An activity newbie here.

I've constructed my second activity- a simple run on a passenger train crossing its opposite (AI) number at an intermediate station on an unsignalled route.

I've placed double reverse points at the exit to each station so that the player train has to wait for the AI train to arrive on single track and take the loop line into the station.

It works perfectly when I play the activity in the VCR in AE, but in the sim, the AI train comes up to the set of points where it should diverge and halts. I''ve tried moving reverse points, re-timetabling the AI's arrival so that the player train is further back down the line, but nothing seems to work.

I just went into RE and looked at the station - all the points are manual - is that the problem?


Regards

Yuri.

It should not be. Once a path is set it doesn't matter.

Check the AI path.

What route?

Thanks for replying, Kev.

The route: Illawarra route, New South Wales, Australia.

Check the AI path.

The image below shows the AI-path. As I said before, it's an unsignalled single track mainline with the intermediate station having an island platform and left-hand running in place. The double reverse points for both player and traffic train are placed between the end of the platform marker and the next set of points (switches) as indicated on the screenshot below.




The player train comes from top of screen into platform. I am very careful to halt within the station limits and I can still the reverse point marker in the F4 display under the tip of the blue arrow. As I wait the traffic train approaches from the bottom of screen on the mainline (the right-hand track at the bottom of the screen is a dead-end siding). The traffic train comes to a halt just before that southernmost set of points and doesn't move. I've let it sit there for 30 minutes or more, but nothing moves. As I said before, this works perfectly on the AE VCR. I've run backwards and forwards through the points and there seems to be no obvious "hang-up" there.

Let me see if I have this right.

The double reverse points are for the AI train in the screen capture. But you want the AI train to continue. Remove the double RP's for the AI train. and then it should continue on. You do not need them, you only should use them on the path you want to "break" to let another train by.

NOTE: I would put a little more distance between the 2 points.

Kev

Yes that was a screenshot of the AI-path. The image below shows a screenshot of that last map.



I followed your advice and immediately removed the AI-train reverse points but it's made no difference - the AI train stops at the same spot again. Then I went into RE, deleted manual points, installed automatic and put the paths back - AI-train stalled - the AI-train will not move into the station area if it has to take the left (siding) road. I even tried passing points to no avail.

Finally, I changed the paths around so that the player train went into the siding ie right side of the platform and the AI-train would come in straight over the points: it did exactly so as planned. See image below




As soon as I switch the paths to right-hand running, it all works perfectly: so is MSTS right-handed ? or do AI-trains not take the siding in an activity?

No, I am working on some CNW stuff and they run left handed. Granted it is not passenger stuff, but the princples are the same.

In the second picture, is that where both stop? The difference is how close the train is to the one switch in the first picture. It could be that it is too close to the switch.

Something to try - do the activity from the other side - make the AI train the player and vice versa. It would be interesting to see what happens and may tell us something.