The main menu loaded, but instead of the usual Marias Pass or Northeast Corridor , a new entry glowed in the list: .
This time, he started from Haydarpaşa, the full consist: DE24000 + six Pullman cars + a dining car with a tea glass icon on the side. He pulled out of the virtual station past the old Bosphorus shoreline, under the Marmaray tubes that didn’t exist in 2011.
Inside were dozens of repaints and scratch-built models: the iconic TCDD E6800 electric locomotive, affectionately called the "Flo" ; the German-origin DE22000 diesel; and the legendary Turquoise Express passenger cars with their red-and-cream stripes. There was even a partially completed route file: Istanbul–Haydarpaşa to Eskişehir , with hand-drawn track diagrams scanned from a 1997 timetable.
The next day, he uploaded the entire collection to a new archive.org page: MSTS TCDD Turkish Trains Add-Ons (Full, Fixed) . In the description, he wrote: “These models were built between 2005–2012 by railway enthusiasts who believed every country deserves its trains in a simulator. My father never saw Eskişehir in this game. But maybe you will. Install, run, and sound the horn at Köseköy.” Within a week, 3,000 downloads. A month later, a younger modder contacted Emre to help finish the route east of Arifiye. msts tcdd turkish trains add ons
Emre’s heart sank. That was the signature Pullman car—the one his father had modeled from scratch using photographs from the Ankara railway museum. Without it, the Boğaziçi Express was just an engine.
The sun was setting in the sim’s skybox—a custom texture his father had painted from a photo taken on the Galata Bridge.
The route was incomplete—the scenery blurred beyond the tracks, and some signals were missing—but what was there felt alive. Turkish pop songs from 1998 crackled on a simulated radio. As he passed a level crossing, a hemşehri with a sheep stood waiting, exactly as his uncle had described. The main menu loaded, but instead of the
Halfway to İzmit, the screen froze. A white error box appeared: "Failed to load shape: TCDD_Pulman_v2.s"
At Köseköy, Emre remembered the note. He pulled the horn: a deep, mournful DE24 whistle that echoed across the virtual Gulf of İzmit.
The last file was a text note from his father, dated 2012: "Emre, I never finished the signaling east of Arifiye. But if you ever find this, run the Boğaziçi Express one more time for me. The add-ons are stable. Use the DE24xxx for pulling. Don’t forget the whistle at Köseköy." Inside were dozens of repaints and scratch-built models:
He clicked Drive .
He opened the folder again. Inside TCDD_Pulman_v2.s was a corrupted byte. But next to it, a file named TCDD_Pulman_v2_FIX.ace . He had no idea what .ace files did. He did something reckless: he renamed the fix to the missing shape file.
Emre didn’t finish the route. He stopped the train just before Gebze, stepped out into the virtual night, and watched the headlight cut through the fog. The Boğaziçi Express stood silent, but the add-ons were alive again.
He relaunched the game. The error didn’t appear.
Emre smiled. Back in high school, he’d spent entire nights modding Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS), turning the default American routes into the rugged landscapes of Anatolia. But this folder wasn’t his. It was his late father’s.