[rickloader]

In official working time tables nonstop trains are often given a timing for passing a location, say a station or junction. I `m calling this a "passing time" (to be clear, I`m not referring to 2 trains passing each other)
In OR is there anyway of showing a passing time in the F10 window?
In an express train it seems silly to have the "no more stations" message , when the working time table shows some exacting passing times to be met. Also freight trains might run non stop but would still have target times to pass junctions.
My focus is on timetable mode, but i think this might also be useful in activity mode.
Rick

[darwins]

Excellent point.


I am very surprised that this request has not been made before.

I felt sure it must be somewhere on the Trello board, but it seems not.

Is it still the case that all locations that are to be "timetabled" must be labelled as passenger stations - or is it now possible to timetable locations labelled as sidings - which often includes level crossings, signal boxes and summits? - all of which have featured in Working Time Tables.

[rickloader]

Hi Darwin, In timetable mode locations are still tied to platforms. I take your point that it wouid be desirable to extend this to siding markers which could be used to identify locations. As you say things like signal boxes. junctions, summits, crossings. could feature.
I`m not clear if siding markers have a different .tdb structre to platforms, and if the OR train traveler can detect passing a siding. I think passing times could apply to both timetable and activity modes.
I`m hoping passing times might be displayed along with actual station stops.
I`m not a programmer so I don`t know how difficult the suggestion might be. Perhaps someone might comment? Thanks for your support.
Rick

[roeter]

Actually, you can use sidings for timetable locations. But there are really serious problems when doing so.
The problem with sidings is that, unlike platforms, they don't have a location name.
Because of this, many routes have multiple sidings with similar names (e.g. just 'siding' or 'loop'). Such sidings cannot be used as the location of these sidings cannot properly be determined.
But the reverse is also true - many locations in routes have multiple sidings with different names, so it cannot be determined that these sidings all are part of the same location. Again, this causes problems when using such sidings in timetables as the stop or pass location now depends on the path of the train through the area.
Because of these problems, the use of sidings in timetables is 'discouraged', as it is likely to create all sorts of problems.

As for passing times, I got as far as defining and processing the input from the datafiles (passing time would be defined as 10P30, for instance), but never got round to working on the actual usage of this information. As far as I know, there are no other developpers actively involved in working on timetable mode processing.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[rickloader]

Thank you Rob for your reply. What a privilege it is to contact a developer! But I`m afraid I don`t fully understand.
Are you saying I can put the name of a siding marker into a station field, and the timetable can read it? That opens some possibilities.......
I see no problem with duplicate siding names as long as your path only traverses 1 instance of the name. Surely a timetable compiler can be expected to avoid duplicates - say by splitting trains?
Because the 170 station platforms in my own timetable was becoming unwieldy ,I have added to my route named platforms with generic titles such as "siding, loop or locoservicing" I have found no trouble with this. But I`m lucky - as a routebuilder I can set my own route to faciltate timetables.
Returning to passing times "10P30" would be exactly what I am hoping for. The usage might be to show 10P30 in the F10 window, and record the actual time the same as for a station stop.
Next, I think a window showing all of the times achieved during the run should be displayed. Since the end of a timetable run varies in definition, perhaps it might be when "escape" and "exit" occur.Hopefully the times might be retained when the player is switched to another train.
I know this now close to an evaluation of the run , but I think there is real value in seeing all of the times achieved. At the moment the F10 window only shows a few times at once and previous times are lost.
Finally, would there be a big difference in implimenting the handling of passing times in activity mode as well as timetables?
Sorry a lot of questions, I know.
Rick

[Aldarion]

Hi.

In january I started creating timetables for the route i am developing. At the time i begun from scrath experimenting with timetables and I soon reached the conclusion I had to, one day, bother someone about passing times. In my country's regulations, I cannot pass a station with more than two minutes in advance so I have to continually manage my run in order to avoid delays and to avoid being to early on passing some stations with fast services. I never got to that stage cause I got a track database corruption in early march and I'm still recovering from that after all this time.
Implementing passing times would be great.

[Weter]

I miss the possibility for, say, freight train to wait on SIDING for some fast passenger train to overtake it TOO.
But, as I understood, the naming of particular route's sidings not takes in account the timetable processing algorytm, in sence, that siding's names could be not unique and not to have correlation with concrete station name
Am I right?
So, new routes can be built, obeying that rule, or existing can be rebuilt...

BUT,Stop for a while! Aren't each track item have unique ID number?

[rickloader]

Time passes! I`m reviving this thread, because the need for passing times in timetables remains. In particular, feedback from New Forest Route shows that timetable users need more information in the F10 window. A non stop freight train might have no timetabled times shown at all, because times are not given in the stations nor in the #dispose row either.

So I propose Rob`s suggestion that a time given in a timetable in the form hhPmm (10P30) be treated as a passing time and recorded and displayed in the f10 window

Proceedure is that after discussion here ,we add the item for adoption in Trello. However, there is already a related Trello item "More stations in F10 window". but this is "not planned at this time" Why not?

So the first hurdle is to add a "Passing time" item to Trello , and get it adopted in the near future. The related "More stations F10" needs a review and reprieve.
Finally, we will need to interest a dev. For this we will need a precise proposal.
Rick

[Aldarion]

I'd like that very much!
It is very important since regulations normaly has the driver of long distance trains to manage their run in order not to pass the control points too early, either for safety reasons and power saving reasons. And the issue with the freight trains is a strong one, too.

[darwins]

I shall just repeat that this would be a really valuable feature. I will be looking out for the Trello board.