1. The opening is really great: lots of traffic in this busy yard. In fact, I had to wait for a train to pass before I could cross the tracks to my engine. 2. Ouch! My engine derailed because I hadn't looked ahead, missed changing a switch, and wound up on a dead-end siding. Couldn't there have been a warning about this? Ah, well, restarting was very easy. 3. It's interesting that I, the engineer, had to leave the cab to change some switches, but could change others on the 2D map. This strikes me as a lack of consistency: what's that fellow sharing the cab with me supposed to do? 4. Although there are only a few switching maneuvers (reminds me of a "character" from Car Talk on NPR: "Peek-op Un-drap-ov"), this is an enjoyable and somewhat challenging switching scenario. 5. Unfortunately, it is one of only two scenarios that feature switching activities, as far as I can tell, and there are no freight sessions at all -- switching or otherwise. Perhaps they'll come along soon?
They're working on a in-depth freight schedule for service mode. It wasn't ready for release because it appears to take a long time to implement those services. Anyway, in the pre-release stream Matt said it would be quite busy and involve a lot of switching.
In the mean time, you can use free roaming (spawn walking mode in the services menu) and do switching ops. Go to the services menu and instead of selecting the ACS-64, select your avatar and then the rail yard you want to start in (e.g. Fresh Pond Junction or other yards, not terminals). There should be several engines and groups of rail cars to play with. You can get between the yards using all manual switches (no need for main line approval). Also, the last scenario (New York Switcher) is a free roam scenario with multiple engine and rail car consists to choose from.
One thing to note; it seems a lot of the freight cars hanging about have their handbrakes engaged. Be sure to check before trying to pull them away or you'll struggle.
If you're referring to the derailment, that was my own fault for not having the sense to check the tracks ahead.
Thanks for the tips, especially how to "spawn in" and walk around. I'm trying to ration the freight scenarios and hoping that they'll increase in number via a scenario pack or something of that sort. A freight service or three would also be most welcome.
