I figured this would be a fun thread for everyone to share their 'oops' stories on. What is the dumbest operational error you've committed in TSW, either accidentally or intentionally? I'll kick things off with two: Last night while driving one of the German routes, I reversed on to a freight consist, coupled up, and charged my train brakes. Once ready to set off I released my train brakes, applied a little power, eased off my independent brake... and started rolling backwards... So I kill the throttle, brake to a stop, and repeat the same process. Again, I roll backwards. I start scratching my head, and look at the grade indicator... it's 0%, we're in a flat yard. You know what else I notice while looking there? I was still in reverse lol. A few weeks ago I was running a "Baby Bullet" service on the Caltrain route. I knew I had a diverging speed restriction coming up, but still had a little time before I had to brake for it. I started rolling through one of the sections of the route where there are damn near a dozen grade crossings in a row and get so distracted with blowing my long-long-short-long sequences that I hit the 25MPH diverging track at 45MPH. That would've been just a little rough in real life! I look forward to reading everyone else's stories!
In TSW2, before the Class 313, I failed to stop at London Road (Brighton) and didn't realise until I noticed the distance counter to the stop going from 3.1 miles to 3.2 miles to 3.3 miles. Somewhere between Falmer and Lewes I learnt that the game counts up when you move away. This was fairly early during my TSW career, so I didn't have much knowledge as to which order the stations were in. Seaford services stop at London Road, and Eastbourne services don't, and both used the Class 377, so I didn't think too much about missing London Road. On the London Underground, I overshot one of the stations. I learnt then that reversing past a signal causes it to revert to danger. When I did a similar thing on Great Western Express, however, I was careful when reversing to keep my cab in front of the signal, and my rear door on the platform. It didn't work, but when my cab passed the signal, it turned back to green! Only works on Rapid Transit and Great Western Express.
I hope this is not out of place. It relates to TSC classic but it fits the gist of this thread. Also not an error as such but dumb all the same so I hope you find it entertaining. I decided to try a run from Chesham on the Met Line in an HST pushing it to full speed ASAP to see how far I could get. It crashed on the bend following Rickmansworth station and the whole unit crumpled. It looked so good that I took a screenshot that it is now my wallpaper on my laptop. More than one person has looked shocked and asked me if it is real.
I got run over by my own train doing the Slow Ride scenario on WCL once. Once stopped I released the train brake and applied the handbrake, got out of the cab and went to open the ballast wagons. The handbrake was apparently not strong enough to hold the train on a hill by itself. Sadly this was before I learned about ctrl+0 to insta-return to the cab, so I got glitched into bottom of the train where I couldn't move and had to restart the scenario.
On one of the shunting scenarios on Dresden-Chemnitz I had a total howler. 1. Take the wrong track to the first set of wagons, so have to repeat that step. 2. Crash into the wagons when coupling at the other end afterwards (no derailment, thankfully) 3. Make the first error again, but with the second set of wagons; forcing me to reverse back out of the siding and then try and get back into the intended one. 4. In doing so, manage to softlock my self in the siding (I have already passed through that signal and, despite crossing it again, it doesn't recognise that) leaving me stuck. The second effort went better 3.
Driving the 387 on BML about 01.30 real life time, got to Gatwick 4 minutes early, decided to have a "dwell with my eyes shut" 94 minutes later I awake still sat at gatwick with the game session still running ( not paused ). Did then complete the service - to my surprise with no issues, then it crashed... Safe to say I won't be "dwelling with my eyes shut" again.
When the RHTT pack had not long released, I decided to spend a long period of time doing the HS1 services back to back. It was when I got to the second one which takes you from the Ashford Flyover all the way up to Ebbsfleet that I noticed something odd. The RHTT wagons actually connect the multiple unit plugs of the Class 66, so both the front and back locomotive operate together as though they were directly coupled or you had the banking comm enabled, this is actually vital in this case to have enough power to navigate the steep slopes of HS1. When I switched to the second loco and pulled away on the service however, it seemed a ton more sluggish. Where before I was able to hold the train quite easily at 75mph over the inclines, I was now dropping significantly as I hit them. At one point even going as low as 35mph. Nonetheless, I pushed through all the way to Ebbsfleet where I switched back to the first locomotive for the third phase towards Gravesend. I discovered that in the process of switching locos for the second service, I had left the loco brake on. The combined power of two Class 66s was enough to push through a fully applied independent brake, but it Still created a significant drag.
This is what I get for typing on my phone. Corrected to 35mph. Ironic when we're in a thread about dumb errors.
In the Scenario "Hugging trees" in Niddertalbahn. Stopped the train in front of the falled tree, forgot to keep the brakes and release it completely, then climb down to inspect the tree and the train start moving and hit the tree (whit no derailment fortunately)
off the top of my head - started a service on Hamburg Lubeck, and there is slight gradient, like 0.1% or sth... so I opened doors, started setting up the loco, and got too confident... released all brakes, messed with camera, and all of a sudden... passed at danger... so I repeated it, checked cameras... and turned out my train slid slowly backwards into a train behind it lol
Yard signals at headshunts usually catch me off guard, especially if I'm switching aggressively. I'll pull into the headshunt, reverse direction, forget to SPAD, and then get a game over for passing a red.
Rather embarrassingly, I also did that and thought it would derail upon hitting the tree but luckily not... managed to complete the scenario after that mistake though .
Remember another mistake whit F7 in Cajon Pass whit TSW3, move the transition series parallel while speed is on and the loco turned completely off and i was not able to power on again, then have to restart service
I guess this happened to most of us at some point - played some route late in the night (or morning? who knows ), and got a microsleep which caused me to not acknowledge Sifa or PZB or such stuff in time, or passing a red at speed ... best if it happens at the end of an hour-long run like it once did to me at the end of Kassel Wurzburg run...
Long time ago I was running a scenario on SPG and moving through Cumberland Yard, I found my path blocked by a couple of stationary locos. Thought I'd be clever and pulled a switch and pushed them on to an adjacent track. Uncoupled and reversed back on to the main line and went full speed ahead. Unfortunately I'd forgotten to reset the switch and hit the two locos and derailed my lead engine. The other error was forgetting to save before the manoeuvre, so had to start the whole scenario over.
That happens to me on occasion with SIFA. I usually try to stay on top of the visual cue but occasionally I'll get distracted to the point where the audible tone hits. My wife likes to reads on the couch while I play on the Xbox from the recliner, and her new favorite game is mocking AWS chimes ("DING"), and spoken SIFA alerts ("Babe, the angry German lady is yelling at you!")... it's like having a super immersive safety system lol. Ouch, that's rough! I've taken breaks from TSW before for failing scenarios pretty far in, it's just so damn disheartening.
thats called WiFoo unfortunately, I dont have this safety system installed, so I have to rely on usual measures
this happened a few months ago i was driving the ICE3M (406) on SKA’s ‘Snow and ICE’ scenario. basically i was pulling into Aachen HBF and i put the brakes on a little too late. Boom. SPADed. still frustrates me
I seem to repeat the same two mistakes on a frighteningly regular basis: 1. Forgetting to switch-off the DRA whenever I drive a class 158, then spending 15 minutes wondering why the train doesn't move. 2. Driving a Class 395 Javelin as far as Ebbsfleet in either direction, and completely forgetting how to switch the power between pantograph and 3rd rail shoes. It wouldn't be so bad, but i drive both units regularly and get a mental block every time.
I have the opposite problem with the DRA, I forget to set it! lol The 395 always throws me for a loop if it's been awhile. At least the changeover takes place while the train is stationary so you're not trying to panic figure it out on the fly.
Maybe I was having an off day, but you know those wagons parked up at Retford which get collected each evening by the DON-PBO 66 service? Well, for some reason I thought it necessary to go over to them, apply the handbrakes, and uncouple a few of them. That'll confuse them later. MWAHAHAHA!
When I was still kinda new to tsw, I was playing tsw 2 on SKA I don't remember the Scenario name. I was driving ICE from Aachen HBF to Koln HBF and there was objective saying "go via some station" I forgot the station name I thought it mean that I had to stop there when I was pulling in into the station I saw it was saying "go via" and then I started accelerating.
On several occasions I have sat in the cab, set the reverser to forwards, then set off only to find myself going backwards. I must remember that when I drive the BR Class 08 with the windows facing forwards that it is actually backwards as far as the loco is concerned. Maybe I’ll never learn, I just think that because I’m going forwards, forwards is what I need to select. It happened again tonight. One other thing that has happened a couple of times is that I don’t get my left hand back on the controller quick enough to brake in time for a red signal when I’ve been using said hand to tickle the guard. I suppose I had better explain. Most of the time when playing TSW my cat sits next to me on the sofa and therefore plays the role of guard, secondman, conductor, supervisor or trainee driver depending on what I’m doing, and he insists on having his fair share of fuss and attention, often at the times when I really need both hands on the controller.
I managed to SPAD at the end of my run from Peterborough to Doncaster right outside Doncaster. Same thing happened in GWE outside Paddington. This I’m not sure if it counts as my fault but I’ll add it in anyways. I was on the BKL and as I’m pulling into Charing Cross the R2 button controller drift decides to take control and now I cannot brake resulting in a SPAD
A few weeks ago I was doing all of the Eight coach HST services on Midland Mainline, with the exception of some early morning or late evening services, all the Leicester-Nottingham-Leicester services have the same calling pattern, Calling only at East Midlands Parkway (just like in real life), so one service (I forget which one) I leave East Midlands Parkway towards Nottingham, greens all the way. At line speed of 80mph and something on the top left of the screen catches my eye as I'm approaching Beeston, the distance marker to my next stop is only several hundred yards away....at Beeston, yikes. I cut power and slam the emergency brake on, I come to a stop with only one carriage out the platform and most of the passengers in my cab after that emergency stop haha.
+1 with Cajon Pass BNSF F7, M-LACPHX6-04 scenario in the F7 DLC if I'm remembering it correctly. Spoiler Strictly followed track speed limits before reaching the summit. Speed plummeted on the steep grade. Toggled the transition switch from auto to manual, hoping it'd force a full current into traction motors. The loco shut down. Hastily restarted the engine. Tried with lower throttle notches and activating sander. Fruitless effort. My train stopped. Walked outside cab, trying to spawn some loco behind train. (I was on TSW4.) Got red indicators. Had to restart scenario. Enraged, spawned a AC4400CW (or two?) before the train. Sat down in the GE loco's conductor seat, set it up as "trailing" helper. Couldn't sit in driver seat, because that'd force abortion of current scenario. (<-Direction of travel) [Spawned AC4400CW] [Scenario F7 A-B-B-A][cars] Climbed back into the leading F7A, coupled to my very own helper, then ascended the grades with great ease. ---- Another error was on a CRR switching scenario (TSW3, no uncoupling assist): Pushing coal cars to couple. Switched to far end external camera (3) to unlock the coupler. Couldn't see a thing (>20:00 in-game). Lifted the wrong bar. Got a runaway car before my train, rushing to crash into others.
Ok i have made another dumb mistake today https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/scenario-bug-cajon-pass-class-in-the-workshop-solved.84556/
I was once playing a BR freight pack, northbound service with the class 40 on NTP. I got put aside by the signaller on the loop just north of Huddersfield, on the bridge. While waiting for the second part of the service, I decided I would go for a walk around the train to check if it was all ok, then to keep it real I didn't exit the loco on the line side, but I decided to get off on the bridge wall side. In doing so, I accidentally launched myself off the bridge and landed in the street beneath it. I roamed around a bit, then tried to get back (didn't know about ctrl+0 back then). I got to the fence that circles around Huddersfield yard, but couldn't get around it (of course ). I then restarted the drive and reminded myself to never again exit the loco on that bridge
That's brilliant! I love the momentum you gain from jumping out of the cab, but didn't realise you would fall off the bridge!
Remeber this thing happen to me on TSW3 KWG route, drove one freight service at night got stopped by one signal on viaduct (probably one bugged service) decided to exit train and fall down the viaduct, in this case i have found a path to get back on train
Not in the same league but I hopped out of the stabled Western on WSR and promptly landed into that little enclosure by its side. Trapped! Again I didn't know about the CTRL+0 thing back then.
Haha I've done that a few times to access inaccessible areas! On sehs I open the door and run out of the cab, off of the bridge to access the Essex line.
Haupstrecke Munich - Augsburg ÖBB 1116 Railjet to Salzburg. I was setting up my cab while texting someone on discord, and I didn't pay attention to where my reverse was set. So once I thought my reverser was set forward, I ended up smashing my train into the back of the platform. Haupstrecke Hamburg - Lübeck BR193 InterCity to Lübeck. Driving at high speed, once again due to distraction. I completely forgot there was a switch I had to slow down to and I ended I vacating the railway with my train.
Story time On BPO, I'm a driver for BR based at Preston. I mainly drive the Pacer between Blackpool and Preston/Ormskirk. I was a new driver only been qualified since the start of '89. On 15 September 1989, I took a Pacer from Blackpool North to Preston. Routine run with stops at Poulton and Kirkham. When I reached Kirkham, it started to rain. It got progressively worse, and as I reached Preston, it turned into a storm. A driver on an express service to Blackpool North fell ill on his way to Preston, only managing to reach the station where he was relieved from duty. I was due to finish my shift, but as no one else was available, I was tasked with driving the aforementioned non-stop express to Blackpool North. I only drive these services in exceptional circumstances, and was due a refresher. I started off from Preston, everything was smooth at first. I was following a stopping service to Blackpool North (stopping at Kirkham and Poulton along the way), so had to be cautious of adverse signals. The storm got worse, and was affecting my driving ability. Due to the downpour, I misread a distant signal outside Kirkham. Luckily, I saw the home signal at danger and had already started slowing down. I was still going around 60moh as the signal drew nearer. I applied the brakes at 80%, but thankfully before I stopped fully, the signal became clear and I was able to proceed. I was lucky to not come to a complete stop. Had I not slowed down in time, I'd have ran that signal and collided into the train in front. When I got to Blackpool, I was relieved from duty as my time was up anyway, and waited for my lift back to Preston. An investigation was made following the incident. It was found that I did not react appropriately in the poor weather conditions, but that I shouldn't have taken that express anyway as my knowledge on the 47s was lacking. Before returning fully to work, I was given a route learning refresher, as well as updating my knowledge on the 47s and how to react in adverse weather conditions. Safe to say, for the next 30 years of my career, I never made the same mistake again.
