I've noticed on Cajon the speed limits seem to be only those for passenger trains, so there are no dual speed limits based on the type of train. But so far, I've only been playing scenarios, maybe it's only wrong there.
Every freight train except for hotshot intermodal & autorack are limited to 55 mph, but it depends on the grade & how the train behave. IRL, hotshot intermodal & autorack allowed to run at 70 mph.
Oh I see. So if I'm driving a long oil train I should keep to 55 when permitted and safe to do so? I think the speed limit goes higher than 55 in places on cajon pass. The steep grades I've been down are limited to 30 by the looks of it. I feel a lot safer keeping it at 20.
As long as you have the confident, have the mental image of the route and get the feeling how the train behave under braking or accelerate/decelerate on several notch position, you can push it to 55 mph. For the southbound journey towards San Bernardino (westbound on US railroad lingo) and northbound journey (eastbound on US railroad lingo) between summit and Victorville, i like to keep it at 25 mph for heavy train such as manifest, oil, and grain train.
Eastbound and down. Yea I've not quite got the hang of the train brake/dynamic braking yet! I can keep it between 20-30 on a steep grade. Still havnt mastered keeping it at just 20mph though. Thanks.
I have found a little dynamic, with a touch of independent helps a bit. The independent responds rather quickly, so it's very easy to make adjustments.
I'm getting better. Most trains I can handle but the mile long 12000t trains are a bit hard to control down the steep grades on cjp. I've tried independent braking with dynamic and it controls my speed for some of the decent then independent totally gives up.
Don’t use independent brakes with dynamic brakes. There is a tutorial in game that teaches you how to do it. It’s a case of blending dynamic brake and automatic brake (but bail off the independent brake). In fact, if you add independent brake in the ES44 or don’t bail off when using the automatic brake it cuts the dynamic brake because you can’t use those two systems together.
IRL you would not use the independent brake (just the loco brakes) to help slow a train on a grade. Most railroads don't want you to engage the independent until your under 6mph some its 3 mph. as Antony has stated you certainly don't use it whilst using dynamics, IRL I believe the dynamic locks out the independent from engaging. If your using more than 75% dynamic thats a good sigfn to put a minimum set on the train brake, like 6 pounds if you still can't control it go deeper with the set. heres a link to a video that shows how its done, albeit not tsw3 none the less the process works the same. The video is done by an actual conductor who works on a US class 1 RR. As for speed limits heres the BNSF timetable, Cajon can be found on pg 13
