Real Life Railroading, On How Dovetail See's It.

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by NSMotherSlug#881, Sep 7, 2021.

  1. NSMotherSlug#881

    NSMotherSlug#881 Active Member

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    Hi, all

    Life info Worked for Penn Central in PA for 2 years and Conrail for 20 years out of Enola Yard Harrisburg PA. Been watching streams on various platforms and everyone I talk to that talks railroading has it wrong in so many ways. My Nephew though I should explain Railroading to the uneducated railroaders, mainly you !

    I'm going to explain American 80's & 90's Railroading for you. Life as a Railroader and how Dovetail only does 25% of railroading and is it really a sim.

    As a railroader when getting to your job site or Yard it's not immediately jump aboard the Locomotive. #1 Rule of any Railroad out there is SAFET FIRST !!! with Your Job. First you either need to sign in or punch in not sure if that changed and make sure your boss knows your there. Second meet up with your Conductor or Brakeman for the day go over info on your day to day job " on how you want to approach the job and any idea's floating around that you think will make it easier" with them because there going to be part of you as a job all day. Third if your the Engineer your Boss is the Conductor aka Brakeman of your train "NOT" the other way around. A HUGE No No is blowing your horn in the yard under any circumstance ever Bell is ok but Horn is unsafe, Dovetail making you blow horn in yard is WRONG ! as a Retired Railroader telling you it's Not true to a Game company.

    All or most Yard brakeman crews have and use Keys may have changed since the 90's but used for unlocking certain Switch points in the yard. Given yard crews only access !!!

    I'm old school railroading so I was never part of the Safety Vest groups you have now a day's.

    Railroaders never jumped on board empty freight cars or even open them that are safety locked ever you would automatically be written up and maybe even docked pay. Know reason for you as a railroader being there, which makes No sense in TSW2 why you can open box cars or Auto Racks ect.

    A Conductor that was a Engineer may set up your unit or road locomotives for the day given if you were a Engineer yourself with No problems. Conductor is still the Boss and may have privileges to do so as he or she may see fit, given they really know what your pulling always.

    In railroading time is "MONEY" for you and the company but SAFETY is a BIGGER issue than money.

    I worked 22 years with No accidents or injuries within the yard as I was there along others.

    Please feel free to ask anything ?
     
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  2. meridian#2659

    meridian#2659 Well-Known Member

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    Congrats to a long accident free career in railroad. Im working in a "tmd" (would be called like that in the uk). Main overhaul different type of bogies after they reach the age or running time of the loco & train.

    Well my question would be: does it make a better game if dtg raises the realism from 25 to 100 percent?

    I totally support your idea in vehicle detail and funcionality, also sound and behavior. Ts2021, where the train always have the same 3 working buttons are over.

    About procedures its a thing, which non railroaders will have game breaking issues, because its not fun to play anymore (they wozld need to lrarn that first ). But i agree there are things, which could be made better whit a small effort.
     
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  3. Factor41

    Factor41 Well-Known Member

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    Wow. I'm sure you're very experienced and have had a long and distinguished career, but you lost me at "You're all doing it wrong and I'm the best". Thanks, anyway. #peopleskills
     
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  4. Rybnicki

    Rybnicki Well-Known Member

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    Isn't saying "I know how railways all function and you idiots are wrong, because I worked on two lines in a country that does things in a very specific way" just as cringey as the railfan who imagines they could leap in a train and drive a full service cos of train simulators?
     
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  5. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Congratulations on your successful and accident free career as a Railroader.

    With all due respect however I think you missed the point of this game, it's not meant to be a railroader simulator, but rather a train driving one.

    The beauty of doing this sort of stuff as a hobby rather than as a job is that you can do the "fun" stuff, which is driving the trains without many of the worries and hassles any real-world operations would have (mainly most of the paperwork and the lack of any meaningful consequence if you get things wrong).

    Other inaccuracies are simply due to game limitations, for example you are the one and only person driving the train, although you have superhuman powers to overcome the challenge (the ability to teleport or fly to the rear loco in case of DPU and operate it yourself remotely, or fly to the coupling that needs to be disconnected or operating the switches using the map.)

    A more realistic software that might get closer to simulating other people in the train with you is Run8, but it will never be realistic (until we figure how to put the a human brain and conscience into a computer).

    About unrealistic procedures, this is all up to the player, some players like might like to stay on the horn from start to finish because it's music to their ears, other might never use it. If you had the correct knowdlege and willlfulness to follow the correct procedures, you are free to do it.

    While I can understand the frustration of seeing people claiming to be experts even though they clearly aren't... until they put themselves in danger in real life, this is only a game (a single player one as well - so they don't annoy anyone else)... take it easy
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
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  6. cyrill.kroonstuiver

    cyrill.kroonstuiver Well-Known Member

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    I'm with you here.
    Realism is important to me, and I love TSW2 over any other rail simulator precisely because it's more realistic in the sense that you're an actual person around trains instead of being the train itself, so it's more life-like.
    That said, there's always a line of when realism goes too far for players to still enjoy their escapist reality of Train Sim World, which is why for example safety systems on nearly all trains are toggleable without problems in the game. Of course that's without even mentioning the limitations set by it being a single player video-game.
    For me I'll agree that that line could be stretched a bit considering where it is now, my biggest pet peeve being the fact that we can't manually attack or detach air hoses during coupling, as I've made a suggestion on a while ago here.
    Though that too should probably be a toggleable thing in settings, with something like "auto-connect air hoses when coupling" which does exactly as it says, and with it off, you have to do it manually, as well as automatically triggering an emergency brake application if they're breaking off if you forgot to detach them after decoupling as is realistic. (or perhaps call it "realistic coupling on/off in settings)

    But I'm sure there's many other functions we could all come up with we'd still like implemented into the game that would add realism without breaking the game fantasy too much.
     
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  7. Blacknred81

    Blacknred81 Well-Known Member

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    They kind of give off the vibe that some model railroaders give off, if you aren't doing 100% by the book, you are doing it wrong.
     
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  8. aarontheloner

    aarontheloner Active Member

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    That's nice, but not particularly relevant to fun gameplay.
     
  9. paul.pavlinovich

    paul.pavlinovich Well-Known Member

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    Loved seeing your post, the more reality we bring in the better. Interesting that your experience its no horns in yards, here in Australia its the norm but they're brief toots not long blasts. One for moving forward or to acknowledge a radio shunting instruction and three to move backwards. Here also the driver is boss and the 2nd person (me!) is the doer of stuff. Where there's no guard or signalman the 2nd person is in charge of safe working and obtaining and issuing authority to enter a block to the driver but the driver is entirely in charge of train handling. Its really interesting learning the differences between the countries so thanks for your experience and I look forward to more posts. Your nephew is right we'll look forward to them. If you've got photos of operations they'd be great too.

    Paul
     
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