P42DC Control Features - Part 3

[ricksan]

My understanding is that Amtrak does not use an AWS system. That being the case, the G-TraX P42DC has no AWS controls.

It does have an alerter system, though, and it works like this. A timer is used to monitor the engineer's activities. If the engineer operates one of the power or braking controls within a 120-second time limit, the timer is immediately reset to zero and it re-starts the 120-second count. If the engineer has not operated one of those controls within 120 seconds, a flashing red Alert light appears on the main display monitor. The system is now in alarm mode. In alarm mode, operating a power or braking control no longer resets the timer. Instead, the engineer has to hit the Alerter Reset switch to reset the timer. If the engineer does not acknowledge the visual display by hitting the Alerter Reset switch within 10 seconds, an audible alarm sounds. If another 10 seconds goes by without a reset, the locomotive's emergency brake is automatically applied.

The preceding control sequence is based on material I've read. I don't know what the visual alarm really looks like. I have seen nothing that resembles such an alarm in my collection of cab photos so I have to assume it appears on the engineers monitor. I also don't know what the audible alarm sounds like. I didn't want to use the deadman.wav sound that shipped with the MSTS Dash 9 as well as with later locomotives by other content providers. Maybe it is in fact the right sound. I don't know. Whatever the case I synthesized my own, fairly unobtrusive alarm sound.