DazT

I'll honour a /pt/ if it warrants it, in that, it's all down to location and traffic situation. (and that's why I move round locations, so I learn and know what other boxes can and can't do if you were to throw them a curveball.) So for instance, if a freight comes up early on the CMK heading south and I'm on WP, but I know that it's booked time at Psary, I will look at sneaking it through to Psary even if it's early (ironically because either a human, or more likely the AI has just launched it from Olszamowice early), and as holding it at WP on some occasions isn't the best place as you then lose a platform/line that you could actually need for something else/other regulating moves (and I have, and found out the hard way). But even sneaking it to Psary has its downfall as if it's an AI controlled workstation there, it will, and has as I've seen it do it, just launch it on round to Kozlow if the Psary AI can't see other trains that are actually booked first (ie, if they not struck in directly behind at Knapówka, so before launching it to Psary, I also look at Kozlow and ask myself "If I send this on early, will it make it to Kozlow as well without delaying X, Y, or Z train as well." Since virtracks.stelltis.ch has implemented two of my suggestions to their EDR, it's made dispatching now easier than ever. You can now show in table (it's on the settings page) which location any train reported at last, how late it was, type of report (so arr or dep) and at what time it arrived or departed. Another suggestion of mine was to be able to sort the table by ETA (which went live this week), as the table I thought was horrible when trains were late as they'd get stuck towards the top whilst you were looking at on time trains at the bottom so you'd miss stuff/forget stuff, now you can specify to sort the table by ETA, which also takes into account the trains' last report. After using both improvements my train regulation has improved 10 fold because the information is now there, in front of me so I'm not hunting around looking at online maps, then having to look at another site that say does timetables, etc, etc, which to be honest I could probably now run a panel/workstation without even looking at either now. I've got another suggestion that I intend on posing to the developer of virtrack which I think will help at big stations, but I need to write it up as to what I'm looking for and if it'd be possible to implement.

I'm up for some TSW bashing, I think what got on my tits in the end was "layered routes", having to buy other routes just so the route I actually wanted to drive on actually had different trains passing, as an unlayered route generally will have only a few types of traction flying around, ie, the ones included with that route only and nothing else. And for me that's where SimRail is winning with "Here, have ALL the trains, no charge" Bugs, really, I've not got enough time to even start! I did take the time of joining up to their proper/official DTG bug reporting system (rather than plonking it on their forum, which if I'm honest, I don't think they even read!), I'd spend ages reporting faults and bugs, you'd get an acknowledgment (eventually!) and they'd mark it as closed but then never actually fix ANYTHING!

Don't tell the "children", but if you're a dispatcher you can go out and put them on and take them off trains as well, but shush, don't tell the trolls. (Found out by accident, well, more intentionally when I was working Bedzin early and looped an AI freight and a moment of "I wonder..............." come over me and I nipped out for a little walk.)

I still don't get how the Polish neutral sections work because most other European counties (on AC ones at least), you shut off, operate the VCB (either manually or by automated means as done here in the UK) and the neutral section has a ceramic or polymer insulator along a given length of the contact wire and is quite noticeable in its presence, in that if you were braking on the ceramic part it'd do nothing, only when you ran off or onto the live part would it arc either under load or regen braking. Not sure if it's just the way it's drawn in game, but it just looks like a normal run in and run out of catenary to my eyes.

That's actually how I found out as somehow I'd pulled into Grodzisk the other week, got out to stretch my legs and take some photos and noticed one on the front. How it got there though, don't know, I must have clicked it and never noticed.

The very same. It seems you can only put them on some of the passenger coaches, doesn't always seem to work, don't know if that a bug or intentional, but you'll regularly see me now put them on the back of an EC I'm driving in daylight hours as part of my train prep/walkaround.

Oooo, that's useful to know, bet it's not as funny as the Taurus loco though that uses the roadrunner, 'meep, meep' as the train length countdown sound 🤣

Where are the teddy bears and chocolate we have to collect..............ah 🤣

I'll start Being able to notch down to 0 / Reverting power handle to 0 by holding down the Right-Shift key and then the decelerate key (and in reverse to accelerate) Being able to manually add and remove end of train marker flags!

There used to be a set of points at Stechford (well, the points are still there) here in the UK on the Down line that had a notorious kick to them in about the early 2000s, it was there for months, and the whole carriage used to sway, and I when I mean sway, a violent right hand lurch and then a left hand one. They got it sorted after about 6 months (it was the bad of days of Railtrack though). I only remember as one day I nearly dropped my cigarette (yep, that's how long ago it was, Coach B, Smoking, right behind the loco!)

You need to travel on a Class 350 over here, the back end is terrible compared to the leading end.

But only when 1 or more trains involved in a particular regulating decision are late, I've seen trains that are booked first (and on time!) being dragged into a siding for Pendolinos that are booked behind said train for the next few stations just because "it's a Pendolino", if they are on time, they go booked order. My worst experience of this was being held at SG on the old "test timetable" on an ontime Regio for a late Pendo that hadn't even got through DG! I'd calculated that if I'd of just gone right time, I'd of just been arriving at Kw Zawodzie just as the Pendo was arriving at SG, that's including me stopping at Katowice Szopienice Południowe as well. Between DGZ (even Zw) and Kw you're pretty much wasting your time doing anything for a Pendolino that is late, as because the line speed is 120/110/100 in places, it'll catch up with something anyway for very little benefit, you're prioritising one train at the detriment of a lot of trains, which then interact with other trains, making those trains late just so one Pendolino makes up a few minutes delay. Usually when an overtake move does look possible (and yes, I'm guilty of it, until I stopped bothering!) is noticing the move in good time, but then running the late train via the slowest route! However, my regulating has improved a hell of lot since the "Last position" (with location, delay, type of report (arr/dep) and time of report) column was made available on virtracks.stelltis.ch (my EDR of choice), and I can pretty much calculate now to the minute what time a late/early train will pass me, rather than guessing like before, and whether an overtake/looping/holding is even worth the effort.

I have to say having the new timetable has been an excellent addition, the only downside is in some locations is some AI decision making in some locations has got worse, usually at locations that we still don't currently have control over, so DGZ, the two Lazy boxes and our old friend Dandowka being the main ones. One example I see regularly is the AI at Lazy station holding the 401** north service to allow an early 41** to overtake by the worse possible route, using the 40 routes, this in turn then starts delaying southbound traffic, but here's the thing, the 41** EIP is booked behind the 401** Regio all the way to Zw so it shouldn't be dragging the EIP out from behind it to stick it in front if both are on time. If that's how Polish railways run for real, they must have really poor performance figures, might as well do away with the timetable and just make it up on the day!

I managed to get a sniff on Katowice this morning up until the 3pm server reset, I swear I looked outside the box window and spotted a tent outside, camped out and ready for me to get booted at 3pm 🤣

Is I was bombing along in an Elf just, the clear starry night looking splendid had me thinking, how about (at night at least) the distant flashing of an aircraft strobe in the distance. We've got cars in game, how about some aircraft on some predetermined flight paths across the night sky. (Just the odd one, no need to go mad with it!)

I've suggested that, and being able to stand out on the balcony of some of the boxes that actually have them, oh, and blinds for when the sun is washing out the panel (Bedzin is terrible in the afternoon)

That'd make my Stream Deck setup a lot easier than at present where it has to use mouse coordinates, clicks and clever pauses in the macro scripting to click on the right things, in the right order at the right time. The ballache until recently was when a box transfers from AI to a human as there is an extra dialog to click on (The one that asks you whether you want to use the chat box or phone them, got it sorted in the end)

That worked a treat, thank you!

Also the ability to hide servers would also be of help, I don't speak the other languages the other servers have to offer (besides ordering beer in German 🤣), so I should just be able to hide those completely.

Oooo, I'll give it a go! I was looking for a brake changeover switch on the bulkhead behind the drivers seat where stuff like that normally is, but couldn't find one, evidently 🤣

I've cheated with this now and added a button to my Stream Deck labelled 'Brake Release Holdover' which runs a macro (and cleverly changes the button text to 'Active') and basically sends the brake release key command for 30 seconds (although I might up this to 45 seconds as even for 30 seconds it cuts out too early) I just thought it was me having trouble with this, the only other way of having a quick getaway, so long as the track is flat, was just to take the brakes off early and hope it doesn't roll!

Would it be possible to pin/favourite server(s) in the Multiplayer selection screen so your selection appears at the top rather than random order based on ping time.

The station canopy at Brwinów heading East towards Warszawa is far too close to the overheads in that it clips the pantograph. The canopy also appear to have shifted westwards so the west end of the canopy is actually over nothing other than ballast (Server N/A | EAB 16/05/2023 - 13:44)

For which I think it should be an automatic ban if you're trying to cheat the system. Which is probably why it's pretty much the same old faces on Katowice on an afternoon, I've only managed to get onto there first thing in the morning or last thing at night when the 'children' are in bed! I'm perhaps guilty of sitting on a panel/workstation for lengthy periods, but it's certainly not the norm, as I like to alternate days, a day of driving, a day of signalling (and if that means a full 9 hours 1500 - 0000, so be it!) From what I've seen of Katowice, yes it's shiny and new and a lot of buttons so the demand is going to be high in the first few weeks but after about the 4th rotation round the timetable on there you've pretty much seen it all it has to offer really. I've actually found a new favourite; Grodzisk Mazowiecki, which on this new timetable is a whole bigger beast than Katowice could ever be, Katowice becomes merely a branch line box compared to Grodzisk Mazowiecki in full action 🤣

I was driving 19955 Westbound out of Warsaw and got held by the AI at Warszawa Centralna for 10 minutes (reason unknown, there was nothing around), then when I got to Pruszków arriving 8 late, the AI decided (for whatever reason!) to take me from Line 447 onto Line 1 meaning I could not complete my station stops at Parzniew, Brwinów or Milanówek due to the lack of platforms. If the AI routes you out that way (perhaps to make up lost time, who knows!), surely I shouldn't get penalised for something that I had no control over. (Server EN1 26/05/2023 | EAB: 16/05.2023 13:44)