Between station timings

[simon3747]

Hey Fellow simmers,

Yet again I have a question regarding an activity I am currently writing and more importantly point to point timings between stations.

Yet again I am writing for The Bristol Cardiff 2 route and my activity is set between Swansea and Bristol Parkway. Now my issues are with the time that it takes to get between stations. For example I have about 10 mins to get from Swansea to Neath which is fine, about 5 mins to get between Neath and Port Talbot Parkway which I can just about achieve with a bit of a white knuckle ride (20 seconds late but hey) but then I get a huge amount of time to get between Port Talbot Parkway and Bridgend and I could probably do it on horseback and still get there on time. Same between Bridgend and Cardiff!!! Loads and loads of time!!

I've tried to adjust the timetable entering timings that I feel should be achievable only for MSTS to advise me that they are not possible and revert me back to the default timings!!! I have my player engine set to the max 100 mph setting but still I can't seem to change it!!!

Is there such a formula that means it can be done or is it just something I have to live with. Any answers or clues would be most welcome.

Many thanks in anticipation

Simon3747

[jamiebowey87]

If you want to re-set the times, i.e. change the ones calculated by AE, then;

'Edit' the player service, and uncheck all the station boxes. Eg, Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot etc...

Press Ok/Save (I cant remember what it is!) - your timetable will now be balnk.

Now edit it again, but re-check all the boxes for the stations. Again, save & exit.

Now your timetable will ahve all the stations set again, but the times will be 00:00.

Double click on the 'arrival' times, and enter your desired time! Hey presto! So you can give yourself 10mins, to Neath, then 6 mins to P.T.Prkwy, 8 to bridgend etc!

If you want to make a 2minute stop, enter your departure time into the arival time, i.e. 10:12, then enter your EARLIER arrival time again in the arrival time column, i.e. 10:09, you now get a arr.10:09, dep.10:12!

If you want AE to calculate times for you without messing up your nice neat player timetable, why not add the player service into your AI, get AE to calculate the timings for the AI version, which you can then use as a guide for the player service? Thats how I usually do it unless I learn from experience that AE is particularly . at working things out! Eg, AE = 13 mins Newport - 7 Tnl Jnc, Cl 158 in game = 9 mins!

Hope all that helps!

Jamie

[jamiebowey87]

Oh, and I always ignore MSTS if it tells me its not possible - its just being a wimp!

[simon3747]

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I think my problem was that always after I manually entered my desired arrival times I always got the activity editor to recalculate the timetable for me, this when it always defaulted to the timing that it wanted rather than the timings that I wanted....

So it seems to me that by not recalculating I should be able to run to a far more realistic schedule which will be great.

Now on another tack I've am currently writing an activity based in 1979 between Swansea and Bristol Parkway. It's based on a Sunday and as you seem to be a man in the know I was wondering if you have any info on any freight flows that would run on this particular day of the week. I'm guessing that MGR's would run as they are fairly essential to the running of the country but I would imagin that would be about it. I'm guessing no Iron Ore or Steel trains would do anything on the sabbath bearing in mind the union situations of the day, having said that I now wonder if coal would get any movement??? Anything you've got would be great!!!

Thank you for your enlightenment, most helpfull indeed.

Kind regards

Simon

[rfletcher72]

During that time period, few freight trains would have run on a Sunday, and any that did would have had a late departure running into the Monday morning.

Specifically for the South Wales main line, as I understand it, no freight ran during the day. During the 90s though, there was certainly a working of anthracite that ran I think from Pantyffynon ( I think I have spelt right) to Immingham that ran late on a Sunday evening - it may have started from Briton Ferry latterly, I am not sure.

There may have been some local movements around Llanwern also, but even with a lack of revenue earning traffic, you could always replace these with departmental traffic, engineers, ballast and the like, which prototypically would be more suitable for a Sunday,

[simon3747]

Hi Richard,

Many thanks for your info, I had a look on RPA website which gave a few clues to some MGR traffic but thats about it so I think I may schedule one in, but other than that good suggestion on the engineers stuff. I have a cunning plan as to what I might do with such a thing. Fantastic, thank you.

Yet again the forums come up trumps, where would I be without them hey??

Thank you,

Simon

[emrhd01]

Hi simon3747,

If you want to change the timetable without going into Activity Editor a lot of us use this:

You can use "Activity Changer" to alter an Activities 'Timetable' and 'Start' times without having to go into AE.



It wil also create a 'Back up', so if you dont like the changes you can revert back to the originals.

http://msts.juliane-und-torben.de/

Although written by a German he has provided a full English version/instructions.

[simon3747]

WoW that looks like an interesting piece of software. I've just downloaded it and I shall give it a try. Thank's for the info Robert. My god it seems there is a soloution to everything!! What other fantastic pieces of software lurks out there to help us all out hey???

Brilliant stuff. Kind regards

Simon 3747

[emrhd01]

Hi Simon,

Glad you like it,

What other fantastic pieces of software lurks out there to help us all out hey???

just ask and someone on here will do their best to help you out.

I don't know how experienced you are with MSTS, but I would highly recommend these Utilities for use:

Train Store by Tony Formoso http://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info. ... ileid=5940
Route Riter by Mike Simpson http://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info. ... ileid=2588
Conbuilder Pro by Carlos AM Gomes, Joe Smith & Charles Stagg http://www.conbuilder.3dtrains.com/

Conbuilder Pro is payware, but worth every penny (or cent?) Conbuilder Lite is freeware but does not have all the functions of Conbuilder Pro.

[simon3747]

Hey there,

I am fairly experienced so yep have the first two installed and use them all the time. I don't have Conbuilder although I have seen it being used and have had a little experiment with the light version, but I don't know,it just didn't seem to work for me. Prehaps I should give it another shot though what do you think??

I do have one issue that has arisen though and I've not seen it before so I'm quite baffled by it!!!! In my latest activity I am passing slow A1 traffic, looped at Port Talbot up loop adjacent to Port Talbot works and I scream past at a rate of knots just fine. This now makes me the lead train in my activity (i.e) nothing in front of me!! I pass the next signal at green but then I get a double yellow caution, a single yellow caution and of course then a Red stop signal. I do indeed duly have to stop and perform a MSTS shuffle to get the signal to clear. As soon as I do so I get a clear road all the way through to Bristol Parkway where my activity ends. I was just wondering if anybody else ever had such a situation and if anybody out there knows a way to clear it. It's most alien to me.

Thanks guys for all your excellent help and advise through these fantastic forums.

Kind regards

Simon3747

[emrhd01]

Hi Simon,

I wouldn't be without Conbuilder Pro, so much easier than using AE for making or changing Consists new or existing.

Loads of other features useful ones being Coupling changes, Shape Vewer, Random Consist maker, Rolling Stock Filter, Easy Sound and Cab Aliasing, etc.

Have a look here at its features:
http://www.conbuilder.3dtrains.com/cbpro.html

[jamiebowey87]

I pass the next signal at green but then I get a double yellow caution, a single yellow caution and of course then a Red stop signal. I do indeed duly have to stop and perform a MSTS shuffle to get the signal to clear. As soon as I do so I get a clear road all the way through to Bristol Parkway where my activity ends.

Is this after you have passed the train looped at Port talbot, so yove passed it but you get checked on the way towards Pyle?

As for Sunday '79 services, im in the dark as much as you! Just go with what feesl right, engineers/ballast trains certainly will give it a 'sunday feel!'

[simon3747]

Hi Jamie,

Have you come to my rescue again???? Ha Ha!!! Fantastic!!!

Yes I have indeed passed the held A1 and as far as I can tell it follows me out of the loop once I have passed but I am going at full line speed and am pratically round the corner so can't confirm this 100%. It's just strange that the next signal is green and it's the one after that I start to get checked. My Red comes just before the station platorms at Pyle, which I should add are occupied by a Swansea bound DMU but this shouldn't have any effect on my up road should it???

It's all strange!!!!

Actually I seem to remember in my early days I used this particular scenario as a test and I had exactly the same thing happen then, same area, same signals but different traction. Any thoughts??

Thank you

Simon

[simon3747]

Oh and thank you for the Conbuilder Overview. I shall have a play with Conbuilder light again and take it from there, but I think I shall probably take the plunge and invest wisely in the morning!!!

Thank you Robert for your assistance

Simon

[jamiebowey87]

The Swansea DMU shouldnt affect you, and I really cant say what is causing the check. Have you put waiting points into the path?

Onr thing you might want to try is put in a double reverse point ont he AI train being looped. Edit the AI path so that it has a revers point just before the signal you want it to stop at, then add another one just behind it, so it sits between the train and the signal, then put the end point of the path between your first reverse point and the signal. This will mean the train will stop there and not continue - as it leaves the loop this may be causing it to confuse MSTS, but thats a guess!

Sig - End Point - Rev> - Rev< -----------------------------------------------<<<<path

Does that make sense?