Limited speed after altering Player Path

[Don6218]

Hello, I am having an issue with a restriction on Player Train Speed, it is limited to 25 mph. This happened today on Bala 2.0, running OR X3992.

I had to alter my Path so an AI could pass. The passing move went properly, I had to go to Manual Control because I could not change the AI's turnout, it was the oncoming train. While stopped at my Red on the Main, the AI would approach and also get a Red. That switch in front of the AI would not change for me. I restarted the Activity further back from a Save and went through the manual control to take the Player train into the siding.

After the pass was complete, I got a Restricted Yellow to leave the siding at 15 mph. After clearing the last car from the turnout, by almost a mile, All I can get is 25 mph speed limit. The normal is 40-55 mph, but even the speed on the Display is not showing, Signals are showing.

This has happened before on another route and activity. I know I can use the system in Open Rails to do the change in Path, didn't think to use it at the time, but I figured this would be a good time to ask about this.

Is there a way to "Restore" the correct speed reading after switching into Manual and back to Autopilot after a move like this?
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Ok, tried modifying the AI Path in Open Rails Tools, switches changed but AI stopped and disappeared after the second engine got through the switch to the siding. Now I am carrying on as normal, at 60 mph.

[mikeebb]

I've had that happen to me many times in OR. It seems that instead of restoring normal speed once you pass the restriction, it holds the restricted (signal) speed until the next actual speed post, which could be a long way down the track. Is that what's happening?

[Don6218]

Mikeebb, it stays even when passing the next signal, which BTW is not showing on the display, that is why I thought it might be an OR issue. The train icon still moves up the display and the 25 mph speed is displayed at the top with the other info. The trackside signal still shows up and is displaying a Green as it should.

[geepster775]

I've seen this happen on occasion with complex activities but I have noticed that the first speed restriction has trouble restoring not too long after the player ventures off path briefly (in my case, it was to make a setout). My solution has always been a quick [CTRL][M] twice in sequence after my rear end should have cleared the restriction.

In your case, I think you are trying to run built-for-MSTS activities in Open Rails. When the MSTS pathing does not work cleanly or causes a standoff, you have this tendency to use the OR features to take control and force the meet to happen in ways that may place the player off-path briefly (doable in your case, but not the preferred solution - the preferred solution is to rework the activity and pathing for proper meets in Open Rails) and for the rest of us to quit masturbating about some false sympatico compatibility between MSTS and OR activities and start making real made-for-OR-only activities.

[mikeebb]

I agree in principle. In practice, many (most) free routes were developed for MSTS and requiring a user to manually rebuild the activities for MSTS is a bit much. And (as is often the case) if the original builder is long gone or not interested in rebuilding for OR, well, tough luck.

Which editor is reasonably user-friendly, and can automatically convert MSTS activities to OR, or at least provide a clear punch list of things that need fixing?

And yes, I do have issues with some routes and activities. A particularly vexing one is in Surfliner 2, where the passenger train leaves SLO, must stop at Grover Beach, can only make the stop on the main line, but if the speed limits are maintained is always pushed to the siding by an opposing freight that gets there first and holds the main. No matter what you do after that, you missed that stop. That one needs to be redone so the freight is always placed on the siding, as a real dispatcher would do knowing that the passenger train is coming with no other passing opportunities between Grover Beach and SLO. The only alternative with the unmodified activity is to grossly exceed the speed limit so the passenger train is at Grover Beach before the freight train - the standoff pushes the freight to the siding in that case. So, as an example (probably an easier one than the OP has), how would that activity be modified, using which tool, to fix the problem? Basically asking for a tutorial. The timing issue is probably due to the different (and usually more realistic) performance of locomotives under OR than in MSTS.

EDIT: looking at the OP's problem, I do think it's a speedpost issue. MSTS would usually revert to the posted limit once the end of a restricting signal block is passed. OR sometimes seems to wait until another Actual Speedpost is encountered. It's route-dependent; works properly (revert to posted speed at clear signal) in most cases, but occasionally not. The ones where it doesn't work right for me seem to have very long distances between real speedposts (showing in the F4 window), perhaps with scenery-item (not active) speedposts in between.

[Don6218]

Yes Geepster, I agree with you about the Activity end of things. OR has really taken over and I for one like it a lot better than MSTS.

There was a small tutorial on changing an area of an Activity when things go wrong. Here it is:
"In Open Rails, kick off the Track Viewer, select your choice of OR installation, select the route, enter the path editor, select your path, and then click Enable Editing, and then add or delete passing paths at any siding, and then Save Path".

In this case all I want to do is send the AI along the path through the siding. When I use the mouse, the lines swap colors, to put it simply, how do I use this to guide the AI into the siding while leaving the Player train Path untouched? In the OR Manual, If you are creating an activity from scratch you are all set. I am not good at that, too old and cranky (LOL). When I tried to do the change it was asking me for "Nodes"???? start and finish. In the Dispatch Window, the required switch would not change.

From what I have experienced, most of the MLT activities for MSTS work well in OR, except for the occasional hiccup. If I could master this I could make my own corrections as they happen. If there is someone on here that has experience with Activities in Open Rails they could take these Activities (given time) and rewrite them for Open Rails with attractions that would explode in MSTS.

What is/was funny, is that the three train meet presented no issue whatsoever! Both AI's went through their turnouts and full paths with interruption, yet with a single face off there seems to be an issue.

[ebnertra000]

I'm going to do a test on this when I get home from work. I have a signal that will drop me to restricted speed on a green light in Explore mode, but not in an activity. The next controlling signal is 20 miles down the line and no speedposts in that distance. This type appears elsewhere under different circumstances, and may help isolate the issue

[gusthegator]

L8 to the party