Railworks America

I may be dense but the instructions for how to operate this thing is about a clear as mud to me. Can someone help a dummy in simple English?

The first 17 notches (Series) are used near exclusively for starting. Since they use resistors to restrict power, they are not designed to be used for long. After those 17, there is a "blank" which provides no power and is just a resting point. Past that are the parallel notches, which are used for high speeds. After those there is the "shunt" which, for basic operation, isn't necessary. Additionally, a failsafe is built in that will shut off the current to the traction motors if the amps goes above 300? (it's somewhere right around there). To reset this you must put the throttle all the way down to off.

Thus, for starting, you notch up through series slowly to avoid overamping, until you reach Full Series (F S on the hud, you should be able to get here at like 20 MPH) then transition to the blank and begin applying the parallel notches. If you want to coast while in parallel, drop back down to blank, that way once you need power again you will be applying the parallel notches instead of starting all over. When you stop, make sure to cycle the throttle back down to off, otherwise upon starting you will overamp the traction motors.

. Real English explanation. Off to see if I can remember for five minutes.

Also, in Regenerative Braking (Dynamics) it operates only at certain amperages, and it depends on how much amps you were pulling before you enter braking. With a light train, very little or no braking....heavy train, regenerative works all the way down to the 10-15 mph range, then it cuts out. At least that that is how I read and have experienced it.

Regenerative braking power is determined by the voltage in the wire, with lower voltage equaling more braking power and them working at lower speeds. IRL, the voltage was dropped when trains were descending grades in order for the regenerative brakes to be most effective. Milepost modeled this with a control value that can be changed with Lua script (which is, IMO, the coolest thing in the DLC). The scenarios have this set up and working, however if you're quickdriving or freeroaming you'll either have to deal with the weaker brakes or script it yourself (which is very easy, it's only a few lines of script).