid track work rolling through South Australia. The route is packaged both as a single-data-file installer (best suited to broadband users) as well as a multi-part installer (perhaps better suited for dial-up).

Released at last is the third and final instalment of Brian Bere-Streeter's Illawarra lines project - the Main Illawarra v3, based on the Main Illawarra railway lines running down the coastal strip of the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, around the 1950 to 1960 period, from the Steam Platforms at Sydney Terminal to the terminus of the line at Bomaderry (Nowra). MSTS pioneer route-builder Paul Woozley's original "Illawarra Stage One" has been merged into and forms the southern part of this route.

The route includes the giant AIS Port Kembla integrated steelworks complete with 'private' steelworks lines enabling the user to simulate most of the steelworks traffic, including coal traffic, coke traffic, hot metal traffic, slag traffic, hot ingot traffic, and steel slabs and shapes traffic.

Other work includes about seven miles of the famed Moss Vale line which veered away from the Main Illawarra at Unanderra, and clawed its way over the Illawarra Escarpment in a series of long sharp curves on a fierce, but constant, grade of 1 in 30. This is taken only as far as the Illawarra Range Tunnel No. 1

Morning: Your Christmas present this morning proves that you don't need big presents to really enjoy Christmas. This morning Chris Nelson, Brian Bere-Streeter and team-ALCO are proud to release the exquisite Tumulla Bank route. Only 16km in length, the real Tumulla Bank tested the skills of the great steam drivers of the 50s and early 60s. You will delight in running trains both up and downgrade on this short, but challenging piece of railway infrastructure. Budding route-builders could benefit from examining this route and seeing that big is not necessarily better.

The Victorian Railways's North Eastern route of Russell Beer has now been added to the download lists! It's been upgraded to v1.2 by making all mainline junctions fully "noded", meaning that signals will now work correctly and interlocking will (hopefully) prevent collisions with AI trains in activities. Activities written for v1.0 will need to be updated with new paths.

It's back! And better than ever! The long-awaited upgrade of the Central West route is now available for download. There are new tracks, improved yards and access and many additional scenic items - Brian Bere-Streeter has performed a "makeover" on this popular route.

Well, Christmas is over and you've opened all your presents; in the interests of family harmony (mine), today's release was held over till now as this route is so engrossing you are likely to lose track of time. Yes, Brian Bere-Streeter has been working hard on his "Northern Illawarra" route and this new version (v2) now covers all the way from Coniston (just south of Wollongong) to Sydney Central station. Sydney suburban goods lines are included as well. This is an excellent piece of work - I thoroughly recommend it to you. Do read the PDF on installation as you will need some rolling stock to run the default activity.

An old favourite is back - Mike Simpson's Blue Mountains route is back after a nine month holiday. Mike's route was one of the first for MSTS and has been much sought-after while it's been away.

Mike has modified the route to remove copyrighted images and well-known SAR route-builder Allan Lownsborough has given the route a once-over, adjusting track and terrain to add that final polish to the route. In addition, the route is one of the first in the world to be equipped with Wayne Campbell's Hidewire technology - an MSTS modelling technique that makes wire disappear over non-electrified parts of the route.

It's been three years in the making - over 6,000 hours of work: 1,300km track, 1,200km road and over 1,400 custom items - but it is with extraordinary pride and respect that I announce the immediate availability of Allan Lownsborough's epic route - Adelaide, Hills and South-East".

Extending from Serviceton in Victoria to Adelaide and beyond to Gawler in the north, from Mount Gambier in the south-east to Outer Harbour, from branches such as Victor Harbour, Mount Pleasant and Willunga to Adelaide, this is an incredibly detailed and polished route. You will marvel at the smooth trackwork, imperceptible changes of grade, realistic trackside foliage, trees and scenery. It's brought some old-time ex-SAR drivers to tears with its superb quality.

Activities packaged with the route will give you a taste of the once-great SAR. Links to the rolling stock required are in the readme. Note also that while the Railpage server is down, steam4me is mirroring four James Brook's files: just read the download page and you'll be right.