Dynamic Brake Issues on Coal Country Locos

xenium

Trainz Addict
Some Technical Brake (Realism) Questions about JointedRail's Locos



Hi all,

The three locomotives that come with Coal Country are easily my favorites so far, even with all the years I've been using Trainz. The cab detail, sound effects and everything are just spot-on for the way I like to use the simulator (i.e. mostly driving from in the cab, realistically, using a Raildriver controller.)

However, there are two things about the dynamic brakes in these locos that are bugging me, and I'd appreciate any insight anyone may have:

(1) Sound: Although the dynamic brakes seem to work properly, when I notch them up I can very clearly hear the prime mover (engine) revving up as if I were giving it throttle. It's the exact same sound and just as loud as if I were throttling up. The way that dynamic brakes work on a real locomotive is to "rewire" the traction motors as generators, and direct the output into the resistive radiator grid in the "blister" on the long hood of the locomotive, where it gets turned into heat and blown into the air. The prime mover isn't involved at all, it's just idling, so I would expect to hear only the dynamic brake fans spin up, if I hear anything at all from inside the cab. Is this a bug? Can I fix it by editing the loco config to disable that sound? Or is this just a Trainz limitation?

(2) Speed: I also noticed with the dynamic brakes that they're effective all the way down to a stop. The dynamic brakes on real locomotives aren't effective below a certain speed, I think about 10-15 mph? That's why both the dynamic and air brakes need to be used at the same time ("blended braking"). Is there any way to fix this as well?

Again, GREAT locos, just superb, and none of this is meant to be a complaint, just trying to figure this out. Given the level of realism of these locos I just assumed that the brakes would be a little more prototypical.

p.s. Oh, one more tiny little gripe :)... one of the locos, I forget which one, doesn't have a dynamic brake blister on the hood, so it's obviously not meant to be equipped with dynamic brakes, yet in cab, and operationally, the controls are still there and it still seems to work like it has them. (Yikes, I guess in my old age I've become a $#@! rivet counter. lol.) ;-)

Thanks!
 
1) The Trainz sound engine is not setup to allow for dynamic brake sounds. There have been attempts in the past to work around this but no real luck. The N3V devs keep giving the excuse of not having enough time, money and resources to fix something so simple and vital to the operation of a real train........

2) Dynamic brakes dropping out was likely just overlooked when the spec was created. Same with the cab mechanism that was used.
 
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