Hello everybody, I'm not much experienced with freight runs in TSW2 - have only played the one on East Coastway route and those from BR Heavy Freight pack for NTP, but I've noticed that for every freight run on those routes there is no schedule. My question is: is it corresponding to reality that freight runs have no schedule, where it should reach it's destination? Or is this a case only for British Rail freight runs? I'm just finding it quite strange that I can either run freight train as fast as possible according to route's speed limits or set a "pace walk" speed, like 20 mph - and in both cases I will be awarded with Gold medal. In case when I'm crawling with the freight run like 100-years old turtle it obviously has an impact for passenger trains running behind me on the same track, being stopped on red lights quite often and finally being behind their schedule with passenger runs, and in such case receiving Gold medal is quite ridiculous
You raise a good point re freight schedules, I have always found it an odd omission in the game. Freight trains in the UK certainly do have schedules just like passenger services. I don't know the reasons why they don't have a schedule in the game but it would certainly more realistic if they did.
Take for example the Stone empties coming into Newhaven on the East Coastway route. From what I recall this is a one train per day in and out. Not the amount of times you actually see in game. To add playbility DTG added extra freight services and the added run round, loading and then leaving the sidings all as extra services, mainly as that's the only freight that route see's and its doesnt run everyday. say possibly once a week on a tuesday. Take Great Western Express we get one or two aggregate freight trains a day but loads of intermodal services. In real life GWE has loads of aggregate trains per day more so than intermodals. But some of those service would nt run every day. Its a fine line they have to walk when putting in not enough or real time timetabled freight over a 24 hour period. If they did it to today standards there should be more freight than what there is now. But this was route was one of the first routes to be done. Its one of the most popular as well. Here's hoping we may one day get to see an up to date version of GWE with freight and a nice long route from Paddington to Oxford to run them on. #fingerscrossed. Also Sandpatch Grade where there are less freight services in real than there is in the game at the moment. Regards Hentis
Obviously a railroad couldn't operate if they had no idea when a freight would be passing through! But OTOH (with the exception of some very modern North American timetable concepts pioneered by CN), a freight isn't expected to arrive to the minute in the way passenger service is. Delays can happen, and it's often the case that a freight will be doing less than the line limit/Vmax (whether due to limited power going up, or safety considerations going down). The important thing with freight is that it gets there, not necessarily that it gets there fast, and certainly not that it drops anchor to the second. Accordingly, the game (sensibly, I think) doesn't penalize the player for not trying to drive a freight like a commuter train.
Freight trains usually run rather irregularly and therefore do not have a fixed timetable. Unless they drive a reserved route, they are always pushed between the passenger traffic. And of course that always has priority. So it happens that it is freight trains that have to go to the siding and just wait until trains with a higher priority have passed. On German routes, it is often the case that I follow an S-Bahn. The S-Bahn is of course faster than me, but it also stops often. So it happens that at some point I run up and have to adjust my speed so that I don't have to stop. So I follow the S-Bahn at ~50 kmH, although I could be faster. But I'm not the priority. In TSW there is no point in creating schedules for freight traffic. The important thing is that you arrive - not when. Because depending on the route, it also varies a lot as to how well I get through. You can sometimes have to wait ~20 minutes. But I have time...
I know that freight does have a timetable as such, but they're definitely NOT stuck to in a lot of cases in the UK https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H21285/2022-03-09/detailed The above service is a realtime listing from today, it left 11 minutes early and along the way lost and gained minutes all over the place probably where it would have normally been delayed by a passenger service and didn't due to this early departure
With freight, safety comes before basically everything else. Clearly a freight driver causing blockages along the line unnecessarily will get a no-tea no-biscuits meeting at some point but if they had good reason then nobody will hold them for it. If the controller finds a freight train in the way, then that driver will find themselves routed off and looped to let some traffic past, a discussion over GSMR to find out why they are running slow, and then agree when they'll be let back out and a plan to keep them moving without detriment to the railway as far as I understand it
In the US, freights definitely have schedules. I know when to avoid certain grade crossings in my neighborhood which daily sees some very long trains at roughly the same time. However, I don't think they are held very strictly to a timetable and there is likely plenty of slack built in to the schedule. Another factor in the US is the need for Amtrak and commuter rail to use the tracks of the Class One railroads and their passenger trains are frequently delayed because of " freight train interference ", when freight trains try to take priority so as not to fall too far behind schedule. It's a constant tug of war between Amtrak and the freight roads, with disputes sometimes ending up in the offices of the STB.
Thanks guys for your inputs, it certainly enrich my very limited knowledge about freight runs. So now I can couple Class 40 with new Railfreight livery coming from Creators Club to some TEA tankers full of oil and climb from Huddersfield to Marsden at steady 20 mph on full throttle without any remorse
In the US, freight has priority over Amtrack due to the fact that the freight lines own the tracks. When doing the cross US routes, its not uncommon for the Amtrack train to be shunted into a siding whilst the 2km long freight trains rattle past.
No. Federal law requires Amtrak to have priority over freight transportation. Any disputes are settled by the STB and have even reached the Supreme Court.
I only know the DB Bahn system. It is very dense and heavily frequented by local transport. More goods are to be transported by rail instead of by road. But it's not that easy to expand the network here in Germany, let alone build high-speed routes for the ICE. And he always has the right of way anyway. In addition, the DB is not exactly known for reliability. Cancellations and delays are the rule, not the exception. Apart from certain regular traffic, it is impossible to create timetables for freight, let alone to adhere to them. Completely impossible. So you are always squeezed in between and swim with them as best you can. Or you wait again. Only at night does the route belong to the goods. And then everything that has to get from A to B is actually on the move. You don't need your own plan for this. I understand that there is a lack of challenge when there is no schedule. But that would also rarely be adhered to on US freight routes. In German only theoretically. For me it's ok if the task is in the foreground. In the case of passenger transport, however, the schedule is the default. It's also a change.
In the UK Freight trains do have a sort of timetable so for example depart Leicester depot at 11.00, arrive Peterborough at 12.30. However they can run many hours early or many hours late and have to be slotted in between passenger trains which take priority so a simply journey scheduled to take an hour can take several. Also the amount of hours the driver has worked is also a factor. My dad worked on the Railways from 1975 to 2000 and many times he'd finish a shift several hours after he was supposed to, so the timetable for freight trains is more of a recommendation,
That is a commonly-believed myth, one which Amtrak itself assiduously spreads as an excuse for its miserable on-time performance. In fact, by law, Amtrak has priority. But since Amtrak is perfectly capable of running late on its own, then a train loses its place in the schedule and has to be held for a freight it was supposed to be in front of because it wasn't where it was supposed to be in time, and the delays snowball.
My brother works at Toton depot, He set up a train this morning and sent me this link to track the train he created, As you can see its 30 minutes late when it departs Toton. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H16737/2022-03-12/detailed
When I worked in the NR Control as a Train Running Controller (now retired!), management of freight traffic was an important part of the job. All freight on the UK railway has to run to a timetable apart from purely local trips, of which are few and far between. In addition to those in the WTT, many also require short notice timing (known as VSTP) usually produced by staff in the Control. Depending on the time available, these may or may not be fully validated against the actual timetable. We often received requests, both from the freight operators and signallers to run freight early. This brings several potential problems, notably not delaying following passenger trains that would have been in front, turning up at a relief point and the forward crew not being there (maybe blocking the running line in the case of say Westbury), or not having a vacant road in the yard. Even Acton could get full, or Hinksey at Oxford, or Didcot. In some instances if the freight runs early or late, the yard might not be staffed to accept it. Late running freight caused even bigger headaches, particularly if likely to impact on the peaks. Agreeing to run a 45 MPH stone train up through Reading at 0800 is likely to get the Control 500+ delay minutes! Where possible the errant train would be regulated until after the peak or until a suitable margin could be found. It might also be necessary then to retime (VSTP) the back working if the terminal departure couldn't be met.
Yes, I usually see cab videos of German trains, of both passenger and freights. About these last ones, I saw several ones,l where freight trains have to go to a siding, or even stop at the main line by a red light, and a passenger train, - including ICE-, pass it by, and comes to the same track by a near switch in front of the train. That is interesting. It is a pity we can not reply this situation easily on TSW2, on Scenario Planner. As it usually provides priority to the train you are driving.
