What those boxes do exactly? They have a mouse click action to call dispatcher... Is it for stop signal override like the TAB menu? Cheers
I saw this and had the same question. When I clicked it, it didn’t seem to do anything. Meanwhile if you contact the signaller using the TAB menu and the light is green, you’ll still get a message that says “proceed at restricting speed”
I found another cool detail: some trackside boxes have working auxiliary lights. They are the ones installed in groups. Click on the electrical panel to activate them. Cheers
I love finding little interactive like this on routes and trains. Much like the working hotplate in the class 20 cab!
As far as I can tell, they do exactly Jack. However, with the secret, unmapped line and WiP scenery that I found west of Gravesend on SEHS (you can't drive it, but you can ride and freeview it way beyond the map boundary...seemingly as far as Dartfordish area), complete with a partially built town well beyond the horizon of what we can usually see from the mapped areas, I'm wondering if they will maybe come into play in the future with possible route extensions.
Thanks Phil. Yes, I managed to use the boxes and they work like TAB menu indeed. In last scenario at the station arrival exit signal is red. I went to the closer signal box using external view (8 key) and when clicking on it the dispatcher message appeared telling me that no route was available. Cheers
Sorry, but now that is cool. A little touch of realism that few will appreciate - just like the lights on the trackside equipment and the electrical hums on signal boxes - sometimes you need to slow down to smell the roses.
They do work in some places or maybe when the signal is already clear. It didn't work when I was waiting at danger (even just to say permission denied). Aren't these things kinda redundant now and only used in emergencies?
No worries. If you want to access the line that isn't on the map, you'll need to run one of the railtour services that finishes up in Gravesend. Once you've finished the route and are returned to the menu, select the Return to Freeroam option and take a seat in one of the carriages. After a minute or two, the train will set off and head off the mainline and up the short spur to the northwest of Gravesend, usually to where the playable area limit exceeded message comes up and you're returned to the menu. On this stretch of line though, even when you're off the actual line on the map, the journey continues or quite some distance, crossing back over the mainline and carrying on towards the west...possibly for a couple of miles. The scenery is detailed for the first mile or so, but after a while it becomes less so with fewer trees, houses etc and rougher textures taking over until you're in a completely barren landscape with nothing more than a double track and very basic looking terrain. Further on, the line breaks intermittently, but the train will continue as if it is still on the tracks. Eventually though, the screen will appear to freeze and will look as if the game has crashed. It hasn't though and you can continue to explore this semi developed landscape with the free camera view. There are some random buildings and what look like lakes dotted around, but there is also what looks like a semi built block of a town sat on the 'coast' (I'm assuming that the blue coastline is simply where the landscaping build finishes and isn't actually the sea if the geography is correct). I know that some of the distant buildings that you first pass will have been added for the benefit of the view from the mapped, playable area, but this town and the unmapped line itself are way beyond the view of the playable lines. If you look back from them, you can no longer see any sign of the mapped playable area. It makes me wonder why the developers have partially built a town so far out of view and a line that, though not playable, is operational so far out of what would be the usual playable boundry limits. I don't know anything at all about game development, so for all I know, it is just some developer test area or early development map that was left tagged on to the DLC map that will have zero bearing on the future of the SEHS map, but the more optimistic side of me thinks that it may be a work in progress for a possible route extension and the phone boxes could come into play in the same manner as the one at the end of the WSR Taking It Home scenario, perhaps with a steam loco rail tour scenario some way down the road.
Not that it has to mean anything at all, but as mentioned above intact track west of Gravesend for a good few miles sees only scenery to complete, and seems rideable on the railtour scenario as passneger, as mentioned this track towards Dartford DOES NOT appear on the map ... So out of curiosity I took a walk today from Sittingbourne along the Sheerness branch which has taken me quite a distance so far, I'll keep walking to see but this track, which appears to be signalled and with minimal or placeholder also does not appear on the map ... ** Update : The second screenshot shows where the tracks themselves end for comparison, the empty heightmap/landscape goes on for what seems like forever. #networkexpansion ... could be ???
Now that is interesting! The terrain came to a halt around where Dartford was on my little excursion and the line itself itself disappeared some way before there (looking like it was still in the process of being added to the landscape), which suggests to me that the start or end of any route extension for SEHS would be there or there abouts. With some Google mappery and a spot of train times info, it does seem that there is a Southeastern service that runs from Dartford to Sheerness, branching off the SEHS route at Sittingbourne. The plot thickens... Do any ye olde steam powered brains know of a big kettle service that ran that route back when the world was black and white? Or which locos would have run it? 'IF' it is a route extension in the works, it clearly isn't finished yet and has some way to go before it is, but is well under way. I can't help but wonder if it will tie in with the steam loco release in the future, whether as a rail tour, or as a historical route.
Rarely used since the introduction of GSM-R which is a cab to shore radio system. No need for the driver to get out with all the additional risk that incorporates. When I was a signaller once GSM-R came in the only calls we got on the lineside phones or signal post telephones was the telecoms staff testing them
Hehe, ever since the great train robbery with the cut lineside telephone when the engineer of the train got mugged... But yes, most modern trains have a phone in the cab as well as GSM-R or other GPS tracking system, so you're 100% right