PC Tharandter Rampe: Dresden – Chemnitz - The Definitive Feedback Thread

It worked, at least so far as I can tell.

The descent of the actual ramp towards Freital is excellent, nice and challenging especially using the dynamic brake. Will be even better going uphill and better again if we can get a main line diesel in the game. For now I might have to go "Off The Rails" with the BR Class 45 or Class 52 just to thrash them. And as others have remarked, ideal to try out steam traction, later in the year.

 

That would be a great thing in reality: an old British diesel on this track!

 

British diesels are wonderful, very powerful, noisy, fun to drive. No wonder why a lot of countries took the opportunity to buy these diesels once the UK was done with them.

 

363 is awesome on this route. I did one freight move and I stalled out on the a 2 degree incline on the way out of yard. Jesus was it a sod to get moving again. Loving it!

 

Go easy on the old girl, she's not as powerful as she used to be!

 

Thank God it's almost weekend and I have time to try this out too...

 

Remember to be her into shunting gear for more traction, she's set in long distance gear by default.

 

Is this in Journey Mode or under the normal timetable?

 

Not strictly Tharander related, but if the preservation crew could add the narrow gauge coaches to Nahverkehr Dresden, it would be welcome!

 

This gear error was how I stalled it, timetable mode. I then had the Raillion wagons dragging me back towards a red. I had to employ my TSW2 tutorial memory, think of Sherman, pop it into shunting mode and drag it back up the grade on the independent brake

 

Couple of thoughts.
Skies were good.
Scenery generally excellent, but distant hills remain bald and the rocky cuttings show signs of tile repetition. Enough to grate.
But those grain fields. Oh Dear.
Hand sowing belongs in the middle ages. No one could make a living with fields like that.
The devs need to get out more.

 

Ok, so did a run in the 612 and could keep to time basically with full power and nailing the speed limit. It was a nice run apart from the sun apparently being in front of the clouds until I got near dresden when the lag kicked in - I'm assuming this is the huge amount of AI there but I had to turn my settings down from 'ultra' to 'low' to get it much above 20 (I'd bumped them back up to high just before the debrief screen came up).

 

Not all of us are...

 

We do it that way in Saxony so that it fits in with the medieval towns.

 

I will also have a fun time with the next 4-up challenge on this route....

 

First impressions look good. But the headlights of the cab car are always on high beam. When driving in good light conditions, only the outer two lights should be on, not all four lights.

 

Cam’s images also show the shiny/sandy effect on the track to some extent. Lighting definitely needs another pass or the terrain textures de-bloomed or whatever the term is.

 

The 612 does not work properly with RailDriver. The power lever is bugged and only allows to accelerate for two seconds at a time at max setting (as if you pressed "A" once instead of if you press and hold it).

Otherwise, the route is nice. I'm liking it so far. Lots of traffic and is lively. I love the fact that it is co-complimentary with the Riesa route. Hopefully one day we'd be able to change routes on the fly from within the game world, by hopping on a train bound for the other route. That'd be great even with a loading screen appearing, IMO. Also, I love the fact that FINALLY the passengers of a full train do not escape the train as soon as you open the doors at the start of the service, like the do on Dresden and most other routes.
Also IMO, night is too dark. Or rather, the headlights of the 143 are non-existant. They do nothing. No way it is that blind driving it at night in real life. The cab car and 612 you can actually drive at night, but the 143 - it's just pointless. DTG should either fix the 143's headlights or make the night more moonlit as it is on some of the other routes. Or allow us to change it as a setting, like Matt suggested during the recent stream.

EDIT: I take that back. Apparently I just didn't know there is an unexpected Brights switch located on the other side of the panel, for some reason It's bright enough and I'm totally happy with the night lighting on this route

 

?

 

Sorry, I thought that was what you were illustrating. However, if you do a run in bright sunshine such as the second Journey Mode (612 Tutorial) it is really noticeable how shiny the track and ballast are, almost can't even see individual sleepers.

 

The 612 is a wonderful DMU. All around.

By the way, when accelerating from a standstill, I'm experiencing that my throttle lever stays stuck in "1% increasing", while on the left screen the blue bars go up and the purple "line" stays at the bottom. The train starts slowly moving. When around 10 kph the purple line goes up and then I am able to increase the power beyond 1%. Am I doing anything wrong, is this normal?

 

I had this in the very first tutorial. I *think* it was because I hadn't released the actual train brakes so a partial power lock, might be worth trying.

 

Al, I was demonstrating the sun - I'm not sure if it's realistic to be able to see it as a circle through thick fog (I must admit I've not really looked directly at the sun through fog) but it doesn't look right to me. I was running it in the snow, and things like sunlight and headlights always get amplified.

 

I've also experienced this, it seems to be some form of power lock (it did it to me after I closed the doors but didn't put the selector into 'lock all').

 

You are right. I just gave it a try. It is some kind of soft power lock

I am saying soft because you are still able to use the throttle despite the brakes being engaged

 

I spawned at 13.10 at Freiberg (Sachs) and I figured out what is wrong. It's not that the DB G6 or DB BR 363 are placed in the same place as DB BR143. The DB BR143 is placed to far back on the track ending up with the 766.2 in end of track buffer.

If I take over the DB BR143 it derails instantly.

 

Nice to see the Thyssen Krupp G6, Where did you get that from?

 

It's a repaint from Rail-Sim.de made by LPgamerTV https://rail-sim.de/forum/filebase/entry/7954-thyssenkrupp-g6-lok-821/

 

Power totally off and then back on should see you sorted for this acceleration thing

 

May I just throw in one big thank you for this? Finally, the most useful "catch up" tool is in the game! The stops are usually 1 minute from what I've seen, but if you're late, you can get done and get going in 20 s, that helps a LOT. And if you're on time... well the doors can be open for the whole minute. Definitely more of this - the "minimum" boarding time should be shorter than stop time.

 

You also need to insert the brake key and turn it on. As I just discovered.

Right next run with PZB and the tilt alerter on, let's see how I do!

 

I've turned off Windows auto-update for that reason (also, to avoid downloading MS bloatware); I start the DL manually when I go to bed.

 

Out of curiosity, when "0 GNT* starts flashing do I need to push the PZB acknowledge or take any action other than ensure I comply with the upcoming HUD speed restriction?

 

I think it’s the brake curve warning. I’ve found if you hit the brakes (sometimes you need to hard) and get down to your gin and tonic speed the warning just goes off

 

From my understanding with limited driving and stream watching, when it is flashing, you are good and under the expected braking curve. When it is solid, you need to get on the brakes.

 

So far, I like some parts of it and by others.. Why the hell?..
First, the Br 612 is a beauty.. still haunts me as a passenger with the vrrrrrrrrrr sound and quirkiness of having multiple malfunction. Luckily you can enjoy it in Train Simulator without those. The GNT Display in the Ebula, could be a bit bigger and also include the distance to the next speed change.
Route itself, there are couple of really nice looking places. A few railroad crossing a missing at least an "Andreaskreuz" Railroad Cross, or I think even barriers.Topography this time is amazing..it never felt so smooth to climb up a hill with a train in this case. In Freiberg Case, it is a bit missing something.. A bush here and a bit of grass would help to spill away the emptiness. I'm not sure, about the layout of Freiberg itself, because I have the feeling some signals are missing for the parts with and without overheadline. EL 6 "Stop for vehicles with panto up"..
Br 185 from Railpool, I don't see much of the reference work there.. except the tiny piece of paper glued on the wall and only two pantos... Slightly disappointed in this case, because the Br 185.. could be so much better with a bit more moddelled properly.
By the Br 143, I found two borked services.. One with the Dostos in the buffer "in" the buffer stop, and another one.. where I should park my Br 143 in a section without overheadline.
The timetable is cool, and when I started in Dresden.. it felt like an actual central station with all train waiting there.
Overall, the traffic and idle vehicles make it somehow alive.. want it more like this.
I would give this route a rating with a scale of 10.. A simple 7, some good things like 612, good traffic, some nice looking spots and awesome topography.. but the badly worked railroad crossing and the usual borked services ships away two points already.

 

What’s up with the 185? Railpool went over the models with DTG so they were relevant and reflective of their fleet I believe

 

My initial thoughts doing an end to end run with the 612 DMU:

- route looks great
- the 612 is certainly interesting and a different experience
- overall the route is challenging and you need to keep on top of what your doing.
- I agree with previous comment about the raildriver implementation...it's annoying. I don't know why it's necessary to move the power lever down then up every time you want to go up a "notch". Hopefully this can be fixed, as of now I won't use my raildriver with the 612.
- I have no information to know whether it's prototypical or not, but it seems like the power increase is very slow, especially compared to the dynamic brake increase? As I say that could be completely correct in real life, but it was something i noticed. It takes a relatively long time to get into "notch" 10.
- Headlights look great.
- What are the yellow, upside down V signs for?

On the whole I'm happy with the route...the raildriver implementation really is my biggest issue so hopefully that can be fixed.

 

Well, the 612 is interesting to drive using a Rail Driver. I can't find a position on the throttle that puts the accelerator into the power position and keeps it there until I reach the level I want. Have to keep rocking it back and forth applying a little at a time before it defaults back to hold. It's doable but not a natural move. On the other hand, the brake applies without issue.

 

They're for snow ploughs so they know when to pull it in to avoid hitting things.

 

I can't say anything about the signals, because the shunting area is not open to the public and is difficult to see from the outside because of the distance.

But it looks really so "naked" for the most part, its a large empty area with tracks only, located on a kind of plateau in the middle of the city.

 

Thanks for the guidance re the GNT, really there should have been an advanced tutorial in Journey Mode to cover this aspect.

I believe Maik may already have clarified in another thread that the acceleration performance is realistic. It actually makes a change to get away from the Electrostar rapid acceleration which feels more like driving a sports car than a train. The dynamic brake can be tricky, easy not to set enough and not slow down but the "sweet spot" is quite small before heavy deceleration kicks in. I find myself just using the train brake, more often than not - which blends with the hydraulic braking anyway (I think).

 

I also do the same as well, because if you use the combined handle with the throttle it doesn't do so much, just apply the handbrake, its more effective.

 

What about the orange W

 

This will answer all for you rat7_mobile
It's towards the end you will see it.

https://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx/publish/railreports/intranet/_pdf/deu_signale.pdf

 

Great route, but just tried the Traffic Jam scenario (via journey mode) and got fair weather (scattered clouds and sunshine) but raining. This has been happening on other routes in journey mode where rain is always with fair weather. What’s going on?

 

I finished some services and looked around several places.

So my feedback would be a 7 of 10.

Pro's:

BR 612 and tilting is wonderful and makes a lot of fun. The sound sounds also accurate...
Service patterns of the passenger lines.
AI traffic on the main stations is fantastic in Dresden and good in Chemnitz.
Type of Line is very challenging to drive despite the all present "green wave" on the signals.
The basic design of the landscape is also fantastic!
The number of trains packed in: This is the second route (after Riesa) where we get a pack that affects on all types of services that is on the route. It feels complete enough from the beginning.

Neutral:
Freight services: The services that are implementet are overall good! But I miss services with the stake cars from/to Freiberg (or did I not see them?). Also there was a bit more potential to make two or three more moves on other locations.

Con's:
Level crossings are partly incomplete or missing (this will be fixed, I think)
Overhead live wires: I mentioned the crappy cantenaries in other posts, but by ignoring the better types of Meißen, there are still many issues, gaps and logical errors this time.

 

There's nothing that says 0GNT. Do you mean G GNT? If so, that's warning you of an upcoming speed reduction. If it starts flashing, as mentioned above, you're on or under the required braking curve - continue until you reach the required speed. If it stays solid, apply more brake.
The S GNT lights up when the brakes are about to come on, the brakes are on by the time it's flashing I think - on the HUD the S GNT text will flash, but not the red background.