MSTS - Helpful Facts and Links - Part 03 (MSTSBin)

This is the third part in a series of posts that are meant to give a simple history of MSTS and point people to the various accessories/links considered vital to maximising the performance of MSTS.

This part looks at one of the well known add-ins, and includes links for additional information and download access:-

MSTSBin
MSTSBin is an unofficial patch to the core code in MSTS and actually provides a whole new set of features, as well as a number of fixes to some issues in Train Simulator.
This unofficial patch actually upgrades MSTS itself and provides many bug fixes and new core features to the simulator itself. It's not a major upgrade, but it helps MSTS in a lot of ways; e.g. having cabs that go dark in tunnels or being able to get into the other cab of a 37 are wonderful features to have. However there are other significant bonuses within.

It can be downloaded direct from mstsbin.uktrainsim.com.

A good description of what it does can be found here.

Noted below is a personal interpretation of MSTS Bin by Martin Pope (Mendes), which I consider should be taken into account.

“Martin has three different versions:-

The "Stable" one - Patch 1.7.051922
A "Middle" one - Patch 1.7.102222
The "Latest" one - Patch 1.8.052113

He believes that none of them are perfect, but considers that the "Middle" one works best. He has noted that the problem with the "Stable" one is that unless AI locos are built with the rotation adjustment then their wheels spin madly. He has also identified that with the "Latest" one that certain shunting situations indicate a spurious 0mph speed limit.

Whilst he accepts that the latest version addresses certain issues with Electric locos, which the "Stable" and "Middle" ones do not, he urges some degree of caution when installing the latest version.

He has offered the advice that you can swap between Bin versions by swapping the Train.exe in Train Simulator. The modified dates associated with the train.exe file are as follows:-

Stable 19/05/2007
Middle 18/10/2007
Latest 21/05/2008

Stored copies of these can be used to swap between the Bin version relevant to your requirements. This can avoid unnecessary uninstalling and re-installing. He states that no problem has been encountered so far adopting this method.”

When installing and/or amending all or any part of MSTS it is strongly recommended that you create a back-up copy, because even with the best will in the world mistakes can and will happen. There’s many a “simmer” who can testify to that.