You know, I seem to spend most of my time zooming around outside cabs trying for that slightly different shot, or sat in front of Paint Shop Pro working out how to convert day into night, or even in the RE adding a tree, or a bush, or a weed here or there (something to give a bit extra when a photograph is taken). Every so often, however, I do sit inside a cab and have a go at an activity. Now the trouble I have is that I just don't have any patience - I can marvel at and enjoy the craftsmanship that is particular to these forums, but sit me down too long in a cab - uuh! uuh!

The net result is that I am pretty inexperienced at driving an engine - oh I can get around easy enough, but control, real control, that is something completely different.

And that lack of skill came to the fore tonight, in such a dramatic way that I was amazed at how taken up in the situation I was - yep, I had a runaway train, right where you would have expected it (right where even I had expected it) but I was taken aback by how difficult it was to bring under control - then I truly appreciated the work that has gone into the physics in this route.

This route (as so many of you have already realised) is not just a pretty face - it is an experience, with a capital E (except I forgot to put the capital in).

I have tried all sorts of computer games, Splinter Cell, Call of Duty, H&D2, Combat flight sims etc. etc. Some have, on the odd occasion given that buzz, that bit of panic, where you are suddenly definitely not in control. Who'd have thought though that a train simulator could give the exact same feeling, who'd have thought that trying to bring some simulated heavy metal to a halt could get me to shout out loud some words that my kids shouldn't hear (and that my wife told me off for using - although I wasn't paying too much attention at the time) who'd have thought... oh that's enough of that.

All I really need to say is thank you Andre, Gaetan and whoever else has been involved in the physics side of this route - it is superb.

Did I finish the activity? No - there is only so much stress a man can take at one sitting - I saved it for a later date!

Here are some largely superfluous screenies of the event, proving that I wasn't totally committed to that seat - the one attached to this is so peaceful, and belies the panic that had taken place 5 minutes before...

They look so innocent, don't they - but don't you believe it - they'll up and bite you as soon as look at you, especially if'n you don't really know what you're doing.

By the way Andre - I just love the limestone quarry (haven't been to the other one yet). There was a time in my life when I spent a lot of time playing around in and nearby those (as a caver or spelunker - definitely not working!)

Taken on the fly, whilst gathering speed up to 15mph+ - pretty reckless.

Love the trucks on Gaetan's equipment - and round wheels!

This doesn't show the full measure of my folly - by the time this shot had been taken I had managed to crawl (and I mean crawl) quite some distance back up grade.

Peace at last - time to get out of that cab and have a coffee (guess, in real life, I would probably have needed to change my pants too!).

This is too much excitement for me - back to gentle screenshots for a while.....

Rod,

You done good friend, you done good!

Paul

Had fun getting them puppys all together didn't ya, tried that , went down the hill with %100 dynamics and as much brake as it would without stopping,just a bit too much weight. Got'em stopped in the right place though to go back and finish the empties.

Looks like you're talking about switching Ozark Limestone at Berryville.

Well, here's how to do this prototypically without aid of dynamics or handbrakes (on the descent to Berryville.):

1. Couple on a cut of loads on either track.

2. Make a very light set of air to make sure your reservoir is full. (A light tap " key should result in about 14-16 PSI Cylinder Pressure.) If not, release the brakes and charge your air tanks. (If needed, hold the cut in place with either handbrakes or shoving against the loads with the engines.)

3. Once ready, with the above mentioned minimum air set, begin ease forward. Keep below 5 MPH.

4. Once rolling, start setting some more air. The idea is to keep setting air until you "feel" the brakes start taking hold. Once they do, add some more until you can "feel" some slowing.

5. By now, the tail of your first cut should be getting close to clearing the switch you'll need to throw in order to reverse and back in to pick up the other cut of loads on the adjacent track.

6. Start easing them to a stop before you clear the switch, applying more brakes as needed.

7. Once stopped, reverse, and back against the stationary cars (up to about Run 4). Release brakes. Be ready to apply more power (and sanders if needed).

8. Ease your cut back up to and couple onto the remaining cut of cars.

Now it gets tricky:

9. Make a light application of air and check your Brake Cylinder PSI (as in #2 above) to MAKE SURE you have a full reservoir. If not, release the brakes and charge the airline, shoving back against the cut to hold it if necessary.

10. Once you're CERTAIN your air reservoir is fully charged... leave that initial set applied (or make a new one if you had to release and charge) and begin to ease forward.

11. DO NOT allow the train to quickly gain speed!! AS SOON as you start gaining speed, start making air applications to retard your acceleration. IT IS IMPORTANT TO USE ENOUGH BRAKE TO KEEP YOUR DESCENDING SPEED BELOW the speed limit of 20 MPH. (Note: If you don't set air EARLY and HEAVY enough, those loads will be in your hip pocket before you know it and you'll blow right past that 20 MPH mark, and take a wild ride into, or through, Berryville.)

12. Once you have enough air set so that the train is in check, do NOT give way to the urge to release once you start to slow (near the bottom of the grade.) Use the throttle (in Forward) to keep them moving toward the Berryville Yard.

13. Once at Berryville, you can allow them to start coming to a stop and finish handling the loads.

Bear in mind that once you release the brakes after such heavy use, you will NOT have a fully charged reservoir to use for a bit of time.

This is one way it would be done on the prototype, and it works in the sim too.

Good luck!

Andre

Rod,

If you are going to keep up things like this, you need to start to keep a towel next to the computer to wipe the forehead and hands with every so often. Sweat isn't so good on computer parts, very acetic!!

Paul

After having "bitten off more than I could chew" on a couple occasions on the StL&NA and the A&O,
I decided to take fewer cars and make more runs until I get a feel for the amount of load I can
handle on the hill.

This may sound a mite "wimpy" but once, after losing control on Seligman Hill,
I attained light speed (as in Warp Factor 1) just before my train disappeared completely
(into a ravine!)

Once the overconfidence was gone, overcaution then set in

Hey cuz, not only an excellent picture taker but now a very good reporter as well. When will it end. I just loved the post! Great stuff. Not easy, is it? I haven't been able to do as well as you have so pat yourself on the back. I am taking Tom's way out and gradually increasing the cars until I get a feel for it more. Having had to learn how to work steam engines has caused me problems now that I am using diesels. Whole other ball of wax here and now I am having to check to see just what I am running now, steam or diesel. Going to have to stick to one or the other methinks.....
An excellent tutorial Andre. Thanks much. Will give it a whirl and see what happens. Those people in the next town better watch out. Guess I should call the chief of police ahead of time and warn him. Don't want any pedestrians to get hurt. As far as my conductor, I'll let him fend for himself. Never brings enough coffee for the both of us anyway!

What Rod didn't tell you was that what else gives you sweaty palms is going down to Superior Lime and gravel and finding out that the auto traffic doesn't always top where it should. As a result, on the climb back out, there can be some horrendous accidents that costs the railroad some real money. Take a look and you shall see!

This first road crossing was all well and good, but the next . . . .

Well, that one really gave the engineer sweaty palms . . . . .

And even at slow speeds it takes awhile to stop a train so . . . . . .

Andre,

On that upcoming version 1.1, is there any way to correct this problem?

Paul

I think I understood Bill Bzak to say that he had an update on the way for his vehicles.

Until then, there will be a few insurance claims against the railroad.

Andre

Andre,

Insurance claims we can live with, it is the lives I'm worried about, that last accident took out the driver real quick. Seen some other shots, not on your route, where the crossing gates came down right on top of a car's hood.

Paul

Actually, Im not sure that problem can be cured by altering the carspawner entries.....sure, I can add space between each vehicle (which I will do as they seem a bit close together), but aside from separating the cars 50 feet apart(which probably wouldnt cure the problem), I think this has something to do with the interactive crossing signal object.

Note that the car is actually "past" the signal light...I would assume that there is some type of bounding box entry for the crossing to stop road vehicles??? Also the track is at an extreme angle to the track which probably doesnt help much...I would advise moving the signals back some but that would probably make them non-interactive.

Overall, I dont know very much about interactive crossing signals as I have found nothing in the tech docs concerning it nor have I gotten any reply when I posted at train-sim some time ago asking for info about how to properly link an animated crossing signal object to actually interact with the track. If anybody is willing to point me in the right direction for such info, I'd like to model a freeware replacement for the default crossing light/gate that could be swapped out without using the Route editor.

LHW