Break up consist.

Ghost42

Well-known member
Is it possible to have a large consist arrive then have it broken up into smaller sections by a shunter to feed a power plant with limited access?
If so which rules are required?
 
After my AI train arrives at the stopping trackmarker destination, I drive my loco Manually, by hands on the locomotive control handles, and uncouple/couple the railcars manually, just as a real conductor would do. It avoids all the complex rule configurations, and complex AI setup commands, and avoids all the AI screw-ups.

Real railroad trains do not drive/uncouple/couple, autonomously, as real railroads do not have AI.
 
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Yes, I agree.

I've played around with AI a little bit and it's a HUGE tool that can be used to make your world much more alive and get more stuff done. However, once you get into complex operations for me personally then perhaps your route is too big :)

I was in Run8 for about a decade and despite having MP, the AI worked great and had simple functions. Obey the speed limits, don't crash into other trains, and follow the signals. It had no uncoupling commands. Still Run8 developed plenty of routes in one region that quite frankly needs at least 20 people to operate at prototypical levels.

By all means if you want to spend the time to program the rules you can do pretty much anything. You can even add those pauses in there that the post above mentioned are part of normal operations. In fact I'd go further and say the player and physics (run8 has awesome physics) not to mention walking back to the engine from throwing switches, grabbing an updated switch list takes lots of time.

What follows is my strategy, and only mine and I still haven't fully developed the route yet. In fact I can't operate on it since I switched over to DEM and started from scratch but it's so worth it in my opinion.

1) Run a route or area that you can manage (unless you are using multi-player). I haven't tried MP in Trainz, in Run8 it works awesome but I'm no in Run8 anymore because regions get too big and not everyone is around when you want to run.

2) The route you manage should have a traffic structure that is not too busy or complex. So for example I'm developing Niagara and I'm sure there are several similar regions like mine out there. Personally I don't like switching all the time I do enjoy to just run or watch my railroad work (I think that is what you are after). So I'm developing a region that has 2 class 1's and a short line. Both class 1's CN & CP have limited traffic. CN has commuter service which is easily programmable in comparison. As far as freights go CN has basically 1 mainline feeder train each way a day as it serves Niagara and breaks down into 2 other trains and locals each way at Port Robinson for the United States from Canada. CP on the other hand has smaller trains but perhaps only half a dozen. CN has only a few industries. CP has even less. The shortline has about half a dozen spread out over a greater distance.

3) Run an open ended session - Quick drive if you will, and keep saving it and coming back.

4) Run a 24 hour cycle. Even if the region is quiet at times find a place where there is some traffic perhaps (most of my staging is near busier cities) and have the ambient sounds of cars, traffic lights, sunrise, sunset, weather, etc.

5) Pick and choose the mainline jobs you want to run, or have them drive to locations. You can have them do 1 operation such as a setoff. I believe one of the uncouple commands I have will do that. So you have it run to a spot, perhaps wait so long, uncouple again etc. But as suggested if it's a simple operation it doesn't take much to switch it out so just have it drive in the yard, and message you for your attention. If you can't get to it right away not a big deal, in fact it's prototypical. The crews will be shooting the bull on the ground with the crew change or waiting for a taxi to show up.

Anyways just some ideas. At least that is my plan. I was working this plan a bit before I switched to DEM and started over. Again it was worth every day, week, and now month I've had to recreate what I was doing before even better.

Thanks

Sean
 
Some time ago I had a seaport on a route. It had 2 sections, one for handling local containers, the other loaded and unloaded ships.
The train of 60 wagons, for local work came into the local arrival siding, uncoupled and move to the loco service.
The switcher then uncoupled 20 cars and placed them on a siding with the JR container crane unloading onto semitrailers and taken to warehouses for distribution through internal portals.
There were 3 of these crane units operating. Once the consist was unloaded I had to manually move the consist to make it change to loading again. Semitrailers came out of the other end of the warehouses from portals.
Once a consist was reloaded the switcher would collect it and take it to the Dispatch siding and add it to the train.
Once all were coupled again the locos returned from loco service coupled and departed to a portal at the other end of the main line. The switcher returned to it's hold point.

On the other side of the port the same operation was happening. The consists were taken to 3 container crane sidings and unloaded to semitrailers to be taken to the ships for loading.
At the same time containers were taken from the ships to a container yard for storage.
Once a consist was unloaded, semitrailers would bring containers from the storage yard and load the consist again.
The consist was then formed up on the Dispatch track and it's Locos returned and coupled and left for a portal on the main line.
I gave this route to a few of the members and they were impressed. Unfortunately I lost the route in a hard disk crash. I forgot to backup.
This was fully handled by the AI and had very few problems. I have always found AI to be very reliable. I use very basic or no signals and let the drivers work it out. Sometimes you get a couple of hotheads and have a standoff, but rarely happens.
Cheers,
Mike
 
That sounds like an awesome system.

I should preface that routine operations such as what you mentioned though complex are good candidates to try and make complex AI scripts. In fact I have at least 1 plant that ALWAYS can only load 5 hoppers at a time on one of their loaders. I can't see the other one so I'm never quite sure how much it does :) Before I purchased TransDem and started over I was about to create such a script.

Now on manifest trains that's a different slippery slope. I think if you have a system integrated (such as one of the car control systems) it's certainly possible. Since I have a programming background I would certainly be up for the challenge. My RTS software for Run8 did a pretty good job of car forwarding. I'm hoping one day after my route is complete enough to release that I can devote time to trying to create an RTS for Trainz. But I also have aspirations of learning how to do my own assets and create them.

I think this will last me for years to come just like Run8 lasted for about a decade with me. If you look at my profile you can see the time difference between the 1st version of Trainz and the current. That is when I was in Run8 for the most part.

Thanks

Sean
 
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