P42DC Control Features - Part 1

[ricksan]

I'd appreciate some technical feedback on the P42DC controls. I've never set foot inside the cab of one of these, but I've examined a lot of photos and read explanations about the way things work. That doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, of course, but with your input I hope I can get the virtual locomotive to operate reasonably close to the real thing.

There are four posts in this inquiry:
1. Overview (this post)
2. Ditch lights
3. Alerter
4. Emergency brake

Here's a look at the control display that you'll be getting...



The two most common graphical displays are depicted on the engineer's monitors. There are different models and manufacturers in use with different display layouts. I chose to use the ones you see here.

Some day in RailWorks displays like these will be completely automated. We're not there yet. Most of what you see is static artwork with "typical" values shown in the readouts. However, I have included several dynamic features that I think will be of interest.

• Both the analog and the digital speedometers work. The speed shown on the locomotive information display matches the one on the main display.
• The two graphic displays for equalizer reservoir pressure and brake line pressure work. Unfortunately, in RW, these are always the same value (I think), so the two blue bars are always of equal length even though I'm using two separately controlled objects to represent them.
• The graphic ammeter, to the right of the speedometer, works but in this particular shot the engine is essentially coasting. When the motors are consuming electrical current, a blue line extends to the right from the zero line. When the motors are generating current, as in dynamic braking, a red line extends to the left from the zero line.
• The red Alert display shown here is normally not visible. See Post 3 for further information.
• On the locomotive information display, the current status of the reverse lever and the combined power handle is displayed.

For the digital speedometer I used the same technique that was used in RSC's recently released Class 67, which I believe was originally developed by Ricardo "Reppo" Rivera. It's a fairly involved process requiring coordination between the LUA script, the Engine Blueprint control definitions, and the cab model itself. It's possible to have dynamic displays for other parameters such as RPM, Amps and so on, and it's possible to add the decimal portion of these, where appropriate. But each one of these compounds the amount of work done by the author and by your computer's processor. So I got the speedometer working and stopped at that.

If you see something in this post or its companion posts that you disagree with, please state what you think is wrong and specify what should happen instead. Most importlanly please state the source of your information. Include an Internet link if possible.

Disclaimer: Once again, please no requests for alternate paint schemes, other road names, different locomotive or cab configurations, or different monitor displays. I realize there are differences among the locomotives that comprise the Genesis series in general and the P42DC series in particular. This product is how I chose to represent this locomotive and I really only want to do it once!

[Kali]

Perhaps combined displays just for the main things like RPM, amps and ... would there be brake pipe pressure? those would be atmospheric enough to bother with, I think.