Morning Mail Activity for Thames Mersey Steam Era

[Lad491]

Hi Alan

Although ive not experience any freezing problems or crashes at Liverpool, I have had a complete loss of textures there on occasion. No track, station or scenery visible - just open greyness. It could be that this is happening to you but causing a crash.

Ive found that a quick save and restart just as you run through edge hill often helps, but it isn't always necessary and 3 out of 5 times it works fine.

Try a save and see if that helps

BTW a return run (pasenger as i couldn't get the freight one to work ) is under development and testing now. Might be ready by next weekend.

[welshdragon]

No luck I'm afraid.

I did get as far as the entrance to the platform but then freeze and S/DS by using external key 2 and turning the view so that I was looking at the front of the train approaching as I remember someone mentioning this was the least fps demanding way of MSTS, and yet my spec should handle it.

Shame really to get so far and not be able to complete it. Still, for all that an excellent activity, keep them coming.
Regards

Alan

[dforrest]

Done it! (but ten minutes late).

You make a good team Lad491 and latimers. What about the next one?

[Lad491]

sorry its not worked out for you Alan. I cant suggest anything else to try - I usually use view 2 looking forwards when i drive steam trains and it works ok on my pc 4 out of 5 times. Maybe someone else will have a suggestion.

Dforrest - glad you completed it ok - but 10 minutes late leaves some room for improvement.

The next is much of the same. A 12 coach limited stop service back from Liverpool to London via Northampton. Heavy train, restricted amounts of coal and water again, a fair bit of AI traffic with direct interaction following slower traffic, overtaking, signal checks etc., tightish timetable. Motive power is a BR Black 5 (been dying to use one of those ) with amended eng file again to improve characteristics for those like me that like to use the AI fireman but like it to feel "right" as well.

The player service is done and tested and provisional timings noted. First run of AI traffic is done and its now awaiting a second run through to note and plug AI flat spots, tweak timings and get the interaction sorted. Currently running at just a tad over 3.25 hours but will be about 3.5 by the time its finished. Maybe by the weekend

[cakebread]

I have now tried a large no. of activities on more than 30 routes.
Without any doubt Laurie's Morning mail activity is superior to all other activities. The only change I made was to Make 70000 as the drive loco. I reached Liverpool with plenty of water and 8% of coal. The only problem I encountered was that dreaded Microsoft message appeared when the train was approaching Crewe. fortunately I had just saved and when I restarted the activity from the save point the train went like a dream. I actually reached Liverpool 1 minute early. Thanks very much for such wonderful enjoyment.
I am really looking forward to your next activity.
Bruce

[Lad491]

Thank you Bruce and everyone else who have said nice things about the activity Its really nice when something done initially out of pure self interest is enjoyed by many others. Your encouragement gives me the spur to continue.

The return run is making progress but, as is usual when you start adding AI traffic, I now have some bugs to sort out and a stand off to resolve. Still im off work this week and next so plenty of time to sit down and sort it out.

Thanks again for your comments

[Lad491]

Just to let you know that the return run is progressing quite well. I have, though, been hoisted by my own interactions and an AI train placed deliberately at Crewe for you to overtake has managed to get back ahead and is blocking progress at Leighton Buzzard. Im down to tweaking timings by seconds to get it right. Its very, very timing critical again in places so im expecting the usual crop of "it doesnt work" when people miss their traffic slots

Unfortunately im now battling a rather bad case of pnuemonia ( 3rd set of antibiotics and steroids, 4 weeks off work so far ) and am finding it hard to concentrate on the activity for more than an hour or so a day Hopefully i'll be on the road to recovery in a few days and can turn to finishing it.

[ccsdc]

Laurie,

Sorry to hear about your illness - there is a lot of it around at the moment. Really looking forward to your activity, sounds every bit as good as the first one.

Get well soon.

Dave

[welshdragon]

Hope you are feeling better Laurie,

Some good news I D/L Bobs version as I also have XP + SP2 and still couldn't complete it.

However I have discovered the culprit. When Dave patched TM v 3.0 he included two updated tsection.dat files one of which went into the Global folder of MSTS and the other in TM.

I recently D/L an activity from the library prior to yours coming out and it caused me no end of problems and somehow reverted some updated files back to Default. I deleted the activity and thought I had discovered all the altered files but as your activity was freezing on approach to Central Liverpool I tried in explore mode entering from different places with the same result and found that the tsection.dat file in MSTS Global had reverted to the default one.

So, mission accomplished albeit with a Black 5, 1 minute early and 10% coal remaining.

Regards

Alan

[Lad491]

Well done Alan - glad at last you have managed to complete it

Im using a Black 5 for the return trip and ive found that its steaming capabilities are much better than the Fowler i used in the original Morning Mail. It also takes on water from the troughs much faster and in greater quantities. So its making setting the right levels of coal and water without being ridiculously low rather hard and im looking for other ways to complicate the run.

Ive currently hit a problem with an AI train just south of Roade which as soon as it appears crashes the activity. It happens everytime whether the player service is stationary or moving. Trying to track down which one it is is proving a nightmare so ive got to go through every piece of AI traffic and add a station stop at Roade so i can work out which is the affected one, and then remove all the stops again afterwards

Still its gradually making progress and the first 2.5 hours of the activity are now just about complete

[jamiebowey87]

Both activities sound great, ill have to get the hang of driving a Steam loco before I attempt them though, Ive got a weekend off work though! Would it make me a bad man to suggest an early Cl 47... Sorry if that last comment causes any offence!

[Lad491]

ill have to get the hang of driving a Steam loco before I attempt them though

Well im no steam driver expert - indeed far from it as i tend to drive them like diesels anyway. I always use the AI fireman as I cant get the hang of firing and driving together - if someone else drives then i can fire But i do like the AI fireman to act better than most do - which is why i tend to tweak engine files so that if you thrash the loco steam flows away, but if you nurse it along you can go fast and still keep steam pressure up. The activities always work even if you dont change the eng files - it just makes the locos too easy to drive

After the return run is finished I intended switching to the modern era version of the route and doing a couple of similar activities for that. A 47 is a definite possibility as its one of my favourite diesels

Now its back to trying to track down that pesky freight services which crashes the sim

[fatbloke]

Hurrah!!!!!! I've completed the activity. I did as you suggested Laurie and cut back the reverser much earlier than I had been doing. I got to Rugby with 17% coal remaining, a bit better than last time!!!! The coal finally ran out less than a third of a mile from Liverpool.

I also had a near full tank of water as well, mind you I was 5 minutes late but I did not exceed 80mph on any part of the journey.

An excellent activity Laurie, I'm certainly looking forward to the return trip.

Gary