[conductorchris]

I'll be displaying Open Rails this weekend at the Big E train show in Springfield, the largest train show in . . . the world, maybe.

If you come, please stop by and say hello. I'll be at the Vermont Rail System table (Mallory 138).

I plan to feature the roster and rolling stock of the Vermont Rail System, with many repaints by Max Brisden. I'll be using the Rutland route by Paul Mainville (unreleased and unfinished) and the Lehigh & Hudson River route.

I understand the Mass Bay Rail enthusiasts may have msts running as well.

Christopher

[cjakeman]

 conductorchris, on 24 January 2014 - 07:45 PM, said:

I'll be displaying Open Rails this weekend at the Big E train show in Springfield, the largest train show in . . . the world, maybe.

Sounds a good thing to do, Christopher. It would be useful to get some feedback from you after the event.

We must try and do some of that over here in the UK. UKTrainSim already shows quite often, but only RailWorks, Trainz and MSTS, not yet Open Rails. I expect they would welcome a volunteer to show Open Rails too.

[conductorchris]

It's a two day event, so day one is done and I'm back tomorrow.
We had an open rails machine (windows 7) and and old Windows XP running a msts (which may not even have had bin on it - I wasn't in charge of that one).

I was not using the latest experimental build, but X1764. I didn't want to use the latest because of the diesel smoke issue, so I grabbed one I already had downloaded.

Here's what I have noticed:

1. Download XNA to the computer you intend to use for the simulator BEFORE leaving the internet behind! Fortunately I had my regular laptop with me and that did just fine.

2. Biggest issue of the day was some kind of raildriver bug. When anyone put the trains into emergency (which the kids inevitably did), the air wouldn't recharge. We were seeing this on the msts setup too, but there I could usually get the air to discharge on the keyboard.

3. The second biggest "issue" is the kids had trouble starting the trains. Typically, they'd jam the throttle on full, causing nothing but wheel slip. I need to modify things with shorter consists or more power for the purposes of display.

4. Lots and lots of people said "where can I get this." My response was that it could be downloaded and I mentioned a couple of sites (here, trainsim.com and steam4me.net as places where people could get rolling stock and learn more. But I said this, knowing that there isn't an easy path for new people to just get started. It would be nice to have discs made up that I could hand out that had open rails, ready to install and a couple of routes and a selection of rolling stock. Stuff that is ok to distribute in this way. I'm not sure where we stand as far as being able to be free from proprietary content.

5. Lots of people had some experience with Tranz and Train Simulator 2014 (Railworks). None of them had gotten very far with either program and nobody had any experience with msts or open rails.

Christopher

[cjakeman]

Hi Christopher,

Thanks for the feedback - just what we need - and hope today goes well.

 conductorchris, on 25 January 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

Here's what I have noticed:
3. The second biggest "issue" is the kids had trouble starting the trains. Typically, they'd jam the throttle on full, causing nothing but wheel slip. I need to modify things with shorter consists or more power for the purposes of display.

What about the wheelslip messages? Could they be made clearer? Or perhaps we need an option to turn off wheelslip and make it an advanced feature?

 conductorchris, on 25 January 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

4. Lots and lots of people said "where can I get this." My response was that it could be downloaded and I mentioned a couple of sites (here, trainsim.com and steam4me.net as places where people could get rolling stock and learn more. But I said this, knowing that there isn't an easy path for new people to just get started.

Yes, this has been recognised as an issue for some time. It's something we're working on, but rather slowly.

P.S. I wonder if you used Replay to leave something running while you were busy elsewhere?

[BillC]

 conductorchris, on 25 January 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

It's a two day event, so day one is done and I'm back tomorrow.
We had an open rails machine (windows 7) and and old Windows XP running a msts (which may not even have had bin on it - I wasn't in charge of that one).

I was not using the latest experimental build, but X1764. I didn't want to use the latest because of the diesel smoke issue, so I grabbed one I already had downloaded.

Here's what I have noticed:


2. Biggest issue of the day was some kind of raildriver bug. When anyone put the trains into emergency (which the kids inevitably did), the air wouldn't recharge. We were seeing this on the msts setup too, but there I could usually get the air to discharge on the keyboard.



Christopher

Chris,
The easiest way to have the brakes recharged when inadvertently in emergency mode is not to use the keyboard, directly. Use the following procedure:no
1. Release the brake handle off the emergency notch.
2. Pause momentarily at the CS position.
3. Move the lever down approximately a third of the way. The RD needs to see a change. The penalty indicator should go off.
4. Move the lever to release the brakes will start to charge.
5. Then use the keyboard. To have the brakes charge swiftly. Use "Shift / "

Bill

[conductorchris]

Bill, thanks. I didn't know about that swift recharge. Good to know for impatient kid attention spans.

Chris, I might be willing to help with the "Where can I get this issue". The wheelslip messages were helpful; I wouldn't eliminate them. Of course many of the kids couldn't read, but many noticed after a little coaching not to just jam the throttle on hard because that would happen.

One kid (about 8 years old) was a considerably better engineer that am, which was fun!

I didn't use replay. We had two of us, with two simulators and almost always both chairs were occupied. So it was on all the time.

Christopher