Intentions For Timetable Mode?

[NorthernWarrior]

As discussed in another thread I am currently getting my head round setting up timetables and finally making some progress.

This is a part of OR which I see as having huge potential. I presume at the moment, once a player train is selected we cannot join another train instead, I'm also not sure what happens at the end of a run when the train de-materialises.

It would be great if this eventually gave OR the same functionality as DTG's Train Sim World, where your player avatar is in the world and you can move around locations, pick up one train work it to destination, cross the platform and join another or travel as passenger to somewhere else. It would take a huge amount of work to set up timetables for some of the longer more complex routes, but imagine something like that on Mid East Plus, North Wales Coast 2 or even my own Blackpool Tramway!

[geepster775]

I did something similar in activity mode once.

The activity was for Scenic Sub and involved a train developing a hotbox on its lead unit shortly after departing Wenatchee. All other locos were long hood forward and lacking ditch lights which would have required slowing to 20mph for any crossings. So the crew jumped aboard an Amtrak train as a passenger and returned to Wenatchee, where the crew then grabbed the engines off a local that had arrived back in the yard and ran the extra power light engine back out to rescue their own train.

I had posted some screens back in 2017. Since then the photo hosting site I was using at the time went titzup, but the text is still there.

https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread.php?327302-BNSF-M-SPOEVE-hotbox&highlight=tempilstik

[markelecfan]

Vern,
You are correct that you can't jump from one train to another, but if you run passenger trains that are push-pull, double-ended rail-cars or multiple unit trains then you can timetable them to zig-zag between 2 or more destinations, with each one-way trip tabled as a separate run & the consist "forming" the next timetabled trip but using the "reverse" consist of the previous trip. You just remain in the one reversible train consist, with driver cabs at each end, as you go from trip to trip, zig-zagging" from one terminal destination to the next. Also, you can use Open Rails time speed-up & slow-down function to speed up your wait between successive trips.

BUT there is a BUG to be wary of, Open Rails does not like the "negative coupler velocities" folk introduced for MSTS "front coupler physics". When such a vehicle, which has "negative coupler velocity" added for "front coupler physics", is "flipped" in a consist or is "reversed" in Open Rails' Timetable Mode then, IF the vehicle ALSO has something COUPLED BEHIND it, Open Rails fails & spits out a big log that includes a comment saying it found an unexpected negative value. Such vehicles EITHER have to have their "front coupler physics" with its "negative coupler velocity" disabled by COMMENT brackets or a new Open Rails *.wag or *.eng file created, with the "front coupler physics" omitted, & placed within a special folder, named Open Rails, of that vehicle's Trainset folder.

The Timetable documentation talks of run-arounds for locos to run around consists at the end of a trip but also says uncoupling & coupling is presently disabled in Timetable Mode. It also suggests that run-arounds have to be manually driven, suggesting that in a multi-train timetable that we cannot expect any train in the timetable not being driven by the player to do this automatically. This suggests that if the function is to be used for many trains then maybe it will only be successful for several trains at when in multi-player mode. Who knows ?

For your interest & encouragement, I've developed a morning timetable for the old Mountain Elelctric (+ Valley Transit) MSTS route that, using its original stock plus a bit more, has over 30 trainsets (trams/trolleys, inter-urbans & mostly passenger trains plus a couple of freighters) & over 160 trips. The biggest hassle has been amending Comment syntax errors & Commenting-out front coupler physics for faultless operation of rolling stock under Open Rails. This is in addition to my own (nerd) engineering tweaks to improve air brake control & more realistic series-wound traction motor performance of older, straight-electric vehicles instead of the constant horsepower performance of diesel electrics & modern, electronically controlled vehicles. Before I can possibly place the timetable on the TrainSim.com site there's much work to prepare documentation on preparing/amending the rolling stock *.eng & *.wag files.

Also, Vern, if you do decide to try out the "$reverse" consist function, there's ANOTHER BUG to be wary of when using the Open Rails Timetable Editor. Whenever ANY TYPE of change is made to an existing tabled train whose consist is "reversed" AND the consist is contained between the < and > symbols, e.g. <Consist_3typeII+2typeII>$reverse, when you Okay/finish the edit for that train the Editor automatically changes the consist to read <Consist_3typeII+2typeII>+<reverse>, which causes Open Rails to fail to start the timetable. The automated error of <Consist_3typeII+2typeII>+<reverse> has to be MANUALLY corrected/typed back into the consist cell as <Consist_3typeII+2typeII>$reverse . This problem does not occur for those consists that do not need to be contained between < and > symbols. (The < and > are only necessary when non-alphabet, special characters like + are include in a consist name.)

Vern, I hope the above has encouraged you to experiment a bit more & prevents wasted time & hair pulling when debugging whatever timetables you produce.
Cheers, Mark.

[roeter]

I'm afraid the official documentation on timetables is lagging behind.
A .pdf file listing all presently available timetable commands is available at Elvas Tower : http://www.elvastower.com/forums/ind...ost__p__250104

I'm afraid the document is too large to upload here.
Timetable commands now also include a full set of attach / detach / transfer commands allowing coupling and uncoupling.

No further developments are planned at present.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[NorthernWarrior]

I switched testing to my old Alston route which is much easier being only 13 miles in length. Testing with a single Class 153 DMU/Railcar which should hopefully eliminate any issues with the form next... command. Just need to see if the command has indeed picked up the next working... I'm presuming there is no way to accelerate time in OR at present?

[scottb613]

I switched testing to my old Alston route which is much easier being only 13 miles in length. Testing with a single Class 153 DMU/Railcar which should hopefully eliminate any issues with the form next... command. Just need to see if the command has indeed picked up the next working... I'm presuming there is no way to accelerate time in OR at present?

Hi Vern,

There is - I'm not sure if it's reliable in timetable mode - just hit F1 Help in he sim and read the keystroke assignments - I don't know it off the top of my head...

Regards,
Scott

[NorthernWarrior]

Ged just gave me the command over at TSSH - Ctrl+Alt+PageUp and Ctrl+Alt+PageDown to slow it again. Fantastic! Something MSTS had in its press demo version but (AFAIR) disabled in the retail edition.

[NorthernWarrior]

And it works a treat... Speeded up time and the next leg of the timetable for the DMU loaded.

Excellent work.

However while of all my routes the Alston has stood the test of time, I feel a rebuild coming on - proper DEM not contour tracing in TS Tools (who remembers that?!), UKFS track and some better bridges to replace my rather basic efforts.

[scottb613]

And it works a treat... Speeded up time and the next leg of the timetable for the DMU loaded.

Excellent work.

However while of all my routes the Alston has stood the test of time, I feel a rebuild coming on - proper DEM not contour tracing in TS Tools (who remembers that?!), UKFS track and some better bridges to replace my rather basic efforts.

Hi Vern,

Well - just FYI - we no longer need Demex or Mosaic - - - TSRE will do both - TSRE will also overlay Google maps for reference - it's a whole new world... TSRE also has an "Auto Paint" tool to allow you to paint miles of ROW in seconds...

For best effect in the sim - I'd suggest Carlo's latest Monogame version of ORTS - always available here:

http://www.interazioni-educative.it/Varie/OR_NewYear_MG.zip

I'd also suggest adding ReShade (requires Monogame ORTS) to bump the visuals up another notch as well - it makes a world of difference in my humble opinion...

If you have access to it - I have a better Skydome texture, the ReShade procedure, and my ReShade profile over on Elvas...

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/ind...eshade-preset/

It can make a bright sunny day - well - look like a bright sunny day:

Ballast1 by Scott B, on Flickr

Enjoy...

Regards,
Scott

[NorthernWarrior]

Scott - I do most of my route building in TSRE, have tried the DEM import but it always leaves a blank tile wherever your cursor happens to be. ISTR reading a workround but can't for the life of me get it to work... so end up going over in DEMEX. Good for generating distant hills though, without the faff we had to go through in DEMEX.

I think I still have a log in for Elvas, so will check out those features in due course.