Version 1: East Maitland to Armidale & Muswellbrook to Merriwa

The NSW-NW route covers 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.

Although the route contains some sections such as Farley, East Greta and Mount Dee, Telarah, Maitland, High Street and East Maitland that are duplicated in the "Coals to Newcastle" route by Peter Newell, these sections have been included in this route for "comparative completeness" at the southern end of the route. This allows for any Activities along the Main North line to have associated AI traffic running on the Coal Lines to/from the SMR lines, or associated AI traffic running to/from the Main North Coast line.

1. Xtracks 3.20 or higher
2. Newroads 4.0 or higher
3. UK Finescale Track (click here to download installer)

1. Download the EXE file and either the single .D01 file or the 12-part WinRAR archive.
    
2. If you have downloaded the single .D01 file, go to Step #4.
    
3. If you have downloaded the 12-part WinRAR file, ensure all 12 parts are in the same folder then double-click on AU_NSW_NorthWest_v1_DataFile.part01.rar and extract the .D01 file.
   .RAR files can be opened by WinRAR, by Winzip ver.11 or higher, or by a number of other archiving tools ( let Google be your friend).
    
4. Ensure that the EXE file and the .D01 data file are in the same folder in your PC. Their filenames should match exactly.
    
5. Run the installer by double-clicking on the EXE file (do not touch the data file - .D01 - the installer EXE will load the data pack itself). The installer is automatically set to "Run As Administrator" for Vista and Windows 7 users. Do note that an "invalid data message" indicates that there is something wrong with the download: check filenames and exact filesizes (see file sizes above).
    
6. You must have all six default routes installed BEFORE running this installer. The routes just need to be present: they DO NOT need to be unstored if you use Trainstore, nor do you need to activate them if you use Route Riter's ON/OFF utility. You must also have the Template folder present in its correct location in your MSTS folder.
    
7. You must have Xtracks 3.20 or higher, Newroads 4.00 or higher and UK Finescale Tracks installed. Ninety-five percent of "route operation errors" support emails I receive are the result of out-of-date Xtracks or Newroads.
    
8. Allow the batch file to run to completion. If you do not see this batch file run in a DOS box, you most likely are a Vista or Windows 7 user. TURN OFF "User Account Control" (Start | Control Panel | User Accounts | Turn User Account Control On or Off); then right-click on the installme.bat file in the Route folder and set "Run As Administrator". The batch file should now run correctly.
    
9. The first time you run this route, there will be a considerable delay as MSTS "generates terrain buffers" - this is a one-off and subsequent use of this route will load normally.