F59PHI Brakes and Bell

[peterhayes]

I don't know if I have missed a post on this but:

When you apply the brakes in the F59PHI (or start off stopped at a station) the brake gauge shows the needle around the 10 am to 11 am position. Releasing the brakes sometimes does nothing and you have to wait a considerable amount of time for the brake gauge needle to return to zero. This can mean sitting at a station without moving waiting for this to happen. In some cases fiddling with loco etc brake levers in the cab will suddenly allow the train brake to quickly fall to zero.
Has anyone else seen this and is there a fix??

The train bell does not seem to sound in the cab, when I operate the bell I get just a click in the cab and when I turn it off there is (for want of a better description) a "shriek". The bell works fine outside the cab. Is this just my setup or has it been seen by others? Is there a fix?
Regards
pH

[artimrj]

Might get some info from this thread if you can follow it. Too much for me to read.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9793

[buzz456]

Bell works here on both the locomotive and the cab car. As far as the brake releasing slowly, it does seem to be a bit slower than some others but I'm not sure what it is supposed to be like. It does release here but slowly.

[peterhayes]

Bob
Thanks for the link - it helped with the braking - somewhat.

Is there any answer to the silent and shrieking BELL in the cab?

pH

[BNSFdude]

That shreik is a 3 way solenoid bleeding off the air in the bells air line after you shut it off. It can be heard in the GP38-2s too, but that is more of a 'PSHH'

Anywho. I figured out the issue with the brakes. If it doesn't get pushed through steam (RSC QA did digging on it, flagged it), I'll post it here.

[peterhayes]

Woody
Thanks that sounds promising!!
I did find that setting the reverser to 0% and slightly revving the engine then applying the loco brake on and off and the train brake lever moved pretty rapidly to zero. But that could have been due to chance.

The bell issue is obviously a sound issue on my rig and BTW it is quite a loud "Shriek"!!

Thanks all
pH

[robbit]

I get the loud shriek as well

[buzz456]

All I get is a air release sound.

[Ericmopar]

I can't vouch for the loco itself, but on a recent trip on Amtraks Capitol Corridor I did get a peak in a Cab Car, Cab and sat in the Cab Car right behind the crew.
The bell inside the Cab Car really is almost inaudible. It's more of a faint clunk, with a very faint ring to it. The horn is audible but not loud inside and almost sounds like a totally different horn inside than when a person hears it outside.
The brakes release very quickly on those things. When the engineer released them, there was a quick "Cheeewww" just like a Semi, and he was ready to go in less than 5 seconds.
He pretty much released brakes and went.

[peterhayes]

Eric
I get the click only so perhaps the bell sound in my setup is typical!
Tx
pH

[buzz456]

No the bell sound is there.

[peterhayes]

Buzz
As a matter of interest what in-game sound settings do you have set?
Regards
pH

[arizonachris]

I've also had to fiddle with the brake lever to get it to release. Not every time but often enough. And I have yet to use the bell so can't answer on that one.

[buzz456]

Master volume 90
Ambient volume 35
Enable EFX On

[peterhayes]

Buzz
Thanks - I have similar settings slightly higher ambient so I should hear that darned bell!!
pH