I am finding that placing a portal successfully is a very much hit or miss affair. I have placed portals on a number of routes, but there are always the one or two portals which do not work properly and cause a 'left the line at' error. Is there a particular procedure to follow in order to place one successfully first time?
When first placed, I find that some are at an acute angle to the track [these occasionally work successfully, but most do not!!] and I usually swivel them around to be at right angles to the track. I move the white cube to the front of the portal indicating the direction [but the cube has arrows pointing forward and back??], name the portal [same name for both parts] and return to the scenario editor hoping for the best!! Swapping between route and scenario editors when it does cause a 'left the line at' error wastes a considerable amount of time and reduces the enjoyment factor quite considerably.
When a portal does function successfully, I am able to place trains in the portal and they come out of the portal as and when they should.
Also, in the portal pop-out box there is a box at the top right which can be ticked - what is the purpose of that? In addition, I am unsure of the purpose of the Distance and Wait Time boxes at the bottom left of the pop-out box. I am not too sure as to whether they have only just appeared in TS2014.
Hopefully, some kind person might be able to tell me what I am doing wrong, or not doing something that I should be doing!!
Regards,
Bruce
Placing a Portal
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Oldpufferspotter
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Re: Placing a Portal
So far as the Distance and Wait Time boxes are concerned:
Imagine you have a spur going off your main line to represent a branch line, but the spur stops just out of sight behind a hill, and you place a Portal near the end of that spur. You can enter the Distance to the terminus of the imaginary branch line, and also specify a Wait Time before your train, which has disappeared into the Portal, once again leaves the imaginary terminus to come back. By doing this your branch train disappears for a realistic length of time before it reappears from the Portal on its return journey (fingers crossed!).
Portals have been a bit hit and miss since the very early days of the simulator. RS.com have even said on occasions that the purpose of Portals is for trains to terminate in them and disappear to save computing power, not to spawn trains, despite them presumably having been set up to do both. They were obviously set up to do both as they do do both with a bit of luck! They perhaps haven't got round to being fixed yet!!
regards Ted.
Imagine you have a spur going off your main line to represent a branch line, but the spur stops just out of sight behind a hill, and you place a Portal near the end of that spur. You can enter the Distance to the terminus of the imaginary branch line, and also specify a Wait Time before your train, which has disappeared into the Portal, once again leaves the imaginary terminus to come back. By doing this your branch train disappears for a realistic length of time before it reappears from the Portal on its return journey (fingers crossed!).
Portals have been a bit hit and miss since the very early days of the simulator. RS.com have even said on occasions that the purpose of Portals is for trains to terminate in them and disappear to save computing power, not to spawn trains, despite them presumably having been set up to do both. They were obviously set up to do both as they do do both with a bit of luck! They perhaps haven't got round to being fixed yet!!
regards Ted.
Re: Placing a Portal
Portals are well known for handling emerging trains satisfactorily. I only use them for making trains disappear. The distance and wait time boxes supposedly enable you to bring the disappearing train back to life if you so choose. So, for example, you can tell it to go into a portal named Crewe which is set at a distance of 50 miles away. The train will 'travel' to Crewe and emerge from its disappearing point after it has waited at its destination and travelled the 50 miles back again. You can test this by making the destination in the portal a very short one and wait for the train to re-emerge. You do, of course have to give it an appropriate destination for this to have any hope of working. In theory it sounds a great idea but in practice the emerging train, in my experience, is subject to random behaviour.
Mark
Mark
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Re: Placing a Portal
If you send a train in to a portal and you say wait x Time for it to reappear does it come out the correct way - as if it went round a big loop?
Or does the train come out in a different formation?
Never tried a portal in a scenario.
Or does the train come out in a different formation?
Never tried a portal in a scenario.
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Re: Placing a Portal
Whenever I have tried both sending a train to a portal, only for it to emerge again from the self same portal it emerges in correct formation as if the whole consist had been turned, but I also discovered that despite the instructions I gave it, it could emerge on the wrong line or not at all. The annoying thing is that if you make a simple test which consists of one AI train, and no other stock whatsoever, it may well work, but if you try and perform the exercise in a finished scenario you may find that self same train may perform very differently and maybe not at all!
Mark
Mark
Re: Placing a Portal
Mark and Ted, many thanks for your replies. I possibly won't need to make use of the Distance and Wait Time boxes now that I know what they do.
I did a little bit of investigating of one of the faulty portals. In the scenario proper the error box duly appeared and the scenario halted. However, the error box gave the exact point of derailment which surprisingly was well behind the portal ie the opposite direction to which the train was supposed to be travelling. Yet, when I pressed the play button in the scenario editor the locomotive appeared on the track, but at the point mentioned in the error box, and duly travelled along the line towards the portal it was supposed to be emitted from!!! Make of that what you will!
When people place a portal on the track, do they simply place it, name it and leave it, or do they attempt to get it at right angles to the track? Does the cube with the double arrow have to be specially placed? There does not seem to be any logic about successful placing, and even on adjoining tracks, one portal will work first time whilst its neighbour continually calls up an error.
Regards,
Bruce.
I did a little bit of investigating of one of the faulty portals. In the scenario proper the error box duly appeared and the scenario halted. However, the error box gave the exact point of derailment which surprisingly was well behind the portal ie the opposite direction to which the train was supposed to be travelling. Yet, when I pressed the play button in the scenario editor the locomotive appeared on the track, but at the point mentioned in the error box, and duly travelled along the line towards the portal it was supposed to be emitted from!!! Make of that what you will!
When people place a portal on the track, do they simply place it, name it and leave it, or do they attempt to get it at right angles to the track? Does the cube with the double arrow have to be specially placed? There does not seem to be any logic about successful placing, and even on adjoining tracks, one portal will work first time whilst its neighbour continually calls up an error.
Regards,
Bruce.
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Oldpufferspotter
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Re: Placing a Portal
When I place a Portal I swing the 'horseshoe' marker round to be at right angles to the track, and place the cubes with the arrows just a little way away on the track. I have successfully got one to have a train disappear and then reappear the right way around (engine at the front!) a little while after, Distance zero but Wait Time 2 or 3 minutes just to test, but that was a long time ago. I now only use a Portal for trains to terminate and disappear.
For what it is worth, I have found the following notes in my own personal 'book of instructions' which I compiled from advice given on this forum over the past four years. I don't remember who originally gave this advice, but it is thanks to those good people here over the years that I have them, and I wouldn't think that they will mind me passing their advice on to you now.
Quote:
It is advised not to originate services from portals as they can cause problems, but here is how you would do it -
1. Create the AI train with all its details as you would normally, on the track in front of the portal.
2. Open the portal properties by clicking on the central post of the portal.
3. Click on the "add" button and then click on the train you have created in 1.
4. The train should disappear into the portal.
5. Close ( deselect ) the portal properties window and reopen it and the train you added should be listed.
6. Save the scenario.
To Remove a train from the portal, open the portal properties window.
1. Click on the train you want to remove and click on the "remove" button.
2. The train is now linked to the cursor, place the train on the track.
3. Close the portal properties window.
4. Save the scenario.
To edit a train listed in the portal properties you need to remove it from the portal thus placing the service back on the track, edit it and then add it back into the portal as before.
N.B. Remember that the first train to be spawned must be the last one assigned to the portal (that is, if you want three trains, A, B, and C to emerge from the portal in that order, you must put them into the portal in the order C, B, A: otherwise, when train A starts, it runs into train B and causes an AI collision error. Portals are intended to take in trains, not to spawn them.
Unquote.
I hope this is helpful.
regards Ted.
For what it is worth, I have found the following notes in my own personal 'book of instructions' which I compiled from advice given on this forum over the past four years. I don't remember who originally gave this advice, but it is thanks to those good people here over the years that I have them, and I wouldn't think that they will mind me passing their advice on to you now.
Quote:
It is advised not to originate services from portals as they can cause problems, but here is how you would do it -
1. Create the AI train with all its details as you would normally, on the track in front of the portal.
2. Open the portal properties by clicking on the central post of the portal.
3. Click on the "add" button and then click on the train you have created in 1.
4. The train should disappear into the portal.
5. Close ( deselect ) the portal properties window and reopen it and the train you added should be listed.
6. Save the scenario.
To Remove a train from the portal, open the portal properties window.
1. Click on the train you want to remove and click on the "remove" button.
2. The train is now linked to the cursor, place the train on the track.
3. Close the portal properties window.
4. Save the scenario.
To edit a train listed in the portal properties you need to remove it from the portal thus placing the service back on the track, edit it and then add it back into the portal as before.
N.B. Remember that the first train to be spawned must be the last one assigned to the portal (that is, if you want three trains, A, B, and C to emerge from the portal in that order, you must put them into the portal in the order C, B, A: otherwise, when train A starts, it runs into train B and causes an AI collision error. Portals are intended to take in trains, not to spawn them.
Unquote.
I hope this is helpful.
regards Ted.
Re: Placing a Portal
Ted,
Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply further. It is really only the actual placing of the portal that I am finding hit or miss.
I normally test the portal by inserting 1 train in the portal in the way that you have described. If successful, them I am able to place several more trains in the portal - the most I have placed is around half a dozen before I get the dreaded red #s in the timetable section indicating a clash somewhere on the system which often requires much tearing of hair to resolve. However, unlike your NB section, I have usually placed them in timetable order, with the first placed in the portal being the first to emerge. For some reason, this does seem to work with me.
If unsuccessful in placing the portal, I now get a 'left line at' notice, with the co-ordinates listed. When that happens, swivelling that same portal does not seem to help, and it is only after many attempts, if at all, that I manage to place a portal on the same stretch of track. It seems to be either place a portal on that stretch of line in one go, or not at all. I just love these sort of mysteries!!!
Anyway, again thank you for your help. If I do eventually get to the bottom of this and manage to place every portal successfully in one go, I will let you know.
Regards,
Bruce.
Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply further. It is really only the actual placing of the portal that I am finding hit or miss.
I normally test the portal by inserting 1 train in the portal in the way that you have described. If successful, them I am able to place several more trains in the portal - the most I have placed is around half a dozen before I get the dreaded red #s in the timetable section indicating a clash somewhere on the system which often requires much tearing of hair to resolve. However, unlike your NB section, I have usually placed them in timetable order, with the first placed in the portal being the first to emerge. For some reason, this does seem to work with me.
If unsuccessful in placing the portal, I now get a 'left line at' notice, with the co-ordinates listed. When that happens, swivelling that same portal does not seem to help, and it is only after many attempts, if at all, that I manage to place a portal on the same stretch of track. It seems to be either place a portal on that stretch of line in one go, or not at all. I just love these sort of mysteries!!!
Anyway, again thank you for your help. If I do eventually get to the bottom of this and manage to place every portal successfully in one go, I will let you know.
Regards,
Bruce.