Problem on reaching points

jp4712 · Post by **jp4712** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:52 pm

I've never seen it happen quite like this before...

I've written an activity for NWE involving a train travelling from St Helens Shaw St to Wigan. All goes well until I take the long drop down towards Wigan Springs Branch and when the train reaches the first set of points on the approach, the loco (but no other wagon, including the tender) flips direction in an instant then we bomb out on 'car derailed'.

I know MSTS has the bug where you derail at a set of points if you've been on straight track for a long time, but can anyone help me with this one please? I'll be upset if I have to bin the activity, I'm very pleased with it otherwise. It includes the use of a banker for part of the run.

TIA

Paul

37413 · Post by **37413** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:04 pm

Looking at your picture, Is it my imagination but have you got your tender on the inside of your engine if this is the case I am not surprised you are having problems perhaps you should have your engine & tender in the correct format and run the activity again and see what happens.
Interesting topic.
Alan

chriscooper · Post by **chriscooper** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:20 pm

From reading his problem it seems that the loco being the wrong way around is the consequence not the cause, and as MSTS steam locos have a bar coupling between the loco and tender, it would be impossible to set a consist like that anyway without modifying the couplings which would be very odd. MSTS does seem to have some very strange behaviour when it comes to derailments and broken couplings, which seem to occur far to easily and often in very odd ways. If MSTS really is "as real as it gets" no wonder people are concerned about rail safety

.

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:53 pm

I think this is just one of the funny dances that happen in a derailment.
It just happens to have ended up back on the rails....but not for long.

asalmon · Post by **asalmon** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:05 pm

I am thinking "tsection" here.

What version tsection.dat do you have in your global folder.

Do you have any non-standard routes, eg the commercial "japanses routes" or "maglev / casino 2005" ?

Alan

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:23 pm

Mmmmm, Have just Beta tested the Activity for Paul, (What a fine Activity it is too!).

Guess what... ? Hit the points at 45mph and sailed right through without any problems.

Don't bin the activity Paul, it's too good, we'll try to find a solution!
As Alan is thinking along a tsection problem, I can't tell you the version number I'm using, as it doesn't state a 'build reference', but I'm pretty sure it's the one that came with UK Finescale V1 (Even though NWE was built using X-Tracks)
Terry

37413 · Post by **37413** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:31 pm

The tsection file I have with my NWE route is 1878 KB if that is any help. Terry when you beta tested the activity was your engine in the same format as Paul or did you have it in the correct format.
Alan.

asalmon · Post by **asalmon** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:33 pm

hmmm, I thought all versions of standardised tsection.dat had the build number as a comment, near the top

eg

_INFO(Build 00021)

If not, can you say how many track sections and track shapes are reserved (find a line like

TrackSections ( 40000

near the top of the file and

TrackShapes ( 40000

about 20% of the way down. In this case 40000 shapes and sections are reserved, and so dynamic track starts at 40000. (they start at 0 so the 40000 reserverd run 0 - 39999)

Terry, looking at your route's (local) tsection.dat I think your (global) tsection.dat is fine - so Paul can you look at your global tsection.dat and give the build no. and/or the no. of shapes/sections reserved as above.

Alan

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:03 am

asalmon wrote:hmmm, I thought all versions of standardised tsection.dat had the build number as a comment, near the top

eg

_INFO(Build 00021)

If not, can you say how many track sections and track shapes are reserved (find a line like

TrackSections ( 40000

near the top of the file and

TrackShapes ( 40000

about 20% of the way down. In this case 40000 shapes and sections are reserved, and so dynamic track starts at 40000. (they start at 0 so the 40000 reserverd run 0 - 39999)

Terry, looking at your route's (local) tsection.dat I think your (global) tsection.dat is fine - so Paul can you look at your global tsection.dat and give the build no. and/or the no. of shapes/sections reserved as above.

Alan

Yep... definately no build number... 40000 shapes.... file size 373kb.
Locomotive is the much tried and tested 8F 2-8-0 48448 (8f01), I think that Pauls screen-shot is a little misleading as to how the engine appears... I'm sure it would be a completely different picture a couple of frames further on.

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:09 am

Paul,
Mail me a copy of your Global TSECTION.DAT file... I'll bung it into my set up to see if I can duplicate the problem...
Regards,
Terry

jp4712 · Post by **jp4712** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:29 am

Chaps

Alan (37413) - rest assured, the 8F was coupled up entirely normally for the run. On hitting the points the engine direction flipped (and as I'd just saved the activity, it was quite entertaining being able to replicate the 'trick'! Interestingly, the next second I was looking at a blank field (where's the railway gone?) with a steadily increasing speed shown in the track monitor until the derailment message popped up when the 8F was (allegedly) doing about 200 mph.

Alan (asalmon) - the global tsection is build 21, 1878 kb. I don't have any routes with 'funny' tsections - default routes are removed, all other routes are Caldervale, Cannock, Mersey, Warrington, Alston, SMJ, Settle 1930 (must get around to updating it to Skipton!), Barrow-Workington, Peak, Woodhead. NWE is the most recent installation. The tsection in the route folder is 124kb, significantly smaller than Terry's. Is that because he's he route author d'you reckon?

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm glad it worked on Terry's PC which means it's just a bug on my machine. I think the next step is to attempt to crawl over the points at 1mph to see if I can get through that way.

jp4712 · Post by **jp4712** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:21 pm

MSTS - arentchasickovit!? :2gunfire:

Well, I ran at those points tonight at 45 mph, just like Terry did, and d'you know what happened this time? Nothing. It sailed through. What have I done in the meantime? Yep - nothing.

Let's just put it down to 'one of those things'. Yet last night exactly the same fault happened four times on the trot. Gad, sometimes this is an annoying game...

Upload of activity this weekend. All complaints about derailment on that set of points to Bill Gates Esq, c/o Microsoft, Redmond WA, USA.

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 9:28 am

Excellent

Guy's, let me tell you, you're all in for a treat with this one....!

Terry