DazT

Knowing that might make working SPł a little more tolerable, I currently don't as I was sick and tired of fighting with the AI at Dandowka

I'm a bit of a git on those stopping Elf trains as rather than wait for them to board, I press doors close and off I go! (Perhaps some passengers with simulated Polish swearing and waving of fists is in order 🤣)

I've looked all over the cab on the Elf for that, except there! Thank you!

@Sean the Sheep Starting it moving is lesson one, next lesson; stopping it! 😂

Ah, so it is, I'll put my glasses on.

Correct, looking at the screenshots Track 1 (Tor 1) was correctly requested in the chat box, but then Track 2 (Tor 2) was the line requested on the panel so the AI will ignore the request as it differs from the first initial chat box request. (You'll never get Tor 2 to be accepted as there is no traffic booked over that line in this timetable)

Example 3 40174 held for early 4126 (ran via 40 route) at Lazy station making 40174 late departing (7 minutes late). By the time 4126 was passing Lazy I should have just been departing from Zawiercie @ 14:12. 40627 also delayed southbound entering Lazy waiting for 4126 to clear. Server EN1 19/07/2023 14:05 to 14:15hrs | EAB: 16/05/2023 13:44

Beyond a non-professional simulator partially true, SimSig has ARS (Automatic Route Setting) on some of their sims which based on British Rail's IECC tech (of which a derivative of which still used to this day as we've got it at the box where I work in an updated form called SA-RS (Signaller's Assistant - Route Setting, they couldn't call it 'ARS', even though that's exactly what it is and indeed the role it carries out they called it SA-RS as the name 'ARS' is trademarked by a rival company). But to give them their dues at SimRail, even the real ARS/SA-RS makes mistakes with regards to regulation of trains, mainly due to how it actually works. It will only look at and compare two trains on approach to/at a conflict point and go with the best option (more so when stuff is late), however it doesn't know how fast a train is going, doesn't know it's snowing/raining etc and a train is crawling, doesn't know the driver is dawdling, all it knows is what time the current time is, and what times both trains are due at the next timing location based on their current delay and goes with one of them accordingly, not always the best option I might add! I think calling it 'AI' is a bit of a falsehood as it doesn't seem to have any intelligence at all, ie, it doesn't learn from its mistakes. How I would improve SimRails bot signalling is for it to read-back a little further than just to the previous block post (important more so with short sections between boxes where it can't see past the end of its nose which seem to cause the most trouble). When a train is booked a 'pt' stop the SimRail signalling bot should look at that train concerned with the pt, then look and see which other trains are booked past it and actually look and see where those trains are, even if they are two, three, four boxes back and what time they will be expected to pass, whether those trains booked to pass are late or whether the 'pt' can be disregarded and the train kept going to the next location where it can be dealt with (and repeat the cycle at that next location), and when it is required to adhere to the 'pt' and instead of standing it on the mainline and running passing traffic round on the slowest route, instead actually putting it on a side track. And also getting away from doing what it currently seems to do of 'Pendolino has priority, Pendolino goes first' (add robotic voice for extra SFX) and totally disregarding the timetable.

Or do what I do and just ignore the AI as whatever move it's attempting is normally worse that just waiting for the previous train to clear

As stated in the first message, by using virtracks.stelltis.ch, that's my timetable, my EDR which is 1000 times better than the ingame one. I used to use the official in-game one popped out on a second screen so I'm not fannying around going in and out of different screens (believe me, if you're on Sosnowiec Główny, going into one screen, out of that and into another one gets a tad tedious after an hour), but the input is clunky using the pop out version (there is no confirm time on the popout version, you can only input manually because right-clicking brings up a standard Google Chrome right click and not the confirm times option) and it doesn't give me the information I need/like so I use virtracks which allows me to have what columns I need, in the order I need. The 'Last Position' column and the vMax column are the most useful of the lot that the official EDR doesn't offer. The trains in green are within your station area, trains above that have already gone, trains below the green (in grey) are what are upcoming, in the expected arrival time order, crossed out trains are the ghost (never entered) or derailed enroute trains. As for running a signal box without a timetable, there are at least two that I can think of that you actually can, Juliusz and Dąbrowa Górnicza (and at a push even Będzin if you know the time of the only freight that's booked to be held) as what comes, goes in the same order.

It was the crashing that was getting on my nerves, when you're on a busy panel/workstation I haven't got time to faff around refreshing timetable. The other reason I stopped using it is because the UI it uses is horrid having to manually use up and down arrows just to insert a time, surely a button marked "Now" would have sufficed to input a time?? As for other knowing where trains are just do what I do and use virtracks.stelltis.ch which tells you exactly where every train is (last report) automatically with its depart/arrive time at that location and its current delay.

I've stopped bothering to update the timetable as it just keeps crashing

Between Psary and Góra Włodowska (heading West) on Track 1, Signal 1981 has a missing SHP magnet/inductor. Location @ Dzibice ~ 7km from Góra Włodowska (Next to the lake, you can't miss it!)

It does the same at Gora as well which I found out when I got looped and went on a walkabout.

I think I've worked out how the AI works, it only reads back to the dispatch post in rear, so if a train is approaching a location where it should be looped and the train(s) that should pass have not gone past the dispatch post in rear it'll just run the first train it can see. But that has a flaw, by only looking back to the dispatch post behind you, if that is a short distance between boxes then the AI will just keep you going because the likelihood that the train that should pass you is miles away and is nowhere near the dispatch post in rear.

@kojonek2 You asked for example of where the AI screws up, here is another one. Please can you move this thread back to 'Bug Reporting' as it was always a bug from the start thread and someone has taken it upon themselves to move it into 'General discussion', which is isn't, it's a bug. Example 2 - Server EN1 06/07/2023 1145 - 1230 (Server time) 40170, departed Dąbrowa Górnicza 1 late, the AI at DG decided to give me an Sz (why???) out of the platform so 20kph until the next signal, arrived Dąbrowa Górnicza Ząbkowice via a 40 route into a side platform 5 minutes late. The AI at DGZ then ran (early) 649064 which had been behind me onto a side track north of the station, rather than then just letting 40170 go, it decided that 4122 had priority (even though I was booked away first, next stop is Lazy with 4 minutes standing time), it then ran 4122 via a 40 route through DGZ ahead of both myself on 40170 and also 649064. Then the AI decided to cross early 649064 across in front of me onto the 'slow' lines (Line 186) to Lazy Lc whilst letting me out of the platform. After 649064 had cleared, it then ran me from the 'slow' lines over the 40 route back onto the main line, passing Lazy Lc 14 minutes late. The AI at DGZ needs to be told that Pendolinos do not have priority when trains are timetabled in a certain order to Zw and when the first train is only a minute or so late to just hang fire and let it run. 40170 should have just left DGZ first, with 4122 behind it all the way to Zw as booked as the line speed is the same for both trains anyway. PS. This sort of thing is no longer a rarity, it practically happens most rotations of the timetable where the 401** northbound ROJs are poorly regulated by either the AI at DGZ or at Lazy or both.

Nearly got caught short on a northbound EC earlier in multiplayer, was getting earlier and earlier and not being looped by the AI (or in some cases staffed signal boxes owing to the traffic at the time, if I had of been looped I was told I'd be held for 30 minutes!), and as I was driving a Traxx you can't activate the bot driver due to a known fault with the brake pipe going into overdrive (and you then can't drive it because the brakes won't come off at all), so next option was to check the map, make sure nothing was behind me, bring the train to a stand in the middle of nowhere and go and spend a penny and then resume driving!

IIRC you can reverse out of a location and back in and it's fine, but if you've passed through a location (and the sim sees you as 'departed' that location and beyond it, if you then reverse back in then you get deleted (it's one of them, think it's the latter). There is a way to do it, as it's been done (and I've done it myself as a dispatcher, but can't remember how!)

At the northern (Łazy Łc) end of Chruszczobród station on Line 186 there is a gap between the platform edge and the train which increases in size towards the end platform marker. (Screenshot is facing south, end of platform marker is behind the camera) (Server N/A | EAB: 16/05/2023 - 13:44)

Nope, it's not, the 401** is booked ahead of the 41** train all the way to Zw, the AI at DGZ/Lazy is purposely causing delay to the 401**, even if it's smack bang on time, holding it and making it 5 to 10 minutes late for no reason whatsoever. I think between them they've just got a shares interest in Ferodo brakes, slow everything down, more share capital return in worn out brakes.

I've remapped all mine, so my logical keybinds for left, right, up, down, are, erm; left, right, up and down arrows 🤣

@uetam Any reason why this has been moved from 'Bug Reporting' to 'General discussion'?

Found another one (well, I found it a while back) On the left hand HUD drivers timetable, if you hover your mouse over it, left click and hold and then drag up, you then get to see another two stops after the 4 listed on the timetable. Not sure if this is a bug or a 'feature', but it's there for anyone interested!

If 629*** doesn't get held by Bedzin AI and follows 401** service, the AI at DGZ will then hold 401** in the platform and let the 629*** service overtake crossing right in front of 401** and run that onto line 160 (or whatever the 'slow' lines are DGZ to Lazy Lc). This then delays the 401** service which will then arrive late at Lazy Station. As a result the AI at Lazy will then hold the service 401** in the platform and let 41** overtake it (via the 40 route!) causing even more delay to 401**. If anything the AI at Lazy should just let 401** go towards Zw even if only a few minutes late as 41** and 401** go two different routes anyway when they get to Zw (and 41** is booked behind 401** Lazy to Zw) By letting the AI use the 40 route through the station at Lazy for 41**, this then also delays any southbound traffic unnecessarily. (Server EN1 2100~2120hrs 09/06/2023 | EAB 16/05/2023 - 13:44)

I get this quite a lot on a few panels (it's probably how I was taught to set routes on a real railway, by forward setting routes, and back setting routes!), but I believe that some of these messages are erroneous and indeed somewhat annoying by being publicly shamed for what are essentially, valid routes being set. The problem seems to arise by the sim reading backwards from a train rather than looking forwards (and the train is indeed moving forwards) Example 1 (Włoszczowa Północ) If you have a train come from Żelisławice and route is set to track 2 via 35/33/31 and 30 points in reverse, when the rear of this train clears 33 points, set a route from Signal N to 'wpn1Z' exit triangle. Because the interlocking calls Signal R first before Signal N, the train you had come off the chord line thinks you're trying to send it back up the chord because it sees Signal R try to clear (and indeed does, but then generates the annoying wrong route message, even though the route being set isn't for that train, it's for another train you want to send towards Żelisławice)