Track Monitor Showing Reverse Direction For Cab!?

[meeshu]

Testing an activity and somehow the Track Monitor is showing things in reverse now for some reason!?

Pressing the "2" key for front outside view from locomotive now seems to be from the second locomotive in the two locomotive setup!?

Pressing "1" key for lead locomotive cab view still shows the correct view from the leading locomotive.

Pressing "3" key for rear outside view is now from the lead locomotive!?

Pressing Alt + Home keys now shows the second to last car in the consist!?

Pressing Alt + End keys now shows the lead locomotive!?

What on earth happened here!? The views are screwed up! Not sure how this happened. I was running a test activity and initially all views were OK, but somehow most views are in the wrong locations now!

Screenshot of the Track Monitor. Note that it is showing the view from the reverse view now with the "eye" at the bottom of the Track Monitor instead of at the top(?)

Track Monitor Reversed!.jpg

How can this be corrected back to normal views?

Thank you.

[Vince]

Looks like a condition may be caused by missing a reverse point. Run your test with a single loco to be sure.
regards,

[meeshu]

Thanks Vince!

On further experimentation, the Track Monitor view appears to show the view when the locomotives/train is (still) in reverse!?

Yes, I now suspect a reverse point was not quite reached, although the Track Monitor suggested that it might have!?

I'll try again with one locomotive and see what happens.

Although I'm still not quite sure about the apparently "screwed up" views(?)

As an aside, what is happening now is that I had to reverse through a stop light with just the two locomotives. I got dispatcher permission (TAB key) to go through that signal. However, as I reversed through the signal, emergency brakes were applied and the Track Monitor showed that there was a consist right next to me!? Somehow maybe the simulation thought that second locomotive was another consist?

[meeshu]

UPDATE: tried the activity with just one locomotive. But again when passing through the stop signal (but with dispatcher permission), the emergency brakes were applied, and again there appeared to be another consist right next to me when this happened, according to the Track Monitor!? There were no consists nor other locomotives anywhere near when the emergency brakes applied!?

Reversed (manual mode, then back to auto mode by using Control + M keys) to the first cut of cars to collect. Reverse point appeared to be reached first OK, followed by the cut of cars. But once coupled to this first cut of cars, shouldn't the Track Monitor now show the "forward" direction to the next reverse point up the track? Because the Track Monitor continues to show the locomotive/train in reverse, despite reaching the reverse point successfully first before reaching the first cut of cars!?

That perhaps suggests that there is a problem with this reverse point before the first cut of cars(?)

Now what to do? Maybe move the reverse point further away (I've already made slight adjustments to the position of this reverse point, but to no avail it seems)?

[meeshu]

I ran several other simple test reversing activities in this route (Europe 2) and in the NEC V4 route.

From the results of these tests, it was concluded that -

The Track Monitor did display direction correctly while running Open Rails; forward and reverse views displayed in correct orientation depending on direction of travel of my train. And the outside views were displayed correctly for all test activities. The exception was for activities in the Innsbruck area, where the Track Monitor did not display correct train travel orientation due to reversing points not quite working correctly.

So, possibly due to complex (and/or due to buggy?) signalling in the Innsbruck area, it seems that Track Monitor displays for reversing procedures in activities do not quite work correctly under Open Rails in this area(?) So any train reversing required (with reversing points preset via the Activity Editor) in this route (Europe 2) will be carried out in areas other than in Innsbruck, for now.

[Vince]

RP Placement in OR

Put the RP under the cut of cars to be picked up. RP will trigger as soon as you couple on.
My activity, 'Central Pickups' on the LIRR illustrates how this is done. Also the entire activity will run completely in Auto-Pilot mode.
Opening the activity in an activity editor or displaying the path in OR Track View will show the placement of the RP's.

regards,

[meeshu]

Thanks again for your comments, Vince.

I've placed the Reverse Point under the lead car of the cut of cars to be collected, but after coupling to the cut the Reverse Point does not trigger, and the Track Monitor still shows my locomotives in reversing configuration.

I've moved the Reverse Point a bit closer to the front car coupler, and still under the first car, but still the Reverse Point does not trigger!?

Maybe the Reverse Point has to be positioned precisely at a certain distance from the front coupler of the first car? If so, how to determine this distance?

[Vince]

Try placing the RP under ~middle of the cut is where I put mine in the activity I described, As soon as you couple & pull the cut . . .RP will (should) trigger.

regards,

[meeshu]

Thanks.

Placed the Reverse Point under the middle of the cut of cars. Unfortunately, after coupling to the cars and then driving forward, the Reverse Point marker still shows, and the Track Monitor still shows my train in reverse configuration!?

Still suspect that there may be some "issues" with the signalling/track arrangement in Innsbruck area which makes reversing moves difficult if not impossible to complete properly and with proper orientation of my train in the Track Monitor.

[Vince]

Signalling should not have an effect on RP operation. Placement too close to signals or withing foul distance of a switch exit? Maybe but I've never experienced it and I don't think that's the cause here.

How about laying out your path one RP at a time, testing with a single default engine after each RP placement? The Geep would do nicely.

regards,

[meeshu]

Thanks.

I do know that (apparently) placing Reverse Points too close to switches can cause all sorts of issues which could result in unpredictable behavior of activities. I don't know how close is "too close" for Reverse Points to switches though.

Still experimenting with the placement of the Reverse Point. By the way this is the second Reverse Point, the first Reverse Point which is just before a signal seems to work fine!

[meeshu]

Managed, somehow, to get the Track Monitor to display in the forward direction after collecting the first cut of cars at the second Reverse Point! But I had to reverse a bit further after coupling to the cars to get the Reverse Point to trigger. Also there was an End of Authority marker just behind the Reverse Point.

I wasn't happy with this result, so I tried again with the Reverse Point moved a bit (no sure which direction) but it was not under the cut of cars. But the Track Monitor didn't switch to forward view after coupling to the cars!? Frustrating!

As another test, created a very simple two reverse move activity to collect just one cut of cars. First Reverse Point was reached and triggered OK (for the locomotive to reverse direction to collect the cars). But again the Track Monitor failed to switch to the forward view after coupling to the cut of cars at the second Reverse Point. The second Reverse Point did not always trigger, depending on it's position in relation to the cut of cars.

So there is still an issue with the Track Monitor not displaying forward direction of my train after coupling to cars and driving forwards!?

[meeshu]

UPDATE:

Got the Reverse Points to trigger and the Track Monitor to display correct train direction under the following conditions -

1) Placing the Reverse Point just ahead of the consist or cut of cars. When the Reverse Point changes from white to green color, or the Reverse Point disappears, stop the train completely. This means the Reverse Point has been reached, and the Track Monitor will then correctly display the direction of travel now. And then slowly move the train to couple to the consist/cut of cars and then drive train in the opposite direction (in the direction shown by the Track Monitor).

2) Placing the Reverse Point just behind the consist or cut of cars. Couple to the consist/cut of cars first and then continue train movement in the direction of the Reverse Point until it changes color from white to green, or until the Reverse Point disappears. Then stop the train completely. The Track Monitor will (or should) then display the correct direction of train movement after. Then drive the train in the direction shown by the Track Monitor (opposite direction of travel to that when coupling to consists/cut of cars).

Still testing, but placing the Reverse Point elsewhere does not produce reliable results (Reverse Point may not trigger, and/or Track Monitor may not display correct direction of train travel).

So, we're making some progress to resolving the issue of incorrect direction of train travel as shown by the Track Monitor (due to Reverse Points not being (properly) triggered)!