Hi all I purchased TS 2018 yesterday after seeing a video made by a guy called Moleman showing the Medway line pack update. Got to say I am very impressed - Ive never been into trains or train sims before, but thought I would give this a try as I used to live in Strood so know those lines very well. One thing that strikes me however is the speed limit signs. I notice that if the speed is increasing then TS 2018 wont change the speed allowed until the WHOLE of my train passes the sign - which can be a long time if its a 12 coach train from Brighton. However, if its a speed decrease sign, then the speed allowed changes immediately the driver's cabin passes the sign. Seems a tad unfair...is this expected behaviour or a bug? Love the scenery of Rochester Castle, Cathedral, the Rochester bridges & the Russian Sub - although Rochester castle the far corner tower should be round not square...I know, Im picking holes!
This is entirely expected and realistic behaviour. When a speed sign in front of your train indicates a speed reduction, that reduction applies to the track immediately past the sign. As such once the front of your train passes that sign it is unsafe for the train to be travelling at a higher speed than the sign indicates. Likewise, when a speed sign in front of your train indicates a speed increase, that increases applies to the track immediately past the sign. However, when the front of your train passes the sign the rest of the train is still in an area of speed reduction and the entire train must pass the sign for the speed increase to apply. To give an example; because a train can be quite long it's entirely possible for a train to go from a 30 zone, travelling around a sharp curve, into a 60. If the driver began accelerating once his loco passed the 60 sign the carriages or wagons at the end of the consist could take that curve at 60 and derail.
interesting - thanks for the response Corvan. How would a driver in real life know when his full train was past the sign & could accelerate? Do they have something that alerts them when their whole train is past the speed limit increase sign, or does he just have to guess?
They will have to guess for the most of the time, as only few locos have alerts. If you wanna know more about UK signaling, I suggest you to take a look at PTGRail's UK signaling guide:
Lots of years route learning, and then experience. With freight, stick head out window and look back. That was when I was a diver anyway. It's a bit different now I think. Pretty sure that all modern EMUs have an EOT alarm (EndOfTrain). Because they are now mostly fitted with computers, the driver enters train length at start of journey. Sensors will then inform when X number of coaches has passed a given location. Gone are the days when it was all done using experience, judgement and 'seat of the pants' driving.
Hi Glenn, good to see you here. Dear forum members here, Glenn's experiences as a former RW train driver is well documented in the Off Topic Discussions section on the Steam forum. A damn good read.
The real life RailWays works on this principle. Suppose you are moving out of a Loop Line, but as what you expect that you want to change your speed as soon as you pass speed limit, say 90MPH, think what is going to happen when the last car will pass from that point with 90MPH? It will topple down and people will be in trouble. In real railways, there is no restart scenerio.
Some trains have a 'Train Length' system. If you have The Great Western Express DLC, and drive the Class 66, it has such a system. In the cab if you look down to your left at the control panel next to the window, you will see 2 yellow buttons. The one furthest left nearest the window is the train length button. So as you pass the speed limit increase sign, hit the button, it will beep as you press it, then it will beep again when the rear of your train passes that point. It works
The train length button is especially useful for freight trains, which have varying lengths. Drivers know how long their consist is in metres, but because it varies so often it's harder to use reference points along the way to know when you can accelerate. With fixed formation passenger trains it's easier to get a feeling of when you've traveled far enough to speed up.
Pretty much this, I try to drive without the HUD for a bit more 'realism', you eventually start to learn when to accelerate/decelerate in whatever train you're driving. I still use the train length button where available though. Just for that peace of mind.
