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The nifty trick I outlined is for yards and sidings where you're switching in tight quarters, but generally the default settings are fine for the mainline. As 1611mac says, the speed determines how far out that the junctions will be locked and set. If you think about it, it makes sense. You don't want the junction set the wrong way if you're speeding down the tracks.
The peeve I have with this is that AI ignore user-driven trains and will snap the junctions for themselves before we have a chance to get them ourselves. There have been many occasions where I find myself stuck while pulling out on to a mainline from a branch line because the AI some distance away decides to lock the junction in its favor just as I approach the switch even though I have already set the junction for my path.
I see this as a bug and not a feature because all consists should be treated equally regardless of the driving method. Prior to T:ANE, this wasn't so much of a problem as it is now so something has changed since that version came out.
I had this problem and found a solution that worked:
At start of session, all was normal. Switch Z is the problem, being locked by a train (Train A) far away, making Train B wait.
Then Train A passed a jct X, but A was still a long way from switch Z.
Then Train B passed a jct Y, but B was less than .25 km away from switch Z.
Yet Train B got stuck just before switch Z and had to wait for Train A to pass thru switch Z. No way to run a railroad.
Solution: Somewhere along the stretch of track Train A would travel between X and Z, I added a siding. This makes switch Q. No plans to use the siding.
So now Train A is between X and Q instead of X and Z, which means Z will now be locked for use by Train B and all is well.
So in short, the AI must consider a section of track between switches as the controlling factor regardless of length.
This happens to me:
"There have been many occasions where I find myself stuck while pulling out on to a mainline from a branch line because the AI some distance away decides to lock the junction in its favor just as I approach the switch even though I have already set the junction for my path. "
if I notice in time, I pause the game, go to the AI train, insert a " halt train " a " wait 1 min. " and usually the switch releases. When that doesn't work, some of my AI only have one command like navigate to a portal or industry, I take note of that and put in a " abandon schedule command " and that for sure releases it and after my consist is in the passing track I re-enter the original portal command.
The feature that we can just change or add commands to a schedule on the fly, is really helpful. In all my sessions I have AI trains full of commodities I use and when I need to I will re-direct to an industry instead of letting them exit at a portal on the other end of the route.
Willy
I've manually stopped and started the AI without needing a halt command or abandoning the schedule. The only time I've run into totally stuck junctions is when the AI is already quite close to the junction to begin with. When that's the case, I will let the AI pass by before I go about my switching duties.
On the Rocky Mountains Montana track:
there are long stretches of single track that have signals along the way and I guess that is good if one is following an AI but where the problem comes in is when you are close to the end of the single track and the AI steals the switch and changes it to create a head-on and you can't change it cause he has it locked. The only good thing is that he usually sits at the other side of his signal waiting for me but he still won't release the switch.
As you say, if I were in his position and he was approaching on the single track I would definitely wait till he passed.
But, how do you:
" manually stopped and started the AI without needing a halt command or abandoning the schedule "
To do it " manually " would that not entail dropping his AI status and turning him into a player driven train by clicking on the bottom right of the screen where you can change to DCC, Realistic, or AI?
Thanks
Willy
On the Rocky Mountains Montana track:
there are long stretches of single track that have signals along the way and I guess that is good if one is following an AI but where the problem comes in is when you are close to the end of the single track and the AI steals the switch and changes it to create a head-on and you can't change it cause he has it locked. The only good thing is that he usually sits at the other side of his signal waiting for me but he still won't release the switch.
As you say, if I were in his position and he was approaching on the single track I would definitely wait till he passed.
But, how do you:
" manually stopped and started the AI without needing a halt command or abandoning the schedule "
To do it " manually " would that not entail dropping his AI status and turning him into a player driven train by clicking on the bottom right of the screen where you can change to DCC, Realistic, or AI?
Thanks
Willy