Portal Problem

[pogbellies]

I'm building a layout centered around Coalville in the Midlands, which was a town literally built around coal mines (and attendant railways), hence the name. I am trying to compress details to some extent to avoid having a huge number of tiles.

While in the building process to ease traffic I have built portals at the track ends on the edge of the tiles being worked which should effectively form loops so the trains don't run off the edge. While they work to a degree - in that a train disappears into one and pops out at another - the trains stop when they exit the portal rather than keep running.

Is this a result of track direction co-ordination, lack of signalling or some other problem? I have to admit that at this stage I hadn't paid much attention to either track direction or signalling, more making it look right.

 

[pware]

"Pogbellies" ...hmmm, thats an interesting nickname ... there are a few things in your post that are not clear.

When you send your train into the portal is it under manual or AI control? If it is under AI control, are there any destinations ("Navigate/Drive To", etc) in its command list after the "Navigate/Drive To <portal name>"?

A train that emerges from a portal without any further orders (i.e. under manual control or after executing its final AI command) will always stop.

 

[pogbellies]

Then I think that you have answered the question, my trains have all been in manual control. I have not experimented with auto controls as yet.

Thank you, I will start playing around with this aspect and see where it goes...

PS I have no idea where I first heard the word pogbellies but it did amuse me so I nicked it - strangely it always seems to be available for forums

 

[Accipiter777]

Yes, it needs commands... for example:

Drive to> Station A
Drive to> Portal
Repeat

it will keep looping under AI command. If you drive a train into a portal, then it will come out and stop.

 

[itareus]

You might also like to check out this rule:

Quick Portal Manager v3,<kuid2:61392:5012:10>

It will allow you to timetable trains out of a portal.

 

[pogbellies]

Yes this does work, strangely my portals had reverted back to their original settings as well - so when a train went in it disappeared. For some reason the portal properties didn't save the instruction to transfer the train to another portal and the time delay reverted to 5 minutes (I think).

One thing that I'm not totally clear about is whether when giving a train commands I need to tell it to go to portal A, then portal B before proceeding to the destination or if it is sufficient to just tell it to go to portal A if the portals are linked.

They seem to be working ok now, but I'm still not sure what I did wrong.

 

[pware]

If Portal A and Portal B are linked so that trains entering Portal A re-enter the system some time later from Portal B then it is sufficient to send the train to Portal A, BUT it must have commands following the "Navigate To Portal A" in its driver command list.

e.g. (a fictional list)

Navigate to Silo
Load
Wait 1 minute
Navigate via Trackmark Yard 3 Up
Navigate to Portal A
Navigate via Trackmark Falls Road Loop <---- this will be executed as soon as the train has emerged from Portal B
Navigate to Flour Mill
Unload
Wait 1 minute
Navigate to Trackmark Siding 3 Down

Peter Ware

 

[Dug]

Saving Portal settings.

Highlight the session you want to edit and click on the "edit session" button.

After session is loaded open the layers tab and highlight the route layer.

Now you can edit the Portals properties.

This is the only way I have found to save Portal settings and it works every time. If you open the route for edit (either route or session layer) or open a session for edit with the session layer highlighted you may be able to open a Portal properties window but the settings will not save.

Doug

 

[Orpheus2000]

You might also like to check out this rule:

Quick Portal Manager v3,<kuid2:61392:5012:10>

It will allow you to timetable trains out of a portal.

Is this supposed to work in TS2009 as well? I downloaded it, but it appeared in red in the Commands selection list ( = faulty ?).

 

[Dap]

Is this supposed to work in TS2009 as well? I downloaded it, but it appeared in red in the Commands selection list ( = faulty ?).

It should if you have all the service packs installed. pguy has discussed this asset here on the forums. Just do a search. It is an awesome portal manager. It can manage all your portals, including portals from one route to another.

 

[airtime]

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