Coupling Issue

[NJCurmudgeon]

I am having a problem with the following AI scenario...

A train pulls into a yard. The locomotives decouple and move off out of the way. I want a shunter to move in and couple to the first car of the consist left behind when the locos pulled away.

I named the car I want the shunter to couple to and tell the shunter to wait until the departing locos trip the assigned trigger. But when I go to assign the couple command for the shunter, that car name does not appear in my list of available cars to couple to. I assume this is because the locos are still coupled to that car so it's not technically "available."

Is there any way around this?

Thanks.

 

[shaneturner12]

If you are trying to set that up in Surveyor, you will need an alternative Couple command. If it's in Driver, you would need to wait for the decouple to take place first.

Shane

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Hi Shane,

I'm trying to set it up in Surveyor so it will run with AI. I seem to recall having an issue a long time ago with a 2009 layout where someone suggested a "couple ahead" sort of command - where an engine gets sent to a track and is told to couple with whatever car is in front of it - no specifying the car. It should be called a "loco slut" command...it will "couple" with anything! :hehe:

 

[Kennilworth]

Hi

I think that the commands that you need are CoupleAhead and SetDCCThrottle both by atilabarut and on the DLS. Use SetDCCThrottle first followed by CoupleAhead. You'll have to select a value for the SetDCCThrottle command (trial & error) but remember that it will drive at that speed until it couples no matter how far the shunter is from the consist. I normally put a trackmark a few yards in front of the consist and use Navigate To that followed immediately by the above two commands.

Regards

Brian

 

[stagecoach]

Couple at TM will do that, make sure you have no signals as this will often prevent the couple.

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Yes! Those are the commands I was trying to remember! Thank you. Unfortunately, the internets are all kinds of screwed up for me right now. The whole day some sites have stopped working randomly, email accounts become unresponsive, etc. This forum is one of the few that has kept up. But my Content Manager is failing to log on too. Always something!