Okay, here is a fictitious station and yard in 04. The signals are all named as are the plentiful trackmarks.
You can see it's basically a main line, a loop, and an extra loop called 1 road. The mass of track at the bottom of the map is an adjacent coal mine. From left to right is "down" and from right to left is "up".
The down end with signals controlling the two points, as well as trackmarks to define a stopping position for down trains.
The up end is basically a mirror of the down end except that there is a trackmark just beyond the down home signal.
The movement required is a Garratt hauled train of 17 mt coal hoppers and one guard's van arrives from the right (left on the map) and berths on 1 road. The command "Drive to trackmark - Skipton 1 down" works fine.
Next I want the loco to cut off and go to the other end of the train. The command "Run around train" works perfectly even though the loco consists of three parts not just one.
The loco pulls out beyond the up home stick and travels back along the loop. The signal gives the left branch indication because of the invisible signals just past the main line points (see map for placement). All is still well.
At the other end of the yard the loco gets a signal to proceed out onto the main line to just beyond the down home stick. The train is on the track closest to us just out of view.
The points are set to lead in to 1 road and an invisible signal past each set of points not only ensures the home stick can show a right branch but also that the loco does not encounter a severely restricting red signal until it is actually moving down 1 road. The loco will pass a red signal under this command but at no more than 3 mph. Have a look at the map to see where I placed the invisible signals.
The loco catches on to the guard's van and what needs to happen next is for the guard's van to be detached from the train and taken to the adjacent track (the loop) and left on trackmark "Skipton up loop". I have used the commands "Uncouple from - 3"; "wait for - 5 seconds"; "Drive to trackmark - Skipton home down"; "Wait for - 5 seconds"; "Drive to trackmark - Skipton up loop".
And what actually happens is the AI has a hissy fit and cannot work out how to follow those commands.
I have placed a "Wait for - 5 seconds" between each operation command in the sequence (as you can see in the screenshots).
I have tried including the "Change direction" command but the outcome is the same with or without this command.
The trackmark "Skipton loop up" is virtually alongside the loco in the above screenshot. In the command list you can see I've included "Drive to trackmark - Skipton home down" to try and force the AI to move in the "up" direction but it somehow fails to see that as an option. When I check out the points' settings they have not changed from the default settings. Even if I manually set the points for the movement the AI still will not see it as a movement in that direction.
The guard's van is there because this railway is a bit of a dinosaur. The van has to be detached, the hoppers lifted by the loco, and the whole train pushed onto the van so that the train can proceed in the direction it came from. The loco will work in reverse and I know that this is okay because I've actually created a train like this and sent it on its way; it works fine.
The real problem here is getting the van sorted out. If I ran the train without the van it would be easy osey but would not look very prototypical.
Do any of you good people have any bright ideas as to how to make this shunt come about?
Cheers
Nix
You can see it's basically a main line, a loop, and an extra loop called 1 road. The mass of track at the bottom of the map is an adjacent coal mine. From left to right is "down" and from right to left is "up".
The down end with signals controlling the two points, as well as trackmarks to define a stopping position for down trains.
The up end is basically a mirror of the down end except that there is a trackmark just beyond the down home signal.
The movement required is a Garratt hauled train of 17 mt coal hoppers and one guard's van arrives from the right (left on the map) and berths on 1 road. The command "Drive to trackmark - Skipton 1 down" works fine.
Next I want the loco to cut off and go to the other end of the train. The command "Run around train" works perfectly even though the loco consists of three parts not just one.
The loco pulls out beyond the up home stick and travels back along the loop. The signal gives the left branch indication because of the invisible signals just past the main line points (see map for placement). All is still well.
At the other end of the yard the loco gets a signal to proceed out onto the main line to just beyond the down home stick. The train is on the track closest to us just out of view.
The points are set to lead in to 1 road and an invisible signal past each set of points not only ensures the home stick can show a right branch but also that the loco does not encounter a severely restricting red signal until it is actually moving down 1 road. The loco will pass a red signal under this command but at no more than 3 mph. Have a look at the map to see where I placed the invisible signals.
The loco catches on to the guard's van and what needs to happen next is for the guard's van to be detached from the train and taken to the adjacent track (the loop) and left on trackmark "Skipton up loop". I have used the commands "Uncouple from - 3"; "wait for - 5 seconds"; "Drive to trackmark - Skipton home down"; "Wait for - 5 seconds"; "Drive to trackmark - Skipton up loop".
And what actually happens is the AI has a hissy fit and cannot work out how to follow those commands.
I have placed a "Wait for - 5 seconds" between each operation command in the sequence (as you can see in the screenshots).
I have tried including the "Change direction" command but the outcome is the same with or without this command.
The trackmark "Skipton loop up" is virtually alongside the loco in the above screenshot. In the command list you can see I've included "Drive to trackmark - Skipton home down" to try and force the AI to move in the "up" direction but it somehow fails to see that as an option. When I check out the points' settings they have not changed from the default settings. Even if I manually set the points for the movement the AI still will not see it as a movement in that direction.
The guard's van is there because this railway is a bit of a dinosaur. The van has to be detached, the hoppers lifted by the loco, and the whole train pushed onto the van so that the train can proceed in the direction it came from. The loco will work in reverse and I know that this is okay because I've actually created a train like this and sent it on its way; it works fine.
The real problem here is getting the van sorted out. If I ran the train without the van it would be easy osey but would not look very prototypical.
Do any of you good people have any bright ideas as to how to make this shunt come about?
Cheers
Nix
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