Niddertalbahn: Bad Vilbel-stockheim Feedback Thread

Well, I don't think it ran there but it would fit the route time frame perfectly. It has a long history as well. Uerdingen railbus DB VT 98.9 798 (like the one in the picture above) was constructed from 1953 until 1962 but it was in service until 2000!
90 km/h (56 mph) maximum speed and a mechanical transmission (6 gears) which would make it very fun to drive. Here is some more information according to Wikipedia:
"In addition to the 329 power cars, 220 VB 98 trailer cars with luggage compartments, 100 VB 98s without luggage compartments and 321 VS 98 driving cars were produced. In the DB they were mainly used in a VT+VB+VS configuration. However, there were also two-unit VT+VS formations as well as longer rakes of up to six units: VT+VB+VS+VT+VB+VS. In 1968 they were reclassified into Class 798. A few VT were modernized and were given a special white and mint green livery. Otherwise the railbuses were painted in red, the typical DB color for motive power units. In 1988 47 power cars, 23 trailer cars and 43 driving cars were converted for one-man operation. They were given pneumatic door-closing equipment and a ticket counter for the engine driver. These railbuses were redesignated as Class 796."

 

Fun fact: we already have the VT98 as a 3D model, nearly usable for TSW too. It was a (well known) failed project for TSC. If there is time left next year, we maybe will reactivate this prestige-project for TSW again. No promises!

 

The Uerdigens (VT 95 and possibly the more powerful VT 98) ran on the NTB from the 50s to the late 70s/early 80s, when the 628s replaced them. For much of that time they ran alongside steam locos.

However, the dual-engine 98 was built specifically for lines with steep grades; it probably wasn't deployed on the near-flat NTB which the less expensive 95 could handle without issue.

 

That’s amazing to hear! Obviously, not getting my hopes up since it’s an unlikely eventuality for now, but that would be an amazing addition to TSW.

 

Wow, I did not know that. IF we do get it in game, I hope it will be excellent and bug free.
However, if they release it one day and it's poorly done, it would do a great injustice to the stunning Uerdingen railbus.

 

Why would it be poorly done, it's tsg. You can't ever have a bug free product. With any pieces of software, bugs will always be present.

 

Well, here you can find pictures of the VT98 running on the line ...:
https://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?017,9312235,9326797

 

A 1980s Niddertalbahn pack has to be with DB BR795/798 216/218 DB BR 211. DB BR211 is the West German answer to DR BR112 the 204 from Main Spessart bahn

 

There ya go

 

Thank you for sharing this, the pictures are fantastic and like a window to look back in time

 

Some fantastic pictures and documents in there. Thank you very much for sharing! Besides the VT98 we’re talking about, it reminded me how much I’d love to have the West V100 in TSW.

 

I'm more fascinated by that 216 with one Silberling and with that "massive" Rübenzug This route sure offers a lot more potential for older timetables and rolling stock.

 

Managed to unlock and spot the Mastery on the weekend. It fits in so well in my opinion. Very very well done!

 

Looking forward to watching tygerways' stream!

 

Stunning pictures! Thank you so much for sharing. I can definitely say I am in love with the Uerdingen railbuses.

 

Got the week off, spent the day doing the 365 timetable and I never wanted it to end. I need more routes like this!

• I love the speed increase/decrease indicator. It's super helpful. I'm pretty sure it used to be more widely available (?) but now it seems it's only properly represented on the G6.
• The manual is fantastic, thanks for that.
• Performance is good on the XSX. Custom weather, light clouds. You get mostly 60 FPS in the cabs, 50ish in a few areas. Taking an outside camera high above the train while having the train on screen will give you anything from 25 to 60 depending on where you are, but mostly it will hover around 40. But more importantly, it's almost completely free of stutter. And there aren't any spots along the route that absolutely tanks your FPS like what's plaguing BRO and to a lesser extent LFR.

• Silly Stockheimers are too busy playing the spawn-jump-despawn-game to ride trains:

 

Friendly reminder for everybody to check the medal score thresholds in the timetable because these make it quite easy to identify the service patterns of the BR 628!

There are tons of runs between Bad Vilbel and Stockheim, some of which don’t stop at every station (lowest scores), stop at every station (higher scores) and some of which additionally even include coupling/uncoupling operations in the middle of the route at Heldenbergen-Windecken (highest scores).

 

Minor visual issue:

• On PS4, when looking at the 628 with open doors from a distance with the exterior camera, the model does not fully update when closing the doors as the glass from the door windows remains floating in the “open” position while the rest of the door frame correctly closes. The problem is resolved when getting closer to the train.

 

Didn't you know? Stockheim is where one of the Stargates is located. The Bundeswehr tried to keep it a secret, but, well....

 

Same and I do remember them being made by Märklin group on HO Z 1 Gauge and their Trix N scale lines. If they want more rail buses then an East German Deutsche Reichsbahn Deutschen Demokratischen Republik Baureihe 171/172 fits which are the East German version of Uerdingen railbuses.

 

If you can find, them try to contact the people of German Railroads. They created a lot of wonderful stuff for MSTS and may have a lot of reference material. RSSLO created a VT95/98 in Austrian style. This may be helpful. You also may get in touch with the ZLSM. They have some of these trains operational. https://miljoenenlijn.nl/en/ where I made this photo in 2007.

By the way, their line is very interesting, beautiful landscape and a good candidate to date it back in time to some point. I think this is one of the most interesting heritage lines I am aware of.

 

Hmmm I still have a problem with the task with the fallen tree!

I have now figured out how not to get an emergency brake after I changed the cab to drive in the opposite direction. But then I figured out I can't brake in the other cab. I followed all orders but something seems to be missing ! Inserted the brake key but then couldn't activate the brake (no 2nd trigger point there, only for inserting key), and the lever doesn't move. Also went back to the other cab, pulled out the brake key there and inserted it again in the (now) driving cab, without result. Brake lever doesn't move.
Can anyone please tell me what I missed ? THANKS !!

 

You need to turn off the safety systems before changing cab

 

There are some places where plants are too close to the rail and the plants past through the cab. Both right and left side.

 

Maik Goltz I thought we were done with this stuff! How is one supposed to get Gold here? I'm stuck between red lights, so it's not like I can drive around for the extra 400 APs. Is there some secret task that I need to do?!

More "unobtanium" medals:


P.S. This service is supposed to take one minute, but you start with a two minute wait at a red light.

 

Hi Rudolf,
that was not the problem. I had solved the SIFA Emergency breaking when returning to Altenstadt by THIS tip in this forum.
But THEN I had the problem that I couldn't move the brake lever although the brake key was inserted.

But I have found a solution now ! It seems that when changing cabs, TSW did not give me ALL the instructions I needed.
So in the first cab I additionally removed the reverser, switched off the brake valve and removed the brake key.

Then in the opposite cab, inserted reverser, inserted brake key and switched on the brake valve.
And finally the brake lever in the second cab worked!

This is not described in the manual, the brake valve is not even mentioned there.

I was used to some UK locos, where it is not possible to insert a key if it wasn't removed in the other cab before. The Niddertalbahn raildriver seems to have multiple keys in his pockets... A bug ?

 

Thinking about it, you are right and with only one key the problem wouldn't occur

 

The best explanation of the PZB system is in the PDF that come with the trainset

 

Found an issue in the Manual Labour scenario.

During startup you must release the brakes, and AFTER this step open the doors to pick up the passengers. This order is not correct, first let the passengers board and then release the brakes.
Also for a scenario it might be a good idea to give instructions to set the headlights properly. This is an issue for multiple scenarios.

Also, in the same scenario, you cannot activate the crossing using the device that is available for that. Instead you need to walk around the cabinet and press E there. This is at least confusing.

 

Hi,

When lowering and raising the semaphore lanterns, I noticed that the two gears rotate together in the same direction. They should not, as each gear should rotate in the opposite direction.

 

I think a shoutout is deserved for the 628's and 365's accelerometer in the HUD; this is the best system yet, and an improvement even over the very good one Maik put in the 423. Tagging DTG Matt , because this has come up before and the argument against the 423 (colored ball) system was the accessibility issue for color-blind players. Well, this one with its proportional bar lengths will work for them too, and ought to be considered for all locos going forward.

 

There also could be a patterning/texture used for color-blind mode to aid identification.

I wholeheartedly agree the 628 and 365 HUD should be used game-wide. It's a great improvement IMO.

 

I fully agree with this. I am afraid Matt has a blind spot for this issue. The round ball in the standard HUD is not well visible. It may be an option to use the Javelin style (not in the HUD but in real gauges), which just shows an arrow pointing up or down or a horizontal line for constant speed. This works fine, the amount of acceleration is not so important. So maybe a coloured arrow pointing up or down might be an even better solution.

 

So… where is the brake valve? Or is it a keyboard shortcut? Having the same issue atm, instructions are a bit sloppy indeed :/

EDIT: Never you mind, got it

 

What time of day do the AI controlled 103 hauled IC services show up at Bad Vilbel and Heldenbergen-Windecken?

 

I saw a 103 while I was leaving Bad Vilbel on service RB3694. Not sure what time it was, but it shows up just as you are leaving. As for Heldenbergen-Windecken, I haven‘t seen a 103 there yet. Only 110‘s.

 

I have Niddertalbahn and Linke Rheinstrecke, but I haven't seen any layered services on Niddertalbahn. Weirdly the 628 does layer onto Linke, though.

What do?

 

They're AI only, not in the menu. Even so, they don't seem to be all that frequent. Played quite a bit off Niddertalbahn and only managed to catch 2 103s and no 110s yet.

 

I've managed to see the 110's but not the 103.
I don't know if any AI freight services exist, but they would be a nice touch, after all, the open wagons for the sugar beet have to come and go somewhere

 

Just saw an 103 circa 1814 leaving Bad Vilbel

 

hyperlord, In order to not have the whole conversation behind "spoiler" walls (in the "Awesome Tsw Service Mode Runs"), I though I move it over here

The topic of the group exit signals is quite interesting. If you want some more insight, I highly recommend this video by tygerways#2596, who has discussed this topic on NID, if I am not mistaken, even in Büdesheim.
German Signalling: Level Crossings and Gruppenausfahrsignale on the Niddertalbahn (TSW | tutorial) - YouTube

He makes the point, which I think is plausible, that the "Fahrtanzeiger" at each platform is actually used to indicate which track has right to proceed. These "Fahrtanzeiger" are actually modelled as well.

 

OpenMinded Thank you for linking the video here - it is a totally interesting topic! Regarding my browsing history, I already clicked and read an article about the "Fahrtanzeiger" at http://www.tf-ausbildung.de/SignalbuchOnline/fahrtanzeiger.htm so I must have stumbled upon this :-D

 

Oh .. and it happened again to me with service RB7083 right now
I must be sleeping with my eyes open, didn't stop and failed

 

To be fair, it is a pretty special situation, requiring local knowledge. In reality you would probably be able to move up to the switch, without violating anything, however, you are then not able to see the Fahrtanzeiger. Would be interesting to understand why TSG has placed this “artificial “ signal at “H” and not further down before the switch.

 

..so that you can have Fahrtanzeiger for both directions at the same post, I guess?

For this the "opposite direction" Fahrtanzeiger (three white lights falling from left to right) exists, no? (Not in the game, though?)

To be fair, at least according to the most recent rules for main lines that I have (RiL 408 Aktualisierung 20.10.2014) at Gruppensignalen without Licht-Sperrsignalen (Sh1/Hp0) or elevated semaphore Sperrsignalen (Sh1/Sh0) the Fahrdienstleiter (dispatcher) will always have to consent to the departure of the specific train in spoken word (408.2331 section 3 paragraph 2), additionally to any other signal and regardless of the Fahrtanzeiger (see 408.2331 section 3 paragraph 1a).

Only on Nebenbahnen the "Eisenbahnbetriebsleiter" can make their own rules for dealing with Gruppenausfahrsignalen (see RiL 438 § 17 section 6).

 

I guess this is what I wanted to have confirmed by TSG and expressed it in a very complicated way

Exactly the reason why it would be nice to have some insight, in order to be able to better understand the local circumstances

 

Thank-you https://forums.dovetailgames.com/members/29918/ for the informative video.
It is going to prove useful for my model railway where I have a station with a passing loop, on a curve, and not enough room to fit 2 signals at the end of the platforms. I had always assumed that one signal that could show HP0/1/2 as separate aspects would be used such that HP1 would be the valid signal for the straight (or less curved) track, with HP2 being the permission signal for the curved (tighter, or diverging) route. Now I'll have to re-think my approach, and claim that the permission is given by the fahrdienstleiter (or station Master/ signalman).

 

Hi,

Do we know when (if ?) a patch will be released to correct some issues such as some cab indicators not lighting up (doors open, etc.) ?

 

A patch is coming. But dtg might be waiting to release everything at once if that makes sense. Due to the high number of releases that occurred in the past few months. So they probably want to bundle it together by region or all at once

 

Ok thanks !