Driver Turnaround

[matthew2004]

Does anyone know how to get drivers to swap ends of the train automatically as part of a scedule. Someone has told me that you use "Runaround Extended" but I cannot find any reference to this in the game, just the usual "run around train" which doesn't work, the train just decouples are then drives off.

Any Ideas Welcome
Thanks,
Matthew.

 

[leeferr]

run around should work. I suspect that there's a turnout or signal problem somewhere. the locomotive is probably having trouble trying to calculate the route to the other end of the train.

 

[Smileyman]

As you've found out, the run around is for moving the loco from one end of the train to the other, so that won't work.

The "Change Direction" command on the DS also sounds like it might work, but it's for changing the logical direction that the train is facing, rather than what you see, so that's no good for what you want either.

But there is a way.

Download the "Move to Loco" driver command from the DS (KUID [FONT=Verdana, Arial]131986:1007), and enable it in the Driver Command rule.
Now create your train, which I imagine would be something like this;

< LOCO1..wagon..wagon..wagon..LOCO2 >

where loco1 is at the front of your train (green arrow facing forward in Surveyor) and loco2 is at the back of the train (red arrow facing backwards)

Now, importantly, you must use the rotate loco button and click on the back loco to turn it around, not the whole train.
Simplest way to visualize this is to think of a Class 43 Intercity train.
When you build a consist for a class 43 you need to turn the back vehicle around so that it faces the other way. Well, you need to do this if you are using a double ended loco, so that the driver will be facing the correct way when the train runs the other way.

So, you now add your driver commands to the driver like so;

Move to Loco "loco1"/drive wherever/Move to Loco "loco2"/drive back/repeat

As long as you reverse the back loco (even if it doesn't look like it needs reversing (class 37, 47, 50, etc.)) then the driver will appear at the front of the whole train whichever way the train is travelling.
This of course works with the class 43 and other single cab locos too, as there's only one place the driver can be.

Hope that helps,
Smiley.

EDIT: Leefer, I think he want's the "driver" to appear at the front of the train when it travels in the opposite direction (loco each end), rather than the loco change ends.
At least that's the way I read it.
[/FONT]

 

[Smileyman]

Rather than do another edit, thought I'd make a new post instead.

Since posting the above, I noticed the other thread you posted the same question.
Someone recommended the "run around extended" driver command, and to be honest I thought they'd made a typo.

just checked the kuid on the DS and it's there, and it seems to be a useful little command too.
As well as the normal run around, if the command detects you have a loco each end, then it will simply swap the driver to the other end of the train.
Excellent!
And it's been there on the DS for a few years, and I've never heard of it (and automated operations is one of my more "active" trainz interests).
Just shows how vast the DS is.

So you can use the method I stated in the above post, or use this command, although you may still have to make sure the back loco is reversed to have the driver in the correct place.
The command mentions something about doing this for you, but I haven't tested it yet.
You can be sure I'll be putting this through its paces tomorrow.

Kudos to Bob for mentioning it, and to Nicroman for creating it.

Smiley.

 

[matthew2004]

Thanks

Thanks for that, i've downloaded the kuid you mentioned, going to try it out tonight to see if it works.

 

[rmdk]

What happens when you have a "double header" loco set up? By that I mean the two locos at one end of the train. Can you still get the driver to change locos and be at the driving end of the loco after a run around?

 

[Smileyman]

What happens when you have a "double header" loco set up? By that I mean the two locos at one end of the train. Can you still get the driver to change locos and be at the driving end of the loco after a run around?

For that to work, you'll need to use the "Move to Loco" command that I mentioned above.
Just use it directly before or after the runaround command.
You'd also need to rotate the second loco when placing them in Surveyor, so that the driver appears in the "outside" cab whatever loco he's in.

Matthew, I've checked out the runaround ex command (as you probably have by now), and it does NOT put the driver in the "front" of the cab, in respect of the direction that the train will be travelling.
So you'll need to rotate the back loco as you would an HST engine, so that the front of the locos on each end of the train is facing outwards (again, even if it's a loco that looks the same both ways).

A very nice driver command though, and one I'll be using a lot I suspect.

Smiley.

 

[leeferr]

thanks Smiley...I must have misunderstood what he was trying to do.

 

[Dralex]

Back to post #1 in this thread: I also had the problem of a loco just driving off. I have two strong reasons to suspect that it is a problem with the cars of the train the loco has to run around.
Reason 1: I inspected the jetlog after such an event which I can reproduce in the Port Ogden layout (the mouse84 version). I noticed 25 entries of the kind "cannot find attachment point ...", and the train had 25 coal cars of the PPLX4BayH62R variety. On the other hand I have a train in the same session which I can run around. This time the cars were Clinchfield coal cars.
Reason 2: with the information above I drove that same train (where it didn't work) somewhere else because I wanted to try whether it is dependent on the location of the runaround. It does not seem to be. It didn't even drive off after uncoupling (the message window told me), but put me into manual mode immediately. Then I drove that train to a safe location and drove that other train of which I know that runaround works to the location of the last experiment. Loco facing the same way, of course. This train did run around without problems.
Matthew2004 (or anybody else), can you verify this, please?

Greetings,
Dralex