[thegrindre]

Good idea, I brought this subject up a few years ago for the link in link & pin couplers. Oh well.

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

[darwins]

 Traindude, on 27 March 2018 - 10:34 PM, said:

Sorry to bump this thread but I just thought of something:

It's an idea for an "animated" coupling chain on rolling stock equipped with chain couplings. During coupling, it "pops" from its dangling position to a horizontal position, giving the illusion of the two pieces of rolling stock appearing coupled together.

Similarly, the coupling chain can be made to be flexible so the chain follows an adjacent piece of rolling stock around curves, grades, etc. (This scheme can also be used for drawbars, air, steam and water hoses, stoker tubes and other connections between pieces of rolling stock.

https://trello.com/c...-coupling-chain

If this is proposed, chain couplings where used should also not be coupled until they are coupled manually by mouse or keyboard.
Chain coupled stock should not couple automatically when buffered up.
This will improve the capability for loose shunting / fly shunting / hump shunting with chain and buffer stock.
Possibly it can also work that banking locos can buffer up behind a train without coupling up - that is no coupling of chain or brake pipes - not sure how this works for AI, but if you are driving the banker you should be able to just drop off at the top of the hill, leaving the main train to go on its way - as in the real thing.

[thegrindre]

I totally http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/I-Agree.gif with the manual coupling idea. Eliminate the auto coupling thing altogether. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/pardon.gif
Well, I guess it could be under the Option menu with a tic.

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

[darwins]

 thegrindre, on 28 March 2018 - 01:50 AM, said:

I totally http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/I-Agree.gif with the manual coupling idea. Eliminate the auto coupling thing altogether. http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/pardon.gif
Well, I guess it could be under the Option menu with a tic.

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

Only for chain couplings though. Buckeye couplings, modern automatic couplings and even the old style narrow gauge couplers do couple automatically. (Modern automatic couplers also connect and disconnect the brake pipes automatically so that there is no need for the brake pipe and angle cock stuff if these are implemented.

[ianmacmillan]

What we need is freight animations that animate.

The rear coupling could hang vertically and move to the horizontal when coupling - triggered by the by the couple/uncouple sound trigger.

Animated FAs could also be used to drop a lever handbrake when applied or rotate a brake wheel.

[darwins]

 ianmacmillan, on 28 March 2018 - 05:40 AM, said:

What we need is freight animations that animate.

The rear coupling could hang vertically and move to the horizontal when coupling - triggered by the by the couple/uncouple sound trigger.

Animated FAs could also be used to drop a lever handbrake when applied or rotate a brake wheel.

I would also like to have a tender coal animation that animates - as coal is used up the pile of coal should get smaller and change shape to fit the tender.

It looks really ugly when you see the coal descending beneath the underframe of a tender.

[Traindude]

Here's some more ideas that I've been thinking about:

The first is improvements to fueling facilities that expedite the fueling process similar to what's done in the real world:
https://trello.com/c...ling-facilities

The second is nothing new, and has been discussed here before, and that is the implementation of manual transitioning on early electric and diesel-electric locos that incorporate rheostatic control systems:
http://www.elvastowe...transistioning/
https://trello.com/c...-electric-locos