[Traindude]

Here's another idea of how MU operations can be improved, particularly when recreating mainline steam excursions:

Look at any photos or footage of a modern mainline steam excursion and you'll almost always see a diesel helper locomotive coupled between the locomotive's tender and the first passenger car. Despite this being a chronic eyesore to railfans, the diesel helper has some important functions, such as providing a means of backup motive power in case of a breakdown, and supplying head-end power to passenger cars so equipped. However, the main reason for the diesel helper, at least according to Ed Dickens of the Union Pacific's Steam program, is dynamic braking. When descending grades, the engineer of the diesel helper can apply the dynamic brakes to save wear and tear on the steam locomotive's brake shoes (unlike brake shoes for modern equipment, the brake shoes on steam locomotives are difficult and expensive to replace if they get severely worn).

Unfortunately, my attempts to recreate this in the current version of Open Rails have been unsuccessful. With the steam engine leading, and the diesel helper(s) "MU'ed" to the steamer via the train operations window (F9), the diesel helpers ignore my dynamic brake commands (such as the combined handle on my RailDriver), and the "Force" column in the loco info extended HUD shows "0" instead of a negative reading like it ordinarily would whenever the dynamics are applied. However, the diesel helper(s) react to the throttle perfectly fine. To make matters worse, OR apparently doesn't allow cab switching (CTRL+E) while the train is in motion, so I can't easily "seize control" of the helper(s) to just apply the dynamics.

However, when I run the diesel(s) on their own (with or without attached cars), the dynamics work perfectly fine.

Thus in terms of mainline steam excursion diesel-assist operations in OR, the helpers' dynamic brakes are useless.

I have submitted a Trello card for you guys to vote on.

[darwins]

Thinking about this there is an overlap with what we need for push-pull cars / driving trailers / commuter cabs in that these too present a need to control engine parts that are not present in the leading vehicle. There is also sometimes a need to display information in the driving cab of the trailer vehicle such as current on ammeters or on GWR auto coaches boiler pressure on the loco.