What is the point of the extended delay at Sand Patch on the coal train rescue mission? There's no other train around, so it appears we just sit looking at a red signal for the sake of it. Also, what's the point in having a second man in the cab, on switching scenarios, when he (or she) just sits there and does nothing? Surely the second man's job in that scenario is to ride on the far end of the train and set switches and so on?
Did you check the 2d map to see if the switch is aligned correctly, or did you try and press Tab to contact the signaler.
If you're talking about Cumberland Charge where you take the backup GP38s out of the Sand Patch sidings to the coal train parked at Yoder, then you need to contact the signaller in order to pass thru the red and join on to the formation (the light is red because the train is still in that block). You can sit there until the cows come home but it won't change from red to yellow on its own. There's another service in the Journey/timetable (U876) which has a similar situation in one part, you take the coal train out of Shaw in to the Yoder sidings, and then disconnect and run around to attach to the lead to take it back down to Cumberland, because the cars stay in the siding whilst you run the locos around the signals are still red so you have to get permission to re-enter the block and connect.
How do you envision this being implemented in TSW, where the only "humans" that move are passengers and then only on station platforms or seeming to enter or exit from coaches? At times, I try to take on some of the actions you suggest for the 2nd man/woman by setting the #2 view to the last car and using the arrow keys and mouse wheel to get as close to the end of that last car when coupling to another rack is required, but this only works with the shorter freight cars, since that camera is permanently focused on the center line of a car or coach. Something similar (but much more ridiculous) can be done by backing the #2 camera away from that last car and imagining that you're running or walking alongside the train as it approaches the next cut of cars. This trick falls apart, however, if you have to snap back to the cab view so you can exit the engine and walk or run to the coupling location to actually make the connection. Some posters have also mentioned using the 8 view to couple or uncouple. I haven't tried this yet, but wouldn't doing so bring up the risk of being nagged about wanting to give up the engine or not? One last item: I've noticed that when a 2nd man/woman is present in the cab and I save and quit, when I later resume the saved activity there's a different character in that seat -- or sometimes no one at all. Another item for "Our Own Oddities"!* * The name of a 1-panel comic that used to appear in newspapers m-a--n---y years ago.
No risk there. The "Do you want to give up?" dialog only pops up if you physically leave the seat, not if you shift your POV to a camera.
