All the Caltrain locos and control cars have a large display located in the cab. This screen console is inoperable and always displays a static black image. Wonder what purpose this display serves in reality and if there are any real-life pics? Does anyone know? I couldn’t find any info online. Also, Why wasn’t it simulated? Are they inoperable in reality as well? Thanks in advance
From what I have heard in streams, Matt said that they are not operational in real life. I can't remember now what they were actually used to display, but at the time they went and did the route research, Caltrain was not using these displays.
The trouble is having these screens operating as they did in real life would add even more to the demands on our systems. The older consoles are already challenged graphically and even more modest Pc's. It would be OK for those of us with high powered machines with loads of ram, but it would also make train simming more elitist in general. Fewer simmers equal fewer units sold, leading to higher prices and fewer routes.
Not sure what your point is but DTG has made it clear that they are committed to parity across all platforms. Nevertheless, there will always be a wide range of hardware- some players will do better than others, but that doesn't mean the sim should be " dumbed down " in any way. Plus I have never seen any evidence of "elitism" on the forums so I'm not sure where that comes from.
Those are PTC (Positive Train Control) displays and are included in locomotives now in preparation for the rollout of the safety system. However rollout for each railroad has been extremely slow and delayed, so they are not actually used that much in real life at the moment. Cheers
