Making a driving trailer?

[chrisell]

Hopefully this is a quick question.
When doing the cabview and controls for a driving trailer (ie. a wagon that has a cab but no motor/engine), is it just the same as creating a locomotive but you don't put an engine system blueprint in, and all the controls are simply flagged as "apply to consist = true" ? (so they pass the control value down to something in the consist that does have an engine?)

[styckx]

I know there is a German DLC pack somewhere that has a driving trailer (or cab control cars as we call them here in the States). I know there used to be a fudge factor involved with doing them where the trailer still had to have an engine and you set it up to be some silly minimum horsepower like 4hp. Actually if I'm not mistaken I believe the Class 101's trailers are done this way. Now with lua so prominently used and some very skillful people out there using it to do some great things I don't know if that `loophole' would still need to be applied to get a driving trailer to work.

[Kariban]

You have to put a sim blueprint in, or it won't have any brakes. However you can just set it up as an electric with 0 power and it will act as a DT. Even if the basic controls like the Regulator/reverser aren't flagged to pass down the consist, they will, so any special scripting needs to be passed from the engine to the DT somehow.

[67016]

Railwork does support driving trailers all you need to do is set the trailer up like a normal diesel loco but give it no power in the simulation blueprint. The game will figure everything else out for you.

[chrisell]

Good to know - thanks.

[chrisell]

Railwork does support driving trailers all you need to do is set the trailer up like a normal diesel loco but give it no power in the simulation blueprint. The game will figure everything else out for you.

I need to revisit this topic as I've finally got to the point where I'm doing this. I've got zero power and zero force, with dummy tractive effort CSV files (all with zeros) and I can indeed drive the train from the DT now.
But.
Having the DT connected to the consists screws up the ammeter gauge and the accelerometer gauge in the engine's cab if I drive it from the engine end. Unhooking the DT makes everything behave.
Is this because I have the DT built facing "forwards" but it's hooked to the consist at the tail end, so it's facing "backwards" in the consist?

[markpullinger]

Hi Chris, I think that it has to be built like a HST power car, ie like a loco but pointing backwards, so it's effectively going backwards when the front loco goes forwards.

[Kariban]

Might want to check you're *not* passing controls from the DVT? the regulator + reverser will get passed anyway and you don't need to pass the brakes. I set any I'm doing up as electrics also ( it has a simple simulation model if nothing else ).

[chrisell]

Hi Chris, I think that it has to be built like a HST power car, ie like a loco but pointing backwards, so it's effectively going backwards when the front loco goes forwards.

..
So to have the ability to drive in both directions, I need a 'forwards' and 'backwards' version of each power car? The train I'm building has a driving coach at one end and the actual engine at the other end.
So to drive engine-first, I need a forward-pointing engine and a backward-pointing driving car, but to drive the trailer, I need a forward-pointing driving car and a backward-pointing engine?
That's a hell of a lot of work in the blueprints to flip engines around - bogies, lights, cabs, cameras, scripts etc. There must be a better way of doing it, surely?

[markpullinger]

Don't think so Chris, if you had 2 driving vehicles the same, you would just flip the engine at the back when you put it on the track, so you would only need to build a forward facing DTC & put it on the track facing outwards, then forward would be forward no matter which way you were driving. Hopefully this is more understandable than my last attempt!

[MaikG]

Look at the virtualRailroads "S-Bahn" addons or the "Expert Line BR143". In both addons a drivable cab car is included that works as "real". One of the main things you have to do is to set up the simulation of taht DTC to the same values as the pushing loco has. But there is another "trick". Figure it out by yourselfs or look at these addons.

[chrisell]

Look at the virtualRailroads "S-Bahn" addons or the "Expert Line BR143". In both addons a drivable cab car is included that works as "real". One of the main things you have to do is to set up the simulation of taht DTC to the same values as the pushing loco has. But there is another "trick". Figure it out by yourselfs or look at these addons.

I originally had exactly that - the DTC had the same characteristics as the engine but of course then I ended up with double the power as both the engine and the DTC were contributing at the same time. Unless there's a 'dummy' engine that behaves just as a wagon with no power, I can't see any other way of doing this. What I have right now is the DTC with an engine with zero power but that screws up some of the cab gauges if you drive the engine so I'm needing to write scripts to solve that problem.
Making DMUs and EMUs really shouldn't be this difficult!

[MaikG]

.......I can't see any other way of doing this.

There is another way, believe me I am that person who developed these german cab cars for railworks. But i wouldn't tell any "secrets" here directly to the public. I just say: it works fine.

[markpullinger]

Hi, I believe Kariban has sent you a pm ref this issue. he has sent me the same info.

[jivebunny]

But there is another "trick". Figure it out by yourselfs or look at these addons.

Helpful Anyone who's interested in driving trailer operations will have looked at the VR trailers at some point.

One of the main things you have to do is to set up the simulation of taht DTC to the same values as the pushing loco has.

That's fine if you're still using RW2, but in TS2012 this simply means your train has the power of two locomotives. Plus it means the driving trailer can be used with only one specific type of locomotive which isn't much use unless it's part of a fixed-formation train.

JB