stronzio

I was referring to the EU07, the ENs are accurate enough. If you go @~120 km/h on the EU07, the HUD will show 125 I agree, I think the sim has some tolerance before giving a penalty so at least reduce the simulated error % (the value of which will increase with speed), or maybe make it negative (actual speed < indicated)

Also, if you notice when you're running at 120 km/h indicated you are actually overspeeding on the hud, such kind of "measuring errors" is normal on Hasler speedometers and other similar mechanical devices, it also happens on modern electronic systems sometimes On a funny note, some older speedometers were even worse, bordering unusability in extreme cases (check Russian stuff for example)

Ok, so I managed to check briefly: any pressure of ~0,2MPa (2 bar) in the cylinder will cut out traction, but it seems that you can't unlock it again until you go back under 0,1. Maszyna has instead only one cut-off/cut-on value set at 0,2MPa. I'm not sure who's right but that's how it seem to work on those locomotives, basically

It should depend on how much air you have into the cylinder, or at least that's what I learned in maszyna... The cutoff should be like 1/2 bars and there should also be a light on the desk that turns on (or off? Can't remember atm) when you have such block I'd have to check again in game for specifics but I'm quite sure that it also happens in simrail and it is also what happened to Sean here

You overcharged the brake pipe, don't drive with the train brake in "fill" position for prolonged periods of time, just use "running". FV4 is a "dumb" valve and if used improperly you could get weird things happening, like not being able to release the brakes as it happened here (Electronically controlled brakes are less prone to this). In worst cases IRL it would be a real pain because you may need to eliminate the overcharge on each single wagon by bleeding a special reservoir and it seems you can't do it in simrail atm Also, EU07 doesn't let current flow to the motors if you have some air in the brake cylinder (the first manometer on the left) EDIT: I think that Main reservoirs on the 07 are kinda bugged and show ludicrous pressures (> 10 bar) sometimes, but it should not really affect brake operation in game as far as I know

Commanding traction with the train brake in "const" (not sure in other positions, will have to check again) will not work, which is right, but will do immediately as soon as you put the lever back to "running", which is wrong (you'd be in a "traction block" and would have to set it back to 0 before) When running light or with very light loads the locomotive should self limit the tractive effort in order to maintain a max set acceleration (I think it's 1 m/s^2 maybe? I'm not sure, but it should limit itself to about 150kN or something similar), in the sim you can Ferrari your way out if you want 😁

On UIC distributors G/P/R setting has no effect on the air flow in the brake pipe, it simply changes how fast the brake cylinders fill/empty and also by how much (G = slow, P = normal, R = P but higher working pressure/stronger braking). Each vehicle has its own setting that has to be set separately, there are regulations in place on how this should happen but that would be too long to explain and each country has its own specificities anyway All this comes into play only when the train brake is used, direct brake for example will always have the same fixed timings. On more modern locomotives it also affects how dynamic braking will react, similarly to what happens during pneumatic action, so it will be slower/faster/powerful accordingly but always when working with the train brake. In this case EDB (if available) will always supersede pneumatic (in short: the loco brakes only electrically most of the time), that's why it doesn't make too much sense to use TB when running light, the separate function on the traction lever is faster and more precise... Think about it as you are using the direct brake of the locomotive, but with EDB. The only practical utility of using the train brake is to have the compressor run more ofter (because you'd still be dumping air in the brake pipe each time you want to slow down) and to automatically have air in the BCs when about to stop (EDB will eventually will no longer be available and air will compensate) but at this point I'd just use some small application of direct brake Btw I checked and simrail seems to simulate different reaction times of the EDB in G and P, I'm not sure if "R" makes any difference as I think that in-game P=R and G=P but slower, which isn't 100% prototypical but it's better than nothing I guess... It also appears the 22xxx trains default to G, so that explains the sluggines. (Btw I guess we're off topic now)

You can change the brake timing in the "setting" menu of the TDD (obsl. softkey), however I don't advise using the train brake while running light as it is slow and not much effective, it's much better to directly use the traction lever into the "EB" sector... and you'd be braking electrically anyway. Also, I'm not sure that G/P/R influence how EB works in-game, I haven't checked it enough (it does IRL though)

+ 1 I'm not sure if/how Brake % is calculated in game and I even suspect that it's a parameter that would probably not make much sense to a lot of people, even though is one of the most (if not THE MOST) important things to know for a driver, but at least max permitted speed, mass and length should be definitely be made known. Brake setting for freight train would also be useful (G/P), though that's a bit more complicated matter I'd also like to have an extended realistic timetable with speeds/mileposts and locations (à la maszyna), what we have now makes it very hard to drive without hud ON atm

In this specific case those are mostly planned stops for being overtaken by faster trains, in sosnowiec/bedzin there usually are IC trains scheduled ~10' later that would eventually catch up down the line. I assume this kind of structured scheduling is for gaming purposes, IRL Freight trains have much more random schedules and are quite prone to delay (or more rarely, early runnings), so such stops may or may not happen, or may be moved to other stations. Common reasons for scheduled stops are crew changes, dispatching reasons (meets/overtakes for example) or technical reasons (e.g. adding/dropping wagons, direction changes etc.)

The best thing would be to copy Maszyna control scheme, where brakes are controlled with the following keypresses (from the keypad, but it's not important if you can rebind them): 1: increase direct brake 4: local release (for when the BP is fully empty) 7: decrease direct brake 8: initial train brake application 5: second step of train brake (not full service but quite heavy, about 1,5 bar) 2: full brake application 9: decrease train brake 6: running position 3: increase train brake 0: emergency application In Maszyna this control scheme is universal, so it also works with lapped brakes (such as the one we find on the traxx). In simrail personally I found that the best comfortable compromise atm is to brake using the mouse and release with the keyboard, which is still the fastest way to do to so in my opinion, unless you want to stop with brakes fully applied and send the passengers out of their seats 🦘

Since the beginning of the playtest I used to have some big lag/stuttering moments, the game hanged for like 3/4" but then recovered; it rarely hard-crashed though. I think that the last patch made these occurrences a bit more rare, but when they happen they'll now develop into a full crash more often for me, has anyone experienced the same? Also, is it me or graphics and general performance degraded a bit since the first version of the playtest? 🤔

Speaking of this, I noticed that the SWDR screen clock lags behind the game clock about 1-2', not sure it happens to others but it threw me off a couple of times when considering stop times before I noticed it

ISDR (https://www.isdr.pl/) is a good way to practice polish electromechanical interlockings, it's a bit more in depth than simrail but most of the necessary knowledge is easily transferable. It's all in polish but with some google lens it's quite manageable once you understand the mechanics (telephone announcements, line block equipment etc.). A lot of useful info can be found in the manual which thankfully I was able to machine-translate and that I'm now attaching to this post. Ps: if you want something more challenging, try Liskow https://isdr.pl/index.php/topic,298.0.html?PHPSESSID=1pou2cdqf4r534ngcc8fid4tk5 translated ISDR manual.rar

Also, if any moderator or someone from the development team is reading this: I have a few recordings which I sent a few months ago to piotrek on discord, by his request, but I'm not sure they went through. Please contact me if you want me to send those again.

Some things on the Traxx are quite wrong... and have been since the prologue. Some of those are a bit on the nitpicky side, if not completely useless from a gaming perspective, but here's what I gathered so far; if I'll notice other stuff, I'll write it here (but anyone else is welcome, if they want to add something!) Note: Traxxes come in different configurations and some things on the same very machine might work differently while being used on different rail networks, so maybe a few of these observations may be wrong in this context and/or not applicable on PKP General: the “red emergency mushroom” on the central part of the desk should dump all air on the main brake pipe and also lower the pantograph(s) when pressed The “mushroom” on the right side, on the wall, should lower the pantograph only The “mushroom” on the underside of the driver's desk, also on the right, only applies emergency braking Traction is a bit too "reactive"; official figures say that 0/100% of traction should be achieved in ~8", 100/0 in 4" 0/100% of EDB in 5" (As a little nitpick, real traxxes usually have a small delay of a couple of ms each time you give a "pulse" on the levers, which really depends on how "old" and badly mantained the locomotive is) Direction selector light should turn off @about 10 km/h. As a fun fact, it should be possible to press "N" or the opposite direction buttons at speeds > 3 km/h and make the loco go nuts (traction block reset-able only after stopping again) Battery OFF doesn't seem to work (did it in the prologue though? Can't remember). On a side note, IRL it's ALWAYS functional, even if you're cruising around at 120 km/h, which has been a source of interesting shenanigans in a few occasions The speedometer should have "sticky" 1 km/h increments (like the hasler, but more precise) Levers should be a bit less "sticky" instead, it's a bit complicated to switch positions (En76 does it a bit better?) Brakes: Brakes definitely need work. The whole system seems modelled on a purely pneumatic, oerlikon-like style. Real locos mount a Knorr electronic control unit that governs the main pipe/brake cyls and is fully driven by electronic valves, which is very precise, reliable and only moderately influenced by train length. The driver's valve is also fully electronic... so much so that without battery power, you can't trigger an emergency application from it 🤔 In the sim the hi-flow charge is basically not working. IRL it's very fast and would actually fully recharge the brake pipe in a few instants, provided it's hold in that position for a while, at the cost of a ludicrous amount of air drawn from the main reservoir... which may or may not be enough in certain circumstances. It doesn't always trigger (I think there's a cut-off that depends on the upwards pressure gradient the BCU is "sensing") but will do most of the times after a moderate drop in MBP pressure. Normal release and application are also too slow when having wagons, as if influenced by the train's length in an exaggerated way; the electronic control on the real loco should "compensate" the air flow needed and give quite consistent timings only partially influenced by this factor. As a general rule, the Red needle mostly follows more or less closely the White one (that's the desired reference pressure you're actually "setting" with the driver's valve). I'd say that atm the HFC is roughly almost the real normal release. Emergency application (either with driver's valve or the red buttons), while adequate, seems also a bit slow, the loco has a set of valves with the specific function of connecting the MBP to the atmosphere in case they're triggered e.g. via the driver's brake valve The "pilot pressure" (white needle on the brake manometer) should remain mostly "set", without considerable leakages, if you play around too much with braking, e.g. go into emergency and then release/ set it to some other intermediate value while the Red needle (MBP pressure) is still going up; they'll both eventually match "Local release" using the switch on the driver's desk, should be almost instantaneous: it will directly dump all the air in the brake cylinders by using their electronic control valves as long as it is pressed. When released, the cyl will immediately be fed back air according to current train brake setting. Note that Local release won't work, or will only partially do accordingly, if direct brake is activated; direct "overrides" train brake in this case. It should also theoretically work when the train is running and should also even release the ed brakes if they're on. I'm not sure it'll do if SOS valves are activated (i.e. during an emergency application). For context, local release is mostly used when the wagons have to be uncoupled and the driver has to "compress" the buffers to facilitate unscrewing the coupler. You brake with train brake, reverse, local release, and then apply direct brake. "5,4 bar overcharge" function should raise the MBP much faster (or at least the Pilot pressure if it can't keep up). The BCU is quite competent at "remembering" the overcharge setting, so it's very hard to lock the brakes on the wagons if you brake "improperly" The manuals says a train brake release shouldn’t cause an automatic overcharge of the brake pipe, but in practice it does even though I’m not sure with which rules exactly. From experience No OC whatsoever happens if the “fast release” is used with the MBP already full with a normal release a smaller overcharge (~5.2 bar) should be triggered a normal overcharge (5,4) should be triggered when a fast release (HFC) happens The "train brake" lever is still misaligned, the "Hi-flow charge" position is the real "running" position: at the extremes (HFC/SOS) the lever should have a travel of about 90° starting from a ~45° angle (like this: \ | /_ ). Here's an explanatory pic, with the lever in "maintain" position Deceleration with pneumatic brakes seems just a tiny bit too much on the weak side with loco only and no wagons Wrong max brake cylinder pressure in G & P setting and with max direct brake (looks like R value is always used). "G/P" should have about 3 bar max (only difference is response time) "R" ~3,8/4 Max direct ~4,5 (Switching from and to g/p/r with the train brake applied also immediately influences the BC pressure and the associated timings) Brake pads sounds are wrong; also, IRL the loco actually is pretty quiet and mostly whines only with strong braking (e.g. full direct brake) and at fairly low speeds. Personally, since I know it’s hard to obtain better recordings, I’d suggest to at least lower their volume a lot and trigger them with a much higher BC pressure Also, brake sounds are wrong too (application/bcyls etc.). Direct brake is monitored by the vehicle logic; if the loco Is moving while it’s applied, an emergency application occurs after 4’’ for speeds > 60 km/h a “traction block”, for speeds up to 60 km/h, after 700m Direct brake set into full (stable) position will bypass the Wheel-slide protection built into the locomotive, in case you may want to simulate this (good luck being aggressive under rain in this case 😇) It should be possible to command traction when there is still air in the bcyl; actually, it should always be possible provided that the brake lever is at least in running pos. and there aren't other "traction blocks" active; not sure if there are specific difference when in Polish configuration, in analogy with older locos. Atm it's possible to mess with the El/pn setting in the configuration menu, though they seem to do nothing. IRL there are some side effects depending on which setting is involved