So, I was running a regional Bahn route on Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr last night from Essen to Duisburg. At one point, there was a speed limit drop to 90 km/h, and the distant signal announcing that had a 1000 Hz magnet on it, which I acknowledged. No problem there. I slowed down to below 85. But shortly after that, I somehow hit another 1000 Hz magnet or something and even though I hit acknowledge it stopped my train. I assume it must have been a speed check, but I'm really confused about what happened here. I was going below 85, the signal speed was 90, and there were nothing but green signals ahead (and, to boot, a 100 km/h speed limit coming up very soon.) I actually tried this piece of the route twice and it stopped me both times. I'm guessing that the speed magnet was wanting me to go 45, but I have no idea why since the signal speed was 90. Anybody have any clue what I did wrong here?
On approach to Duisburg, there are two signals in quick succession, advance speedboard "Expect 90 km/h" which needs to be acknowledged if you are going more than 105 km/h, and right after the bridge there is distant signal for Duisburg entry signal, usually showing "Expect 80 km/h"; this one also needs to be acknowledged (if you are going more than 95 km/h). Already being in one 1000 Hz monitoring does not take away the requirement to acknowledge the second one, it's just bit of a trap. In most places, the speedboard would be mounted on the signal with only one common magnet for both.
Thanks. I've been using the safety system HUD element and it seems a bit misleading at times. I've definitely acknowledged a few 1000 Hz magnets that the HUD didn't call out -- I saw the signal myself while I was in monitoring, and the HUD didn't change as I rolled past the magnet, but as soon as I acknowledged it I saw the 1000 Hz light on the instrument panel and the HUD so it's obvious that I did, in fact, need to acknowledge it. I probably missed a distant speed limit sign or something. I really do wish that there was some kind of post-mortem after the run that lets you know what caused the Zwangsbremsung. It'd really help me learn.
Oh yes, the "safety system helper" is completely off for PZB, it directly leads you wrong way and you will only get penalties for following its guidenance. If you just read some quick start guide for the PZB mode you most often travel in, and turn the HUD off, you should be good. Usually the indicators show which magnet caused the penalty brake (yellow: 1000 Hz, you were speeding over monitored speed or you did not enter the monitoring at all - did not acknowledge | red: 500 Hz, you were speeding on approach to restrictive aspect | yellow and red: 2000 Hz, you crossed restrictive aspect without override; GPA speed checks before sharp turns also use 2000 Hz magnet to stop you immediately when speeding more than 15 km/h over oncoming limit). You can also drive locos with digital instruments (Vectron will probably be most reliable, but I think 146/185 do have this as well), then in case you are penalized, the reason is written on the screen as yellow error message (albeit in german). It also shows all active speed monitorings with exact speed you need to follow (you should keep 5 km/h under the shown speed), that should be also helpful if you are learning. Just the time limits to reach the speed is not shown, you have to count that by yourself. When you are in restrictive mode (70/85 both flash), all speed limits are basically at little under half of the usual ones. Acknowledge every signal that does not show straight green without anything else. Acknowledge every advanced speedboard. You'll soon see which cause the monitoring Probably the worst thing the assist HUD teaches you that is completely wrong is the "Safe to Release!". Nope, in 90% cases you are not allowed to do it and you will get penalized. Free is basically used only when the aspect changes to full green while you were already slowing down. The HUD urges you to free yourself whenever the 1000 Hz influencing ends, if you do that and then run over any other magnet, you will get stopped immediately for illegal freeing. The HUD does this also when approaching restrictive signals and the 1000 Hz influencing ends. HUD tells you that you are safe to release, so you press it, telling the PZB in fact "it's okay, the signal turned green in the meantime", and then you run over 500 Hz magnet that is active because the signal is still restrictive. In this case PZB immediately stops you no matter the speed because you told it the signal is green while it is clearly not, so a potentially very dangerous situation is detected...
The game itself doesn't know why a PZB magnet exists at any specific location, so it couldn't really offer any helpful guidance beyond what's already shown on the in-cab displays on more modern locos, like the 185 or Vectron.
This doesn't seem right -- the game code makes the PZB system work so the code must also know the reason why it stopped the train.
Well, it knows where the 1000 Hz magnet is. It also knows that if you pass over that 1000 Hz magnet while it's active you need to acknowledge it, slow down, etc. It does not know why the person who built the route placed that 1000 Hz magnet where it is, or why they set it to be active under one, but inactive under another condition. This is completely prototypical of course. A real locomotive also only knows it just passed over an active 1000 Hz magnet, but not whether that magnet was at a speed sign, a distant signal, a level crossing signal... So yeah, the game could technically tell you "Hey, you should have acknowledged that", but it couldn't tell you what "that" was or why you needed to acknowledge it.
