Mullan Timetable consists??

[ngc427]

There is no rush for fixes, let folks poke around a bit more.

I also tried to run the empty coke train U-RBOLAU, it was 3rd in a parade of 3 trains leaving Missoula eastbound with MISLAU leading and the Q-SSEATL in the middle. With close spacing I was beginning to see some of the same faults that we saw years ago when running the Rockslide activity for SLI Feather River. In that activity, you were third behind 2 other AIs, the first AI got away, the second AI immediately ahead of you had an emergency stop, during which the player pulled up right behind its caboose. When the stopped AI finally got moving and cleared the next siding interlocking, the dispatcher routed the player train in and out of the siding needlessly. The AI ahead was still moving in between the two switches, and the dispatcher saw the siding as the clearer track over a (everso slightly) greater distance and sent the player on that routing instead. So the player ended up going into and out of sidings with no opposing trains to meet.

For some reason, the stack train ahead of the player kept to the main at Bonner, but got routed through the derail-equipped McQuarrie storage siding (a ballast train holding siding, no power switches) which slowed its progress down, which resulted in the player's empty coke train getting sent into Bonner CTC siding to meet nobody. I don't know why McQuarrie siding (adjacent to a rock quarry) would have a passing path set for it, it shouldn't, its not a CTC siding used for meets. Are there other storage sidings set up with passing paths in error like that?

And I was a bit wrong earlier, there really aren't two main tracks (or main/siding) skirting the south side of Missoula yard, there is only one, along with some type of running track that starts about halfway, so the best you can do is have a quasi-passing loop on both the west side and east side. If you are not on the main, you end up going straight into the yard on the other track. I don't know how many BNSF trains run through vs actually get yarded waiting on a crew, but maybe we are trying to shove thru too many non-stops than the track layout is actually designed to handle.

Fixed the McQuarrie siding issue, and also found that the Phosphate siding is also set up as a passing track even though it's not fully signaled + derail equipped like McQuarrie.
I also fixed the issue with U-RBOLAU, my solution was to bump the starting time for the MISLAU back an hour, which changed the traffic pattern to fix the incorrect routing issue from the AI dispatcher.
I have an interesting idea with trains stopping for crew changes at the yards where applicable, the other day I was playing around with wait points in the path editor and might incorporate that into the timetable somehow. I also noticed it allowed for semi-complex switching actions, which might make for an interesting dynamic of actually having to double up your train for the MISLAU or possibly even doing some locals in between the timetable action.