What is the basic vigilance system similar to aws on the non English trains in Tsw2. I would like to get into safety systems, but don't want to jump into the deep end yet. Thank you for any information.
On German units it's called SIFA. There is another system on those units (PZB I think). I'm not sure what the system is called on American locos as I don't really use them.
For German trains, PZB is the closest thing to AWS. It can be challenging to learn, but is rather intuitive once you grasped its logic. The links in my signature could be useful to you. A good first start would be old TSW 2020 manuals for MSB or RSN, as these explain the basics of PZB quite well. You will probably need better sources (like the ones I gave you) to learn how to react to any and all situations correctly. For American trains we only have the alerter for most routes. It‘s the pretty much the same thing as DSD (I think that‘s the UK name) or SIFA. It‘s a little different for LIRR and NEC (in TSW 2020, not in TSW 2). I‘m afraid I‘m not familiar with them, however.
UK units have DSD. German Units have Sifa. American units have an Alerter. They are all similar to each other, but Sifa is by far the most annoying.
Sifa is a pain in the patoot because it isn't linked to the other controls, so it goes on every 30 seconds no matter what you may be doing (invariably in the middle of a complicated deceleration PZB ballet). The US and British systems reset the timer whenever you operate the throttle or brakes- that's enough to convince the system you're awake.
That‘s true It‘s the other way around for me. I constantly use the alerter reset button in NA trains even though I don‘t need to, because I‘m used to SIFA. Edit: spelling
OTOH, you can "cheat" SIFA insofar as you can hit the button at any time and buy another 30 seconds- I'll often do this if I'm about to start something complicated.
That‘s not cheating though. You‘re not supposed to wait for an alarm. The DR used a different SIFA where you had to wait for an alarm before pressing the button, but not the DB