Ed's Trains - Not OK

[ftldave]

I'll post this here since the Illinois Central GP9 set I purchased from Ed's Trains years ago was created for MSTS, even though I intend to run it in ORTS.

Installer fails with "is not allowed to run on WinNTx" message - so it must be a 16-bit installer, not going to run on a 64-bit OS.

Windows compatibility mode hasn't worked when I tried WinXP Service Pack 3 nor Windows 98 modes.

No joy trying to ask about it on the Ed's Trains web site: the captcha-style security is broken - no field displayed to enter the character string, after trying with both Chrome and Opera browsers.

I managed to find the unzipped set from an MSTS installation backup I had salted away, but I wonder if Ed's Trains installers have been updated now ... or same as when they were released? Anyone purchase\install any Ed's Trains models recently, with success on a 64-bit OS?

I grew up watching black IC GP7s and GP9s running the High-Dry Line across south-central Indiana in the late 50s, early 60s. Glad I had a backup of the set I bought back when we were running 32-bit OS.

[ftldave]

And another "Not OK" discovery , I think the Ed's Trains IC GP9 set is the first I've encountered that is incompatible with Markus Gelbmann's Diesel Power Updater, trashed the .eng file. Again, applied the backup copies of the originals and will edit them manually.

[slipperman]

Hi Dave,
I had the same problem a few years ago with TSM. Please see my first post in this thread :
https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showth...4-bit-OS/page2

It may help - the ReactOS website is still available and the Is3Engine.zip is available, but you may need to open it in a new window.
I don't have the EdTrains GP9 so can't test it

Cheers,
Ged

[HookitandBookit]

Try win7 compatibility mode.

[ftldave]

Try win7 compatibility mode.

No compatibility mode works, thanks anyway for the suggestion.

Ged, I had seen your post but at first read had assumed that it was specific to TSM. Might be worth a try. Kudos for that, too.

But I'd like to ask again, please - does anyone know if the Ed's Trains installers have been updated, anyone had success installing them on a 64-bit version of Windows? Fact is, I'd like to purchase some of the other GP9 sets from Ed's, but I wonder if the installers work on Win10-64?

[slipperman]

Hi Dave,

Ged, I had seen your post but at first read had assumed that it was specific to TSM

Sorry, mate I didn't make it clear that you could try using the same procedure as I described for TSM.

If that doesn't work and if Ed's Trains uses an InstallShield installer (look for files like data1.cab, data1.hdr on the CD/download) then you could try my Utility22 (utility22_v1_0.zip).

Cheers,
Ged

[ftldave]

Good news: I took the risk of $15.95 and purchased the UP GP9 set. The download file unzips the content - the model folder and sounds for the common.snd folder, not a 16-bit installer. Yay Ed's Trains.

First attempts with the ReactOS Live USB boot always failed in blue screen crash, on a spare Dell 7020 pc that I had available for testing. Whether the full install USB booter would work, I leave for someone else to test.