OR Headlight Triggers and Grade Crossing Question

[Strawberry Yogurt]

I have two questions today, feeling under the weather so I'm bored and looking for things to do.

To simulate real world headlights on locomotives with flashing ditch lights, I've mapped the horn button to simultaneously trigger the headlight increase button. In the locomotive's .eng, I set the flashing lights to the "bright" setting, so when the horn is blown, the ditch lights begin to flash. I have the headlight decrease button mapped separately, so I can stop the flashing after 30 seconds or so. Is there an OR specific trigger that I'm missing out on, or that is in development, that can achieve this same effect? I'm sure there are people more clever than I that have worked out a different method for doing this too.

Also, reading some old threads from a few years back got me interested in the CrashProbability trigger that existed in MSTS at grade crossings. Did this setting actually make vehicles stall on the tracks, or did it just cause that annoying pop-up that everyone hated back in the old days? Just curious, I don't really have the intention of fooling around with world files. I've just noticed that in MSTS, I've seen a few vehicles stalled on tracks, but I've never seen it in OR.

Thanks gentlemen!

[ebnertra000]

To my knowledge, the crash probability feature didn't actually put a car into the crossing, it just gave you an activity-ending error that stated something like "Activity Ended - failed to provide adequate warning for a road crossing". Cars stalled on crossings were usually caused by cars being caught between orange cubes (level crossing object markers as seen in the route editor), where they would bounce back and forth between them. There was a spot on the default Tokyo-Hakone route that would do this regularly.

As for the headlight question, that would be a good additional feature for engines that have it. Especially if a delay between the flashing starting and the horn being heard when viewed from a distance could be worked in.

[Strawberry Yogurt]

Thanks for the reply - I figured that was the case with the crossings. I definitely remember the cars I've seen get stuck doing that bouncing back and forth. I guess we'll have to wait on that headlight feature! Your distance-dependent horn sounds like a great idea as well. That's why I love OR, it's really just a matter of time before things like this get implemented.

[geepster775]

We need to remove the ditchlight flashing from the user control arena, historically activated by the headlight switch. Instead, it needs to be integral to Open Rails coding where when you hit the horn, it flashes without any user intervention on the headlight switch. Maybe have an ORTS only line entry in the ENG file that identifies whether this particular engine is a flasher or not.

On payware locos where they set up the bright position to display flashing ditchlights, all you see is flashing on the oncoming AI regardless of whether there is a horn blowing or road crossing. We need to pull all that flashing ditch light crap out of the ENG files and make it part of the OR code.

It can be done a lot better than it's mapped out now.

[Rick-MONON]

To remove the flashing ditchlights on AI units..... add the command Control 2 to the conditions of the ditchlights, I just did 2 units today, fixed the AI flashing ditchlights. The Control 2 means the lights work if the player is in control of the train.

[Strawberry Yogurt]

We need to remove the ditchlight flashing from the user control arena, historically activated by the headlight switch. Instead, it needs to be integral to Open Rails coding where when you hit the horn, it flashes without any user intervention on the headlight switch. Maybe have an ORTS only line entry in the ENG file that identifies whether this particular engine is a flasher or not.

On payware locos where they set up the bright position to display flashing ditchlights, all you see is flashing on the oncoming AI regardless of whether there is a horn blowing or road crossing. We need to pull all that flashing ditch light crap out of the ENG files and make it part of the OR code.

It can be done a lot better than it's mapped out now.

Considering that most locomotives equipped with flashing ditch lights do not have independent control of the feature, this would make sense to remove the ability to trigger flashing with a switch. From what I've seen there is usually a switch for the brightness, a switch to turn the ditch lights on or off, but the flashing is only ever initiated by the horn. I would love to hear a developer speak to the feasibility of adding this feature, since I have seen nothing about it on the development timeline.

[qballbandit]

If they don't have an independent switch setting to turn them on, how would they stop flashing? I see engineers turn ditch lights on and off all the time without the horn blowing.....

[Strawberry Yogurt]

If they don't have an independent switch setting to turn them on, how would they stop flashing? I see engineers turn ditch lights on and off all the time without the horn blowing.....

Most locomotives that have ditch lights equipped to flash have a timer that stops the flashing after an interval, usually between 15 and 30 seconds. I know the ditch lights can be turned on and off with a switch, but to my knowledge this switch is only an "on/off". The flashing is triggered by the horn. I can't speak for all locomotives, but for the main railroads this is how they work. A similar system in Open Rails would be great. Lighting in general could use a refresh I think.

[qballbandit]

I am not being argumentative, but my curiosity still drives my questions - there are quiet zones, yet ditch lights still come on when I see NS, CSX, Harbor Belt, South Shore, Metra, Amtrak. Also during other moves prior to reaching a grade crossing, I see them come on prior to any horn being blown. I know for sure Metra engines and Cabcar must have a manual variable.
Need to go ask my 2 engineer friends more about this.
I watched an NS light power move (2 engines) last week pull in to Pine yard. They sat there for at least 30 minutes prior to hooking up nose first to a cut of cars, and the rear unit's ditchlights never stopped flashing.

[CSRX]

We have only two, maybe three? units that do have flashing lights.
VTR GP38-3 #206?, #207, and GMTX 2684.

The 206 and 207 are both ex NS units, which makes sense for the flashing units. I forget how they are actually set up, at least for the 206, but I know that 207, as soon as you turn the headlights on, the ditch lights are on as well. (Even though headlight switches themselves have, off, dim, bright, bright + ditch). On top of that, they are set up to correspond with the reverser. (forward = front, reverse = rear) This is not only annoying, but frustrating, especially when working the ground. When I operate this said unit while switching out a yard, or a customer, I reach into the circuit panel and shut the circuit off for the ditch lights. Some engineers refuse to do so. From what I gather in GCOR, you can go across crossings at a restricted speed of 20mph without ditch lights being on. Anyways, both of these units have spotty working flashers, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, when they do, they are activated by a horn blast, and flash for anywhere between 5 seconds and 30 seconds. Sometimes one will flash, and the other doesn't. Personally I do not like using these two locomotives due to the ditch lights, as well as a few other issues with them. They are frustrating locomotives.

The GMTX GP38-2 #2684 however, has nice working ditch lights that flash properly. What's nice is, the ditch lights are not connected into the head lights at all, they are their own with a simple "on/off" switch. These also flash when the horn is activated and shut off at the proper length or so of 15 seconds.


Flashing ditch lights, depending on the road, are activated by horn blast. However the ditch lights themselves, do not simply turn on when a horn is blasted. The engineer manually flicks those on or off.


Neil, as for the rear NS unit you mention. Not really sure. it depends on the unit, how the lights are actually set up, and whether or not the MU-cable was fully working.

[cuontv]

OR Headlight Triggers and Grade Crossing Question

Here's how the NS has their ditchlights set up on SD40-2s. Hopefully this will answer some questions.
-Tom

[bprice]

Considering that most locomotives equipped with flashing ditch lights do not have independent control of the feature, this would make sense to remove the ability to trigger flashing with a switch. From what I've seen there is usually a switch for the brightness, a switch to turn the ditch lights on or off, but the flashing is only ever initiated by the horn. I would love to hear a developer speak to the feasibility of adding this feature, since I have seen nothing about it on the development timeline.

Maybe a better way would be to allow activation with the bell to be used with the horn triggers bell function. Sound the horn and it rings the bell AND flashed the lights. Stop the bell and the lights stop flashing.

[CSRX]

Maybe a better way would be to allow activation with the bell to be used with the horn triggers bell function. Sound the horn and it rings the bell AND flashed the lights. Stop the bell and the lights stop flashing.

downside is, that wouldn't work with say.. a GP38-2 or GP40-2, considering we engineers actually have to activate the bell. What would be nice is if we could press the button in ORTS for the bell once to turn it on, and press it again to turn it off, rather than constantly hold the bell button.. But that is a whole different situation aside for the original posting..

[qballbandit]

"What would be nice is if we could press the button in ORTS for the bell once to turn it on, and press it again to turn it off, rather than constantly hold the bell button.."

Maybe I don't understand what you are asking, but using shift/b (the opposite of MSTS) puts the bell on - no need to hold anything. Then just hit B to deactivate it.

And thanks for some of the insight provided on your previous reply.

[geepster775]

What I see with the NS example is automatic flashing with horn activation, and a manual push button for flashing activation for quiet zones (which are few and far between), and where flashing really isn't the law compared to ditch lights just being illuminated before crossing roads at speeds greater than 20 mph. In other words, the law doesn't require manual flash activation for quiet zones, just illuminated ditch lights. If crews use the push button in quiet zones, its because corporate policy demands it, not the law.

I would be content with activation of flashing pulled off the Headlight selection, and automatically triggered by horn activation instead, timing out in 30 seconds (or whatever time figure is defined in the ORTS-only line in the ENG file) and the manual push button for quiet zones being pure gravy on top (not really that essential).