Empty Route Folders

I dare say this question has been asked before and I tried a search but failed to find the answer.

In Railworks/Contents/Routes there are many empty folders. I have 154 folders but TS Tools lists 72 routes.

Can I safely delete the empty folders?

Whilst it's not absolutely necessary to do so it would make it easier to search for active route folders.

Thanks!

 

If you buy a train or coach/wagon you sometimes get scenarios for it.
The Scenario get installed to the correct route folder even if you don't own the route.

Before deleting check there is nothing in those folders

 

Yes I see your point. However these folders have unique numbers.
An example of what I'm talking about is ECML-S. There is:
00000029-0000-0000-0000-000000002014 ECML London - Peterborough (Date Modified 05/01/2022)
00000029-0000-0000-0000-000000002014 (Date Modified 28/06.2019)

The first one is empty, the second has everything in it. There are plenty like that with the folder without the name being the one containing the route folders.

 

I experimented. I removed the empty folder to a safe place and ran TS. ECML-S works fine.

Why do these duplicate folders arise?

 

I've just done a complete re-install, at least the Steam assets anyway, and there are no duplicate routes yet and none with names on them, just GUIDs. I'm now going to slowly add third party routes and assets so I'll see what happens. So far I've only added the Moorgate Extension which sits inside the ECML-S folder.

Having empty folders with the same GUIDs and a name (such as the ECML-S example above) has a point as Bekn has described on a thread in the TSC/General Discussion Forum, namely helping a user identify which route a folder is for.

Tsc V Tsw Rolling Stock Performance | Dovetail Games Forums

 

Content / Routes / Guid generally includes a RouteProperties.xml and scenario folders.
If empty, it's nothing.
Occasionally TSC cleans them up but generally they're leftovers after removing the last workshop scenario or something.

There are two situations to be aware of, non-empty folders:

• When you have a scenario folder but it only has a CurrentSave. It can be safely removed, recursively.
• When you have scenarios but no RouteProperties.
  Most usually workshop (with a lean install), but some old DLC references old, discontinued routes. (Castle Rock)
• ZIP files usually have scenarios inside and the route one has the RouteProperties. Unless you don't have that one.
  For example at some point I had the P42DC but didn't have Marias Pass.
  Steam would reinstall those but all of these are dead content.

Search tends to bring these up but if you actually press Drive, it promptly dies.

 

I've discovered the reason for the duplicate folders in the Route folder. If in TS-Tools, Route Building Tools/Check Routes or Scenarios, you want extract the AP files, it puts them in a new folder whilst adding a route name to the old empty one.