I am currently running journey mode on Frankfurt – Fulda, and I believe I'm on chapter 3, Mind the Gap. I have LZB and PZB active. From the start, there is a "Go via" destination. I was trundling along in the ICE-T when suddenly a message appeared on the screen. Something along the lines of contacted driver, a train has a fault and is in need of assistance, need to transfer passengers to another train. I thought this meant another train needs my assistance, and the "Go via" destination changed to "Stop at" – but suddenly everything went haywire in the cab. I had a flashing notification, and yellow, grey and maybe one other bar across the central monitor screen, and the brakes went into emergency or such. I managed to calm things down so I was left with a red S on the display. Okay, throttle off, power off, brakes deactivated. Throttle back to forwards, power up, and the train isn't moving. Still got the red S so I didn't really expect it to budge. I went out of the cab view. On my end, the pantograph was down, on the rear engine the pantograph was up. I couldn't get the pantograph to raise. Opened and closed the circuit. I tried shutting down the throttle and power again, then turned off PZB, LZB, then everything back on. No change. Messed with the emergency and parking brakes, applying them and deactivated them. Suddenly, the red S vanished. Still had the front pantograph down, but now I could move. About 1km from the now-"Stop at" destination and the train suddenly started braking again. The red S is back, and for the life of me I can't get rid of it. So, first question is, can anyone give me some pointers to get rid of the red S and move the train? I have saved the sim and turned it off, so I can go back to it later. But, the fact I seem to be having trouble has led me to think mine is the train with the fault, and I'm supposed to reach that marker to offload my passengers. I searched on YouTube to see what someone else has done or experienced on this chapter of the journey, and the funny thing is, they have got to the "Go via" marker with none of this occurring: no message about a train fault, no systems shutting down... So is this a random event? Do we have random events now? I am willing to accept this is a scripted scenario, I found the wrong YouTube video (even though it looked like the identical journey chapter), and my train going haywire is entirely user error
When you get the emergency brake, you need to wait for the train to stop (zero throttle, full service brakes), acknowledge the alert (SiFa or PZB), and then you should be able to move again. BTW, one thing I have experienced is that the game resumed from a save might be completely broken, in one of several ways. In one scenario, I went under LZB all the way to Fulda, when it should have ended relatively quickly. In one service, the PZB was not functioning at all, yet I still scored 65 APs per segment. In another case, after resuming from saved game, I got the popup that enabling SiFa would get me more APs per segment. I looked behind me and all safety system switches were on, as I left them. I turned the off, then back on again, and I got an emergency brake penalty for it (you're only supposed to turn on PZB while stationary, my mistake). Anyway, tl;dr: in my experience on FTF route, resuming from saved game can go haywire in many, many ways.
Re your first point, that's what I did Re the second, I wasn't resuming from a save game. I have saved it where I was stuck and haven't gone back yet As I said, I got a message on screen saying that a train has developed a fault and is in trouble, so the passengers need to transfer to another train, which is when my train went haywire and braked. I got it moving again, then it stopped again and can't clear it this time. This might be part of the fault (I thought the sim was telling me I need to rescue passengers from another train, but I think it's mine that has the fault). This is definitely a sim event, whether random or not, not a bug.
This is part of the scenario. I played it, but I didn't have any emergency brake. After the VIA point is changed to a STOP point, you keep going and will be asked to stop parallel to another ICE-T train. Then, you're told to move a bit more forward, so that the trains are fully lined up, and then doors are opened on both trains and they put down some platform between the doors, so that the passengers can cross. I think your brake is unrelated to the scenario, but maybe caused by something else, an unacknowledged SiFa or PZB. One way you can verify this is by playing the scenario without safety systems on. I bet my hat that you won't get the penalty brake. You won't get the platinum medal either, but at least you would be sure that the brake is not related to the scenario.
Thanks. I did wonder if it was unrelated, but I was already slowing down before the magnet and acknowledged immediately. I mean, I'm fairly new to using the systems, but I guess I missed something. What I don't understand is why it's braked a second time, and why I can't clear the red S the second time... Also, is it normal for the driver-end pantograph to be down and not raise up, while the rear pantograph is up? Edit: still weird the person playing on YouTube didn't have this event, and I'm sure it's the same scenario... I do think this would make for a good type of random event, even if it isn't at the moment. I'm hopeful someone at DTG will figure out how to implement such things.
I think one of the best locomotives to learn PZB is the 146 from FTF route. When you're under a magnet, you get a detailed message in the dashboard, i.e. "Must remain under 85 kph" or similar. Alternatively, you can use the option called "Display Safety System Helper" under HUD & Gameplay, and you get a large notification on the right side of the screen, under the Track Monitor, etc. I think the reason you may have tripped a second penalty brake is related to the first one. For example, accelerating over 45kph while still under the 1000Hz magnet, or something like that. At the end of the day, if you're completely stumped, you can try the "nuclear option": in the Overview section of the Pause menu, there's a button in the bottom-left: "I'm stuck, reset sim physics". This will put the train in the default mode: full brakes, zero throttle, safety systems off. From there, you should definitely be able to start moving again, following the usual start procedure. NOTE: I don't think you need to fiddle with the pantograph or the MCB. P.S. the standard way EMUs run is with the rear pantograph. I heard the reason why in the WCML preview stream, from that lady who is a train driver/conductor: if the driver sees something wrong with the OHLE, there's just enough time to lower the pantograph before it reaches the location. If the train would use the front pantograph, that time would be shorter.
Interesting about the pantograph, and it makes perfect sense. Still not sure what happened to cause the braking. I was already being cautious (I thought!), and I currently have the hand-holding messages on the top-right telling me I'm restricted or when it's safe to release... Obviously missed something. Haven't got Sifa on, either. I have cleared the red S easily in other scenarios. This is why I thought maybe the sim was telling me my train has the fault on it, but clearly not. Weird, but I'll have another look later. And I know about the nuclear button, but I'm stubborn enough to figure it out myself first haha (Presuming that, when I resume from my save, that doesn't screw things up anyway!)
I resolved the red S. I had to turn the battery off and start the engine back up. Despite my issues, I managed to get a gold, which is really strange because I didn't mess up on previous scenarios yet got silver. Go figure.
Are you sure it's silver? Maybe it's platinum, which is better than gold. Check the scores and the medal requirements.
Good point. Could be. To be honest, I didn't realise there was a level above gold in the sim. This past week is probably the most I've played it in months.
