When you are doing a run in the simulator, how can you find out the best speed Form what I can understand of this I found out, and I might be mistaken, and please correct me if I am wrong German route : no faster than 80km New British route : no faster than 80km Old British route : no faster than 60km Peninsula, American electric, and CSX : no faster than 40km Canadian route : I could never go any higher than 20km anyway
These are all way too slow too keep to any of the passenger timetables. The line speed limits are different for each route, but, for example, it's 79mph (~127kph) for passenger and 50mph (80kph) for freight on Penninsula Corridor. The route manuals can provide more info (especially on routes with speed signalling like Penn Corridor), as well as the in-game HUD, but eventually with enough practice you'll learn where the slower spots are.
On the peninsula, especially, it is no realistic to go any faster than 40km, as there is no slowing down speed brake, there is only stopping brake, at least with a keyboard, and even worse with a mouse, by the time you can use the lap, the train is stopped, and there is no way to remove some brake if you used too much, so the best practice is to go with slow speed and be able to stop in time PS. lets not go back to the use to the lap in braking, I already got very good explanation, thanks to a lot of you guys
Or go fast, but start braking earlier! If you want to play on Peninsula Corridor, but just can't master the manual lapping, try the Baby Bullet DLC - it's much simpler to operate.
As others have pointed out, if you want to keep to the timetables, those speeds are all way to slow. If you don't care about the timetables, then just ignore the rest of my post. On Rapid Transit, Rhein-Ruhr Osten and Main-Spessart Bahn, you can go 160kph, and still can slow down in time. Start braking 1,5 - 2km before the station in notch 3 or 4 and you will be fine. On Ruhr-Sieg Nord the max speed is 120 kph, in this case start braking 1km before the station in notch 4 and you again will be fine.. On the modern british lines, feel free to max allowed speed, and start braking again ~1km before the station (you can also start later, this is quite a relaxed stop) in notch 2, you probably will have to release the brakes because you will stop before you arrive at the station. As for the other lines, I can't remember right now. I have the feeling, that you have something set up in a weird way, which prohibites you from using the locos correctly. Maybe you can record a run of you on PC or a german track and share with us?
I mostly play British routes and you really need to be right up at the speed limit on passenger trains. To start with, this means you will overspeed when you meet two speed limits in quick succession, where the second one is lower; approaching Huddersfield from Leeds is a good example where the limit is 60 mph (96 km/h) (iirc - it might be higher than this) and you have plenty of warning in the HUD of the 40 mph (64 km/h) approaching the station, but this is followed very shortly by a 15 km/h which you get almost no warning of. However, as you learn the route, you will remember these and be ready for them. There are still some places to catch you out since route signalling is not correctly implemented, but you'll get to predict these as well (or remember to check the map to see which way you are being routed). With freight trains it pays to be a little more cautious, particularly if you are using Air Brake - Goods, as it takes so long for the brakes to release that you don't want to make any sharp applications, unless you allow for a very long gradual release time. Incidentally, I don't play with the next signal shown in the HUD (nor with the next signal position marked either), which means that I may well need to go a lot slower after seeing a caution, to be able to stop at the next signal if it is red.
My honest advice is to practice with the Class 166 on the GWE route and/or Class 377 on the East Coastway if you have it. They are both very easy to operate with combined power-brake controllers and electropneumatic braking so brake application or release are instantaneous. The 3 step braking means that you can’t really confuse yourself with how much brake to put on like on variable brake controllers and you shouldn’t even ever have to use more than step 2 so even just think of it as a 2 step brake. Practice hitting the start of stations at 25mph (40kmh) and you can’t go wrong. It’s obvious that you’re struggling so best to focus on one traction which is nice and simple to operate- that’s not a bad thing by the way as I’m sure a lot of us struggled when we first started and still do . It’s no point trying to learn how to operate much harder locomotives with manual lapping brakes, air or vacuum brakes which have long delays between application and release and just general have more buttons and controls in the cab so it’s more easy to make a mistake. Once you’re comfortable with the 166/377, then you can move to ‘harder’ locomotives. If possible, try to take some videos or screen capture so that we can advise further.
Greetings, Folks For German routes and without-HUD: Google the route you're driving on and look up the kilometer posts of the stations. Watch the kilometer posts as you drive and you should know when to brake Always keep to line speed, or max permitted speed by PZB/LZB/whatever. The usual guideline is that in Germany, a train at 160kph takes 2km to stop with mild brake applications. A passenger train may not exceed 160kph without LZB, freight 120kph, heavy freight 100kph. With LZB arbitrarily high speeds may be reached. However, LZB is not yet implemented in TSW (cough, cough, when is it going to happen!?!?). On inclines use dynamic brakes to regulate your speed, otherwise always apply both brakes at the same time. When your loco is solo use direct brakes. When starting from a station or anywhere, use low power settings until you get to ~40kph, then increase the throttle. When braking, aim to use the highest brake force in the middle of the brake procedure, since that's usually most comfortable. Currently the easiest trains to operate on the German network are probably the 146 and 422 along with the 1442. The most difficult are the 155, 143, and 182, particularly if you're hauling freight with adverse signals/weather. Try to get used to the 146 first without, then with PZB and Sifa. It has excellent brake performance, easily readable display and separated throttle from brake, so you don't have to pay attention with the keyboard to not "accidentally" engage the brakes when you want to coast. I'll refer you to my guide https://docs.google.com/document/d/15rMbxCG19bHquN53hhgNKMIb7BczH6nAMv9p-EBvLO4/edit?usp=sharing For any questions regarding how to drive German trains, feel free to ask me. In TSXX LZB is often active, and mostly wrongly implemented. Only very few VR trains have actually well working LZB. That is an extra challenge for you, if you want to try that. Berlin-Leipzig offers awesome LZB interaction when driving Berlin HBF- BBI. A properly implemented train will challenge you to not get a zwangsbremsung. The most difficult there seems like the VR IC coaches, which don't even have AFB, so you gotta follow the LZB speed changes manually. Cheers, Prof.
