AWS

[david1]

Is there a way of removing AWS from a route, I am assuming its not just a matter removing the track magnet, I thinking about the back dated North Wales Coast route, which is fantastic but still has AWS in place, back in the 1980`s the route did not have AWS, just wondering how easy would it be to remove it from the route?

[gptech]

I am assuming its not just a matter removing the track magnet,

You assume wrongly...it's as easy as that, there are no weird track links or configuration sheets to deal with.

[david1]

Thanks for that gptech, would have thought that there would be more to it.

[brysonman46]

Is there a way of removing AWS from a route, I am assuming its not just a matter removing the track magnet, I thinking about the back dated North Wales Coast route, which is fantastic but still has AWS in place, back in the 1980`s the route did not have AWS, just wondering how easy would it be to remove it from the route?

Can you give me chapter and verse on this. Many of the images we have do show the magnets. It may be that they were only in certain places (as they were on the Liv Lime Street to Man Vic to Leeds route - they were absent from Huyton Junction to Huddersfield until 1984).
I can then remove those that were NOT in place in 1980, and reissue the track tiles/tracks bin

[johnrossetti]

There used to be a link to Mike Simpson who did a how to do it
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... s#p1736326
Failing that why not put -DisableAWS in the command line
Good Luck
John

[749006]

Not exactly sure why you would remove AWS from a route that did have it?

And with Semaphore Signalling the only AWS Magnets are at Distant Signals

[brysonman46]

Not exactly sure why you would remove AWS from a route that did have it?

And with Semaphore Signalling the only AWS Magnets are at Distant Signals

Peter, the OP seems convinced that AWS was not present in the 1980s. I have asked him for proof of this. I do have some images showing the magnets (though only fortuitously - any showing the distants would have the camera in front of the magnets!). When did you first work over the route?
Once we can nail down the correct position, then I can make any amendments to the route if needed. There were a number of first generation colour light distants (2A Y/G) on the route by 1980, so they would certainly have AWS.

Nick

[749006]

When did you first work over the route?

Never - that Man Victoria Crew

I was just wondered what was wrong with having the AWS

[david1]

Can you give me chapter and verse on this. Many of the images we have do show the magnets.

The problem is that it was a long time ago, as far as I can remember most of the route did not have them, although there were sections that did, the problem is I dont remember which sections did, from your point of view you have tried to get the line as acurate as possible and a fantastic job you have done, would be great if the track magnets were accurate to where they were, but personally if i had a choice to have magnets along all the route or to have none I think none would look better for the time period, my understanding was that most secondary routes did not have them, of course as it was a long time ago and I dont have any photos I could be getting mixed up with Liverpool to Leeds route which I also travelled a lot on, which most of this route did not have AWS.

[brysonman46]

At the moment I am content to leave them as they are. I will see if I can find any more information from other sources. On our Lime Street to Man Vic route we had solid evidence for the positions of the magnets (and the absence from Huyton Junction to Newton Heath, which was one of the main findings of the Enquiry into the 1984 crash at Eccles). It would be ideal to have a video of a cab ride from Crewe to Llandudno for the time period, as that would give solid evidence from the bell/horn or absence thereof.
If you really cannot live with the AWS, then you can always use johnrossetti's solution of disabling them

Nick

[gptech]

There used to be a link to Mike Simpson who did a how to do it
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... s#p1736326
Failing that why not put -DisableAWS in the command line

I imagine that editing Tracks.bin with RW Tools simply removes the path to the ramps, effectively making an occupied 'asset pointer' an un-occupied one. That could cause the game to throw a wobbler; it's told there's an asset referenced, but no asset is defined which could cause the signalling messages to be blocked---hence the report of red signals in the old thread linked to; if the signal isn't told that a train is approaching it won't display the appropriate aspect.
That particular tutorial hasn't been ported over to Mike's new site--http://www.agenetools.com/tutorials.html for the tutorials--so I/we can't have a proper look.
Using -DisableAWS as a command line switch won't remove the magnets, it merely turns off the function.

Dropping into the game's editor (use the 32bit version as it's a case of editing Tracks.bin) loading the route up and deleting the magnets works perfectly---I've just run through a huge chunk of Newcastle-York (or rather a cloned copy of it) deleting AWS magnets with no ill effects.

Not exactly sure why you would remove AWS from a route that did have it?

Because you wanted to?....It doesn't matter if it's not what you, I, or anybody else would do as long as it's what that particular user wants to do. Would you extend the sentiment to include "Not exactly sure why you would backdate a route, when as supplied it's how it is now and as it was supposed to be represented by the author"?

[brysonman46]

Dropping into the game's editor (use the 32bit version as it's a case of editing Tracks.bin) loading the route up and deleting the magnets works perfectly---I've just run through a huge chunk of Newcastle-York (or rather a cloned copy of it) deleting AWS magnets with no ill effects.

Which is the way I usually do it when backdating a route.

I learnt the hard way, when I removed the TPWS from GWML using RW_Tools - we had almost finished when we discovered that the signals no longer worked. We had to do a fair amount of surgery to put it right!

As I said, I am trying to pinpoint the locations of ALL the AWS on the 1980s route, before removing any.

Incidentally, the AWS used are custom ones for semaphore signals, designed by Carinthia and John Yelland

[mikesimpson]

I have found the original RW_Tools tutorial and have added it to the Tutorials section on my web site.

May be a bit out of date, especially if the signals are scripted, but will at least work on some routes.

Mike

[gptech]

Ta Mike, carry on like that and you may get forgiven for having a day or two off over Christmas

I learnt the hard way, when I removed the TPWS from GWML using RW_Tools

As wonderful as RW Tools is, there are times when it isn't the most appropriate tool for a job, particularly, as Mike has written, when the game has evolved since RW Tools and it's tutorials were written. Unfortunately, and I don't know why, there's a definite reluctance to use the game's tools--some idea of how the game goes about things often does make using RW Tool's routines to achieve the same ends easier.

[749006]

Not exactly sure why you would remove AWS from a route that did have it?

Because you wanted to?....It doesn't matter if it's not what you, I, or anybody else would do as long as it's what that particular user wants to do.

And yet when I remark in a thread about a German route or traction people seem to think I am wrong for wanting an Audible AWS Style warning
At least some of the earlier DB Locos have a BR Style warning.