AI bell control

I know of two AI horn triggers on the DLS -- "Sound Horn" and "HornTrigger." The only bell trigger I know of is "BellTrigger." I don't really like HornTrigger and BellTrigger because it can be difficult to figure out which way is which for the directional control. The other problem with BellTrigger is that it is only time based -- sound the bell for X seconds.

The problem here is that a real train sounds the bell based on location, not duration. At crossings, the bell is sounded until the engine is through the crossing, then turned off. It is also sounded when entering a station, until the train stops. There are a few other instances, but these are the major ones.

What's needed is a Driver command that will turn the bell on at a specific location such as a trigger, and off either when the train stops or at another trigger. Any ideas?

This is a good idea Matt and I've been thinking about how to go about this too for my routes. There are instances where I don't want to always sound the bell because it depends upon the type of train. On one particular route I run, I have trolleys running on the route and then also have a diesel-powered freight operation as well. I don't want the trolleys to ring the bell at the crossings, etc., because it's not necessary.

However, on the DLS if it's not built-in now, is the old Bellz command. This was used to have the AI drivers sound their bells when placed in their driver command queue. With that in mind, I can see this used in conjunction with some track marks. Navigate via track mark. or drive via track mark, followed by the Bellz command. In theory this will work, but the problem is the accuracy of the AI and the track marks. They seem to have a +/- 5 to 10% ratio of hitting them on the mark.

<KUID2:60850:23112:5> Sound Horn BiDirectional
<KUID:612368:100040> Ring_Bell_BiDirectional

Place one @ 200' prior to a station ... and a second one just short of where the engine stops ... the sound will start ... and then stop after the loco pass's the second one

You can place @ 8 of them @ 4 - 8 ties apart, and get a proper horn sequence (long, long, short, long)

cascaderailroad said:

<KUID2:60850:23112:5> Sound Horn BiDirectional
<KUID:612368:100040> Ring_Bell_BiDirectional

Place one @ 200' prior to a station ... and a second one just short of where the engine stops ... the sound will start ... and then stop after the loco pass's the second one

You can place @ 8 of them @ 4 - 8 ties apart, and get a proper horn sequence (long, long, short, long)

Click to expand...

You don't need to do that for the hornsound. There's an invisible hornsound asset which plays the US ooo-ooo-o-ooooo sound. The asset is directional and is shaped like a direction marker. I don't remember the Kuid, but the asset is by dricketts.

Here are the dicketts horn sounds, <kuid:135229:100378> Invisible Horn Sequence, <kuid:135229:100384> Invisible Horn, single long blast. These are not what he is looking for since they are track marks and everything going over them will sound the horn.