Addressing Trains Going in Wrong Direction

[AdvancedApproach]

I might be doing something wrong but why is the lead train on my route backing up randomly instead of driving to the next trackmark and portal? Something is up because I removed all but a few crossovers to facilitate accessing my yard and the few remaining active onsite industries. The trackmarks were put in place to ensure AI wouldn't deviate from assigned track. The excessive crossovers caused a lot of confusion for AI drivers and led them to switch tracks needlessly so that I why they were removed except in essential areas. It's just this one train not following directions. Luckily for me it hasn't caused a delay or derailment but still headscratching nonetheless. Any ideas would be great.

 

[pware]

That behaviour can be caused by several different things.

Is there a broken spline joint in the track between the loco and the destination track mark? Is there a missing junction switch? If other trains have the same issue on the same stretch of track that could indicate a broken track or missing switch (or both).

 

[AdvancedApproach]

That behaviour can be caused by several different things.

Is there a broken spline joint in the track between the loco and the destination track mark? Is there a missing junction switch? If other trains have the same issue on the same stretch of track that could indicate a broken track or missing switch (or both).

It's probably that issue with track marks. Whenever a train is near or occupying any track mark another train is trying to reach it'll force the AI driver to stop and when enough time passes, back up in reverse. That problem is rearing its ugly head again.

 

[llebrez]

You don't specify what command you are instructing the train to follow. Is it Drive to Track Mark, or Navigate to TM ?. With Navigate To TM, it will do that. Then there is the other issue: Are you directing the train to go to an industry? or TM. If it is an industry, tough luck. N3V decided to eliminate (?) Drive To, and al we have now is Navigate To, So the train when confronted with an obstruction in the path, will seek an alternative route, and backs up, even if there is no way to go where you want (*). Bear in mind, the command Drive To used to work, preventing this situation, but Hey!, progress is here... Unless I am missing something. If so, anyone..?

(*) You wonder: when the train is backing, seeking an alternate path, how far will it go? it depends, sometimes AI thinks there is a path, other times it will go forever to the end of the line or until it finds a bumper, upon reversing and going to the same place it started, hopefully when the obstruction is gone. All very chaotic and unpredictable.
If Drive to Track Mark works, why take away Drive To Industry?

 

[JCitron]

You don't specify what command you are instructing the train to follow. Is it Drive to Track Mark, or Navigate to TM ?. With Navigate To TM, it will do that. Then there is the other issue: Are you directing the train to go to an industry? or TM. If it is an industry, tough luck. N3V decided to eliminate (?) Drive To, and al we have now is Navigate To, So the train when confronted with an obstruction in the path, will seek an alternative route, and backs up, even if there is no way to go where you want (*). Bear in mind, the command Drive To used to work, preventing this situation, but Hey!, progress is here... Unless I am missing something. If so, anyone..?

(*) You wonder: when the train is backing, seeking an alternate path, how far will it go? it depends, sometimes AI thinks there is a path, other times it will go forever to the end of the line or until it finds a bumper, upon reversing and going to the same place it started, hopefully when the obstruction is gone. All very chaotic and unpredictable.
If Drive to Track Mark works, why take away Drive To Industry?

Drive To is still there. You have to enable it manually in the Session setup.

 

[JCitron]

The other issue that causes this is AI trains too close to each other without signals. In older versions, including TRS19, I used to stack up my trams one after each other on the line outside of the terminal passenger stations so that when the session started, they'd each proceed to take their appropriate platform and patiently wait in line until the tram ahead had moved on.

With the changes to AI "logic" note the quotes, AI will no longer wait for a train ahead of them and will back up immediately. This causes all kinds of issues as AI drivers start ping-ponging between direction markers instead of waiting for the train ahead to move on.

 

[pware]

Whenever a train is near or occupying any track mark another train is trying to reach it'll force the AI driver to stop and when enough time passes, back up in reverse.

I have never seen that in all my years of using track marks in sessions. AI trains will take possession of switches and stop other AI trains, or those under manual control, from controlling them but not track marks. It is far more likely that the possession of a block, e.g. between signals, containing the competing track marks is the cause of the problem.

 

[llebrez]

Drive To is still there. You have to enable it manually in the Session setup.

I stand wrong in my assumption of Drive to not being there. But in my built, it was faulty! How a built in command can be faulty? I solved the problem by converting from Texture to TGA. And now it shows and works as it always was. Gremlins making things to work today accepting Texture files, and showing faulty next day because they should be TGA. Go figure...

 

[JCitron]

I stand wrong in my assumption of Drive to not being there. But in my built, it was faulty! How a built in command can be faulty? I solved the problem by converting from Texture to TGA. And now it shows and works as it always was. Gremlins making things to work today accepting Texture files, and showing faulty next day because they should be TGA. Go figure...

There was a recent update that may solve that problem. I had that command go faulty at one time as well and a DBR fixed that.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

You don't specify what command you are instructing the train to follow. Is it Drive to Track Mark, or Navigate to TM ?. With Navigate To TM, it will do that. Then there is the other issue: Are you directing the train to go to an industry? or TM. If it is an industry, tough luck. N3V decided to eliminate (?) Drive To, and al we have now is Navigate To, So the train when confronted with an obstruction in the path, will seek an alternative route, and backs up, even if there is no way to go where you want (*). Bear in mind, the command Drive To used to work, preventing this situation, but Hey!, progress is here... Unless I am missing something. If so, anyone..?

(*) You wonder: when the train is backing, seeking an alternate path, how far will it go? it depends, sometimes AI thinks there is a path, other times it will go forever to the end of the line or until it finds a bumper, upon reversing and going to the same place it started, hopefully when the obstruction is gone. All very chaotic and unpredictable.
If Drive to Track Mark works, why take away Drive To Industry?

Drive Via Trackmark.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

Now they're refusing to execute the commands at all. Instead, they want to backup. Mind you, this is with no other traffic on the route. Both trains pass the first track mark and all of a sudden decides to reverse. Really frustrating that AI is acting up like this.

 

[JCitron]

Now they're refusing to execute the commands at all. Instead, they want to backup. Mind you, this is with no other traffic on the route. Both trains pass the first track mark and all of a sudden decides to reverse. Really frustrating that AI is acting up like this.

Something is broken:
Check direction markers. Staring at them for 200 minutes, doesn't help...
Check that you are directing your drivers to take the correct track mark. Starting at your schedule for 200 minutes doesn't help...

Checking for broken connections:

Place track marks along the tracks in the area where the AI go bonkers.
Have a driver drive via or navigate via these track marks.

Enable the verbose messages and watch for "Unable to plot route" or similar messages.
These messages have gotten a bit more verbose than in the past and may tell you which junction after a specified junction is missing the lever: "Unable to plot route, junction <some big number> missing lever", or "Unable to plot route after junction <some big number> is missing lever."

The same will work for grade crossings or other fixed-track objects, bridges, and tunnels. Sometimes, when the train gets stuck, take over driving. The AI will halt, but you'll continue to drive until you derail. With the AI driving, keep checking ahead of the driver. You'll find the missing lever either way because you'll derail or the AI will stop and you'll notice the missing junction lever or suspicious looking track spline.

These same methods are as good today as they were back in December 2004 when I first started.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

The Drive Via and Navigate Via commands are of no help. I’ve checked for broken or disjointed tracks and nothing came up. In fact, the AI driver before them worked well until reaching a certain track mark which then eliminated from their instructions. I have them use the autodrive through and autodrive to commands. Also, I did an extended database repair last night and all of a sudden these commands are no longer working, how convenient.