Elvas Tower: Remote Control DPU units - Elvas Tower

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Remote Control DPU units Rate Topic: ***** 1 Votes

#1 User is offline   firealarmguy 

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Posted 06 March 2015 - 01:59 PM

For a while now, I've been operating heavy coal trains on the powder river basin, usually 100-120 cars. I've noticed that my projected speed, sometimes at full throttle N8 begins to decrease, and sometimes even close to stalling. This happened to me with a consist consisting of 2 UP C44AC's, 108 empty hopper cars, and 1 UP C44AC rear helper unit. I know in the real world that UP (and BNSF, among others) use DPU's (distributed power units) for those kind of heavy trains on those steep grades, and I know a good amount of info from an article discussing DPU's from the August 1997 issue of TRAINS magazine. I've often wondered, has this been implemented, or at least proposed for Open Rails?

#2 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 06 March 2015 - 07:34 PM

Is that a cutdown MP unit refered to as a 'calf', with no cab?

Cheers & thanks,
Bazza.

#3 User is offline   markus_GE 

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Posted 07 March 2015 - 03:27 AM

No. DPU in the RR meaning (forget about my program for a while) stands for "Distributed Power Units", IE locos distributed throughout the train, remotely controlled / radio-controlled from the lead engine. AFAIK, they can either be made to do the same as the engineer makes the lead engines (MU'ed) do with his controls, or can be configured to be controlled separately.

A an example of this method of operation can be seen here: https://www.youtube....ABM8UPplY#t=812

Cheers, Markus

#4 User is offline   copperpen 

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Posted 07 March 2015 - 04:06 AM

All engines in a train using current OR code will respond to the lead engine throttle command and produce power whatever the location within the train. The other half of DPU, separate throttle/brake commands for each group of engines within a consist is not implemented.

#5 User is offline   roeter 

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Posted 07 March 2015 - 05:51 AM

A possible cause of this problem is wheelslip in one or more of the remote controlled units. This is not reported back to the leading unit, so as a player you are not aware of this. I had this problem on some push-pull trains when running from the driving trailer.
Perhaps the F5 locomotive hud display can reveal some more information on this.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

#6 User is offline   firealarmguy 

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Posted 07 March 2015 - 11:35 AM

Thanks. Is there a way for sanding the helpers? I'm new to these new physics. Hopefully DPU gets implemented. I know there are some routes that could benefit from this....

#7 User is offline   captain_bazza 

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Posted 07 March 2015 - 03:38 PM

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/sign_thank_you.gif Markus.

CB.

#8 User is offline   gpz 

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Posted 08 March 2015 - 12:36 AM

View Postfirealarmguy, on 07 March 2015 - 11:35 AM, said:

Hopefully DPU gets implemented. I know there are some routes that could benefit from this....

First of all, it would be good to specify, how users (players) would expect this to work in OpenRails. What would be the step-by-step way of assigning a locomotive in the consist to belong to a particular DPU group? What would be the desired way of switching between groups to control with keyboard? How it would be expected to display the states of various groups? All in all, a preliminary manual for this would be a help, because without this the programmer doesn't know what to implement exactly. (No programming knowledge is needed for this, so anyone can start thinking on it.)

#9 User is offline   railguy 

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Posted 08 March 2015 - 08:31 AM

I would hope for relatively full functioning DPU capability. On American railroads, use of DPU's is now becoming the norm. In real world DPU use, the DPU sets can be controlled by the engineer a couple of ways:

1) The DPU units respond to the throttle and dynamic brake commands the same as the lead units. That, apparently, is the one and only way OR (and MSTS) treat them now.

2) Each DPU unit set--often they are put in mid-train (the "swing" position) and on the rear of the train--can often need to be controlled independently of the lead units. Particularly on grades and in hilly terrain, the engineer can set each DPU set to respond to throttle and dynamic brake commands independent of the lead units. This is known in railroad slang as "building the fence" between the lead units and the DPU sets. A typical use of this occurs when a long train tops a grade. The engineer will "build the fence" then put his lead units into dynamic braking as the front part of the train begins descending the downhill grade. Meanwhile, the swing and rear DPU units will still be in power mode pushing the remainder of the train that is still ascending the grade. As more of the train crests the grade and begins to descend, the engineer will shut the throttles of the DPU's and put them into dynamic braking.

This has already been done in one simulator--Run8 will do it.

#10 User is offline   gpz 

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Posted 08 March 2015 - 10:22 AM

View Postrailguy, on 08 March 2015 - 08:31 AM, said:

This has already been done in one simulator--Run8 will do it.

How the game's desired user interface for this function would look like? Where to click, what keys to be pressed, how the result is exposed? Specifying this is one of the main keys, when thinking of implementing a new function.

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