Railworks America

Apparently there is no setting to incur a SPAD (Signal Passed At Danger) penalty? While there is a setting Disable Junction Derail (off by default) that I haven't yet seen in operation?

In Services mode, I tried taking Q353 Manifest Cumberland To Willard and got a Stop aspect at the absolute signal near MP 187 which I suppose is somewhere around Cook's Mills.
Asking the dispatcher for permission gave "No route available" while the next couple of blocks ahead were clear in the 9 view and no crossovers seemed to have been lined for left hand running in either direction. The blue track warrant line extended all the way to Hyndman.
So I sat and waited, and saw two trains coming from Hyndman on 1 MT.

What to do next? Run the signal? The next also showed Stop, but it has a number plate, so is permissive?

PS: I used this track schematic to get the names and locations of control points. Why isn't this in the manual or on the relay sheds?
http://mtnsub.org/keystone/Keystone-signals.html
I suppose it is two track CTC in the prototype?

No SPADs, no overs-peed nagging -- in fact, nothing resembling TS20xx's annoying career scenarios.

OldProf wrote:No SPADs, no overs-peed nagging -- in fact, nothing resembling TS20xx's annoying career scenarios.

Yet I'm somewhat in two minds about this. I've found the timings shown on the Services timetable pretty impossible to meet but TSW gives no indication of how well I'm doing against the schedule so I have to check manually against the timetable which is a bit of a pain. OTOH I found I really had to game the system in TSxx career scenarios which took away from the enjoyment.

SamYeager270 wrote:

OldProf wrote:No SPADs, no overs-peed nagging -- in fact, nothing resembling TS20xx's annoying career scenarios.

Yet I'm somewhat in two minds about this. I've found the timings shown on the Services timetable pretty impossible to meet but TSW gives no indication of how well I'm doing against the schedule so I have to check manually against the timetable which is a bit of a pain. OTOH I found I really had to game the system in TSxx career scenarios which took away from the enjoyment.

That reminded me of a feature in the flight sim Tornado, it calculated your ± time to target, it's probably modeled in most other flight sims too now but it was pretty cool at the time. I wonder if it would worth it to implement here.

OldProf wrote:No SPADs, no overs-peed nagging -- in fact, nothing resembling TS20xx's annoying career scenarios.

Instead, you are forced to turn cab switches on and off in a specific order just to continue with the scenario. Pretty annoying in my opinion. In the scenarios, you receive "track warrants," even though this is obviously CTC territory. Something tells me that DTG still doesn't have a firm grasp on U.S railroading.

SamYeager270 wrote:

OldProf wrote:No SPADs, no overs-peed nagging -- in fact, nothing resembling TS20xx's annoying career scenarios.

Yet I'm somewhat in two minds about this. I've found the timings shown on the Services timetable pretty impossible to meet but TSW gives no indication of how well I'm doing against the schedule so I have to check manually against the timetable which is a bit of a pain. OTOH I found I really had to game the system in TSxx career scenarios which took away from the enjoyment.

Do you mean the time that appears to the right of the title in the services menu? As far as I know, those are start times -- a 17:03 running time would be pretty ridiculous. Otherwise, what timings do you mean?

AlcoFan wrote:

OldProf wrote:No SPADs, no overs-peed nagging -- in fact, nothing resembling TS20xx's annoying career scenarios.

Instead, you are forced to turn cab switches on and off in a specific order just to continue with the scenario. Pretty annoying in my opinion. In the scenarios, you receive "track warrants," even though this is obviously CTC territory. Something tells me that DTG still doesn't have a firm grasp on U.S railroading.

Hmmm . . . forced? Have you tried doing those things in a different order? In any case, I really don't find that annoying at all -- I just assume that there is a correct or at least customary order for those actions and I'm being taught that order. As I mentioned, the most annoying aspect of Career scenarios for me is the speeding nag. Perhaps it reminds me of drivers' ed from my Dad?

OldProf wrote:
Do you mean the time that appears to the right of the title in the services menu? As far as I know, those are start times -- a 17:03 running time would be pretty ridiculous. Otherwise, what timings do you mean?

If you look at the Services timetable page on the last page of the manual it often gives times at intermediate stations, which I assume are supposed to be the arrival times, as well as a time for the end station. If these times are meant to be achievable, or even reflect real life, then so far I've failed miserably to match them. It's not the biggest issue but it's nice to have a target time to achieve.

These timings are perhaps computed, and not measured? It requires acceleration at warp drive rates ...
Before one reaches the Viaduct Junction, the official begin of the Keystone Sub mainline, one is mostly like 10-15 minutes underway in Cumberland yard and city limits alone. Then 9 miles to Hyndman up a grade with typically underpowered trains in about 15 minutes? Highly unlikely.

Perhaps our resident Sand Patch Conductor can provide some real timings for the various service classes?

The key in operating those mammoth trains over 10000 tons is maintaining constant speed to minimise slack action. Due to the high TOB (tons per operative brake) on fully laden coal and tank cars in unit trains with strengthened couplers, speeds are limited anyways, and nowhere near timetable track speed limit.
So far, DTG haven't provided the really big trains that operate over Sand Patch these days. Are there even enough loaded cars in Cumberland yard in any scenario to make up such a train?