I'm sure you've had them too. I know I have.
You start a saved session which unbeknown-st to you was saved just as a consist was emitted from a portal. The session starts and you are driving and suddenly get a message that says "consist 19 has derailed". You pull up your driver list and everybody looks fine....no exclamation marks. So, you figure.....this game is just batty.
Later, somehow, you run across the derailed consist at a switch blocking you, or the portal, or it doesn't matter because now the line is fouled and you haven't used any rerail portal. Might not matter anyway because the consist was an orphan that came out of the portal without the driver because the previous save was done as it was being formed. You can't drive it now anyway. The session is ruined. The session you have run for the past 3 weeks, with only one save after each play.
The route's a good hour from end to end, the freight line joining the passenger line, then separating again to go through a large yard and then drain into an exit portal. Eight passenger consists running from both ends, and a Northbound freight coming from a portal every hour, while a Southbound portal starts a freight every 1/2 hour. You already have 3 freights at various places running, and this orphan freight now, plus the passenger rakes, and the freight you are driving. You start the session again and pray that the consist will load before the orphan hits the switch it derailed on earlier, and you frantically "search for object" to get to right place before disaster strikes. The problem is the portal empties through a large yard where the switches are right on top of each other, so you click away like a monkey to clear the path for the errant consist. Luckily it's only going 20 MPH!
You get the consist through the gauntlet of switches, and out on the main. You click on the engine, to no avail. The only solution is to clear the main straight through to the exit portal....but there's alot of traffic on the line. May day may day....we have a runaway train from Wellston Yard headed Southbound into heavy traffic!
The short local is no problem, you hole it in a siding and give it 2 thirty minute wait commands. The hotshot through train hauling 80 auto racks is another story. After you dash down the line throwing switches for the runaway, you find the hotshot, and try to find a siding long enough to hold it. The passenger rakes you let go for now, as the freight line doesn't hit the passenger main until about a half hour from now. Eventually you halt the Southbound passenger rake at the station in Hashing and give it 1/2 hour wait....just to be sure. That bottlenecks the rakes farther down the line, but lets the Northbounds keep coming. AI, don't fail me now!
Your own engine is an SW1500, and you're running engine light because you just dropped off the crane and flatcar for the mow boys by Garyland station. You were headed back to Wellston to pull some grain hoppers from the elevator past North Octane to the yard, but now you have orders to cross over at Hashing and wait for the runaway to pass.
There's no way you can let that runaway out onto the passenger main for the run to Springfield, to peel off to get to the exit portal. Too many communities between here and there, too many passenger consists throwing switches, and besides....the yard at Springfield is jammed, it would be too much to navigate the runaway through there to get to the portal. You can't take the chance anyway, if you miss that junction for the yard this behemoth will run into the passenger terminal at Springfield. Runaway Train is bad enough......but you don't want a "Silver Streak" on top of it!
What to do?
The orphan passes at it's 20 MPH crawl, 2 SD90's and 80 empty coal hoppers creaking and banging through the junction. The power heads out on the passenger main, the blinking Fred clears the switch. You scramble out and throw the switch your way, and lay sand and prayers on the rails as you notch up the 1500. She blows alot of smoke, but moves out at her maddening slow acceleration rate, you're hoping you can catch this monster before it makes the Jefferson Park station area. Dispatch gives you the okay to blow the reds and soon you are in the same signal block, gaining slowly on the blinking red beacon in front of you. You're long hood forward, so the conductor has gone out on the porch to radio your progress. It's dicey....but better than putting the little SW in front of the huge SD90's! "The radio barks....20 feet!.....15 feet!.....10 feet!.....5! COUPLE!"
You feel the impact as you grab her *ss at 22 MPH, and slowly throttle down, trying to slow her a little before grabbing the air. (Of course, you had control as soon as the two consists coupled....but it's more fun this way!) Eventually you get her stopped before the Jefferson Park crossing, and you make the long walk up to the leading 90. Now you can get her going to the exit portal, and start the mainline traffic again. A Northbound Metra flys by and salutes your efforts with a blast of the horns.
The session is saved, and you've just had one of the best times playing Trainz ever.
Ed
You start a saved session which unbeknown-st to you was saved just as a consist was emitted from a portal. The session starts and you are driving and suddenly get a message that says "consist 19 has derailed". You pull up your driver list and everybody looks fine....no exclamation marks. So, you figure.....this game is just batty.
Later, somehow, you run across the derailed consist at a switch blocking you, or the portal, or it doesn't matter because now the line is fouled and you haven't used any rerail portal. Might not matter anyway because the consist was an orphan that came out of the portal without the driver because the previous save was done as it was being formed. You can't drive it now anyway. The session is ruined. The session you have run for the past 3 weeks, with only one save after each play.
The route's a good hour from end to end, the freight line joining the passenger line, then separating again to go through a large yard and then drain into an exit portal. Eight passenger consists running from both ends, and a Northbound freight coming from a portal every hour, while a Southbound portal starts a freight every 1/2 hour. You already have 3 freights at various places running, and this orphan freight now, plus the passenger rakes, and the freight you are driving. You start the session again and pray that the consist will load before the orphan hits the switch it derailed on earlier, and you frantically "search for object" to get to right place before disaster strikes. The problem is the portal empties through a large yard where the switches are right on top of each other, so you click away like a monkey to clear the path for the errant consist. Luckily it's only going 20 MPH!
You get the consist through the gauntlet of switches, and out on the main. You click on the engine, to no avail. The only solution is to clear the main straight through to the exit portal....but there's alot of traffic on the line. May day may day....we have a runaway train from Wellston Yard headed Southbound into heavy traffic!
The short local is no problem, you hole it in a siding and give it 2 thirty minute wait commands. The hotshot through train hauling 80 auto racks is another story. After you dash down the line throwing switches for the runaway, you find the hotshot, and try to find a siding long enough to hold it. The passenger rakes you let go for now, as the freight line doesn't hit the passenger main until about a half hour from now. Eventually you halt the Southbound passenger rake at the station in Hashing and give it 1/2 hour wait....just to be sure. That bottlenecks the rakes farther down the line, but lets the Northbounds keep coming. AI, don't fail me now!
Your own engine is an SW1500, and you're running engine light because you just dropped off the crane and flatcar for the mow boys by Garyland station. You were headed back to Wellston to pull some grain hoppers from the elevator past North Octane to the yard, but now you have orders to cross over at Hashing and wait for the runaway to pass.
There's no way you can let that runaway out onto the passenger main for the run to Springfield, to peel off to get to the exit portal. Too many communities between here and there, too many passenger consists throwing switches, and besides....the yard at Springfield is jammed, it would be too much to navigate the runaway through there to get to the portal. You can't take the chance anyway, if you miss that junction for the yard this behemoth will run into the passenger terminal at Springfield. Runaway Train is bad enough......but you don't want a "Silver Streak" on top of it!
What to do?
The orphan passes at it's 20 MPH crawl, 2 SD90's and 80 empty coal hoppers creaking and banging through the junction. The power heads out on the passenger main, the blinking Fred clears the switch. You scramble out and throw the switch your way, and lay sand and prayers on the rails as you notch up the 1500. She blows alot of smoke, but moves out at her maddening slow acceleration rate, you're hoping you can catch this monster before it makes the Jefferson Park station area. Dispatch gives you the okay to blow the reds and soon you are in the same signal block, gaining slowly on the blinking red beacon in front of you. You're long hood forward, so the conductor has gone out on the porch to radio your progress. It's dicey....but better than putting the little SW in front of the huge SD90's! "The radio barks....20 feet!.....15 feet!.....10 feet!.....5! COUPLE!"
You feel the impact as you grab her *ss at 22 MPH, and slowly throttle down, trying to slow her a little before grabbing the air. (Of course, you had control as soon as the two consists coupled....but it's more fun this way!) Eventually you get her stopped before the Jefferson Park crossing, and you make the long walk up to the leading 90. Now you can get her going to the exit portal, and start the mainline traffic again. A Northbound Metra flys by and salutes your efforts with a blast of the horns.
The session is saved, and you've just had one of the best times playing Trainz ever.
Ed
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