Class 87 Wcml

What am I doing wrong every now and then I lose power and need to reset the pantograph by pressing the button any help would be good

 

Probably the natural sections.

 

Ah Yes. Charles Darwin and his famous theory of Neutral selection

 

This sounds like you're tripping the system by going into the neutral sections whilst still under power.
If you don't power down (run down and then shut off), you will trip the circuits and need to reset so the run light comes back on.

Keep an eye out on the trackside for a black board with a white symbol on it. When you see this, go into run down and once the tap changer has dropped to the bottom, power off.
If you do this, you will be fine by the time you hit the white board with black symbol on. Once through the neutral section, the line light will return and you can tap/run up again.

 

But seeing them the dark is impossible

 

once you get used to the route you will know roughly when to expect them. if memorising neutral sections without a clear visual cue isn’t something you want to do yet then i recommend doing some daytime runs first

 

My memory is terrible

 

Romulans are more formidable in the dark

 

I did my first run and completely buggered myself with the first one out of Carlisle and spent the next painful 5 minutes or so trying to work out where it had gone wrong, before I realised that there one just out of Carlisle. I found that all the others were fine to locate and although this were my first drive, where they were, were almost where I were expecting them, if that makes sense. I feel I have explained what I mean terribly but I will just roll with it, I am sure someone may grasp my line.

 

I feel your pain coming out off carlisle took me 10 mins to realise what had happened

 

Well at least we won't do it again, hopefully! I did feel rather stupid after it took that long for it to click, even felt the disappointment radiate off my dog as he sat there watching from behind!

 

Twice I ran 1M05 from Carlisle to Preston, didn't power down on either occasion.

Found myself getting frustrated with the damn thing not powering up.

Finally got past it after the 7th attempt, only to run a red signal right at the end at Preston.

 

I think for the sake of accessibility there should be something in the HUD that tells you where the neutral sections are.

 

near a power section their is a yellow aws looking device on the track right when the neutral section starts for me once i go over it a turn power back on

 

That one caught me too. Have noticed, even watching Don Coffey cab rides, that neutral sections do seem to be placed in the most inconvenient locations, usually when just leaving a station or accelerating from a junction. Obviously the needs of the electrification engineers trumped practical operations!

Also illustrates why we need an indication on the mini HUD, similar to TSC, that we are approaching a neutral section. They have caught me out in the dark on the new German/Austria routes too and even worse there as you need to faff about getting the circuit breaker back in.

 

There is no side track signs marking where the neutral section is starting and ending?

 

I agree that it would be a really nice feature to add neutral sections to the hud. I missed a couple last night just because I haven’t learned where they are yet and got distracted for a second. The trackside signage is also very difficult to see in the dark.

I’m sure I’ll start to remember them by the weekend, but then I’ll go and play something else and will no doubt forget them again.

The 87 is wonderful to have in the game though and I love the sounds of AI 87’s speeding past in the opposite direction.

 

About 1 mile before the neutral section is a black board with a white icon. This tells you there is a section coming up.
Just before the neutral section starts, there is a white board with a black icon.
You really do have to keep an eye on the trackside and gantries.

There is no sign for the end of the neutral section.

 

If we have signal aspects, speed changes and platforms in the HUD, I think we can at least hope for neutral sections. However, being new to the UK routes (at least) and something that could continue to feature, it’s surely in the TSW core where the changes need making?

 

I remembered the one at Carlisle thanks to the live stream, but because I remembered it I was expecting it....and crawled through it at 12mph haha. I'm looking forward to improving my skills but I know I'll be caught out.

 

I've done a run in the dark and they were surprisingly reflective from a distance, despite being black