EMU rescue...not...

Here, we have some scenes from a recently-played activity in Making Tracks' excellent 'London South East' route. I'm getting more adventurous now; not for me, merely swanning around in an EMU stopping hither (Green or not) and thither. Now I'm actually rescuing one that's broken down. Or trying to...

Specifically, the turn involves taking a Class 33 from Selhurst Yard over to East Croydon via Norwood Junction, of an autumn evening. There, the 16:45 , formed by an 8-car VEG set - from the Gatwick Express of the day, no less - has ignominiously failed. I have to drag the aforementioned unit to London Bridge, where the vexed passengers can change to something that is working, and thereby complete their trip. 'Railair Rescue' the activity is called. Sounds like a job for Thunderbird 2 and as it turned out...but we'll come to that.

First, I have to get there. Not entirely simple as the lines are busy and I have to wait for several services to pass before being allowed out of the yard.

Here I am, not long after climbing aboard, and in the process of checking that throttle adjustments produce the appropriate quantity and colour of clag.



If I recall right, that's the first train I need to let pass, to the centre right in the pic above. I can't change cabs - the LSE motive power all seems to have an end you can drive from, and an end you can't, textured accordingly - so my reverse up to the EMU will be from the external view, facing rearwards. I could have probably used the heads out view for greater realism. But hey, I like the view from outside, and the MT 33 is a fine piece of work.

I can drive from the cab to leave the yard, though. Here I am, having waited for another EMU to pass before edging out from the clutches of Selhurst Yard. I've been told that I need to get the signalman to clear me to pass this signal at danger. In Open Rails you have the option of switiching to manual control and clearing signals yourself, but I'm not sure if that can mess up an activity's script, so it may be best avoided, if possible.



Doubtless everyone on the 16:45 is wondering what's taking so long, but softlee softlee, catchee monkee (can I say that?) and eventually, I'm out onto the main line and more eventually still, backing up towards East Croydon. By the time I'm on 'final approach', the sun is dipping towards the horizon and turning the sky to the north-west a dusky pink. Probably less red than the face of the failed EMU's driver, by this point.



There seems to be a veritable barrage of reds barring my way and I have to trust to the signalman to follow the right path up to the failed unit, while keeping out of the way of those which are still in business. After a bit of shunting back and forth - very slowly - I end up on the right track, literally, and even more slowly, run in on and couple up the the unhappy EMU. I'm most grateful that even at low revs, the sound of my engine is loud enough to down out any cat-calls from the failed unit. 'Good on yer, Mr Sulzer!'



This is where it all goes pear-shaped. Nothing I can do will release the brakes on my new train. Hitting the OR 'magic brakes' key (Shift+/) releases them for a fraction of a second - the Shift+F5 display confirms this - but they won't stay released. I can crawl forward by repeatedly hitting that 'Initialise brakes' key combo, but each time, I'm quickly dragged to a stop again. No point breaking my loco as well, I decide, so it's time to admit defeat and try to find out what sort of edit I need to make the the 33's .wag file to fix the apparent brake incompatibility, or whatever it was that's the source of my woes. Bus substitution, anyone?

Hi Ivor,
You're right - the Class 33 is fitted with vacuum brakes, but the MT_DB_Railair_Veg stock is air-braked! MSTS doesn't seem to care, but it's a no-no for Open Rails.
You could just change 33041 to air-braked and it should work OK. If you took a save before attempting to couple to the Gatwick Express set, you should be able to resume from it after you've changed the loco's brakes.

Cheers,
Ged

Thanks Ged, helpful as ever, I'll give the 33 the Westinghouse treatment then! As luck would have it, I didn't save, but anyway I want to make the moves a bit slicker, second time around, mustn't keep the punters waiting!

Hi Ivor
Nice bit of story telling!

Thanks Alec!
Ivor

Ivor,

If you want to be able to drive the 33 from the other cab, use "Rear Cab File Generator for MSTSbin 1.6" (UKTS File Id 15358).

Bob.

Hey, that's great Bob, many thanks for the tip. Had no idea this existed! File in the UKTS download queue now!