TfW training simulator session

[tubemad]

Hello all,

To cut a long story short, I was on the Branch Line Society Pacer Farewell tour on the 6th October, and there was a 'silent auction' for a cab ride on the Valleys network with a route of your choice. I knew I had savings for a new PC and holiday money saved up (if needed) but I decided to blow that on this auction, so I put a bid of £700 though I wasn't confident that I'd win, but in the end I won it (and apparently I won it by a few quid, as the highest bid previous to mine was £670 odd), and also it all goes to the British Heart Foundation too. When I claimed my prize on the train, the person taking my details did something similar for an ECML cab ride from Kings Cross to Inverness and back, blew the best part of a £1,000 but he assured me for a once in a lifetime opportunity, it's well worth every penny for you and for charity.

He wasn't wrong, and because of the donation, TfW offered to throw in a spin on the Driving Training simulation too at Cardiff. So a date was arranged, today (29/10) to do the simulator and the cab ride, having 1 day off work made it easier to do both in one day.

The simulator set up is fantastic, the sounds are not a patch on AP's, and the physics seem somewhat different, and the graphic's are sort of BVE style, but if you had TS2019 linked up to the cab set up, it would be rather immense!

It was very surreal holding down the DSD pedal instead of pressing 'E', and pressing the 'signal' button and the AWS cancel button, using the power handle etc etc, but was interesting when the scenario was set up to dense fog after having a yellow signal, and then having no idea where the red is, as you couldn't just press the '9' key and find out where the signal is on the 2D map, or bring up the F3 display to see how far you have to go.
The instructor said 'what would you do now?' so the obvious answer was just to slow down. He told me to bring it to 20mph and as soon as you see the AWS ramp bring the speed down as you know the signal would be coming up.

It has certainly taught me to change my driving style in Railworks for a proper simulated drive, as it's all too easy to become reliant on 2D map's and HUD screens to tell you where the station's are. Especially when the instructor was telling me 'the next station is in 2 miles, I'll leave you to do the rest', there's me thinking jeez, I don't know the route and I can't press F1 or F3 for some help! It really makes you think.

But it was well worth doing especially to learn a few things I can do on RW too, and I'd like to thank TfW for the opportunity, if anyone else see's an auction or prize for something similar in any training sim, go for it, it's well worth the experience!


James.

[Easilyconfused]

Wow that sounds like a great experience.

[rkk01]

Fascinating stuff...

And the cab ride???

[Carinthia]

It was very surreal holding down the DSD pedal instead of pressing 'E', and pressing the 'signal' button and the AWS cancel button, using the power handle etc etc, but was interesting when the scenario was set up to dense fog after having a yellow signal, and then having no idea where the red is, as you couldn't just press the '9' key and find out where the signal is on the 2D map, or bring up the F3 display to see how far you have to go.
The instructor said 'what would you do now?' so the obvious answer was just to slow down. He told me to bring it to 20mph and as soon as you see the AWS ramp bring the speed down as you know the signal would be coming up.

It has certainly taught me to change my driving style in Railworks for a proper simulated drive, as it's all too easy to become reliant on 2D map's and HUD screens to tell you where the station's are. Especially when the instructor was telling me 'the next station is in 2 miles, I'll leave you to do the rest', there's me thinking jeez, I don't know the route and I can't press F1 or F3 for some help! It really makes you think.

Just responding to a couple of points - glad you enjoyed it. As a retired railwayman (but never on the footplate), there is so much to real operations that people don't appreciate - like the looking out for the AWS magnet in fog, but I can tell a better story than that and its all about route knowledge. I was in the cab of a train one day in strange territory and owing to problems a semaphore signalbox was manned instead of usually being switched out during darkness, so the signals weren't lit. It was a pitch black night but the driver stopped exactly at the Home signal and shone his lamp at the signal arm to check it. When I asked how he knew where to stop, he replied "it is six rail joints after the last bridge". That's what I call route knowledge!

Unfortunately at £700 per journey, route knowledge is difficult to achieve in TS!

As to using moving maps and other aids in TS to know when to stop or to check signals (so popular with steam "drivers" who are too busy twiddling knobs and applying coal to look where they are going), there is another factor in which we have no choice. Working on the computer screen, you only see a scaled down version of the world around you. In the real world, a signal must be visible at 200 yards or a repeater provided. In TS you can barely see the arm of a semaphore at that distance unless you zoom in! And colour lights are almost as difficult to see, when they should be much, much better. So some cheating has to be allowed for to make the game playable.

Anyway, glad you had a good time.

John

[smarty2]

Sweet! I too would like to hear about the cab ride, James.

[tubemad]

It was very surreal holding down the DSD pedal instead of pressing 'E', and pressing the 'signal' button and the AWS cancel button, using the power handle etc etc, but was interesting when the scenario was set up to dense fog after having a yellow signal, and then having no idea where the red is, as you couldn't just press the '9' key and find out where the signal is on the 2D map, or bring up the F3 display to see how far you have to go.
The instructor said 'what would you do now?' so the obvious answer was just to slow down. He told me to bring it to 20mph and as soon as you see the AWS ramp bring the speed down as you know the signal would be coming up.

It has certainly taught me to change my driving style in Railworks for a proper simulated drive, as it's all too easy to become reliant on 2D map's and HUD screens to tell you where the station's are. Especially when the instructor was telling me 'the next station is in 2 miles, I'll leave you to do the rest', there's me thinking jeez, I don't know the route and I can't press F1 or F3 for some help! It really makes you think.

Just responding to a couple of points - glad you enjoyed it. As a retired railwayman (but never on the footplate), there is so much to real operations that people don't appreciate - like the looking out for the AWS magnet in fog, but I can tell a better story than that and its all about route knowledge. I was in the cab of a train one day in strange territory and owing to problems a semaphore signalbox was manned instead of usually being switched out during darkness, so the signals weren't lit. It was a pitch black night but the driver stopped exactly at the Home signal and shone his lamp at the signal arm to check it. When I asked how he knew where to stop, he replied "it is six rail joints after the last bridge". That's what I call route knowledge!

Unfortunately at £700 per journey, route knowledge is difficult to achieve in TS!

As to using moving maps and other aids in TS to know when to stop or to check signals (so popular with steam "drivers" who are too busy twiddling knobs and applying coal to look where they are going), there is another factor in which we have no choice. Working on the computer screen, you only see a scaled down version of the world around you. In the real world, a signal must be visible at 200 yards or a repeater provided. In TS you can barely see the arm of a semaphore at that distance unless you zoom in! And colour lights are almost as difficult to see, when they should be much, much better. So some cheating has to be allowed for to make the game playable.

Anyway, glad you had a good time.

John

Blimey that is route knowledge and a half! I'd be well impressed at someone stopping at an unlit signal in the dark!

Interesting you say about graphics, I remember on the sim having a single yellow, then coming up to the next one the instructor said 'what aspect is that?' thinking it was a quiz question. I glared at the screen and I said 'Single Yellow?....I think ' and he said 'Hmm..I don't know either' it was only until getting rather close up to it you could see what the graphic was!

As you say in reality it's different, I was surprised sitting up front how far you could see the aspects.


I'll post on here about the cab ride at some point soon, only I thought most of you would be more interested in the sim part

[IronBidder]

So some cheating has to be allowed for to make the game playable.

I wouldn't even say that things like using the zoom to better see signals or using the F4 HUD are cheating. They just compensate for unrealistic restrictions of the sim. Real life may be more complicated but it's also a much richer sensory experience where resolution is considerably better than even a 4K screen provides and everything is truly 3D.

[Easilyconfused]

So some cheating has to be allowed for to make the game playable.

I wouldn't even say that things like using the zoom to better see signals or using the F4 HUD are cheating. They just compensate for unrealistic restrictions of the sim. Real life may be more complicated but it's also a much richer sensory experience where resolution is considerably better than even a 4K screen provides and everything is truly 3D.

Digressing slightly - in real life drivers learn the route before being signed off on it.

I have been doing the same on the GWE route we show a lot of the UKTSLive shows. We let the visitors drive and start them on the tutorials. If they master those and there is not a queue then I let them loose on the mainline in either a HST out of Paddington or a 66 out of Reading. All the HST scenarios are basically the same and I have memorised the speed limits and know exactly where I can tell them to notch up so they stay in the speed limits. Most of the runs with AWS (but not the vigilance device) I can direct the visitor to pull up around 5 - 50 metres short at Reading to get a reasonable score.

Now being totally colourblind the new icons in the TSW next signal display are a lifesaver for me at exhibitions since I can ensure we don't run signals. Clearly in real life the drivers don't have that and have to rely on their route knowledge.

[749006]

I was on the train crew side for 28 years both as a Guard and later a Driver - nothing fancy when driving just DMUs & EMUs

When it was foggy it was not too much of a problem on Colour Light signalling and you did not look out for the AWS Magnet as such because on passing it you had 200yds normally
Semaphore signalling was totally different - you would find an AWS magnet at the Distant Signal but not at any of the others unless it also had a distant signal on the same post as a stop signal.
Having found the Distant Signal on you would do a full service application and reduce the speed so you could stop at the Signal.

I remember working a parcels train as a Guard and I was sat with the driver on a Class 81-85 going to Crewe at 90mph
It was dark and in fog so thick the AWS Magnet rang clear before you saw a Green Signal coming out of the mist

Peter