? about helper engines

[JohnnyG1973]

When using helper engines farther back in the consist, do they need to have AI drivers to actually be functioning (helping), or are they just dead weight? And...can using helper engines cause strange behavior when using AI commands?

 

[crohakon]

This is a good question. I would also like to know the answer to this.

 

[Dermmy]

Only one AI driver is required per consist irrespective of how motive power is arranged. Mid-train or end-of-train locos will perform as they should. The driver must be in the lead loco (the loco under the green arrow in Surveyor) or strange things can happen but otherwise distributed power causes the AI no more or less grief than any other consist...

Andy

 

[stagecoach]

Helper engines add to the pulling power and to the braking. You do not need a driver as only one AI driver can operate a consist with the commands. Do not use AI driver to couple to a consist with another AI driver in it as one will loose all its commands.

 

[llebrez]

Correct! But... As you probably have discovered, each engine has different "notches" or acceleration-braking parameters. I have noticed that these not always work in tamdem, and so, there are disturbances on how much power goes to the consist under different loads, speeds, and what have you. For the sake of simplicity, we should have an easy way to adjust power to each loco, so that you know what can be used with another one so that they work reasonably well. I remember having seen a program, many years ago that could adjust power curves, friction, braking, etc. in a visual manner, for loco adjustment without having to go to the config file to tweak things with long numbers.

 

[JohnnyG1973]

This is just as I thought yet I am encountering problems with multiple engines even with only one AI driver. First, the acceleration and braking do not seem to improve and second, I suffer derailments where other trains do not. It does not make a difference if my consist is under AI control or manual. Also the derailments are not prone to happen in the same place which eliminates track problems. I'm going to work on this some more.

Thanks for the help so far, John

 

[Dermmy]

Which version of Trainz are you running?? Unexpected derailments with mis-matched enginespecs are not entirely unknown in TRS04, but later versions are pretty good in this regard...

 

[crohakon]

I encountered a derail a few times that were completely random. In all situations I have more then one power on the train... and every time the power was different. Mostly mixes of GP38s, SD90s, and in one case I had a SW1500 being pulled on the tail of a train that had 3 locomotives in lead to bring it to a different yard.

I use 2009SP1 and all current patches