Something i'm working on.... Drivers Schedules / Timetables sized for displaying on ~6 inch tablets and E-ink readers like the kindle, Kobo etc.

[Gazz292]

Apparently i'm not alone in wishing to be able to drive in SimRail with the HUD off, but to do this i need a drivers schedule / timetable so i know where i am along the line... the speed limits coming up and stations to stop at etc, a real life train driver does this by referencing their drivers schedule to the hectometer boards that are every 200 meters along the tracks.  

Now, apparently the dev's are working on realistic drivers schedules / timetables for SimRail, which is awesome, yet another reason Simrail is the future of railway simulators i believe.
I think these official schedules / timetables will be shown on the screen (like they do in Zusi / Maszyna by pressing a button to show or hide them) 
Or maybe they can be integrated into the trains cab, i.e. showing on the paper schedule holder in the EU/EP07, and on the screens of the other trains perhaps.
<this is purely my speculation, and i could well be wrong>

 

 

So... on the 8th of february i noticed RWag78's post about about the speed limit timetables he is working on, he's manually driven all the routes and noted down the speeds, distances, stops etc, and created a very comprehensive list of all the data in at least 3 different formats that people can use for timetable creation : 
https://forum.simrail.eu/topic/4534-timetables-and-speed-limits/ 
He's said he posted the data so others can make timetables from them... if i have got that wrong please tell me, and i will immediately stop as the last thing i want is to steal others work that's not intended to be used like this.

 

 

 

I immediately saw the potential and spent the next day (my birthday) learning how to use Excel! then i kind of took over his post with many photo's of my ideas for the timetables <sorry about that> 😬
Now most people just want a list of distances that line up with speed limits and stations to stop at, along with the times for their train, and for that WRag78's work is ideal, he's made some very easy to follow timetables that look like this :

But me being me... i  want as much immersion as i can get when i drive a train in SimRail, so i wanted the timetables to look like the real ones a Polish train driver would have in their cab, also i wanted to show them on an old kindle e-ink reader i had been saving for this purpose.

 

So i had a play about and came up with a few different layouts, getting off on the wrong foot to start with by referencing a timetable style that was not used by the PKP since about 2010, i slowly figured out the basics of excel, and managed to come up with a kinda passable timetable layout:

The eagle eyed will notice that's not a kindle, but a Kobo Clara HD mounted upside down, i bought it just for displaying these timetables as the kindle wasn't to my liking with it turning itself off every 10 minutes and other small things i didn't like.

I now know a few other people are working on similar projects,  and i don't want to be competing or anything.

So my version is going to be kinda specific, as i am laying things out to display properly on the 6 inch screen of a typical e-ink device, they will be saved as individual pages like a book, in PDF format, and then in folders containing the days timetables for each service, so that you can search for the train number to load the relevant timetable 'book', then simply swiping / tapping to turn the page will load the next part of the timetable... (rather than zooming and scrolling)

I could also easily change the column widths in excel and make them suitable for larger devises, but my project is more about getting things spaced out to fit on the small screen of a kindle / kobo e-ink device. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

Below is a single page of the timetable i'm currently working on, the last 3 columns that repeat the trains length weight, max speed, brake settings etc i am still playing about with how best to display those, i'm thinking of having 2 pages, so the normal page shows the timetable info upto column 7 'Godzina' , and 'turning' to the next page will show just those 3 columns of train data, then to go to the next timetable page you just 'turn the page' again and so on. 
Or i could just omit those except for on the 1st page / title page, as they are more for setting your train up, and reminding you your trains length.

 

I still have lots to learn about Polish drivers schedules, like how to categorise the trains for the title as they are not the same as the designations used for the public / passengers timetables (i.e. TLK services are purely named for the public, and a different 3 letter code is used for drivers schedules / timetables), there is some bits missing in the test that says : 

ECi 41132 (12345) Bohumín - Warszawa Gróchow

The (12345) should be the number of the train in the timetable database (SKRJ) and there's some other info missing too that i need to learn how to find.

I'm having to reference lots of different things people have posted on google over the years like old drivers timetables, speed limit sheets etc,  but i haven't got a single source of all the data for the area covered in SimRail for the era ~ 2018, so i'm having to manually double check things just to get the distances to 3 decimal points as is found on real drivers timetables (and i likely make many mistakes along the way)

But i have the basics in excel where i can change the trains number and it auto updates the times to suit the service, then i can save the relevant portions of the timetable as a PDF and load it onto my Kobo, and it shows pretty nicely,

 

i know others can do way more complex stuff in excel, like auto generate timetables just from the service number, but i only started playing with it a week or so ago, so each timetable is set out manually, but pulls data from a central sheet so i can update one thing and it will change all others versions.
i'm amazed i got this far 🙂

Edited February 18, 2023 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

Apologies in advance for the length and detail in the following post, please only read it if you have a free half hour to get to the end, or can't sleep 🥱🙂

 

I've been spending almost every free hour over the last 2+ weeks learning how to use excel... gotta remember that maths, formulas and code are not my strong points, but i am learning and having fun doing so.

I was (still am) getting confused with the speed limits and how to work out which line they apply to (Vp or VL, N or P track etc) this seems to change depending on which way you are driving the route but also which part of the route you are on (relates to where that particular line starts and ends to which direction you are driving on it)

Things were going well until i noticed some of the 'Track Speed Limits' posted in the 'Community-made content' forum are not matching with RWag78's ones, i think that's something to do with the disclaimer on the Track Speed Limits post that says  'The list does NOT include permanent and temporary speed limits (W9 and W14 signs)'

But i need the speed limit start distance to 3 decimal points, as that's how it's shown in a real drivers timetable, and i also need to show all speed limits that would be shown on the HUD in SimRail (except signaled ones, like 40 Km/h due to a S12 signal)
The idea of realistic drivers timetables is to enable us to drive HUD'less. 

So i need to combine RWag78's data with other data to get my desired result.
DeadlyKungFuNinja has been helping me with his data from the EDR dispatchers timetable screen project too.

:

I also keep getting distracted, going off to work on things like a Touch Portal screen to give me my most used Excel functions at my fingertips (using a mouse too much is painful for me)
so i've been making button icons for that : 

 

Anyway, back to this project, which is to make PDF timetables in the form of individual books for each service that will display properly on a 6 inch e-ink device like a kindle / kobo etc,
They will also scale to fit on a tablet i've found, but my main focus is to make the timetables arranged and sized correctly to show as single pages on kindles / kobo's etc. 

Above is my kobo showing 14133's timetable front page, and a 10 inch android tablet showing the 2nd page, both PDF files are the same.
Tablets can scale things with ease, kindles can't, and you don't want to be in zoom and move mode when trying to flip to the next timetable page when driving your train, or losing valuable screen space with empty space at the sides or top.

 

Things were getting a bit complicated and overwhelming, so to relax a little i decided to have a little play about with the front cover generator part of the project... 

The left hand side is the generated drivers timetable front cover / first page, and the right hand side is the excel 'magic' bits,
The italic text in the boxes is text that stays the same (i translated it to english as i can't read Polish without a translator, but the actual timetable pages will be in Polish, as SimRail is about driving Polish trains)
So the items in bold are the bits that change, mostly using random date and number generators, dates are chosen between 1/1/16 and 31/12/18 to hopefully reflect a timetable generated during the time period we drive in SimRail ~ 2018.
The dates, days and order numbers change every time i recalculate anything in excel. 

Please tell me if i have things wrong, and if the 'ZPIRJ_' is the name / code of the person who authorised the timetable to be created? should this be a random thing too, like the order number is? 
And SKRJ, that's the official service that generates real timetables, maybe that should be changed? as i am not using their system of course, it's all my computer, excel and my brain making this stuff up.... what i don't want to happen is in ~5 years time people searching google for real drivers schedules finding these and thinking they are official ones to add to their collection. 

 

:

So, onto the actual timetable, below is the 2nd page of the timetable for service 14125, the actual info needed to drive HUD'less,

The select train number, and offset time bits on the right is the excel stuff that automatically adjusts the time in the timetables to suit the train number, it also changes what's placed as the title at the top of each page and on the front cover etc, the (12345) would be the internal train designation, no idea how to work that out yet.

 

And finally, a shot of the part of the excel table thing that does most of the work: 

On the right is WRag78's timetable, middle is the data about the train and the train numbers and offset times (an Xlookup thing searches those)
And on the left is the data for the 14100 services,

Where the speed limit Km column has 3 digits after the decimal point, that's info i've got from the  'Track Speed Limits' post, but as you can see they sometimes don't match with Wrag78's timetable data, so i've stopped halfway down whilst i try to find the info i need on SimRails full speed limits and locations,
I am also using a real timetable i found on google that covers part of the main SimRail route, but it's from 2020 (SimRail is set in 2018) and its an ED250 200 kmh service, and i'm currently working on the EP07 125 kmh services. 

 

I'll stop waffeling now and get back to playing in excel, thakyou for reading this far.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

I think i'm figuring some things out (at last)
Below is my consolidation of the data that will be used to make the drivers timetables for the 14100 services.
Column F is RWag78's distances, and column G is the distances to 3 decimal points, where i've got their data from the speed limit on the post by uetam, station location data from DeadlyKungFuNinja's EDR, and 2 real drivers timetables that cover part of the route in 2014 and 2020 i found on google. 

The lines in yellow where i put 'Temp Limit?... that'll be .. well temporary speed limits, which show on the SimRail HUD... hence they are listed in RWag78's data obtained from driving the routes.

And that's partly where i was confusing myself, the info was there, i just didn't realise what it was telling me, especially on the post by uetam with the post 'Track speeds in SimRail', and the text saying  "The list does NOT include permanent and temporary speed limits (W9 and W14 signs)."  

I didn't realise that the white signs W8 and W9 are different to the track limits, i now know why it tells you to slow down for the limit, but at the end of it you go back to line speed.  
 https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/forum.simrail.eu/monthly_2023_02/image.png.30455a8fa0fcb1e43256e025184cf47f.png

The D6 and W14 signs made more sense as they are temporary limits, i guess the white ones above were temporary ones originally, but now made permanent?
https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/forum.simrail.eu/monthly_2023_02/image.png.9b04edee42ae9df5476dca57ee69a4e0.png

 

Now, in Poland, the drivers timetable only shows the permanent track speed limits.

In the Uk, when a driver books on duty, they have 5 minutes allotted to them to read the 'weekly notices' for the routes they are driving that day, this lists all the temporary speed limits and other stuff (track work, signal changes, routing changes etc)

In Poland there are 'attachments to the timetables' which every driver has to have with them when driving, i've found some lists of permanent warnings on Semaforek
But it's information overload big time, plus having to know which track you are on in each area.
I imagine there's another version for temporary warnings (the orange W14 signs)??

So, i'll need to include the W9 and W14 speed limits in my timetables as the goal is to use the timetable to drive HUD'less, and as much as i want realism, i don't want to have to read the 'weekly notices' before every run and try and memorise that there are 4 temporary limits at '79.9, 207.6, 223.0 and 307.9 Km' and bod knows how many permanent W9 limits over the nearly 4 hour drive (other lines likely have a lot more) 

:

:

Likewise, at the beginning and end of the SimRail run, there's 40 Km/h limits, these are signal limits i believe, i.e. a S13 aspect telling you to do 40 Km/h now, and stop at the next signal, which is the one at the end of the platform where our duty ends (the ';zd,ph' at Katowice means it's a 'Team Change' and passenger stop.. it's the same at the beginning of the run) 

Signal limits are not put in a timetable, because... well the signals change, but i'm not sure here, as we would always be routed over the pointwork before Katowice station and into the same platform. 

:

:

Finally, the last bits of data i don't have are where we are routed onto the opposite line (the P track, shown as VL on the timetables) like when we are routed to the single platform at Opoczno Południe (i may have that station name wrong) 

 

:

And the very last bit of data i am missing is when the track is double of single, shown on a drivers timetable like : 

The thick black line means single track, the double lines top and bottom of that mean double track.

[Gazz292]

Apologies to RWag78, who's username i keep getting the first 2 letters backwards in my posts. 

[Gazz292]

Little update* 
*a Gazz292 size 'Little update' = a bloody massive and long winded update to most people

Excel can be confusing at times, but i think i'm taming the beast now, i'm likely doing things in the most inefficient ways possible, and getting the data in is being done mostly manually.... but then i remember i'm a mechanical type guy, and not a maths / coding type of guy, so i'm amazed i've got as far as i have with this. 
I've also had a few 'distractions' in my life lately, splitting with my GF, then the very next day my amazon account gets 'hacked' and 'someone' keeps ordering ~£150's worth of women's 'beauty' products..
My bank were right on it with their fraud team, and i've had the refunds already..
amazon however... they are still farting about trying to claim it was me accidently clicking the one step buy button using 'my' iphone... which was registered on my account for the first time the very day this started! 🤔
BTW, i've never owned an apple product in my life, however i do / did know someone who has an iphone, but amazon won't listen.
I have changed passwords for all financial, email and forum type websites.. but if you suddenly see posts 'from me' telling everyone i'm a twat and a massive arsehole, whilst 100% true, they would not be from me 😜 

Back to timetables:
I've been concentrating on the timetables for the route i drive the most first, the EC 14100 services, which is the EU07/EP08 hauled passenger trains from Warszawa Wschodnia to Katowice, an almost 4 hour run from one end of the SimRail map to the other.

Below is a screen shot of the latest version of the main 'data' part of my excel workbook, this is where i have taken the raw data from the getAllTimetables API as well as Track Speeds In SimRail  which are both Json files, then i bumbled about getting them into tables in excel, as well as some other data needed to make up all the info seen on a timetable: 

This is referenced with WRag78's timetable data (the 'Orig Data' tab in excel) and a big long list of all PKP train operators,
Then there's the data i had to get from looking at real drivers timetables, which is the station info... the 'R1, RT, H, SS' stuff, this tells you the radio channel and valuable info about the station once you learn the codes. BUT my real timetable of this route is from November 2020, so these codes will have changed to what they are in 2018 when SimRail is set,

If anyone knows where i can find a list of these codes for the SimRail era stations, please let me know.

So, having most of the data needed for a timetable, a shit ton large amount of excel formulas pull the relevant data from the individual cells in the sheets to make the actual timetable. 

Below is my main timetable 'generator' :

Now don't get excited and think i just press a button and it can make any timetable in SimRail, at the moment i am manually making up the actual timetable seen on the left hand side of the above screenshot, 
I do have a basic 'template' that is copied and pasted through the timetable, adjusted for height as needed by adding or deleting rows to make room for the speed limit change info on the left hand side, and also to fit everything between the the page size, which is a custom 'print size' for my Kobo clara HD's e-ink screen (90 x 121mm), which i hope is close enough to an e-ink kindles screen too, i'll test that when i can safely access amazon again to send the files as email to my kindle, and make adjustments as needed.

But i am basically manually setting up the cell references in the timetable to the relevant parts of the data sheet.

What i do have automated is being able to select the service number from the dropdown list, this updates all the times in the timetable by the hours or minutes needed, so my base timetable is the 41401 midnight service, and excel simply offsets the times by the figure in the box next to the drop down for the service number, hence here it's showing the correct times for the 14133 service that starts at ~16:34.

There's also the timetables front cover generator, i've mentioned this before (i've mentioned everything before of course, but i'm trying to show the updates here) 
The front page generator is a few random date and number generators, and it also pulls the service number and train operator name from the data sheets as needed.

What is different from my last post, i've decided not to have the trains info panel by the side of every timetable page, whilst that is realistic it meant either showing the timetable with that panel all the time on each page, this made the timetable too small to read on a 6 inch screen of a typical kindle / kobo reader.
I tried having the panel as an extra page, so to change from timetable page 2 to page 3 meant flipping / clicking past the info panel each time,

But i figured the data on that panel is needed to be read once, to set the train up from cold mostly. 
This info panel shows train type, weight, length, max speed, brake percentage and brake setting, so the same 8 boxes are repeated over and over down the timetable:

I figure that the average SimRail train driver just wants to know the train length, so i show this info panel as the 2nd page after the front cover, so hopefully we can see the panel once and remember 'my train is 149 meters long'  freight drivers may want to remember their trains weight, and max speed allowed.
But i figure if we forget that info and suddenly need it during a trip, we can just turn back to page 2, then back to the relevant page on the timetable for where we are on the route 🙂 

I've already departed from making 100% realistic timetables by including temporary speed limits on them, i figured no one wants' to read through the amendment to the timetables before each SimRail run and remember the changes that apply to their route, so my timetables are more like 98% realistic. 

 

I've also ventured into the dark world of VBA code and macros in excel, the 'Create PDF' button on my main timetable sheet selects the front cover and the main timetable sheets and saves them as a PDF file to a folder on my computer, reading the timetables service number and using that as the save name. 
My next step it to find and add code that will do the above but also advance through the service numbers automatically, as right now i have to select the next timetable manually and press the 'Create PDF' button... 24 times to make a days worth of timetables for this service (some other services are ever half hour, so 48 services, and i imagine the new timetables due out soon will be even more complicated)

The one issue i have with the 'Create PDF' button / vba code thing, it uses 'ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF' this bypasses the PDF 'printer' normally used if i manually select the 2 pages and go to the print dialogue in excel... where i select my PDF printer (ClawPDF) and it 'prints it to file.
When i do it the long way, and having to manually enter the file name to save as, i get .pdf files averaging 55Kb in size,
but using the 'ExportAsFixedFormat Type:=xlTypePDF' method, i get ~225Kb sized files.

i can add 'xlQualityMinimum' in the VBA code, this 'prints' them at 300 DPI instead of 600DPI, but that messes my formatting up as i designed the sheets to be 600DPI... whats the point of me having a HD e-ink screen if i use lower DPI i thought...
tho' i will likely need to switch to 300DPI for kindles, but still, that results in a ~120Kb file size, still more than double what the print dialogue method produces, as i imagine my PDF printer applies some compression.

So i'm still looking at ways to apply compression with the VBA method (or use the print to PDF dialogue and name the files with the service number automatically)

i could run the files through a PDF compressor, but the free ones are all online and limit you to about 3 pages per day, are very slow or add watermarks, metadata and crap i don't want, the ones i tried could only make the 120 Kb files 97Kb tho,
I'm just worried that a folder of all SimRail timetables could end up being nearly 250Mb in size, and i know some kindles only have 2 Gb total memory likely already mostly filled with books, and that not many people have a spare kindle (or buy a kobo reader) just for displaying SimRail timetables on. 

 

You'll be glad to know this is where i shut up,
Just one last thing.... I've attached timetable 14133 to this post for people to test if they wish, there are likely still some mistakes i haven't spotted yet, but i've driven the whole route and was able to use my timetable all the way instead of the HUD.... you do need to read the signals properly tho, as timetables do not show the signalled speed restrictions, even tho a route to a station may always be via a signalled 40Km/h limit. 

On my Kobo reader i set all PDF's to show full screen, and view mode as 'page' rather than 'continuous' this allows flipping through the pages as a book, which is what i intend. 

i did try converting to EPUB and MOBI formats, but it totally messes everything up, as they expect pages of words not tables.. so they just disregard the lines that make up the whole format of a timetable... but if someone finds a way to convert this .pdf timetable to a format better suited for kindles that keeps the formatting, please let me know.

And i will work on the 41100 services next (Katowice to Warszawa Wschodnia) then attempt the other ones that i have not really driven much. 

14133.pdf

[Gazz292]

if anyone's wondering the 14133.pdf contains 6 pages, shown below:

Edited March 4, 2023 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

Driving the 14139 service on EN1 right now to test the timetable out:

[Gazz292]

Here's a days worth of 14100 timetables, 

Just unzip, and inside the 14100 folder should be 24 timetables in pdf format, one for each of the services throughout the day from service / timetable 14101 to 14147.

i like to simply transfer the whole 14100 folder to my kobo e-ink reader, then select that folder and open the individual .pdf that i need for the service i am driving (or search for the service number and it'll find the timetable for you)

I haven't tested these on a kindle yet, but i have loaded them onto a couple of different sized android tablets, and they display just fine on the built in pdf readers.
I like to set the 'read direction' to left to right pages and full screen, then just swipe right to left go to the next page as you reach the bottom of the timetable during your drive in SimRail.

 

Of course, if you don't have time to drive the entire service (3 hours 42 minutes) you just pick one off the earlier services which are already part way through their trip (showing less time to completion) and find the correct place in the timetable by reading the hectometer boards when you spawn into the train) 

 

<added on 06/03/23 : 02:10> i've changed the position of one speed limit on line 4, the SimRail speed limit data says it's at 214.157, but it is actually right after the 214.9 hectometer board before the bridge.
I've also made the temporary limits in this timetable italic to distinguish them from normal speed limits (included the 40km/h limit at Katowice station signed with a W9 board.

So a new zip file has been uploaded containing a new set of the days timetables with these corrections, same name, so delete the old one then download this one (or re-name it)

 

i'll make a simple 'how to read a Polish drivers timetable' chart up tomorrow, as it can look daunting at first, especially how it looks wrong in places where the speed limit change kilometres are shown with distances after a station / post kilometers... like:

Strzałki is at 57.381Km, but the 160 speed reduction is at 78.487Km... you'd expect the speed reduction to be placed after this station / post entry,  but real Polish drivers timetables are like this in many places, i believe it's to do with the room needed for the speed limit changes Vs the station / post entries, 

But you get used to scanning the timetable for things like this.  

 

14100.zip

Edited March 6, 2023 by Gazz292
new zip file with corrected timetables

[Gazz292]

I still haven't tested these on my kindles i'm afraid  (amazon issues following a hacking of my account with them) they do display just fine on my kobo clara HD, which has a similar size e-ink screen. and they display perfectly on android tablets which can scale .pdf files easily (no idea about i-pad thingies, i've never owned an apple product in my life (something amazon won't believe.. as it was an iphone that was used to order these womens 'beauty' products over and over again on my account)

 

:

 

Attached to this post are the timetables for services 14100 and 41100, that's the EU07/EP08 loco hauled services between Warszawa Wschodnia and Katowice, and vice versa. 

Inside the zip file are 2 folders, named 14100 and 41100, those folders contain 24 timetables each for the days services for each direction of the line, 

How i use them:
i load transfer both folders onto my tablet / e-ink reader in a new folder i created on it called 'SimRail Timetables' 
Then when i drive a 41100 / 14100 service in SimRail i note it's service number.. say 41132 for the service that spawns just outside Katowice at ~17:41,
i now open the 'SimRail Timetables' folder on my tablet / e-ink reader, select the 41100 folder, then either search for '41132' or look for it on the page of files listed for it  (which should simply be the service number . pdf.... so '41132.pdf' 

Click it to open it, and i get the timetables front cover displayed.
I've set my tablets / e-ink reader to display pdf's as single pages and at full screen, so i just click on the right side of the screen and it 'turns the page' so next i see the train info panel, this shows the trains weight, length, max speed, brake settings etc, 
click on the right again and i get the actual timetable shown, 
As i drive i keep referring to the timetable and getting my location on the line using the hectometer boards at the lineside (some parts of the SimRail line are missing them occasionally) adjusting my speed as the timetable tells me, stopping at the stations (marked in bold with ;ph after the station name, and 2 times in the box next to the station name)
As i progress and i am reading the last entry on the page, as i pass the station / post for that entry i go to the next page, and carry on from the top again. 

 

:

 

Please tell me of any errors i've made (i may have made a mistake with the 44100 services, do they stop at Olszamowice to let an ED250 past like they do on the 14100 services?)

i will hopefully have a better description on how to use / read the timetables with some pictures for my next post here, 

If you want to see more timetables for services i haven't made yet, then check out this thread by Zapach Kreozotu, who has made an awesome automated online timetable generator, note they will not display well on a small e-ink display kobo /  kindle, that is what my project is here for 🙂 

Timetables 14100 and 41100.zip

[GoppelPL]

Excellent work Gazz! You've included too much information I'm afraid - the WOS speed limits (so these with W9 "\/" and "/\" signs) aren't included in the timetable in the first and second collumns, as the WOS is an addon to the timetable and as a driver you need to check it as well (or know the route well). The vL and vP collumns should only contain line speed, so the one shown on the W27a ("[12]") signs.

[Gazz292]

ahh, that's something i decided to 'take artistic licence on' 🙂

i figured that whilst i want realism, having to spend 10+ minutes searching for and through the relevant appendix timetables for these W14 and W9 limits, then finding the ones that apply to all the lines our chosen service drives on....
then remembering where they apply along the route (which we likely have not learnt learnt fully like a real train driver does) ... and doing all this before taking over a train in multiplayer might be a little too realistic, 

I tried to put the temporary limits in italics to distinguish them from the normal ones tho', but the ones i have done so far are the ones that show up on RWag78's data and not on Uetam's speed limits, these are mostly the W14 ones i believe. 

 

I sort of figured that others may want what i want from a timetable, to be able to drive HUD'less, and be able to quickly glance at the timetable on the kindle / kobo / tablet, and see that 'at 292,800 Km, the current line speed of 120 km/h drops to 50 km/h for 100 meters'

I could set the W9 and W14 limits to be hidden with a button in excel, and produce 2 versions of the timetables, but i'd then need to include the relevant sections from the 'Dodatek-2' ... but i only have one from the 2018 era that covers lines 1 and 4, not line 2.. which the 41100 / 14100 services run on: 
 

IDDE4-Dodatek-2-IZ-Sosnowiec-z-popr-1-od-10-VI-18.pdf

[Gazz292]

So, i've been thinking, 
Should i make 2 versions of the timetables?

One a semi realistic one with all speed limit changes listed as would be shown on the HUD in SimRail,    i.e. what i have now, so you just look at the timetable and see where any speed restriction applies to you as if you had the HUD on.

 

And then have a realistic version of the timetables with just the 'W27a' speed limits shown, 
I'd then include a simple 'dodatek-2' type page with the timetables, listing the W9 and W14 speed limits that apply to the route.

 

i could show this list of W9 and W14 limits on the 2nd page of my timetable, which currently only shows the train info panel (max speed, weight, length, braking info)  
and it's then upto the driver to read and remember where those W9 and W14 speed limits apply in the main timetable (or flip back to page 2 to check when they are in the area of a W9 or W14 type limit) 

 

Then when i've made all timetables to cover the SimRail universe, i could then make a SimRail Dodatek-2 listing all the non track speed change limits, which could be referred to before loading the relevant timetable for the service you are running today for the ultimate realistic experience.

.... Am i referring to this 'list of temporary speed limits addendum timetable' thing correctly here?  i keep calling it the 'Dodatek-2'   is that what it is called by real Polish train drivers? 

[giBBer8]

Over thinking it Gazz, but superb effort!

Keep it basic and easy to read. These charts aren't made for new drivers to run services, but to provide reminders for experienced train drivers IRL.

Basic, and easy to read mate. ☺️

 

 

[Gazz292]

I guess essentially what i want is a way to drive with the HUD off,
so for me, having something that looks like a paper drivers timetable similar to the real thing a Polish train driver uses, displayed on an e-ink device or a tablet, which allows me to not need to worry about missing any speed changes that the HUD would have told me about is the main goal. 

I think this has been achieved (albeit only for 2 services so far)
I can certainly drive any of the ~3+hour long ~250+km 14100 / 41100 services with the HUD off, getting all the info i need about the route from my timetables for those services.

Ok, i occasionally need to turn the HUD on to see the speed limit when i start getting 'speed limit violation' messages, and it's always because i forgot i had a 40km/h signal before i entered the station or something like that  (my crap memory is part of the reason why i put the temporary limits in the timetables, as i'd forget the info the Dodatek-2 had told me if i read it 5 minutes ago, let alone 3 and a half hours after starting the service 🙂)

:

But i also know that some people want to have the timetables looking exactly like the real thing, maybe even printing them out on paper so they can drive in SimRail as if they were driving in real life,
I 'think' it wouldn't be too hard for me to make the W9 and W14 limits in my timetables hidden in excel with a single button push, then create 2 versions of the pdf timetables,  but maybe it would be easier to point those who want the ultimate 'driving the real thing' experience to Zapach Kreozotu's dynamic timetables   
As he's designed his to only display the line limits and not the temporary ones, as in real life. 

:

So my timetables are then more for the 'intermediate' SimRail driver who has an old kindle or similar e-ink reader, or tablet that they can place next to the computer to display a timetable 'similar' to the real thing, that allows them to drive HUD'less without too much effort. 

 

:

:

Talking about kindles, i finally managed to load my timetables onto mine (a kindle basic 2 and a paperwhite, both ~6 inch screens) 

The timetables display quite well. annoyingly not full screen, but that's a kindle thing, it just has to have that thing at the bottom (67% here) telling you how far you are through your file showing all the damn time, so i guess maximising the info i can show on the screen is even more important, no way the train info panels to the right of the timetable could be shown as well (like Zapach Kreozotu's realistic timetables have) 

I also notice that the kindle is not like the kobo in how it shows what's loaded on it (might just be a feature of KOReader that i use on my Kobo, a simple drag and drop install on the Kobo, unfortunately to use it on a kindle requires jailbreaking / rooting it apparently 😫 ) 
On my kobo i see the individual folders i've put the timetables in:

On the kindles they are mixed in with the books you have on it, sorted either alphabetically or by the date loaded etc, 
So to load the timetables onto the kindle, i connect it to the pc via usb, navigate to the kindle and find the 'documents' folder, there i make a new folder that i called  'SimRail Timetables' and load the timetables into that folder:

So inside the 'Timetables' folder are the 2 folders with the actual timetables that i attach as a zip file to some of my posts, called 14100 and 41100 so far, and in each of those folders are the 24 individual pdf's named 14101.pdf. 14103.pdf and so on,
this keeps the timetables separate from the books you have on the kindle, and makes it easy to load new timetables on as i make them or updated timetables when i spot things i've got wrong (like in the 41100 timetables i forgot to apply the time update function in excel to the 'Olszamowice' timing stop, it shows 03:39 instead of the timetables correct time .. say 19:39... so there will be a corrected timetable .zip file posted here soon to fix that)

To find your timetable on a kindle, it's probably easiest to just use the search bar at the top and enter the service number for the train you are driving, the kindle it will find the relevant timetable for you to click on and open (which is why i named each individual timetable by it's service number .pdf)
There is something you can do with filters to only show 'Documents' instead of books to chose the .pdf's manually, but really, search is quicker usually 🙂

Edited March 11, 2023 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

I've fixed a few mistakes in the timetables, the new .zip file is here: ''Dammit, excel has updated it's self, and that changes the border thicknesses when saved as PDF, so the 2 lines that signify double tracks, or single line for single tracks is one large solid line... let me correct that and re-upload the timetables, sorry about this''

I've changed Olszamowice ;pn to ;pt,    ;pn is a non passenger stop but i believe it means at a platform,    ;pt is more of a timing stop, which is exactly what this one is for, you stop on the sidings to let a faster train past you when you are running on time (some dispatchers forget about this) 

I've also made the Olszamowice ;pt and it's times bold italic,  i already show platform stops (;ph) in bold so they stand out from the other entries, which are drive by times, and this one is still a stop, just not at a platform. 

 

All the temporary speed limits are now italic in my timetables to distinguish them from the normal speed limits, i'm keeping the temporary limits in my timetables for the reasons i mention in the post above.
i am working on making a simple little 'dodatek-2' like page which will be placed on my timetables page 2, under the train info panel i have there now (which shows train weight, length, type of loco etc) 
This will just show the few temporary speed limits that apply in the timetable, and will not be pages from the massive book with every temporary speed limit on the entire railway system that a real driver has to look through before taking the train out. 

:

 

I've also been trying to make some 'how to read these timetables' sheets, there is just so much data in a driver's timetable.
But i've really just made something hard to read with all these arrows and tons of text (a lot of info is based on CN-BX-3N's How to read a drivers timetable post. .. the timetable he shows is the type used before about 2012, and as SimRail is based in 2018 at the moment, i've gone with the more modern style of drivers timetable, they show pretty much the same info, just slightly different layouts)

 

Click the pictures below to see a higher resolution version.

 

14100 and 41100 Timetables.zip

Edited March 13, 2023 by Gazz292

[Gazz292]

Excel updated it's self the other day, and i've only just realised that the borders are made stupidly thick again when saving as PDF (this is something many excel users complain about, microsoft partially fix it with one update, then mess it up with the next),
But basically this turned the 2 lines that separate the station box from the time box look like a single very thick line.

As those lines signify if you are driving on a single or double track, i had to correct this, as it was making it look like the entire ~250km route was single track:
 

So i had to mess about with the cells and the border styles on the timetables to make them show as they should again:

A cell was deleted to do this, which changed the 'address' of the cells to it's right, and screwed up my 'print to PDF' button's logic which is hard coded in VBA, but once i figured out i just had to change cell 'T5 to S5' it all worked again.

So... below is the corrected yet again timetables for the 14100 and 41100 services,  hopefully i have them all displaying correctly now, and i can get on with making timetables for the other services.
I am of course waiting for SimRail to introduce it's new timetables any day, hopefully it's mostly timing changes with a few new timetables thrown in, but i'll tackle that challenge when it arrives.

14100 and 41100 SimRail Timetables.zip