Elvas Tower: Templecombe to Bournemouth - Elvas Tower

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#1 User is offline   beresford 

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Posted 11 September 2014 - 06:05 AM

This is my OR experience so far of the Templecombe-Bournemouth activity on the Somerset & Dorset route. At start you take 82030 out of the shed on to the main line, reverse it down the spur to Templecombe, run around the carriages and propel them into the station.

1. As ever the brakes on 82030 are ridiculously weak. This is a BR Standard and the loco has a steam brake, apply it fully IRL and the wheels will lock. When I tried operating the engine brake it had no effect but its maximum displayed setting was 'NaN%' (yes I know what a NaN is, I just never thought I would encounter one in retirement).

2. The reversing point is shifted to a long way beyond the junction to the spur, if you are not aware of this OR idiosyncrasy you will have a long wasted journey.

3. At the far end of the carriages, OR has extended the 'path' to the next set of points, which unfortunately are nearby, as shown in the attachment. You have a very small area to stop in with the aforementioned dodgy brakes. If you don't hit the spot the points won't change, and they don't seem to respond to Manual mode.

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  • Attached Image: Open Rails 2014-09-11 02-39-50.png


#2 User is offline   cjakeman 

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Posted 11 September 2014 - 06:38 AM

View Postberesford, on 11 September 2014 - 06:05 AM, said:

2. The reversing point is shifted to a long way beyond the junction to the spur, if you are not aware of this OR idiosyncrasy you will have a long wasted journey.

3. At the far end of the carriages, OR has extended the 'path' to the next set of points, which unfortunately are nearby, as shown in the attachment.

Is this with the experimental "Enhanced compatibility with MSTS activities" property checked or not?

#3 User is online   dennisat 

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Posted 11 September 2014 - 08:46 AM

View Postberesford, on 11 September 2014 - 06:05 AM, said:

1. As ever the brakes on 82030 are ridiculously weak....


After trying this act in MSTS and OR I'm not sure that the brakes are actually weak in OR. What is noticeable is that the controls' response times are much slower in OR than in MSTS. In OR, the brake on the loco used in this act takes 15 seconds to fully apply (21 to 0 inHg) from full release position on the controller and 10 seconds to fully release (0 to 21 inHg) from full apply position. The corresponding times for MSTS are barely 2 seconds to fully apply and about 8 seconds to fully release. This means you have to anticipate very far in advance in OR, even at slow speed. When in MSTS, you are almost always on full braking because it gets there so fast you have to be really on the ball to get your finger off the quote key before hitting 0 inHG.

I'm looking into why this should be so and I might come up with some suggestions for a solution. However, I'm not an OR developer so there's no guarantee that I could get any suggestion actually implemented. There seem to be very, very few people who are interested in vacuum braking; I suppose it was a bit peculiar to the UK.

Dennis

#4 User is offline   beresford 

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Posted 11 September 2014 - 01:30 PM

View Postcjakeman, on 11 September 2014 - 06:38 AM, said:

Is this with the experimental "Enhanced compatibility with MSTS activities" property checked or not?


Since I wasn't aware there was such a property, probably not. I can look at it again though since it is near the start of the activity.

Edit: OK, tried it with the box checked. The reversing point at the Templecombe spur is where you would expect it in MSTS. Does nothing to solve the small area at the other end of Templecombe yard in which you have to stop before getting the silly 'Off Path' message.

#5 User is offline   beresford 

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Posted 11 September 2014 - 02:30 PM

View Postdennisat, on 11 September 2014 - 08:46 AM, said:

After trying this act in MSTS and OR I'm not sure that the brakes are actually weak in OR. What is noticeable is that the controls' response times are much slower in OR than in MSTS. In OR, the brake on the loco used in this act takes 15 seconds to fully apply (21 to 0 inHg) from full release position on the controller and 10 seconds to fully release (0 to 21 inHg) from full apply position. The corresponding times for MSTS are barely 2 seconds to fully apply and about 8 seconds to fully release. This means you have to anticipate very far in advance in OR, even at slow speed. When in MSTS, you are almost always on full braking because it gets there so fast you have to be really on the ball to get your finger off the quote key before hitting 0 inHG.

I'm looking into why this should be so and I might come up with some suggestions for a solution. However, I'm not an OR developer so there's no guarantee that I could get any suggestion actually implemented. There seem to be very, very few people who are interested in vacuum braking; I suppose it was a bit peculiar to the UK.

Dennis


Just for your info, GWR engines tended to have vac brakes on the engine and tender and the other companies had steam brakes (live steam operates a piston connected to the brake rigging). When a vac brake engine was connected to a train it just extended the engine's vacuum 'circuit'. When a steam brake engine was connected to a vac braked train an ejector and brake valve was required on the engine for the train. Often there was a combined control to allow both brake systems to be operated at the same time, and there were various engineman's tricks to thwart the purpose of the control and allow the brakes to be controlled separately.

http://www.engine-dr...y-and-operation

Considering the brake control shown, if you were hauling an unfitted freight train (no continuous brake on the wagons) you had no vacuum brakes but still had to run the vacuum ejector in order for the brake control to release the steam brake on the loco. The ejector consumed coal and water which made work for the fireman, so the 'brake clip' was devised to hold the steam brake in the released position. This was dangerous as it inhibited use of the brake when you needed it, so if management caught you with one in your possession you would be looking at an alternative career.

I believe that MSTS assumes that all British engines are vac braked.

#6 User is offline   disc 

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Posted 11 September 2014 - 02:46 PM

Hmm that NaN problem appears again :)
I also seen that some variables in game sometimes are NaN. Last time i see NaN at wheelslip value just after an activity start, while the locomotive had 5% of the total tractive effort on rails, i saved the game and and the reload crashed it. But a full restart of the actity solves the problem. But it's strange how this problem appears randomly.

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