Handbrakes on railcars apply/release

cascaderailroad

New member
I have a hump yard at the Altoona Juniata Scales, that has a coal hopper, scale weighing station ... the train is slowly shoved over the hump, and teams of rail car riders climb the ladders, and man the handbrakes on individual railcars ... one by one the individual railcars roll down to the scale weighing station (the scale has a slight downhill gradient of -0.20%), where car riders apply the handbrakes, and bring the railcars to a brief halt for weighing ... then when weighing is completed, the car riders release the handbrakes, and ride the railcars down into the hump yard classification bowl.

Is this possible in Trainz ?

I use the pink Speed retarders, and the TPR Hump Yard kit.

When a pink Speed Retarder halts a railcar ... Is there any way to toggle it off and re-release handbrakes, and let the railcar resume rolling ?

I have made it possible to slow railcars down to below 1 mph when free rolling over the scale, and it looks fairly good, but is not realistic, as railcars need to stop momentarily while on the scale ... I need to apply handbrakes, then release handbrakes on the stopped railcars, once again allow them to roll downhill again.

Altoona never had any retarders in it's hump yards

See Matlin Yard route: [This is a modification of Matlin Yard that changes the classification yard to a working hump yard. Just uncouple each of your cars before backing it over the hump. As you back the train a reasonably slow speed over the hump the cars will roll into the hump yard. The drawback is that there are on retarders on the lead tracks. You have the brake the cars as they gain speed, but once you release the brakes they begin to roll again]
 
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I think I have it as figured out, as close as it gets ... In order for a railcar to start rolling from a standstill on a grade, there has to be a downhill gradient of @ -0.15% to -0.20%.

Some railcars do have brakes, and the ones that do have brakes one time, may not have brakes the next session. Other railcars have no brakes, and in another session they do have brakes. So handbrakes on railcars are just undependable.

I have a Hump with a downhill gradient of -0.15%, and when I stop a consist on the hump, and cut the car, it rolls downhill over the weighing scale at 1 mph (which is as close to realistic as possible)

Also with an automatic hump uncoupler, some railcars do not automatically cut the coupler, and require manual cut lever operation ... while other railcars do automatically cut the coupler each and every time, unassisted.

So I can set a consist shoving over the hump as slow as 1 mph, and most of the railcars cut automatically, and continue to roll over the weighing scale at 1 mph (1 mph is just too slow, so I use 2 mph, and it looks realistically great) !!!

As long as the rest of the hump yard bowl is at least -0.15% to -0.20%, a railcar will continue to roll almost indefinately.

However the classification yard bowl has a gradient of -0.50%, and without the pink Speed Retarders, a railcar will pick up great speeds in excess of 60 mph. So I place pink Speed Retarders configured at "High Power" - "Do NOT Halt", @ every 500' (or less), and railcars are kept under control, and coast downhill at @ 20 mph, or much less.

I have tested Paintshed, JR railcars, and all the rest of assorted railcars, and they all roll at 1 mph for miles, and miles, on a -0.15% downhill grade.

A hump yard with a huge steep -2.00% incline, with railcars excessively speeding downhill at 45 mph, is very unrealistic.

With "Squeal Track" my hump yard is annoyingly noisy, and railcars are coasting at very slow speeds ... Just the way I like watching my trains slowly lumber by. I have rotating trackside cameras so I can view all the coupler cutting, and watch air hoses popping undone ... a slow hump yard is great joy in Trainz ... But in real life, the RR job environment is so rudely annoying, with excessively loud squealing retarders squeezing the railcar wheel rims until they are highly polished, that one never wants to work in the speed retarder areas !

I am having a complete blast, humping away, with Trainz !
 
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I now have a automatic decoupler, and immediately after that I have a 100' downhill gradient of -0.20% ... followed up by a very short 50' uphill gradient of +0.09% (as a +10% gradient stops the car, and causes it to roll backwards again) ... So even when I have a completely stopped train on the hump, and cut the cars, a single car rolls downhill at @ 5 mph, down the hump grade, then slows to @ 1 mph up the short uphill gradient, then immediately picks up speed again when it goes down another -0.20% gradient ... This makes it look like the car is being weighed (as in real life the car would momentarily stop on the scale, then proceed again).

The hump works best at 2 mph (1 mph is just too boringly slow, and 5 mph is just a tad too fast for a car cut man to run along side, and pull up on the cut lever).
 
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Why do some railcars decouple automatically on the TPR Hump Yard uncoupler ... while other railcars do not uncouple automatically, and require manual decoupling ?

Why do some locos have no DCC Speed Dial showing, as some glitch is telling it is not a loco, that it can not illuminate the headlight (until a loco is coupled on behind it) ... yet it drives using KB commands: W, S, X, and drive
 
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