Poll Time Keeping

What route do you guys think is the hardest to keep time to mine has to be bakerloo line and rhur osten

 

Holiday Express

 

I think we can all agree that Munich-Augsburg's S-Bahn network is the hardest

 

I can never keep to time on SEHS when driving the 700, especially between Dartford and Gravesend, ditto for the 465 services between the two as well (that stop at all stations).

NTP is also hard to keep to time, mostly because the timings are AI generated.

 

But at least unlike TSC, where if you are a masochist and keep career scoring switched on, you don't lose 100's if not 1000's of points for being 90 seconds late at a station, or on Standard scenarios fail the whole thing!

I would say any route where the times have been computer generated rather than hand crafted from actual working timetables but agree Bakerloo is one of the toughest.

 

I've never cared about scores in any simulator aside from Football Manager, safe and steady is better when it comes to railway operation.
Though I think the Bakerloo is the line I'm least likely to be punctual on, especially in the 1938 stock and its somewhat unforgiving braking.

 

I don’t find Bakerloo line too bad once you get the hang of pressing ‘door close’ the right amount of time before the end of the station dwell time timer - so the moment it runs down, the doors close. It only saves a few seconds per stop, but there are so many stops it makes a big difference.

On SEHS the 395’s AI timings used to assume it had AC power, even on DC-only sections of the route, which made it impossible to keep time on those sections. I don’t know whether that’s still the case as it’s not a train I often drive.

 

I think It's very easy, in fact I find myself early on it more often than not.

 

Maintalbahn, the DMU is sluggish so you are always late.

 

S-Bahn is always (for me), the hardest, if you start losing time you really aren't able to claw it back, and it tends to compound, if you combine it with a tricky track, like tharandter rampe, and a train that means you can't easily run right up to the limit without going over, like the 143, it can be a challenge.

 

I found the 143 struggled with gradients on that route

 

No its not the 642, you literally cant be on time. From Aschaffenburg to Aschaffenburg Süd is impossible to do in time if you (as in reality) activate the pzb. Not to mention the 3 minutes you have for 6km after that.

 

If you drive realistically and not like an AI Train - i.e. Safety Systems on, not going full-throttle at any given opportunity, not leaving stations early, etc - then basically any Rivet Games route.

 

Bakerloo line for me, especially on the section from Queen's Park to Harrow and Wealdstone. Always lose time on that.

 

Probably the most challenging are the 143/dosto services between Dresden and Chemnitz as well as the 642 from Maintalbahn.

 

Probably one of my favourite combinations in TSW.

 

I hate that we are penalised for being late - especially when it’s not our fault.

I’m pretty sure no professional driver would ever be penalised for being late so long as everyone got home safely at the end of the day.

 

Agree with you there

 

most of BR218 RE(X) substitutions on routes like Koln Aachen or Munchen Augsburg, which are really meant for locos that can achieve 160 kph and with reasonable acceleration, while 218 can only go 140 (it can get to around 155 before engine temporarily shuts down) and takes considerable amount of time to get to that speed (and some of those routes have inclines that give this loco a hard time), so you mostly end up with delays around 5-15mins even if you drive unrealistically wild ... a great loco, but mostly on Hamburg Lubeck and I believe Bremen Oldenburg and such ones hopefully we get more routes where it can do its thing

 

I'm glad it can be used elsewhere, even if not intended as it means more fun and varied gameplay for TSW. On a Riesa to Dresden service I ended up finishing 14 minutes late, but was really enjoyable nonetheless. But yes, some dedicated routes for the 218 is much-needed in TSW, the loco is absolutely fantastic!

 

I mean... how is it not your fault?

Well, passengers will nag you for literally existing at this point.

 

and I have learned a lot driving it, thx to guys from here, like how the brake levers work specifically there, how the notches and "Heizung" works, whats the difference between Fast and slow gear (and the yellow light shenanigans) etc great learning experience, almost like Vectron, not expert, but certainly more advanced and nuanced

 

Due to the way steam physics work, Spirit of Steam’s passenger timetable is especially difficult to keep ahead of schedule.

 

GWE class 166
Some timetables put you on the fast.
The DMU doesn't go fast enough to keep up with the schedule.

 

I'm sure if you were consistently late where other drivers weren't, some eyebrows would be raised...

 

Probably have to say bakerloo line. It's quite rapid in terms of having to prep then off you go.

 

It's because it was updated with more realistic physics, it was too powerful when the route originally released. However, the timetable didn't get any update to match the slower acceleration.

 

Thanks for that Cyklisten

 

I side with Omnicitywife , I really enjoy the MAG S-bahn services. It's my go to route for relaxed HUD-less driving as I know all the brake points and stopping positions on the S3 line by heart. The only unachievable travel time are the 30 seconds you get from München Hackerbrücke to Donnersbergerbrücke, but the lost time is easily caught up with by the time you reach München Laim or Pasing.

 

Not in my job. Everyone drives to their own ability and confidence level. Safety first.

 

In the game, we can’t help being late. We are late because the timetable isn’t realistic. There is nothing adverse to effect us, so we should never ever be late in TSW.

 

You can't

 

Then how come on several routes I'm able to arrive early or even on time?

I don't exactly go speeding or driving unsafely either.

 

Some routes have simulated timetable timings that are not achievable when driving manually, but can be achieved by the AI ignoring physics and driving perfectly. On those routes you will be late whatever you try. Examples are Spirit of Steam and Rhein-Ruhr Osten if I recall that correct.

Edit: you can recognise these timetables because stopping times are not rounded to e.g. the nearest minute. Instead they have stopping times that are all over the place, e.g. stop at 12:35:44.

 

Absolutely Jack,
On the WCML with the Pendo, you can arrive at your destination as much as six minutes early.Without getting up to speeding or any other shenanigans.
I'd thought the gaps were so big,they were intentionally like that for additional freight from skyhook,or wishful thinking a super voyager dlc.

 

ECML is another route where you tend to arrive early - either the timetables include recovery time for PW slacks or pathing which isn’t needed in the game or the Azumas are slightly more powerful than in reality.

 

Timetables are simulated at 90% performance for the AI. This prevents that players are required to drive perfectly to be able to keep on time. This isn't much of an issue with services with many stops as most players will lose some time because they don't accelerate and brake with 100% perfection every time. However, with long distance high speed services that don't stop often, this means that an AI train will run up to 90% of the line speed. A simulated service that might be able to run at 160kph for 30 minutes will therefore run at about 144kph for 33' 20". A player driving with line speed on this service will therefore win more than 3 minutes on this leg alone.

I keep suggesting that DTG updates its habit using 90% performance for every service, and instead finds a higher performance percentage for services that will otherwise run unrealistically slow, like high speed services.

 

I find the token exchange on the BPO Ormskirk branch always puts you behind schedule. Maybe they have not reckoned for it in the timings? The rest of the run is usually achievable.
Going north you have a generous stop at Preston to recover time, and going south you tend to arrive at Ormskirk in time for the game not to mark you down, so in the end I guess it's neither here nor there, just something I have noticed.

 

Probably because those timetables are authentic. It’s mostly routes with simulated timetables rather than real to life timetables that cause you to arrive late or make it extremely challenging to arrive on time.

 

I'm not sure this is true at all. Timetables for the most part:

• have slack built in, so that should there be delays, a train can make up its delay.
• are not built with full throttle, top speed and full service service braking in mind.

I have myself worked professionally with railway simulation software and simulated real life timetables as part of an ETCS project. The services I was simulating were working with 65-90% "performance" in order to keep up with the timetable.

 

For me it has to be the Bakerloo Line timetable that I find quite hard to keep too.

As a rule of thumb on other routes, I have the doors closed 45seconds prior to the scheduled time table departure and I leave exactly 30 seconds early. It usually keeps me on time.

 

Oh right. Makes sense.

 

There are so many DLCs with timetables that are impossible to keep on time that I can't really say which one is the worst.

 

The newer the route, the better I suppose. Frankfurt-Fulda has a realistic amount of slack and is not meant to be driven at 100%.

On the other hand, try to complete any of the IC/ICE services on Riesa-Dresden…