North American ribside ("Thrall type") 5-car articulated container cars for Microsoft Train Simulator. The car is a "double stacker", so it carries two containers on top of each other. The wells are 48 foot long but 53-foot containers can be carried on top of a 48- or 45-footer. 

TTX Company is owned by the major North American railroads and provides them with a large pool of freight cars for common use.

These articulated cars share trucks, and cannot be disconnected from each other, neither in the game nor in real life. If you want to do some switching you have to switch whole 5-car sets. In order to use the cars you must make consists using the consists editor, and the cars must be used in the order that their names indicate, that is #1-#2-#3-#4-#5. See "instructions for advanced users" at the end of this document for further information on making consists of these cars. The end cars, #1 and #5 have both ordinary couplers and special connection bars, the middle cars have only the special connection bars and cannot be used with other cars. Neither in real life nor in MSTS...

This 5-car set is one of the first sets of articulated ribside well cars that I release. I will make a few different sets in the livery of TTX and possibly some others. For a greater variation of liveries and containers use my standalone ribside and smoothside well cars. The standalone cars are also frequently used in the real world, by all North American railroads, both as "real" standalone cars and as sets of drawbar-connected cars, and are thus just as prototypical as these articulated cars.

Model by Svante Wendel. Painted by Svante Wendel. © 2001-2002 Svante Wendel <msts@wendel.nu>.
http://www.wendel.nu/msts/
Physics (car performance) in the .wag-file modified by Bob Boudoin in order to give it a more lifelike performance than that provided by Microsoft/Kuju. Other changes in the wag-file by Svante Wendel.

This model is freeware. You can use it for free for your enjoyment, but you CAN NOT sell it, lease it, use it for barter or trade or use it in any other way where you make money off of it without my written consent (which BTW would cost you mucho dinero). The fact that I've decided to give it away as freeware does NOT in any way affect my copyright. It's free as in you not having to pay for it, but IT IS NOT FREE AS IN MEANING THAT YOU CAN TAKE IT AND TRY TO PASS IT OFF AS BEING YOUR MODEL, OR YOUR TEXTURES! If you steal my 3D-model or my textures I WILL find out, and I WILL notify each and every train-sim forum on the net that you are a scoundrel and a thief and cannot be trusted. If you steal my stuff in order to make money from it I WILL take you to court and sue you for every penny you make off it. And don't forget that the copyright also applies to the container textures. You can repaint the car or the containers, using my textures as a base for your own textures, provided you give me credit for my work.

And please do it in such a way that your repaints don't overwrite my original container cars. If you don't know how to do that then don't upload your repaints anywhere.

Installation:

Unzip the contents of this zip file, preserving the path (if you don't know what that means read the manual or readme file of your Zip software), into the ..\trains\trainset\ folder of your MSTS installation. Create consists and enjoy.

This add-on for Microsoft Train Simulator WILL NOT harm your computer. If something does happen to your computer while using this add-on it is not my fault, so find someone else to blame.

NOTE: USING THIRD PARTY MSTS ADD-ONS, LIKE THESE CARS, IS NOT FOR THE TOTALLY UNEXPERIENCED OR FAINT OF HEART. IF YOU DON'T HAVE BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT COMPUTERS, AND ABOUT MSTS, THEN DO NOT INSTALL THIS STUFF. IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT. I WILL NOT ACCEPT BLAME FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOUR COMPUTER. I WILL NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT/HELP/WHATEVER IF YOUR  MSTS INSTALLATION STOPS WORKING OR YOU GET ERROR MESSAGES (USUALLY BECAUSE YOU FORGOT TO DELETE CONSISTS WHEN DELETING CARS OR LOCOMOTIVES). I WILL SIMPLY NOT BE THERE TO HOLD YOUR HAND NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS..... 

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADVANCED USERS:
Consists using these cars must be made following these IMO fairly simple rules. 

1. All cars in a 5-car set of my articulateds are assigned a name and a number from 1 to 5, visible in the consist editor. 

2. When making new consists in the consist editor the first car in a 5-car set that you make (a consist can be made to include several of these 5-car sets of articulateds) MUST be a #1. It doesn't matter which #1 from my TTX sets that you use, but the first car MUST be a #1.

3. The second car in such a 5-car set can be either a #2 or a #4. It doesn't matter which of the TTX sets the car is from but it MUST be a #2 or a #4.

4. The third or middle car in such a 5-car set MUST be a #3. Again it doesn't matter which of the TTX sets it's from but the middle car MUST be a #3.

5. The fourth car in a 5-car set MUST be a #2 or a #4. Again the car can be from either TTX set but it MUST be a #2 or a #4.

6. The fifth or last car in a 5-car set MUST be a #5. Again the car can be from either TTX set but the last car must be a #5.

So the sets of cars can be made up of cars #1-#2-#3-#4-#5, #1-#4-#3-#2-#5, #1-#2-#3-#2-#5 or #1-#4-#3-#4-#5. Cars #1 have a normal coupler up front and a special coupler at the rear. Cars #2 and #4 are identical since they have the same length and special couplers both front and rear and also use the same texture. Car #3 might look the same as cars #2 and #4 but it is of a different lenght and also uses a different texture. And car #5 has a special coupler up front and a normal coupler at the rear. It also has a brake wheel and cylinder unlike the other cars. 
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