How do I get passenger carriages to line up with the platform when using driver commands?

[RobWed]

So I'm trying the "Dispatchin' the Action" session in Kickstarter 2. First I manually drove from Oyonix to Smallbrook Jct. Stopped the train so all the carriages were nicely lined up along the platform. I had Commodity Overlays on so after a pause I saw the passengers load from the platform to the train. All good! So then I restarted the session and set up some driver commands for the passenger train. Navigate to Smallbrook Junction and wait 30 seconds. Started out okay but at Smallbrook Jct the loco stopped at the platform leaving all the carriages with no adjacent platform. Whilst this met the condition for the session rules, none of the passengers at that station 'boarded' the train.

How do I make both things happen? I know I could jump into manual mode and move the consist forward a bit but I want to automate completely.

Is there a command to offset the stopping point of the loco so the carriages line up nicely? Or something similar...

TIA

 

[RobWed]

'salright I worked it out. Went and had a look at some AI commands in other sessions. Navigate to... Load. Unload.

 

[ricomon35]

@RobWed - You can also add a track marker just past your station. Since a loco will stop somewhere between 5-10 meters before track mark with a drive to command, you can set it up so your loco unit stops with it's back end just past the station platform (which is prototypical). After the consist stops, the station unload/load script will run.

 

[RobWed]

I thought of that but given that would mean going into Surveyor (I think...) I felt like that might be cheating in someone's session. I have it all working nicely now (after a bit of trial and error) but it depends heavily on time. That also feels like cheating. I'd like to be able to do something like "wait at this signal until this other train leaves this block." or 'set this signal to red until this other condition has been met' Haven't found anything yet. I'm sure it's out there though.

 

[ricomon35]

I thought of that but given that would mean going into Surveyor (I think...) I felt like that might be cheating in someone's session. I have it all working nicely now (after a bit of trial and error) but it depends heavily on time. That also feels like cheating. I'd like to be able to do something like "wait at this signal until this other train leaves this block." or 'set this signal to red until this other condition has been met' Haven't found anything yet. I'm sure it's out there though.

Dude, it's a simulator, not a game where cheating is something you'd worry about.
Surveyor is there for a purpose, making your layout/route session run properly, use it

 

[JCitron]

Rob,

While the built-in and DLC routes are great and some are really, really awesome there's nothing like rolling your own. Use these routes as inspiration and as stepping stones for what you want to do yourself.

I started with Trainz in December 2003 a few days after Christmas. Like you I went through the tutorials, played around with the built-in routes, downloaded a few from the DLS. The DLS back then was web-based and I was on a slow DSL line, making that a painful experience.

After a short time, I opened up a route I downloaded in Surveyor to see how it was made. I was duly disappointed by how the content creator had laid down his track and had done other things. Trying the different tools, I figured out how to replace the track, manually by the way with better ones I had installed, and added a loop on a blank baseboard. I was excited by how easy it was to do this in Surveyor.

In January 2004, I set out and started a long-term project that still exists today. The route has gone through many renovations, full section rebuilds, and almost met bit heaven due to some major system crashes. Today, the route and sessions work well in TRS-Plus and I'm now updating the textures to PBR and adding in TurfFX.

The route came about because I wanted something I could build, fiddle with, and enjoy that I could call my own. I imported and merged other routes that I felt were similar themed, but many were removed later on when I came up with something better. I also used this opportunity to learn how these route-builders did things. I emulated those that I liked and I was able to blend their routes into mine without too much of a difference in texturing and asset choices.

The route that I've built was based on a theme I set up for a model railroad back in 1984 except this was the same railroad in full scale since Trainz is real scale. Being able to build the railroad, or model railroad of our dreams, is what this program is about.