What we have here is one vendor getting out ahead and offering a free route that takes advantage of some new file formats. One of the new features is adoption of new file formats. It has been publicly documented for many years what the design priorities of Open Rails are. It is indeed a complex process with using Open Rails and older MSTS contentComplexity is not the villain here, progress is. Anyone wise enough to do that long ago would not be waiting on disks today.
MSTS XTRACKS OFFLINE
If you buy MSTS, all you need to do is grab the 6 default routes and zip them up and store them offline in a safe place. Open Rails will run the routes found in both installations, but MSTS cannot run any routes in the Trainsimulations installation, as their new content is Open Rails only.
MSTS XTRACKS INSTALL
If you install things per the instructions, you will end up with 2 Open Rails installations, one containing all the old MSTS routes (using the 1MSTS directory) and another for Trainsimulations routes. Just be aware that the new Open Rails routes from Trainsimulations use a special type of Xtracks (which they provide via their installers) that does not mix with the original versions of Xtracks, which is why Trainsimulations cautions you to install their content that is built for Open Rails only in a separate Open Rails installation that is removed from any of your MSTS routes that run in open Rails. There is limited support for people who defy this and do their own thing. If you buy and install MSTS, please make sure you follow these instructions to the letter. The less you dink around with the old stuff, the less you have to deal with these hangover issues. If you are going to dink around with really old freeware routes from 2001-2006ish time frame, which is what this Bear Mountain route is, then yea, you will most definitely need a copy of MSTS in order to populate those routes with default assets. They can install into Open Rails straight up. Some later freeware routes and most payware routes are complete, meaning they don't require any assets from the 6 original default routes that are provided on the MSTS disks.
![msts xtracks msts xtracks](https://msts.steam4me.net/tutorials/images/DiamondX_07.jpg)
They only get installed once in the GLOBAL folder. Most routes are going to require Xtracks and Newroads or ScaleRail and Scaleroads or a combination of.