Clinchfield 3010 Southbound Coal

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by rocky.28965, Oct 7, 2021.

  1. rocky.28965

    rocky.28965 Member

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    Doing the Clinchfield Railroad, F7 CRR Extra 3010, Southbound Coal.
    Got going ok, but then noticed a couple of locos just idling at the rear.
    Are they just for show ?
     
  2. BladesAndRazors

    BladesAndRazors Member

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    No. You have to setup them correctly and control them through the side window. No joke.
     
  3. rocky.28965

    rocky.28965 Member

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    I see.
    I did watch a couple of YouTube videos on this run first, but neither of them did anything with the rear locos.
     
  4. Winzarten

    Winzarten Well-Known Member

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    You also use ctrl+ = and ctrl + - to teleport between cabs ;)
     
  5. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Just keep in mind that during the time period that CRR is set, all helpers/banker are manned and yes you have to control the rear ones yourself.
     
  6. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    The single biggest flaw in an otherwise tremendous route, (aside from shunting in pitch blackness), is that somehow banking comms do not function although they were supposed to. Notice one can even operate the radio buttons in the SD40, although they have no effect.

    A BIG item on Adam's fix-it list, whenever CRR comes round in the rotation. But for now, yes, you have to run the helpers manually, either by cab teleportation or using the 3 camera.
     
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  7. rocky.28965

    rocky.28965 Member

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    Manually, so they can't be set up to be controlled by the front Loco?
     
  8. HeyYoPaulie!

    HeyYoPaulie! Well-Known Member

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    Correct.

    The banking comms functionality wasn't implemented on the route, which is a major oversight on a freight route.

    Hopefully Adam's team can work their magic when the route eventually gets the preservation crew treatment, which, alas, won't be for a considerable period of time.
     
  9. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    To be helpful in the game, maybe the coms should be implemented. I again stress that in the period this route is set, they did not have such a thing as "banker coms" since all helpers were manned and the regular radio was used to communicate back and forth as to what the engineer in the road power wanted from his helper.
     
  10. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    "Banking comms" was (and is) precisely the radio!

    The game unfortunately tends to confuse two completely different things: distributed power, full remote control, which wasn't a thing before the 1990s (and still isn't on locos built before the 90s),* and "banking comms", the in-game shorthand for old-school voice-radio instructions to the live crew** in the helper MU. That goes back to the 1930s and the first installation of radios on trains.

    *There were some 3rd-party installations in the 80s - Southern did it - but locos factory-built with DP began with the GE Dash-9s and EMD 70 series. Some older locos have been backfitted during rebuilds, like CSX' SD40-3s.

    **Yes, in-game they are invisible.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2021
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  11. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the language clarification between English and American lingo. But I can't see how whether they work in the cab or not would have any effect on operation of the helper since it is manually controlled. Clarify please.
     
  12. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    The game abstraction works correctly in Sand Patch: if you turn on "banking comms," that is, the radio in the lead cab, then the trailing MU imitates what you do, as if there were an engineer back there doing what you tell him verbally. Unfortunately because it is abstracted, in game terms it's indistinguishable from running a lashup of AC4400s with genuine DP and no invisible crew. (it would help conceptually if the game spawned an NPC crew for the trailing MU).

    In Clinchfield, however, while the game was supposed to work the same way for some reason banking comm functionality was omitted (this happened with the C40-8 as well). Until this is fixed - in the C40 eventually it was - we have to use manual workarounds.
     
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