S - Open Rails Activities

Hi Stephen

I was using the stable version of Open Rails because it seemed to be more reliable when restarting saved activities. Having said this, I had no problems with saves when using the Monogame Version (Rel 59, so not updated for a while) to run this activity.

I looked into this further and found that I could not move the consist S - D1022+25van when using it in explore mode in the stable version. This seems to be because the engine was Air Braked, but the wagons were Vacuum Braked.

I believe that the problem of incompatible brakes was overcome in later Monogame and experimental versions of Open Rails, hence why I could run it successfully in Monogame, but I am puzzled that you were able to run the first part of the activity using the stable version.

All's well that ends well though, and I thank you once again for this and your many other activities.

Kind regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

You're quite right as originally released D1022 is a combination of air and vacuum brakes plus, of course the wagons are vacuum braked which is a definite NO when using the stable version of Open Rails both as a player engine and Ai. However, when using the MonoGame version it is driveable ( provided you initiate the brakes first ) and is also fine as an Ai consist.

I had forgotten that I had converted D1022 to Vacuum Brakes 2 or 3 years ago and as all my testing of this and other activities using this engine had been done using the MonoGame version the braking conflicts didn't show. When possible my activities for the Plymouth to Penzance Route will be created using the supplied engines only.

Apologies for my error,

Stephen

Hi All,

I have now uploaded 4 new activities to both TSSHonline and UKTS.

They are:- S - Coal to Drinnick Mill Power Station
S - Coal to Drinnick Mill Power Station 2
S - Oil to Falmouth Docks
S - Truro to Penzance

The first two are fairly similar with each giving different challenging operations throughout the activity.
With the three freight activities read the briefings carefully to lead to a successful completion.
All have been tested on the Open Rails New Year Monogame version only.

Enjoy,

Stephen

Hi All,

Mrmosky had trouble with S - Truro to Penzance where he stopped too close to the signal at Chacewater meaning that the mail train had to stop when it should have gone straight through the station. I have re-checked this with the 3 different versions of Open Rails that I have and provided that you stop before the 20mph sign and with the last coach clear of the points ( allowing the up passenger train to leave the station ) then the activity works as I intended.

I hope that this helps with others who might be having problems with this activity.

Stephen

Hi Stephen

Thanks for the latest collection of activities.

I have completed Coal to Drinnick Mill Power Station 2 with no problems. I ran this in the stable version of Open Rails, and my saves appeared to re-load correctly, although I did not need them in this case.

There was such a lot going on throughout the activity so it was very enjoyable. Thanks!

I had trouble with Coal to Drinnick Mill Power Station which I tried first. In the Monogame version, the banker moved off once uncoupled and performed its various manoeuvres, but the sim crashed as I re-coupled to the 16 coal wagons at Burngullow Junction. Unfortunately, none of my saves will reload in the monogame version, so I will have to try this again from the beginning.

Using the stable version, my saves work fine, but the banker does not move at all after uncoupling at Burngullow Junction, so I cannot get any further.

I am looking forward to running the other two activities, and will take notice of the comments above regarding Truro to Penzance.

Kind regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your comments and observations. I have had problems when re-coupling whereby the activity crashes for no apparent reason so may I respectfully remind you of part of which I wrote in the briefings - "Watch the reverse points carefully and re-couple very slowly. It might be better to trip the reverse points before re-coupling".

I have found that when approaching the wagons to be re-connected watch the reverse point in the Track Monitor and as soon as it turns Green stop and the reverse point should disappear enabling you re-couple safely. Why this happens I don't know, maybe someone clever than me can get this sorted. At the moment I can't access Elvas Tower for advice - since the upgrading of UKTS it has affected that site as well.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen

I re-ran Coal to Drinnick, taking care to proceed in accordance with your above comments, and completed it successfully in one go.

Ae usual, an excellent and absorbing activity. Thank you.

I have reported the problem with my saves failing to reload as a bug in the Open Rails Launchpad website, and hope that this may receive attention in due course.

Regards
Mike

Hi Stephen

I have successfully completed Oil to Falmouth Docks.

In Truro to Penzance, I got signal checked outside Penzance, so could not complete this. The problem was the service S_Penzance Gas Works - St Erth Coal E, which had an air braked loco and vacuum braked wagons, so would not move using the Open Rails stable version. Obviously it would have been fine in the Monogame version, but I would probably not been able to save and reload the activity.

I enjoyed both of these, particularly the shunting in the freight activity, and the abundant AI in the passenger one, so thanks again for providing such great entertainment.

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

I've checked the original download ( UKTS 18746 ) for the RF_D1057 Folder and all the locos have air brakes whereas in my folder they are all vacuum braked so at some point years ago I must have changed the braking system so that I could use a greater variety of stock.

For obvious reasons of copyright I can't supply you with the converted locos. Unless you are willing and able to do the brake type conversion yourself, the solution is to change the loco for one supplied with the route which does have vacuum brakes when using Open Rails. There are free Consist Editors available which will help you do this.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen

I was only one hundred yards or so from the station platform and the end of the activity, so I don't think it is worthwhile converting the brakes for another run.

In the past, I have converted many brakes from vacuum to air, in order for activities to run in the older Open Rails versions, as this was the only way to stop the driven consist.

As a result, many of the locos in my train set used in past activities are not as originally downloaded. Before posting, I did re-download UKTS 18746 to check that it was not one that I had changed myself!!

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

There is another option that I use a lot which is to create an Open Rails Folder within the main loco ( or even wagon ) folder, copy the eng. file into it and make any required modifications. This way when running with MSTS the original file is read but Open Rails will read its new file. It is also very useful when using Open Rails specific functions. If you look at Clive Heard's locos for this route this is what he has done very successfully.

Thanks for all your comments which are always gratefully received.

Regards,

Stephen

Thanks for the tip Stephen, but I have not used MSTS for two or three years so do not need to retain compatabilty.

I doubt if it would even open now without the use of Train Store, or something similar.

Regards
Mike

Hi All,

Justin has informed me that some of my activities uploaded to the TSSH Downloads site are missing the Activity files.

These I have now ( hopefully ) corrected. Most of these were originally for MSTS so didn't contain any Open Rails functions. There is the possibility that these may be upgraded at some point in the future.

I do have other activities waiting to be fully finished ready for uploading, these are on my "List of things to do".

Please let me know of any problems.

Stephen

Hi All,

I can't believe that it's nearly a year since I last posted anything about my activities.

I do have several new ones that are finished but not ready for uploading which, giving the announcement that UKTS is closing at the end of August 2023, leaves me with a question are people still interested in my activities? Like my other activities these new ones are either set in the Routes Era or in the Network South East Era - sometimes they are the same. The stock used is a combination of those supplied with the route ( including those in the required stock downloads lists ) and those available from UKTS and TSSH Making Tracks Stock Packs. At the same time they are only written for Open Rails with its improved functional capabilities. Coupled with that I am gradually converting all my Diesel and Electric Engines, DMUs ( when possible ) and Emus to Darwin Smith's Open Rails engine files - plus wagons where available. These I find give a much more realistic performance and often easier to control. Unfortunately the brakes don't always work as well as they should ( could be me? ). This can lead to activities not working quite as intended if the original eng. files are used. I have proved this on one unpublished Plymouth to Penzance activity where there is a time difference of 5 to 10 minutes on a 2hr activity depending whether I use a Class 22 eng. file by Clive Heard or Darwin Smith and this is when I know what I'm doing!! - others might take longer.

So, do I upload these new activities or not? If I do they will be on TSSH only.
Also should I copy my existing activities from UKTS to TSSH as well? - some are already there.

I should also like to add my thanks to all those who have kept UKTS running all these years and also to all those who have uploaded models, routes, activities, utilities, etc. to the site. Plus the vast amount of knowledge contained in the forums. I have had help on many occasions from those more knowledgeable than I am for which I am extremely grateful.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen

I have always had great enjoyment from your activities, so would welcome some new ones.

Sadly, the Network South East era does not appeal to me. My interest in trains stopped once the BR blue period commenced.

There are very few UK activities now being uploaded, and without the excellent contributions from Richard Stevenson, there would be hardly anything.

It appears that Open Rails came along a little too late, and that most people have moved on to the various Dovetail offerings, which have never appealed to me, in terms of the content available, the performance, and the expense involved.

As far as your existing activities on UKTS are concerned, it will become increasingly difficult to obtain the necessary stock once the close down of UKTS takes place, so they may be of limited interest to any newcomers. I would imagine that, like myself, most people would have already downloaded and run any activities of interest to them.

Whatever you decide, I am very grateful for the excellent entertainment your previous activities have provided.

Kind regards
Mike

Hi Stephen
Whilst my involvement with MSTS has reduced recently I would ask that you upload your UKTS activities onto TSSH. Although some of the required stock is only available via UKTS, perhaps Ged's activity utility could be used to find alternative stock that is available on TSSH.
All the best, Alec

Hi Alec,
It's a nice suggestion, but for any program to be able of offer vehicle substitutions, it'd be necessary to have some standard way of identifying each and every vehicle, I don't really see that present in either the UKTS or TSSH files.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi All,

Since my last post Justin has transferred all my earlier uploads to TSSH. At the moment they are all in UKTS numerical order and I think that that is how I will leave them as anyone interested in them has probably downloaded them.

I have today finally uploaded to TSSH a new activity for the Great Eastern Route,  S - Southend_LivSt8

There will be more soon, hopefully before UKTS finally closes as some stock is taken from there.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi All,

I have today uploaded to TSSH another new activity for the Great Eastern Route, S - Stratford-Harwich Containers

As usual, any comments welcome,

Stephen

Hi All,

I have today uploaded to TSSH 5 new activities for the Great Eastern Route. They are all set in the Network Southeast era roughly. The stock is taken from a mixture of those supplied with the Greater Eastern Route, Making Tracks at TSSH and UKTS ( while still open ). If you have my earlier activities you should have most of the stock.

They are :-

S - Empty Cartic V2
S - HarwichOilRef_StratfordW            
S - HarwichTanks-NorwichCrownPoint
S - LivSt17-SF-Clacton1
S - Sudbury-Norwich

I know some people don't like my era choice so feel free to change the stock to your personal choice, but be warned, if you do, then these activities might not work as intended. Some of them have taken a lot of hard work to get them working to my satisfaction so don't blame me if things go pear shaped.

There is more ai traffic and more hold ups than probably seen in real life, this is intentional as I hate driving from A to B under permanent green signals ( except single line working stopping at close spaced stations ) and no other traffic to see.

As usual, any comments welcome,

Stephen