[Procopius]

railguy, on 13 February 2018 - 07:22 AM, said:

Pressing the Backspace key initiates an emergency brake application ("big holing" the train in American railroad parlance). As in real railroading, it should only be used as a last resort. For dynamics, do not use the shift key--you are absolutely correct that "," and "." are the dynamic brake control. Dynamic brakes, depending on the locomotive, may be "notched" just like the throttle or may be completely variable. How much dynamic to use?
<snip>

I probably would be more interested in whether the physics were correct or not if I could just find some routes and activities that would work on my system. I do not understand why I seem to have so much more trouble than everybody else.

I tried <Ctl><M> and it did release the emergency brake, but then the display in the <f4> driving aid changed to red and I got the message, "you are off the original track." I messed around trying different things and the keyboard stopped responding. I'm just going to give up on this particular route. I want it because it has Grand Trunk Western rolling stock and scenery and GTW ran a commuter train from, I think, Flint and Pontiac which stopped in Royal Oak, where I lived. I'm just going to move the route and rolling stock over to where I have other routes waiting to be installed on MSTS and delete this one.

Do you know of any route which works reliably in OR? I found none of the activities I have in NEC 4.0 will even start moving. The steam engines in Skipton to Carlisle and Thames Trent stop after ten or fifteen minutes for no apparent reason (the gauge doesn't show that they're out of steam, at least). Frankly, although many people seem to love it, my experience with OR has not been fun, and that's the whole point, isn't it?

[slipperman]

Hi Roger,

Procopius, on 14 February 2018 - 04:38 AM, said:

... my experience with OR has not been fun, and that's the whole point, isn't it?

You are quite right, it should be fun :)

You have a PM.

Cheers,
Ged

[slipperman]

Hi,
In response to Roger's plea for help, I have checked several steam loco/vacuum braked consists and in all cases, have found that the tender and coach brakes didn't release. The <SHIFT+/> combination doesn't work! (I'm using Open Rails X4062)

I am surprised at these results because when using the Stable v1.2, there is no problem - the brakes release fully.

May I suggest that this situation is investigated. If the default scotsman.con consist (Scotsman + 10 gresley coaches) can be made to work correctly, then I think the others will also.

Cheers,
Ged

[darwins]

Hi folks,

I have just driven the Flying Scotsman and 10 car consist using using version X4074.

I experienced no problem either releasing or applying the brakes - both work at a similar speed to MSTS - that is to say much faster than they would in real life.

I can not say if X4062 was better or worse in terms of brakes - there have been good ones and bad ones recently in terms of application, release, coupling, uncoupling, running around, saving... Work on vacuum brakes is still ongoing and there will be some more good ones and bad ones no doubt until the present round of improvements is completed.

As to locos grinding to a halt after 15 or 20 minutes - I have just driven the Scotsman and 10 for more than 20 minutes with no sign that it would grind to a halt before it either ran out of water or came to the end of the route. (Full regulator and reverser adjusted to give a steam consumption of between 25 000 and 30 000 lb/hr.) If the problem persists please send me some screenshots with each of the different versions of Shift+F5 to show the details from the Advanced HuD. Seems like fun to me - apart from the microsoft default brake - but that is even fine if you use the mouse inside the cab...

[slipperman]

Hi Darwin,
Thanks :)
That's good news, but, as I only use the "Friday" releases, I'll have to wait until tomorrow for X4074!!

I'm sure the reason that Roger could only run for a short time was because, with the brakes not being released, the loco had to be run at 100% regulator/75% reverser to even keep moving, with the result that the boiler pressure rapidly decreased.

Cheers,
Ged

[Procopius]

slipperman, on 15 February 2018 - 08:12 AM, said:

Hi Darwin,
Thanks :)
That's good news, but, as I only use the "Friday" releases, I'll have to wait until tomorrow for X4074!!

I'm sure the reason that Roger could only run for a short time was because, with the brakes not being released, the loco had to be run at 100% regulator/75% reverser to even keep moving, with the result that the boiler pressure rapidly decreased.

Cheers,
Ged

Since I dislike the <f5> "headsup" display I wasn't using it, so didn't notice if the brakes were released or not. On the feedback notice that appears at the bottom of the screen it showed the brakes as being released. This is getting confused because my initial problem was with the GTW Holly Sub v2 route, which I expect is pretty obscure -- only 2,132 downloads since 2010. I probably should not have brought up the steam engine problems in this thread. Anyway, I've set aside the Holly Sub route for the time being. I was really using it to experiment with installing routes in non-MSTS folders. I thought of the brakes as being the problem, but did not think to check that second page of the <f5> display. I just tried the Carlisle & Settle route's Winter Evening Run activity, which uses a Class 50 diesel engine, and it ran fine. Oh, I'm currently using version x4062.
--
Roger

[vince]

Procopius, on 15 February 2018 - 05:54 PM, said:

Since I dislike the <f5> "headsup" display I wasn't using it, so didn't notice if the brakes were released or not. ..........snip............................................Roger

Roger,

Are you kidding? When trying to diagnose a problem it's vital that you look at this display.

The information provided there will usually show you what the problem is.
Actually your dislikes have nothing to do with it unless you don't want the problem solved.

regards,
vince

[Procopius]

vince, on 15 February 2018 - 08:00 PM, said:

Roger,

Are you kidding? When trying to diagnose a problem it's vital that you look at this display.

The information provided there will usually show you what the problem is.
Actually your dislikes have nothing to do with it unless you don't want the problem solved.

regards,
vince

Oh, thank you for telling me. I did not know that. Is there a manual on how to diagnose problems in OR? I have so many I really need some guidance. I've gotten moderately good at solving problems in MSTS thanks to slipperman, but OR is a very different kettle of fish.
--
Roger

[slipperman]

Hi Roger,
The latest Testing Version is shown as X4075 but appears to be actually X4074!

I can confirm that the various steam loco/vacuum braked consists now operate correctly - thanks Darwin :)

unfortunately, <SHIFT + /> (initialise brakes) still doesn't work for vacuum brakes; it only "resets" them to the same pressure as they already were, but it released, applied or any point in between.

I haven't checked air brakes.

Cheers,
Ged

[vince]

Procopius, on 15 February 2018 - 08:47 PM, said:

Oh, thank you for telling me. I did not know that. .......snip........................I've gotten moderately good at solving problems in MSTS thanks to slipperman, but OR is a very different kettle of fish.--Roger

Hi Roger,
Being that MSTS is a steaming kettle of vomit, I'll concede you are correct, but it's a very nice fish indeed. And it comes loaded with the tools needed to solve problems included, far easier to get things fixed.

MSTS never had a manual. OR has an indexed & searchable Manual.
This wealth of information provided by the F5 HUD panels are ignored by some (can't figure why) which is why the forum requests that you provide the OR log with any posted problems.

The F5 HUD provides a large amount of information on pretty much all of the Sims operations. You don't need to run with it open all the time but if you're having problems, very necessary if you want the problem solved.

Study the Manual. It's very well written easy reading. Study the F5 HUD panels, especially if you have a problem as there is so much more valuable information there that was ever 'provided' by MSTS.
That you choose to go with MSTS is fine by me but I've no use for a sim that frustrates more than function.
As soon as I had a system that was able to handle OR I dumped MSTS. ... Well, not completely yet . . .
I still use the MSTS Activity Editor because I didn't want to start a learning cycle for the TSRE activity editor in the final stages of a three year project building an upgrade to the PRR-East Region route. Almost done, in beta now.

Anyway, good luck with MSTS as it's not going to be able to handle the coming releases of rolling stock activities and routes.
example? The PRR route Philadelphia tile 2 x 2 square kilometers contains 4,307 objects.
It's going to end up at about 4,500 when complete. I'm not too clear if MSTS can handle that. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/shok.gif
If it does I can guarantee single digit frame rates at this location.

regards,
vince