Recognising an engine in reverse

[pjt1974]

Has anybody ever come up with a solution to the situation where your Engine is going into reverse and the game not recognising it on the F3 screen. As in your next signal is the one you've just passed.
My Isle of Man route feature no turntables as inreal life, so you reach the end of the line,un-couple, run around the train and couple up to the front and back down the line you go in reverse.
Is there a way for the back of your train to be recognised as the front in these situations?
It would increase the length of and variety of scenarios no end.

[stuart666]

Has anybody ever come up with a solution to the situation where your Engine is going into reverse and the game not recognising it on the F3 screen. As in your next signal is the one you've just passed.
My Isle of Man route feature no turntables as inreal life, so you reach the end of the line,un-couple, run around the train and couple up to the front and back down the line you go in reverse.
Is there a way for the back of your train to be recognised as the front in these situations?
It would increase the length of and variety of scenarios no end.

Nope. Or at least its always worked that way on my route (ie with the problem you describe)

Good luck if you do find a fix, Im sure we would all make use of it.

[ka959]

Has anybody ever come up with a solution to the situation where your Engine is going into reverse and the game not recognising it on the F3 screen. As in your next signal is the one you've just passed.
My Isle of Man route feature no turntables as inreal life, so you reach the end of the line,un-couple, run around the train and couple up to the front and back down the line you go in reverse.
Is there a way for the back of your train to be recognised as the front in these situations?
It would increase the length of and variety of scenarios no end.

Nope. Or at least its always worked that way on my route (ie with the problem you describe)

Good luck if you do find a fix, Im sure we would all make use of it.

If you just couple a loco to each end of a train, facinf in opposite directions, all you really need to do, is change locos at the end of a dead-end run, and you will have the driver Aid showing forward signals properly, but I do admit that this is not really the preferred method to what I, myself, prefer, either. Cheers.

Regards...

Jim McDermott

[stuart666]

Has anybody ever come up with a solution to the situation where your Engine is going into reverse and the game not recognising it on the F3 screen. As in your next signal is the one you've just passed.
My Isle of Man route feature no turntables as inreal life, so you reach the end of the line,un-couple, run around the train and couple up to the front and back down the line you go in reverse.
Is there a way for the back of your train to be recognised as the front in these situations?
It would increase the length of and variety of scenarios no end.

Nope. Or at least its always worked that way on my route (ie with the problem you describe)

Good luck if you do find a fix, Im sure we would all make use of it.

If you just couple a loco to each end of a train, facinf in opposite directions, all you really need to do, is change locos at the end of a dead-end run, and you will have the driver Aid showing forward signals properly, but I do admit that this is not really the preferred method to what I, myself, prefer, either. Cheers.

Regards...

Jim McDermott

That true, for Diesel Locomotives. In fact Ive seen one of the Wales and Borders scenarios do just that. Its a good workaround.

Unfortunately I concentrate on Steam Locomotives. Ive set up scenarios where I start tender first, and even ventured off into Branch lines that way and it seems to work alright. But it does seem that if you try to reverse for any distance with a steam locotmotive in the opposite direction to that which you started, the programme will not recognise you changed direction of travel and continue to throw up signals and speed limits you have already passed.

Going to cause a bit of trouble when they bring the 57xx out methinks.

[pjt1974]

I keep trying different things but I can't seem to get it to recognise the rear of the engine as the front of the engine. I suppose it's a blueprint\xml thing and would trying to change that cause the program not to recognise when running the forwards.
I would imagine there should be a way. After all you can change cabs in a diesel and the programme recognised you are now travelling forwards in the opposite direction.
Maybe a steam engine on RW is only provided with a recognisable front cab and is lack a rear cab. It all the same cab but RW only recognised as a front cab. If an opposite end cab could be established just like on the diesels then maybe the programme would recognise either end which ever direction they are moving. Obviously you wouldn't be changing cabs on a steam engine but with the front cab you by default looking at the boiler and a rear cab would be looking straingt out the back on a tank engine or at the Tender.
It would be interesting to hear if in development RS.com recognised this as a problem and found that evn they couldn't sort it.

[FoggyMorning]

It's a curious thing, regarding diesels. Both the class 08 (and 02 for that matter) and both versions (IHH and Just Trains) of the class 20 have only 1 cab. However, while the class 08 suffers from the same issue as steam engines in that it won't recognise the next signal in direction of travel when going in reverse, the class 20 does not. This suggests that it is possible to set up a loco so that the direction of travel is recognised as "forwards" even if this is technically with the reverser in, um, reverse. The practicalities of setting up such a function are far beyond my abilities though I'm afraid

[pjt1974]

I've sent RS.com an email to see if they've come across this and if they have any advice to give on it.
I'm gunna wait to hear back from them then I think consultation with some of the engine model builders is called for to get thier advice.

[pjt1974]

Just to let you know what RS.com had to say in reply to my email.


RS.com
'The F3 Drivers Guide cannot be used to see upcoming signals and speed limits while travelling in reverse. Only if the driver switches to the other cab of a double ended locomotive, will the drivers guide update to show signals and speed limits for the return journey.'

[pjt1974]

After fiddling with a .bin file I've got asfar as being able to change cabs as in a class 37 diesel using CTRL -
back becomes front and the signals you are reversing towards are recognised.
Thats the good news
Bad news is when you change cabs from front to back, the forward cab view flips around aswell. The engine on the track doesn't point in the opposite direction but the cab view does, put simply, you are still looking down the boiler even though you should be looking out the back.
The problem is that when there's two cabs on a diesel they are generally identical so designing one cab to cover both front and back suffices. As there's no need for a different cab view, I don't see anything that'll let me alter a rear view.
There will be something somewhere that tells RW to duplicate the front cab when the driver changes front to back using CTRL - but I don't know where it is.

I'll keep hunting

[pjt1974]

I think I've a solution to the problem.
It involves editing the .bin file on the engine through RWTools.
I've tried this on Kevin Martin's LMS 3F Jinty. I recommend making a back up of any files you are thinking of trying this on.
Open RWTool's, select open Railworks file in the files menu, navigate to the bin file of the engine you want to edit.
For example only this is where the file I was editing was located Assets\kngtrains\Addon\RailVehicles\Steam\Jinty_LMS_B\Default\Engine
double click on the .bin file to open. (the .bin file is normally the name of the engine) like 'Jinty_LMS_B.bin'
click search and replace in RWTools and search for <NumberOfCabs d:type="cDeltaString">eSingleCab</NumberOfCabs>
then replace esinglecab with edoublecab scroll down or press find next and repeat the replacing process. There are only two to replace.
Under the files menu select save railworks file
load up Railworks, and put the edited Engine on the track in a free Roam scenario. Run scenario - select the engine - change cabs (CTRL -) - press 1. You will find that the boiler is pointing in the wrong direction, fear not. If you press for head out of window view (SHIFT 2) everything is how it should be. Press the down arrow and suddenly your looking out the back of the Engine. put the engine in reverse and away you go. Bring up the F3 screen and it recognised signals you're approaching as you go backwards.

Like I say it's a solution, probably not the best but it's a start.
it's now 3:25 am and I'm off to bed.

Good luck
Phil

[alexedwin]

Good one Phil.
I'll be needing something like this if RS.COM don't fix the problem.

[pjt1974]

Maybe it's something they just never came across or envisage ever being needed. I see Derek is 'wiping the crumbs off' the plans to the 57xx Pannier for release at the back end of the year and maybe the team will sort out a solution with that.
Tried it on a simple scenario last night and it works.
1.passenger command at Platform
2.drop off command at the same platform for the carraiges
3.A couple of go to destinations running the engine round the carraiges. I found I had to place two destination markers for the scenario to understand this. One beyong the run around points and one on the run around track.
4.add to front command to hook up the carriages to the front of the engine
5.another passenger command
6.destination or wherever youre train goes next.
Just a quick point I didn't remember to mention at 3 this morning.
If you've edited something that was default or downloaded from Steam i.e. the 0-6-0 from Phorum Peninsula, remember to make a copy of the edited .bin file for when Steam updates Railworks and reverts everything back to default and you just replace the default file with the edited one again.

Phil

[Neptune50006]

It's a problem that certainly needs addressing, especially for routes such as the Lynton & Barnstaple, where the engines were never turned.

[stuart666]

It's a problem that certainly needs addressing, especially for routes such as the Lynton & Barnstaple, where the engines were never turned.

Yeah, I wonder how the guy who does the IOW retro route manages. There wasnt a turntable on the island.

[FoggyMorning]

It's a problem that certainly needs addressing, especially for routes such as the Lynton & Barnstaple, where the engines were never turned.

Just an aside regarding this, at one time there would have been a large number of routes in the British Isles that didn't have turntable facilities to hand; would locos arriving at the route all be facing the same way or would there have been some with the boiler facing "up" and some "down"?