Making Life Difficult

[Mick_Berg]

In my never-ending quest to make things as difficult as possible, I have created a push-pull consist to run on my route. Problem is, of course, as you would expect, when the train is pushing, it ends up in the wrong positions at stations, etc, because the loco is at the rear. So I came up with this absurd scheme; remove the enginespec and enginesound files from the loco (Jinty), so it just becomes a piece of rollingstock, and add them to the front coach (IOW Comp 1 Coach) that has the control cab, so it essentially becomes the loco. Would this be possible?

I realise that I'd have to have two consists, one for pushing and one for pulling, and subtly swop them with portals.

Thanks,
Mick Berg.

 

[TSwenson]

It sounds like you are running a modern commuter type operation, where the consist is operated from a "cab" car at one end and the locomotive at the other. I say this to make sure that my understanding of the problem is correct. My understanding is that you have a problem with the consist misaligning at the station platforms due to the location of the locomotive. I don't see that there is a problem with the logic of your solution, in fact it seems to me that you have neatly identified the problem and a solution there to. My only suggestion would to additionally make one of the intermediary cars a "locomotive" so that you could place it in the middle of the consist to simplify things for AI running (it is my experience that simple is better with the AI). This way you could have two specific consists to run as a "player" engineer (with the problems of switching them out) and a single consist for the often maligned AI to deal with. There may be some issues with how Trainz identifies locomotives, or with how stations identify trains. I would think that you would need to understand which part of the code identifies a particular unit, coach, locomotive, or station. While the actual modifications to the code is past my comfort level for programing; I hope this helps you, or at least stimulates some further discussion.

 

[lewisner]

Why don't you place a Red Marker at the rear end of the platform and call it e.g. "Dingley Dell Push Pull"? Merry Xmas!

 

[Bill69]

In my never-ending quest to make things as difficult as possible, I have created a push-pull consist to run on my route. Problem is, of course, as you would expect, when the train is pushing, it ends up in the wrong positions at stations, etc, because the loco is at the rear. So I came up with this absurd scheme; remove the enginespec and enginesound files from the loco (Jinty), so it just becomes a piece of rollingstock, and add them to the front coach (IOW Comp 1 Coach) that has the control cab, so it essentially becomes the loco. Would this be possible?

I realise that I'd have to have two consists, one for pushing and one for pulling, and subtly swop them with portals.

Thanks,
Mick Berg.

Hi Mick,

Instead of all that changing of rollingstock why not just use one of the AJS invisible stations. When they are set up the train always stops in the centre of the station. If you don't already have them make sure you dowload the entire pack, as you must have every item in the pack to make them work. You will also require the "call at" command. Drive to will work but the train will not always stop at the right place.

Merry Christmas
Bill69

 

[Mick_Berg]

Actually it's technology from the 1920's, see here: http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app3-4/ap3-pp.htm and an excellent photo at http://www.53a-pix.co.uk/picture/67280a-SH-090455.jpg
Three good suggestions here, many thanks. I've tried AJS stations, but they are too long for my little route, the passengers are strung along the platform, instead of in a little clump for the two-coach trains. (I'm using "Invisible Station 50m" which has the problem that it has a 1.1 meter passenger height to suit French platforms, and the passengers all seem to have run afoul of Don Corleone:hehe: .)
Certainly I'll try the marker, and indeed if I do have to resort to the modifications, it will be a good idea to have the virtual loco in the middle.
Thanks and Happy Holidays to all,
Mick Berg.

 

[Bill69]

Hi Mick,

If you use track marks you will need two of them, one for each direction. It does not matter if the front vehicle has a cab or not, the AI driver always thinks he is in the front vehicle. If you go to map view you will see where the driver is. Assuming your track runs North / South set up a marker half the trains distance from the centre of the platform on the North side, call it say station North, then set one up half the trains distance from the centre on the South side and call it station South. Reduce the marker radius to 0.10 on both of these markers, then when running under AI going North tell the driver to drive to station North, stop, wait 10sec. drive to or via next destination. When going South tell the driver to drive to station South etc. This way you can have the loco on one end of the train as in the picture.

Cheers,
Bill69

 

[JCitron]

I had another problem with the push-pull setup. My AI drivers try to turn the trains around instead of driving backwards. This is frustrating because instead of following the commands and going to the next station, they will spend their time muckying up the works trying to turn themselves around causing all kinds of tie ups along the way.

I solved the problem by putting a Budd RDC on the end of the string of passenger cars, or by setting up a string of RDCs pulled by an MBTA E9. This was common during the late 1980s and into the 1990s when the MBTA used de-powered Budd RDCs as coaches and cab-control cars. Before all the Budds were completely retired, they'd be mixed in with Pullman Standard, Messerschmidt, double-decker commuter cars, and even other old passenger cars.

One commuter train I took had some old long distance passenger cars from the Boston and Albany (NYC) mixed in with CPR Buddliners and a few RDG and B&O cars as well. Another train was made up of RDG, Boston and Albany and New Haven cars. Talk about stepping back in time. All of these railroads went out before I was old enough to ride on anything but the B&M cars.

Anyway hopefully with TRS2009 I can rework the MetroNorth M7s as a Horizon Cab-Control cars. This will modernize my commuter railroad and retire the old Budd cars once and for all.

John

John

 

[Mick_Berg]

Hi Mick,
If you go to map view you will see where the driver is.

Hey, you're right! So my whole crazy idea was based on a misconception and would not have fixed anything! You saved me a lot of pointless fiddling, thanks.

Assuming your track runs North / South set up a marker half the trains distance from the centre of the platform on the North side, call it say station North, then set one up half the trains distance from the centre on the South side and call it station South. Reduce the marker radius to 0.10 on both of these markers, then when running under AI going North tell the driver to drive to station North, stop, wait 10sec. drive to or via next destination. When going South tell the driver to drive to station South etc. This way you can have the loco on one end of the train as in the picture.
Cheers,
Bill69

I'm afraid this didn't work for me. If I didn't add a "drive to station 'xxxxxx' " the passengers would not load. And then I was back to square one, in fact worse, because the train would have a little spurt of acceleration as it went from the trackmark to the station which made it overrun the end of the station. Mind you I set the trackmark radius to 1.0, not 0.10 as you said. Would this make a difference?
Thanks,
Mick Berg.

 

[Bill69]

Hi Mick,

If the train stops within the confines of the station you do not need a load command, the passengers should load automatically. The 0.10 radius is to get the train to stop at the correct position, you may have to move the trackmark just a little to get it precise. Think of driving the train yourself, you can stop at a station and pickup passengers without a load command then, this goes for most industries too you can load and unload products without and command to load or unload. There is one other thing, if you have setup your stations to have a longer wait than the default, which I think is five seconds, you will have to give your train a longer wait command to suit. The stop command will mean the wait time does not start counting till the train is completely stopped, if you don't have the stop command then the wait command will start counting down when the train triggers the trackmark.

Cheers,
Bill69

 

[Mick_Berg]

Hi Mick,

If the train stops within the confines of the station you do not need a load command, the passengers should load automatically. The 0.10 radius is to get the train to stop at the correct position, you may have to move the trackmark just a little to get it precise....... There is one other thing, if you have setup your stations to have a longer wait than the default, which I think is five seconds, you will have to give your train a longer wait command to suit. .........
Cheers,
Bill69

Thanks, I'll try again bearing that in mind.
Mick Berg.