Driving the Class 86/4 on the WCML

[msey0002]

Practice makes perfect, John. A bit of patience, and it's an extremely easy and fun (and to the best of my knowledge, realistic) loco to drive.

[lomasra]

I see that on Railsimulator.com's Twitter page they've posted a link to a driving tutorial on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-jH-QF8 ... youtu.be&a

Richard

[ightenhill]

Have to agree with msey.. Its a joy to drive simply because its more than pressing up or down.. Yes it takes 5mins to learn how to do it, but after that , stepping back into any other cab seems boring..

Would it be possible to implement the diesels failing if you push them into the red or is that a different thing ...

[AndyUK]

Not a bad video except that everything after about 1 minute, Part 3 What if you move the Throttle to Off?, is rubbish! You don't need to reset anything or apply the brakes before you can re-apply power. All you need to do is to wait for the "power meter" to drop to zero and you can then re-apply power with no other action being necessary.

Andy L

[adam3544]

I obtain frequently wheel slip penalty points. What is a good technique to accelerate from stand still without it. The wheel slip icon never appears but in the challenge summary I see I've had.

Adam

[AndyUK]

Adam,

The only thing I can suggest for a start is to not allow the ammeters to go above the green sector, except on the first notch where it's not possible to stop them going into the yellow. If that technique gives you no penalties then try letting them go a bit higher to get better acceleration.

Interesting that you get wheelslip penalites without the icon showing up, assuming you've got the warning icons enabled, it may be worth letting RSC support know.

Andy L

[firetrap1]

i believe there is a button in cab beside the horn for wheelslip prevention. but im not sure if it is functional, or just for show. its worth a try though.

chris

[TheTazman]

Something that i would find useful is how much is to much brake applciation. I find that with the 86 you have to force the brakes on quite hard to notice any considerable slow down. How far from a station at say 90mph would be a good time to start braking?

[bigvern]

ISTR ballpark figure to stop a loco hauled train from 100 MPH with a service brake application was around 1.25 miles, so you should definitely be looking to get the brakes in over a mile out from 90 MPH. This is another physics attribute of the Class 86 which is greatly appreciated - realistic braking as opposed to a rapid stop.

[jimmyshand]

I got the download yesterday and found I could drive the 86 straight away with no dramas!! It's a different concept on the traditional throttle but I sussed it out immediately.

The only problem I've found is that if I drop the power handle to 'off' whilst moving, the power will not re-apply when I move back to 'on' or try to tap up. I was trying all sorts, pressing 'F' and 'Z' and moving the reverser etc, eventually it comes back to life and you can power up again. I don't understand what that's all about??

[AndyUK]

The only problem I've found is that if I drop the power handle to 'off' whilst moving, the power will not re-apply when I move back to 'on' or try to tap up. I was trying all sorts, pressing 'F' and 'Z' and moving the reverser etc, eventually it comes back to life and you can power up again. I don't understand what that's all about??

Most likely reason is that, as per prototype, you can't re-apply power from the 'off' position until the tap changer has run back to zero. This doesn't seem to be mentioned in the manual. Depending on how much power you had applied when you went to 'off' this can a take little while, about 25 sec in the prototype from 100% to zero and vice versa. Despite what's shown in the recently posted video there's no need to press any resets or touch any other controls, a little patience is all that's required.

Andy l

[alanch]

Has anyone else seen a problem where the tap changer lever is on Hold, tapping the D key once takes the tap changer down one level, but tapping D again moves the tap changer lever to Maximum? If I hold D down I can move the lever to Hold and then to Off. This is making it impossible to drive, as I can't go down through the taps without moving the tap changer to off and hitting the brakes.

I have changed my Keyboard Repeat Delay to Long and Repeat Rate to slow.

[Optrex]

I'm having a similar problem... probably something very simple, but I'm stumped!

I've followed all the tutorials, tapping up and down is great, stopping, starting is easy, but once in a while the loco just won't budge. I was on a free roam and stopped in Beattock loop, I got wheelslip when I started and now it won't go move. I've reset (following the rs.com instructions) to no avail. I've dropped the pan, turned the engine off, waited for a minute, and re-started the sequence (breaks off, press reset button, reverser forward, then tap changer to middle position and start tapping) but no joy.

I've pressed every button in the cab and every key on the keyboard too, just to make sure.

I've been deliberately practising this (dropping the tap changer to off and recovering that) without any bother.

Probably something stupid that I'm doing, but any help would be very welcome!

[alexnick]

Has anyone else seen a problem where the tap changer lever is on Hold, tapping the D key once takes the tap changer down one level, but tapping D again moves the tap changer lever to Maximum? If I hold D down I can move the lever to Hold and then to Off. This is making it impossible to drive, as I can't go down through the taps without moving the tap changer to off and hitting the brakes.

I have changed my Keyboard Repeat Delay to Long and Repeat Rate to slow.

I've noticed this problem too, and had assumed it was a stuck key on my keyboard. It's also happened to me whilst trying to brake. I keep on having to watch the tap indicator to stop this problem.

Also: can I use the run down control? I can't get the tap changer to do this - it just goes straight to off.

Finally, I see that the loco has dynamic brakes. Can I use these, and if so, how? I've noticed the ammeter jumping into the negative (on the F5 display) once or twice whilst braking, and assumed the dynamics were coming on automatically. There's nothing on the use of brakes in the manual.

AN

[AndyUK]

I'm having a similar problem... probably something very simple, but I'm stumped!

I've followed all the tutorials, tapping up and down is great, stopping, starting is easy, but once in a while the loco just won't budge. I was on a free roam and stopped in Beattock loop, I got wheelslip when I started and now it won't go move. I've reset (following the rs.com instructions) to no avail. I've dropped the pan, turned the engine off, waited for a minute, and re-started the sequence (breaks off, press reset button, reverser forward, then tap changer to middle position and start tapping) but no joy.

I've pressed every button in the cab and every key on the keyboard too, just to make sure.

I've been deliberately practising this (dropping the tap changer to off and recovering that) without any bother.

Probably something stupid that I'm doing, but any help would be very welcome!

It's possible that when trying the reset you didn't have the controller fully in the off postion. Unfortunately there's a 'phantom' notch very close to the 'off' position that doesn't seem to do anything which means that the tap changer won't run to zero, as it will in the real 'off' position. Correctly the circuit breakers won't reset until the tap changer has run down to zero. Best to give the 'D' key one more prod to make sure you're really in the 'off' position until RSC get round to fixing it.

Andy L