I have a question about the braking for any locomotives that run any North America routes. I noticed that I have to pull up all the way to 11% before starting to use the braking working not before that. Is there anyway for DoveTail Train Simulator team make this better in physics so the train can start braking after 1% not 11%. It would be nice if you can get this work properly like the prototypical locomotives with the brakes. John
First off, which route and which locomotive? Each locomotive is different and to be honest 1% application on a loaded train would be like a spit in the ocean. I have had long consists with 50% dynamics and 10% train brakes still gaining speed on a steep downgrade. While individual locomotives vary in the implementations, I have yet to find one that would apply consistent braking without taking into account speed, grade and load. Though many early locomotives are a bit more arcadish, many do reflect prototypical braking, especially with the advanced braking which became available about 3 years ago. If you have one of these locomotives, you can choose the realism of the brakes yourself.
Thank you for your reply and I am using the route of ATSF Raton Pass and the locomotives are Dash 8-40CW. When I put the brakes on starting with 1 and nothing apply till 11% start to apply the brakes. I don't think that we can start to apply with 1% braking on any locomotives of North America. If you think that the braking are working then tell me how. Thanks, John
Working fine -- have made several runs and haven't noticed any problems - what setting do you have them on? These units are using the advance breaking scheme where length of train pipe and recharge time are taken into account. Easiest mode is closest to the old kuju implementation - mid and hard take a bit of getting use to .. Use <ctrl><shift> 1 to decrease the difficulty and <ctrl><shift> 2 to increase. The brakes do not follow a linear application - in fact - there is another thread in the Steam forums discussing pretty the same thing. This is from the user "electronx" - I want to give him credit for a fine explanation: "First, the brakes can be applied in three stages. First, you can only move it to 23% which represents a standard minimum application (you can apply less if you pull it back quickly do ~15%). After waiting a bit (0.5-1.5 seconds), you can apply more. Second, brakes take some time to apply and also the recharge is slower. If you apply and release, you will be missing some brake pressure (see triple valve article below). Normally you don't release the brakes but when you are fine for 2-5 minutes without the air brakes. The dual-pipe system could save you but I'm not sure about it being simulated. The manual simply says, if you run out of pressure, try to stop the train, then pin handbrakes, release air brakes, wait 20 (!) minutes, apply minimum, release handbrakes and proceed. I would suggest to learn the ropes with default brakes, and then, if you feel comfortable, increase the difficulty. I'm not entirely convinced that it really takes several minutes to apply or release the brakes of a longer train, but anyway. Scenarios seem to be designed around the default settings - increasing difficulty means slower application which requires earlier actions, more generous speed thresholds thus, in general, being slower, losing points." Hope this helps
If you have the Union Pacific GTEL (introduced into TS2016 with the updated Sherman Hill route), I recommend you read section 8 "Advanced Brakes", which is on pages 24-29. Several other locos now have the advanced brakes, but I think the GTEL manual is the only one that describes them.
