Just before Christmas I decided to dig into the editor for the first time and started developing a new timetable for one of my long time favourite routes: the Main Spessart Bahn. As the ramp between Laufach and Heigenbrücken has been replaced by tunnels, this route comes with a few challenges. I decided to use the real life January 8th 2024 timetable as a base for the passenger services but modify it a little bit to accommodate for the ± 3-4 minutes extra travel time between Gemünden and Aschaffenburg Hbf in TSW. Also a few new switches are unavailable, so this came with some extra modifications. Consider this timetable a 'what if the Heigenbrücken tunnels were never built' modern timetable. Also I have encountered an issue with the pathing between Gemünden and the portals towards Wernfeld/Waigolshousen, so I can only use the freight sidings and platform 9 to route traffic off the map towards the southeast. Luckily traffic leaving these portals towards Gemünden doesn't encounter this issue, so I can use the other platforms for traffic travelling west. If anyone knows a solution to this issue, please let me know in this topic. I am configuring all the passenger traffic first, and will add as many freight services as possible once these are all in place. Currently I have finished all the services that pass through or terminate at Aschaffenburg Hbf, totalling 458 services. These are both player and AI services. Any services that stops at at least two on-map stations will be driveable, currently that's about 160 services, including quite a few shunt services at the Aschaffenburg Hbf sidings. The AI services are services that only stop at one station after entering or before leaving the map. I still have to add most of the AI services that pass through Gemünden, so these numbers will increase quite a lot. I also still have to add all the freight services, so I'm expecting to end up with more than 400 player driveable services. Base layer (only MSB required): RE54, RE55 and RB79 RE54/55 and RB79 running the whole line between Aschaffenburg Hbf and Gemünden, using the BR146 with Doppelstock wagons. In real life these services are provided with Bombardier TWINDEXX, but these are unavailable and I want to give something to players that only have MSB installed too. I still need to add a few morning rush services between Gemünden and Lohr, but all the others are finished and follow the real world timings as good as possible. I decided to take Aschaffenburg Hbf as the base of my timetable, as it is the station where most traffic will cross. All the passenger services arrive and depart Aschaffenburg Hbf at their real time schedules and platforms. This is essential to make all the layers run with each other, as I can't link dependencies between different layers. ICE layer (KWG required for the BR403) As in real life, ICE 41 services (Dortmund/Essen <> München Hbf) will travel between the Frankfurt and Würzburg portals. Most of them only stop at Aschaffenburg Hbf. To provide the ability to drive the ICE on MSB, I've added a few ICE services that also make an extra stop at Lohr Hbf to allow for this. I still have to add the AI ICE 91 (Köln <> Wien Hbf), as I currently have only added the very few of them that stop at Aschaffenburg Hbf. I made sure that an ICE will - normally - never encounter any delay. This means (because of the different track layout compared to real life) that you'll often have an ICE overtaking you at Lohr Bahnhof when driving an RE54/RE55/RB79 service eastwards, or that you'll be held at the switches near Nantenbach when driving west. So you can expect some more interesting PZB action compared to the vanilla timetable. HLB layer (KWG required for the BR 425) The 'Hessische Landesbahn' has been awarded the contract to provide the RB58 (RE59) services between Rüsselsheim and Aschaffenburg Hbf and the RB75 services between Wiesbaden and Aschaffenburg Hbf. As this company uses the Alstom Coradia Continental BR 1440.1 in real life, and that train is still unavailable in TSW, I decided to replace it with the KWG BR 425. RB58 (RE59) These services enter from the Frankfurt portal and terminate at Aschaffenburg Hbf. 12 times a day these services travel on to Laufach (IRL), as the RB79, RE54 and RE55 services don't stop at Hösbach and Laufach during these times. Passengers to/from Hösbach and Laufach have to use the RB58 services to travel to Aschaffenburg Hbf if they want to get anywhere during these times. As these services stay at Laufach for about 50 minutes IRL, I decided to extend these services to Heigenbrücken platform 1 so they don 't sit in the way of any banking action I want to add in the future. This also means that TSW passengers have the luxury that they can take a train to Heigenbrücken and switch there towards Lohr/Gemünden, instead of having to travel west to Aschaffenburg to go east afterwards. Luckily the stopover time was so long that I could stick to the timetable at Aschaffenburg Hbf. Most of the RB58 (RE59) trains start and end their day at Aschaffenburg Hbf, so between 4 and 8 am, a player willing to act as a shunting engineer could perform a whole shift of bringing trains into service. RB75 These services enter and leave the map towards Darmstadt, so no player driveable services towards e.g. Laufach. Most of the trains also start and end their day at Aschaffenburg, so combined with the above services this adds to the shunting activity. I had to put multiple trains on the same siding, this gives some extra challenges and possible SPAD's if a player doesn't watch out RB88/RE87 layer (MTB required for the BR 642) All of the RB88 and RE87 services have been added, resulting in a lot of activity on the single line towards the south of Aschaffenburg Hbf. Any service that stops at Aschaffenburg Süd is player driveable (takes less then 10 minutes, initial loading included), and there 's also some shunting available. I still have some issues with a few trains not wanting to close their doors and thereby blocking Aschaffenburg Hbf, so today will consist of trying to figure out how to get that knot untangled again. This will certainly add some difficulties when I add in a freight layer towards Aschaffenburg Hafen, but I 'm happy to accept the challenge What next? I'm currently finishing up the passenger timetable at Aschaffenburg Hbf, and will then shift to Gemünden, where I will add all the (AI) RB53 and RB50 services. I think I'll use the Vorarlberg BR628 (Niddertalbahn and S-Bahn Vorarlberg required) for the RB50 services, as the Stadtler Regio Shuttle-RS1 is unavailable in TSW yet. The BR642 and BR212 with n-wagen did run this route in the past, so I might choose e.g. the BR204 with n-wagen (if possible, didn't look into it yet) or the BR642 too. We'll see. After all the passenger services are in, I'll start adding freight. This will consist of both 'fast' services and banking services. Also I want to add some interesting (Ruhr-Zieg-Nord style) services that consist of trains passing through, picking up or dropping off some wagons and get them loaded/emptied at e.g. Lohr Gewergebiet and Aschaffenburg Hafen before travelling back. Anyone willing to provide possible sources to aid me: feel free to post. I'm from Belgium myself and have only a basic proficiency in German, so getting some pointers to good sources is very helpful. If all that is done, I'll add a few specials (think railtours, nightjet trains, an occasional diverted IC train...) to finish it off. I'm looking forward to share my ongoing progress with you! I consider this timetable a good practice so at a later time I'm able to put my hands on an even more challenging route (anyone shouting München-Augsburg?).
I personally recommend you using the ICE 3 from MAG instead so the Time Of Day system is the same, otherwise there are headlight lighting issues. just a recommendation!
To give a first impression from play in editor: this is the scheduled peak at around 6:30 am at Aschaffenburg Hbf, looking towards the east (don't mind the compass). Platform 2: RB58 (28616) has just arrived out of the sidings and is preparing for its first journey of the day towards Hanau Hbf. Platform 3: RB75 (28751) has arrived a minute or two early (just fixed the portal timing), and will return at 7:16 as RB75 (28756) towards Mainz-Bischofsheim Platform 4: RB88 (23380) from Wertheim has arrived and will return at 6:41 as RB88 (23303) towards Miltenberg Platform 5: RB75 (28701) has arrived at 6:11 and will return at 6:43 as RB75 (28706) towards Wiesbaden Hbf Platform 7: RE54 (4602) has arrived at 6:28 as scheduled from Würzburg Hbf on its way to Frankfurt(Main)Hbf. It will depart at 6:37 to let the ICE through. Platform 8: ICE41 (824) from Würzburg Hbf has arrived at 6:32 and is about to depart to Essen Hbf. I really like this kind of activity
I am currently working on an updated timetable for MAG! I've been looking forward to the editor forever, as I always thought that the Munich Hbf was way too empty. S-Bahn service along the Stammstrecke was also minimal. I've managed to bring the Sbahn service down to an almost perfectly executed ballet during rush hour. Unfortunately, some of the track movements are broken, e.g., I cannot create a movement to the Donnersberg Brucke (BRB RB 55, 56, 57, 58). I've also been having a hard time with loading and unloading the Dosto+BR146 from the MSB, have you encountered any issues with those? Doors won't open when the formation arrives at the Munich Hbf. I probably already have 400+ services coded in, and I'm not even 30% done... this will be interesting. Might need a helping hand :P
Great that you put your teeth in MAG! I did encounter this a few times. I've fixed it by manually re-adding the goto instruction and making sure that I replaced the stop behaviour to 'within' 1000cm instead of 'overlap'. I'm not sure what caused it but the Dosto's work fine now. I do have the same issue with the BR642 now, for which I didn't find a solution yet. It seems that terminus stops, where the train switches direction need another way of managing loadin/unloading, but didn't find it yet. A few hints for anyone doing a new timetable: Do not add a scheduled time of arrival to a goto instruction unless it's what you really require. Instead tie it to the load/unload instruction. Otherwise the loading process will effectively be delayed to the STA if you arrive early, which is not realistic (the player gets a 'wait until' instruction). Make sure to set 'completion time rounding' to 'none' instead of 'rounded' (default behaviour). Otherwise all your services will only stop loading at the next full minute after the scheduled completion time. Disable automatic adjustment of STA's and STC's from the timetable simulation if you're adding realistic timing. You can do that in the timetable definition. Otherwise a lot of your work will be overwritten when anything doesn't run as expected. Have fun!
Oh yeah. Never use overlap, it just doesn't work. No idea why it is the default... I had no issues getting the 642 to terminate at Dresden Hbf two days ago... Can you show me what exactly your instructions look like?
Making older routes busy is something I am looking forward to the most in terms of the editor. Having another dtg route from one bigger German city to another and seeing five trains during the journey does not interest me as much. Some are ghost towns, like München Augsburg, so really looking forward to your creations guys.
Here's the situation. Previously service RB23309 used to give door closing issues. I then increased its formation to three units and I put an uncouple service in between the previous service end and the new service start. This resulted in the outgoing services performing as expected again. Now the issue has shifted to a service two hours later, for which I didn't include an uncouple instruction in between: RB23313. When 'playing in editor'. I see that when the service starts, the engineer closes the doors (they are left open after the last service) then reopens them on services that function, but on the service that fails the engineer doesn't open the doors again, hence the loading instruction never ending. It seems that the 'load' instruction is never loaded in, as you can see that there's no simulated arrival time for it. Below you can find some screenshots to document this. First one to compare the 'load' instructions'. There's two differences between them: the scheduled time of completion, and the 'dispatch beyond instruction' being ticked on RB23313. The first one I cannot change, the last one I have ticked and unticked but gave no different outcome. And below some screenshots from within the editor. RB23309 - functioning Unload instruction of the previous service Load instruction of RB23309 RB23313 - not functioning Unload instruction of the previous service Service start of RB23313 - there is a simulated start time so the service has started. Load instruction of RB23313 - there is no simulated arrival or completion time, so the instruction is never called. I hope you can spot something I have missed. I didn't change anything to RB23309's unload or load instructions. The only thing that changed is the formation and the uncouple service in between.
Unfortunately, this didn't work. Go-to instruction is completed, but the Dosto's doors won't open. Within the log, the following statement keeps appearing: TS2: Trigger door lock state 0 for service RB 16 Munchen Hbf Seems like doors can't open for some reason. Here's the load instruction: Here's the previous go-to instruction... anyone have any clue what may be going on (or see anything really out of the ordinary)?
I don't see anything out of the ordinary in either of you guys' instructions... the one thing I would try is to set the door side manually instead of using "auto"? I find it weird that there isn't a simulated start time tbh... maybe try putting a wait instruction between the go to and load ones and resimulating, just so we can be sure if the issue is with starting the load instruction or within the load instruction itself. And is there anything related to the load instruction in the log?
I have numerous of these same log messages "Trigger door lock state 0 ...", so indeed it seems that the doors can't be opened. While simulating in PIE I was able to open the doors just fine while the AI driver sat at the control desk, so there must be some underlying issue. I 'll try this tonight. The reason I added the couple/uncouple instructions was exactly because I wanted to check whether if I put something in between these services, it would solve the issue. But it wouldn't be very realistic if I added (un)coupling to all services of course Thanks for the pointers!
I've tried these solutions, both separate and in different combinations: Explicitly select the driving (and cab) side Add a STA to the load instruction Explicitly select the door side None of them made the issue disappear. I've now found a (very ugly) solution: add an exact stop with the current position of the train before the load instruction. It triggers immediately because the train is in the correct position and the doors are now correctly opening afterwards. I don't like it, but until I find the root cause of the issue I think I'm going to stick with this hack. I've now spent the last week trying to fix this door issue without making any other progress so I want to continue with something else for the time being and the timetable has to simulate correctly to be able to do that. DTG Matt : is this issue of doors not opening/closing at the start of a service a known issue or did I encounter something new? The affected services do function correctly in PIE, just not while simulating the timetable. The strange thing is that some services are correctly simulated without the ugly hack, and I can't find any difference between them except for the start time and the service/PIS number. Below a screenshot of the way I've 'fixed' it for the moment.
Have you tried deleting the readding the problematic instruction, along with the ones either side? Something that fixes issues for me.
I tried readding them, but I don't think I've tried to also replace the instructions alongside them. Will try that
I've now resimulated the timetable twice after replacing the problematic instructions (and their neighbours), but to no avail. I guess I'll stick with the hack for now.
I've noticed that changing the formation direction has a direct effect on whether the instruction works or not. Unfortunately, by reversing the formation, it is now the departure loading instruction that is failing instead of the arrival loading instruction. Yipee. I will try an exact stop instruction tonight. Edit: Exact stop hasn't fixed things on my end gonna keep playing around to see why it doesn't work. Doesn't work in PIE either, unless I manually open the door as the player.
I may have solved the issue. I believe what is happening (at least on my end) is that as my formation is spawned in a parked stopped preset, the train may revert to this state when stopped. The problem is that when it reaches its last go-to instruction, it stops moving and shuts down, not allowing the AI to open the doors as the formation has no power. For now, I fixed this by having the formation start as "running stopped". On your end, it may be that your formation does not become energized until a go-to instruction is reached. However, the doors will not open without power so the go-to instruction is never reached. Your impromptu fix forces the train to start before the boarding instruction, allowing the doors to open. This is all a theory, as it does not explain why the departure loading instruction fails instead of the arrival loading instruction when I flip the formation (BR 146 R vs BR 146 F). But it could explain why changing the formation spawn type fixes it... I do want to come up with a better way to address the issue than to change the formation spawn type.
I have all my trains spawned as 'active running' (when starting from the vault) or 'running stopped' (if parked in game before its first service). I only use 'parked' when adding a stationary train that will just sit in its siding for the entire timetable. So this shouldn't be the issue at my side. I'll check again if I didn't forget to apply this for these formations, but I don't think I did (not at my dev pc till tonight). Thanks for helping to troubleshoot this! Edit: just to confirm: I have all the affected formations spawning as 'active running'.
A further follow up: it seems my workaround doesn't work every time. I've now just encountered the first service that won't open its doors after a fake 'goto' instruction. I'm getting out of ideas to fix it now. I have manually redone the whole service without copying anything, but it's always this same service that malfunctions.
Very strange. I'm afraid I don't really have any idea what might be happening here. I could take a closer look and try out a few things if you want to send me the layer?
Is it a platform specific issue? Does changing the platform change the outcome at all? Finally, do you delete the datatracks each time prior to simulating the timetable? Just throwing out ideas at this point. My Dosto formation issues was fixed with changing the spawn preset. Haven't touched/driven the 642 yet so not too familiar with it. Might implement it as a replacement to the Stadler FLIRT, I'll let you know if I encounter/solve any issues.
This was the key I needed. It is indeed platform 4 at Aschaffenburg that's giving issues with the BR642. I have now switched all RB88/RE87 after 9am from platform 4 to platform 5 and all RB75 services after 9am from platform 5 to platform 4 and the timetable has finally simulated for about 90%, the culprit being a shunt service with a bad 'go via' because of the platform change. It's currently simulating again and I'm hopeful it will fully simulate now. I'm happy to share my work if it isn't solved now, but it seems I'm finally out of this issue. It's a pity I can't keep to the official timetable platforms, but it's a small compromise compared to completely deleting the RB88/RE87 services. In the mean time (to do something more productive) I have added all München/Wien to Hamburg/Dortmund AI ICE services that do not stop at Aschaffenburg Hbf. These will just zoom through, giving some extra challenges to get the freight layer in later For now they are performed with SKA ICE3M BR406 units, but I might replace them with the MAG ICE3 BR403 or the ICE1. I'll see what I do. It's a pity the 16 car units have issues entering a portal (they come to a sudden stop at the portal border), it would've been nice to see some longer ICE trains too. I am so happy I finally seem to be out of this mess, and very glad that the RB75 services don't have issues with Aschaffenburg Hbf Platform 4
Alright, glad to see you found a solution! Have you tried to "force specific location in marker" and set the "ribbon location" to 1.0? That seems to help with quite a few portal-related issues.
I'll try this. I am now stuck on one (one!) service experiencing loading issues on platform 3 at Aschaffenburg Hbf, but once that's out of the way all passenger services stopping at/passing through Aschaffenburg are finished. Switching to Gemünden after that. I am definitely planning to release it somewhere public, but haven't thought of a specific location. It'll probably be the TS community site. I hope that creating PAK's is officially supported by the time I finish this timetable, but if not I'll find another way. I have to warn that you shouldn't expect this timetable to land in January or even February: after all the passenger services are finished I still have to add the complete freight layer and some extras. Since IRL there's only a small portion of the timetable that really follows an hourly pattern (between about 12pm and 3pm), it will take quite some time to fit these services, as I cannot simply add an hourly freight pattern that will fit nicely in between the passenger services without holding them up. I have one concern: this timetable will not be very robust against delays since I cannot add dependencies between layers. I'm able to keep about 10-15 minutes of spacing between services that might cause a deadlock (especially for depot moves at the Aschaffenburg West sidings), but if delays start to occur the complete timetable is prone to locking up at Aschaffenburg Hbf. By examining the service patterns, I start to understand why DB (and other German train operators) are so susceptible to delay waves. At least for this route the infrastructure is utilised quite close to its limits at large intersections, so there's only limited time and space available to prevent delays from one line transitioning over to another line. E.g. the traffic peak at around 6:30 that I posted above leaves only one platform left to allow a delayed service to call at or pass Aschaffenburg Hbf. Since the dispatcher system in TSW is unable to assign different platforms/tracks to a delayed service this will result in delay waves quite fast. At least the activity at Aschaffenburg Hbf (and probably Gemünden too) will be interesting for train spotters
yeah sweet whatever way just lets us know because i like to showcase it on my main you tube channel i have done the class 700 mod timetable for Brighton mainline and tees valley line 1989 mod timetable no issues so far so looking for more to do
Positive news: today the timetable finally simulated correct again. I have now processed the delays that were present and added about half of the RB53 (AI) between Schlüchtern and Bamberg (passing through Gemünden) and some remaining RB79 (AI) services between Lohr and Gemünden. I can still only use platform 9 for services towards Würzburg, but luckily the timetable allows me to put all eastbound passenger services on one platform without having to shift too much. It's a bit of a pity, but it works. Luckily westbound services can use all the necessary platforms. I've decided to put the MAG BR423 on the RB53 services. It allows swift coupling/uncoupling when needed and looks a bit like the BR440 (from very far away). I tried using the BR442 from Köln-Aachen, but that one had issues uncoupling (the log said 'unable to disconnect auxiliary power cables, aborting uncoupling' or something similar). I believe the BR423 gives a bit more variety to the route, but if anyone has a better proposal, I'm happy to replace it. I'll finish up the RB53 and RB50 services in the next couple of days if all keeps going as swift as now, so I expect to start adding freight layers by the end of the week. Things on my todo list: finish passenger services Add 'special' services (see above) Add banking freight services Add Aschaffenburg hafen/Süd and Lohr freight services Add main freight layer Some nice to haves: Fix platform PIS Fix Gemünden portals routing and switch platforms where applicable ... I'm very happy with the progress today.
Nice looking project. Without official documentation you'll need to do a lot of experimentation which means many simulation runs. On my project it takes over 4 hours to simulate (not a very powerful PC). Just wanted to let you know that you can create dependencies between layers. When you drag out the dependency node, drag it up to the layer tab your other service is on and hold it there till the screen changes to the other layer. Once connected, you won't see the white node line but at each end the connector will turn white. To disconnect, right click on the connector and a menu will pop up with an option to break connection. Now I haven't tested this to see how it works in game especially if one layer is missing but as I said a lot of experimentation. Good luck.
That's very helpful! I have now a little more than 500 services in and simulation takes about 40 minutes for the 24hr timetable. The speed went up to maybe 35 minutes after I finally fixed the stuck services resulting in numerous log messages that significantly slowed down the simulation. Especially the startup sequence takes a long time, about 10 minutes before the actual simulation is started. I'm running on a 2TB NVMe drive on a 3.8Ghz i5 processor with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and an RTX2080ti GPU. I'm ok with the performance for now, but I think I've simulated approximately 10 times today so that equals about 6 hours of simulating. I had the opportunity to clean my house very well during all that waiting.
An S-Bahn unit with that many doors would be a little off-putting to me. I would say the BR 425 should be sufficient there too. I think on Kassel - Würzburg the RB 53 is done by 425s too.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll put the BR425 on it. I have now done all RB53 and RB50 services. The RB50's were done in less than 30 minutes and need only one 642 formation going back and forth to Kleingemünden portal. Timetable is currently simulating. When all delays are sorted I'll be able to move on. I'll keep you posted.
A short update: I have now finished all passenger services and sorted all the delays. There are now 566 services, including AI moves. I have manually tested most (types of) services with PZB enabled and they are running fine. Some of them are tight at some intermediate stops but you're able to catch up again later. I've decided to keep it that way to stick to the real timetable. Later this week I will move to the first freight moves, starting with the banking services as these block the lines most and need to be planned carefully. After that I'll add some moves with the BR204 to Lohr Süd Gewerbegebiet and tie these up with freight services on the main line. I have mapped the companies that are situated near this area so the player will be able to deliver the correct types of cargo to and from them. After that I will switch to Aschaffenburg Hafen, Süd and yards for some shunting with both the BR363 and BR204, and I'll finish up with the main freight layer. Still a lot of work, but it looks promising. I'll provide a timelapse video later this week.
The last week I have been gathering information for the freight services. Part of this consists of mapping out the companies near the freight yards and making a guess what types of cargo they should be sending and receiving. For Aschaffenburg Hafen this results in a nice spreadsheet. I have no idea if I will be able to pump these numbers of cargo wagons through the single line from Aschaffenburg Hbf to Aschaffenburg Hafen, but if I'm not ambitious now I'll have a lot less fun trying Oh yeah, did I mention I'm still building the timetable so it's able to loop? Every passenger formation is already ending in the exact same spot as it started to make this possible. Let's see if I can do the same for the freight formations. They will be a lot harder.
I haven't figured out a process for that yet, hence the decision to focus on the yards first. If someone has good (online) sources, please do share them. They are a lot less accessible and more volatile than passenger service timetables. If I don't find good sources I might decide to make some assumptions and extrapolations based on video footage and other sources. A hint for designing current (2024) German passenger timetables: this website allows you to download timetables. Be aware that you have to combine multiple timetables for services that extend beyond the depicted zone. Often the origin and/or destination station is added at the top/bottom of a service, along with important intermediate stations, but smaller stops in between are ommitted. E.g. The RB53 service timetables are only showing the times between Schlüchtern and Gemünden, while they do extend towards Würzburg and even Bamberg. For those parts you'd need the RE54/55/RB79 timetable between Würzburg Hbf and Aschaffenburg Hbf.
Same, that's why I'm asking :') I've got my observations, assumptions and extrapolations, but there are so many variables that I'm really struggling to figure out how to actually turn those into a freight timetable. I'll share if I come up with a process that works...
For the harbour, you may want to check out these videos (in German): he talks to some detail about the operations down there. Obviously it’s not representing a whole day but it should give a good idea what would be realistic and what companies / areas within the harbour are actually using the train connection.
You will probably find quite a lot of useful stuff for your project on his channel. He lives somewhere near by and has many videos from Aschaffenburg Hbf as well, often showing what fright trains are stacked up and waiting to make third way in each direction. Good luck with your project, looking forward to the outcome
I'd like to have a few opinions on DLC requirements for my timetable. For the moment these are the DLC you'll need to enjoy all of it: Passenger services: MSB: default RE54/55 and RB79 services that run between Gemünden and Aschaffenburg (or part of it). Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr: needed for the BR425. This adds the RB53 AI services at Gemünden, the AI HLB RB75 services coming from Darmstadt that terminate at Aschaffenburg (including about 6 driveable shunt services) and the HLB RB58/RE59 services coming from Frankfurt (Rüsselsheim) and terminating at either Aschaffenburg (AI) or Heigenbrücken (driveable). München-Augsburg and Köln-Aachen: needed for the BR403/BR406, that I added both for ICE services from Dortmund/Frankfurt towards München/Wien. I would consider adding only the BR403, but I think the variety really adds something to the timetable. Maintalbahn: needed for the driveable RB88/RE87 services from Aschaffenburg towards Miltenberg and for the AI RB50 services coming from Bad Kissingen/Schweinfurt. So that means that a player needs 5 DLC (including MSB) to enjoy all the passenger traffic there is. For the freight layers I am considering adding these in one large layer to be able to provide as much diversity as possible, while also enabling the option to combine stock from different DLC's. This would mean these requirements: Routes: MSB: for the Laaers 560 and Zacns stock. Ruhr-Sieg-Nord: for the Roos-T 645, Habbiins 344, Shimmns-U 708, Shimmns-TTU 722 stock. Kassel-Würzburg: for the Kijls stock. Linke-Rheinstrecke: for the Tadgs 959 stock. Maintalbahn: for the BR363 and the Eanos and Sggmrss stock (also provides the Habbiins 344 and the Roos-T 645 stock, but these come with RSN too) Loco addons: BR155: for the BR155 and the Falns 183 stock, This means 5 DLC requirements, excluding MSB, and 4 extra DLC requirements on top of the passenger requirements. In fact I should add a separate BR363 requirement because the Maintalbahn BR363 is optimised for TOD4 and might give some issues in TOD3 lighting, but I don't bother too much about that for now. I realise this is a bit high so I have considered a few options: Add a default MSB freight layer including the banking services and separate layers for the other types of stock. The downside is that there will only be banking services with Zacns and (very long) Laeers trains as I cannot transfer the banking locomotives between layers and don't have space to store a seperate banking locomotive for the other layers. Also It will be very difficult to build a very diverse timetable that services the Aschaffenburg Hafen and Lohr freight yards, as I have only limited space (especially at Lohr) to store shunting loco's for the different layers. This is not my prefered approach. Only add a few default freight services for the MSB layer and build most of the other services in a big layer with some more requirements. This adds the ability to combine different types of rolling stock for the shunting yards and even provide banking services with those formations. Imagine a heavy train of coal being unloaded at the docks, combined to a long and heavy train at Aschaffenburg then banked up the slope towards Heigenbrücken. I don't know if that was done in real life, but it sounds like a very nice series of services to do from a player point of view. What do you prefer? Is there another approach I could choose?
If I were you, I wouldn't use the older freight stock at all - newer (DRA and later) freight cars have much better physics, which will make a big difference on a mountainous route like MSB. Them having the "wrong" TOD system shouldn't matter given they don't actually have any lights on them.
An update after another weekend of having fun: I am currently stuck on the simulation crashing on a service and exiting prematurely. I have now simulated twice (takes over an hour atm) so I know for sure which service is the culprit, but I don't get something useful out of the log. If someone has experienced this before: please do give me pointers. For now I'll (1) remove the service and (2) add it again piece by piece to check where the simulation is failing. On a positive side: most services entering and leaving the industrial site at Lohr have been added and tied in with mainline runs. The first few services to/from/at Aschaffenburg Hafenbahnhof have been added. It's one of these that's giving a sim crash on its way out as a banking service towards (virtual destination) Regensburg. I'm progressing slow but steadily, I probably won't get the timetable fully complete before the end of February, but March seems realistic. Todo: - Add about 90% of the services to/from/at Aschaffenburg Hafenbahnhof - Add most banking and mainline freight services. - Fiddle with the Passenger Doppelstock formations. - Set up substitutions. - Check if I didn't miss any DLC dependencies for the different layers. - Add special runs (railtours...) OpenMinded : thank you for the videos of Alex E's channel. I 've been watching about 20 hours of his content now and it really helps to get an impression on real life operations on the MSB.
Which locos are you using for the banking service? I believe banking comms only work with the original MSB 185, so maybe it's crashing because it's trying (and failing) to use some other loco... That's the only thing I can think of, I've never seen the simulation crash before.
