Driving techniques (and Career Mode)

[ttjph]

A couple of unrelated questions, really...

Firstly, shunting and maneouvering light loco: When I drove D1013 the technique our instructor used when running round the stock was to put her into Notch 1, and control the speed on the straight air brake. So far in RW, I've tended to take locos back to Notch 0 when I want them to slow down (except with steam locos, where I've found that leaving a couple of inches of brake set and using the regulator as the main control is easiest when light loco!).

What's the 'proper' approach with a diesel-electric? The Western took a long time to fill or drain the torque converter (never mind the turbo spool!), so jumping in and out of Notch 1 wouldn't have been ideal, but is the technique the same for all locos?


Secondly, I've just done my first Career Mode scenario (at Hedborough North). I've already seen reference to Career Mode not encouraging realistic driving styles, but just out of curiosity, what techniques are used to get 8000+ points, when a clean run arriving a good number of seconds early nets me, say, 1300? I'm guessing it might involve:
- coupling to stock by hitting it as fast as possible without derailing
(and just leaving the throttle open if the next move is propelling);
- recklessly ignoring speed limits, as the early-arrival points presumably outweigh the speeding penalties;
- opening the throttle fully straight away with no regard for wheelslip or smoothness?
Or are scores that high actually possible with very precise (but 'clean') driving?

Thanks!

[Kromaatikse]

The widespread opinion is that the highest scores on many of the Career Mode scenarios are from some form of cheating. The precise nature of that cheating no doubt varies from scenario to scenario.

There is at least some opinion that Career Mode would have been better *without* the public high-score chart, and with the scenarios able to be made by anyone, not just RSC.

[Jimmerz]

Firstly, shunting and maneouvering light loco: When I drove D1013 the technique our instructor used when running round the stock was to put her into Notch 1, and control the speed on the straight air brake. So far in RW, I've tended to take locos back to Notch 0 when I want them to slow down (except with steam locos, where I've found that leaving a couple of inches of brake set and using the regulator as the main control is easiest when light loco!).

As is a case for most locos working around sheds or shunting wagons around yards, drivers tend not to exceed notch 1 which is a designated shunt notch, it's easy enough to control your loco without things getting out of hand at a nice slow speed up to anything between 15-20mph, the loco brake controls the brake for just the loco so I tend to use this one when I'm just driving light loco. If there is more than one engine/coach/wagon in your consist the train brake is the one I use.

Also it's better to build up your power from a standing start not just chuck your loco into 100% power. I remember talking to a DBS driver who was showing me around the cab of a class 59 who was saying it is important you get the right technique whilst driving to prevent any failures. So recently I have been trying to use the correct technique whilst driving in RW.

There are a few drivers on this forum and I'm sure they will tell you about correct techniques.
Waffle over

Cheers,

James

[Ryosuke]

i have not driven any large engines in reality yet, but the 294 can be easily controlled without such tricks as keeping the power constantly applied while adjusting the speed with the direct brake.
besides, to keep the speed steady while shunting with the 294 you inevitably have to toggle between power on and off occasionally because of the combined power and brake lever anyway.

furthermore regarding the direct brake, the german rule book allows use of the direct brake only when shunting, in order to keep the train stopped on an incline and in case of emergency when running light engine. thus under normal circumstances you have to use the the indirect brake on light movements, too (although few people actually do...).

the direct brake is mostly used during shunting though, because you can control the speed much much better with it. using the indirect brake during shunting is quite difficult due to the time it takes for the brake to react to your input. if you want to stop precisely in the right spot for coupling or unloading of freight, its nearly impossible to do with the indirect brake. sadly railworks carriages do not have the same brake timings as real ones, because if they had you would need to drive accordingly. the indirect brake is only used during shunting when you have a very long and heavy train hooked up, but for those last few metres before coupling you would still need to switch over to the direct brake or else you risk stopping nowhere near where you want to.
its really fun to stop 1600 tons precisely in an unloading spot just as long as one car is with use of the remote control, because you not only have to take into account the speed, weight and braking capability of the engine, but also the slack from the buffers which make your car at first roll by the spot by one or two metres and then roll back right in its place.

the same problem with the indirect brake applies to braking when driving freight trains because you never really know what will happen when you brake for the first time. the combination of different cars with different loads means every train brakes different and train length plays a big role as well. despite the brake performance being evaluated for every train and given out to the crew in form of the brake percentage, you really have to accustome yourself to every individual train. even if most trains brake well, it takes an endless time for the freight brakes to react so it makes it really difficult to judge how a train brakes.
therefore on our slower trains which we drive with the 294, we usually make short brake applications of a couple of seconds (just until you notice the train slowing down) and then putting the brake handle in release again. the brakes will then be partially applied for a while because it takes even longer for them to release than it takes for them to apply.
with a couple of such short applications you can get your freight train slowed down or stopped exactly as you want it. however, if you'd kept the brakes applied for a longer time you will usually start to slow down way to much and when you then release the brakes it takes ages and you most likely stop somewhere far from the signal. which is something you really shouldn't do because in germany you are not allowed to accelerate towards a red signal without permission from the signalman. and if you did for any reason do a full service application and came to a stop with a long freight train in freight setting, it would take minutes for the brakes to completely fill again before you could move off.

btw, before people call for a core update due to brake timings now, despite the rather basic brake simulation in railworks you can very well create realistic timings in the current environment already. you would just need to adjust the blueprints according to the UIC specifications...

[bigvern]

Driving to an approximation of "correctly" I have never achieved very much in career mode, either being bottom of the rankings or just slightly above.

It seems to take little account of proper defensive and safe driving techniques, or maximum speed limits for the consist (there was one I think with the Class 57 where you had to tow 60 MPH wagons at 90 MPH to keep time). So until career mode evolves into something approaching the implementation Paul Robins had in Train Driver 3, it is to me at least pretty much irrelevant to Railworks, going forward.