[atsf37l]

I was running an activity with a double-headed Grand Canyon Limited out of San Bernardino on Patrick Wise's Cajon Pass. Actually starting out of Devore. I ran to the Summit, stopped the train. Disconnected the air hoses between the engines and uncoupled, lined the switch to the siding, ran the lead engine (Player, the helper engine) into the siding and relined the switch to the main. Alt F9 and chose the road engine (Player1) so that I could run the train without the helper down to Barstow. All the non driving wheels in the train disappear and I get NaN in the speed line of the F4 and F5 HUD's.

Also, does a player switch always have to reverse? After I switched to Player1 and before I started to move and got the NaN, even though the locomotive was in forward gear the indicator on the F4 screen shows it in reverse, the 2 key shows me the rear of the train, the 3 key shows me the front of the train, the switch ahead is actually the switch behind and vice-versa. Why is that? Can we keep trains moving the same direction running forward please? Log file attached. System configuration below. :bigboss:

 OpenRailsLog.txt (42.55K)
Number of downloads: 153

[Csantucci]

Herb, were the two locos already coupled together at start of activity? And if not, was the Player1 loco in reverse position when it coupled with Player?
After uncoupling was Player1 in auto or manual mode?
If you explain me your sequence, I'll have a check trying the same one. I must admit I always tested with diesels or electrics, and didn't test player switching with steam locos.

[atsf37l]

It was manual, as I had lined the switch reverse to put the helper away and then back to normal for the main train to proceed. Yes, the locos were coupled at the beginning of the activity only becoming Player and Player1 when I cut off at Summit. :bigboss:

Ps: the only addition to the sequence in the first paragraph in my first post was the switch from auto to manual before lining the switch.

This post has been edited by atsf37l: 21 March 2016 - 01:56 PM

[Csantucci]

Hi Herb,
I wasn't able to reproduce the NaN problem. I was however able to reproduce the reversing problem.
Pls. try to replace ORTS.Simulation.dll with the attached one in release x3482. This should solve the reversing problem.

File removed as patch has been uploaded

[atsf37l]

Thanks Carlo. I'll try it out. Is 3482 pretty stable? Maybe I'll just replace my beta version. :bigboss:

[atsf37l]

OK, I tried dropping in the .dll file from 3482 but it wouldn't work with the rest of the 3451 build - fatal error on any route I tried to run. So I downloaded and installed 3482 and tried the activity again. Same issues. Jump to Player1 after cutting off the Player helper engine and Player1 is in reverse even though moving forward. Arrows are reversed, front and rear views are reversed and the train is running down the operation window instead of up. As soon as I moved Player1 I got the NaN error and all the wheels disappeared.

I was able to get past the NaN issue by starting over, from my save before cutting off the helper, and switching back and forth a couple of times between Player and Player1. Discovered this purely accidently since I switched to the road engine then wanted to go back and look at something on the helper. When I came back to the road engine I was able to run the train without the NaN.

Of course, since I'm now running the non Player engine I have become a "pathless train" so I'm off a recognized path and unable to switch off of Manual for signals and switches. Lots of 20 MPH red lights. This cab switching works a lot better over on the RGS where there are no signals involved. :lol: :bigboss:

[Csantucci]

Hi Herb,
first of all a tip that allows you to run in auto mode after uncoupling the helper:
- when you stop the train to uncouple the helper, don't pass to manual mode; instead
- pass to the cab of the second locomotive (CTRL-E)
- uncouple the helper with the F9 window
- switch to the helper with the Alt-F9 window and move it out of the way
- realign the switch you had to throw to put the helper out of the way and switch back to the road engine with the Alt-F9 window
- you're now in auto mode and can run further with your train.

Re the fact that you didn't see any difference with my file, that's strange, because it works here. Are you sure you replaced correctly ORTS.Simulation.dll also in your x.3482 version? Did you start the activity from scratch to perform the test?

[atsf37l]

OK, I tried what you said and it solved the directional problem and it kept the road engine and train on the white path but as soon as I started to move the train: NaN, no wheels.

Now I think I know why I'm getting the NaN. Back in the not too distant past when I ran MSTS, I had a bunch of passenger cars, normally assigned to the rear end of the train, that were .eng's rather than .wag's. The purpose for this was to have a tail of escaping steam at the rear of the steam heated passenger train. Looked nice. Worked well. ORTS hates it! It doesn't like having an .eng file that has no power at the end of the train. Immediate NaN was the reward in ORTS for having one of those cars in the train.

I think that issue is biting me now. I had the .eng cars in the same folder as the .wag cars for the same carriage and they had not been suffixed with a .bk. I went through and cleaned them up over the last couple of hours but I may well have missed one or the sim is still seeing them somehow, so for now I put the passenger train back on the shelf and changed gears.

I set up a 39 car freight train - no passenger wagons - with a 2-10-2 helper on the point, a 2-10-3 road engine right behind, 19 cars, a third 2-10-2 in the middle helper slot, 20 cars and a caboose. I set up an activity to start at Summit and positioned the train where it would have stopped for helpers. I followed your steps to the letter and it worked like a champ. CtrlE to change to the road engine, now Player. Change to the lead helper (Player 1) and cut off and pull forward. Go Manual and back the helper into the helper siding. Cut the train ahead of the mid-train helper, pull forward clear the west switch of the helper siding. Switch to the mid-train helper (Player2) - at this point things went a little south, more about that later - cut off from the rear of the train, pull forward into the helper siding up behind the first helper. Line the switch for the main and go back to Auto Signal.

OK, this is where it goes a little south, or east in this case. As soon as I switched to Player2 to put the second helper away the road engine and lead cut of cars took off for Barstow as an AI train, even though I had set the brakes on full and set handbrakes! Once I got the helper tucked away I merely changed to Player, stopped the runaway and backed the mile or so to the summit to get the rest of my train. Here he is backing up looking sheepish as the helper engineers and fireman rake him over the coals!


Not without an issue or two but generally much better with the passenger cars out of the picture. Any way to prevent player from turning AI - maybe making it selectable, AI - non-AI?

[Csantucci]

Hi Herb,
nice that now it doesn't reverse any more. This has now been fixed in x.3486.
Two points:
1) could you pls. attach the .eng file of one of your cars with zero power?
2) you said that your player train went AI and run away: maybe you haven't pressed the Shift key when clicking the second time to switch to the mid-train helper.

[atsf37l]

Here's the Chama Valley engine file.
 atsf_chama_valley.eng (5.56K)
Number of downloads: 149

Shift before clicking. So shift click if you don't want it to be an AI and click if you do? Learn something new every day. How about a "step-by-step" for us seniors trying to learn this stuff? LOL! :bigboss: