Isolation of locomotives?

I am wondering if there is a way to isolate or turn off certain locomotives in a consist, instead of having all engines running and working. For example, have the first 2 running and have another 3 dead in tow. I need to know this because I am trying run trains exactly to how CSX runs them in real life. Thank you.

PARAILFAN said:

I am wondering if there is a way to isolate or turn off certain locomotives in a consist, instead of having all engines running and working. For example, have the first 2 running and have another 3 dead in tow.

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You would need two assets, otherwise identical. One with an engine and one without.

Creators go to great pains to create a great locomotive ... and everyone wants to turn them off ... or shove the route into a cramped basement model RR room

Clone it ... and disable it

Some of Jointed Rail's locomotives can be powered up or down. I can't remember which ones specifically, but I have come across that on a number of them.

PARAILFAN said:

I am wondering if there is a way to isolate or turn off certain locomotives in a consist, instead of having all engines running and working. For example, have the first 2 running and have another 3 dead in tow. I need to know this because I am trying run trains exactly to how CSX runs them in real life. Thank you.

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You will need a dummy engine spec. If you just delete the original engine spec it will throw up an error so clone the original loco and insert a dummy engine spec in the clone.

Some of Billegula's locos have a dummy e-spec look for kuid 81997

Cheers,
Bill69

Thanks for all the replies. Things like this are what is holding back Trainz from being on a level with the other railsims. Maybe eventually they will get the hint but I doubt it.

What does turning off a locomotive actually do, visually it makes no smoke, other than that how would you know it is turned off ... The idea of shut down locos is just absurd ... Just what I wanted a whole fleet of deadlined locomotives

cascaderailroad said:

What does turning off a locomotive actually do, visually it makes no smoke, other than that how would you know it is turned off ... The idea of shut down locos is just absurd ... Just what I wanted a whole fleet of deadlined locomotives

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Sure, because what you feel should be followed by everyone, at least, that is how your replies look like. Perhaps there are people who don't share the same vision as yours? Live and let live.
I have a layout with an engine facility and it makes the yard look so much more real to have locomotives showing on the tracks but the sound of 10 diesel locomotives idling can be a bit annoying and unrealistic, don't you think?

Ron

in real life a 'Slim Kabel', which , translated from Afrikaans to English , means Clever Cable is used. ( perhaps things have changed now )
it is basically a special mu cable that is connected between all the locomotives and has a brain inside it and the driver of the leading locomotive in a consist has a control box in the cab which allows that any one or more locomotive/s may be returned to idle or switched off completely for fuel savings etc. . The leading locomotive can also be shutdown while the trailing locomotive/s can be operated from the leading cab.
Perhaps our trainz creators can do something similar to incorporate this.

RW912 said:

.... but the sound of 10 diesel locomotives idling can be a bit annoying and unrealistic, don't you think? Ron

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No I do not agree ... when you are surfing down the track, in freeroam, you only hear the locos that are closest to the camera, @ 20m distant ... It never bothered me with all the locos idling

Sure ... It would be nice if all locos needed to be started up prior, or shut down after use ... but in real life quite allot of locos are left running 24-7-365, as they are started by an engine hostler many hours prior to when they are needed to be moved to a distant location.

Many thousands, and thousands of Trainz locos have no capability to be shut down, as they lack that scripting, and they can not be shut down, unless you clone them and remove, or replace enginespecs ... Do so ... Clone them and customize them as you wish

PARAILFAN said:

Thanks for all the replies. Things like this are what is holding back Trainz from being on a level with the other railsims. Maybe eventually they will get the hint but I doubt it.

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I think it might be somewhere else that the message isn't getting through. Trainz content is user-driven: if you don't want to manage your own content so it looks and works the way that you want then Trainz is not for you.

Clone the loco, change the engine tag and use a dummy engine from any existing unpowered carriage.

I recently required a "cold" version of a loco for two sessions in which it was attached to a train and towed away. Using the original engine meant the train effectively had a helper--most unrealistic.

The "clone and modify" solution was used. The enginespec was changed to Auran's "Default wagon" asset and the smoke settings were deleted.

To keep the cab view from cycling through the dead loco the interior KUID was deleted as well. Now it's just another car, although a heavy one!

The loco was a very old asset, so although I had the original author's permission to upload the modified asset, my lack of skills kept me from updating it enough that the DLC would take it. It's in my Dropbox so if you need a dead Milwaukee Road SW7, I could send you the link. PM me for it.

It works in 12 but hasn't been tested in TANE.

:B~)

cascaderailroad said:

...but in real life quite allot of locos are left running 24-7-365...

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I don't believe that...

☼

Cascaderailroad wrote that in real life a lot of locomotives are left idling 24-7. This is a bit of an overstatement, but in some places (particularly in the Northern US and Canada), where starting a locomotive in cold weather could be a real challenge, locomotives were left to idle for a lengthy period of time. It is much less common today to leave a train idling; the start up procedures for modern locomotives are less of a challenge than start up procedures one were.

ns

I don't know what the "due for servicing" plan is .... But if a train arrived in Phila Greenwhich yard, and it was due for servicing, it might be shut down overnight, it would be taken to Pavonia NJ loco shop ASAP, and put on an incoming servicing track, and possibly shut down again, as it might take days or weeks to clear a loco inspection pit track for it to come into the shop

When it is serviced it would go to a load test device, and tested, and put on a outbound ready track, and shut down again, awaiting a crew. Allot of times a loco is taken off a train, and left idling for a recrew, and is immediately put back into service, or sent on a power move to a distant terminal where it is needed.

But in Trainz we don't really have to worry much about burning fuel and EPA requirements ... I like starting up scripted locos, but the majority with locos with these features is very sparse

The problem with disabling a loco with a dummy enginespec is, that you have to go back into the config file and re-enable the disabled loco ... or you are left with a permanently shut down loco

Back in British rail days 1950's up till the 90's with the arrival of more reliable class's 58 and 60 it wasn't uncommon for BR to leave locomotives idling for days.

i to would also like to see train with the ability to be started and shut down, especially if it were possible to have them produce a lot of clag on a cold startup.....

i live near a large MPD in the U.K. and used to love seeing the huge columns of grey and black clag pouring from older class 37, 47 and 56's after days of being shut down. Petty this can't be reproduced in Trainz

I used to love seeing the 100' high white plume of smoke a load test on a 10F day, when your nose hairs crisp up every time you breath in (and the mosquito count is absolute zero)