I having trouble setting up AI for helper sequence.

Loco sits on siding on Wait For Trigger command. Passenger train stops before junction triggering loco to couple to front of train. Helper couples to train and loses his schedule completely. He now has lost his commands on the schedule line and train goes nowhere. The driver of the passenger train takes over and is stuck on his own Wait For Trigger command. This command was intended to make the passenger train proceed on his own schedule after the helper uncouples and goes his own way following the trip over the mountain. How do I rig schedules for both helper and train so this sequence works out properly?

Scenario: train arrives at base of mountain for helper to hook up front, helper tows train over mountain, helper unhooks over the mountain, the passenger train goes on his own merry way and the helper returns to his siding

Is there a tutorial on Trainz helper service setups for Sessions? When each train to be joined has its own driver and schedule in progress there is trouble. How do I make these two trains and drivers cooperate jointly for a helper trip?

Obviously there is only enough room for one captain (or driver) one one ship (or train) at a time. When the helper engine hooks up to the long train, "who" drives the new consist from there?

In 1986, I rode Amtrak from California to Denver. In Utah, a big yellow UP locomotive hooked up to the front of the train and hauled it for some distance then unhooked at one point down the line and both trains went on their own separate respective merry ways.

Is Trainz compatible with this kind of temporary helper service under complete AI control? Are there special commands at DLS for this?

Only one driver can be in a consist at any one time. You need to move the passenger driver out of the train while the helper engine is coupled up. Once the helper engine uncouples you can put the driver back to continue his journey.

Are there schedule line commands to do this? Will removing the driver temporarily suspend the schedule rather than deleting it? I want this all to happen in AI mode human "hands off".

What commands do I place on the schedules of both trains to make this all happen absent of human intervention while Session is running? AI will have to be doing all the driver moving in and out of cabs on its own.

It needs a few small extra assets placed to work but it can be done fully automated with AI. I have a small demo route of how to split a train that shows how to use two drivers with the same consist of moving one driver to a temporary position while the second driver runs the train. PM me your Email if you want to take a look.

I sent you a pm, stagecoach. I don't think the helper loco issue has been given much discussion in the Trainzing community. Perhaps, I might even post a video tutorial somewhere should I be successful at creating a helper session.

This is an issue of merging two traincars/locos each with their own driver. I have been quite successful coupling an engine with a single driver to traincars with no drivers or schedules occupying them. I suspect this will all be done using certain commands, perhaps special commands, in a certain order. Get Off Train is not a command available when composing a Schedule Library schedule in Edit Session.

Sample sent. The only command that I know that keeps the instructions is "move to train at TM". It carries all the driver commands with him so he can move from train to train as many times as you want. It is a while since I used TANE and I had to put a TM shunt on the track because the helper would try and go all around the loop instead of just moving past the junction and then couple to the train.
Hope it helps with what you need to happen.

I tried using the ordinary Move to Train command but that does not work for my scenario. Whenever this command is executed, it's lost from the schedule line for good. The Repeat mode does not retain this command for future use as it does most other commands. It's a one-shot deal. I'm now giving "move to train at TM" a whirl to see how that goes. I want the helper routine to run repeatedly without any human input while Driver is under way. The Move to Train will work for a schedule only run for one cycle.

The behavior of the lineside/chase-view cameras is another horse of a nother color altogether. When the helper hooks up to the previously-camera-focused passenger train, the cameras then follow the helper on the nose of the passenger train. When the helper departs from the passenger train, the cameras still follow the helper loco and all camera attention is lost from the passenger train. I was hoping the cameras would stay with the part-time-helper-assisted passenger train for its entire schedule. The cameras only seem to focus on an active driver and his respective loco under way during a schedule, not a train the cameras were originally set on during the opening of the session.

The demo I sent you will allow the helper engine to do its task over and over again each time it gets that message. Only a train that sends the message will activate the helper while other trains will just pass through.

What edition of Trainz is your demo for? I'm still running 2012. I tried these new commands you gave me. They work. One issue, though.

When the passenger train driver moves back to the train on the move to train at TM following the helper's decoupling and driving off while triggering the Wait For Trigger command which returned the passenger driver to his own train, his passenger loco is no longer drivable. No throttle response, no enginesound and no lights on/off operation. The locomotive that just received helper service gets "killed" somehow during this process. The engine is even dead in manual mode if I try driving it myself after telling the returned driver to abandon his schedule or Stop Train. After the helper departed and the driver returned, his engine essentially became a static object sitting dead on the track. Any help here one can chime in, please? His V/Line A7 loco was working when the helper was hooked up though. It emitted enginesounds and diesel smoke. Is there a command-line command to restart a dead loco?

It was done with TANE as I don't have the older versions installed. Don't have an answer to the engine not moving as I have never encountered that problem.

I plan to import my route to TANE eventually. I'll have to try it out there. TS12 has been known to be buggy in the past anyway. TANE is supposed to have improved anti-aliasing and better graphics for animation to boot. I just spent close to $1,000 on new PC hardware and a copy of Windows 10 combined to upgrade my 12-year-old home-built desktop.

I'm downloading the TANE SP4 right now. I purchased SP3 a few years back and shelved it because it was too slow on my old pre-upgraded PC.


A while later:

I've installed TANE SP4 now and imported CDP from TS12. A lot of faulty stuff in red and a lot of crap to get from DLS to fix this. Sometimes stuff becomes broken when put in CDP form. Stuff also somehow seems to break when going from TS12 to TANE. What works in TS12 is often recognized as faulty and/or missing dependencies when imported to TANE via CDP. All the downloaded fixes into TANE CM will be saved to CDP in TANE for faster future re-installations of TANE, I hope. Dependencies get lost and some stuff gets faulty in the shuffle between editions of Trainz and in the CDP process. I don't think that CDP content recovery process has ever been perfected.

I tried using a different loco altogether for the passenger train in TS 2012. Same damn thing. The loco gets "killed" when the helper disconnects and the driver returns to it. This whole helper thing is not cut out for 2012 at least.

UPDATE

Thanks, stagecoach.


I finally got my TANE up and running and ran your demo you sent me. I see you used the following special commands:

-Post Message
-Wait for Message and Clear
-Couple at Trackmark
-UncouplezFrom
-Move to Train at Trackmark


I downloaded these and now I can run my helper scenarios successfully even in TS 2012. No more broken locos. I see you used a man disguised as a loco. This loco man isn't available for TS 12, so I just used a "normal" engine sitting in my roundhouse for that purpose. To relocate the driver when the helper is hooked up. Using the Move to Train at Trackmark command, I can even get fancier. I can move my driver from one of three excursion trains parked in the staging area to another after running a loop of my layout. One excursion train gets no helper service on its run while the other two get helper service for their respective runs.

Helper issue solved!!

Glad you got it sorted, I use the message commands because only the train that sends it triggers the other engine. The message will sit waiting until a train that wants that message picks it up. Ideal for trains that may be late. Ignore the driver names as they are not attached to the drivers, just make sure that the sent message and the received message use the same name and number.

Thanks for this thread and reverts. I was trying to work an automated session on helper ops however in my case I am using the helpers as pushers. It worked out superbly. In my case i moved the main train loco driver to another loco with the pusher loco moving the train to the top of the mountain uncoupling and then coming back to its pocket. Meanwhile the main train loco driver taking over again at the trackmark at the top of mountain and resuming his journey

Chirag Shah

Hi Shahichiraq

For banking trains from the rear have a look at this thread :-

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/sho...nce-of-train-up-steep-grades&highlight=helper

The commands are on the DLS.

Regards

Brian