PC How To Fix Sandpatch Session Y109 - Westbound Set-out And Pick-up

Yes, I deluded myself (not for the first time) into thinking that this session might have been fixed by now, particularly since the problem has been reported more than once in various forums and the "New Journeys" package has come into existence.

Just to summarize, this is a lengthy, complex switching session that begins well and should end with the driven pair of locos coupling the last-formed rack of freight cars to another rack. Unfortunately, while you are busy switching some jerk (dispatcher?) parks another pair of locos between you and your final target.

In fact, this move could very well be incorporated into the session as follows: the "rogue" pair is obviously AI and as such could be instructed to couple to that last cut of cars, which could then be identified as your last pick-up, consisting of 2 locos and the extant rack of freight cars. I'd really like to see the TSW2 activity creators take this on as a simple and quick way to make it possible to complete this otherwise excellent switching session.

Please?

 

Not quite rogue; it's the next timetable service activating. You have 45 minutes to go through the stages of Y109 to the point of prepping that train and getting out of the way. It is a very tight schedule for everything you have to do. Simply bumping the next two services back 15 minutes on the timetable would give you plenty more breathing room.

 

Well, that's certainly something I hadn't and never would've thought of -- and I'll readily admit to being a slowpoke when it comes to switching. The speed limit in Cumberland is 15 mph, but I seldom drive above 13 mph and those 2 miles per hour, plus the time it takes to check and set switches, even using the 2D map, are probably enough to put me over the 45 minute limit you've calculated. Perhaps I'll try again, leaning a bit more on the accelerator.

 

I prefer chill shunting too, but this service sadly doesn't work that way.

Someone posted about this problem a while ago, and I don't really need much of an excuse to go back into SPG, so I checked out the timetable and watched the locos involved for confirmation. They are service X786, which starts at 19:15 and couples those two locos at the end of the consist (which will then be service Q359, setting out at 19:30). What should happen is the two AI locos politely waiting out of the way until you hook up and get clear. Timetable padding would probably be easier to implement, though.

So, yeah, try hugging that speed limit close. Also maybe change the switches on the pause screen map instead of the live one.

 

And use the flying camera for uncoupling

However, there is a workaround if you are too slow: hook up to the offending locos and do the rest of the service as a four-element MU.

 

Oh, excellent! I know that leaving your train and trying to take over the AI train ends your service, so it wouldn't have occurred to me that you could just couple up to them instead.

I once took way too long on a different SPG yard service and got trapped by a full-length AI train passing through. Could I have done the same thing there?

 

This struck me as a great idea -- especially since I hadn't known that the pause screen map could be used in this way; so I tried it (press ESC to enter the pause screen, select MAP, then press M to activate the interactive map ----- unfortunately, I couldn't change switches on this screen. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Yes, I was doing something wrong -- or at least misunderstanding something.

It turns out that, yes, it is possible to change switches on the pause screen map. However, just to make things more interesting, the switch change does not display on that map! This is ridiculous, but not really a problem except with the multi-throw* switches that have to be changed in this and other Cumberland Yard activities.

Once again, I will quote my favorite line from a movie (Arthur Pann's Four Friends): "Why does everything have to take so long?!"