Can I get a 'Making Timetables For Dummies'?

[Komachi]

I looked through the manual at the info for making timetables, and frankly it confuses the hell out of me and does NOT help I'm dyslexic so all this command structure, naming, etc is hell on my brain... Can anyone offer a SIMPLER easier to understand on how to make the stupid things? Or if nothing else explain how to use the activity editor, which so far has about made me throw a monitor across the room as all it does is spit out errors at me to either continue or quit, or just do nothing but provide me with a line-map of the route...

[eric]

The easiest way to understand timetable is to look at examples and to use the Excel macro developed by Markus over on ET.

I've got a 150+ train example I can share for the CNW Harvard, and there's also one posted on Elvas Tower that has the Pacific Surfliner mapped out with all of Metrolink, Coaster, and Amtrak. I've attached mine as a .Timetable_OR file -- open in Excel as a ; delimited file

So far, I have the following commands working to some degree or another:
$wait
$forcehold
$nosignalwait
$hold
$forms
$static

I haven't tried the $connect or $stable functions, instead choosing to simply create different train definitions for my empty moves to/from yards.

[Komachi]

Thanks, Eolesen. I'll have a look-see at this and study it up!

[eric]

Feel free to ask away as you have questions... What threw me for a loop was the need for signals. That is going to limit its usefulness to me on one of my routes which is mostly track warrant territory.

Next up on the timetable list will probably be the IRM so I can watch the Nebraska Zephyr fly by the Electroliner and Cornfield 400...

[roeter]

What threw me for a loop was the need for signals.

That's not quite true. Timetables will work quite well on routes which have no signals at all.
Problems start when a route has some signals, but large areas without signals. If the program finds any signals on a route (and just one will already be enough), it assumes the route is signal-controlled and will run trains between signals.

But if there are really no signals at all, the program adapts its logic to use node-control only.

Perhaps one day a marker can be defined which defines boundaries between signal and none-signal control areas on a route.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[eric]

Good to know, but still a limitation in my case and others for the very reason you mentioned --- on the CNW's single track mainline, it was largely dark territory until you got near stations, and then there would be some advance signals bracketing the station. Either I forget about the signals, or I have to put in hidden signals.

Perhaps we could set a variable in the .TRK file or sigcfg which sets the maximum distance for a signal's protection to extend.

[markus1996]

The easiest way to understand timetable is to look at examples and to use the Excel macro developed by Markus over on ET.

[...]

Thank you mentioning me, but it was not me who developed that macro

Cheers, Markus

[eric]

Who did the macro?

[markus1996]

Who did the macro?

After some digging thru old threads, it appears Lutz_s on ET did the Excel-macro.

Cheers, Markus

[Komachi]

I cannot find said macro,c an you provide a link? Also, I am still unable to even comprehend these timetables...

I looked the timetable over, and it kinda/sorta made sense... But I tried running it on Surfliner 2, and I couldn't. Either throws errors about unable to start because missing time, and season... Or it gives me a small list of trains that's names consist of letters I didn't know existed. Like, the first one being K, a black dot, then a white rectangle with a white dot inside it...

[markus1996]

All I can say it´s somewhere in the ET file library. Will look tomorrow (it´s bedtime already for me).

But be aware, that Excel file will only help you create time tables. The basic info already is in chapter 11 of the manual. I´m sorry, but timetables are not easy to understand. Also took me a while.

Cheers, Markus

[eric]

I didn't try to run the Pacific Surfliner with the timetable -- I just used it as a reference while I built mine.

If you're up for the challenge, download my timetable capable version of the CNW Harvard, and the supplemental consists download.

http://pages.lanehog.com/CNW/development-release-installation

If you use one of the Z series train ID's as your player, you're guaranteed to see other trains in action. You might have to fast forward, but the observers are there for a reason...

[OTTODAD]

All I can say it´s somewhere in the ET file library. Will look tomorrow (it´s bedtime already for me).

10:30 PM in Austria bedtime for you ?

Tomorrow is Saturday and no college or work to go to ?

[bprice]

I was a bit overwhelmed with the concept until I found eric's spreadsheet for his CNW route. I studied that and used the macros to create a new route timetable for the Sharon Springs Sub. This is not an overly busy route but I used this to create a 24 hour timetable of around 20 trains. This is an all freight route so there are no station times. All I needed were the route name, train name, the path, the consist and the start time. The only issue is the midnight problem. Trains starting in the early hours after midnight will lack traffic spawned before midnight. I did find that paths created specifically for the timetable in the OR track viewer worked best. It is also a good idea to take some time and plan how you want the timetable to work and the consists you want. Even with the consist picker it cab be daunting if your has a large number of consists.

The result was about 20 separate timetable activities for this route.

Thanks
Basil

[OTTODAD]

Hi Basil !

Can multiple AI services running in an ORTS activity be checked test-running them at higher speeds like the Play mode in the MSTS Activity Editor can ?

The ORTS Ctrl-9 / Alt-Tab Dispatcher function is too cluttered to show details of all the running speeded up with Ctrl-Alt-PageUP AI services !