I'm looking for some good simple commands for coupling and uncoupling.

I may have a train that is up to 100 pieces of rolling stock long. I want to be able to tell AI to couple or uncouple any locomotive or railcar on the given train.

More specifically, I want AI to be able to open (unlock, pull the pin) the knuckles between any two rail cars then close (lock, reset the pin) the same couplers again later without actually moving the train.

The purpose of this is to, while at the staging yard, periodically change the freight load (using Instant Load/Unload commands) of part of the train without affecting the load of another part of the train.

For example, I have a manifest freight with TOFC cars in the front half which I want to periodically change the trailer load but I want specific gondolas in back of the train to remain always empty and also for the centerbeam cars in the back of the train to always retain their full G-P lumber loads. I want the trailer (piggyback) flat cars on the front half of the train to change their loads randomly, however. The train will have to be cut at the couplers at a certain spot to separate specific cars for loading. After the load change, I want the train that was cut to be made whole again before leaving the yard.

Opening the couplers between two cars in a consist separates it into two parts. Closing them again makes the train whole again. Using the Coupler Mode manually, one can close and open couplers with the mouse and not actually move the train. Instant Loading commands only affect the rolling stock connected (intercoupled by closed-knuckle couplers) to the engine from which the commands were administered. I want some AI commands that will open and close specified couplers in the same fashion whole the train remains static.

The 'Uncouplez' and 'Uncouplez From' order should do what you want.
Cheers,
Mike

Then I also need a command to close the knuckles of the same two cars that were uncoupled or unlocked.

Uncouplez From (by smileyman), I can't tell which author my version is) is Limited to 20 cars but I've discovered that the Auran Decouple command works for longer trains but you have to ID the car by road name, type, road number and instance number (1, 2, 3) etc.

I have yet to find a reliable command such as Couple from Auran and Couple to Vehicle from atilabarut that will actually close the knuckles of the car selected. I've tried some but they don't work. The car is selected when the command is given and nothing happens. Some of these have text in Russian and I can't read them.

Some Trainz commands are difficult to identify the rolling stock or consist you want the command to affect especially when you have duplicates over the route of the same piece of rolling stock.

I may just have to resort to changing the load product on trains by hand (fiddling with them) in the staging yard as I've been doing. I can't seem to find the appropriate AI commands to work the kind of auto-magic I was hoping for. On my unit (piggyback) train, there is no need to disconnect part of the train for product changes since the train is entirely of one type of freight car so I've incorporated Instant Load/Unload commands in its AI schedule for periodic load changes. The trailers and markings will periodically change for this truck trailer unit train for added realism.

Decouple DLX will handle up to 99 wagons and, unlike Uncouple, works in Driver mode under AI.

Which command will do the opposite, COUPLE or close the knuckles of the specified car?

Work just like any of these uncouple commands in reverse? Uncoupling is only half of my battle.

I've found some uncoulping commands that work for me but haven't figured out how to reverse this procedure.

Is there something of a "COULPLE DLX" to match it?

I now have figured out how to change freight loads in the staging yard of a partial train using both the Couple and Decouple DLX commands on the driver schedule.

Using the Couple command is not possible unless the train has already pulled away from the uncoupled piece of rolling stock first so my train will have to move forward slightly to uncouple then back slightly to recouple. I just can't decouple and recouple right in place. The train has to back up and hit the coupler for the knuckles to relock. I had to use a track mark as a point for the train to pull forward slightly after cutting in the middle of the train. The train will automatically back up at a rather harsh speed of 5 MPH to execute the Couple command and rejoin the entire train. While cut in the middle, I can change the product load in only the front half of the train using the appropriate commands on the Schedule line.


Doing this in Surveyor/Edit Session/Edit Schedule Library was a little tricky. A specific car or engine for a train or consist won't be listed in under the Decouple DLX command unless that item was already uncoupled in Surveyor/Edit Route previously. Both commands consider the FRONT FACING coupler of the piece of rolling stock and not the hind coupler for reference of a particular piece of rolling stock. Likewise, UP SD40-2 1 won't be available for the Couple command unless it was already uncoupled in Surveyor Edit Route. So for UP SD40-2 1 to be available for the Couple command in Edit Session, nothing has to be already coupled to its nose. Decouple DLX, on the other hand, won't recognize UP SD40-2 1 unless there is already something coupled to its nose. So, while setting up the Schedule Library for a decouple/recouple sequence of events, I had to bounce between Edit Route and Edit Session twice to reset the coupler of the particular engine under the Train tab so it would be available in either the Decouple DLX or Couple command depending upon its preexisting coupler setting while in Edit Session.

That is the major problem with ALL the coupling and decoupling commands. If you set a Decouple command in a driver schedule using the Driver Setup rule in surveyor, there is no guarantee that the specified wagon or loco will be a part of the consist under the command of that driver when it comes to executing the command. Likewise, the Couple command in a driver schedule using the Driver Setup rule in surveyor will also fail if the specified loco or wagon is not on the free and accessible end of a consist when the command is executed.

For human drivers and yard workers none of this would be a problem, they would make decisions based on their judgment and experiences. The AI has neither judgement nor experience.

pware said:

Likewise, the Couple command in a driver schedule using the Driver Setup rule in surveyor will also fail if the specified loco or wagon is not on the free and accessible end of a consist when the command is executed.

Click to expand...

This is one place CoupleAtTrackmark might come in handy. Set the radius of the TrackMark big enough and the loco will couple to the "first" car it encounters.

ecco said:

This is one place CoupleAtTrackmark might come in handy. Set the radius of the TrackMark big enough and the loco will couple to the "first" car it encounters.

Click to expand...

I just commanded the engine to pull forward to a special-purpose-placed track mark in the staging yard on his train's designated siding a few feet after Decouple DLX was executed to unhook the desired car in the consist in the rear.

Then he did his command-line-prescribed load-changing number while the train was cut in two.

Then he intuitively backed the train back to that car/engine he just unhooked from upon executing the regular Couple command even in the AI Schedule.

This is one of the few things AI gets right for a change.

Note about Decouple DLX: In Surveyor, it only identifies a consist car by an ordinary number, 1,2,3,4,5, etc. In Driver, it will indicate car type, road name and road number as well. So, you have to play with this command in Driver to figure out which ordinal number corresponds to which specific car in the consist to set up the Schedule Library in Surveyor/Edit Session. Sometimes locomotives are hard to identify in Driver Setup when you have duplicates of the same engine over the Route. You see stuff like SP SD40T-2 1, SP SD40T-2 2, and so on. This is a Trainz weakness. I would rather just give a piece of rolling stock a special name like "SP Mixed Freight Lead Loco" that would be so indicated as labeled by the various rules and commands for which there is a selection of a number of pieces of like rolling stock to identify for Driver and in Edit Session to avoid confusion and guessing. Or how about if Trainz were to be designed to just use the mouse to click and point to the specific piece of rolling stock for selecting and identifying it when setting up a session? The other thing that drives me nuts is trying to identify the turntable position of a roundhouse by a mere arbitrary number and the use of the number zero (0) in some commands to indicate a position of a turntable or ID a car in a consist.