Scheduling A Passenger Train

boleyd

Well-known member
Assumption: A passenger train, beginning in the morning rush hour, makes a run through 4 stations. It then pulls into a siding until the next scheduled run. The 4 station schedule takes about 30 minutes, 4 runs a day. It would be nice to manage this with specific clock times instead of delay timing instructions. I can't find a way to activate a driver instruction at a specific time but instead must use an hour and a minute set of delay instructions for the AI driver.


Should we ever get real weather, or the ability to build weather patterns, a schedule based on clock time would be much easier to manage than one built on a rule for hourly delay times and another rule for minute delay times.
 
There are several possible driver commands

<kuid:32711:100025> Wait Until II
<kuid2:41009:900005:1> WaitUntil
<kuid2:178892:80003:1> Wait Until Minute
<kuid2:131986:1091:1> WaitUntilTime
<kuid:178892:80002> Wait Until Hour

Peter
 
The Wait Until are delay until commands. They do not specify a clock time such as 12:11. I use the delay until things but it is messy. A clock based command would be an improvement, at least for me.

I imagined a simple schedule:

12:11 leave yard, drive to station 1
12:16 load passengers
12:20 leave station
etc.
The times are part of the rule/command and the words are the usual message attachment.

No big deal. I will just Wait Until. It always works.....
 
You could try the driver rule Wait game time <kuid:151055:100118>. It is not as accurate as I would like but it is close to the actual game time.
 
THANKS! It worked. However, N3V insists that if you want to change a trigger time you must remove the command from the Driver Command set and reconnect it - then make the adjustment to the trigger time.. I somehow missed this gem. I have waited for a long time to have the ability to initiate an action at a specific time. Yes, I could delay a specified time from the start of a session but if I were to develop a complex set of schedule functions, specific clock times would be much easier for me to use.
 
If you have mastered pguy's Enhanced Interlocking Towers and Mission Code Manager, then I can thoroughly recommend his Stops and TimeTables Manager rule <kuid2:61392:8300:62>. With that rule you can easily set up timetables and then use the associated driver commands SetMCTimeTable and AutoDrivewithMCTimetable to manage your trains.

John
 
Said it before, said it again - N3V need to get on and code a proper timetable/schedule editor into the game. I see the updated version of Train Sim World is coming with the ability to keep driving a timetable for a full 24 hour period. All other warts of that title aside, if DTG can do it surely N3V could offer a similar feature (and all without faffing around using individual driver commands).
 
My problem with Interlocking Towers is the difficulty of creating the yellow paths - perhaps an unsteady hand. Another issue is that the paths are permanent. There is no way I can see to be able to change them dynamically under program control based upon changing conditions.. Yes, the present system does not offer that either. Since I no longer have to search for a CLOCK based driver command string, I will try the Interlocking system again.

I fully agree with Vern. I miss the DTG scheduling. However, as I predicted after years of enjoyment, the program would become a pure game. So, while you can setup a schedule, all you can do is the usual "look at all the points I have".

If we ever see real weather, or at least dynamic weather, then a scheduling system (aka TimeTable) will be needed to take to account the effects of weather on the performance of the railroad. In the meantime the customer has to manage a very long string of commands with no way of interjecting an temporary event into that string. Perhaps a few IF, Then, Else commands would allow the "command string" to check on the state of some asset and react accordingly. For now the Game Time command seems to not have any bad habits. Yes, its resolution for triggering is somewhere within the minute - a 60 second resolution.

The "string em out" train management system (aka Driver Control) is functional, but cumbersome. I have seen some sessions, done by talented people, that you could measure in feet.
 
Hi.

To try help understanding how Enhanced Interlocking Towers (EITs) , Mission Code Manager (MCM) and Stop and Timetables (STT) rules work together, you need to see all these rules as three embedded layers of rules, each one in charge of adding some functionality based on the capacity of the underlying layer rule.

The low level is the EIT system, which is in charge of defining all the paths that trains may follow inside a tower. A path is only a starting entry signal, a succession of junctions with the junction direction to be set and an exit signal to termineate the path. Activating a path is only requesting to set all the junctions defined in the path to their target direction and to clear the entry signal when this is done. Activating a path is in fact very similar to using a rule to set multiple junctions to their target direction. The main advantage of ITs is to manage conflicting path requests activating successively the conflicting paths for all requesting trains.

The medium level is the MCM system, which enables to choose for a mission code all the paths that will be followed by any train with this mission code. By defining several mission codes with distinct paths set, you can then easily change for a train the route that will be followed by only changing the mission code code assigned to a train. MCM will choose and activate the underlying paths needed following the progression of the train along the route based on its current mission code.

The last level is the STT system, that enables using specific MCMPathStop trackmarks to define where a train should stop in a station and also to define named timetables, with a list of stops with arrival and departure time and some mission codes to be used to drive between the stops. When such a timetable has been defined in the STTY rule, you only need to use a specific driver command AutoDriveWithTimeTable to select the time table to follow and your train will start to follow the timetable stopping only a the stops defined in the timetable and waiting the departure time defined to leave a stop …

These rules need to spend some time the first time you use them with some learning curve, but when you have understood how all the system works, adding new paths, new mission code and a new timetable may only need 10 to 30 minutes configuring the system to add new passenger schedule service.

The session EIT DemoRoute - UK 1 - Full session with time table <kuid2:61392:8406:7> available on DLS may help to understand how it works on a simple route for a very simple timetabled schedule.

Hope this may help.
Regards.

Pierre.
 
THANKS !!! You have great patience. A very good explanation of the basic operations of the three main elements. Then finally seeing the Mission Code usage explained made sense of the entire system. There are probably some "do not do" things but let's see if I hit them.
 
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