Route Morristown Line New York & Hoboken - Dover - Feedback

I believe this was mentioned but there is definitely something borked with the way the dynamic brakes behave during coasting on the different versions of the ALP trains. I’m not sure which is prototypical or why:

On the Morristown ALP-45DP, if you set the throttle to 0 and coast, for some reason the dynamic brakes on truck 1 engage an are giving 10% dynamic braking. This shows up on the game hud and also on the display screen in cab:


On the Morristown ALP-46 basically the same behaviour, coasting with throttle at 0, truck 1 is giving about the same amount of dynamic braking as the ALP-45DP in same scenario:


Now, oddly enough, if you replicate the same situation in the Trenton ALP-46, the behaviour is different. You can coast with throttle at 0 and there is 0 braking on both trucks:


For comparison purposes, these were all on the Morristown route, 9:43 service from Penn to Secaucus.

I am not sure which of these behaviours is prototypical. I would guess there should be 0 braking at 0 throttle but who knows. They can’t both be right.

Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in.

 

So I let fan railer explain more in detail but this is intended and not a bug for the ALP45 and Morristown ALP46

 

Good to know! I’ll sit down and listen .

 

I know is not 100% the way it is irl but I let him explain it.

 

So the way this is actually supposed to be set up is that when the locomotive is coasting at speed, one truck is supposed to be in min-dynamic brake, and the other truck is supposed to be in min power to counteract the brake force of the first truck. There was a miscommunication between us and the setup team at DTG, so only the dynamic brake was implemented in the one truck, leaving out the min power in the opposite truck.

Supposedly the germans thought this kind of coasting setup is supposed to minimize slack action or something, but whether or not this actually works as intended IRL is debatable.

 

Starting in rough conditions while in the cab car is definitely tough. IRL the engine does apply tractive force if the brake cylinder pressure is below a certain threshold (maybe like 20 psi). Perhaps that is something to submit a ticket for.

 

Thanks for the info - so basically it is not a bug but also an incorrect implementation - they should patch it to correct the behaviour.

 

PS5. I have a question about the ALP-46. I took the Morristown version for a spin on NY Trenton, and noticed that every time I move the break handle from hold to lap, there is a short hissing sound (even though there's no indication of any air pressure change on the dials), and the same sound if I go back from lap to hold. That wasn't the case on the ALP 46 Trenton version. Which behavior is correct?

 

I really hope this gets a priority to be fixed. Seriously, it's very noticeable every time you use free camera, and with night lighting it's even worse. Even though this is already logged in, would it help to escalate this if players kept reporting it via support tickets?

 

With such a typically long consist, acceleration is slow on the ALPs. Do engineers actually gradually notch up or throttle swipe straight to full power?

 

I’m not sure but for me I’m getting this alerter beeper along the drive with the Arrow III despite acknowledging and alerting the cab all the way. It’s hurting my ears soo much

 

Yeah it looks like alerter in Arrow was bitten by SIFA. It doesn't care what you do, it just must to beep.

 

Even tho I lower my speed and pressed acknowledge and alerter at the same time, along the drive to Summit that sound just hurt my ears and tried my best to stop the sound but I couldn’t at all

 

There should be no air sound if nothing is changing with the EQ reservoir.

During training, they tell you not to swipe it all the way to full power, but on the road, plenty of guys do it anyway. Generally, you'll put the throttle to "1", wait for the slack to run in or out, then swipe it straight to full power. IRL you'll probably wheelslip, but just hold the sanding switch down and grind it till you find it lmao.

 

on the njt alp 45 the axal between two wheels is not moving but on the alp 45 DP the axal is moving. can this be fixed?

 

More general observations but my view of this route has tumbled slightly. Nothing to do with the quality which is very good. Maybe it’s the fact the first part of Journey seems to focus on the all stations bus stop runs in and out of Hoboken, rather than mixing it up a bit with the loco hauled trains and to/from Penn. I went to all the bother of ensuring NY to Trenton and LIRR plus the M3 installed and not seen a single instance of those, yet. And while this may seem strange from someone who advocates for the NYC Subway it’s another slow US commuter route with that extended crawl in and out of the terminals.

I probably need to spend a bit more time and jump forward on Journey mode to the more interesting stuff the route has to offer, at which point hopefully it will start to live up to my original expectations.

 

Thank you for your feedback Vern. I can’t comment on the journey mode since is nit something I get into. Same with scenarios, I don’t play them.. I just picked services from TT and play them. You do have some variety, express and local services. Unfortunately the slow speeds in and out at Hoboken is just the way it is irl. At least is 30mph and not 5mph

 

That’s why I worded things very carefully and appreciate this is how things are in the real world, just like that extended 30MPH limit on a dead straight section of the Goblin Line. As regards Journey mode, there does seem a tendency to package specific types of run into each section rather than a mix and match which is perhaps a learning point for those who compile that element.

 

Yea we don’t have any input as far as what services get put in Journey mode. We did provide feedback about not having all journey mode in the snow/rain which I think was something mentioned here in the forums. Not sure if that has improved. But as far as specifically with the arrow, you have fast services that are around 38 minutes to Hoboken from summit. These occur mainly in the rush hour.

 

Is there a key bind for the buzzer on the keyboard? Specifically for the Arrow and ALPs. I couldn't find anything relevant on google.

 

I’ve been told there’s not. but We just put in a ticket to see if they can add one using B since the Arrow has no bell. so let's see. no promises

 

Thanks, that would be great!

 

What do PG and dot in triangle signs mean?

 

the triangle sign is the exact spot where the phase gap occurs. Notice the big PG warning board right before it.

42:30 to learn more.

 

Service 6607.
Every passenger at every platform ignores this train - no one getting on board.

 

There are two scenarios that are boring .

 

Don’t know if anyone is experiencing this on Series X but in the ALP-46 when over speeding, I put the brakes into service and spam the acknowledge but the train will completely ignore me and put the train into suppression, then emergency, until I come to a stop. It’s happened the last few runs I’ve had.
Also, is there a difference between the ALP-46 and ALP-46 [Light] when selecting a timetable service? The light loco wasn’t there in the early access..

 

I've previously filed a bug with passengers issue: "
"seeing plenty of passengers on route but Only have seen passengers get on at Hoboken,Broad street,Summit, and Dover"

 

The Equalizing res needle has to drop to about 95 to be at suppression braking.

 

I had this question internally. i just asked again will let you know if I get an answer

 

There is something that killing FPS between Morris Plains to Mount Tabor. But only if you look forward. Same situation was in Boston Commuter route and it was fixed. Like 70 in every direction, but 32 if you looks forward. It lasts almost a mile.

 

need to ensure there is a 20lb reduction before suppression state kicks in. They also need to keep it in lap, not hold. The 8 seconds is not forgiving so really need to be active with braking

 

I saw them boarding Arrow, but not the multilevel.

 

I have filed a Jira ticket for this. Thank you for the feedback

 

Also the same situation happens around Dover. It starts around 6000 feets before the Dover platform. Maybe it's the same buggy object.

 

The tunnel tracks out of Hoboken have a visual bug at the point where they transition to ballast tracks on the tunnel vent sections. The ballast is cut off on either end, making it quite obvious where the transition is. The tracks are floating in the tunnel as well, even though this is barely noticeable, making them sit on the floor of the tunnel should fix the broken ballast as well.

 

Similar to the bi-level cab car, the bridge over the Hackensack river (just east of Meadows) has a poorly made LOD that very obviously changes a short distance from the camera.

 

Those two issues have been previously filed on Jira

 

PS5. Hoboken at (clear) night looks very dark. The ground is pretty much black despite the lit lights above.

 

had a run with ALP45, quite nice, except I couldnt acknowledge the reduction... but could be my lapped braking wasnt good enough... restarted the service, did that part again and it worked... so I guess I was just dumb

 

Maybe you're just used to the NYT version, where it was enough to apply some brakes? Now get used to waiting until the brakes reach suppression.

 

it was ALP45 ... I mean it behaves sliiiightly not the same as ALP46, so the timing could be different... will have to do more runs to see

 

I didn't feel any major difference in brake performance between 45 and 46(from new route).
Both locos have very powerful and responsive brakes.

 

The blended brake on the ALP-46 still takes too long to kick in when you make an automatic brake reduction (6-7 seconds vs 1 second like it is on the ALP-45 when it is in electric mode), so there is a *slight* difference in brake performance between the two engines, but that should not affect whether or not you can get it into suppression in time to forestall a penalty brake application. The EQ just needs to drop to 95psi or below for the brakes to be in suppression. You have 8 seconds to do that before the train yeets you into penalty.

 

So how come the arrows have new york penn to sunnyside yard jobs. But no jobs in and out of penn to dover.

 

After reading about this route and it's current laundry list of issues it make buying it now seem like a waste of money.This is the route i was looking forward to the most.Plus with the introduction of the the arrow lll it opens the door to the possible addition of the Princeton branch.